Leaderboard

I bought a Fluval Plant Nano for a fishfam friend, @AquariumThoughts, so he could come up with a mounting bracket for rimmed tanks, and he is documenting the whole process. I haven’t tried a prototype yet, but it looks cool so far. 3D file: Fluval Nano Light Rimmed Tank Adapter by AquariumThoughts - Thingiverse WWW.THINGIVERSE.COM Design to attach the Fluval Nano Light to a rimmed tank as opposed to a rimless tank that they include in the box. Design Process - Part 1: https://youtu.be/-B6p9HLLmDk This design requires a stainless steel...

@rmiranda19 can you confirm the back rigid airline tubing that you plug your airline into is properly seated into the ziss unit? I run at least 15 of these units, most since we started carrying them and have not had this issue. You could also remove the top cap and see if debris has built up where the air leaves the unit.

The elodea in my pond flowered 🙂

I always have a lot of hydras in my aquariums and sometimes they can try my patience as you will see here. I am trying to feed the baby sparkling gouramis but the hydras can seemingly eat their weight in baby brine shrimp or baby Daphnia. But I have never seen one injure even the smallest fry and they are fascinating denizens in their own right. I seem to have at least 3 species of hydra in the tank. Green ones, black ones, and pale orange ones. Or maybe they are just morphs of the same species?

This conversation is #Nerm Level 1000. And I read the whole thing 😉

I've printed a couple of things but nothing that goes in the tank. If you're going to make stuff to go in your tank, make sure they use ABS or food grade PETG filament. If you use PLA, the most common type of filament, it will disintegrate in your tank. PLA is usually made of corn but the dye used is toxic. One of the best things I've made is a test kit holder for the API FW Master kit. I love it and would highly recommend making one if you have a printer. I've also made a mount to hold a computer fan for cooling. For my friends SW sump I made a dosing line holder. I like my 3d printer, but if the object is commercially available I'd rather buy it.

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.

Maybe this would be something for your business channel, but some behind the scenes info about using your personal property for your (I assume incorporated) business would be interesting. Does Aquarium Co-op pay you rent? How annoying is it to track personal vs business expenses, etc. How do the costs compare vs traditional storage or warehouse space? Looks awesome!

I just saw on a Apple tech news site that Wemo (Belkin) now has an outdoor smart plug with HomeKit, Alexa, and Google support, Then in the comments, someone noted that TP-Link has one too, but it doesn't have HomeKit support, just Alexa, and Google. It looks like there are a lot of other competitors too. These could be good for outdoor tubs and ponds.

@Bekah This is what I do with my extra ones, instead of the drain. Pretty much just three gallons of salt water in a bucket with an inexpensive, small heater and some vigorous bubbles. I feed them a pinch of sera micron every morning and they grow out fine. Maybe once a day i stir the bucket to get settled food back into the water column. I did use some RO fittings to make a permanent, rigid air line in the side of this thing so I'm always bubbling at the bottom of the bucket, but that's overkill and an inclination to tinker on my part. Only maintenance for this is an occasional top off with RO water to ensure the salinity doesn't rise too high due to evaporation. One could probably use distilled or rain water for this as well I'd guess. I make the water with Instant Ocean. One bag lasts me a while. The black marker line on the side of the bucket is my water level for three gallons. As it drops a bit below that, I know it's time to top off a bit. I don't grow out massive amounts, but I do get enough to net out and feed some fish (I certainly cant sustain my tanks on its yield alone). Those that avoid the net long enough spawn babies themselves. I run this a while. Then when I think it's starting to foul (and I have no real rule around this other than looking in and thinking, yeah that's getting pretty murky looking), I then net out all the shrimp, feed them to fish, clean the bucket and start over. Like I said, you don't get tons, but you do grow out those leftovers and can enjoy watching fish get excited chasing and gobbling up larger brine. For me it's just another project of interest, just to see if I can accomplish it successfully. There is no real science behind what I do other than common sense. This is to say is that I don't find growing out brine shrimp to be that hard if you follow some simple, reasonable guidelines -- Keep some food suspended in the water via the bubbles. Keep the temp reasonable. Check salinity and top off every now and again. Oh, and don't over crowd the bucket. Like don't dump that initial thick, dark, orange stream of BBS into that bucket. You want a reasonable amount in there. Whats a reasonable amount? No clue. Less than whats in that thick dark orange stream. I do fine using just the few left overs swimming around the very top of the BBS water. I also occasionally replenish their numbers with a drop or two of concentrated BBS taken from the swarm at the bottom of the hatchery, with a pipette. But go easy with that. A few drops from that orange swarm is a lot of shrimp.

