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My Southern California water is hard, high-pH, and contains high quantities of chloramines. I have 13 tanks at last count. That's a lot of buckets to dechlorinate on water change day! About a year ago, I took the plunge and researched what it would take to pre-filter my tap water so that I could refill tanks directly, I'm really glad I did, because in the long run, it has saved me more hours than I can count! Thankfully, it's a lot easier than it might seem. Below I will walk through the steps the average household can take to set it up, to show how easy and effective it really is! Plan on a $100 total expense. (All links are non-affiliate) (I have ripped off illustrative pics from the internet. He had it coming.) (Apologies to our overseas friends; this is how I did it in the U.S.) I'm assuming you know how to connect push-fit quick-connectors: Push, then pull, then insert a blue clip. PARTS: 1. 2 x Clear filter housings for 10" x 2.5" filters: 1/4" ports ($28) (clear is useful to see how dirty the sediment filter is) 2. Sediment Filter Cartridge: 1 micron ($7) (you could get 5 micron, but at this cost, why?) 3. Chloramine Carbon Block Cartridge: 1 micron ($20) (this cartridge is overkill if you're only treating for chlorine) 4. RO Canister Wrench ($7) (must-have for opening/tightening canisters) 5. Threaded fittings for RO canister housings: 1/4" ($7) (this is a basic selection; you can get more fancy here: elbow, direct connection, etc.) 6. Water supply RO adapter ($11) (basic is generally fine) 7. 25'-50' of 1/4" RO hose ($9) (how much do you need to reach your tanks?) 8. Assorted RO hose fittings ($12) (buy them all; you'll use more than you think!) 9. Vaseline or silicone grease 10. Teflon tape. STEP 1: Tap into the Cold Water Supply Pick a room with running water. I used my kitchen sink because of its proximity to big tanks, but bathroom or laundry hookups will do. Right where the cold water supply feeds the faucet, you can easily install the adapter valve. To install, simply: 1. Place a towel under the cold water shut-off valve. 2. Turn off the cold water valve. 3. Disconnect the hose to the faucet. 4. Install the adapter (use teflon tape for the threads!). 5. Close the new adapter's valve. 6. Reattach the faucet hose. 7. Turn the water valve back on! Here's a not-very-helpful picture of my installation. I have a RO-drinking water unit, so I had a similar adapter already installed: I do not worry about water temperature when refilling my tanks. I can't prove it, but I've heard that a quick blast of cold water simulates a rainfall and can stimulate breeding and other behaviors. Otherwise I will lose gallons of water trying to get the mix just right every time. Maybe if I had a fish room, but for 13 tanks, cold water alone is just fine. I change 50% in every tank every weekend. STEP 2: Load the Canisters Each of the filter canisters has a black o-ring in its housing. You'll want to gently pry it out, coat it with some vaseline or silicone grease, and push it back in. You can then load the filter cartridges in each one and screw the housings into the lids. Use the wrench to tighten them. STEP 3: Connect the Filter Canister Tops An RO threaded fitting needs to be screwed in both ports on each of the two canisters. You must use teflon tape or you'll have leaks! Once closed up, you can use some RO tubing to connect them to your home water supply adapter. Take note of the "IN" and "OUT" markings on the lids. Run a short length of tubing from the new adapter on your plumbing to the "IN" port of the canister with the sediment filter. Then, run a very short tube from the "OUT" of that same canister to the "IN" of the canister with the carbon block. The remainder of your tubing can be attached to the "OUT" port of that second canister, and will hopefully reach your tanks. Be sure and put a ball valve (you bought several) on the end of the tubing to your tanks, so that you'll be able to turn it on and off at that point! STEP 4: Check for Leaks I had to do this several times until I had used enough teflon tape or vaseline grease on the o-rings. It's worth paying attention at this stage to save yourself grief later! I closed the valve on the very end of my tubing, and opened up all the others. I keep it in this state indefinitely. STEP 5: Flush out the Carbon Powder I ran my unit for about an hour into the sink, until the water came out with the lowest TDS and clarity. STEP 6: TEST! I have a chlorine test kit that measures total and free chlorine; this allows me to infer chloramine quantities when I compare with an ammonia test. None of this is necessary, in my opinion, except maybe for peace of mind. I found that water coming out of this unit tests at zero for chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia. I suppose maybe the ammonia could read as much as 0.25 ppm, but it's my opinion that it's not enough to hurt fish, and any bio filter will snap that up right away. STEP 7: USE IT! I keep all the valves open at all times, except for the one on the very end of the hose that goes in the tanks to refill. The water coming out of this unit is not high pressure; it runs about 1 gallon per minute for me. I prefer that. Now, I just uncoil my hose to any part of the house I need, and coil it back up under the cabinet when I'm done! Clean water from the tap! STEP 8: ADDITIONAL TIPS 1. You can drink it too. 🙂 Unless you're already drinking RO water, it's MUCH better filtered than that stuff that comes out of your fridge icemaker or Brita filter. 2. The hose is so small I can put a tiny hole in my wall and get it to a tank for a permanent installation: Think auto-water changing! 3. You can add stages to improve the filtering capabilities. For example: A 5 micron sediment filter before the 1 micron will increase the lifespan of the latter. I haven't needed this; at seven bucks I plan to change it once a year whether it needs it or not. If you just want to take care of chlorine and not chloramines, you can go for a less restrictive carbon filter, which will boost your water pressure. For more neutral water and low-pH applications, you can add an RO membrane or DI resin. And so on. 4. For filling my rack, I went nuts: Hope this has been helpful. Thanks for reading! Bill

