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I don't remember what caused me to first get into the hobby. It was the late 60s. I think it was the only pet my parents would let me get and I loved anything to do with "nature" but I wasn't allowed to go camping or fishing or hiking... or well pretty much anything. When I finally broke free from that life, I dove into all those things I wasn't allowed to do. I went camping as often as I could and I lived for a good hike. I fell in love with kayaking, birdwatching, etc. I was always out in nature in some way. Get me away from people and civilization and that's when I felt most alive. Then a few years ago I got hit with an incurable auto-immune disease. My body was/is eating itself. Suddenly doing all those things that made up a huge part of who I was, just weren't possible any more. I retired from work and pretty much from life too. I'm lucky in that I have an amazing wife and three adult children who have all been incredibly supportive, but I still felt lost. I no longer had a purpose and I couldn't really do a lot of the stuff that made me happy. Then I saw a twitter post from a comic book writer I follow who's name is Greg Pak. He had recently got back into fish keeping too and was posting about his fish tanks. I remembered all the joy I got out of keeping fish when I was a kid and I knew we had a 10 gallon tank in the basement, so I had one of the kids bring it up for me and I set it up in my office. Suddenly I had something I could focus on and even on those days when I couldn't get out of bed, I could still read about the hobby and discover different ways of doing things. That was 4 months ago. I got my first guppies about a month after setting up the first little tank, and now I have a 55 gallon, two 45 tall tanks, and two 20 gallon tanks. I have guppies and shrimp in two of the tanks and some CPDs in the little 10 gallon, which is now my QT tank. I have some mystery snails coming this Friday and some Boesemani Rainbows are ordered too, but they haven't shipped yet. Now I can have that little piece of nature right by me. Even when I can't walk, I can still experience it and my quality of life has gone way up in the past four months. My wife has said she sees a big improvement in my outlook and I just don't feel as resigned to my fate as much any more.

When @Cory, termed the phrase 'NERM' awhile back, it may have been out of his subconscious genius. I consider myself, a self-proclaimed 'NERM' & have drawn a few conclusions, of which, some even may be valid. Why do people keep aquariums? IMO, It's an extension of nature into their homes for enjoyment & furthering life itself. If you look at the 'term' 'NERM'; is it just a word or even more; perhaps an acronym. For everyone, the word, term, phrase, acronym or # 'NERM' may indeed mean something very different and often times very personal to each individual, in their relationship with the hobby. For me: I classify the N.E.R.M. as an acronym, using each beginning letter, as follows: N.E.R.M. Natural Environment Respective Mentality Be a good Aquarist, be a NERM, today.

Here is the top of the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted Aquarium. I planted parrot feather yesterday, and today it has broken the surface.

500,000! Congratulations to the Aquarium Coop Youtube team, the wave is building!

I planted the plants in the aquarium yesterday. I love sunlight. Nothing fancy, just plants from the ditches and fish from the same ditch. @Joseph Ferdenzi predicted the parrot feather would emerge and it did.

Doesn't happen too often because I need a step ladder, my 110 tank.

So here’s the new one. Kids convinced me on him for the his color, black and gold (for our team - LAFC). I believe he will be losing the black at some point and switching to blue. I’ve had him a few weeks now. He seems happy in his new 29g home. He was a little shy around his new friends at first but has definitely become very confident around them now.

Not aquarium related, but I want these only with green polarized lenses instead. I need to protect my eyes and be able to see fish underwater in nature daily.

So, these guys grow SUPER fast.... here's an update of this little guy 2 weeks later... Apparently can't take a picture of a different animal without something fish related in the background. Newly painted with fresh siliconed glass braces for corner matten filter 10 gallon tank....NERM

N.E.R.M = Never Enough Research Mindset It means to me to always be questioning, even when you think you're right or have the answer. Research all sides of a problem, issue, or question. Play devil's advocate, drop your biases, and stay curious. A lot of things are grey instead of black or white. Sometimes the rabbit holes you'll venture down will lead to unintended insights and knowledge that you wouldn't have gained by just accepting something as fact and at the very least you will most certainly know more about why that is a fact. And don't just research, but apply your research and learn from that. You see how that can be an endless cycle of research, apply, learn.

