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One of the benefits of being in the freshwater hobby is that most things don't tend to deteriorate and poison the water like they do in marine tanks. I've taken this to heart and wanted to share a few of my applications: All of these decorations below have been in the tanks for six months or more, with no ill effects. (I name my tanks after fictional worlds to make them easier to refer to in conversation.) 1. ENDOR This 6 gallon Marineland Portrait houses 2 pea puffers that are getting along for now (I'm watching them closely and may be separating as they mature). The two Imperial walkers you see are Micro Machines toys, and I gave them a light wash in watered-down black acrylic paint and wiped it all off. This had the effect of bringing out some details. To enable them to stand up in the gravel, I superglued a half-inch of plastic drinking straw to the bottoms of the feet. 2. DAGOBAH (See a trend starting here?) This is a 38-Long, stocked with Congo tetras, serpae tetras, and a single platinum angel. It's on continuous drip water changes (future post about that coming). The vines come from the floral department of Hobby Lobby. I glued them into floating foam using a technique The King of DIY demonstrated recently. The crashed spaceship is a brand-new Hallmark ornament. I drilled some holes in the bottom to allow water in so it would sink. 3. SPACEBALL This 20-Long has no live plants in it, so my water changes are frequent! With some assorted tetras and a single moonlight gourami as a centerpiece fish, this is my strangest tank. The floating planets come from a kids' educational solar system "mobile". The crystals came from eBay, and the astronauts are part of a Mega-Bloks Halo toy set. They don't fall over because I superglued a half-inch of drinking straw to the feet. I also gave them a light black acrylic wash to bring out detail. And for that extra alien touch, I mixed in a bag of rainbow glass beads into the black coarse aquarium sand. 4. ATLANTIS: Also a 20-Long, this tank houses a colony of multies with rummy nose tetras who stay out of the way. These statues are called the "Argonath" from Lord of the Rings. They're really a pair of resin bookends that came with one fo the DVD sets, and you can find them on eBay now. I drilled holes in the bottom to let water in, so that they would sink. So there you have it. What unconventional decor have you put in your tanks? Thanks for reading! Bill

Was a bit overdue on the water change and trim but I got it done today. Before/After pics

These scissors have been awesome for 3 three years. No rust or dulling of the blade. I like the long cutting blade because it speeds up the trimming and large bush of stems plants. Great for cutting carpeting plants evenly too. The full size scissor handle is much easier to use than the aqua scraping scissors with only two small finger holes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IJ56SW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_s.0eFbF9GAN07

I made a Youtube Channel and posted a video just for you Bill:

Hello everyone! Greetings from Miami, FL! Looking forward to actively participating on this forum and learning as much as possible. Here are a few of my babies!

Am I getting in this and planting it or what!? just don't leave ladybird in there while i'm in there.. she freaks me out. haha

I know mulm and algae can look unsightly, but overall they make the biology of the aquarium better by harboring bacteria and helping with the overall 'metabolism' of the tank.

