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HOME-BREW / DIY BOX FILTER I thought it would be interesting to experiment with a DIY box filter. 🧐 Had spare parts lying around and got a little creative in the fish workshop. ⛏️ One main focus point I like about the filter is that it is self-contained. It "shouldn't" make a mess when removing it from an aquarium. Or at least I hope. Will let it run a few weeks in a tank and see if it actually works. ⏳

And in this corner, in defense of the Big Is Beautiful Camp Big tanks are like piloting a supertanker nothing changes rapidly A dead house pet like a cat in the tank probably wouldn't cause much of an ammonia spike and wouldn't be too hard to find During extended power outages you will have a month's supply of water to flush toilets and cook with There is never a shortage of aged water. When doing water changes just put the Python hook on the other of end of the hose and pull water from the big tank down into the littte ones Your children are probably better off going to a state college than those fancy private schools (if you spent their tuition money on the big tank) Big tanks come with big tools, a 32 inch long pair of tweezers can reach most items including missing pets But more seriously, Everything is hideously expensive. You can't just put in a half a dozen rummy nose tetras. 500 look much better. I do think very long and hard about introducing a new a fish to the tank as last time I changed my mind (about those Endler's guppies) I had to put a minnow trap in the tank to get them back out. Even the strongest aquarium lights are very dim at 36 inches water depth. I am old and overweight and can't really get in the tank, so on the few occasions we changed the aquascaping my wife has gone over the side and in to tank. Thankfully we have an excellent marriage counselor and most of these aquarium issue were resolved in less than a year. But the one thing big tanks are definitely not is they are not a chore to maintain. Of all the tanks I have ever had, I spend the least amount of time doing any maintenance on the big tank. It doesn't need maintenance anymore than the creek behind my house needs maintenance. If I did nothing for 6 months the only thing that would happen is that algae would build up on the glass. And once you have a big tank, don't worry, your are never leaving the hobby. That ginormous aquarium in the middle of your living room has made it so unlikely that you can ever resell your house, you will be an aquarium keeper until the day you drown.

Hello everyone. My name is Jesse, and I'm from the Island of Oahu. I've been keeping fish all my live, but only got really serious in the last 3 years. Last time I counted, I was up to 90 tanks and 50 pond tubs for a total of 140 running systems. All of which is outdoors in both my backyard and garage. My wife and I are currently breeding 28 strains of guppies, but I'm also working on other species like dwarf cichlids, bettas, pseudomugils, killifish, and ricefish. Breeding fish has taken over my life, and I bet the same goes for a lot of you here.

Hey everyone! My name is Michael and I've been in the aquarium hobby for a little over 3 years now! I only have 8 tanks, and most of them are in my closet (yep, thats right, my closet),My 75 gallon and 4 of my 10 gallons (these ones are most of my breeding tanks). I have another 10 gallon betta tank, a 10 gallon killifish tank, and a 20 gallon with a small fancy goldfish at my office. I also have 5 outdoor tubs I am breeding fish in! but I work a lot to utilize my limited space the best I can! I also enjoy photographing fish, and will post a couple of my favorite shots below! Pearl Galaxy Medaka Rice Fish Carrying Eggs Pearl Galaxy Medaka Rice Fish Fry, aprox 1 day old. Gold Australe Killifish I look forward to getting to know you all!

So I see this popping up in a lot of threads and I don't want to hijack those threads. There seem to be 2 schools of thought about tank sizes--some people are in the Bigger Is Better camp, some people are in the Small Is Beautiful camp. I see pros and cons to both, and thought we could bat ideas and tips for each around here. I like little because I live in a small space, I don't have a lot of money, and I mostly like small fish. In defense of the Small Is Beautiful camp: Tiny tanks can easily be disrupted by small things--like ONE dead snail--but they can also be corrected rapidly. A 30-50% water change takes minutes, you aren't too tired to tackle it after work. Fish, plants, and equipment are (or can be) cheaper. FINDING that dead snail is not a herculean task. Big, static tanks can become a chore, and people leave the hobby for that reason also. To be fair, if I had the space I would LOVE a giant tank. I would also like a Victorian conservatory attached to the side of my house. A maid, and perhaps a view of something other than the highway. But until I strike it rich, I am really good at making tiny work. The learning curve may be steep, I may have a lot of frustrations at times, but if the only option is between a 55 gallon or nothing I would be forced to choose nothing. Some fish>no fish. So the question for me is not what size tank to offer newbies, but how to lower the bar for anyone who is interested.

