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Very nice @pedrofisk! Now here is one more thing to imagine. Instead of the ball valve install an inline sprinkler control valve hooked up to a Bluetooth controller. Then from your computer, phone, tablet, iPad, etc you can open or close any valve with a simple touch. This will be in my next fishroom. @Cory, this is somewhat how I want to do the tubs in your new indoor fish farm.

A few I took with a cheap clip-on macro lens.

So when I have piglets that like to outcompete other levels of fish for food I usually break up how the food is delivered. In my tank with rainbows, I just drop their food in and not a bit of it makes it to the ground - but they'd do the same to the sinking pellets or other food I feed the corydoras if I did that. So, I just have a length of pvc pipe that goes in the tank to the floor of the tank. Drop food into tube. Food sinks inside tube where rainbows can't see it or get to it. Lift tube slight and there it is, all sitting nicely on the bottom for the corydoras to come eat. The rainbows don't really seem to recognize its food when its already sitting on the bottom. I imagine the same tric could work for mid level fish, just hold the end of the pipe where you want it in the water column and drop food in. If you have a betta that only stays at the top, that's and easy way to get the food past him without him trying to pig out in it. Although... betta are usualy smart enough and food motivated enough to figure that trick out after a bit. Have you ever considered teaching him to go into a breeder box for feeding time? I've had to do that with a couple bettas in community tanks over the years. For mid level fish I'd find a food that sinks but not super fast. Vibra bites would probably be my main go to. I love how it floats for just a bit and then sinks slowly, giving plenty of hang time in the water column for fish to go after it.

Here is some macros I took of one of my Dojo Loaches and Orange Laser Cory. I still have a hard time getting most my fish to stay put long enough for macro shots. But the Dojos seem to like it when I approach the glass this close.

Very young pea puffer. Currently about the size of a pinky nail.

i broke my macro lens by dropping it so it is stuck on f/2.8 and manual focus 😩 these are a couple shots i've gotten with it though:

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.

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!

What was everyone's fish/adjacent that got them into the hobby? Not necessarily the first but the one that made you take the hobby seriously. For me it was a Red Claw Crab named Window. Honestly I didn't even know what I was doing and tried to do research on the fly how to take care of one of these crabs. Turns out there isn't a lot of information on how to properly take care of one. The pet store I got them from wasn't much help either. So I utterly failed. Poor Window passed causing me to fall into a guilt spiral, I had invested a lot of time and money into this crab so I didn't want to give up after him. I spent the following weeks doing research before diving into aquatics again. I didn't want to cause another aquatic life harm. Thanks to Window I found my true passion for aquatics.

I do think that you could put the fish directly in the tank and then treat the whole tank. If the betta tank is small, that is not cost prohibitive, and won't hurt the betta. If the quarantine med trio seems expensive, count the amount of money you will spend replacing all your fish, both the ones you have and the ones you will be getting. Not so expensive after doing that once or twice, even with a small tank. The med trio is anti parasite, anti fungal, anti bacterial. To my knowledge, the only way to get that broad spectrum effect cheaper would be to go with aquarium salt, and salt will kill any plants and is not well tolerated by many species of fish and invertebrates, takes longer and is less effective for some things. Not using some meds and quarantining is a bit like driving a car without being able to "afford to" change the oil. You can do it for a while, but it will cost you far more than a few quarts of oil in the end. Back in my childhood we never medicated or quarantined. It wasn't a thing. We killed a lot of fish, too. It was very mysterious...Fish just died a lot. I don't mean to sound discouraging. It is a way you could do things, just roll the dice. But it can be really upsetting when it doesn't work out, and I hate to see that.

Hi everyone I’ve been keeping fish for I think 5 years only seriously in the past 3. My dad however has been keeping cichlids off and on for 10. Lately I’ve found myself attracted to (fewer) larger tanks and see myself moving moving in that direction. I enjoy natural looking planted tanks (low tech so far). I love to learn and am looking forward to gaining and spreading knowledge of this fantastic hobby! A bit about my tanks and their current stocking 20L - (8)star sapphire (growing out) 29- (15) tiger barbs, (15) serpae tetras, (5) Agassizi cories ,(1) juv blood parrot 47- (2) angelfish “I hate this tank” lol 75- (8) M. Parva “sunset rainbows” from Gary Lange, (4) angelfish, (3) geophagus tapajos 75- empty and awaiting the star sapphires -bucket list fish- Cyathoparyax furcifer raizba protomelas virgatas ophthalmotilapia Sp

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/cloudy-fish-tank Green milky: Algae bloom, and a UV light may be the quickest solution. White milky, no chunks: Bacteria bloom, it's possible your water changes are prolonging the issue. This is usually caused when there is a disruption to the bacteria in your tank and they need to produce a lot more of themselves quickly. In my case it was caused by removing one of the filters. No real solution beyond waiting and letting the bacteria do its thing, I try to make sure the fish have plenty of aeration and water quality is monitored. Chunky white milk: Filtration issues, your filter floss should help with this. This is just my off-the-top-of-my-head summary of what Cory's videos and other online sources covered.