Extending the USB Nano Pump: Solar Power As my second test for the Aquarium Co-Op USB Nano Air pump, I have decided to start writing before the test is done, and to kick things off today. I'm hoping a few tests will come of this, but an "instant fail" is just as valuable. I'm hoping what may come of this will be some numbers (mAh in, hours per day, etc.) that can be used in later selections of solar powered batteries for this pump. I hope to answer this question: Is there a low-cost solar-powered battery by which I can run the USB nano pump indefinitely? Failure is defined as the power running out or the battery otherwise failing by other means. SELECTING THE SOLAR-POWERED BACKUP BATTERY In making my choice of backup battery, I listed the following criteria that needed to be satisfied: 1. It has to be water-resistant. 2. It has to be reasonably sized (not too large). 3. It has to be affordable. Not too much. The whole trick was to find something that is a balance between power and price. I settled on this IEsafy Solar Charger 26800mAh, Outdoor Solar Power Bank with 4 Foldable Solar Panels and 2 High-Speed Charging Ports for Smartphones, Tablets, Samsung, iPhone, etc, with Waterproof LED Flashlight from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08611FQKT (non-affiliate link) It cost $27.50 when I bought it last week, but seems to have risen to $40. A quick search of Amazon and the internet suggests that if you're resourceful, you can find one in the $30 range with these specs. But I still don't yet know if these specs are sufficient. A WORD ABOUT LOCATION AND TIME OF YEAR This test is going to be a bit less useful around the world; access to sunlight matters a lot. I live in north San Diego county, California, and it is currently July (middle of summer). It stands to reason that if I pick my spot correctly, I will get direct sunlight for much of the day. If I can figure out how many hours of direct sunlight I'll need each day, in theory I can move the charger around as needed. But in winter months and in locations farther from the equator, this may be more difficult. THE SETUP THE FIRST THING I DID WAS CHARGE THE BACKUP BATTERY BY PLUGGING IT IN. This has to be done first before expecting to make use of solar power at all. It took several hours to charge fully. I am combining this test with another project: A small daphnia culture in a 17-gallon tub. These tubs are $5 at Walmart, so there's no excuse not to have several! I filled the tub with well-used greenish water from my small pond, added extra mulm for good measure, dropped in a medium sponge filter from Aquarium Co-Op, and connected it to the USB nano pump. The pump is hanging from a hole I drilled in the lip of the tub. Then I connected the pump's power cable to the backup battery, which I placed on an empty Amazon box. I placed this entire rig in a spot where I expect it to get much sunlight all day. (I know that the sponge filter is not necessary daphnia, and many folks keep daphnia in still water even. But I HATE mosquitoes and want to stabilize things as much as possible. Also, I won't be ordering daphnia for several weeks, as I want the water to get much greener from the direct sunlight; I'll be feeding it a steady diet of grass clippings as needed.) TEST ONE: IS THIS REMOTELY VIABLE AT ALL? Today is lightly cloudy, but the clouds are seeming to burn off. The sun hit the charger at 9am this morning, so we are off and running! UPDATE 7/20/2020: This test has been canceled, for reasons outlined below. New test coming soon! Bill

I keep Apistogramma, Discus, Corydoras, Pygmy Sunfish and Angelfish. My favorite tank is a 500 gallon community tank that has several pairs of Angelfish that breed often. The tank is large enough that the fry are able to grow to adults in the tank. The majority of fish in the tank were born in this aquarium and have never been out of the tank or even netted. My goal is to have a very stable tank that doesn't need me to do any maintenance. Daniel

FYI, I am able to share programming between my 36" and 48" versions. Perhaps there's something unique about the Nanos that don't translate to the standard length versions.

I recently started my first blackwater/tannin aquarium. I really enjoy seeing the mulm and bioflims create the natural biotope astentic I was looking for.

Also keep in mind that most water softeners work by exchanging mineral ions with sodium ions, increasing salinity. Depending on how hard your water was to begin with, this can be significant as more minerals removed means more sodium added. For some fish at some levels this may not be a big deal, as they do well with some salt in the water (think aquarium salt). Other fish are more sensitive to salinity.

With limited space in my fish room I have to get creative. Another set of shelves ready for 20 long tanks.

We have fry!!

Built mine as a self-contained unit with everything you need. Way over-engineered, but fun. And yes, I bought a Ziss hatchery anyway. 🙂 Build log is over at Reef Central: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2694002

Upliftingjoe here and greetings from California so glad that yall created a forum like this. Happy its here 🙂 This is my breeder tank. All plants from aquarium co-op with Cory directly responsible for the plant choices lol.

Hello! I’m Ryo Watanabe from Japan. I’m really excited to be a part of this forum. Looking forward to learn and share more about this wonderful hobby here!

When I started the day I didn't have the intention of setting up another tank...but I needed a place move a pair of Apistogramma nijsseni to. I watched Cory's "Getting Started with Aquascaping" live stream where he mentioned learning from making mistakes and just trying a bunch of things. So I decided to move the apistos into a tank that I would aquascape with marsh plants growing in a soggy spot on the edge of my driveway. Sounds crazy, but I am happy with the results so far (tank has been set up for about 4 hours now). I dug up 2 chunks of boggy sod, added sand from my creek, and an old piece of wood that was last in an aquarium about 10 years ago (it has living abandoned in the woods for the last 10 years). It took about 15 minutes to get it setup. But it took another 5 hours to fill it because I trickle filled it with a piece of airline tubing with water from my big living room tank. We will see how it works out, but so far the apistos seem to like it.