Day 3 of separate eggs. They are now fully in the wriggler stage and (surprise) wriggle all the time. There were some losses, but very few, considering the amount of eggs I managed to get. The acriflavine did a great job at preventing the fungus from spreading. I now need to try and take the unfertilized eggs out of the container. I also put in a mini heater to keep the temperature from falling too much

I have an idea. If you can do a geographically accurate biotope aquarium, why can't you do a historically accurate aquarium. Sort of a historotope if I'm allowed one neologism here. At an estate sale a while back, I acquired a 1930s era aquarium with a metal frame and a slate bottom. This is not one of those stainless steel MetaFrame aquariums everyone (including me) had back in the 1960s and the 1970s. It is clearly something much older. Everything about the aquarium was in good shape when I got it, and it was watertight. Last year when I was using it to grow mosquito larva outside I forgot to bring it in when it got cold. When ice formed in the tank the expanding ice blew out one of the glass sides. So, what might the rules be for a historotope? Rules: You are only allowed to use equipment available during your chosen time period. You are only allowed to keep fishes that were available during your chosen time period. You must use historically accurate foods. You must use historically accurate plants. You must use historically accurate substrate and decorations. You must use historically accurate maintenance methods. Since I have the aquarium (once I get it repaired), my chosen time period will be the mid-1930s in the United States. My first step is to get the tank water tight again. I will post more later as this experiment progresses and your thoughts and suggestions come in.

(That's the constellation, not the automaker!) After reading @Sliceofnature's barrel/mini pond build and becoming extra jealous of his 3/4 wine barrel, I went online to see what I could come up with where I could maybe maximize my money and spend a bunch of hours on new fish projects to play with! With the wife and kids out of town for a week-and-a-half starting next week, Dad needs an all-consuming project! I apologize in advance to those folks with slow connections, but this build log is going to get into gory detail and have far too many pictures! 😐 By the way, I welcome any and all suggestions, ideas, warnings, etc.: WHAT WOULD YOU KEEP IN SIX 15-GALLON NANO PONDS? Thank you! Off we go! PLANTER SELECTION After MANY HOURS of searching and searching, I came upon these low-cost 22" planters on the Costco Web site: https://www.costco.com/.product.1253881.html (non-affiliate link) They're $25 each, sold in 2-packs. I started with a single 2-pack. When they arrived, I first wanted to see how they looked in the space I had in mind. I have a walkway in my back yard along my bedroom wall that I thought would be perfect for maybe six of these planters. It faces the northwest, and gets 2-3 hours of low, direct sunlight each afternoon, right before the sun drops behind a six-foot fence. Which means I get to see them in bright sunlight when I come home from work. I live in the San Diego area, so I don't expect any temperature extremes except for a little heat a couple days a year. I placed the first two planters to see how it would look: Oh yeah, I'm sold. Imagining a row of six such tubs right there! But first, I have some serious planning to do around wiring, weatherproofing, and equipment. I placed some cables and cords and boxes behind them and walked around, trying to see how hard it would be to hide things behind them and how visible everything will be: Yep, I can make this work. ASSESSING MY OPTIONS The first thing I did with the first pair of planters was take some measurements and do some testing. The planter measures 22" in diameter across the top, 12-1/2" in diameter across the bottom, and is 14-1/2" tall. Rather than trust to my math, I filled it with water and determined the capacity to be a little over 15 gallons to the rim. Since I won't be filling to the top of the rim, I'm assuming these will hold about 13 gallons for my purposes. The material is about 5/16" thick and the plastic is admittedly a little flimsy, but at this price I wouldn't expect otherwise. Certainly sturdy enough for this project. I also tested adhesives: can I mount anything to the outer surface? After trying different tapes, I think gaffer's tape works not too poorly. Duct tape was too weak and clear packing tape was a non-starter. But hot glue adheres to this planter so well that I couldn't get it off! Great, now I know how I can stick things to it! That is actually a HUGE plus. SOME PLANNING & PREPPING In San Diego, the weather never reaches freezing, and the coldest winter periods usually last only hours and rarely drop below 45 degrees. I want to be able to run a heater in each planter, so that I can actually keep virtually any tropical fish/critter I want. Between that, a USB nano pump, and a light, I'm looking at somewhere around 4-5 cords/tubes for each planter. And it all needs a low-cost makeshift "electrical box" of some kind for each one. Each planter has a removable plug in the bottom: Even though my test of filling it with water didn't result in any leaks, I decided not to take any chances; I siliconed the plug just to be sure! So that's as far as I've gotten for one day. Next post, I'll share what I've been learning about how I want to handle equipment and electrical stuff. Also going to hot rod a Jehmco box filter for minimal mess and maintenance (I hope)! Thanks for reading! Bill

