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This is not a traditional macro photo but I kinda love it. I got my first plants for my nano tanks yesterday and when I was sorting out my floaters had a tiny black speck like a grain of sand stuck to my finger. My camera wouldn't show me what it was so I used a jewelers lens and got this pic. I must admit, I love the adorable little guy! His name is Watson 🐌

Well, while by no means do I think it is perfect, I am considering this project finished. I learned that, just like with aquariums, smaller is not easier and often presents it's own challenges and larger could be much more forgiving. I ended up using a dremel to get the depth and precision, hard to be precise considering the size of what I traced out and the size of the dremel bit, around the lettering and then chisel out away from them. I wanted to make the lettering stand out even more from the background, so I decided to lightly scorch the surface of them. As it turns out the small size of the letters and the softness of the wood allowed it to burn significantly with one pass of the torch, resulting in a rounded edge after sanding. I then applied two coats of spar urethane. I look at this and see all the mistakes I made, but that's ok because mistakes are just lessons. I can always say it's supposed to look imperfect because it's folk art or that it represents imperfect perfection of nature.

The new fry system hard at work in the fish room. Trying to get more active in the forum and I thought this was a good starting point. This has changed the way I breed fish. Thanks Master Breeder Dean for being willing to share your knowledge.

I've got some Vallisneria flowering like crazy. Thought I'd share. I wonder if anyone knows why Val flowers? I've never had it do this before. It's sending up dozens of little blooms. The tank is an a greenhouse. Maybe the shorter days are triggering it? Temp ranges between 75-65. It's gonna be time to break this tank down for the winter soon, and I will miss the val. I started with 5 plants in the tank in May. The flowers sprout up in these long curls, then bloom when they hit the surface. (Forgive the reflections. There's not I can do to take photos in the greenhouse without getting them.)

Found my ammonia & nitrites at 0ppm, nitrates <40ppm. Did a 25% water change and nitrates now 20. Tank is now cycled!! Went to LFS and they're out of harlequin rasboras. Big time bummer. LFS has great supply of frozen food though. Got flakes and pellets and a few other things coming from aquariumcoop. Change of plans. I saw some adorable young emerald dwarf rasboras (danio erythromcron). I got twelve. They're so tiny and adorable! I have them in my quarantine tank (5 gal mini-bow). I had to add a little baking soda to the tank while they were floating in the bag as my pH is too low for them (they prefer over 7). Here are a couple of my new babies.

When we were at the gap on the Appalachian ridgeline a few days ago we saw monarchs cresting the ridge headed Southwest. Today when we got home I found these in our milkweed patch. This monarch chrysalis above still has a ways to go, but this one below (you can just make out the orange on folded wings) is imminent.

Even by 1936 Innes was suggesting growing plants as one of the 4 conditions of a successful aquarium. I am starting the aquarium a few years before 1936. There is no local tropical fish store yet so I will have to collect my own plants. Luckily I live in North Carolina and many of the current plants found in our aquariums today occur in the wetter areas of the central and eastern part of my state. So road trip! I found a ditch just on the Kinston NC city limits located both the highway and Duke Power right of way, so I felt free to collect aquatic plants from the ditch. The ditch was not a pretty sight. But it had good stuff. Bacopa, Ludwigia, Parrot feather and more. The parrot feather was especially nice in places It looks like I will have some good plants without a visit to a pet store! So far, so good.

I was really lucky to get this shot of a baby shrimp next to mom

My first blackwater tank, I can't imagine setting another tank without leaves and other botanicals.

I thought it might be fun to have a thread where we share little aquarium / fishkeeping life hacks. Hopefully we don't have a thread on this already, I didn't see one when I did a search. So to start us off, a little life hack that has made my life significantly easier for water changes is attaching a catalytic carbon garden hose filter with a garden hose sprayer head to my python when it comes time to put the water back in the tanks. What does this do? We have a fair amount of chloramine in our water where I live. Catalytic carbon is one of the few things out there that can filter chloramine. So by running the water through the catalytic carbon garden hose filter, it filters the chloramine out of the water for me when refilling the tank. Typically you want to replace the filter every year or to the gallon capacity it recommends (most are 10,000 gallons). Some of these filters will recommend up to two years and some will recommend every three months. In my own personal experience, in testing my water using one of these filters to filter out chloramine, I was able to go one year with no levels of chloramine being detected in the water. I went ahead at the one year mark and replaced the filter. Typically you can find these filters for anywhere between $20 - $50. Why do I use a garden hose sprayer head? I like to be able to contro l the water when its coming into the tank and how it comes in. If I am concerned about stressing the fish, I will often use the mist feature to gently add water. If the fish are fairly normal, I'll just use the shower feature to add water gently to the tank. Or if I want to walk away for a moment, I'll flip the lever on it that allows for it to keep spraying without holding down the handle. So y'all, what are some of your favorite hacks for aquariums / fish keeping? Note: Not all garden hose filters are catalytic carbon. You will need to specifically look for that when searching for a filter. Note. If your water is using chlorine, not chloramine, you could use instead an activated carbon water hose filter which is cheaper.