It's not everyday that I get to build something in the warehouse, but when we needed to run an airline system to get circulation going to our newest plant tanks I was happy to play builder for a day. 1" PVC Ziss Never Clog Airstones Aquarium Co-Op Black Airline Tubing Aquarium Co-Op threaded individual air line valves and 2 Medo LA-45 linear piston air pumps. Each tank has 3 Ziss airstones to bring in a ton of air and move around a lot of water. My 2 tips will be 1) make your holes along the printed text to keep them aligned, and 2) use the drills chuck to screw in the air valves to save your fingers a lot of pain. 🙂

I've mentioned elsewhere on the forum that my 11 year old son is interested in breeding Bristlenose. After a lot of research, he wanted a male long fin green dragon and two super red females. (I think he was hoping to get long fin super reds out of the mix.) I hemmed and hawed because I wasn't certain if he'd be raising cross-beeds or hybrids. Plus I had this nightmare vision of producing hundreds of fish that no one else would want because they weren't one thing or the other. We stopped by Aquarium Co-op today to see the long fin green dragons and my son had lots of questions. Over the course of the conversation, he (we) learned a lot. The staff members confirmed that the long fin green dragon and the super red are the same species. BUT! They also confirmed my concern that he'd be producing mutt fish and that getting a store to take them might be more difficult. They talked about breeding ages, sex determination and gave him encouragement. By the time we left the store he had decided: 1. That he would stick with one variety for now 2. That he can be patient and wait for the two young fish we picked up today mature. 3. That he can maybe start a different breeding project in the interim. Maybe Endlers? All of this happened because the staff at the store took him seriously, were knowledgeable and were willing to share that knowledge. One short visit ended up being a super positive experience and a bit of an adventure (which is exactly what he needs right now!) They also saved us some potential heartache and frustration down the road. (They also sold us two instead of the one I promised my son. What can I say? I was happy, the price was right and the fish are cool!)

