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Hey all, as most mornings, I spent this one cleaning filters and feeding turtles and fish. This morning I thought I might show off a filter I've been using for years. Mostly cause I think its cool...."nerd"....but also cause someone might could find it useful. Materials: Lee's mini critter keeper Top fin small under gravel filter Plastic canvas Tools: Scissors Super glue (gel type) First I start off by trimming slats out of one of the under gravel tiles so I can latch the bell end of the tube to the center of it. Next I remove the clear plastic door off of the lid of the critter keeper. Then trim a piece of plastic canvas to fit it and super glue it in place. Making sure to cut out a center hole for the upright tube. (You can see on this one I kinda messed up centering the hole) Now assemble, fill with media (i like lava rock and poly fill), attach and air pump and thats it you're done. The under gravel filter kit comes with a standard air stone which clogs super quick, so i recommend replacing it with a no clog air stone from Aqurium Co-Op when you get a chance. These filters have about the same capacity as an aqua clear 70 and considering you can build 2 of them for under $40 including the air pump and media they're awesome. I've been using them for years with turtles (a lot of turtles) and fish alike.

I think I found one of the few things @Cory has yet to achieve in the hobby! 😉 Maybe he can make it a goal! 😉

Thanks @DaveSamsell and @MickS77, between Dave’s vice idea and Mick’s leverage idea, I was able to get the 2 magnets apart without further bloodshed by using a large bronze wedge for leverage in combination with the vice.

Hey everyone, I delivered some Orange Japanese Medaka Rice Fish and some unsexed Betta mahachaiensis to Aquarium Co-op yesterday. Not a huge quantity of either so get them while you can. If you do miss out, more will be coming at some point.

What is that? Fish soccer? Whoa! I like how there are a bunch of high fives and chest bumps after the goal.

Is 30 seconds of rinsing going to going to kill you? I rinse mine, I have great breeding and fry rearing success, but as they say, your mileage may vary. It's a choice you have to make. . . When I actually figured it out more closely and yes that sieve is more than 40 years old. Here's an image of the new one I have first time ever out of the box. Note it was a product of West Germany, do you remember the wall between East and West Germany? Oh, and they cost $4.00 each.

Thats the only thing I can think of too...🤔 Try something like a big old pipe wrench to get leverage on it or a wooden clamp to safely get a grip on it

Dean and Cory produced a couple of youtube videos detailing how Dean raises fry. They showed and discussed the fry containers but not the tank in which the containers were suspended. Is there a video I missed that focuses on the tank?

Hello everyone! My name is Shane and I currently reside in Apple Valley California, hoping to relocate to Arizona within the next year or so. I currently only have a 40 breeder, 75 gallon, and a hospital/quarantine tank that ironically has a thriving colony of cherry shrimp in it, the shrimp tend to get shared with friends who want them. All is planted, even the quarantine tank. I've recently had a bout of no motivation-itis but hoping to get some major maintenance done and cure that. The 75 has rainbows and the 40 is mostly Central and South American, but I'm not super strict with it. Active forums are exciting!

I made this for siphoning out my ten gallon tanks on my fish rack. I wanted something smaller to poke around the tank and clean with. I made it with: Brass fitting: 3/4 female garden hose x 3/4 female npt adapter, with a washer, very important. White fitting: 3/4 threaded x 3/4 slip pvc fitting I used a spare undergravel filter lift tube for a siphon tube. I cut a 45° angle at the end to better siphon off the bottom. I used a little Teflon tape on the threads. I siliconed the tube into the adapter because it's not a tight fit but it's water tight. If you don't have a spare tube a 3/4 pvc pipe would work. A little silicone in the slip connection would probably make it water tight without using pvc glue.

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)

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.

Hello all. So I have a pair of gold rams that have been spawning. The first few clutches of eggs were eaten which is to be expected for new fish parents. I am happy to report that the last two clutches hatched successfully and it seems as if I have two great parents that have learned to raise their fry. The first batch that hatched lasted for a week before they died off. This was my fault because I was not prepared with my live baby bribe shrimp and they would not take frozen baby brine or Hikari first bites. This last batch is doing great however. I have been feeding live baby brine 3x a day and occasionally frozen babh brine which they are now eating at 10 days old. They all look to be very healthy with nice big orange bellies. My question is about moving the fry to a grow out tank. How long should I wait to move them? What is the best way to move the fry. Turkey baster? Siphon? Net? Any help is much appreciated. Here are some pictures.

She wasn't ready for a picture...

That is very awesome!

Added rice fish to the pool today. @Cory suggested them in an earlier post and I was skeptical, but I was also wrong. The rice fish look great and school playfully. The colors are nice with some white, some blue, some orange.

I'm playing with box filters again, hot rodding them with multiple densities of foam in one experiment. Have to agree with @Cory, in the sense that I think it comes down to preference for servicing.I would agree that sponge filters are probably faster and less effort, but even with the bag technique for the sponge filter, the box filter is a cleaner service for me. Bill

In fairness I got my first aquarium in the 70s with an under gravel filter. My dad still had his metal frame from the 50s but I am pretty sure they one he set up for me he just made himself. I still had to walk uphill both ways wherever I went.