Rainbowfish fry of some kind, still growing them out

After a scary 4 hour power outage and subsequent fear of a cycle crash...(which didn’t happen, thank god!) I decided that an overhead sump would allow me to: 1: Grow pothos out of the aquarium without the goldfish tearing at the roots. 2: Cool the 125 tank off for the fish as it retains heat too much.(76 deg) 3: Have biological filtration that won’t die due to lack of oxygen like my canisters would. (Sponge filter got EATEN by Leo my Son’s giant oranda... he’s pretty but sooo dumb) 4: It’ll look so pretty for my kids and I can explain how the plants clean the water for their fish. I used a plastic planter box and some wood. Used a return spout hooked to a pump to get the water into the sump and a 1 inch bulkhead for the overflow. All I need now is some red lava rock to fill it and I can “plant” the pothos! I am also planning on hanging a light above it to supercharge the nitrate uptake. The rack is just 2x4s and some welded wire fence. P.S. Don’t hate on me for the saltwater stickers! Only ones I could find and my kids don’t know the difference. 🤣 UPDATE! See how big the pothos got!

Here are baby Sparkling Gouramis in the bubble nest taken with an iPhone

Another project of mine has been to set up Goodeid tubs in the garage, right outside the fish room. The idea being that these tubs will get seasonal variation that Goodeids benefit from while still protecting them from getting too low in the winter time when it occasionally snows or drops to the 20s here in Western Washington. For those that listen to the podcast, you might remember that guest Jose Gonzalez (Episode 24) sent me a group of Characodon sp. Los Berros. Those fish went in a planted 20 high and seemed to do well. That group stayed with me for close to a year but every few months I would lose a member and say no signs of breeding. That ate very well scarfing down Hikari Vibra Bites and other dry foods. Finally, the last fish from the group passed leaving me disappointed at my failure to keep, breed, and (most importantly) SHARE this awesome fish. My thought on why I faired so poorly with this fish might have to do with the consistent "high" temperature of my fish room. I believe at the time I was running an average temp of 80 degrees. I believe this is far too hot for too long for this fish. In talking with Jose, he did remind me that his fish are outside in ponds year-round. His area of the country has mild winters, but it does dip in the low 30s for several days at a time. Talking with Dr. John Lyons about Goodeids really got me fired up so that's when I made the plan to move 2 mothballed outdoor ponds into the garage and dedicate them (1 species per tub) to Goodeids. I reached out to Jose to see if I could buy a group of Characodon from him for my second attempt with this fish. He declined my money and sent me fish free of charge becuase he is so awesome (I still PayPal'd him money to cover shipping 🤫). To my excitement the fish came in today with only 2 casualties. So here we are, the first tub is up and running with Characodon sp. Los Berros as the sole inhabitants, 2 males and 2 females. Just to share the setup, the tub has two large pieces of driftwood, some crushed coral on the bottom, and a couple large handfuls of guppy grass from @Cory's fish room. Technically I think I gave him this guppy grass to begin with. 😆 I plan on adding some 3" black PVC Ts to act as caves just in case these guys are into that thing. I will eventually try and get some GoPro footage of these guys to share.

I love the world of the small, it's such a complex and beautiful part of nature happening all around us that we usually never see. So share your macro shots! Me feeding fry baby brine from a pipette.

Sergeant Ruby is my first puffer. I got her for $50 from a local hobbyist who was breaking down his tank. She's been such a joy to have. She gets along with all her tank mates and never makes trouble. She used to have a best friend that was an American flagfish. Sadly he passed away and Ruby barely moved for a week after that. She is fed a diet of ramshorn snails, bladder snails, and a variety of live worms raised in my worm bins and cultures. Anyone else keep this cute species of freshwater puffer?

I have got some! I have some cool video of a swarm emerging from an observation hive in my house and of queens assassinating other queens.