So I've been working on this build for a while... I'm getting close to starting to finish the rack system, its installed in its location, just doing some touchups with stain/etc on some alterations I had to do... So I thought maybe I'll share my experience with y'all. As a background, I've never built anything even slightly close to this before. But recently I went head first and caught MTS, so I started needing more efficient ways to store tanks! First, here are my original plans: There are some changes on the tank sizes I decided to go with and placement. I built it with the intent I could always put a 75 in the middle and top if I wanted to. Decided 75 is going in the middle. Here's the lumber. Note the gas cans behind it. Many times I have debated through this project just to burn it down with the gas... LOL Rack built, turns out this is the easiest part of the whole thing.. Still hadn't cut the plywood shelves, but those are to come. Problem is for it to be in the living quarters of our home, my wife insisted it had to be stained. This is when things slowed WAY down. Sanded and prepped Poly time: Shelves are on Weight testing. Note the aquarium. That is a 75gallon that I'm going to use in the middle. You'll see pics in the future of a transformation of it. So now that it was finished.. brought it into the house. Planned on installing it in my office. I could not get it through the doors in my office. I just had no way to maneuver it. So I cut the top off and will reconnect using heavy duty stainless steel lag screws later. This was heart breaking to do. I worked so hard on this thing, to cut it, was like cutting my own child. But, it worked and I got it in. Now time to fix it up. First step in the "repair" And here is the side view with the lag screws Now with shelves So in the meantime, I completed the 75 gallon makeover So that brings us to today. Today I'm working on cutting out a small notch on the side of the rack as I apparently wasn't as long on the rack as I thought for the 75 gallon. I thought I would have enough room - somehow I thought it was 48-1/4" to the edges of the trim. Nope, 48-1/2". It fit, as I had EXACTLY 48-1/2" but it had to go in perfectly and it scrapes the sides. As I painted over the trim, I didn't want to ruin it, so I notched out about a 1/4" on the inside and am restraining it to fix it up the best I can.

Shrimp was posing for pictures, couldn't resist 📷

That's amazing, thanks so much for your reply @Jessica.. I Love how you used the bulb in the piano lamp.. That would look great in my house!😁

I bought the bulbs only from these type of lights and run them on a nano 2.5 gal tank that's a catch all for random buce stems. link to these- amazon.com/gp/product/B07N2V51WQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I've been happily surprised with the performance. The buce is putting out nicely colored new growth, I'm having zero algae issues, seeing new growth on everything. I put the bulb in a piano lamp I found at an antique store. The color is very much on the yellow/warm white side. This set up has been running with this bulb for about 6 weeks. Light runs for 9 hrs per day. This buce got beat p in another tank and snails ate some of it, so pardon the half eaten leaves. This pic here is showing the color of the new leaf under the light bulb, bottom right leaf that is pinky salmon color is new growth.

I'd do the CooP method which takes into consideration any unhatched eggs that may/will be present. Paraclkeanse does not/can not kill the eggs.

The 75 gallon is slowly starting to take shape. I don’t have much in the way of hardscape for it, so my emphasis has been on getting as many plants as possible in there (just ordered some more from the co-op!) This is with the main light off. My parents just moved to this state so my mom got to see my aquariums for the first time yesterday. She was shocked at how clean everything was, which was a little funny since my tanks are not exceptionally well maintained, just plant-filled. Between live plants and LED lightings the home hobbyist has a lot more options available than we did last time my mom had to maintain a tank. Long story short she went from “I will never have fish again” to “I could do a small nano tank like this one!” (betta tank) in about 5 minutes. 😂