This seems like an ideal place to log the changes in my tanks, and get opinions on issues I'm struggling with. You'll notice a trend in most of my aquariums -- collectoritis. I'm at the stage of fishkeeping right now where I can't fathom a species-only tank. My schooling fish are all in sufficient numbers, but I still love the variety. I think I have an even bigger problem with plants. Over the past year I've just been buying all the plants to find out which ones grow (it's a secret, no one knows). I'll post each tank in order of acquisition. 1. Living room display, 40 breeder, initially set up August 2019. Below is what the tank looked like back in October. Started it out as a super-artificial scape, and then I realized how much I liked live aquatic plants and began adding them in droves. After some experience with subsequent tanks, I went back to this one for an overhaul. This is what it looks like today (changing the substrate was a B-and-a-half): YouTube video on this tank: The tiny sword plant you see in the lower left corner of the first pic has grown into the giant sword plant in the second pic. The floating moss ball was a recent addition from the Co-op, and while it arrived in great condition, I am cursed when it comes to growing moss. I just can't figure it out. Stocking: Angels, rosy tetras, maccullochi rainbows, australian rainbows, otos, powder blue dwarf gourami, and emerald corydoras. Update 4/10/21: I've been messing around with backlighting on this tank. See video below. 2. Dining Room, 20 tall, initially set up September 2019 I wanted to breed bristlenose plecos. It didn't take long before I saw baby bristlenose all over the glass, at least 30 of them. Unfortunately, they dwindled one by one over a period of two weeks - no idea why. There was one survivor, which has grown 2+ inches. But since that initial spawn, I've only seen white eggs that the male pushes out of the cave. Any tips to get this back on track? In addition to the plecos, it's housing my wife's platys from her classroom tank (she's a teacher) which are breeding, as well as breeding endlers and cherry shrimp. Stocking: Male and female adult and one juvenile bristlenose pleco, platies, endlers, cherry shrimp. 3. Daughter's tank, 20 tall, set up October 2019 My daughter (8 years old) wanted a tank for her room. Trying to move her away from the artificial plants but she likes them too much. So I just have to keep doing bleach dips every month or so until I can get the lighting balanced (upgraded her light recently). The lighting upgrade seems to have negatively affected her live water sprite, though. Used to be lush and green and now seems to be falling apart. Stocking: Platies, platy fry, green fire tetra, sunset honey gourami, pygmy corys, and guppies from my wife's classroom tank 4. Son's tank, 20 tall, set up November 2019 My son (6 years old) loves dinosaurs, so we went with sort of a prehistoric jungle theme. Stocking: Zebra loaches, panda corys, cherry barbs, purple harlequin rasboras, and one platy (offspring from my daughter's tank) YouTube Video on my Kids' Tanks: 5. The livebearer tank, 40 breeder, set up in February 2020. In the dining room next to the pleco fail tank, I have guppies, platys, and cherry shrimp breeding up a storm. I started with just guppies in the 20 tall in October, trying to breed the fancy strains from my LFS. I could never keep a single one alive for more than a couple weeks. I had purchased some already-pregnant females, which gave birth and died. I raised the fry and let them breed as well, and it looked like I was getting some strong stock out of them, so I set up this 40 breeder to let the guppies do their thing. Simultaneously, my daughter's platy was having babies, which I also added to this tank. Because of how much feeding I was doing, I added panda corys and cherry shrimp to the mix. But then in March/April, there was an outbreak of some horrid bacterial disease. My corys were happy, my shrimp were breeding, and the platys were thriving. But for several weeks the guppies died one by one, then two by two, then five by five, etc. I probably lost 75% of my guppy stock. Maracyn didn't touch it, nor did . What ended up working was kanaplex, though it crashed the cycle. Should've quarantined... I didn't lose any corys or platys during all this drama, though. I decided not to buy anymore guppies and just let my surviving endlers and guppies breed. Things are doing better, so much so that I've been able to grow out enough stock to trade in at my LFS. Also trying to grow java moss glued to foam (removed from my bonsai tree because nothing was growing). Stocking: Guppies, endlers, endler/guppy hybrids, platys, panda corys, cherry shrimp, and amano shrimp Note: The background in the above tank, as well as the cave, were DIYs that were intended for tank number 6. However, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the result and found a better DIY method online. Still, didn't want the first background to go to waste. EDIT (April 30, 2021): The amazon sword has really taken over since that above pic. I finally finished my video on this tank: 6. The Bedroom Display, 90 gallon, set up February 2020 Sometime in December, I dove into a large DIY project. I had 1/2 inch glass cut to custom dimensions so it could fit in a particular space in my bedroom, and I siliconed it all myself. Tank dimensions are 55"L x 17"W x 24"H. I also built the cabinet/stand and created the foam rock background . The tree used to have the moss I mentioned above, but recently changed it out for subwassertang. I plan to buy more of it soon. Every plant in here is exploding. I've had trouble keeping cardinal tetras alive. Can't tell you how many I've purchased, but the 15 or so left in here are doing well now. I've lost far fewer rummynose. This tank is just so much fun to look at. The rainbows and corys are always spawning, the forktails play in the spraybar current, the rummynose stay together and swim back and forth, the amano shrimp are big enough to stay visible and crawl all over the rock wall, and the gourami patrols the tank like it's his job and eats from my hand. The cardinal tetra just sort of exist and look pretty. It's the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. Stocking: Cardinal tetra, rummynose tetra, boesemani rainbows, forktail rainbows, pearl gourami, otos, julii corys, and amano shrimp. 7. Betta in the bedroom, 16G fluval spec, set up June 2020 My wife wanted a betta tank, so we got one, tank number 2 in the bedroom. She made all the aquascaping and stocking decisions. New tank so still sorting out the algae, fert/light balance. Another christmas moss floater, doing better in this tank for some odd reason, but still don't have high hopes. Stocking: pygmy corys, white cloud mountain minnows, and betta BONUS: Quarantine bin Learned my lesson with those guppies, so I'm quarantining now. I'm trying to add a few more cardinal tetra to my 90G. I've had great success with aqua huna fish, except for their cardinal tetras. This time around, I ordered 20 and put them in this 10G sterilite container. I lost 9 of them over 48 hours, but the remaining 11 have been alive for the past 6 days. Still don't look great, though.

Hey, I’m new to fish keeping only been at it for a few months how can I make my tanks look better?

I have only been keeping fish about 6 months now. I have 2 10 gallons, a 20, 29, 55 and 75.... very addictive hobby.

Finished with the plants for now. I will probably raid the small tanks for some more christmas moss to put on the driftwood, and hydrocotyle tripartita japan, but I don't know where exactly to put that yet...I hope my vals get happy enough to fill across the whole back!

This is why Cory started this forum, and it's cool to see it bearing fruit.

David, I agree. Bill is devoting much time & effort. It's an interesting experiment. That is one of the great aspects of fish-keeping; the folks are very helpful. 😊

Bill, Thanks for a most informative post, and doing all the leg-work, for the rest of us! 👍

Bill, these are awesome. I’m going to do my RDR2 themed tank one day and an Assassins Creed tank to merge my hobbies. Cant wait for those builds!!

I could hear the music in my head from the fight scene in the episode. Good job from the Trek tank all the way through. I have thought about doing something like that, but I always end up trying to scape it natural for the species going in.

