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If you have a spare Aquaclear 70/110 intake tube it works great to slow down the water flow when refilling your tank so you don't kick up gravel, plants, detritus etc 👍

I just wanted to share some photos of my tiny reticulated hillstream loach fry. These fish are so cool and unique. I knew that i had a female and a male but i was not expecting to see fry so quickly! I am super excited that they’ve bred. I’ve counted three total so far and they seem happy and healthy.

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

Hot-rodding a new AquaClear 20 for an aquarium. 🛠️ This is how I personally break up the giant Wonder-shell. Safety glasses are MANDATORY... 🚩 Made a DIY algae scraper from a bit of hardware laying around. Used an old ice scraper with a home-brew swivel mount. Carbon fiber rod. 👀 Converted the algae scraper into a scrubber, with one of the Co-Op's foam pads. 👌 Made the handle a good length to keep my hands dry. 👏 Customized an ordinary bucket into a "fish-room-only bucket". Made a bracket in the basement ceiling for hanging it out of the way. 🧺 Maybe I'll do some traveling, in the future. ✈️

I was having trouble getting my blue dreamer shrimp to breed. I watched one of Cory's videos on the subject and he talks about using Wonder shell to get minerals in the water. So a month ago I got some from the co-op. A couple days ago I found baby shrimp and at least one more berried female. That worked great!

@Brandy, You can have these 3 no charge if you want them. One has small crack, but I am pretty sure it doesn't leak. I don't remember why I have 2 sets, but sometimes I end up with 2 of the same thing. I might even have the stand for these. I will see if I can find it.

I have been using a 14oz bottle doing passive diffusion just like in the above video. Putting it in just about every other day, and only when the lights are on and it looks like the plants are doing better, they look stronger to me, more green. My hubby has a soda stream system outfitted with a larger CO2 tank so I have been using that to fill the bottle up. ( i attach a air line from the end of the rod that comes out of the soda stream and the other end into the bottle that is full of water, inverted in a bowl with water. I am able to cap it while the opening is still in the water and just put it in tank and remove cap) the 14oz bottle is the perfect size for my 16 gal tank and I tuck it away in the back corner. within 8 hours the bottle is almost empty. i use a square of filter material to help stabilize the bottle, the lid holds it down. though I do have to check it when I pull it out, one of my danio's thought it was a neat place to swim into. Crazy little fish, love them!

I keep many small aquariums in my apartment, mostly Walstad-style, with organic soil from a local composting spot. I enjoy running really stable ecosystems. These photos don't show much of the fish and shrimp. I also keep some outdoor tubs here in Vermont. Cheers, Jason

Hey everyone! So excited to see this platform turn into a great place for information, care, and just general community. A little back story on myself; I am an amateur aquarist, that mainly focuses on guppies, but I am slowing expanding my current stock to include fish from other families/ species and regions. I love the fish community and all the people I have been blessed to meet through this hobby. So glad to be a part of it! here are a few of my guppy strains that I have kept or am keeping. Enjoy!

