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Hello fellow Aquarium fans, My name is Will and I am back in the hobby since 2015 after a few years break. I am a US citizen but live in Europe and as of 2015 in Berlin, Germany. It has been really fun to cross the German / USA hobby worlds and I am currently enjoying the access to the quality products and fish that are in Germany. But I am a total fanboy of the Youtubers from all over the world of course including the Aquarium Coop gang! I would call my style 'Aquascaping light' and as my wife and I live in a relatively small apartment I currently just have have a 30l (8 gallon) and 60l (15 gallon) tanks. Up until July I also had a 330l (87 gallon) tank but broke it down and sold it. Hopefully, fingers crossed, in the future when we move into a bigger place I can invest in a 450l tank. I uploaded a few pics of my current and past tanks over the last few years and am excited to participate and learn on the forum!

I’m a fancy goldfish nut so it’s hard not to recommend them. Full disclosure - some are about as intelligent as a half opened bag of potato chips. Others, however, are so much fun that they’re every bit the wet pets you want. My wife’s favs are side view ranchu. If you get a big show quality (but not exaggerated) fish, they’ll follow you around, beg for food every minute, and hover ominously over your shoulder watching Tv with you (our tank was beside the sofa. Mine are blue egg phoenix’s. OLD school Chinese breed, very rare in the hobby, but the elegance of a comet with the body size of a fancy, and an epic blue coloration that is very rare to see. Always on the move, and mine spit water at me like an archer when I came to feed them 🙂 We had to destroy all of ours due to a TB infection and it just about broke my heart to do.

I think all green is good. I don't know of any bad green.

I still use a bucket on 8 tanks. I figure, once I’m done, I’m good on exercise until next time😁

I would lower water level so there is not as much pressure on the brace

If you are any good at cutting glass, and have the tools for sanding down the sharp edges, you could take it apart, and rebuild as a 29 gallon lowboy:

Lol, I figured as much. Marketing...clearly I should try to get the Jazz Hands name to stick just to muddy the waters further! 😎

@Bay Area Aquatics Interestingly enough, I found that the shape of the heater may matter. I got the Hygger 15W heater mentioned in another post, which is a rectangular shape. No matter how I mounted it (against the wall or hanging in the middle), it seemed to block water flow in certain areas of the blender. Eggs would get stuck in one corner of the blender or on the heater itself, and my hatch rate was consistently lower. 1/4 tsp of eggs hatched with rectangular Hygger heater When I switched to my Aqueon Pro 50W heater (which looks like a long cylinder) and hung it in the middle of the blender (so that water can freely flow underneath the heater), the hatch rate was consistently higher. 1/4 tsp of eggs hatched with tube-shaped Aqueon heater Everything else was exactly the same (temperature, recipe, etc), so I guess I'll be going back to the Aqueon heater. Anyway, just my two cents if you're still looking for a heater solution for the Ziss brine shrimp hatchery. Aqueon 50W heater hanging in the middle of the blender

My last highest count was 8 babies. A few are starting to get more adventurous and are exploring more of the tank so counting has been more challenging. I've put some baby brine in the last 2 days. They are very interested but I didn't see on eat yet. The largest looks like it could. I'll keep trying every day though. Attached is a photo from Dec 16th. Unfortunately they no longer hang out by the glass so macros are basically impossible with my clip on phone lense.