The last box filter I had was probably in the 60's or 70's and they worked fine. Boy, that was a long time ago. Haha!

Using them as a filter works but a sponge filter I feel works better and is easier and quicker to clean. However using them full of coral or other media to buffer you water works great, and you can have multiple ones just sitting ready to go. I've done this in the past with coral, peatmoss, ammonia remover and even carbon. I will say I don't use them anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't work.

The Epsom salt will add some additional minerals, I have done this in the past but don't anymore. I find the baking soda helps to keep the pH up and more stable. Spoiler alert: Stay tuned for a salt update hopefully later this year.............

So today I realized algae in my dirted tank has magically cleared up. While it is not remotely grown in yet... Photo time! The hair grass is the big win here. There is obvious new growth and this has been planted less than a month. Compare that to the stuff planted months ago according to the internet instructions of tiny clumps. Supplied with Easy Green, Eco-complete, ADA amazonia, and passive CO2. Lessons learned: 1. don't trust the internet 2. plants do indeed seem to like dirt. Or at least not having their roots shredded.

Back in the day (1960s) we didn't have have all fancy smantzy choices you young whipsnappers have grown up with. We proudly put our Longlife box filters in our Metaframe slate bottom tanks and were amazed when we saw the first Metaframe Dynaflo HOBs (it was impossible to get those siphone tubes going). And in the winter we had to walk to the LFS (it was Barncle Bill's if remember correctly) uphill both ways in the snow.

Make them do double duty! RCS under the baby fry and snails and plants in the sexed grow outs--for my future pea puffer project, lol. You are right. We need more tanks!

I would agree with Cory that servicing them can be a pain, especially if your running a sponge or poly material in them. They do work and I love that they can be fairly customizable. I run two big box filters in my koi/goldfish tote along with a Ehiem canister. In my boxes I just loaded them up with ceramic media and dunk them in a bowl of water every once in a while to clean them.

This is my beta tank and if you look at the bottom right hand corner you can kinda make out one of these box filter...basically if you pick the right color lid for your citter keeper you can get them to blend in with the tank.

Update: Fry are developing, but still small. Had a lot of casualties, but still have maybe 50-100 fry left. They eat A TON. I switched to Hikari first bites and in the morning they are completely transparent, but get huge bellies all day after I feed them. I put an old glass lid next to where the couple spawned last time and of course, they completely ignored it and once again, spawned in the same place....

Hey! There are all my late night orders!!

I float the guppy grass in my bare bottom tanks and container ponds. I find it grows easier for me than anything else I try. I have trouble with Java Moss and I find the moss makes much more of a mess than Guppy Grass.

I've been using the Eheims on my tanks for one feeding a day for a couple of years without any problems. Battery life is great. I work weird hours and that way I know my fish are getting one scheduled feeding a day using a micro pellet. Then I supplement with other foods. Even knocked them into the tank a couple of time. Just pulled them out and dried them out and they were fine. I love them.

The new root tab plungers Aquarium Co-Op is developing?

It's a lot of fun triggering a feeding on demand by phone/Google Home when I have guests over. 🙂 As for hanging, it comes with a pretty robust clip, that JUST fits around a 2x4. 🙂 I have one nearly upside down hanging over my mini-pond: Notice the tape partly covering holes on the end. 🙂

I didn't think I needed this...but since I have moved my discus to the big tank when I go to feed them Vibra Bites I have to stand on the couch to get up high enough to drop food in. And that whole experience of me pressed up against the tank and the hand overhead is very concerning to the discus. It just occurred to me if I had a feeder with a phone app that worked on demand, I could basically just text the little guys some food sans trauma. Since it has got the @Bill Smith big thumb seal of approval I am ordering one now. Next step will be to figure out how to hang it from the ceiling (I have AC receptacles in the ceiling above the tank).

I'd add lots more plants to cover up the back wall, looks good otherwise!