@Rikostani totally forgot about the diy way but looks like some of the others got it covered. customaquariums.com will ship you a tank but there is a price tag to something like that I have never used them personally so I don't know much about the tanks they make but if you have the budget to get a nice tank they are pretty top of the line @Danieli am not done by pros at all 😂 me and my father and my "little" brother are fairly large guys. I went to get the tank I loaded the 125 and the 120 in the truck myself while my dad played with me kid. To give you an idea of how strong we northmen are the three of us can move that size tank pretty easy by ourselves (I do not recomend doing this always have a partner when moving tanks). When I went to get the tank it was just me and my father (keep in mind this is a 8 foot long all glass 300 gallon with braces the glass is thick!)The guys helped us load up the tank in the back of the truck and we were able to put the tank and the stand side by side in the truck bed. We strapped it down and when we got it home it was only the two of us. We were messing with that thing for more then an hour. Before we got it out of the bed of the truck and on the stand. It sat in the garage for almost 3 months while I resealed it and water tested it. I was also waiting for help to get it the next 8 feet into the pet room. When I got the help I needed it was my poor father and my little brother we were working on moving that tank for a few hours just the three of us but we got it in to the room and it looks great!!!

This is my first time intentionally breeding fish, and my quarrelsome couple of apistos have successfully had kids. The mother has stopped beating the father half to death, but she still won't let him anywhere near the children. When he comes around to the old cave-stead, she swats the water menacingly with her tail which prompts him to sulk off to his side of the aquarium only to console himself with his comfy, old recliner, favorite glass of bourbon and a healthy binge of his favorite fish-tubers. Oh wait, am I still talking about fish? Anyway, jokes aside, some questions - I'm guessing these have been free swimming a day or so now and possible eating infusoria from the java moss and leaf litter. They're hanging out close to the substrate, under the protection of the mother. At this stage, are they old enough for micro worms and/or baby brine? At what age will they take larger foods? Do first time fathers eat their offspring? At what age should I move the juveniles to a grow out tank so the parents don't perceive them as a threat to future spawns? Any other advice? I'm not looking for the highest yield at this point. Just want to have a semi-successful first go at this. So any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Idk if it’s a hack or discovered yet but I bought a battery operated gas Psypher attached its hose to python hose and out the water goes automatically made my water changes time cut in half same concepts with outlet hose on canister filter in big tanks

I made my first sale to a local fish store today. I don’t want to bury the lead I made $5.00 for each two oz cup of Java moss = $50.00! I was prepared for $2.00 a cup. The owner said it will sell out tomorrow. He will sell it for $10.00 a cup. The funny thing is the Java moss was a secondary sale to the tiger mosaic guppies of which I got $20.00, a dollar a fish. I figure this was a good place to start. To help build his business. No fancy guppies in his store. I almost fell down when he said $70.00. The picture is my fish in his tanks and the moss.

Just throwing this out there but avoid electric heat if possible, it's an expensive way to heat a room. A 1500 watt electric heater is about 5% to 10% the heat a typical house furnace can put out. If you buy one and it only runs 50% of the time that's 540-kwh's per month. And if you have a low electric cost at $0.12 per kwh that's still about $65 a month.

I noticed posts of folks having trouble with the Python water changer not fitting any faucets in their home. I had the same problem and tried several different attachments. None worked. I finally found a device on Amazon that works like a charm. The DaMohony Kitchen Pipe Connector is a universal water tap Connector. Every faucet we have is different and this fits them all. You don't have to unscrew anything just pop it on. Runs about $11.99 on Amazon.

So what breeding project are you juiced to start? I am really looking forward to breeding the orange rice fish I just got. They were pricey but if I am successful I will be able to recoup the price. Come on share your story.

Just started with BN plecos in August, and I've been breeding live bearers and shrimp for a while.

I went down to the creek today to try to catch some new species of fish. I didn't catch anything but I enjoyed my time outdoors.

I think @Cory's hack might be relevant for what you are looking:

I have a power strip connected to mine with six led lights on it.

The journey begins! I have committed to using Innes' 1936 'The Complete Aquarium Book' so I might as well start at the beginning. Hopefully, I will not repeat the mistakes of the lady with goldfish.

Found my ammonia & nitrites at 0ppm, nitrates <40ppm. Did a 25% water change and nitrates now 20. Tank is now cycled!! Went to LFS and they're out of harlequin rasboras. Big time bummer. LFS has great supply of frozen food though. Got flakes and pellets and a few other things coming from aquariumcoop.

I haven’t tried culturing live so I can’t touch on that, but my favorite prepared food brands are the fluval bug bites, hikari wafers and vibra bites, and I’m playing around with Xtreme foods. Have only tried the nano pellets so far so I need to try the krill flake too.

@Maggie I would think about adding a second sponge filter. It would give u some added filtration, and if you ever set up another tank (quarantine etc) you can just plot it over. One might handle the job, especially if it is a planted tank, but I tend to go more conservative.

