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I have a limited-edition Aquarium Co-Op branded Apex! 😉

The week old Black Neon Tetra fry are already taking to baby brine shrimp

I imagine this is the layout of @Cory's new house 😄

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

Turned my Grandparents neglected unused 4 foot deep 16 X 32 pool into a no filtration pond earlier this year. I have several planted tanks that lead to the need for a tank for trimmings, and then a second tank for trimmings, and then a third tank for trimmings, and then i just started dumping extra trimmings into an outdoor 100 gallon rubbermaid mini pond which was already full of water Hyacynth and other plants. I cleaned out the pool and filled it with about 6 inches of well water, transfered about 25 water hyacynths, about a pound of duck weed, a good amount of guppy grass, and lots of other random clippings. It has been about 2 months now and it hasn't completely failed so I'm making a photo journal about it. Unfortunately these are the oldest photos I have, they are from about a month after I first cleaned the pool, late July/Early August: These are from about a week and a half ago, thanks to rain the pool is about 1.5 feet full and my Dwarf Aquarium lily is blooming: Trying to do a Time Lapse of the flower opening: And here are some pictures from Today, 2 of my water hyacinth have bloomed:

I have not used or heard of Repashy. Does the bottle on the left say "Soylent Green"? "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!"

The co-op bumper sticker also fits perfectly on the side of the Linear Piston Air Pump too 👌

Do you have a favorite area to place the Aquarium Co-Op Stickers? 👀

I added this pair into my spawning tank tonight. Almost immediately upon finding each other they were displaying spawning behavior. With any luck I should have some eggs tomorrow or the next day.

While doing water change one day, I noticed tiny, salt-like dots on the emersed leafs of my giant sword plant. Then I saw them move! I had to bust out the macro lens and do my best to do some close ups, they were ultra-tiny so it was kinda hard even with the macro! After some research and asking around, it seems they are called "Globular springtails". I've been told the are harmless and great fry food! I just think they're really hard to catch by the fry, as they can stand on the water and even jump out of it with their springs (hence springtail). Each water change it's a jumping frenzy now lol. Does anyone have any microfauna too? I just found it fascinating how the ecosistem starts to evolve in such a small space, it truly is like having a tiny piece of nature in your home!

I give my fish this treat, from time to time. It is made by using your favorite Repashy food with a *surprise* algae wafer center. I have many extra, eye contact lens cases that are only used for this application. They are about the right size for me and clean up easily. The final product easily pops out of the mold (when cooled) for simple tank distribution. A lot of fun to make, too. 🐟 Usually make a bunch at a time and off to the refrigerator or freezer they go, for proper storage.

So I have a pair of Discus (Red Cover & a very Blue Cobalt) playing house on the filter intake in my 120 gallon display (Discus) tank. They’ve claimed that side of the tank as their own and are doing a very good job of keeping the rest of the inhabitants away. Unfortunately I don’t have an unoccupied tank to put them in right now. Keeping my fingers crossed they can do the good parent thing until I can free up a tank.

I've actually been using a 10w heater on a heater controller to keep the temp constant, directly in the brine solution, with no ill effects. Here are some pics of my setup and the bit of tubing I added to the rigid part. It looks like total overkill just to hatch some brine shrimp, but it's working for me to get a consistent daily hatch. And that glass thermometer it comes with? I dropped and broke that day one.

Just thought i would drop a little update in here. The Hillies have continued to spawn regularly. Ive counted about 12 fry so far now but there very well may be more. Theyre all looking happy tho and growing up quick!

Mail just came by! When I was a kid, I could only dream of having Dr. Alexrod's Atlas. I checked it out of the library so much, our librarian actually limited how many times I could take it. When I saw it today, all those old feelings came rushing back. Can't believe it took more than 40 years for me to have my own copy. LOL. Oh and all 4 of these cost less than $20 shipped. If you don't mind old library books, checkout (library humor!) betterworldbooks.com. A large portion of their proceeds go to charity and you can find a ton of books for $3.99 each. {EDIT} This says the book was first published in 1987... that can't be the book i am thinking of then. Was there an older book that was as big as the mini atlas? Pretty sure Dr. Alexrod was the author. Maybe it was just the Handbook of Tropical Fishes or Encyclopedia of Tropical Fishes. Either way, so happy to have a copy!

