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Jurijs the aquascaper has a pretty cool tutorial, if you haven't seen it:

Some do some don't, but here is why I rinse my newly hatched brine shrimp before feeding to fry. So in a tablespoon of brine shrimp eggs there approximately 420,000 to 450,000 brine shrimp eggs. I use eggs that are supposed to give a 90% hatch rate so let just say around 400,000 hatch in a little less that 2 liters of water. It is generally agreed upon that they hatch in 24-48 hours and I run my hatchers for 36 hours. Now I want you to think about this. . . baby brine shrimp hatch and start swimming about, they also more that likely start feeding on whatever exists in the water be it dead shrimp parts, decaying shells, etc. we know this because you can see growth right from the start. Well. . . if they start eating they also start peeing, pooping, excreting, whatever shrimp do. All this umm stuff is of course just bubbling around in the hatching water, and you want to dump it into your fry tanks? Just for the sake of 30 seconds of rinsing it off? My picture shows what the hatching water generally looks like after straining all the shrimp and shells out, pretty grungy right, and the saltwater ammonia test is way off the chart. Do you still want to just dump that into your fry tanks? Now just take a whiff of that hatching water, you still want to dump that in your fry tanks. I know that there are those on both sides of the benefits to rinse or not to rinse your newly hatched brine shrimp. I"m not on the fence with this, I'm firmly on the side of the fence that I always rinse my newly hatched baby brine shrimp before feeding. What if it makes the difference between having 90 fry surviving from a spawn or 300 fry surviving? I've found that sometimes in the fishroom it's just those few extra minutes here and there that produce the much better final results. Oh, and I can't imagine that any fish wants that shrimp pee, poop, or ammonia flavor on their first meals of their life.

So over the last few days I found it necessary to set up a couple overflow tanks to raise up some ram fry. A little messy but will have to work for a while, only 10 feet from the laundry sink and 3 feet from the ironing board. (this is my wifes sewing table 😬 🤐, don't tell) Transferred a total of 296 midnight rams and 327 gold rams for growing out.

So I was successfully spawning the black otto's a while back, see the video above. I found the biggest key was to have a fat and happy female. This of course involved feeding the oto's and not just having them forage for leftovers. I did colony or group spawning in a 10 gallon tank and found that it was very similar to corydoras spawning. Once well fed, did a cool water change at night and was rewarded the next morning with eggs all over the glass, plant leaves, etc. I rolled the eggs off with my finger and put them in a tumbler where they hatched in a few days. Right from the start they fed on live baby brine shrimp and Sera Micron. Growth was about the same as corydoras fry.

I was using Eheim before, but switched to these iLonda brand wi-fi feeders I got from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KWWGY6M (non-affiliate link) I love these things! I have six now. They have the EXACT SAME container shape as the Eheim one, but they are controlled by a phone app, and you can set up any number of feeding schedules, including on-demand. The feeder also has a physical button for triggering it on demand. It does require power, but it connects via USB...you know, the USB nano pump has a charger with TWO ports! 😉 Big thumbs up on this product for me. There are a few other brands with the same product, so it's probably a Chinese import. But I love it. Been running six for about a year now. Bill

I just picked up “Aquarium fishes and plants”. K. Rataj and R. Zukal are the authors and J. Maly is the illustrator for the 56 illustrations. I am a sucker for fish and plant illustrations, but I thought their advocacy for a sand substrate and aeration was pretty interesting given the discussion in the Walstad thread.

@Bentley Pascoe and @Dean’s Fishroom made this video about breeding Otos, maybe it'll have some useful info for you 👍

Here is the nano sponge filter:

Everyone knows to keep back when @Cory gets behind the pallet stacker!