Background: 5.5 gallon nano tank Stingray light sponge filter Fluval Stratum anubias/java fern/java moss/swords/crypts/frogbit spiderwood + a few rocks (~20) x carbon rili shrimp, (2) x amano shrimp, (2) x nerite snails Problem: Over the better part of a year, my little nano colony of neocaridina shrimp slowly went the way of the dodo. Testing the water for any kind of ammonia/nitrite spikes always yielded zero. Temps never fluctuated beyond 74F - 77F. Lights were on a timer so algae existed but was never excessive. Plant growth was slow but constant. GH/kH were monitored as well and kept stable with the help of Wonder Shells. Water changes were occasional but never more than 10% so as not to shock the system. Point being: I really like shrimp so I made a concerted effort to keep the tank pretty darn stable. (Suspected) Culprit: Eventually all but maybe two or three of the carbon rili shrimp had either actively died and were removed or went "missing/melty/through a time portal back to 1985" so I finally decided to change things up and broke down the tank in order to start fresh. Oddly both amano seemed alive and happy. Well, one of the things that I was apparently doing well was growing plants in this tank and so with enough foliage cover - and admittedly a little bit of oversight on my part - it hadn't occurred to me to keep an eye on the two nerite snails. I would always see at least one on the glass so I figured everything was kosher. Fun fact: that was not the case. Guess what I found under the bottom of the spiderwood in a little area with tons of plant cover. A sadly deceased nerite (that smelled utterly like something death would bring on vacation). I have no idea how long that was in there and I'm guessing the decay was, at least in part, taken care of by the plants and even some of the shrimp themselves to a certain extent but I can't quantitatively say by how much. Issue: All that being said, how are people generally dealing with little hidden gems like this - I would never have normally be able to look in the spot I found the dead nerite without breaking down the tank. A good chunk of the semi-decent aquascaping would have been uprooted and/or who really moves around hardscape "just because"? I'm open to any and all suggestions - even including, "man...why you so bad?"

I've got an OG 324 1/2 Starrett vice that I could try.

Knowing my experiences with magnets, it's usually easier sliding than pulling directly apart, because of the magnetic lines of force. Perhaps place only one of the sides in a stationary work vise. This would isolate one side, giving support, so you can just concentrate on the other side of the magnet. Work carefully....

I float or plant based on aesthetics and laziness. So far I have not noticed a difference, I feel like Jesus with loaves and bread with the multiplication rate it seems to have.

It's a 20 long tank with a couple sponge filters in it. Here's another video @Bentley Pascoe made about it

I still use the brine shrimp hatchery kit made by San Francisco Bay Brand. I'm only feeding BBS to 1 fry grow-out tank, so I use a 1-liter bottle and hatch 1/4-1/2 tsp of eggs at a time. The temperature can be adjusted by raising or lowering the lamp. Brine shrimp is harvested by shining the lamp at the bottom of the bottle (usually in the morning when there's less ambient lighting) and then draining the BBS from airline tubing at the base of the hatchery into a small Tupperware container. I don't bother straining out the salt water because I store the BBS in the fridge and pour a little out to my fry 4-6 times throughout the day. It's definitely a perk of working from home!

I agree. Sometimes I enjoy watching my snails more than my fish. 🐌🐌 🌿🌾 🐌 🍁 🐌🐌 😉

That killifish is so rad! Also sweet closet!

I wrapped my Rubbermaid tub in this reed fencing material from Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/s/reed?NCNI-5 (non-affiliate link) It clips pretty easily with shears or heavy scissors. By cutting the fencing a little too tall and angling it, it pretty much stays where you put it. 🙂 I think it was less work than painting.

I store my brine shrimp eggs three ways. 🙃 I usually buy them a case of eggs at a time, so all of the sealed/unopened cans are stored in my freezer. Once I open a can for use I keep it sealed in the refrigerator. From that can I pour out about two weeks worth of eggs into a plastic jar that I keep in the fishroom. Why do I do it this way, I honestly don’t know, I’ve been doing it this way for over 50 years. Recently I was asked if it really matters if brine shrimp eggs are stored in the refrigerator or freezer? It’s a question that I couldn’t answer as I’d never tried storing my eggs long term just at room temperature. I suspect that for the amount of eggs most folks use it probably really doesn’t matter. That said I’d also that unhatched eggs however stored must be kept dry and humidity free.

I am just beginning breeding fish. But my other job involves breeding things (don't ask, it isn't as fun as fish). We are not a huge operation so very analogous to a hobbyist, except we maintain 10-15 discreet strains at a time. My general strategy is to "braid" two lineages in the strain. I try to choose strong breeders, get 2 lines running, then cross the lines every 3 generations or so, and repeat. In cases where we have a deleterious recessive arise, we often do not have access to fresh foundation stock. In that case my strategy is to expand the strain as much as space allows, and resample away from the problem genetics. Typically we have access to more raw genetic information than a hobbyist, but the suddenly arising negative mutation is rarely included in that information. The principles of husbandry hold true, in spite of that. Breeding a trait out can be even easier than breeding one in.

Saw this and figured it could help out some people!

Nice looking tanks! The last one has incredible color and variety of plants. Are you running C02?

I am looking forward to visiting the Fishroom in North Raleigh NC. I heard it is pretty good.

Apparently Amazon Alexa can directly control the Apex controller now. I haven't tried it yet, as it seemed like gilding the lily so to speak. Me: "Alexa! Raised the temperature in the baby discus tank to 90 degrees Fahrenheit!" Alexa: "Raising the temperature in the baby discus tank to 190 degrees Fahrenheit, starting now."

Welcome Debra, great looking tanks! You've learned and accomplished a lot for only starting out 6 months ago. Can't wait to see your 60 tank fish room next year! 🙂