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https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJA44J8R/ My little guy has a habit of watching the fish until they lull him to sleep.

Show of hands, how many people get asked often to send pictures of poo?💩🤣

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

the new kitten enjoys watching the goldfish, do your pets like watching your fish? one of my dogs loves to chase them around when he can (terrier problems 😂). not an issue when the tank is up high but he would really get a workout in when i had tanks on racks and eye-level to him. share your pets watching your fish photos and videos! id love to see your cute furballs.

Just thought I'd let everyone know since it's news to me.

Hello! I'm Michelle from Missouri. I really miss the older style forums, so I was very happy to hear Cory talk about CARE on one of his live streams. I've had a fancy goldfish aquaponics set up for the past 5 or 6 years and just got a guppy & endler fraternity tank started inside. The Frat replaced our TV when it broke and we're never going back!

Just signed up. I'm normally using Facebook. Here my tanks I hope they make an App for this forum!!

For a long time I wanted Discus, but in my 20's that was too pricey. I finally ended up getting some from my friend when he needed a car more than a Discus tank and I had a decent trade in car that was not going to get me much off my next vehicle so we worked out a trade. He was pretty sure he had either all males or all females because he had been trying to breed them for profit for almost a year. I totally changed how it was set up and within the 1st month, 2 different pairs mated. I was super proud, and made quite a nice sum. Still my favorite fish in the hobby for sure.

Throw the cartridge in the garbage, it's a scam to keep getting your money and creates a lot of unnecessary plastic trash. Hot rod it yourself, pick up some coarse sponge and filter floss. When its time to clean it, just replace the filter floss and rinse the sponge out in tank water. I like to clean them during a water change so I have plenty to rinse out the sponge. Depending on how much room is available in your HOB, you can add chemical filtration like charcoal or purigen (I don't) or just extra bio media like ceramic rings or bio balls.

I'm setting up a 14 gallon rimless cube in my bedroom, will be stocking it with Sparkling Gouramis (I was inspired by @Daniel video of his own "sparklers") and Amano shrimp eventually. I didn't trust my nightstand so I had to build a new one today. It isn't finished, but will do for now.

Thank you for the input everyone! I was at my LFS today and the sight of a tank full of albino longfin bristlenose made my decision for me...worth the risk! Also while it was checking its new tank out it bumped a Galaxy Rasbora fry out into the open which is the first time I have bred that species! All in all a pretty great discovery.

@James V. AquaBid is an auction site so prices vary depending on species and the # of bidders. Shipping varies by the seller, who the shipping co they use is, the service level and the weight of the pkg. I suggest you check out the AquaBid site (it’s free) and follow some auctions, read the sellers blurb on the fish and shipping costs. When you’re ready register and bid on the fish you’re interested in.

Hi, my name is AJE. I'm from Guatemala and I have 4 fish tanks, a pond and a daphnia barrel

So, the AI lights are pricey for what you get. I have bought 4 for my 125 and I still feel I need 1 per each foot. I own also Fluval 3.0 lights. Those are def a better bang for buck lights. Compared to the AI lights that is. Say you have a 75 gallon tank, two Fluval lights at 48 inches each would be far better light across the tank than two AI prime lights. The center of the pendent style lights made by AI, put out the most light obviously. The thing is that light drops off fast at the edges. So you need good overlap. now on to what I recommend for people wanting to save more money and want custom light periods. The Finned ALC version is a must for folks wanting to grow pretty much anything like the other listed lights. I only make these recommendations based on owning all these products currently. I will attach tanks with the lights I described.

Here's my breeding setup for my rainbow shiner 10gallon Sponge filter with a directional flow Temp at 70 Ph 7.3 ish This setup will only work if "she" is ready. It may take more than 1 try. I wouldn't leave them in their for more than 2 day, since the male can rub her side open. Separate the male and female. I start by pumping up my female with quality food/dry food for a few days to weeks. When she is fat with eggs, I'll place her with the male in a plant basket with a few good size rocks that night. Spongefilter flow will be pointed into the basket. They should spawn in the morning and be done soon after. I'll remove the parents and collect the eggs. I treat the eggs just like how you'll do for rainbow eggs. The whole idea is to have a setup where the parent have no chance of touching the eggs. In the wild theyll be swimming upstream and when they spawn the egg is blow downstream immediately. In a home aquarium most hobbies will breed them in large group so the fish that aren't breeding is eating the eggs.