I decided its time to finally introduce some of my juvenile danios into the pond, which over the last day or so has become host to a ton of mosquito larvae. Ive been monitoring temps in the pond to make sure swings arent too extreme as weather here has ranged from highs of 108* to lows in the low 60’s. Temps in the pond seem to be fairly consistent staying in the 70’s so far. @Bob & @Bill Smith were curious how the tannins might affect PH. Testing the pond water revealed that the PH (7.6) is the same as my tanks, which was sortve a surprise. I expected it to be lowered somewhat. GH is about 60ppm lower than my tanks at about 6dGH (tanks at 9dGH). KH is somehow higher than my tanks at 8dKH (up from 5dKH) which seems odd to me. While the danios were temp acclimating i noticed something move and couldnt believe my eyes! There was a tiny danio fry swimming at the surface! @Daniel heres another example of having fry where you’d least expect it. I didnt even have fish in the pond yet but somehow i still have fry 😂. I had added water to the pond from tank water changes, i must've sucked up some eggs or tiny fry in the process. Anyway, i moved about half of the danio out to the pond today and plan on moving the rest out in the next couple of days assuming these are doing well.

Lol pretty much. My grandmother left me a set of teensy silver tea spoons. Makes feeding little bits of frozen block to little tiny tanks tidier.

I got a shipment and made an amateur attempt at a one-handed unboxing video. The bag was really slippery on the Easy Fry Food, but I just charged ahead. Cheers Share your next arrival!

Extending the USB Nano Pump: A Test of Power As my order history will attest, the USB Nano Pump is hands-down my favorite Aquarium Co-Op product. It's crazy quiet and powerful for the money. In my home office where I have five tanks, there is ZERO humming sound coming from the five nano pumps providing air to the 20 longs on a wall rack. All I hear is the air rushing "white noise" that even serves to mask the hums of my hang-on-back filters. Find me a conventional 4-port pump that can accomplish that! This gives me a room with several tanks that aren't singing in the key of "E"! But testimonial aside, I recalled Cory talking about the benefits of the "USB" aspect of the pump; especially that it can be powered by a backup battery during power failures. But what if that could be taken a step further? What if it could be used as a daily workhorse pump THAT ALSO automatically switches over to backup power when the power does go out? How long will it last? Can it do this without human intervention? For twenty bucks and ZERO DIY skills, you bet it can! SELECTING THE BACKUP BATTERY In making my choice of backup battery, I listed the following criteria that needed to be satisfied: 1. It has to be Compact 2. It has to Last a Long time 3. It has to Power my pump on wall power 4. It has to Switch to battery power without my touching it 5. It has to be Affordable; I have a lot of pumps! With that in mind and a lot of research, I settled on this UGREEN Portable charger for phones and tablets, for $22 on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S73M12N (I'm receiving and want no affiliate kickbacks for this.) It mostly matched up with my requirements: 1. Compact: It's about the size of a pack of cigarettes 2. Long-Lasting: 10,000mAh will be tested 3. Power: Pass-through feature sends wall-power directly to the pump 4. Switch: Pass-through charges the battery and switches over when unplugged 5. Affordable: Mixed feelings on this...pass-through isn't cheap! 6. Bonus! Digital readout shows the percentage of charge remaining What is pass-through power technology? You can't just plug the pump into any phone charger and expect it to power the pump while the charger is plugged into your wall; most phone chargers will stop powering your device when they are being charged themselves. But with "pass-through", the charger passes your wall power through to your charging device while it charges itself. Instant permanent battery backup! How to use it? Simply plug the battery backup between the USB pump and its USB charging adapter that comes with it. You need nothing else! So let's dive into the testing... TEST ONE: DOES IT WORK WITH NON-PHONE DEVICES? What we're proposing here is to plug in a device that doesn't draw power the same way as a phone does, into a powering device that's made for phones and tablets. Will it handle low voltage fish stuff? This article wouldn't exist if the answer weren't a resounding Yes! I connected it all and plugged it into the wall. It immediately started the pump and started charging itself at the same time. When I unplugged the power from the wall, the pump kept going and the battery started draining. SLOWLY. Blue or orange port? I tested the charging process twice, curious about whether choosing the blue or orange ports on the new Aquarium Co-Op charger plug that came with the pump would make a difference in charging time. It made no difference. So this will work. But for how long? Here's where it gets interesting. TEST TWO: HOW LONG DOES IT LAST? I charged it up to 100% while connected to the pump (about 3-4 hours), and then unplugged everything from the wall to simulate a power failure. The pump continued to run for 60 HOURS. That's two and a half days! Not much more to be said there. It's quite an effective backup power source! TEST THREE: OKAY, BUT HOW LONG DOES IT REALLY LAST? On the theory that it will not last as long when it's under a load and actually powering a real airstone in water pressure, I connected it to a never-clog airstone on 24" of airline tubing that had already been running for several months in 12" of water depth. The runtime result was another round number: 50 HOURS on a full charge. So this means that the pump was powered for about 17% less time while under a basic load. Logically, I'd assume that as the airstone becomes more clogged, its capacity for backup time will be diminished even more. Mounting? The battery pack is not terribly heavy, so it can be mounted with some double-sided foam tape to the back or side of the aquarium, or any other flat surface so that it doesn't dangle. CONCLUSION The combination of 2+ days' power, always-ready pass-through powering, and the compact size makes this a huge winner. I'm buying one of these for every one of my USB Nano Pumps. Yes, $22 can add up fast, but for me, it's a small price to pay for the peace of mind. When the power goes out, I will have oxygenated water for days! Even if I were to lose most of the beneficial bacteria, the bacteria that remains in proximity to the moving water caused by the bubbles (on the glass, rocks, gravel, and decorations) will serve as a seed population for a new colony. But that's a moot point if the pump is powering a sponge filter! What more is there to say? Spread the word: USB battery backups aren't just for phones!

