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Today one of my floating plant corrals failed. I suspect sabotage.

@Dean’s Fishroom @Cory could use some help sexing these please 🙏

Found some very tiny babies today!

Baby shrimp on java moss

My nabours have a son who was in a horrible accident when he was four, he is now ten, little guy can't do anything without assistance. He is basically bed ridden or wheelchair bound, he doesn't speak but is aware of the things around him. He has a spot in his room for a twenty gallon long aquarium and I'm buying him one and going to set it up for him and his family. I got my shipment from the Co-op the other day so the aquarium is going to get a sponge filter and usb air pump. I've still yet to figure out exactly what plants but I'm going to stick to low light plant's. After 30 years of being in the hobby I'm currently stumped on what fish to get. I was going to set it up with my cull male guppies but I think more types of fish( a couple of small groups) would be more visually stimulating for the little feller. Any ideas on active, colorful, small fish of more than one species or do y'all think just a species only tank. It'll be a twenty gallon long aquarium I just don't want it to be boring for the little man. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

I just ordered some white clouds from aqua huna for his aquarium but I really like the idea of the Paradise fish with the white clouds. Both in my opinion would be great especially with all the plants I also order from the co-op, just now. Like I mentioned he's getting a twenty long so fifteen white clouds, a few green corydoras, and a paradise gourami seems like a good aquarium.

I have a problem. I bought a 75, 40 breeder, 29, 20 high, and a 10. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them😅 I already have a 37 in the garage waiting on Christmas for my daughter. It should be fun trying to figure it out. The Coop will be getting a massive order from me soon. Need lots of air pumps, sponge filters, and plants. Someday I may even get around to putting fish in there🤪.

I got a better picture of mine today and a Dwarf aquarium lily

Hydra for sure! The cool green ones. They are harmless to fry, but they grow fat and multiply on baby brine shrimp. Here is one eating baby brine shrimp in my baby sparkling gourami tank.

Got the heater and the heater controller programmed on the Apex today. The dial on the heater is set to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. But the heaters are plugged into Apex controller outlets that will turn off if the temperature when it gets above 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and turn on if the temperature falls below 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The fallback position is OFF which means about 72 degrees Fahrenheit as this is the ambient temperature of the fishroom. I consider today to be Day 1 of the project as this was the day the heaters and filters went in. Usually I wouldn't put in a heaters or filters, but most people would, so for this project, heaters and filters it is! EcoComplete Day 1. Dirt (Organic garden soil) with BDBS cap Day 1 (and bonus earthworms coming out the soil) Regular 'Peace River' substrate with fertilizers. All the aquariums have 2 Finnex 36" Stingrays set to be on from 8 AM until 8 PM.

I don't have the results yet, but I am testing several variations including dirt with a sand cap and EcoComplete.

Dollar per gallon sale starts today at petco, don’t forget to get your usb air pumps and sponge filters from @Cory at Aquarium CoOp!

Use dry erase marker on fish tanks to remember water changes use mag float to erase.

Hard to say if they are a true breeding pair. Still a bit young. One might end up in the “friends” zone as you grow them out, and then you just have a platonic pair.

As a mama of a special needs kiddo (who's 20 now, but still a "kiddo" - he's non-mobile and non-verbal), I'd suggest to be sure you include something that bubbles! All children love bubbles, and they are eye catching. Often, those with brain damage have trouble with eye tracking, so the bubble will catch their eye sometimes, even if the fish don't. Maybe a bubble bar or something similar. Our tanks were started for our son, too, but unfortunately, he just isn't interested in them. LoL! I know! How rude, right?! 😆 But we discovered how soothing and interesting and relaxing they are to US and so we continue. You may find that the parents also enjoy the tank very much. I know for sure they are so appreciative of this blessing you are giving to their family. ❤️

if you do panda corys do the long fin type. I have a few and I love them. You can get them from aquahuna but I git mine from my LFS when they had some in stock.

guppy skittles tank! lots of color, very active, and he will get the joy of lots of babies. you can throw a betta in there as well as a centerpiece fish, take a trip with him (if you can with his parents of course) to the pet store and let him pick one out.

Sunday maintenance day update! I did a big trim today and replant. I pulled out and trimmed val, replanted the hairgrass background plant to extend it further to the left, and removed some java fern and replaced it with stauro to extend that carpet. Before and afters: It took about 8 months for the val in this tank to start growing well, but now (1.5 years of being in this tank), the val gets huge, wide leaves. This is giant "americana" val.

