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After @Cory discussed the water tightness of various lighting options in yesterday's live stream I had no intention of running an experiment. My cats were in the room during the live stream and must have heard the discussion because they ran a humidity torture test on one of my 36" Finnex Stringray lights (the one over the 'Nerm' tank in the dirted tank project). Here was their experimental setup: And from the top: I am not sure how long the cats had the experiment running as I was out for a couple of hours this morning getting cinder blocks and 2 x 12's for the aquarium stand for my two new 75 gallon aquariums. As far as I can tell being completely submerged and running for some period of time had little effect on the functionality of the light. I am pretty sure this voids the warranty, but given the durability of the lights my concerns about the warranty are reduced.

Hello everyone, My name is Cruz and I am from the Metro-Detroit area. I am new to the coop forum and wanted to introduce myself and show off my fish room currently! A little bit about myself, I am currently a junior in college pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering some of my hobbies include the obvious fish keeping, sailing, flying rc planes, and working on my cars! I got into fish keeping a little over four years ago and as it happens to most of us is started with one tank and and is now up to 30+ throughout my house. My focus has mainly been breeding livebearers (guppies, swordtails, and limia) as well as shrimp (various different colors of Caridina and Neocaridina) but I have many other types of fish. I would just like to thank the Fishtube youtubers for some of the inspiration in my tanks and fish room and for what they do to promote the hobby itself including; Cory from Aquarium Co-op, Rob from Flip Aquatics, and Bob from Steenfott Aquatics. In addition to Fishtube there are many individuals from the Motor City Aquarium Society that have helped me. I look forward to enjoying the help I receive from others and the advice I can give to others on this forum!

As I sat with coffee cup in hand this morning, my nose mere inches from the glass of my 55- gallon tank, I was reminded of Cory's advice to observe. So...here's your challenge for this weekend: plan a time to just sit & observe your tanks. Not looking for plants to trim, or algae to clear, or water to change. But just watch. And breathe. And let the beauty of nature soothe your soul. Find joy in the life that is teeming in the ecosystem of your tank. You may come away with a to-do list, sure. But identifying a new direction is a good thing. Setting a new goal can be liberating, as you leave others' expectations behind & decide what you want for your tank. Or you may realize just how much you love your tank, how pleased you are with your set up, how well you've done implementing your plan. That's so satisfying, too! And you might find surprises, as I did this morning, when I lost count of just how many mama guppies were about to give birth, or that tuft of staghorn algae that I hadn't noticed before. Whatever you observe in your tank, allow it to motivate you in some way. Let it move you forward in this hobby. Let it inspire you. And by all means, share your thoughts with us. You may provide just the motivation that someone else is needing today.

@Axona I'm finding it interesting how many people got into the hobby because of Covid-19. With all the stress that it is putting on our lives it's interesting how much fish allows us to relax. I never knew. Also, I wonder if stores have gained or loss due to Covid. On the one hand, it is harder and more expensive for them to get the fish. On the other hand, it seems that a lot of people are getting the "I want fish" itch. Thanks for your comment. :)

Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving week! Frogs, Inverts, and Snails African Dwarf Frogs Amano Shrimp Cherry Shrimp Orange Shirmp Red Rili Shrimp Blue Velvet Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp Assassin Snails Mystery Snail (Gold and Ivory) Goldfish Panda Butterfly Tails (Back in stock!) Bettas Veiltail Crowntail Halfmoon Halfmoon Dumbo Ear Koi Nemo Gouramis Sunset Honey Gourami Cichlids Dwarf Victorian Mouthbrooder (Super cool easy to keep Lake Victorian Cichlid) Apistogramma Borellii "Blue" Apistogramma Cacatuoides "Super Red" Apistogramma Nijsseni "Panda" German Blue Ram Assorted Small Discus (White Butterfly) Corydoras and other Catfish Emerald Green Brochis Habrosus Cory Salt and Pepper Cory Pygmy Cory (Wild) Sterbai Cory (Tank Raised) False Julii (Tank Raised) Panda Cory Dwarf Anchor Catfish Plecos Long Fin Blue Eye Bristlenose L177 Gold Nugget L128 Blue Phantom L200 Hi Fin Green Phantom (Been a while on these!) L190 Royal Pleco Common Colombian Otocinclus Tetras Bleeding Heart Tetra Cardinal Tetra (Wild Brazil) Ember Tetra Green Fire Tetra Green Neon Tetra (Wild Colombia) Neon Tetra Red and Blue Colombian Tetra Rummy Nose Tetra (Tank Raised) Long Fin Serpae Tetra Candy Cane Tetra Marble Hatchet Fish (Wild) Dwarf Pencilfish (Wild) Rasboras Chili Rasboras Pork Chop Rasbora Barbs and other Cyprinids Odessa Barb Reticulated Siamese Algae Eater Rainbow Shark (Tank Raised and good sized ones) Roseline Shark Danios Giant Danios Burmese Goldring Danio (Back in stock!) Livebearers Assorted Male Endlers (El Tigre, Flametial "Wild Type", and Silverado Double Red Tail) Assorted Female Fancy Guppies Assorted Male Fancy Guppies (Cobra Green, Luminous Purple, Tequila Sunrise, Flamingo, and Green Lace) Black Lyretail Molly (Nice looking!) Black and White Platy Red Swordtail Rainbows Neon Dwarf Rainbow Thread Fin Rainbow Killifish Clown Killi Guentheri Killifish Pair (Awesome Looking!) Oddball Endlicheri Bichir Burmese Zebra Eel Ornate Rainbow Goby Centipede Knife (super cool and rare) Pea Puffers Amazon Puffers

For those who celebrate, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, my fishy friends! May your day be filled with bellies full of turkey and aquariums full of life!

I've loved Aquarium Co-op videos, and am a huge fan. Finally made my first order today! Baby Brine shrimp cysts, easy green fertilizer, usb nano pump (always handy), a few other odds and ends. I dont know why, but I find it exciting lol!

Congo tetras, LED light and sunlight

The King of Diy ( a youtuber) had a simmillar probelm, he siphoned some of it out and then added amano shrimp. To get rid of it long term you have to adress the reason why there is algae. I would agree with @Streetwise and lower your lighting power as well as adding more plants.

I like the very specific selection of products offered. There is no 'paralysis of choice' when shopping. Everything has been tested.

Nice! Yeah I just got 4 new friends for my 3 pygmy corys and they're so much happier. So cool you have a (male?) betta in a community tank! Still not sure I'm sold on an angel yet. Maybe if I fall in love with one. Feel like I'd have more room to breathe with breeding guppies, snails, and maybe even corys with a couple gourami, but I'll keep an open mind.

You may need to try lowering your lighting power or time a bit. Do your lights offer any output control? In the meantime, I would use a wooden skewer or two to sweep up as much of that as you can. You can twirl it around to capture the hair algae and gently pull it away from the plants. In the long run, you would benefit from adding more plants Cheers

I don't know how to do memes, sadly, but I found this one and liked it. Made me think of quarantining fish.

Hey Folks, I thought I'd share something I did to help keep me organized. I have been testing my water more regularly lately and found I had settled into a standard list of equipment. In order to protect the finish of my wood desk and keep things together I was using a plate from the kitchen. This worked but it wasn't the best for moving from the upstairs tank to the down stairs and vice versa. Also there wasn't much working room. I stopped by a local craft supply store today and found a plastic box designed to store 5x7 photographs: This was a nice size. It has room for my tubes, pipette, cell tray common test cards with room to spare. With the lid open there is even a nice place to put the caps of the test chemicals such that they won't leave a blue ring on the counter top! The thin profile also allows me to tuck this away when not in use. Happy fish keeping! 🐠

Managed to shoot some pictures with my phone:

Hi @Alesha I tend to do this almost every evening, after another day working from home I grab a chair and sit and just watch my fish for 10 or 15 minutes. I actually just did it half an hour ago and notice how great my Cardinals are schooling now they have expanded from 5 to 10 members. I also enjoy watching the snails go around.

Yep you had my attention at... cup of coffee 😄

I know this is wrong on so many levels. As the Sun's path swings a bit lower day by day the 1930's tank get evermore sunlight each day. Naturally the water is greening up beautifully (which is fortunate for me because I had to move my green water aquarium to make room for more aquariums). I have been testing the Felix Smart aquarium monitor with mixed results. I like the Seneye water monitor part, but the camera part is less than spectacular. So I have moved the Felix over the lowest tech aquarium in the house. That is just wrong.