Not the best photo but I have my first berried shrimp! It’s a blue neo from the Coop😊 This one seems to be a blue rili. It’s funny cause last night, my partner had remarked on how big that particular shrimp was getting (she hadn’t dropped her eggs yet). And I was doing extra research on neocaridina life cycle, trying to estimate when they’d transition from juveniles to adults and begin mating—very anxious to make sure my shrimp feel comfortable. I think it’d be cool to observe the lifecycle of neos but I also want breeding because to me, it’s an indicator that the shrimp are happy and feel safe. I’ve been wanting sparkling gouramis but the Coop has been sold out. The bright side is that this gives me a better opportunity to grow my shrimp colony in the meantime. I have Pygmy Corys but I read that they’re safer for baby shrimp since they’re omnivores but have more scavenging behavior rather than actively searching for and chasing little moving things to eat. I have lots of plant cover and leaf litter too. I read that Pygmy Corys are also relatively easy to breed🤔 They lay eggs tho so it would be more complicated for a beginner like me compared to “live bearers” like the sparkling gourami (can that term be used generally or is it only used for particular types of fish like mollies and guppies...?) I feel like most beginner fish keepers are attracted to the bright colors of guppies, neon/cardinal tetras, bettas, apistos, etc. but there’s something that makes my heart flutter seeing the hint of rainbow flashes on “plain” colored fish like Pygmy Corys and sparkling gouramis (kind of like the sparkly details of the book, “Rainbow Fish”). Plus sparkling gouramis have those beautiful bright blue eyes! Anyway, I marked the date to start actively checking for missing eggs/baby shrimp in my planner (which I mostly use for work). I feel like I’m a grandma😂 I’m excited!!

New fish arrived today. The Honey Gourami and the Sparkling Gourami made the trip from Washington State to Florida with no problem at all. Unfortunately, the Cherry Barbs were not as successful. Only one arrived alive. He's in the QT with the Honeys. We're hoping like crazy that he makes it! The Sparklers are in their own tank but will be quarantined as well. There is a weird film on that tank as it's cycling, so apologies for the dark pics. To say we're excited is an understatement. So thrilled with our purchases! And Aqua Huna had refunded our money as well as part of the shipping costs within an hour of my emailing them about the Cherry Barbs. Impeccable customer service! I'll be updating with better pics as I get them and stories too, I'm sure. 😁 Alesha

We have little swimmers, as of tonight. This is our first spawn with our German Blue Rams. Throw me ALL of your tips and tricks. 😃 Super Exciting! I was expecting that they maybe would have eaten their eggs as they did last time and I was expecting to need to give them one more try... so this was such a fun surprise!

IMO, if you're using chemicals to help with algae, you're adding more fuel to the fire. Algae control can be accomplished naturally. Tell us more about your tank. How new/old are your lights? How long are they on? Timer? Do you have a clean up crew of any sort? How often do you rinse out your filtration?

If you’re an aquarist with some decent experience, you should not be afraid of keeping discus. These are some of the most beautiful fish in the freshwater tropical hobby. We have slowly been adding young discus to our aquaria, learning how they like to be kept. In the final analysis, they really are not difficult. Hope this video encourages you to give them a try!

whatever filter your using for the 75, move over to the 25 (unless the ones you are using for the 25 are the ones you are using for the 75, which in that case you can fill the tank up and plug in the filter the same day you add the fish) do that for 3 weeks, then when its time, tear down both 25s and use the sand and driftwood over to the 75 as well as the pre-established filter. You can then add the fish.

if you dont want to move one of the filters over, best bet is to move some plants or driftwood over a couple days or more before you move the fish.

That is a plant from Elite Cichlids. Super fake. Lol. They make nice looking plants right? In all seriousness the tank had fake plants in it but I didn't want to mess with the fish too much during the transition to real plants so I left it in.

Interestingly enough, I found that the shape of the heater seems to matter. I got the Hygger 15W heater mentioned above, which is a rectangular shape. No matter how I mounted it (against the wall or hanging in the middle), it seemed to block water flow in certain areas of the blender. Eggs would get stuck in one corner of the blender or on the heater itself, and my hatch rate was consistently lower. 1/4 tsp of eggs hatched with rectangular Hygger heater When I switched to my Aqueon Pro 50W heater (which looks like a long cylinder) and hung it in the middle of the blender (so that water can freely flow underneath the heater), the hatch rate was consistently higher. 1/4 tsp of eggs hatched with tube-shaped Aqueon heater Everything else was exactly the same (temperature, recipe, etc), so I guess I'll be going back to the Aqueon heater. Anyway, just my two cents if you're looking for a heater solution for the Ziss brine shrimp hatchery. Aqueon 50W heater hanging in the middle of the blender