I'm a huge fan of dirted tanks but I don't really follow the wastad method. I try to fully mineralize my soil before setting up the tank. Meaning I try to get all the organics in the soil to break down fully. This results in a very nutrient and mineral rich soil that is (mostly) inert meaning that while it contains many elements plants need and will help them grow it will not be a significant source of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate because there is no decaying organic material. To my understanding this is similar to products like Ecocomplete which is also a mineral rich planted substrate that is actually inert. The pros of my method is its dirt cheap (pun intended) compared to planted tank substrates like ecocomplete and it halps avoid the huge paramater swings and early stage algae blooms for a true wastad tank. The cons are it still needs an nitrogen source (I use easy green) and unlike ecocomplete it needs to be capped.

So it took no time at all to experience crypt melt. Saw that coming though, even my parva plants lost leaves. They’re still in the process of melting those leaves, but my banana plants are doing well with new growth. The one that came with long roots has even started to grow into the substrate. My Java Fern has lost two leaves, but one leaf is growing little plantlets that I’ve heard everyone talk about. Watching the growth will be fascinating. I discovered a hitchhiker today. The snail is super tiny and surprisingly see through. I guess I’ll need to wait and see what kind as it gets bigger? I’m tempted to move my proper mystery snail into here as his tank is crashing and moving him would lessen the bioload. If the little guy is surviving, maybe Francis can to?

Hi everyone! I recently got back into the hobby with my kids after a 15 year hiatus. It's amazing how much the hobby has changed from my start with metal framed aquariums in the 70's, to my last experience with wet dry reef systems in the late 90's and early 2000's. I love the new cubes and portrait tanks instead of the rectangles we could only get in the past. We have 3 small tanks that started with a Betta in a 5 gallon, a 12 gallon community tank and now a 20 gallon with some live plants. We're loving it and I'm learning as much as I can to catch up on all the new tech and techniques to make our hobby better!

Some new pics from today! I was able to pick up a tiger lotus from a local hobbyist. I'm very hopeful that it will do well since I know they're a popular plant that is hard to come by right now. The betta is doing well! I'm still trying to think of a name since he is a wet pet. He is always following a snail or trying to eat duckweed (and spitting it out). He's a shy guy and hides if I put up a mirror but isn't scared of people or me tapping on the lid before feeding him.

I think someone said in another post this one is scheduled for November 1 - November 11. Sometimes they run out of stock, so getting there sooner rather than later is usually a good idea. They do it’s in store pick up only. And can we order ahead I decided I a 20 long, gonna breed rams or appisto’s

With the time change, don't forget to go into the app and 'touch' each of your Fluval lights.

Shipping is stressful, if there are deaths from shipping it usually occurs in the first week. I don't add anything to my water, I just make sure it is the cleanest water I can manage and keep my fingers crossed. Sorry about your loss, I know those rainbows were long awaited by you. I pretty sure I would be in a tender state if I had just spent 8 days in the mail. Back in July I got some tiny baby Discus that had a rough ride getting to me. I started with 15 fish but by day ten I was down to 11 fish. I could tell ahead time which ones were struggling and not likely to make it, but after day 10 the survivors took off and have been growing exponentially ever since. Hope that wasn't the male rainbow fish that died (since he was the most colorful). I wish I knew more about how to perform a proper autopsy after a fish death instead of just making an (un)educated guess as the what happened. I wonder if there is a course on that somewhere?

The powerwall would be there to store excess power and act as a capacitor. Solar and wind would be the main continuous power sources. Out here in farm land Michigan, there's generally some amount of wind. Typically, if it's not windy, its a sweltering hot sunny summer day. The generator would really be a worst case Ontario back up. Between wind, solar and creative use of energy mechanics I think we can achieve a net zero Consumers Power consumption.

@Tristen, if you are interested in running an organic-soil tank, you need to use organic soil. I would really recommend reading her book: Diana Walstad's Books and Articles – FISH, AQUATIC PLANTS and FAMILY DIANAWALSTAD.COM Purchasing information for Diana Walstad's books ‘Ecology of the Planted Aquarium’(3rd Edition) and ‘Family History of a Doctor's Daughter’ (2017). Free articles on planted tanks, fish diseases, guppy breeding, etc. I normally use 1.5" organic soil, capped with 0.5" sand, and 1.0" small gravel. Some of my tanks have slightly different cap layers. I like the gravel to allow the mulm to absorb, and the sand to keep the soil down. I plant as many plants as possible, do not gravel vac, and try to avoid moving plants. You will have to practice patience, and let nature work.