I did this yesterday, after the family fell into a turkey coma. I spent a very relaxing hour listening to Jazz and watching a little snail moving across the tank.

I saw a random tweet about how sea urchins like to use shells and rocks as "hats" for cover. Apparently an aquarist came up with a cute and totally Nermy idea...

I'm adding plants to my tanganyikan tanks as well. Starting with some anubias and java fern. I think the easy planters are the way to go. I will be buying more to add to my 75, 125, and 180 gallon in the near future. The fish don't bother them and it gives the tank a pop of color.

I've always loved animals in general and had quite a few small fish, mainly guppies, growing up. Then I went to college and became a vet and did not find time for fish. Recently, there have been a lot of personal stresses in my life, plus COVID, and I felt drawn to fish again. They have helped me cope with this year, keeping me busy with research/learning curve (vets don't learn much about fish in school!). I just love to watch them. I love to watch Cory's live streams. It's so relaxing to focus on something "optional" that is also quite fascinating and involves nature and biology. I even love water changes! It is therapeutic for me. I found myself with two extra tanks full of fish when our local community college reached out to me for help - They didn't have the staff on campus to care for their fish tanks due to COVID. I took them home and had fun learning what species I suddenly owned and upgrading their tank sizes.

I would encourage shrimp-keepers to keep an oddball tank. Let nature happen, and you might not get pure colors, but you will get very interesting patterns.

I finished my testing of these filters, and removed them for storage. I think they are great filters, and I will probably use them periodically when I need extra filtration, or in bare-bottomed utility tanks. I still prefer the look of just lights, wood, and emergent growth above my tanks. You can see in the sponges, how much they collected in about two weeks, and one week. The blob is some filter floss.

Ah, yes, the extremes of our hobby....

Turkey is cooking, kids are home, fish are fed bbs, life is good today. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

I would use it for growing out plant cuttings, and hydrating a cat.

I've heard that petsmart had the fx6 for 50% off for black friday.

welcome to the forum!! Very nice tanks!

Looking good... I have found that the large Tropheus in my 125 are leaving the anubias alone. The Petrochromis discovered the anubias in their new tank and started shredding the leaves so I had to move it to the 75 gallon tank. Yesterday I started gluing some anubias and Java Fern to rocks in the 75 gallon.

I don't have experience with the Aqueon Opti-bright light. In the last 10 years I have owned either fluorescent shop lights, ultra expensive LED pendent lights, and now Finnex Stingray lights. I have liked all three kinds of lights, but each has its place.

If you only have one tank, just enjoy your shrimp and keep all of them happy.

It's pretty common for blues to throw browns and even greens. I believe they originally came from blue based chocolates. From what I've experienced, Blues are some of the most unpredictable/unstable lines I've seen. Don't be discouraged though, those browns still carry the genes to produce blues down the road, and if you're willing to work with them, you can bring the blue back out. I just got a new generation of little blues from some of my muddy brown/originally blue line. I haven't really worked with them and haven't been culling for awhile though.

I hear ya! We lived in Biloxi for 8 years. The best part of a summer rain storm, there was no best part, 20000% humidity sucks.

We have a Tetra Whisper IQ 45 on one of our 20 longs.

bristlenose plecos get to about 5", the really big fat ones may hit 6".

What a beautiful tank! Welcome to the hobby!

Welcome to the hobby! my favorite time in my hobby was when I had MTS (multiple tank syndrom).

I painted the back of the new 20 long. Then went outside and broke some mexican river rocks from Lowes in half. I'm having visions of siliconing them to inside of the back wall to make what looks like a rock pile but uses less floor space. I wish I could find some pics where someone else had tried it.

I have MTS!

However, as is the nature of TLAs (three-letter acronyms), there can be multiple meanings. MTS can mean Multiple-Tank Syndrome, or Malaysian Trumpet Snails, depending on context!

Oh sorry it stands for Multiple Tank Syndrome. When you get in the hobby and think you will just have 1 tank often times you start wanting more and more tanks and it seems like you never have enough.

Hello and welcome. That is a very nice tank. MTS is a very real problem and happens to almost everyone once they start in the hobby lol.

Think my extroverted friends will get mad if I refer to them as my dither friends? 🤓

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.

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 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.