I'd recommend a Midas Cichlid as being big, colorful, and full of personality. My old guy Sunny would watch people and our cats and if anyone (or a cat) walked by the tank and ignored him, he'd splash them. There were openings on either side of the tank cover I was using back then (2004-2012) and he'd watch out for a target. If you were watching him and gave him a finger to chase along the glass, he'd let you pass without a splash, but if you ignored him and walked past, you'd get splashed. He had some plastic golf balls and a few weighted artificial plants to play with as toys. He was constantly redecorating his tank by moving the plants and gravel around to wherever it suited him at the time. The drawback for your criteria is the bump on the head. Oscars are similar in personality, but more prone to sulking. Change something in an Oscar's tank and they may lie on their side and play dead for a while. Sunny never sulked. He was just a very large and personable fish. Here's a photo of him. He lived eight years and was about 14" long when he died. If you can get over the bump on the head, a Midas cichlid would be a good choice. Oscars are right up there also though, just be aware that they're moodier and will sulk on you sometimes.

I had planaria in a tank I designated for cherry shrimp, and it freaked me out at first when I started reading about how bad planaria were for shrimp. The scientist in me went, "Let's see how it goes anyway!" Then, after 2 months, there were lots of shrimplets and a few fewer planaria. I then introduced a couple guppy fry into the tank, and the planaria (and visible detritus worms) disappeared faster than food in front of a goldfish.

I don't mind doing water changes on the tanks in my basement fish room. Everything is right there, sink, drain water into sump pump crock to drain outside. But, my big display tank upstairs is a pain and I don't do as often as I should, because I have to haul my python and all the stuff upstairs, hook it up to sink, drag 30 feet of hose through the house, etc. the tank is 24" tall, I have to stand on a step stool to scrape the glass all the way down to substrate, or to trim plants and put in root tabs.

And now for the fun part....gratuitous baby oto pictures! The goal is either to make millions and retire off the profits of “Adam’s Otos Inc”, or just enjoy the tank for a bit. Either works. Also kudos to the Coop team for this forum software. It’s pretty kick butt, and even though I haven’t done a build log in a long time I’m enjoying using the forum a lot.

I dye yarn, and sell it to the yarn shop down the street (I’m also a knitting addict)

If installed after the water softener the filters will last longer.

Sooo...I think I'm growing green water in my quarantine tanks! We did 1 week of meds trio, a 30% water change & tomorrow, we do the 2nd round of meds But look at the water in these tanks: How do you know if it's a "good" green algae bloom? Alesha P.S. The fish are all doing great!

I did have white clouds in there. They eventually got eaten over the course of a couple months, but the axolotl was just fine and didn't have any issues with gill nipping or anything like that. I imagine if my tank was more densely decorated/planted, there would have been a better survival rate. I second the use of a fan to keep the tank cool, I've found that my axo is happier with lower temps in the 60s. I've kept him at room temp before, and his gills decreased in size and he didn't seem as active.

There is nothing wrong with buying from a breeder or your lfs. But when people see the "wild caught tag" in the store, they walk away. Catching wild fish for the aquarium industry is a huge part of the economy is some contries, some people depend on it to stay alive. There is a cool video cory put out about him in peru that explains a lot of it, heres a link: There is a 5 dollar movie that you can watch its called "wild caught" heres a link to rent it: its only 5$ and its a documentey that explains a lot.

Edit: Read to bottom for start of 75 gallon false bottom tank So I’ve had a 29 gallon tank setup for about a year now that’s happily producing a slowly expanding colony of otocinclus and habrosus corydoras. Breeding both has been a goal for a while, so that’s been fun. Due to the year being what it is, the tank has been pretty, ugly, and pretty ugly at times. The water is always clean, but I haven’t always kept up with the plant maintenance. The hard scape got removed to be cleaned after it got covered in algae, and once the crypts grew in I just never put it back.

