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This is my Quarantine Tank, a 5-gallon Marineland Portrait. I set it up in early September and added this plant on the 8th. I was so amazed by the growth. Thought I'd share a pic:

One of the things I have learned from doing the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted aquarium is that a simple planted aquarium with no filters, heaters, airstones or lights works surprisingly well if you set it front of window in a warm house (and don't stock it too heavily). The items that you really need or would be nice to have in order of importance are: You really have to have a way to warm the tank in a cool house (unless you are keeping natives or goldfish or White Clouds or rice fish), and a modern aquarium heater is less expensive and more comfortable than living in a greenhouse. Note that if you have a bazillion aquariums though, it is better to heat the room. Once you have a heater, it is nice to have an airstone and a pump to circulate the water. It is also good for the plants and the beneficial bacteria that live on the surface of the plant's leaves to have the water circulating, but you could live without this, unlike a heater. Artificial lighting is nice to have because in the winter the days are short and if you want to look at the aquarium in the early morning or at night, you need artificial light. The plants grow just fine with sunlight only. But I want to look the aquarium when I want to, not just when the sun is up. On the other hand, I have an aquarium stocked with monitoring gadgets that cost more than the used 2012 Suzuki SX3 automobile I just bought (admittedly I did get a good deal on the car). So I guess it just depends on what you want. Everything beyond the basics either does the job a little better or is fun to own or both. A sponge filter pretty much does the job of a canister filter (but you cannot switch media in a sponge filter) but canister filters can do specialized tasks and potentially handle bigger jobs. Plants do the same biological filtration as sponge filter but without the mechanical filtration you get with a sponge filter. Tetra strips are way, way less expensive that electronic probes and such and the Tetra strip give results that pretty much/roughly agree with the presumably more accurate numbers from the probes. In fact the Tetra strips measure important parameters that like nitrate that are not usually measured by probes. But the probes and the data you can collect with them are their on sort of joy (and can even automatically implement corrective algorithms if something goes awry) And if you like that sort of stuff, it is easily worth the expense. I am sure some complications comes from not knowing what is really needed or why or maybe it just a personality type, but mostly I think we make the hobby as complicated as we desire or can afford.

We've been struggling with our tanks for several weeks. One had to re-cycle after several rounds of medication and the other was just waiting for a re-scape and the arrival of quarantining fish. After a couple of weekends of work and a few cycles of cloudy-clear, cloudy-clear in the 55-gallon, I woke up this morning to 2 beautifully scaped and clear tanks. It was a nice surprise!

I added a trio of Endlers to each aquarium. I plan to add equal amounts of the same species to each tank over the next few days. This is the dirted tank.

Thanks Aquarium Coop! My baby honeys go crazy for them, I've got the whole blender as well as your eggs, works so good!! I'll do a proper review soon. Michelle

No, you can have great success and fun without all the gadgets. The gadgets don't necessarily make like easier either.

Last night's extracurricular: organize the bits and pieces. I am really surprised it has taken me so long to do this. 🙂

It could be damage. I know when I got a banana plant a few weeks ago that two of the three leaves had been damaged in shipping and plants usually don't heal like animals do. They often put resources into growing a new leaf instead of any kind of repair. So as long as it still has other leaves you should be fine trimming the damaged one.

I love the big rocks! They are way underutilized. But you asked for it, so here it comes. The big vertical is a perfect opportunity for 'rule of thirds' so move it just a bit to the left so it isn't so centered. Edit the big rocks some (remove some). What looks more natural is 1 or 2 big rocks together surrounded by 8 - 10 medium rocks, and those medium rocks are surrounded by 20 - 50 small rocks. Think about how a fractal works. Or think about this way, how many mediums until the weight is the same as the big one. How many smalls until their weight is as much as the big ones? You can have big rocks on both sides, just not so many, and they need to be balanced by ever increasing smaller sizes. The hardest part of any art is the removing. In video editing is called 'killing your babies'. You get so attached to something you like and worked hard on that it is difficult to leave it on the cutting room floor. But in the end, less is more.