I noticed some spawning activity from my Glowlights in quarantine. I put a sinking yarn mop in the tank to see if I could salvage any eggs. I left the mop in for a day. After that I put the mop in 2.5 gallon tank with slow stream of bubbles from a piece of rigid air tubing. Looks like I saved a few eggs from being eaten! I'll probably put a little sponge grunge into the tank for food and some Sera Micron as well. If they make it I'll try baby brine once they're bigger.

We've been buying these for years. My son considers it to be a rescue mission. We bring them home and put them in a 10 gallon.. They seem to last about 2 or 3 years. In our experience at around the 2 year mark they slow way down and just quietly pass away. So hopefully we're losing them to old age. We have two in the house right now and after a few months in our aquariums they are looking gorgeous!

Why Dave? I like the fact I can distribute them thru my house, like @Streetwise.

Congratulations to @Daniel, @Bill Smith & @MickS77. You guys are great. I learned a lot from you, during my short time in the forum. Thanks for doing what you do. 👍

I think it depends on what stage you are in life. If you are a very busy, a small or mid sized tank is best. But if you have the time to dedicate, you can maintain a large tank or multiple tanks. I think Brandy is completely right that there are Pro and Cons. But once you get the tank up and running and it is humming along. It is such a satisfying feeling. No matter if it is a 5 gallon tank or a 1300 gallon tank. I personally love both big and small fish tanks for different reasons. Like Edward said, you can get some beautiful large fish in large tanks. Also you can get a lot of nano fish and see schooling behavior. But, to me, it still comes down to what you have the time and energy to keep.

Thank you. I learn something new everyday on this forum.

Wow, what a surprise! Just sharing my fish-adventures and not having to make my own YouTube channel has been reward enough. I'm grateful for that opportunity. Thanks @Lizzie Block and @Cory!

@Lizzie Block Wow thank you so much! Thanks @Cory for making a great space to share the love of the hobby. I look forward to learning and posting here for years to come.

Agree. I think we have several factors at work here. First, some want a "taste" before commiting to a big set up. I get it. Others might have the space / budget limitation (or just love the look of a small water world). In a recent live stream I got into this exact subject. Big systems are far more forgiving. Stick a hand that was recently treated with a powerful antibiotic soap into a 150 gallon and it barely registers. The PPMs dilute to nearly nothing. Do the same thing in that 5 gal nano and it's game over, and if it's the person's first tank, it might be the end of their fish keeping. Bigger is better.