Some nice ranchus in stock and some very lovely looking killifish pairs too! Frogs, Inverts, and Snails African Dwarf Frog Amano Shrimp (Medium size) Bamboo Shrimp Cherry Shrimp Blue Velvet Shrimp Orange Shrimp Red Rili Shrimp Assassin Snails Mystery Snail (Blue) Nerite Snails (Olive and Red Spot) Goldfish Panda Butterfly Tails Assorted Ranchu (Nice baseball sized ones) Bettas (All Betta Splendens are male unless noted) Crowntial Halfmoon Dragon Scale Halfmoon Dumbo Ear Koi Black Samurai Plakat Gouramis And Other Anabantiformes Sunset Honey Gourami Blue Paradise Fish (Great for non heated tanks!) Black Tiger Dario Cichlids Pelvicachromis Taeniatus "Nigerian Red" Albino Kribensis Apistogramma Panduro (Looking Nice!) Bolivian Rams Corydoras And Other Catfish Albino Cory Polka Dot Cory Leopard Cory Loreto Cory Panda Cory Pygmy Cory Plecos Common Colombian Otocinclus Orange Otocinclus Long Fin Super Red Bristlenose Long Fin Blue Eye Bristlenose Super Red Bristlenose (Locally Bred) Orange Spot Bristlenose (Locally bred, cool fish) Loaches Yo-Yo loach Reticulated Hillstream Loach Kuhli Loach Black Kuhli Loach Golden Dojo Loach Tetras Black Phantom Cardinal Tetra (Wild) Congo Tetra Males Ember Tetras Neon Tetras Silver Tip Tetra Marble Hatchet Fish (My personal favorite hatchet) Eques Pencil Fish (Pairs well with Apistos.) Barbs And Other Cyprinids Odessa Barb Long Fin Albino Cherry Barb (Super Cool) Roseline Shark Rasboras Neon Green Rasbora Brigittae Rasbora Rasbora Het Pork Chop Rasbora Strawberry Rasbora Danios And Minnows Gold White Clouds Long Fin White Clouds Livebearers Assorted Male Endlers Assorted Fancy Female Guppies Assorted Fancy Male Guppies (Blue Variegated, Cobra Green, Cobra Red, Flamingo, Japanese Red Tail, Leopard Tuxedo) Calico Lyretail Molly (New to the shop, pretty sweet looking) Platies (Blue Coral) Rainbows Neon Dwarf Rainbow Killifish Albino Gardneri Killifish Pair P82 Norman's Lampeye Killifish Nothobranchius Rubripinnis Pair (Males are absolutely stunning!) Splendid Killifish Pair Oddballs Endlicheri Bichir Albino Senegal Bichir Blue Cobalt Goby