Agreed, in my house the aquarium with the least gadgets is definitely the easiest to maintain and at least as much fun as any other aquarium.

@Hobbit I too have no intention of buying anything, but I feel nervous...like I might buy something.

Can you keep a single discus? Yes but the Discus probably won’t like it. Discus kept as a single tend to be very shy and stick to protected areas. When there are multiple Discus (at least 3) the behavior changes and you have fish that use the whole tank and become very interested in what you’re doing.

Having decided to go full deep dive into a fishroom earlier this year I made decisions to give up other hobbies. I torn down my plastic modeling bench to make room for my 75 gallon tank. In the next house I'd like to have more room for it again. I do still enjoy kayaking, fishing, archery, and diy projects around the house. I'll probably get a PS5 eventually to get back into gaming when Horizon Forbidden West comes out.

Building/fixing PCs and electronics, playing video games, woodworking, playing trombone, and oil painting. Not all at the same time.

I finished building my stand and staining it! My fingers are crossed that the stain will be okay after letting it rest overnight and I can move my 50 hex onto it tomorrow!

Hello everyone! My name is Joe and I am a first time planted tank fish keeper. I currently have an 55 gallon community type planted aquarium. This is my first aquarium. I am hoping to learn more and progress in my abilities.

To me it all goes in cycles. A lot of people build toward a crazy tech heavy setup and eventually come around to the simplest methods again. One of my other hobbies is paintball and this type of thing always makes me think of this cartoon.

I love the piece of driftwood! Looking good so far. I'd mess around with moving the driftwood a little more off centered. I did some sloppy photoshopping to show you what I mean. The "rule of thirds" can be helpful for scaping. Current: With the driftwood moved:

Tanks usually come in on the trucks for Thursday to restock for the weekend. I have been told by mgr’s the orders are based on the weeks prior sales so if stock gets wiped during this week it is usually takes two weeks to rebuild the stock of tanks - if inventory is available at distribution warehouses. Geez I really NERMed that one. Who chats up local petco store mgr’s to get to know supply chain logistics? Please don’t judge.

Doh! I forgot about convenience! What is more valuable than our time? If I could invent an automatic feeder that would reliably deliver frozen fish food cubes and this feeder could go for a week or two without reloading...I could retire from beekeeping!

Mine is sort of tongue in cheek but I feel like almost every live stream someone asks about betta sorority tanks. I feel like at this point @Cory should just make a sign and hold it up or something lol

I was able to secure one 20H for the fishroom expansion

I’m still too cowardly to fully dirt a tank, but I have dug up chunks of moss from my back yard and put them into aquariums. My cichlids are very appreciative of the worms that pop up!

😆😆😆 (I'm out of emojis for the next 24 or so hours, I guess!) No, @Daniel, your eyes are fine! That's the reflection from the other tank across the room. It was either that, or the floor lamp, desk lamp and computer screen. Ha!

Co-op blog article has one. Which Planted Tank Fertilizer Is Right for You? WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM Ever wonder how professionals and even advanced hobbyists make those gorgeous aquascapes bursting with plant life? It all comes down to having the three essentials that make aquatic plants happy:

Upper tank: Zebraplecos. Middle tank: Corydoras Pygmaeus. L034, Neoheterandria Elegans and Cherry Shrimp. Lower tank: Corydoras Eques and Corydoras Napoensis. The electrics are going through changes 🤪

I have held them in a 20 long and thought it worked out great. Plenty of room to spread out and increase numbers. It is also short enough that with plants or hardscape they can utilize that and go vertical. Like others have mentioned, you can get away with about anything for shrimp.