Historically accurate spousal bargaining The deal so far has been something like it's okay to put trash cans out in the yard full of mosquitoes, and keep worms in the refrigerator, but all the fish tanks must be confined to my room (the science room). That creates a problem for my 1930s style aquarium. I need a window to solve the lighting problem. I started dropping hints about this yesterday. This morning she offered me a deal. If I were to get all of my junk out of the spare bedroom so that it was clean and she could use it as her room (the exercise room), then I could use the window in the breakfast nook to set up my 1930s style aquarium. I took the deal.

Looks like paradise! What are those pipes running next to the tubs? You know you have a lot fish when you begin to lose count of the number of systems you are running ☺️

I think for me there is currently an element of controlling something in an out of control world. So, I love the cute things they do, I like watching my new kuhli loaches squiggle around, I like watching my red Betta (named Satan) "hunting" his pellets, and begging the rest of the time like the pellet junkie he is. I like learning new things about water parameters and gear. But I really like putting together shapes and colors, in fish, hardscape, and plants, that make a balanced, soothing composition. I am creating a scene. The fact that there are a lot of technical things that also have to balance for the fish to be happy and the scene to work just keeps my overactive brain distracted from obsessing over things outside of my ability to influence. I did the same thing on my shelves and in my living room and kitchen. Once all the closets were tastefully organized, I got fish. Now it is chaos, and I have so many things to fix that I am happy again. I am miserable without a challenging but achievable goal. I don't want this to sound like I don't care about the lives in the tanks--they are pets and I name them, love them, worry if they are sick, and try to do right by them. But the reason for getting them is a little different than for other people, I think. I feel like this makes me both normal (pandemics are stressful) and something of a weirdo. Like who adds stress when there seems to be too much going on?

I wanted to add a bit more about why I like dual siestas, but I thought the topic should be separate from the Fluval 3.0 lighting thread. My dual siesta reasoning is 90% human, and 10% for a little bonus in organic soil Walstad tanks. I am not trying to promote it as a special formula for fish rooms or all tanks. I rejoined the hobby in 2018, after running marine tanks for a while until 2011, and under-gravel, plastic plant tanks as a kid. I spent a lot of time researching lighting, especially after I setup my first organic soil tank, and started to understand the balancing act between light, decomposition, algae, and plants. The corner case I was trying to solve involved the following: Organic soil Walstad tanks, bedroom setup, weekday enjoyment vs weekend enjoyment, and algae vs plants. I wanted to be able to grow my plants, let plants out-compete algae, and see what was happening when I was in the room, without disrupting anything. I could setup a weekday schedule, which was frustrating for weekends, or the opposite. There was no way to do a consistent 6-8 hour schedule without missing a ton of tank-viewing time. Before we got Fluval Pro Mode, I watched a few of Bentley Pascoe's videoes about using timers to trick the lights into more control points by resetting to midnight on a power-cycle. I also started reading Diana Walstad's book at the same time, where she discusses soil decomposition, CO2, plants, and algae, as well as siestas. My understanding is that plants ramp up photosynthesis faster than algae, so every slice of darkness-to-light favors the plants for a certain amount of time. In the meantime, with an organic soil substrate, the darkness allows for more production of CO2 from decomposition. The CO2 from decomposition is much lower than CO2 injection, but it is real. Once we got Pro Mode, I tried to find a way to slice up the time schedule so that I could get the equivalent of 6-8 hours of sustained light in a broken-up format, so I could wake up with my tanks at 07:00, enjoy them throughout the day, and have one hour of 1-2% blue from 21:00-22:00. I am getting 6-8 hours of normal light in 14-15 hours. That is what I tried to do with those schedules. I had to use triangle peaks rather than sustained peaks, since we don't have enough set points, but if you were to slide those triangles together, and overlap the middle ramp-ups, and ramp-downs, it would look more like a regular 6-8 hour schedule. I measured the pH changes with my Apex, along with temperature changes. Cheers