Utility tanks, now with sponge filters.

I've got a sponge filter assembly line going. I just converted my utility tanks to sponges, and added sponges to my window shrimp tanks. I'm also prepping more for the tubs, and a future tank.

Yes! \ (•◡•) / I designed and use and or have used these! https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3891884 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3774602 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3456731 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3375040 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1282574 Plus a few more odds and ends that I never posted. My favorite though is a small scoop I printed to be just the right size for my feeding and bottles with a little pocket on the end for a magent. It's my little secret that I carry it with me everythere lol, I never forget to feed my fish on time. @akconklin What are some of the things you're excited about? I don't think I ever searched thingiverse so deeply for aquarium stuff as you have.

COVID hit and my home office felt really empty and boring. There was nothing to look at. My dog doesn’t like sleeping in there, my cats are more distracting than need be during a Zoom call. I kept fish as a kid (along with a variety of reptiles, rodents, amphibians, cats, dogs, insects, etc) and liked them. I tried them again as an adult, failed because I had no clue about the nitrogen cycle and thought it was me. Then I went full tilt into houseplants for a few years and got good at those, did terrariums and water gardens and propagated a bunch of plants and killed a bunch of plants but eventually figured out what works for me, etc. When COVID hit I was thinking geckos and got fully into Clint’s Reptiles, but most of what I liked was either a) nocturnal, b) easily eaten or horrifically wounded by my cats, or c) both. Then I thought hey, I used to like fish. Guppies were fun and pretty and cheap. I wonder if there’s anyone on YouTube who covers fish like Clint covers reptiles. aaaaaannnnd here we are now.

So typically what occurs when you put it in bypass is that your entire water system in your house is able to get unfiltered water. Typically most large homes take 2 - 4 minutes to purge out old water from the line. So you could use whatever fixture that would be nearest the tank, it doesn't have to come right by the unit. No point in breaking your back, dontcha know. When you get done, return your unit back to normal. In the same fixture you were using run it for about the same amount of time to get any untreated water out. Most water softeners have a life expectancy of 10-12 years; though it is not unheard of for them to go up to 20. If and when it does fail, it will be useful to know how to keep water flowing in your home until it cane be replaced.

Test strips. I think the Co-Op is trying to find a way to stock these so it is not lack of desire on the Co-Ops part.

It is always good to start off with a male and female. I have had success with discus and angelfish, but they are very hard to sex and I usually just take a group of juveniles and let them sort it out. Once I tried to breed Heckel discus (which at that point in time had never been done in captivity). I setup a 500 gallon aquarium on a commercial RO system with a Blackstone automatic dosing system to dose phosphoric acid so that I could keep the pH at a stable 5-ish. They were fed an appropriate diet but I was never successful despite a strong attempt to match their wild water parameters. In the end I have concluded water parameters are a secondary issue at best, and definitely not a deal breaker. And not because of the Heckels. It is because healthy fish that want to breed don't care a lot about water parameters for the most part. The 3 most important issues for me are Young, but mature healthy fish Comfortable setup for the breeders A large amount of nutritious food readily available, typically some sort of live food Yes, clean water is a given, but it doesn't necessarily have to match their home waters. I don't think I have encountered breeding conditions that were detrimental to raising the fry. Unless you count green water. Often I will breed the adults in seasoned but not opaque green water. But after tiny fry hatch, like gourami fry, I will switch the fry tank over to a green water tank until the fry are large enough to eat baby brine shrimp, or cyclops, or baby Daphnia.

I would like to purchase 10 packs of air stones, check valves, and USB air pumps with less packaging.