I would want support the floor with Jack Posts in the basement. Things I take into consideration are: wall location interior or exterior; floor joist orientation; sub-floor type old tongue & groove, planks, or plywood osb

@NordernAquariums it showed no progress for almost 3 weeks then BAM 😂

Some floating plants and or pothos should help. They should suck up all the excess nitrates. Since you used "raw" soil without going through the mineralizing process all the organic matter in it is decomposing and producing ammonia which is then getting converted by your beneficial bacteria. It might be a good idea to monitor ammonia levels in addition to nitrite and nitrate until everything stabilizes.

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.

@MickS77 and @Aquatic Journal , one of the higher grade phone macro lens is made by Moment. https://www.shopmoment.com/shop/starter-set Of course, it is expensive, but I tested several clip on types and was unsatisfied. The Moment lens brought satisfaction. Biggest downside is also its biggest upside. You cannot use the lens without the Moment case. That is part of the reason the starter kit cost $110. But this is also why is works so well. I have designed and am gearing to manufacture a similar product for microscopes (it is what I filmed the Mulm video with). The best photography comes when camera and the lens are fixed in their optimal positions. This is a drawing of an early prototype of my microscope adapter system Which is basically the same as a Moment system, although at the time I designed this, I had not seen the Moment macros lens and case.

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

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

I am so glad to have found this forum. 🙂 My name is Ben and I am from a small town on the coast of North Carolina, I have been keeping tanks for most my life, but only really got interested in the hobby back in the 90s. I don't have a fish room or anything, just a few nano tanks ranging from 5 gallons to 35 gallons. I switched over a few years ago to all planted tanks after finding Aquarium Co Op on YouTube. This definitely sparked a new joy for me in the hobby. Professionally I work in plumbing, so nothing to fancy.

Thanks for starting this forum Cory! I live in Central California and caught the fish bug this summer when I started an outdoor waterfall pond. Then I thought it needed some goldfish. Then I had a crash course in fish in cycling. I didn't lose one fish!! But I did tons of water changes and learned a bunch. Now I have a beautiful, stable (50g) pond. I thought I needed a hospital tank just in case, so I picked up a 29g at a yard sale and started cycling that one without fish. Then I Found the co op group on fb, saw a bunch of videos Cory did and decided that I should have plants. That tank cycled in just 3 weeks, thanks to the knowledge I got from the awesome videos. I find it thrilling to see that beautiful blue in the nitrite tube and yellow in the ammonia tube. When I saw it was stable for another week I went to LFS to get 6 Danios. I got those, and the guy suggested I get a hill stream loach. I took it home knowing nothing about the fish, which is not my usual M.O. for anything I do. I panicked when I started reading about their natural environment and how I needed to set up a special tank for it. I asked the support group for advice. Everyone was so helpful, and I am pretty sure this little guy is happy now and I will be able to keep him! So I watched the video Cory did, and a couple others and took advice from several people. I added 2 air stones, more smooth rocks, a small slab of blue stone so he would have more places to get out of the way of the Danios gang LOL! Bought some Hikari algae wafers and put this cucumber in. He loves both and really chowed down. He keeps coming back to the cucumber. I love this fish! It may not be his perfect set up, but better than the bare tank at the LFS. I will do the best I can for him. THANKS AGAIN TO THOSE WHO SHARED THEIR EXPERIENCES. I look forward to pictures and lots of fish stories on this forum.

Thank you! I have them in the order they arrived in, which made NO sense, and I wondered if that was the problem!! I have been so frustrated everything I was finding online and their website insisted that I HAD to put the biofiltration on the bottom and wanted floss on the top? I will rearrange. Fingers crossed.

We have 3 other aquariums and this one is my favorite to watch. We have an Amano, a Lemon Blue Eyed BN, a Nerite, 4 Harlequin Rasporas, and we used to have a Betta (I think we feed him too much and he got swim bladder disease).

Bug Bites Tropical works great. The sink very slowly and sometimes hang around mid level in the current.

When I started gathering info I was surprised at all the widely different opinions too. Found Aquarium Co-op to be a good home base for info and then found other youtubers that seemed very knowledgable and reasonable too. The science and learning new things are some if my favorite things about the hobby.

I use the Cascade canisters and love how well they keep my tanks clean. Not sure if you meant bottom up or if you have your media upside down. The Cascade canisters fill from the bottom and return from the top. You would want the coarse sponge in the bottom basket with either the filter floss or polishing pad on top of it. The upper basket is where your bio rings or purigen goes, usually on top of filter floss. If you're using an intake sponge, you shouldn't be cleaning the canister so frequently, just the intake sponge. I think you just need to setup the baskets in proper order and let it run.

Here is a fairly in-depth article I came across several years ago, it seemed to help me at least be more educated and think about the right things: http://www.african-cichlid.com/Structure.htm

Welcome fellow Chicagolandian!

Jealous of your pogostemon growth! All look great!

Yea I'm sure it would the root plants seem to consume most of the detritus in the area around them. I am a huge fan of swords and all the crypts. They look good to my eye and are super easy.