Let's kick off my fish room journal with an entry/update on my Blue Gularis breeding project for the Coop. What I enjoy most about operating a fish room focused on breeding is that there will be people in the store that see my fish, get excited, and want to take them home. Call it silly, but it's just something that really drives me, knowing that someone is going to enjoy my fish and bring them happiness. So, that being said, I asked @Cory what fish I should work with to make available in our retail store. His response was the Blue Gularis. I have kept Gardneri in the past and had great success breeding them, but the Blue Gularis is known to be more difficult. Well, I am up for the challenge. I started off by sourcing 30 eggs from Aquabid for the Blue Gularis "Loe" variety. The eggs arrived with instructions to sit on them for 7-8 weeks from the date of collection, which was about 1 week prior if I recall collectly. True to my self, I let my impatience win out and tried to hatch 10 eggs about 3 weeks in. Let's just say you should follow the seller's advice. 😆 From that botched attempt I wanted the remaining 4 weeks to hatch the rest. After putting the eggs in a shallow tupperware it took about 48 hours for the first fry to hatch. I think I got maybe 2 more natural hatches. I then used the vial pressurization method to force hatch the remaining eggs - picked this up from Gary Lange. The remaining eggs went in a vial with a little bit of water. Put the vial in the bottom of a 40 gallon breeder and loosened the lid to allow water pressure to enter the vial. From that, I had one more egg hatch. With several more eggs unhatched I decided to try the other method Gary talked about and that is to leave thee vial in your pocket and simply walk around. Sure enough this did the trick and all remaining eggs hatched. I raised the fry on BBS (via Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatcher) for the next several months. Currently the Blue Gularis are spread across several tanks in the fish room with only one tank having multiple occupants, 1 male and 3 females. I will probably spread these out too. The attached image is a shot from today (7/22/2020) of one of my males. Even if I don't have success breeding on my own I feel accomplished getting them to this point. Their looks certainly are worth it alone.

I stand by the quarantine med trio and it has worked beautifully to treat issues for which it was designed. However, I have run into a couple of instances of fish ailments that weren't covered by the trio that didn't really show up during quarantine. (Usually 5 or 6 weeks, for me, give or take a day or two.) From my research (online and books), these don't seem like super everyday common issues and don't generally present symptoms right away or are harder to spot. So far, some of my fish have presented (after quarantine): Camallanus Worms - Treated with Safeguard Goat Drench (Fenbendazole) while waiting for Levamisole to arrive (3 weeks later). Now I am the crazy paranoid fish lady that periodically checks my fish's vents for worms. (Never thought that would be my jam. 🙂 Anchor Worms - Treated with Microbe-Lift Lice and Anchor Worm (Cyromazine) and Cyropro (different tanks, not at the same time). I finally received the Dimilin I ordered (one month later) so I am ready if it pops up again. No flashing for weeks, no lethargy, no nothing. All seemed well until an ulcer on one of my fish showed up. I assumed it had gotten into something and hurt itself. A couple of days later, all of the fish in the tank seemed to have a small ulcer and were flashing. Started general salt treatment (low level), until I could figure out what it actually was. The next day I could finally see the little buggers. Gross. As much fun as it was to treat each of my established tanks after I added in the fish that had "completed" quarantine, I would rather not play those games again. Given the overall world situation, I couldn't go to my LFS to inspect the fish before I received them. At this point, I don't even want to order fish online anymore, not that it would have mattered to see them first as I obviously would not have caught either of the two. I would like to know if anyone can add insight to the following questions so we can all learn something and maybe avoid these types of shenanigans in the future. My questions: 1. Are there any other not so obvious fish issues that can be hard to spot during a quarantine period? (i.e. Not the usual suspects like Ick, Velvet, Flukes, DOA, etc. Lol!) 2. If so, what are the tricks and tips to spot them early (if any)? 3. Are there any good treatments every fish keeper should probably have on hand as they are hard to come by or generally have longer shipping wait times? (i.e. Levamisole, Dimilin, Malachite Green, Potassium Permanganate, etc.)