Here are pics of the babies that I discovered in my tank on Saturday, July 18. I had just set up the tank on 7/15. In order to get things moving, I added the sponge filter from 1 tank and some hornwort from my 45 gallon. That 45 gallon houses 5 Zebra Danio, 6 Leopard Danio, and 5 Turquoise Rainbow (2 male, 3 female). I was finally able to get some better pics to show size. I predict there could be 30 - 40 fry currently inhabiting this 29 gallon tank. I also added 2 mystery snails as a cleanup crew after feeding these little ones. Prior to discovering the little fry, I had added 2 new pieces of mopani (sp?) wood. So the water is a bit dark due to tannins. This will be my journey into discovering what type of fish these may be...are they danios (they're pretty dang small) or are they Rainbow?? I'll try to make weekly updates with pics on this post. In the meantime, anyone want to guess species???

I am about to have a population explosion! I have 4 females that look like they will burst any second. I am amazed they have lasted this long. I would put the females in a breeder box, but I don't have that many boxes, and they all look equally ginormous. The males are being such pests ("snack dispenser? No? Ok, mate? Hello?") that I am seriously considering boxing THEM just to give the girls a rest. I am as bad as a pacing anxious spouse, lol. I really, really, really want to build something fabulous like this: @green____water Instagram post (photo) 20L Albino Koi Guppy autosorter and grow out. . . (2 of 3. view entire collage on my page) . . Using a @swisstropicals Hamburg matten filter as a divider, the lift tube is obscured inside a fake rock by @universal.rocks surrounded by large, loose gravel and several varieties of anubias. . This creates an attractive place for the females to give birth. As the fry hide from the adults in the rocks, the lift tube (surrounded by plastic canvas to prevent the adults from entering) will transport them to the nursery/grow out. . A green, peaceful wonderland. Safe from predation. Surrounded by Java moss and ferns, buce, anubias, süßwassertang, and fissidens. Tank mates include blue neocaridina and albino rams horns. This also tank also pulls triple duty as a snail growout for feeding the dwarf puffers. . After 3 months of tuning and grow in, I'm happy to report it is working exactly as planned. . . #guppy #guppyfish #guppytank #albino #koi #fish #plantedaquarium #plantedtank #aquascape #aquascaping #shrimp #neocaridina #snail #plants #guppies #guppiesofinstagram #anubias #javafern #javamoss #buce #bucephalndra #hamburgmattenfilter #greenwaterisgoodwater #aquarium #süßwassertang - Gramho.com GRAMHO.COM Instagram post added by green____water 20L Albino Koi Guppy autosorter and grow out. . . (2 of 3. view entire collage on my page) . . Using a @swisstropicals Hamburg matten filter as a divider, the lift tube is obscured... I would also like a recommendation for a good 10g temporary grow out divider that is water permeable but wont let sexed juveniles slither thru. Have considered foam...would rather something mesh?