I love your tanks! I hope mine grows in as well as yours do. I don't have anything quite that large yet. I dipped my toe in the shallow end first and went with a 15 for my first tank and years and my first planted tank ever. Of course now I wish I had gotten a larger one and planned for additional tanks.

It looks awesome! I had originally planned to do something like this with my 15 gallon and then I fell in love with killifish. I still want a nice betta tank and I'm shopping around for another tank and place to put it!

I just spewed my coffee when I read that sentence 😂

I use a 20 gallon medium planted tank with 1/4" inert sand substrate. It is fully cycled and has pond snails to keep the cycle going. The plants control any spikes that might occur. Most of the diseases we face have a life cycle. Why break it down and sterilize it when I can just run the tank fish-less to break the cycle? Out side of Hemorrhagic septicemia, I feel there's no reason to "bleach" it.

What color of cloudiness? My first thoughts would be bacteria bloom or algae bloom. A little unusual for a tank that's been established for 2 years, but definitely possible. Have you changed anything about your routine recently? This might also be a good resource for you (first 14-15 minutes):

Looks good; I saw your post about stocking this tank....Hope you enjoy it! I personally could spend hours in a day watching my fish tank.

Wow. That’s really cool, innovative, creative, something else. Were you tempted to do a waterfall back into the tank? What size pump did u use?

Entirely up to you but if you have other tanks you could move some to them.

Hi everyone, Happy to be here. I'm a pretty experienced hobbyist from The Big Apple. Living in a small apartment limits the size of tanks I can keep so my largest is a 55 gallon turtle tank (with a basking room on top so don't worry 😉). I then have two five gallon betta tanks, a small ten gallon betta community, another ten gallon blue dream shrimp community, and a 20 gallon long puffer community tank. No, there is not a bloodbath happening in there. I have all live plants and my tanks are mostly rather heavily planted or in the process of growing out into a moderately planted look. I am obsessed with colorful and red plants.

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.

If you buy all the fish at the same time to put into the same tank its the same thing as quarantine unless you are doing salt there's no harm to plants

My current town uses chloramine but at such a low concentration it doesn't show up on test strips so I add it straight to the tank and treat the whole tank with fritz complete. My old Town used chlorine also at an untestable level and I did the same thing. Also had no ill effects a couple times when I forgot to dechlorinate. If I had detectable levels in my tap water I would probably treat first but as it is I don't think there's much risk in exposing anything to chloramine that's already in undetectable amounts for a few seconds during a 20% water change. If I ever have to do a large 50%+ change I'd probably pre treat just to be safe.

Before, unless of course I forget then after. Here in NYC our water is so good they barely put in chlorine in so I have very little risk. Sometime it is actually at zero. I used to premix in a garbage can to make sure them temp was right, it was declorinated and I added Equilibrium. Eventually I decided that effort wasn't worth it.

When using tap water, I always always always treat my water before it goes in the tank. I see no reason to subject my fish even to a few seconds of chlorine/chloramine discomfort. That said, I have had great success in recent months using a sediment filter/carbon block combination, even with chloramine hard water! I sprang for the 1 micron carbon block, and my water comes through chlorine-free and ammonia-free at all times. I hooked it up to the line that goes to my RO drinking water line, and I just open the valve when I need fish water.

I fill a 5 gallon home depot bucket with water at desired temp and pump it into the the tank with a smartpond pump via tubing clamped into the tank. I adjust the flow so that its pumping at the same rate the faucet is filling it and treat it while its in the bucket. My faucets can't handle a python but this is the same thing and the pump and tubing were pretty cheap. This is the pump I use: https://www.lowes.com/pd/smartpond-300-GPH-Submersible-Fountain-Pump/1000597013?cm_mmc=shp-_-c-_-prd-_-lwn-_-google-_-lia-_-243-_-pondsandfountains-_-1000597013-_-0&placeholder=null&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-uH6BRDQARIsAI3I-Ud6PqwovNolPPXp8BL5Y_tUEAsIeYXhHSTUYKwOSE_6t6WZuFuuoWYaAnmOEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Real easy as described here:

Sliceofnature, Sounds good. I will definitely consider them. Do you think they would be happy in the tank below? If you don't mind me asking, where did you buy your 10 gallon bowed aquarium. It is soo unique! Thanks again! THis isn't mine but I am inspired to do something similar.

Not quite IN my fishroom, but definitely fish related. I recently relocated my 150 gallon tub/pond from the north side of my house to the south side. This matters because the pond will get something like 50-80% more sunlight year-round. I also sold my wife on the outdoor tub idea a couple years ago by saying I would encase the tubs in a wood frame and make raised flower bed perimeters, well that never happened and here we are...I guess better late than never. Project was pretty easy, build a box out of pressure treated 2"x12"s, fill it with soil, plant flowers. Done!😃 See pics below. Added the gnome pic from the garden store because I was legit surprised that they made the mold for this guy.

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.

Hello! I’m Ryo Watanabe from Japan. I’m really excited to be a part of this forum. Looking forward to learn and share more about this wonderful hobby here!