I have been experimenting with Daphnia in different containers and feeding different recipes this summer. To jump to the end my conclusions are basically keep them cool and keep it simple. Nothing really new or profound there for experienced live food aquarists. I am on a live food for aquariums group on FB which gave a lot of good advice on recipes in particular. The consensus in that group was primarily to feed green water or there are some very specific precipices involving spirulina and different organic flours that work. The issue is the successful recipes are more complex (meaning 4-6 ingredients) and you have to be very precise and consistent in your feeding and cleaning. My own experiments with these recipes has born this out. With green water you can be much more imprecise and the chance of crashing your culture is much lower than with the other recipes. Especially yeast which is the easiest way to crash your culture. My most successful culture was in a 15g outdoor container pond that only had frogbit whose shade helped cool the water. The pond had gone super green water when I put the starter culture in and they exploded. I was feeding them to my goldfish almost everyday. Then of course I put in an Endler trio and eventually they and their progeny ate all the Daphnia. However that took a long time and was good for them so still win-win. I don't have room for more containers in our very small backyard here in Brooklyn so now I am raising a couple of batches in the basement and feeding only green water. In another experiment I have taken two 1 gallon glass jars, added rigid airline tubes for aeration, filled them with green water (grown outside with grass clippings) and added just a few Daphnia to only one jar. Below is a photo of the two jars after a week. I put a sheet of white paper behind them to help see the color. In real life the color is greener than this BUT the contrast in lightness of color is accurate. Interestingly the darker color jar on the right is the one with Daphnia who have now reproduced. The lighter color jar on the left has no Daphnia. This may be due in part to the jar with no Daphnia not having enough light to fuel algae growth, it may be there were fewer nutrients in the water to start or something else. I am now going to try adding EasyGreen to the empty jar to see if that helps grow some more free floating algae. I am also going to rig up another setup using 2L bottles on the SF Bay Brine Shrimp Hatchery Kits (these from the Coop: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/brine-shrimp-hatchery-kit) with extra light to see how that does. In one bottle I will add regular green water and in the other I am going to try a freshwater phytoplankton culture, probably Chlorella, to see how those do. I will also feed these. More to come including an idea for a drip feed system I am working on. My 15g container on top that grew the Daphnia so well and my 40g goldfish container pond below.

Hi everyone! Aquarium Co-op inspired me to build a bunch of planted tanks a few years ago. This is my latest pride and joy! Equipment: 10 Gallon with basic Hang on Back, sponge filter, and small air stone. No CO2. Light: Fluval 3.0 LED Plants: Guppy grass, dwarf hair grass, Monte Carlo, crypt. Parva, Anubias nana. Substrate: Fluval Stratum with a few Root tabs. Livestock: 10 24k Gold White Clouds and 8 ghost shrimp. Hardscape: geode slices

I’m glad to hear that! It is definitely super cloudy still but improving! Thank you!

I had same thing happen. Did a extensive vac and water change schedule and dosed extra prime to bind up the ammonia. My tank looked like it had snowed multiple colored snow from the flakes. In the end I had nothing die but they definitely showed stress symptoms.

I would use EM Erythromycin or Maracyn (they're the same thing) to prevent infection. I've found them to be effective. Good luck!

Hi AJE, I’ve seen you around other forums and I’m excited you’re here. Welcome!

Oh this is fun, today they are buddies (some days they chase each other off, some days they are buds... so weird)

I believe you will need a minimum of 20.gallons per pair. I believe a 40 could work especially if their was something breaking the tank somewhat in half like a large drift wood or something. And use Cory's at the bottom from what I hear they don't mind them to much.

Howdy there! I'm in Greenville, and work in GR 🙂 so that's most of the LFS places for me.

Hello Chris, Also from Michigan I’m in the Grand Rapids area! Welcome to the forum. I have 10 tanks setup and am getting ready to move so I have slowed down! I love your setup!

1. Don’t plug the heater back in after a water change. 2. Don’t plug the hang on back back in after a big water change. 3. Drain water into a market and overflow it all over the floor. 4. pump water directly onto the floor during a water change. 5. Forget to water change until you regret it. I think it’s super important to set yourself up for success. For me that means understocking and keeping a lot of plants. This gives me some wiggle room in case I forget to plug in my filter or heater. It makes the hobby much more forgiving!

Unless you see the water perimeters are different in regards to temp or ph then I would just net them out and plop them into the new tank. You typically acclimate your get used to your water and temperature so if those are already the same no need to acclimate. However, for future reference if you keep all the bags you get fish in you can net them into a bag and float the bag in the new tank just like you’re bringing fish home from the store! Good luck catching them all!

LOL. Yeah, they are great to watch... I had more but lost a few after getting them as they had ich. Whats odd is only they had it, and the ottos were with them never got it. Either way both got treated... The surviving ones are doing awesome now (you can see in pics) and growing well. They love to hunt for baby snails all day, and really enjoy going after the brine shrimp (which I just love watching). Currently they are in a 29g - I am thinking on moving them to a 20, and maybe get a couple more (if I can ever source them).