This thread has a lot of good answers in it. this thread is documenting @Daniel’s foray into the Walstad methodology for substrate. I have not yet been brave enough. I have used jars however to basically do movable mini-Walstad planters inside aquariums and those have worked. I like being able to change things easily if I need to.

Soon-to-be mama yellow dwarf shrimp. 💛💛

Bamboo shrimp showing off the fans Black Racer Nerite hitching a ride on a Black Devil

I bought this back in August and floated it. It is like an iceberg as there is more of it underwater than above. This is the above part.

It goes on water line supplying the filter. Installed between the supply valve and the filter.

Hey folks, I'm David from Minnesota looking at all the newbies and wishing I had access to fish keeping forums when I started my first tank in the 70s. I had to check out books from the library. I made many, many mistakes along the way, but now consider myself to be an expert and proudly so. But even still, there is always, and I repeat, always more to know. I've gone from live bearers, to planted tanks, to salt water, to African cichlids, to South American cichlids, and currently running 12 tanks including 3 planted, one salt water, and both African (mainly frontosa and peacocks) & South American cichlids, mainly geophagus. I'm posting a picture of my front crew, they are Kitumbas. They stare a lot. 😃 Also posting one of my cichlid playgrounds. They fight a lot. 🙃

Super-glued duckweed.🙄😁😆

The Rainbows showed up today! It took them 8 days to go from Michigan to upstate NY, but they are all currently alive and in the QT.

So i finished the background, love the way it looks. Plastidip stuff is so easy to work with. I also put the material on the top 2x4s. Not crazy about the look, but it'll do. It's mainly there to give me a place to put little stuff that would fall through the gaps in the 2x4s. For that, it does an awesome job. Sorry for the glare on the tank. It makes it hard to see the background. The lids! I love working with this polycarbonate stuff. I bought a 2'x4' sheet that let me make lids for both the 55 and the 45 as well. Just gotta get some of those stick on knobs I starting putting substrate in. I think I'll need 3 more bags, maybe 4 to finish it. I also still need to work on cable management and after I finish a project today, i am going to go down the hill to the bay and see what I can find for hardscape. I also need to drain the QT tank and put it up on the stand. It's currently sitting on the floor under the 55. Those are my goals for today; knobs, rocks/sticks, and move the QT tank.

Suction cups are awesome to invest in. Makes moving larger tanks less stressful. I bought them to move my 110 gallon outside so I could drill the glass for a sump.

I once had a non-purposeful accident involving a lot of RO water. Extra deep, top grade floor cleaning.

I love the oldschool aquarium plants. Bannana plants are my favorite of the ones im aware of. They are so easy to grow and to propogate. Not to mention how amazingly cheap they are. I belive the CO OP sells them for $3.99.

I couldn’t resist, I did it. The original tank was just too small, especially for such a crazy active betta. And tonight was the one night that I didn’t have a 3 year old all over me lol. Before: After:

Made "night lights"!

Well I pulled the trigger and bought from LR Bretz and will post pics when they arrive!

Today was the first sunny rain free day in almost a week. I went down to the creek to see how high the water had got. I saw some minnows all clumped together fighting the current in the shallow water running over the limestone slab. Someone was trying to make for an easy meal. There was a larger black mass of them just downstream. I think this is some kind of wild mint that had been flooded over on the bank.

I will add something from my UPS experience. I tried to help out a local restaurant when they lost power from a storm. I went home and grabbed my UPS, about two blocks away. I turned it off. When I tried to turn it back on under battery-power alone, it would not start. I had to walk through a downpour to the fire department, a block away, and they let me plug in to turn it on. Then I was able to deliver the unit back to the restaurant so they could close all their tickets. TLDR: Never turn off your UPS with the power off.

That's quite the progress this week. What are you doing to winterize your temporary wall?

some phone shots of some plecos. pretty impressive on what phones can do nowadays

Pristella or X ray Tetra. An underrated fish IMHO. Tight schooler, very hardy.