I'm more posting this because I've never bred intentionally, but have a busy pair of cacatuoides and would like to watch the thread. I'm getting out and picking up a (10? 20Long?) to grow the next batch of free swimmers that I see. I let the last clutch go feral, but tried to help Mom feed and care for them, so I could see the process. I started feeding frozen bbs (the ziss hatchery and eggs are in my cart for my next co-op order) and cyclops once I could see the little ones actively foraging. That took until the second day that I'd seen them. I can absolutely 100% verify that Dad will snack on the wee babes if he gets a chance, but Mom is a Lion. She would let him in closer than the Cory's, but she maintains a bubble around the kiddos, even with him. As for the rest of your questions, I hope someone with more experience can fill in the blanks for both of us.

Another trick that I first learned from @Ireneoff of her amazing channel was to keep your fish food in the fridge and date it! I'll be perfectly honest, this never dawned on me until I watched her video. I do ziplock the a small amount of food that I will be using quickly, then keep the rest sealed in the container. Why ziplock bag and refridgerate your fish food? It helps to make sure your fish continue to get fresh and high quality food. Thank you @Irene for putting me on the right path! I have kept fish for 20+ years but never started doing this until I watched your betta video back when you first came out with it. Here are two great videos about feeding by @Irene: What Is the Best Food for Betta Fish? : How Do I Know if I'm Feeding My Fish Enough?:

I suggest someone who has single handedly introduced and started hundreds, thousands, maybe even a million people to aquarium keeping; They have never shown their face and we've never heard their voice, so it would be a big first, but I recommend you contact the person who runs the Foo The Flowerhorn YouTube channel.

I have not had this issue. I have very soft well water (0gh, 0kh, 25TDS) and I dose equilibrium up to 3-5GH (1 tablespoon per 20 gal) at every water change. I also dose an all in one (not easy green, I use thrive, which has 9.7% K2O vs easy green's 9.2% K2O). I do water changes every week in my tanks, per the Estimative Index (EI) dosing method's instructions. Perhaps @Irene can also chime in, as it sounds like she's using easy green and equilibrium. I think I read in another thread that Irene was actually dosing extra potassium in with flourish advance for java ferns – is my memory correct on that?

One option, you can spot treat using a pipette, a small paintbrush, or spray bottle, with hydrogen peroxide. I prefer either the pipette, or a fine paintbrush. I lower the water, spot treat, then fill the tank back up. It will start to change color and bubble this is normal. I treat small areas at a time. It can take some time to get rid of just as it took time to get established.

Happy to report I was able to bring back 5 Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish and 5 Bleeding Heart Tetras using this setup. The air pumps worked great on a usb adapter in the car and a battery backup when the car was off. I used small heaters to keep them warm overnight in the hotel.

Bob Steenfott would be a nice interviewee as well!

Berried Cyclops

I wish there was an underwater remote controlled submarine 4k camera that would swim in my aquarium and stream the results back to my phone. I could watch fish breed and check on fry from anywhere. And if I were in a boring meeting, I could get out my phone and watch my fish instead.

Hello everyone! Greetings from Miami, FL! Looking forward to actively participating on this forum and learning as much as possible. Here are a few of my babies!

Very pretty guppies! Bet he sells them quickly.

When I'm not keeping fish (aka my full time job) is in ceramic arts, and I studied glaze chemistry in college. 99.9% of ceramic surfaces are fine, but if something has you concerned, you can do a lemon test to see if it will leach. Copper is probably the most common thing that will leach. If you have a green or blue glaze that turns pink when you leave a lemon on it for 1/2 hr, it is leaching copper. Occasionally barium will leach also. Rarely lead (because it's almost never used anymore in ceramics, but if you were putting an antique ceramic pre-1950 in your tank, you might worry about lead). A matte surface is more likely to leach compared to a glossy/glassy surface in ceramics. Ceramic Lemon Test Instruction Edit to add- Bisque ware will almost always be fine, unless it is a red earthenware that was made with barium. If it's work you're making, you can ask your clay supplier if they have barium in their clay recipe. Barium is nasty stuff, some manufactures put it in to stop surface scumming (aka white buildup of sodium) on greenware in red clays. If it's commercial purchased work, it probably doesn't have barium.

Just watched my rainbow chiclid eat the plant! Mystery solved.

It is hard to tell from the photos. Any updates on the status?

Hello everyone. I'm George from southern Indiana. I have been back into fish keeping for a little less than a year. Last August I found a 10 gallon tank at a flea market that had everything I needed besides water and fish. And I'm up to 4 tanks now.

Hey Bill - I am also from H town (NW side) 🙂 and J. Mantooth - well said and I feel exactly the same way.

Greeting from Houston, TX.