And I have a couple of blue spotted sunfish females who are liking the new planting arrangement

I know how I got into the hobby. When I was 9 years old I read a book about a boy who kept guppies and the humorous plot centered on how fast the guppy population got out of control. So I gathered a dozen quart jars and saved my allowance and bought some female guppies. I could see the babies developing in the gravid females and when the first babies were born I was excited. But when it turned out some the babies from gray moms were golden, I was hooked. I think the why centers on glass boxes. Glass boxes allow us in the comfort of our own homes to see from only inches away the intimate details of complex biological systems with all the majesty and drama that life on our planet brings. I have an honey bee observation hive in my house also and it is a completely different more engaging experience than the other 120 colonies I keep outside. Our fish aren't in a barn or an out yard, they are in our living rooms, bedrooms and even bathrooms and aquariums contain entire worlds of wonder. And yet, I think this part is important too. Aquariums aren't completely dirt-easy. There is a learning curve and therefore a challenge. And just when you reach a new peak of competence there is yet another peak to climb, so it never get old. And the more you learn, the more fun and rewarding it is. It is a virtuous feed back loop.

I dug up a paper, the reference section has more sources to look into. ResearchGate WWW.RESEARCHGATE.NET ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for...

Ok... for anyone interested here’s what I’ve figured out. (I’m trying to condense this the best I can for a quick read. The API test Hard water testing kit wasn’t showing any orange when testing. (thought I had a bad testing kit) I finally figured out I could get a sample of my unfiltered water via the sprinkler system. (comical to watch me trying to fill a cup just FYI) tested that sample (posting pictures of the results below) found the manual for my water softener and realized I can adjust the amount of filtering. (clueless to the functionality of this water softener) ive adjusted the softener to a medium hardness setting. To hopefully keep it safe enough for my appliances, pipes etc. Yet optimal for my fish perimeters. (As much as possible anyhow) now I wait... till the already filtered water cycles through the system. my plan is to retest adjust retest adjust till I find the best options here. My concern is now..... I have had my fish i this filtered water for a couple months. It’s definitely not a desirable range for them at all. THIS IS MY QUESTION how should I go about changing this environment for them? Obviously the gradual process would be optimal. But considering then logistics of changing the filtered water etc it’s not really the best. small water changes daily be safe?? Maybe 25% daily??? please advise with wisdom!

Awww, thank you! I'm especially proud of my profile pic, since I just took that as a cell phone selfie next to my kitchen window. I need to update my aquarium picture too. The tank is finally balanced and no longer looks like algae heaven. Before: 4 months later:

Yay or Nay? Side project ... mini butterfly koi look-a-like

I know I know, Cory has done a video on this. But I am a numbers and charts person, so I wanted to offer some more data on this topic. I have a background in chemistry and I know a lot of you NERMS on here like this sort of detailed analysis, so here it goes. Once I saw the video, I thought it was genius! Of course! If you are in the ballpark, much better to use those quick test strips (which you will use more often than the liquid kit because they are so easy. As a reminder, you can see Cory's video here: Because I thought this was great info, I went out and bought some test strips to compliment my API test kit. Of course, like any info on the internet, I also wanted to test it. I did a quick test a few weeks ago and got very different results. Whoa! That's weird, and not what Cory's video showed! So today I sat down and did some more precise testing/recording numbers. For this experiment, we have to accept that the human eye just sucks at interpreting color accurately. If we wanted to get super precise numbers, we would want something like a spectrometer, but that's not financially realistic for the average person. (Doesn't mean I'm not looking 'em up on ebay after this...) I have two different tanks I tested this on, but only once each time. One is a planted 60 gallon community tank and the other is a 10 gallon snail tank. I try to keep the gH higher in the snail tank for shell health, so that measurement is particularly important. Both tanks are moderately/heavily planted. The snail tank is overstocked, but I'm pretty diligent about water changes. The Community tank is a little understocked, and please note that I administered some General Cure today to deworm, so that could potentially interfere with results. When I did the test, I had to break my bad habit of not shaking the API test kit for a full minute. You can categorize this under "I am smarter than the sum knowledge of all fishkeepers." arrogance. Surely, not shaking for a full minute couldn't make that big a difference, right? Well, I can get into my previous quick and dirty results, but yes, you need to shake for the full minute. I got very different nitrate results when doing this. Anyway, you can't test the API kit if you aren't going to use it according to the instructions. Please note that I DID NOT USE THE API TEST KIT FOR pH. I have a pH meter which I consider to be the most accurate option available, therefore I compared the test strip to the API kit on nitrate, nitrite, gH and kH. You can see the results below in chart and list form: OK, so what are we seeing? Well first we're seeing that my nitrate levels in my tank are WAY high and I need to fix it, but that's for another day. Within the community tank, everything is pretty much the same between Tetra and API. This is consistent with Cory's results. Now if we look at the Snail tank, we see some variation. Ph and nitrite are looking the same, but gH, kH, and most concerningly nitrate are showing differences. The difference in nitrate could be because of the logarithmic scale it uses to refer to color. Ever notice how the measurement chart jumps from 0, to 5, to 10, then 20, then 40, etc? It's a bigger and bigger difference with each color change on the chart. So if you have a very high concentration that you are reading, and you're having trouble reading it, your mistake matters more than if you were reading something closer to 5. (Ex. Is it 5 or 10? Eh, it's close. Is it 40 or 80? Whoa, big difference!) I did have trouble figuring out the color of the nitrate on the API test kit; I have included pictures of the results here so that others can give input, if you like. Please note that because I thought the API nitrate reading was between 40 and 80 ppm, I split the difference and called it 60ppm. I have no explanation for the difference in KH and GH readings. API results for Snail tank: Tetra test strip Snail tank results: OK so what does all of this mean? I think it means that if your tank is generally healthy and you are just doing regular water checks (once a week, once a month, etc) and you want a heads up on anything that might be an issue, you're probably ok using the Tetra test strips. But if you are having issues with something, you may want to try the API kit. BUT, I would argue that we don't really know which method is more accurate. Within the fish community, we sing the praises of the accuracy of the API Master test kit. But why? What are we comparing it to? Well, we have reports of the test strips going bad very easily, so that's one reason. But ideally, I would want to measure my water parameters with a mass spectrometer (this is me being a super nerd- it is a scientific instrument which gives you VERY accurate reports of concentration. Again, not realistic for the home hobbyist at all! But has anyone every tried it? Ever? Anywhere? I expect API did the testing, but those aren't exactly easy to look up. Why do we choose API as the best? I think it's worth considering. Tl;dr The API Master test kit has fairly similar results to the Tetra strips if you are measuring low concentrations (everything in your tank is going as expected,) but there can be major differences if you have something like nitrates very high. This is because it's tough for the human eye to read colors accurately. I have no explanation for the differences in kH and gH in one tank but not the other. Also, consider that we don't necessarily know that the API Master kit is the most accurate. Everyone says it is, but what are we comparing it to? Thanks for coming to my TED talk. lol I don't work as a chemist anymore so sometimes it's just nice to get this out of my system. I hope some folks find this helpful/interesting.

Just to throw it out there, my 3d printer that I have been using for years now was I think $180 shipped to my door. Was a DIY kit that I had to build and calibrate myself but IMO the work and learning that came with it was worth it, and if you love 3D printing you may find it worth it too. Just weight that against the cost of other ppl printing it for you :)

My newly rescaped 20-Long. The flora is rather bare, but the fauna is spectacularly green! I love these little fish.

I don't like to be outside a lot, but I like nature. My ideal hobby combines an equal amount of art with science, with a high skill ceiling. Basically, if the hobby saturates enough of my brain, the standard baseline anxiety and despair can't creep its way in.

Looks a lot like a baby Mystery snail, from the trailing foot. Nerites tend to be more rounded at the back foot area. Those others are ramshorn snails. Maybe if you can get a photo of it from the other side, it would help.

I like it very much. Your experience reminds me very much of when I was boy living in farm country (circa 1965), no pet shops, and I won a goldfish at a local fair, but then got the gravel, plants, and live food from local ditches. I found a 2 gallon jar in the cellar, and the whole thing was powered by sunlight.

I agree definitely deserves and extra snickers, or a frozen Reese's as @Cory likes.