This thread had some experienced suggestions

I really need to drive up to Edmonds and "transfer" some of those Rams and Koi Angels for an "emergency" tank I've been working on. The emergency was I really want those fish but didn't have a tank setup even remotely close to what they'd need. Just need to get the plants in and the weather to cooperate.

Why? It two liters of water and a tablespoon or so of salt. IMHO successful fish breeding is mostly in the small details.

What's a good food for otos? I've been feeding them repashy super green (not soilent green, don't know the full differences). I also have the hikari algae wafers that I put in a lot of tanks.

I like them better planted so they don't become a jumbled mess.

IMO a pipette is the way to go so you can dial in your dose. Diluting the ferts also dilutes the anti mold additives potentially giving mold a change to grow.

I got the Eheim Automatic Feeding Unit from Amazon.com and love it! If the smallest opening size is still too big, you can put a piece of tape across the opening to let even less food out. Learned that trick from an old Aquarium Co-Op video. 🙂

*Irene, I don't buy the premise that a nice brilliant green field of algae such as yours is unattractive, but given that attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder, to each his own. As you note above, that algae makes for a better environment for your fish (presumably our goal). I suspect you might feel the same as you haven't cleaned it away yet. 🙂 @Bill Smith likes sci-fi dioramas and dramatic set pieces, @MickS77 goes for a blackwater biotope, @Streetwise has carefully landscaped small vignettes. Who knows, maybe algae-scaping is the next fashion? @Irene, show us the way!

Easier solution I use: make a 50% dilution and then put one squirt per 5 gallon. (pour half the bottle to another container, dilute with aged non-chlorinated tap water)

I'm so sorry to hear that! When my fish have had red spots/streaks in the past, I usually suspect bacterial infections or chemical burns (from chlorine, pH crash, ammonia, etc). Aquarium salt is definitely a good route, especially in a bare tank like that. If you haven't seen it already, here's the official salt dosing regimen recommended by Cory. Best of luck with your killifish.

You know how it is... everything. I'm working with some guppies and corys right now. I'm considering the possibility of trying to breed some corydoras melini.

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!

I currently have one tank where I use a canister filter. I love the intake and spray-bar, but I have some trust issues. The tank is 16 gallons, but I keep the filter in a 20 gallon tub.

Looks to me like you have pseudogastromyzon cheni. Its a chinese hillstream loach species. Gotta love a pet store that doesnt even know what species they have... Heres some more info