Hi there: My tanks are scattered throughout my house and office, and I thought it would be fun to share them one at a time. Each has some sort of quirk that makes it special to me or my family. Hope you enjoy! Coming from the computer world, I have named each of my 12 tanks, to make it easier to refer to them in conversation. "Atlantis" is easier to say than "the-top-middle-20-Long-in-the-office-with the-multies" Welcome to PANDORA This tank is a 3-gallon Top Fin Bettaflo "Soothe" picked up from PetSmart. It belongs to my wife Teri, who wanted to take things in as weird a direction as possible. https://www.petsmart.com/fish/starter-kits/top-fin-bettafloandtrade-sootheandtrade-betta-aquarium---3.5-gallon-40722.html The Bettaflo Soothe has a large center column mounted to an undergravel filter plate. A small water pump at the bottom of the column pumps the water upward and over the rim of the column to waterfall into the tank. MODIFICATIONS We made the following modifications: 1. Painted the back half black: I masked off the back half of the glass with masking tape, and brush-painted it with black acrylic paint. 2. Painted the center column black: I took out the center column and spray painted it with Plasti-Dip. This gave it a nice, even, rubbery coating that is inert when cured. 3. Added a mini LED light: The light that comes with this tank is fairly weak, and even though Teri didn't want live plants, she wanted some more creativity with the light. For $12 we added this off-brand multicolor LED light that suction cupped nicely to the inside of the lid: 4. Added a heater: We dropped in a cheap 5w self-setting heater, also from Top Fin, I believe. It tucks nicely away in the center column. DECOR For decor, Teri did the following: 1. Mixed pink & blue gravel (yuck!) 😉 2. Added a silicone "alien flower" (which I sliced into two pieces with a bandsaw to spread it out) 3. Added some rocks for the back. STOCKING For stocking, Teri has the following: 1. The most gorgeous galaxy koi plakat betta I have ever seen. 2. A cobra endlers guppy 3. A blue swordtail endlers guppy RECENTLY Recently, Teri let me replace one of the fake flowers with an Anubias nanji from Aquarium Co-Op to the tank, and aside from helping with water quality, it actually does look pretty nice in there! Also, the betta has started changing color: more black is starting to show. I read this is a sign of a happy fish! MAINTENANCE Maintenance involves a weekly 50% water change with a quick gravel vac. After the initial round of brown diatoms went away, we have had no algae trouble in the . Teri feeds a variety, consisting of betta pellets and freeze dried daphnia, and I drop in some frozen bloodworms and spirulina brine a couple times a week. So, while I personally wouldn't have jumped to make something this colorful and weird, it served to inspire me to think outside the box as much as possible when applying decor! Hope you enjoyed. More tanks coming soon! Thanks for reading, Bill

Thank @MickS77 & @Edward Steven, the fish is doing after treating with erythro.

@Edward Steven @Cory Thanks guys. It's curious how a couple compliments really feeds the aquarium passion lol. All grown out from 2 val and 2 sag from the Co-op. It has been a very fun tank.

All of these tip are awesome! Since I am just starting on my fish room. These tips are invaluable.

Frankly, watching to see if I can tell what has changed for this tank during livestreams is one of my favorite weekly things.

My Geophagus tapajos today- I was trying to get a photo of the massive hole the female was digging and the male photo bombed. Together, they are making a mountain in my tank.