Hello everyone! Just thought I would give a day three update. here they are they had a HUGE growth spurt yesterday and now instead of being microscopic there are Super tiny 🤣. I think they are going to be golden when they grow up, they have a light color foot and there shells are a little yellow color with black spots. When I took this photo I was counting them and I counted 64 snails. Which is good for me, I didn’t really want hundreds and this seems more manageable. (I actually have more than 64 because I found some baby snails on the bottom of the tank the rest were floating in, so I might have like ten more than 64)

Yeah just go whole hog with the light and go 16 hours for max algae. I would keep a heater in the tank too keep their metabolism up for max growth and breeding, maybe put in a piece of wood too for algae and bio film to grow on.

Well I'd save the bloodworms for the puffers, and also on the aquarist podcast, the guy was breeding spotted puffers and he said the best food for snails to make them breed was unsalted cut canned green beans Also since your main objective is to just grow a whole bunch of algae I'd even increase the photo period to like 14 or 16 hours, plus add fertilizer occasionally

How much calcium does your tap water have? I know there are saltwater test kits for calcium, is there a freshwater water one? I checked my 'Breeding Corydoradine Catfishes' by Ian Fuller and he doesn't mention calcium or hardness specifically although it is implied in GH. Typically page on breeding

If it were me in your situation, I would try to manage the tap nitrates with plant growth. I just know if I had to mess with RO filters at every water change, I'd burn out faster. I think it would be do-able to manage that nitrate level with plants, and would be the least expensive and most sustainable (for me personally) in the long run. Maybe also have the RO unit on hand as a backup. A well planted tank could use up 20 ppm nitrates in a few days or less, and if you're only water changing a few times per month, you won't be adding that many nitrates to the tank. I kinda enjoy figuring out the balance of a tank, so that would be my approach. There's nothing wrong with going towards the RO units if that's your preference. Granted, I don't know what fish you're stocking, so that could change this. If the bio load was especially high or the fish were extra sensative, maybe you can't get away with not pre-filtering. A bunch of floating type plants, like water lettuce, salvinia, frogbit, would help with nitrate uptake. You can also grow pothos out of your tank and leave the roots in the tank- Tropica makes a fertilizer that has everything except nitrogen (nitrates) or phosphorus. It's meant for a tank with a heavy fish load, where fish are producing all the nitrates and phosphates. Perhaps it would help in your situation? You'd need to see if your tap also has enough phosphates for plants, or maybe the fish would produce enough. Or, you dose tropica premium after a water change, then dose easy green when the nitrates dip from plant consuming them. Tropica Premium on Amazon Link

@hemali -- Warning, long reply ahead! But could be informative as I've gone down the same path as you. ------- I am in a similar situation as you are. High nitrates out of my faucet (above 40ppm). I do have an RO unit for making water for caradina shrimp, and have dealt with my nitrate problem so I can offer some first hand advice. Using an R/O unit to target nitrate removal is a long term expense, and not the only option. The R/O unit will strip everything from the water, so if you're going to have to build the water back up for use in your aquarium with buffers and remineralizes. This means staging and mixing the water, and paying for an ongoing supply of products, not to mention the DI resin, R/O membrane and filters for the R/O unit itself. Another solution could be to set up a one or two-stage filter just to remove nitrates (I say two-stage cause its good to have a sediment filter before the nitrate filter). Some companies make plug-and-play under-the-sink nitrate filter kits that look like the RO units and install just as easily. Or you can put together your own if you're even slightly handy. Setting up your own is a process similar to how folks with fishrooms plumb carbon block filters into their water supply to remove chloramines. The only thing to know about setting up your own nitrate filter is that you have to place a rate-limiter, or flow restrictor, in-line with the system to force the water to run slow enough for optimal nitrate removal by the resin (under-the-sink kits normally come with these pre-installed). Most de-nitrate filter manufacturers will usually list the flow rate for optimal nitrate removal for a given cartridge. You can get most of the supplies to do something like this from any water system supplier or from a good LFS that supplies a lot of reefing equipment. The de-nitrate cartridge can easily be ordered online from a number of suppliers. In my experience, a de-nitrate filter will also strip some KH from the water, but can't really say how much (some? all? not 100% sure as I have never tested). The KH in my tap water is pretty low to being with. In my experience, I have also found that high nitrates exhaust the standard mixed DI resin in typical R/O units faster than if you had no nitrates. So, a nitrate filter of any sort before the DI resin filter can extend that filter's life and possibly cut some costs. DI resin is typically more expensive that de-nitrate resin, long term. I like experimenting and tinkering and so I have setup, and used, both of these systems. For my current setup I used a larger nitrate/sediment filter in-line with my drip system that feeds me display tank, and a small breeding rack I'm still in the process of completing. (Pic below). I like tinkering and am good with plumbing, so I plumbed my own up instead of going under-the-sink. So the take away from this somewhat long thread -- 1) R/O unit will be a simple plug-and-play setup, but will be the most costly in outlay and long-term costs given that you'll have to remineralize the water, and you'll burn through a lot of mixed-bed DI resin. 2) Nitrate filter will target nitrates, last longer and be a less expensive solution. The initial expense will be roughly the same as an R/O unit, but could be a more DIY solution in which you acquire the canisters and fittings and build yourself. 3) Plants are cheap and easy. (I cant resist the challenge of tinkering so I went with targeted nitrate filters!) I got my de-nitrate filters from APEC water solutions online. I got my filter housings from Bulk Reef Supply. The fittings and what not I got from Home Depot. Can't remember where I got the flow rate restrictor online, but I can easily find that in my email somewhere if I search. If I didn't completely overwhelm you with this response, please feel free to ask as many questions as you want.