I don't want to sound like an Aquarium Co-OP fanboy, but I ♥️ the Ziss Brine Shrimp hatchery. I used my DIY brine shrimp hatchery forever and and after many tweeks I felt it was quite handy. The Ziss is just better in so many ways. The removable lid makes adding water, salt, baking soda and brine eggs a breeze. The stiff tubing, that provides the air flow, allows me to rotate the lid and aim the air tube to dislodge any brine shrimp eggs that might stick on the side. The screw in bottom drain design is FANTASTIC. My only criticism, and it is a big one, is the stand. The stand is solid, but the space between the legs is to narrow, and the legs are to short to access the drain screw. Below is a couple pictures of how I adjusted for my ease of use... on a scale of 1-10, it is a solid 9+. I think it is well worth the $$$$I

THE "ELECTRICAL BOX" I use that term loosely. My idea here is to protect all the connections from the weather as much as possible by tucking them into a small makeshift box, and then daisy-chaining the boxes from one planter to the next, hiding them as well as possible while protecting them from the elements. After some testing, I settled on these "Tupperware"-style boxes from the dollar store. They were three for a buck. I then did some testing and fitting with some electrical parts that I had, ordered a couple more, and when I had my plan, I used a soldering iron to melt some holes in the box: two big ones in front for the cords to exit the box, and about five smaller ones in the back that will act as "air holes" to prevent condensation. I also cut through the plastic from the rim downward to each of the two bigger holes: To help hide it, I next spray painted the box on the inside with flat black paint. Painting it on the inside helps ensure that I won't scuff off streaks of paint if the box slides around on a rough surface. After that, I gathered my parts (these are non-affiliate links): 1. 200 watt heater ($14): This size seemed overkill, until I remembered that I would want the heater to occasionally compensate for an ambient temperature as low as 40-45 degrees. The cost was about $3 more than the 100-watt, so why not? 2. USB nano pump ($9): This will power my hot-rodded Jehmco round box filter. 3. USB adapter ($4.50): I selected this one because the ports are on the SIDE of the block, not the top. That's uncommon and a space-saver. 4. Cube tap ($2.50): For fitting several plugs in a tight space. 5. 8 foot polarized power cords ($5): Actually I only need one per planter, but each of the cords are shared between two planters: the inlet AND outlet of each cord goes into a box. These are not rated for outdoor use, but all connections will be in the box, and I have some plans to protect the cords themselves. I chose this kind of braided cord for its color, price, and the fact that it was a flat plug (space saver). Grounded three-prong cords are not necessary. (I will be dealing with lighting as a separate part of this project.) Next, I laid out everything and plugged in all the components. Then I took everything out to my garage and placed it all in the black box, with two cords sharing each of the larger holes. The smaller holes will be facing downward in the finished project, and will allow air exchange to prevent condensation. I lightly superglued the lid on. I may have to destroy the box to get inside it, but that's why I source parts at the dollar store! I'm going to try for some sort of drip-looping. But in case I can't do it across the board, I decided to silicone the cords as they pass through the holes, preventing water from seeping in at this point. Electrical box complete! Tomorrow, I hope to work on mounting it to the first planter. Lots of hot glue in my evening! Thanks for reading, Bill

I think with mutts colony breeding is great in the beginning, the "who knows what is in there" effect, but as someone who has selectively bred other non-fishy things, you would still have to have a grow out and select your future breeders. At least that is my plan, so maybe what I am doing is something in the middle. I have 2 males and 5 females in this foundational generation of mutts. If anything fun pops up in the babies (who I don't let rampantly back cross to the parents-they are separated to grow out tanks) I will select for that, and cross those as my next generation, and so on, retiring adults as they age or I achieve something more desirable. I wouldn't consider this line breeding exactly, but selective. I suppose, if I am successful, I will have developed a line in the end. A line of mutts! (also @H.C. Aqua I have really enjoyed your youtube channel! Nice to see you here too!)

Glad to see you here, hopefully i can come visit someday.

Would you ever want to do one of those home swap shows and try out Minnesota? 😂 Having that much life outdoors year round must be magical.