This is one of the best fish shipments I had in a while. A couple of unique fish in this one! Frogs, Inverts, and Snails African Dwarf Frogs Amano Shrimp (Large Size) Cherry Shrimp Orange Shrimp Red Rili Shrimp Blue Velvet Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp Nerite Snails (Red Spot and Zebra) Mystery Snail (Ivory) Bettas Veiltail Crowntail Halfmoon Halfmoon Dumbo Plakat Red Snow Plakat Super Yellow (New Betta Color!) Plakat Super Orange (New Betta Color!) Goruamis Powder Blue Dwarf Female Gourami Sunset Honey Gourami Cichlids Pelvicachromis Subocellatus "Moanda" (Tank Raised, really cool looking females once in breeding mode) Apistogramma Agassizii "Fire Red" Assorted Discus (Red Melon and Red Turquoise) Corydoras and other Catfish Habrosus Cory Hastatus Cory Pygmy Cory Panda Cory (Locally Bred) Marble Hoplo Catfish (Tank Raised) Plecos L183 Blue Seam Pleco L134 Leopard Frog Pleco L128 Blue Phantom Pleco LDA33 Snowball Pleco Common Colombian Otocinclus Loaches Kuhli Loach Chinese Hillstream Loach (New Fish) Tetras Cardinal Tetra (Wild Brazilian) Congo Tetra Ember Tetra Green Neon Tetra (Wild Colombia) Neon Tetra Rummy Nose Tetra (Tank Raised) Silver Tip Tetra Marble Hatchet Fish (Wild) Longfin Serpae Tetra Three Lined Pencilfish (Wild Peru) Barbs and other Cyprinids Copper Nose Barb (Super cool and kind of look like a trout) Siamese Algae Eater Danios and other Minnows Celestial Pearl Danios Danio Erythromicron aka Emerald Dwarf Rasbora Long Fin White Cloud Rasboras Chili Rasbora Exclamation Point Rasbora Pork Chop Rasbora Livebearers Assorted Endlers Males (Green Cobra, Lime Green, Flametail, and Black Green Snakeskin) Assorted Fancy Female Guppies Assorted Fancy Male Guppies (Cobra Red, Flamingo, Neon Metallic Blue, Yellow Tail Tuxedo, Tequila Sunrise, and Red Snakeskin) Black Lyretail Molly Showa Tricolor Platy Killifish Florida Flag Fish Oddball Ornate Bichir Burmese Zebra Eel Black Ghost Knife Mud Fish (back again and much bigger, really cool eating behavior) Amazon Puffer

Does anyone else dread the idea of water changes, but once they actually start one it's relaxing and doesn't take nearly as long as you thought it would?

Mollies were introduced to Hawaii a little more than 100 years ago as form of mosquito control.

My wife and I ride horses. I have a Pony of the Americas named Winchester, and he keeps me active and out of the house at least half the week. Since I’m stubborn I even made the saddle I ride in, so leatherworking is sort of a hobby as well. I got sick of dealing with saddlemakers who are terrible business people and just learned to do it myself.

I removed the new tall piece of wood, and brought back the previous piece, but not in the same way. Now the tank looks cozy.

Next, I started to build up the slope with a bit of gravel. Some of it will settle into the compost, but it’s easier to build moderate slope with rock rather than dirt. I can always add substrate supports out of plastic if needed ala The Green Machine, but the slope isn’t very steep. Just adds a bit of interest and more surface area to plant compared to a flat tank. The ugly PVC is starting to submerge and it’s making me happy.

Oscars are nice but I also had a Jack Dempsey and he had a lot of personality as well. The cool thing about big fish, especially the cichlids, is once they get big you can feed them all types of foods. I fed them mealworms, superworms, and even live insects: flies, crickets, etc. Of course, store-bought because you wouldn't want to give them any old insect you see flying around-lol!

I've worked on a lot of houses with ro units. I've never seen one installed before the softener. I'm not sure if the increase use for aquariums changes things but I am inclined to think that it still makes sense to have it after. Cleaner water going into the RO unit would make the membranes last longer. The cost of replacing those would be higher than the difference in salt use.