I only have fake plants in my daughter's tank -- her choice. It has live plants, too, and the fake ones aren't meant to look like any real aquatic plants (she was going for a fantasy theme). When they're clean (after I give them a diluted bleach dip), they look great for a few weeks: I cleaned them in July, and this is what they look like 7 weeks later: (Also, the water sprite died back a lot as you can see -- bioload had gone down, and I was still changing water at the same schedule and barely fertilizing. Trying to turn it around now.)

Do it! Just make sure you have a large enough group of them to entertain each other with. They are a social species. At one point, there were ten plus pea puffers in my community tank. I sold some to a fellow hobbyist because he wanted peas and they're hard to find due to the current climate. Now I'm raising four pea puffer fry in my shrimp tank. Well, I say "raising" but I don't feed them. They're eating baby snails and snail eggs.

Looks like I might be getting some cholla wood. Thanks guys

It's official, I'm picking them up tomorrow. Who could say no to these faces Super excited to get an adult pair. This would have been my preference but I never thought he'd have an extra pair or would sell them.

I can't wait to see the tank when you're done! It's easier when you keep cultures of their food so you never have to worry. It's even easier if you can get these stubborn fish to accept frozen food. Ruby sadly has never been convinced to convert to frozen even though I've tried fasting and tricking her. I highly recommend trying puffers at least once though. They're very unique and have such big personalities, even the dwarf puffers. Yes! They're wonderful fish with such big personalities. I highly recommend SCPs in particular because they aren't as aggressive as other species.

I've used Yoyo Loaches for snail control before, they work pretty good.

Closeup of one of my albino corydoras, taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7 and a little clip-on macro lens.

7 harlequin rasboras will be fine for a long time but when they get full grown they are a full 2 inches. They look bigger then all other nano fish that I have. So it may become overstocked and require more frequent water changes as they get older. If it was me I would do the betta and 5 harlequin rasboras. But I agree with start with the betta then add 2 or 3 and then 2 or 3 more! You should be fine! You could try out some live plants like Java ferns or Anubias as well. Rhizome plants don’t need to go into the gravel so you can grow them regardless of your substrate. And those plants are sold at any pet store! Those will help the tank a lot!

I wasn’t going to really do anything today until....I looked in a 10 gallon that I had taken all the fish and equipment out of and I found these... VERY VERY TINY celestial peal danio baby’s! i think there is at least 15 maybe 25 in there! I love the Days when you find accidental fry! So I ended up rearranging my mini fish room For these little guys. before After

Wow, thanks! This was a lovely surprise! This is the most warm and friendly forum I have been a part of. I love sharing this hobby with all of you! Cheers, Jason

I was frantically typing an email to Candi because I got an order confirmation from the store and thought my account got hacked! Glad I decided to check the forum first. Thanks so much, all! Loving this forum, and so many of the members here are truly inspiring with their ongoing projects and setups.

Continuing building out my YouTube Studio and my wife was kind and made me an awesome sign with my favorite quote. Do not know who the author is but the owner of the LFS I have been working closely with said it one night and it rang true with me.

I don't know if it's fate, but Dean himself posted a proven mated pair of the Philippine Blue Angels I wanted on the GSAS page just now. I think I am going to compromise and buy his pair for the tank I made and add my own bred corys, Appistogrammas and platties. That empties 3 grow tanks and gives me time to get the 100 ready for growing out my own angels. Can always add his rams to the bigger setup. Maybe he'll post a mate pair of midnight rams by then.

Angels, I'd go with a pair or a single one. You can get a bunch and wait until they pair off and return the ones that don't. Rams, you can do two pairs in there. I'd look for bonded pairs at the fish store because they can be picky about their mates. Even if you get two sexes, they might not find each other compatible.. They're both territorial fish with their own species and need plenty of space to establish their own territories. Rams need 20 gallons per pair. Angels and rams should get along just fine if that's a concern as they occupy different levels of the water column. But when they spawn, that's when all hell can break loose.

I don't recommend harlequins because they get way too big, but if you can find their smaller cousins, the pork chop rasboras, they would fit just fine. They look like miniature harlequins!

I think a pair of angels and about 4 rams with plenty of line of sight breaks would be good but that about as far as I'd go with those type fish. You could easily add mollies or platies and Cory's to make it fill more full. I'm also really digging black skirt tera schools

Sony A7R3 with Sony Fe 50mm F2.8 Macro lens Juvenile White Cloud's and Jack Dempsey's Jpeg compression sucks, I cropped down the white cloud photo for a closer up with the same quality:

I think a pair of angles or rams would be fine but I probably wouldn't do both in that tank. I would also have some corys and group of small schooling fish with the pair of good looking show angles or rams. You would have to pull the fry or eggs if you wanted to raise them

That’s hit or miss really. Sometimes it will keep growing and sometimes it will not. Trimming it is just going to encourage the new section to grow more healthy. No guarantee the bottom section grows more leaves but I would definitely leave it in and see what happens!