I equate it to plants, and am fine with hybrids, crazy variants, etc, unless it negatively impacts the life of the fish, results in a high deformity rate or involves physical mutilation (I also don’t like dyed flowers, agates, or fish - but ymmv). Granted we aren’t grafting fish like little cacti, I would probably draw the line there too. I wasn’t sure how I felt about blood parrots until I picked one up on impulse from our local petco and now I’ll admit to being fully in love. I also have a soft spot for fat goldfish with ridiculously fancy fins, so I am biased in favor of man-made overall.

Bigger is better AND beautiful. Little tanks are fine when you don't have space, but I suppose it bears defining, what's a little tank? In my case, I think I call anything under 20 long a little tank, and then 20 long to say, a 75 is a medium tank, and past that is a big tank. I think what drives me nuts most about little tanks is that I find them nearly impossible to keep a community in. Your species choices are severely limited, and what you can keep in there is usually only a single species, or just two species. I love community tanks and the little tanks just dont cut it. Medium and large tanks? Now that's when you start getting into space to actually keep big schools. Or multiple schools, and really start filling in the different levels of a tank. And so many more species options! I love having lots of choices to consider. Maintenance on big tanks is not hard. I don't do weekly water changes on my 220. It doesn't need it. It's extremely stable and efficient at taking care of wastes. Little tanks I find myself testing far more frequently because of how quickly they can suddenly swing from good to oh boy, everything is dieing.

Recently I’ve been drawn to long shallow tanks (20g long, 33g long, 40 long, etc.) since I feel you can get a lot out of what seems like a smaller volume of water given the large footprint. This is partly because I live in an apartment and don’t even want to think about something like a 75g breaking in there!

@H.C. Aqua, I love your stuff and you are a really great member of the aquarium community. Cheers, Jason

That is great too..... 😊

I've thought about this subject of small vs larger tanks for quite some time. Personally, I like a wall of 10 gallon aquariums over a single 150 gallon aquarium, but that's just me.

I just went thru a full 5 day round of maracyn in combination with Paraclense. Did not seem to impact BB or water parameters at all, but the foam on the surface created by the airstone was surprising.

I think plecos in general, but especially the more carnivorous species of plecos have this problem: I've seen plenty of ppl who either believe this myth or have been wrongly instructed by fish sellers, where they were told that plecos don't need to be fed and will do perfectly fine by just eating algae and fish poop in the aquarium. Also bettas. Most beginner fishkeepers beleive a betta is perfectly fine in a >1 gallon bowl or tank without a heat or filtration , and with very few or even no water changes

It helps that you @Streetwise know what to do when on the little tanks. Personally I spend most of my time looking at one of these 4 tanks. Bigger doesn't make a tank more interesting.

I am a pollyanna beginner myself. One thing that I really appreciate in fish store staff is not saying "No, you aren't a good enough aquarist to keep that yet." or "Heck yeah, put that bala shark in a 10g!" but instead "Here is the reality of what it takes to keep that alive." Like, yes, puffers are cool, please be aware that you may have to trim this species teeth. I think, in my (limited) experience, neon/cardinal/rummynose tetras are harder to keep than I would have expected. To me it is all about realistic expectations though. Don't say "don't keep them", Say, "here are the meds you will need, expect some potential losses." If you send someone home with a fancy goldfish, 4 African cichlids, 6 cardinal tetras, a geophagus, an iridescent shark, a bala shark, 3 clown loaches, a single corydora, and an uncycled 55g tank, you are a jerk. That was the actual list of fish my family was sold when I wanted guppies for my 10th birthday. It did not end well. Ah, the 80s...

I feel like a beginner. I haven't kept most fish or grown most plants. I have kept a few kinds of cichlids, and a few kinds of corydoras. The only deep dive I have done was bettas. I've grown a handful of easy to grow plants. My go to plant is hornwort. The hardest thing I ever tried to do was breed Heckel discus and that didn't work. But that is what makes it fun, lots to learn!

@DaveSamsell How do you know? 🙂

That's a lot of baby angels!