Plant Profile Cryptocoryne Wendtii Bronze and Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green I bought both of these plants at a local store. The green was potted, and it was huge! I wasn’t sure if I should break it up when I first got it and it grew near the center of my tank for months. The one that I call bronze was just a loose plant they had from a local aquarist. It was tiny when I first got it. It had three or four brown leaves that layer horizontal on my substrate. It was a weird looking plant for a long time. I planted them booth near the center of my tank in the mid ground. I knew they should get about 4-6” leaves, and I was looking forward to them filling in the middle of the tank. I have been giving them root tabs every other month, but honestly they are probably ready to take them once a month now. The bronze did sprout a runner and I have left them next to one another for now. The green started producing runners like crazy. When I needed to add to my substrate I removed them and I split the green up. Now there are healthy crypts all over the middle of my tank. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the texture of the leaves, but I love them. The broad leaves are great for my otos and shrimp. The one plants that I separated and replanted are growing much slower than my original plants did, but that may be because I wasn’t quick enough to add root tabs. I know a lot of people experience melt when they plant crypts, but I did not. What is stranger is that the store that I bought mine from uses RO water and I do not. My biggest issue right now is that I have some green spot algae that I am battling and I am seeing it on some of the crypts. I had very little algae until I added tiger lotus to my aquarium. I love the look of the plant, but it through off the balance of my aquarium and I am apparently not experienced enough to dial it in quickly.

I’ve kept them in a 6, 10, and 29 and they all did well. I will say the benefit of a larger tank is that it’s easier to keep the water parameters stable, which neos appreciate.

@StephenP2003I never found endlers to munch on the baby shrimps if at all. It's funny with shrimp, it will seem like for the longest time they aren't multiplying too fast, then all of a sudden there's a million of them in the tank.

It's normal for the color from Ich-X to disappear after it's been added to the water. Polyfill is a physical filter media so won't remove medication from the water. There's a good chance it will be stained by the medication, though.

I'm going to bring a heater to the turtle tank. I managed to find it on the first try. I had to go thru multiple drawers, boxes, and bins to find the matching suction cup. Totally nermal.

Bolivian rams tend to lose color extremely quickly when stressed. It also has some mild stress stripes (the horizontal grey ones). Paracleanse/General Cure are moderately stressful treatments so I'm not surprised, I don't expect the ram to look like that long-term. It took a couple of weeks for my newest ram to get color (it was exposed to ich so there was 2TBS salt/gallon in this tank). At the point this was recorded at, the ram has no symptoms of illness, but it did end up with some cysts down the line and looking a lot more like your fish due to the added stress.

Whew...that IS a very judge-y face! I hope you kept your receipt...just in case. 😂😂😂

I found something on McMaster-Carr which may help. Its a rubber edging with a built in flange. It's black and hopefully won't be too ugly. There is a range of sizes. If you go this route I hope you fine one that fits. McMaster-Carr WWW.MCMASTER.COM McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day. under "edge trim" search for "Water- and Weather-Resistant Rubber Push-On Seals with Foam Rubber Wiper" I LOVE McMaster-Carr. They may not have exactly what you want, but they will have at least one thing that will get you very close. Their shipping is fantastic (pre COVID). I especially like the engineering specs they add to their part descriptions and added descriptions for the categories of things. You can learn alot from this info. Look around while you are in there. I'm sure you will get inspiration for a project or two! Good Luck. PS If you can't get enough, MSC Industrial Supply is like McMasterr, but has more. MSC Industrial Supply - Metalworking tools and MRO Supplies WWW.MSCDIRECT.COM MSC Industrial Supply is the source for your metalworking tool and MRO needs. Over 1.5 million products from industry leading suppliers in stock and ready to ship

When even your dog knows you're in trouble for bringing home new tanks.

I use Sera Micron for tiny Rainbows. I also like to sprinkle a little in front of the current for Bamboo shrimp too, they love it.

A co-worker got a betta in a vase for her desk. I wanted one too, but I did some research and bought a 5 gallon (supervisor approved) heated and planted. I upgraded to a 10 gallon a couple of months after and added six pygmy cories. I got hooked. I needed another tank for at home obviously. Now I have 9 at home plus a 20 long at work that is fairly self sustaining. I'm only in once a week now, but co-workers feed the other days I'm not there. If they skip a day here or there it's not a big deal. I love the different types of fish, their behaviours and how they interact with other fish (or just each other). It's very calming and I like finding surprise fry.