The Fluval Plant 3.0 lights are really nice, especially for the scheduling and light-level programming available thru the FluvalSmart app. I have ten of the Plant Nanos, several of the 15"-24" models, and one 24"-34" unit. I have spent a lot of time in the app to get things right for my tanks so that I can grow plants, keep algae under control, and get to enjoy my tanks when I am around. I will post my own details in a follow-up message, but I have some general tips to share before that. 1. Firmware Updates: When you do firmware updates, it might look like a two-step process, but you just have to be patient since the bootloader is updated first, and then the firmware, so don't interrupt the process or click what looks like an extra prompt. I have not done a firmware update for a while, so be aware that the user experience might change. If you mess up, or need to do the upgrade again, swipe left on your light in the FluvalSmart app for the option to Upgrade or Remove. 2. Copying Programs: You can copy programs between lights, but not between the Plant Nano and the larger models. So I can use the same program on various Nanos, but for my 15"-24" units, I have to create a new program, which I can then share between those units. The way to do this is to "Save as" your program on one configured light, and then go into the matching target light, and choose "Export", and pick the program. I would expect the option to be labelled "Import", but it is not at the time of this post. 3. Power and Timer: These lights do not seem to have any internal batteries to maintain the time. If you have a power outage or interruption, they will assume the power-on time is 00:00 (midnight), and count from there until you access the light via the FluvalSmart app, which will sync the time. 4. Naming and Password: When editing a light, you can use the three dots to Find, Rename, Set password, and Remove password. I recommend naming your lights, especially if you get more than one. You can even sort them by name or type in the light list, so think about the names in context with your room layout. Password might be useful with too-clever kids, or in a professional environment, like a retail store. 5. Modes: For each light, you have three modes, Manual, Automatic, and Professional. Manual gives you Off, or On, with a custom light level and no scheduling. This is the perfect mode to use for photography, showing your aquariums on off-hours, or if you need to make some darkness so you can sleep in, or film other tanks in the same room. Automatic is an easy scheduling mode with presets for Tropical River, Lake Malawi, and Planted, and you can modify or create your own. It only includes seven set points, so you get a ramp up, a sustained period, a ramp down, an evening low-light period (often just a little blue), and a full night period. Professional mode gives you ten set points, which allows you do do a lot more custom lighting choices, including simulating the sky of a certain region, running a siesta (low or no-light midday period, simulating cloud and tree cover), or even dual siestas, which is what I use. I will add more on this later, once I collect my app screenshots. 6. Plant Nano Tips: The mount only fits on rimless tanks without modification. The metal L-bracket can be used backwards for more height and less reach, which is great for emergent plants and hardscape. If you have an odd size tank, you can also add felt feet and run the Plant Nanos right on a clear hood or glass. I donated a Nano to someone to figure out a 3D-printed rimmed mount, and he designed an adapter. Here is the 3D print file from @AquariumThoughts for the rimmed mount for the Plant 3.0 Nano. You will also need an m8-1.25 nut. Fluval Nano Light Rimmed Tank Adapter by AquariumThouhhououghts - Thingiverse WWW.THINGIVERSE.COM More mounting options for the long version, thanks to @SpacedCadette: https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/131-fluval-plant-30-scheduling-and-programming/?do=findComment&comment=215034 From @PlaneFishGuy: "Below is a quick cheat sheet I made for those just wanting to simply reduce the lighting intensity but keep the factory ratios in tact. I started with the factory "daylight setting" from the app when using the Fluval Plant Nano 3.0" More quotes are forthcoming. Please share your own Fluval Plant 3.0 programs. On iOS, the Overview tab shows the lighting program as a graph and a table. Our host, Aquarium Co-Op, carries these lights: Fluval Plant 3.0 LED NANO WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM 3 Year Warranty Programmable App Highly Water Resistant The Fluval 3.0 is the best planted aquarium light on the market in regards to functionality to cost ratio. Not only does this perform well, but it's backed by a 3 year... Fluval Plant 3.0 LED Light WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM 3 Year Warranty Programmable App Highly Water Resistant The Fluval 3.0 is the best planted aquarium light on the market in regards to functionality to cost ratio. Not only does this perform well, but it's backed by a 3 year...

I live in Texas where summers are HOT. I've always kept goldfish in my horse tanks to eat mosquitos. I've also kept Koi in horse tanks, and still do. They thrive. I thought I'd pass along a tip. When I use metal tanks, all is well. The black plastic ones will cook your fish, though in this kind of heat. This year I have started an outside tank with white cloud mountain minnows. So far they are doing well in spite of a couple 102 degree days. They are on a shaded concrete patio. Not sure what will happen if we get some of those 110 degree days. I have air stones in their water. The koi have a DIY. pond pump/filter similar to the one Cory showed how to build in a video. Thanks Cory. My koi are 20 years old as are some of the goldfish.

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.

I am a married 46yr old with 3 adult children and the best grandbaby ever.😁. I kept fish years ago but never truly enjoyed it. So, I naturally got out of the hobby. About 1 1/2 to 2 years ago I was perusing YT and came across one of Cory's videos. I got hooked on them. I loved the learning of his video's and his no nonsense approach, yet how he cared about the fish and the fish community. Well, needless to say I had bought a tank, which then turned into another, and than another. You know the story. I now have 9 tanks ranging from 75g all the way down to 5g. I am truly enjoying fish keeping now and plants and learning about both.