(To the tune of the song Baby Shark)....Baby snail 😁 The before and after photos. The crazy part is in the first photo, the females flesh turned black while breeding. The snail in the second picture is the same one that's on the glass in the first picture.

Typically yes. My process is to make an STL file or get an STL file from thingiverse, run it through a program called slicr to get g-code, throw it on the printers SD card, check the print bed and hit go. When everything is as it should be the whole process takes 5min. Some of the more feature rich printers will have things like bed auto leveling so you never have to level the print bed and some have software that can make things a little easier. @jefferz & @akconklin I've had PLA in my aquariums for years and it does not degrade, it is technically bio-degradable but that is very misleading since that process will only take place in an industrial setting at like 140 degrees. I also tested it by burying some in a compose bin I have but 2 years later when we took out the compose it had not degraded at all. As for the toxic dye I doubt that is true either. PLA is generally considered food safe and additives are locked up in the PLA anyways, I have yet to notice any negative effects from adding PLA or ABS to my aquariums. I used to print with ABS but it is a pain in the butt sometimes for tending to warp larger parts, I almost exclusively use PLA and would recommend it for anyone who is starting out.

I was born into the hobby. My mother was a Betta and Cichlid breeder, so MTS was normal in my house. She had tanks all over, dedicated live culture shelves, grow out tanks. They were mostly confined to a "fish room" but there was spillover. There's always spillover. I remember moving across country, my parents had to rent an extra moving truck full of tanks, stands, buckets and bags of fish. I've had at least 1 tank in my room that I was entirely responsible for taking care of since I was 7 years old. Out of 4 kids, I was the only one that had any interest in my mom's aquatic obsessions. I was always drawn to feeder guppies as a kid. I loved their patterns, they were cheap (I liked to pay for things on my own) happy, and in a way I felt like I was rescuing them. I got a pair of Jewel cichlids when I was 10 and absolutely fell in love. They were grumpy, stubborn, ornery little explosions of glittery color that ate earthworms from my hand. My childhood experiences with fish still carried over into adult years. Sweet little prolific Livebearers and grumpy Cichlids are what fill my fishroom today.

Ok, not Sunday, but figured I'd share some snaps from this morning.

It is very hard for me to get excited about taking down and replacing existing tanks in the fish room. Tonight I said I was going to rip the bandaid and get some work done. I was so motivated to finish the first 20 long to 30 breeder switch that I fashioned up my own threaded 90 degree elbow to save a trip to Home Depot and keep the project going! Hey, you gotta find a use for all the PVC fittings you bought and never needed!😁 So far 1 30 breeder up, 1 more to go. I am pleased with how well it looks in the fish room already. And if you are curious, that is dwarf sagittaria looking realllll sexy in the Easy Planters. 😍

I like the idea of coop building a better python and calling it either the Murphy or the Nerm. I don’t know which, I’m torn.😀

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.

Came home from work and upgraded our chicken run from 400 sq ft to 1000 sq ft. Should have some happy girls tomorrow!

I don't have a 3-D printer, but we have a friend who does. He told me to take a look in the Thingiverse and see if there was anything I could use. Well...37 pages out of over-130 pages later...I had a whole list of things I "neeeeeded." 😆 Does anyone else use 3-D projects in your aquariums? There were some incredibly creative things there! I'd love to know if you found some cool "thingi" to use in your fishy world.

I'm gonna celebrate with a Steak. 😄

@Jessica. has set a high bar graphically So I will do my best to follow in her footsteps in labelling the plants

i dont think a mathematical time frame baseline could be formed for STT. We should instead be looking at what the ecosystem of the tank is doing such as the channel "Life in jars" ( i think thats the name) does where they look at how an ecosystem will grow and change in an ecosystem that is closed off but has already been seasoned. I feel like the ability for a tank to grow algae should be a start and that mulm should be present for a tank to register as seasoned. I feel like algae would be a good start as that means there is nothing in the water inhibiting life from maturing and growing. The presence of mulm would mean that there is bacteria breaking down decaying matter. the problem with a mathematical standard equation is the variables. Substrate could create a better breeding ground for bacteria. Temperature of water and purification quality of water being used. The stocking of animals creating waste. how often the owner gravel vacuums the tanks and removes the mulm. instead if we look for key elements of a seasoned tank we could better give aquarist an idea of how far they are in the cycle of getting a seasoned tank. Stage 1- not seasoned tank is still inhibiting the growth of life (aka ammonia or nitrite present) Stage 2 - mulm and decaying matter is starting to form and the presence of ammonia and nitrite is gone and nitrate is appearing. Stage 3 - algae or other Life is appearing on its on within the aquarium and sustaining or growing itself stage 4 - the algae or micro life within the tank is plateauing and sustaining itself. this would be the fully seasoned stage if animals werent added that would eat the micro organisms. Stage 5 - fully seasoned and sustaining micro life with the present of macro life organisms such as shrimp who hunt the micro.