I keep coming back to this thread because I love my dirted tank and I thought I'd better actually contribute. I originally chose to do a dirted tank because I wanted to have a very heavily planted tank, but am on a tight budget and can't afford any of the expensive planted tank substrates. I also spent several months researching different methods of doing a dirted tank before trying my first one. I've done 2 dirted tanks. My current one is a 29g hex(currently running a little over 2 months) the first one was a 5.5g that I ran as a test for over 6 months before I committed to dirting my display tank. Here is my method for setting it up. Part 1 making mineralized soil: From my understanding mineralized soil is essentially soil that has had all the organics broken down into nutrients and minerals. This helps prevent ammonia spikes in the aquarium from organics in the soil decaying. From my understanding most planted tank substrates are made from mineralized soil bound with clay. I started with the cheapest organic soil I could find that didn't contain anything to help retain water(it wound up being a miracle grow product) and sifted it to remove any large debris that wouldn't break down during the mineralizing process. I then put the soil in a large shallow container then filled it with water and put it in the yard. The next day I poured off the excess water along with anything that had remained floating and allowed the soil to dry out in the sun which took a few days. Once the soil was completely dry I added water again and repeated the process for about a month. You now have mineralized soil! Some people chose to mix in clay or other soil amendments at this point but I did not. Part 2 setting up the tank: First I built a boarder around my tank with the sand I chose for capping the dirt(this helps so you don't see the dirt through the glass. Then I added a tablespoon of osmocote plus sprinkled across the bottom of the tank. Next I added my dirt(roughly 2in in front and 4in in the back) wet it down and pressed it to make sure there were no air bubbles. I then capped the dirt with 1-2in of sand. Next I placed my hardscape and filled the tank then drained it as completely as possible. Next I planted very heavily. Fast growing water column feeding and/or floating plants are important to soak up the large amounts of nutrients that will leach from the soil early on. After planting I refilled and drained the tank until the water was reasonably clear. I then let the tank run for 2 weeks with large frequent water changes before adding my first fish. I would have waited a full month, but I had seaded the filter with biomedia from another tank. Part 3 stocking and running: I added my fish slowly making sure to check parameters very often. I saw small ammonia spikes after each new addition to the tank but it always returned to 0 by the next day. I do not gravel vac during water changes unless there's a major mess that needs it. The mulm is slowly turned over into the sand by my bottom dwellers and is how nutrients is restored to the soil as the plants use it. I never experienced any large scale algae outbreak and I believe that can be attributed to using mineralized soil instead of "raw" which would leach large amounts of ammonia when the organics begin the decompose. Sorry for the long post but I felt this thread needed a detailed methodology

So I'm curious Brandy. I noticed @Irene using what looked like a baby food spoon while feeding frozen in one of her videos. Made me feel normal. Do you use an old baby food spoon too?

Streetwise, As a follow up: I have ordered through AC, winter, spring, summer & fall. Everything has always been received very well. The packing is always very professional and was never disappointed in the quality of the products or shipping/handling of the items. As a note, I remember ordering plants last winter and the temperature, on delivery day, was frigid. I thought, "I hope the plants made it through the rough weather." They did. The package had a warm heat pack inside and the plants looked great. 🙂

Results may vary, I've been at it for over a year and have gotten far less. I got a lot of surveys at first but now I only get surverys about once a week.

Update from 8/1/20. They are getting bigger, but still very hard to get pics of. Most of them are about 1/4 in now. Though we I've seen some smaller ones still in there. I'm using a Canon EOS to take the pics with manual focus. So some of the guys are blurry. Also, I added a new light and did a water change, which removed tannins, so that is the difference in color background.

The video dropped right as @Cathee Turner was asking about about pH and KH. As @ForestJenn says, perfect timing!

Thank you for the water chemistry video. Perfect timing! It was super informative and easy to understand.

Yeah it seems like only a couple European stores have it.

I love this book!

Hey there! I live in Stockton and work in El Dorado Hills so I drive through Sac several times a week. I'm looking forward to seeing how this forum goes. I'm a big Co-op fan too. Just got back into the hobby a couple of years ago myself. Had extra room at home now that my kids are grown and out of the house. See you in the forums.

I just purchased The Tub Pond Handbook by Ted Coletti. It’s quite good!

I have the Apple eBook version. The digital advantage is note-keeping, bookmarks, etc. I think it has the same visual content.

Organic soil aquarium keepers are lucky to have this text: Ecology of the Planted Aquarium — Diana Walstad https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/book-review-ecology-of-the-planted-aquarium

Welcome!! Cute little baby BN - do you breed them? I ask because I have a 55 full of the little poop factories!

Hey Irene. Huge fan of your videos here!

Irene; Glad you are here. It isnt the size of your tanks but the size of your heart that matters.

I really like your tank and how upbeat and helpful your videos are. Thanks and welcome to Washington, I was excited to hear Cory was bringing y'all to the PNW.

Hi Irene, Love your story and subscribe to your channel. Your videos are very informative. I got I to nano fish recently and what a joy.