Hi Guys, great to see this forum up and running, I’ve been keeping fish for 30 years and still love it! I’m also a fan girl of the Coop! Look forward to seeing lots of tanks. Dana (rescuedogtreats...on Youtube)

Hi, I'm Irene, and I work as a Content Strategist at Aquarium Co-Op where I write blog posts, make videos, and create all sorts of marketing content! I got into fish keeping because my son became interested in my friend's Glofish tank. That friend offered to buy him a betta fish for his birthday, so I decided to some research on bettas. We ended up getting our first family aquarium, I started getting more fish, and eventually I began a YouTube channel called Girl Talks Fish to help beginners learn from my mistakes. Because we don't have a lot of space in our home, I'm mostly interested in nano fish and planted tanks. I currently have a 20-gallon planted community tank, 10-gallon breeding tank, and a 10-gallon plastic tub for quarantining new fish and doing experiments.

You know who you are!!! Miss my morning chat family.

This is so much easier than aiming the flow into a colander, which is what I was doing. Thanks for the tip!

Yes, tannins from the wood. I like the look and depth it gives the tank.

Time for some weekly maintenance. Let's take a looksee at some tanks... Here's my five gallon betta tank with Mister Mojo the plakat (he used to be white/platinum but turned grey and red X3 ). His tank is on a much more "when I feel like it" sort of water change schedule, since the nitrates never go past 5. The 29 guppy tank is also on the same kind of schedule, though it does get water changes more often when there's a baby explosion. I tend to just trim the hornwort, remove duckweed and pull out hair algae at the most. The 75 gets weekly 25% changes, even though it's lightly stocked - I like keeping the nitrates under 40. I also trim plants and try to scrape algae.

Great tip. Genius actually. I use fluval stratum in most of my tanks and its extremely light. I have tried tons of ways to stop it from flying all over the place and creating a crater when I do water changes. Will definitely be giving this a try.

I use the shrimp caves for air stones. I run the air hose right through one of the holes with the air stone inside of the cave. I like the way it looks with the bubbles coming out and little fish or fry will still go inside.

Yes, just pull about the moss and stick a clump into a hole. If you are using the cave for moss and not for a hide, then you can plug moss into every hole. Just check the size with your Cories. If it looks like the fish are big enough to swim into a hole, then wait for them to grow a bit before using the cave. The holes are small, sized for dwarf shrimp.

The only way I have been able to raise angelfish fry in a community tank is to have the tank choked with plants. Even then only 2% of the fry make it, but boy howdy, those fry are the top 2% of their class. They love your water, they love your food, and they are really smart!

I miss the website chat too, maybe they'll figure something out here eventually based on the reputation system.

Breeding clownfish! So cool. They look just like a pair of dwarf cichlids breeding.

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

Greetings from North Georgia, Here are some of my fish!

I hope you don't mind a drop in comment...have no idea who you are or what you originally met for...but you had me at coffee!

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.

She refers only to ammonium, and doesn't say whether they take up "ammonia" as readily. However, I don't think it matters, and here's why: As you noted, pH (along with temperature, and apparently to a lesser degree other factors) determines the ratio of unionized ammonia to ionized ammonium in the water. This is why we consider ammonia "less toxic" when the pH is lower. When a plant consumes ammonium, if the ratio remains the same, it means more ammonia is ionized to make ammonium, therefore reducing the ammonia levels in the water. I'm open to the idea that I may be oversimplifying as I'm sure there's a lot of other interesting chemistry happening that we don't really measure/care about as much. I agree that the amount of plants involved will determine their contribution to nitrogen removal (whether ammonia/ammonium or nitrate). To keep referencing Walstad (her book was a recent read 😆) the reason for minimal filtration in a "Walstad" tank is that plants and beneficial bacteria are believed to be in direct competition for ammonia/ammonium. If you have a heavily planted tank with reasonable stocking, the plants would be happier consuming the ammonia directly.