The longer you let them grow this way the better. For me they only survived once the leaves got to be 3-4 inches and I had a lot of roots coming out! but yes you can just trim them and plant them!

@MickS77 Unfortunately it's so old that it looks like it's no longer sold, but I just picked a highly rated one on Amazon.com. Just make sure the clip is long enough to reach the camera lens on your phone. Also, I found that with my newer and bigger phones, sometimes my phone case is too bulky so I have to take off the case so that the macro lens will lay flatter on the camera lens. 🙂

I have one fake plant in my fish room and it’s for breeding angelfish. I would just say mix some real plants in with your fake ones and see what you can get to grow in your water! I enjoy watching the plants grow so you may get a lot of enjoyment out of it as well!

I did a little more work on the bow, but the sides need more. For now, I like the back wall as an algae farm for the shrimp.

I am working on something similar but I am going to run it through a thermostatic mixing valve first. Our cold water in the winter time can get really, really, cold out of the tap.

I feel you would not be able to have schools of angels and rams in a tank that size. It's a beautiful tank though . I especially would think once the angels start spawning it will get to small I n a hurry unfortunately.

Great idea, and even if someone is on a well and not city water it would be good just to have a sediment and carbon block filters. I have a well, and have a whole house sediment filter and it collects quite a bit.

I have been waiting for this green hair algae to grow in. So often I read, oh no, I have algae or I have tannins or mulm. Most of these are found in the waters where our fish come from, so why do these displease us? It probably come down to tidiness or a sense of order. We want that tidy perfectly manicured lawn with mat grasses from Asia and Africa. But a native meadow has both chaos and beauty. There are more niches and more interactions when we loosen our grip slightly and enjoy nature as she paints with a more subtle hand. Sometimes we act as heavy-handed maladroit deities of our aquatic worlds with only casual curiosity of the biological dance playing out before us. Should something new and natural appear our first impulse is to destroy it. Our tanks should be beautiful to us. That is why we have them. But beauty is eye of the beholder and there is beauty in algae and tannin and mulm.

I find that with planted tanks the less maintenance you do the better they grow. Obviously the parameters have to stay in range. But in my best tanks I don't gravel vacuum or clean any glass but the front. Sometimes I feel the less human interference the better.

I think as a general rule it's best to do small water changes to really limit the odds of something like this happening. I would probably limit larger percentage changes to aged water.

There is one more factor to be considered with ‘raw’ tap water beyond chlorine and other disinfectants. Yesterday while leak testing the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted Aquarium I happened to measure the dissolved oxygen content of my tap water (we have a well, so chlorination is not an issue). I measured 0.7 ppm. That is well below the 2 ppm which the lower limit for supporting fish life. Typically my dissolved oxygen runs at about 10 ppm and after a day or two the tap water restores to that level during aging. Perhaps this is one of the benefits of aging your tap water prior to adding it in to your aquarium?

I have a clown pleco that loves to be with my common pleco 😄

Also agree that a single betta should be fine for a fish-in cycle as long as you keep an eye on the levels, but if you do continue with a fishless cycle switching to flakes instead of pellets might help. They break down in the water quicker.

I recently upgraded my old roomba (no wifi, no mapping, one room at a time) to a Roborock S5 Max. It maps the house and mops while it vacuums. I don't even care how much data it's sending to China. I will sell my soul to automate my life.

Welcome, Jack! If you keep up with the posts here, you'll be learning daily & being inspired too. Glad to have you here.

It what @Irene does and by my tastes that velvet green on the back wall looks quite appealing. If we were keeping salt water tanks, that would be called an 'algae scrubber' and as they say 'back in London, they pay good money for that'.

@Irene that clip of video was awesome, thanks!

@Irene thank you! That does help. I thought crushed coral might be the way to go but I found a Wonder Shell last night at a LFS and already see an improvement in the activity level of my tiger Barbs....that's encouraging 🙂

Yeah it was hard for me to find those at the time. Theses just aren't as narrow as the fridge storage containers he uses. I like these ones because they are already white and I didn't have to modify them much to fit my needs. In the future I may sub-divide them using a fine stainless steel screen.

Sand or round gravel like that should be totally fine, in my experience. Actually, Cory went on a fish collecting trip to Peru and showed that the natural substrate where some corydoras are found is often quite sharp (jump to minute 22:45). Hope that helps!

Bred over 400 fish and culled almost half These are farm stock and they carry deformity. Such a shame for a native fish to have this much deformity being in the fish trade. Top photo..top 2 was cull due to having a short face Bottom phot..top female was kept and bottom female was culled I didn't notice at first but alot of the fry had weak dorsal which came from one of the breeding female. She won't be breeding for me next year. bottom photo..the bad female is at the bottom with a weak dorsal. On top of her is a older female for comparison

How did you do this?? I haven’t figured out shortcuts yet 😅