Yes, most omnivorous livebearers will eat algae. Platies, guppies, Swordtails, Mollies, some Goodeids, even Endlers will nibble at it.

Hey all, not gonna bore you to much with fancy words and what not. Just gonna let the pictures speak for themselves. (Sort of) This is an eheim pre-filter. If you cut the strainer off one of the intake tubes for an aquaclear 110 or 70; then wrap the top tube of the prefilter cage with Teflon tape. It will wedge nicely into the intake tube. unfortunately the sponge that comes with the eheim prefilter (white) greatly restrics the flow of an aquaclear when its brand new. You can see its a much finer sponge than the aquarium co op prefilter sponge. Because of this they need to be cleaned almost daily. but an aquarium coop med. Prefilter sponge fits the eheim pre-filter cage, almost. a 5 second trim later and presto. Fits like a glove. It takes 2 med sponges to fill the cage (the cage comes in two sections. But is so worth it. For those who may not know there is an ancient blood feud between turtles and sponges. A feud my turtles still honor to this day. So much so, I'm convinced that ritual prefilter/sponge filter sacrifice has become a rite of passage for the turtles living here. Which is why I'm super stoked about this mod. No more senseless sponge massacres and a working filter !!

The salt in water softeners is used to replace certain minerals. Specifically, the salt is NaCl (sodium chloride.) The sodium ions are used to replace and remove the large amounts of magnesium and calcium in your water. Kh is carbonate hardness- a softener doesn't change how much carbonate you have. Gh measures the amount of magnesium and calcium in your water, and since your water softeners is taking out those ions and replacing them with sodium, your Gh out of the tap is going to be lower than if you did NOT have a water softener. (No water softeners = crazy high gH.) You'll also have higher sodium levels, but they generally are not at a level that you should be concerned about. Generally, calcium in your water causes unwanted buildup on water fixtures. I'm guessing you have seen that white crusty buildup on, say, a shower head? Or look up commercials for cleaning product CLR, they show it all the time. That "lime scale" buildup. That's from hard water. So we like to put sodium in our water instead, because it doesn't cause as many problems. Water softeners won't necessarily take out ALL of the calcium and magnesium, so you'll still need to test. If you wanted more hardness, you could try to access the water before it hits the water softener, but that could be a pain depending on how your house is set up. Will be happy to give more detail regarding why the sodium replaces those ions, but I'm guessing you don't need or want a chemistry lesson. 🙂 (I have a chemistry background, and also grew up with well water lol)

my female (right) comforting the new guy a couple days after we adopted him. now she's more likely to tackle him 🙂

A Wincy burrito.

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