Thank you Bill and Dawn that helps me out a lot. Dawn our water is the same as yours and we had a softener for the reasons you stated prior to keeping fish. Thank you both for the input, much appreciated 🙏

I live in Minnesota, it's one of those states with liquid rock!! I have a water softener because it helps with running the household...dishwasher, washing machine, hot water heater...and of course my hair!! When I am doing water changes, I use the by-pass on the water softener. So all of the cold water I use for is hard water, and the hot water amount I use is so minimal, it doesn't have a big impact on the hardness. The biggest problem for me is sometimes I forget to stop using the by-pass. 😄

I am brand new to the aquatic plant world. I decided that I would like to have mostly low maintenance tanks in the long run, and I am trying to choose plants that don't NEED CO2, but I don't want to ONLY have anubias. I still see the value of a boost at the beginning, something I remember my LFS used to do in the late 90s, to get some of them them rooted and rolling along. So my super cheap low tech way to handle it was using diy 2 liter CO2 bottle system and passive diffusion like this Aquarium Co-Op video I saw of the Ocean's Aquarium fish store in San Francisco. Yeah, that means my tanks have a floating plastic container. I tell myself it is temporary. 🙂 I will try to embed or link the video...sorry if this doesn't work.

I work for a Engineering/Consulting/System Integration firm, we primarily do water / wastewater systems, we've done a few fish hatcheries as well. I've collected some AB PLC hardware and a Maple Systems HMI and am going to tinker with it on my breeding rack. Will post more detail as the "project" progresses. If it comes together nicely I may even drop in a SCADA system (overkill). Yeah like I need another project!

Depends on how acidic/soft the water is and how slowly you would introduce your fish to it. But you could always set up a spigot or valve that gives you your tap water for water changes prior to it going through the water softener. That way, no disruption for the fish. Such a setup provides you an ideal situation, in that you cold accommodate any type of fish with the right mix of hard/soft water (or high/low pH) that you desire!

Charlie! Hopefully we can get the old gang back together through here.

Thanks, I just updated my photos to be easier to read (have to host them off-site to do this). I use Trello for 12 tanks and a pond. I "archive" months as the page fills up, so they do go older than February, and I can "unarchive" them when I need to revisit. This keeps it clean. Yes, you can invite external users to your board for collaborating on a project. 🙂

I have used notebooks, software, and spreadsheets. I have not stuck with any of them. But I found TRELLO is free, and a great way to track multiple tanks. Here's a couple screenshots (I name my tanks after famous worlds). I can't recommend Trello enough! Bill

Hello from Texas. I've been in the hobby for a little more than a year, but I caught MTS hard. I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can.

Hello from Ashburn, Virginia! I’m glad to join here at the beginning of this forum project and admire Cory’s vision of a community that communicates with respect for one another! My wife and I recently bought a 10G for our daughter, and quickly discovered that there was a lot that we didn’t even know that we didn’t know. We had to have the “can’t bring a fish home today” talk with our daughter and promptly began our research when we got home. Cory and Co.’s advice has been invaluable as we have upgraded to a 30G and added fish and plants. My wife jokes that I am into this new hobby more than our daughter and she isn’t wrong! I’m looking forward to sharing, interacting, and learning with all of you!

About me: I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others, although I find it harder to want to share with people that come across as entitled to my experience or those looking to try and make money from my information. I also find I have less patience teaching other hobbyists that are tariffed of failure, but I’m working on it! At any point in time I’ll have anywhere from 25 to 100 tanks. Although I’m trying to refine my needs to as few tanks as possible. I enjoy experimenting, studying, observing and tinkering. I enjoy live food cultures as much, if not more than the fish they feed. I very much love creating entire food webs within my fishroom. I love snails. They are like Pokémon to me... I’ve got to “catch them all!” This also comes in handy in that I also love freshwater pufferfish. Mainly the Tetraodon species from Africa. As far as I know, I’m still the only person in the Americas to have successfully breed the Tetraodon schoutedeni repeatedly. This is not a point of pride for me, as it makes me realize how bad of a teacher I must be. Although, there are a few people very close to success! My current project is to captive breed all the other Tetraodon species, minus species he Tetraodon mbu, that is just too large for my current setups.