DIY “hook”. And add hose quick connects.

I think the only reasonable option would be to add some leeches, and a pet lamprey to your collection. You have to keep your theme going.

Just missing the discus, but I did get a sweet Murphy enamel pin (far right) in my last shipment! I turned it into a magnet 🙂

Painted the fish room black and it feels so weird at first

https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/08/24/a-baby-whale-was-born-at-the-shedd-aquarium-and-he-already-weighs-139-pounds/

Started installing aquariums this weekend, looking forward to getting the filters installed and hooked up.

PLANTS AND LIGHTS! What did I find? Illumination... Time to light up the ponds. After much thinking and searching, I settled on this set of Jebao lights I found on Amazon for $53. They're a little expensive and fairly cheaply made, but I'm still really glad I did: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IM80AWK (non-affiliate link) The lights are separated by a 3-foot cord (wish it was 4 feet). The light itself can be separated from its weighted stand, although I ultimately chose to use the stands. As it turns out those stands are weighted by a big chunk of metal embedded in resin. This means they can be mounted or hung with magnets! I picked up some extra-strength magnetic hooks from Amazon as well: The hooks are attached to their bases with a swivel, and they held to the back of the lights' bases just fine. All I had to do was hook them on the rim of the planters at whatever height I wanted and angle them accordingly: I then secured the cords between the lights with some of that metal foil tape which holds so well. The cords were a little too short to disappear completely... ...but you have to look for them. All ponds, wired up for light! And when it got dark last night, I turned them on! Closeup of pond #1. The duckweed re-casts the white light as green: Less so with the guppy grass in #4: Here's a closeup of the Hawaiian blue Moscow guppies in #4: Pond #6 has a large Daphnia magna culture I picked up from AquaBid, and fed with green water from another bucket that gets all-day sunlight: The daphnia really flock to the light! The next things to do are to grow out the greenery more, try to get some better pictures, and put the light on a timer. 🙂 Thanks for looking! Bill

What a great question! I am fascinated with Stiphodon gobies. They are really interesting but there isn’t a lot of information on them. I have five dwarf gobies and one larger one, I love the way they swim and when they all hang out together.

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

Hello folks! Jimmy of Aquarium Co-Op here with my latest little creation, my pond. Using a 12g Resin Whiskey Barrel - $20 = Found here @ Home Depot I put together a quick pond on my porch. We settled into an apartment that did not allow fish tanks over 5g inside the house but really didn't say anything about the outside ☺️. I swung by Aquarium Co-Op today and grabbed some crushed coral, plants and had an employee squeeze the dirtiest sponge filter we could find into a bag for a quick cycle. Using old hardscape, I built a fun little setup and didn't even break the bank. I'll get some more photos in the morning but this is a start of a fun little journal.

I thought of more stuff. If you have outside fuel tanks, turn the valves off at the tanks. If you have cars you won't be taking, drive them to high ground anywhere. I lost my WRX by not driving high enough; however, I got my money back on the home heating fuel when they found my tank miles down the river, valve closed.

The only other thing I can think of to add would be to consider anything that might float and damage things, and maybe put those items in a closet or a different room. My thoughts are with you!

I added a doser to my 55 display. Pump 1 is Easy Green, pump 2 is Easy Iron and right now pump 3 is just water. It is a Jebao DP-4 and was easy to calibrate and program but not app based which is fine with me. Plus way cheaper than other systems. I use Voss glass water bottles for reservoirs.

You can always get 2 sided transfer paper to put them on the inside of the glass.

They are relatively new, I think they started appearing in stores the beginning of this year/the end of last year. As far as I know they only come in the yellow/green color. I'm not a huge fan of GloFish either, and I prefer them under regular light as opposed to blacklight. Breeding projects would be cool, but I don't know if you would be able to sell the offspring. I assume that there is a patent involved.

I want to do that but I'm afraid they won't last long once summer is over and it starts getting wet again. I've been meaning to research ways to seal the sticker. I had a friend who attached bumper stickers to sheet magnets and cut them out. I'm thinking about doing that too.

Gosh, I think I might be blushing now. And to think that this used to be such a family friendly forum.