I’d say up to four adult size in a 40 breeder, you will have to keep up on tank maintenance and water changes.

I love how lush your tank looks. Everything had grown in beautifully.

Hi! Also in Michigan. I love your little murder beans. I only have one tank set up currently but someday there shall be murder beans.

Hair picks and combs are great for removing Duckweed. In two of my utility tanks I run the Eheim nano skimmers, without foam, to suck up and dice Duckweed. I can stage plants and wood in there to move to a new tank and dispose of the hitchhikers. I am stuck with Duckweed in two 2.5 gallon shrimp tanks because my plants and wood extend out of the tank, so there is no real way to deal with the surface completely. It is fine because the shrimp love it, but I have to use the hair pick about once a week, and then put it in a clear bucket to check for fry. There is a turtle tank at one of my schools where I hope to be able to bring my Duckweed.

If the tanks are within a few feet of each other I wouldn't even bother with a container. I if you don't need to acclimate them to different water parameters I'd imagine being caught and pulled out of the water twice would be more stressful than spending a couple of extra seconds out of water and going straight in to their new tank

I would drain 1/2 the water from the 20 gallon into a tote (I like the tuff totes) and remove the plants and put them in the tote. Then get a container you can acclimate your fish in (bowl, bucket, etc.) and fill it 1/2 way with the remaining water. Now that the tanks almost empty, catch the fish and place them in your container. At this point, if the parameters were basically the same I would transfer the fish to the new tank. If you're concerned about the tanks having different water, you would want to drip acclimate them before adding them. Remember to take the light from the 20 and put it on the tote and you should have several days to fix the 20, or replant the plants elsewhere.

Well it looks like we have the whole state covered! 🙂

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

Thats a fair bit of weight. I believe water items self weights about 8 lbs a gallon o believe I'd def put the adjustable floor jacks in at the points that line up with the racks load.

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

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

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.

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.

@Cory and @Brandy pretty much nailed it. Seems to be dead plant material, little single celled animals, and even baby cherry shrimp!

give him a salt dip to see if that helps. i wouldnt keep salt in the tank constantly as it can harm the labyrinth organ over time but a dip should be beneficial. i would also see if you can get your hands on some (preferably live but frozen will do) daphnia. it works similar to a laxative in my experience and may do a better job of flushing him out if he is just bloated. feed him only that for a few days. if you go with frozen defrost it in tank water with some garlic powder. it doesnt look like a tumor to me, from the info you provided it seems to be bloat that just never went away. your fish sitter may have severely overfed him regardless of any instructions you left. i personally use a pill organizer and portion out the food for each tank for the day so whoever is fish sitting only needs to open up that day’s compartment and pour it in. i dont trust written instructions or other’s judgement. i use something like this and have one for each tank. i think i paid like $1.50 at my local grocery store. let us know if this helps it go down a bit!

When I do a "just" a water change, I use a pond pump to pump water out of the tank and into the sink. I then just reverse it to fill the tank back up. But when I do a gravel vac, I put the pump in a 5 gallon bucket and put the siphon hose into the 5 gallon bucket. Well today after getting everything set up, I forgot to put the end of siphon nose into the 5 gallon bucket, it was on the floor. Oops! LOL

I was recently doing a water change on my son's 29 gallon and wasn't watching the bucket while I messed with some plants that had come up while gravel-vacuuming. Then as it started to overflow, I over reacted and moved too quickly. The next thing you know the bucket hits the ground the hose is still siphoning water from the tank and my son is finding out that his mom has a colorful vocabulary. My only saving grace was the fact that the 5-gallon bucket landed bottom down. So the water just splashed over the edge. Instead of 5 gallons plus overflow, I only ended cleaning about 2 gallons of water out of the carpet. The silver lining here is that it made me appreciate my python even more. And I'm definitely going to look into extending my python hose like @Daniel suggested.

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.

I have a few... 4 cats, 2 dogs, 2 horses, and 3 frogs plus the aquariums!