I'm torn. A huge school of fish can be lovely and mesmerizing. If I had the opportunity to sit and watch that for hours I would. (I like really large flocks of birds too.) But that's not really something I can replicate in my mid size tanks. So I'm going to have to say that the thing I find most delightful is the opportunity to observe individual behaviors in the fish. I recently added a pair of dwarf cichlids to my main tank and watching them explore has been a blast. I have a lot of spider wood, plants, leaves and some rocks in the tank. I love watching them swoop through spots that I didn't expect them to explore. The little female will swim all over the tank, but she loves the rock caves and will peek around them. I'm probably anthropomorphizing, but both of the cichlids appear to investigate by swimming around something and viewing it from different angles. They're fascinating, and I'm so glad that I decided to add them after all.

Well, I will take the bigger is better side of the argument. Bigger tanks allow the keeping of bigger fish. If all you have are 20 gallons and under, you eliminated a huge amount of fish you can keep. Large water volumes change slowly, allowing for adjustments before a problem is huge. Big tanks have big viewing panels, rather watch a 13" TV or a 50"? Over stocking is much easier, if you like aggressive species like African cichlids. You can keep small and nano fish in large tanks that would do well in small tanks. This is not true in the opposite. Aquascaping options are way more for larger tanks. Most of my favorite hardscape pieces are larger than a 20H. I admit there are drawbacks to both, but big is always my preference.

Yay, welcome to the forum! Incredible setup outside. Looking forward to seeing you share more pictures and your experiences in the future!

Wow, this is truly an amazing project. You've inspired me to start up something of my own!

Two sponges and a bag of biomedia on top. That answers your question, right? 😉

I started off colony breeding, but now almost exclusively line breed most of my guppy lines. I have done a video on it where I took a colony bred strain over a 1 year period and compared it to the original breeder's line bred strain. Also certain genes like dumbo ears (which are female sex linked) will just fall apart over time if left to colony breed. That being said, some guppy strains do absolutely fine in a colony breeding setup. It just depends on your goals.

So now that I have restricted myself to 'historically accurate' for the 1930s, I need to define what that will mean. For this project the guide to 'historically accurate' will be the text of "The Complete Aquarium Handbook" which is available to download (it is in the public domain now). I will also use "The Aquarium" magazine issues from the early to mid 1930s as both magazine and the book were published by William T. Innes who was sort of the @Cory of his day. The neon tetra is named after Innes, Paracheirodon innesi. Think of this book as the Innes website and the magazine as the Innes YouTube channel (only it is 1936)! Cover of 1936 edition of "The Complete Aquarium Book" May 1945 issue of "The Aquarium" magazine (with loads of references to Hitler in the advertisements) If I don't follow the rules, you can hold me to account as the link to the book download above will get you the entire 1936 edition of the book, color plates and all.

Its probably not water parameters, or something in your big tank nor likely a specific 'disease'. It's just the stress on the neons of being moved from the distributor to the wholesaler to the retailer to you. And it is the difference between the two retailers. The PetSmart neon's were likely moved through the supply chain rapidly and without a lot of TLC. The Aqua Huna neons were likely well acclimated and stabilized long before they were ever shipped to you. If there were loses in the process, Aqua Huna took those loses, and what you received are the rock solid survivor neons that will live for years. Isn't it ironic that fish you buy at your local fish store and that only experience a brief ride home can be so much more fragile than fish purchased online and shipped to you? I can't sing Aqua Huna's praises enough. Even though they are West Coast and I am East Coast, everything I have ever received from them has arrived in excellent health. Usually within minutes of being released from the shipping bag the fish are already eating and look bright and healthy. It's not you, it the difference in how the fish were handled before you got them.

The bad side of fenbendazole is that your tank will be inhospitable to snails for several months no matter how much active carbon you use. The canine version is also poorly soluble so it stays in the substrate for long (slow release). If you can change the substrate it would help. There is a goat dewormer which is liquid and works better than the dog one. I used planaria zero and it worked against hydra too but has the same effect on snails.