On my car! (Needs a wash lol)

I've never considered to hot but I'm sure there is a threshold. I keep mine 82-85 F. And store your eggs in the fridge, and if you buy bulk keep about a weeks worth in the fridge and the rest in the freezer. Brine Shrimp Direct says Temperature:Optimum water temperature for a 24-hour complete hatch is 80-82°F (26-28°C). Lower temperatures will result in a longer hatching time and inefficient hatches. Do not exceed 86° (30°C). Do not place an immersion heater directly into your hatching container! An immersion bath is a preferred method to maintain constant hatching temperatures. Alternatively, an incandescent bulb placed above the hatching cone can provide sufficient heat in the right environment.

I'd be willing to bet most of us that use a Python or hose to fill our tanks have done it. DON'T EVER WALK AWAY when filling your tank, LOL. The hose WILL fall out (I should invest in the hook Python makes) or you WILL forget how close to the top the water is. SMH, I hate to admit it, but I've done it more than once. Now I put a chair in front of the tank I'm filling and sit there until it's done.

They don't like being moved, I had got a couple and put in a tank to grow some and then moved one to my display tank upstairs and it melted back almost completely, Now, its been in there for 4 or 5 months and its finally got several leaves back.

I have had a Daphnia outbreak in my scud aquarium and even my poor hydra are getting terrible 'tentacle tangle' syndrome due to these naughty Daphnia. What next Daphnia munching on my beloved planaria?

I often forget to plug back in my heater after a water change, but thankfully it takes a long time for the tank water to change temperatures. 😅

My issue that I came across is that my sink doesn’t have threads of any sort. I love in an apartment and so I couldn’t mess with the plumbing in any way or replace the sink (Altho we had an unrelated issue and our bathroom is torn apart rn anyways) and so I needed a way to get the python to attach to the sink. My friend works at my LFS and she hooked me up with some excess tubing. I got 2 different sizes and ended up going with the smaller one to get a snug fit. And snug it was. I used a blow dryer on high for 10 minutes to get it to fit, but it worked and I was able to fill up the first tank in the new “fishroom” (check my college apartment log for that) and now the python works wonderfully.

Yesterday I took my first batch of platy fry to my local fish store. It was my first time ever selling and I was super nervous. Would they like them? Would I "do it right"? Would the fish transport nicely and show well once we got there? The store asked that I bag the fish in a gallon ziploc, and just for fun I used my USB nano air pump to throw an air stone in the bag for the 30 minute ride to the store. I think it helped make a positive impression when I delivered. It was a great experience. The store owner LOVED all 10 fish and offered cash or store credit right out of the gate. I told her I'd happily take the store credit and would follow up soon to see how the fish did for her. She said she expects them to do great and hopes that I bring lots more, and said any other livebearers I wanted to breed would have a buyer waiting. I'm so encouraged.

So I actually do this six days of the week, not just today, but figured the pics might be amusing. This is the 'otto buffet' - I keep a small tub out side with a few inches of rainwater and dirty tank change water in it, and I throw these rocks in there to sit out in the sun and grow algae. I then pull two or three rocks a day and put them in this tank for the ottos to have fresh algae since they've done a fine job cleaning up the rest of the tank. These rocks will be cleaned in a couple hours. I will swap them back out to the outside tub tomorrow and bring fresh algae covered rocks in for them.

Anyone else freeze their left over baby brine? I rinse mine in fresh water and sometimes I feed the left over to the display tank or goldfish but I also got on of these ice cube trays with soft silicone bottoms and a lid that work perfectly for freezing the baby brine. They come out as little gum drop shapes. The trick is to have them pretty concentrated without too much water. They work great for feeding later or to my non-fry tanks.

Finished the air system today but someone (me!) didn’t check the material for the electrical system and there issues so no progress there.

Did a 50% water change on the 10G quarantine tank which is holding 12 rummy nosed tetras, and a 20% water change on the 30G (cories and dwarf gourami hiding behind the driftwood, bristlenose pleco peeking out bottom right).

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

More plants in the new 29 gallon... with a bucket more to put in. It got late. I love the bucelphelandra much more than I expected to. Somehow a photo just isn't catching how cool it is.

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