OMG, I found old pictures! Circa 2007, back when I cared about saltwater over fresh. How little I knew...

Thanks Cory. Thinking about tanks as "dioramas" keeps it fresh for me. My first "diorama" tank was like 15 years ago, I had Roman columns in a 10-gallon with crushed coral substrate, and I had found tiny 1" tall figurines of Captain Kirk and Spock Scotty to go with it. 🙂 Tells a story, you know? 🙂

I'm with Daniel. You are way over temp, even for Rams. I would drop that down to like 80ish.

If the angelfish can find the shrimp, the shrimp will get eaten. I've never had bamboo shrimp, so I don't know. I did once keep mature angels in a very large, very thickly planted tank and a cherry shrimp colony thrived just fine. The shrimp stayed hidden during the day and tended to come out at night when the angelfish were sleeping.

They range from 4 - 6 inches. At one point there were 3 pairs all breeding simultaneously, all successfully raising fry (talk about thunder dome). Each pair had about a 2 1/2 foot cube bounded by plants that they patrolled. They would raid the other pairs territories when they got a chance. There might have been 1000 - 2000 babies spread between the 3 pairs early on, but 98% gotten eaten at some point . Those six original fish are the biggest ones now. I don't think any of the babies that eventually grew up have ever gotten as large as the founders. The babies would pick off the parent's side similarly to what baby discus do. I fed the founders like crazy with blackworms, mosquito larva and scuds, but after I ended up with 50 angelfish in the tank, it was only TetraMin from then on. Also 6 angels in 500 gallons is nearly 100 gallons a fish. 50 angels in 500 gallons is 10 gallons a fish. So diet and room stunted the babies just a little bit.

Hello Everyone! I just started a new 75 gal planted tank a few months ago. Never focus before keeping live plants:). I was into fish keeping growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s. When it’s was a few books, your local fish store, and lots of trial and errors:). I had 3 tanks and ended up at a 55 by high school. I am looking forward to learning a lot from our group here.

Got more subwassertang in the mail to fill out the tree. It looks like a lot until you try to cover the tips of every branch. My wife says it needs even more... Urrghh

I have been running an apex in my fish room for a long time. I started my aquarium journey in saltwater. I am running an old Apex Jr. which I use mostly to automate lighting and auto water change. I do some temperature and PH monitoring as well. I also use the Neptune Auto Top Off System for my clownfish breeding set up as well. I am converting some of it to Amazon alexa plugs for the voice control but I am still playing keeping the apex running as well.

Wink, so called because as a feral kitten he was chewed on by a coyote and lost an eye. He has always had trouble drinking water because he can't judge where the surface of the water is. Wink's solution is drink out of my angelfish tank. He jumps up on top and slaps at the water with one of his paws. Satisfied that he knows where the water is he finally can take his drink.

Worked on adding addition tanks to my fish barn. Picked up 4 40 breeders from the $/gallon sale

Everyone asks "isn't it hard to give them up?" Well, yes, yes it is. Very. Hard. You know the deal when you start, and we work very hard to make sure they're ready. We get sad when they are doing well in their training. "Aww... the end is coming." We turn one in, and get a fresh one, and start all over again with cute-little-know-nothing. That's why I like fish... keep 'em for life, and no house training!

Interesting...I've always used 50/50 water and vinegar. Works fantastic and very safe. What are the benefits of adding the alcohol and soap?

Hello all Washington person here with a little 16 gal tank with neons, Danios and a wonderful betta I got from ACO. Starting back up after a long time. Largest tank I ever had was a 55 gallon. Glad to be here, since so many things have changed since my last tank back in 2002. Even when I got the 16 gal. Back in 2017 to now there are new changes of doing things so back to learning for me. Bettas name is Hunter.

Just a hard life... asleep like this for 2 hours while I worked.

I got my new 75 gallon set up in the living room. Spent all day setting up the scape and planting my aquarium co-op plants. Thinking about a community tank with sterbai corys, rummny nose tetras, and either German blue rams or Bolivian rams. Also considering smaller pleco such as a clown pleco.

And what would it take for you to ship? Lol

Oooohhh Betta Macrostoma!

I put some drift wood in my pond to soak. It will go into my new 90 gallon!

Today, and yesterday, I painted one of my walls black, got new dressers for the aquariums, and got a new desk. First, I had to get rid of the old cabinets and move the tanks somewhere else temporarily. After that I painted the wall, put the new dressers and desk together, and put the tanks on the new dressers. And lastly, I put all my stuff in the drawers.