They do divebomb me when I start clearing out duckweed. Which is expected: that's their landing pads!

Usually honey bee water collectors have little interest in stinging 🙂. Interestingly the role of water collecting is a genetic trait and these water collectors have no interest in collecting nectar or pollen.

@MattyIce I think the life part is what we mean when we say seasoned. Once your tank has an interconnected web of biology the aquarium always has the tools to right itself. Cycled traditionally means that a colony of ammonia and nitrite oxidizing bacteria are well enough established in the aquarium to allow for the addition of fish without concern for toxicity. Seasoned to me extends eco-system to include various algaes, rotifers, paramecium, other bacteria, microscopic worms and crustaceans all living in the water, on the glass, on and in the substrate and on plants in a way that supports a micro food web mostly below the level of visibility (except with a microscope). In other words it is like a creek or a pond.

I use a turkey baster to feed my bottom dwellers (back on topic for a sec, this lets me place the food right where I want it). In a tank that I keep Keyholes, the Keyholes are "active feeders." Any time that turkey baster hits the water, the gang is beaking at it until I squeeze the bulb. The sadist in me is looking at that feeding station and imagining my little cichlids losing their dang minds watching their dinner slowly sink down that tube. This might be a good idea on those days when the gang is pulling my plants up and I feel like I need a little payback.

Don't reduce the salt/soda and water as that provides hatching water of the proper salt/soda/water ratio or even if you trimmed everything proportionally there is little to be gained. Also I get further hatching between the 24th and 36th hour, but I start using the newly hatched shrimp at about hour 24 for 2 reasons Newly hatched baby brine shrimp are still mostly nutritious yolk By removing some baby brine shrimp the water is less crowded/polluted for those yet to hatch

If you can, I would try to find your local mom and pop fish store and see if they can source what you're looking for first. If they're unable to, then I would check out aquabid.

I am 😀 should be here by Sunday

Thanks for the additional info, @TheDukeAnumber1. Experience is almost always the best teacher, in my opinion. 🙂

Are we ready for math at this point? Or might this be as elusive as trying to create a mathematical formula to describe 'good art'. Can substrate types can be ranked mathematically What method would you use to determine the ratios of heterotrophic bacteria to autotrophic bacteria and would this even matter (I like your ammonia challenge idea) A seasoned tank presumably has the resiliency to accept changes without losing its equilibrium, so total time between changes to the aquarium might not yield useful information But the challenge @DaveSamsell proposes is productive even in its proposing. It makes me think, just what is a seasoned tank? What characteristics or benefits would be expected from a seasoned tank? So, here goes my first characteristic of a seasoned tank. A seasoned tank has the resiliency to accept challenges/changes without losing its equilibrium. Once we have defined the scope of what we think a seasoned tank can do or not do then we can bring in the big mathematical guns. Kudos to @DaveSamsell for starting the ball rolling on this.

So its typically chlorine or chloramine. If you have chloramine, you could use a catalytic carbon media to remove the chloramine for you. The prefilter for a reverse osmosis system often are equipped (and often do use catalytic carbon) to remove chloramine if present.

Someone from work said on Slack yesterday "I really miss the chatter in the office", I said "I don't miss it at all, I prefer the trickling sound of water from my fish tanks".

Multi-Tank Syndrome (MTS) despite all the money poured in to hobby, all pledges at the MTS telethon and we are still no closer to a cure than we were in 1930s.

*blush* ☺ No prob! I'm glad folks found it helpful. I would notnworry about long term effects of using a water softener. I know it definitely seems like you are adding all of that sodium chloride (salt) from the softener, but really you are only replacing the calcium (which is also a type of salt!) and magnesium (also also a kind of salt!) that was in the water already. So you aren't adding tons of salt (like it might seem,) you are replacing a salt that is already there with a different kind of salt. I do not expect any kind of long term effect from that. (Please feel free to ask more questions if that was unclear.)

Another thing I’d really like is a STT monitor/test kit. I’ve been using the DIY version, A Fine Layer of Mulm, and I just am not sure of the accuracy. Would be great to be able to test with a strip or maybe get a hang-on thing like the Ammonia Alert device but in clock form.

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.

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

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

Kat, just wanted to thank you for a fantastic explanation here. It's *just technical enough* to make sense and be useful without being overwhelmingly detailed. If you're not a teacher, I think you missed your calling!

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.

Consider material cost vs buying a metal rack. Lumber prices are through the roof because of covid, could be different per region.

Ramshorn Snail in my guppy tank.

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