Oh my, my confessions are mostly just me being an embarrassment, lol! I tend to have memory issues, and they always happen to start at terrible times. When I water change, the water will get low enough to where I have to shut my heaters off. I’ll unplug them, and finish up my water changes like the responsible aquarist that I am, only to wake up the next day and find the water to be an ice bath. Thankfully, there are only plants in the tank that didn’t seem to mind. This has happened three times in the past week 🤫 I used to pull the heaters out at times on my previous aquariums to clean them off. Thinking I unplugged them, I would lay them down on a napkin or a pillow or maybe a couch cushion (another flaw of mine is putting aquarium items on places they shouldn’t be). A few minutes later and I start to smell smoke, find the heater, and realize it’s on and running still. There’s times I would boil items to add to previous aquariums and completely forget I was boiling anything at all. I’ve burned through so many pans... so many.. I’ve spilled every brand new liquid product I’ve purchased because my hands like giving out at inconvenient times. All of my fertilizer, for instance, is less than half full and that was on the first day of getting it. I have extremely bad perception issues and walk into walls and furniture almost every time I’m carrying a bucket of dirty water to pour down the drain, and every time, it spills. My mom and grandpa are always wondering why the carpet, the couch, or the kitchen rug smell funny because of it. And last but not least, I’ve been trying to properly cycle the first aquarium I have had in many years. It’s been going well, and I’m at the nitrite spike phase of the cycle. I browsed eBay, making the mistake to look at fish, and now I have a fish shipping to me soon that I have had to set up a holding tank for and will have to do probably daily water changes on. Couldn’t resist his cute little fishy face, he had a video of him and everything 🥺

The first few moments of water changing make me feel a tad dreadful, but once I continue on, I enjoy it, especially with some quiet music or an audio-oriented video playing. I’ve been pretty rusty at it all, and water changes cause me a lot of fatigue and pain, so I take breaks and make sure to not do too much at once. At the moment, I am doing it by bowl and bucket. But, I plan on buying a python siphon in the upcoming week to make it a little easier. Lately, I’ve been at the nitrite spike phase of cycling my tank. It’ll skyrocket daily to over 5ppm. I’m letting the ammonia deplete and I’ve been aiding the process with large water changes, almost daily haha. So water changes have been a bit of an adjustment lately and have tired me out 😅

I'm going to clean mine tomorrow for the first time in months. I know what you mean, once going, it turns into fun....it's the initial motivation that kicks my fanny.

I always have to have background noise which usually the radio.

A little over a year ago I built deans design. These days I'm rocking the ziss blender.

I use the python water changing siphon so if I’m not gravel vacuuming I just let the lid hold it in the tank and let it drain and then refill so it’s not a hassle at all.

I like to draw. I used to draw all of the time, daily. I rarely can ever draw now, because it is so straining on my health condition, so it’s for a few hours every few months typically. But, I still tend to enjoy it. I’ve been working on a Lion character a friend of mine has for a long time, as I can only do a little at a time. I also work on service dog patch designs and labels for businesses sometimes. In the past, I used to do some traditional art on occasion.

I've had the same issues. What I did was the drain the tank a bit, and suction the heater to the glass where there was no water, and then slid it down to where I wanted it.

Hey everyone i posted my hatchery a couple weeks ago I 3d printed bottom and a top and put some lights in it. I did have a question though hopefully you guys could help when I went to harvest I noticed a fair amount of what looked like unhatched eggs. 😞 does anyone that is harvesting from the bottom ever have that problem? I strained thru a keurig permanant coffee filter (metal mesh) worked great!

Welcome, I think you will find your time here well spent. MTS is often brought on by adopting someone else's equipment and fish. Another way is to have your wife/husband agree to help. Good luck

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

Multiple Tank Syndrome, ours hit us the first week in. 🙂

Welcome beautiful tank love the green neon tetras!

Nice tank indeed. Welcome to the forum.