Heiko Bleher wrote the book on Discus: Heiko thinks of discus as a schooling fish as depicted on the front and rear inners cover of his book. Discus remind me of people as they are extremely social and political. In my experience my discus have always schooled together in a group with the discus at the top of the hierarchy being the leader and main lookout. Their favorite place to hangout is in tall weeds or tangled branches.

1.) Look at the bottle of water conditioner to make sure it is conditioner. I just grabbed the bottle with a pump. It was the Easy Green bottle. (Only added it to 5 gals before I saw my mistake.) 2.) Don't forget to turn the filter back on after doing a water change. I noticed it 24 hours later. Luckily no Ammonia spike. 3. Don't skip a water change. I went 2 weeks. Nitrates were way to high and it took me doing a 7gal water change 3 times to get it down. (its only a 29 gal.) 4. Don't over feed. See #3. (Started Tank up Sep 2nd)

I've had them in aquariums, and I also have some outside in pots. They are supposed to do well in ponds. I've also been playing with bald cypress trees in aquariums. Those grow a little too well in aquariums. Nice part is that they bonsai really well and grow relatively quickly compared to mangroves....

Some of the Killi's lookin good today.

I knew I was a nerm when my sister ordered me a cake for my birthday and told them to put fish on it.

The tech isn't required it's just mostly short cuts. Less water changes,overstocking, advance plants all become a reality with gadgets. However, almost everything we put in a tank isn't required. Heaters aren't needed if your room is steady temperature and in the proper range. Lights aren't required or even have to be anything fancy. Fake plants work just fine as do low tech lights. Filters allow u to keep more fish with upkeep. If ur into the work totally aren't a requirement to have a filter at all. The only thing required in the hobby is clean water.

i've had some mangroves in my tanks for a while, growth is good both in the air roots and the leaves. i have a vision for a mangrove heavy tank in a large tank where you (very slowly) grow the air roots to give an appearance of tree roots with the leaves forming a canopy above the tank. ill post some photos of my mangroves when i get home. one thing about mangroves is that they do not do well when moved once they get past the 24" size or so, they tend to die off when moved. from my experience, you want the entire stem the leaves form out of to be above water which is the brown part you see in the photo. leaves will develop all alongside that portion which is why you want it out of water. growing mangroves is kind of like a bonsai, it takes years to grow them and lots or pruning. so to develop the air roots, which are these: you need to have a nutrient rich water (fertilized) to encourage that growth. you do need to find a balance with the leaves in the canopy though, if you allow the mangrove to grow too many leaves they will stop developing the air roots. once you trim a leaf from the canopy it tends to not grow back so trimming leaves is kind of like pruning a bonsai tree. it can take years before they get to the point where you really need to start maintaining them though, they're slow growers. these are amazing nitrate removers and do better with harder water and minerals. im happy cory gave these a shoutout, i think more people need to be playing around with them and im always pushing for people to grow plants out of the tank as well as growing them inside.

In this hobby it's not the main draw for me, but I've got to admit I really like gadgets. I have a tech background (building, selling, repairing PCs and other electronics, gaming and workstation focus), so I'm a sucker for shiny new toys that promise to be faster/better/smarter than yesterday's batch. But obviously they have to bring some value to the hobby, and preferably marketed correctly (like, fluval 3.0s aren't the only way to grow plants, but app-controlled lights are more than just a gimmick IMO). There can be a lot of noise to cut through, like any other market, because a lot of "innovative" products are just new ways of presenting an old idea. As for it being a barrier into the hobby? I don't think it is, at least not yet. The most prominent beginner guides/articles still stick to the tried-and-true basics, and your average beginner is grabbing an aquarium kit where the most high-tech thing is a row of white LEDs.

I dont know much about turtles but i think the basking place needs to be fully out of the water so it doesnt start getting shell rot