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just got these 3 at my club auction 🥰🥰🥰🥰 @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Oh I will also add that I took someone's advice and added some lateral flow, back-to-front, with a small powerhead. So far, my Sterbai do seem to prefer to lay their eggs in this flow, in the front right corner of the tank, right where the flow hits the glass and silicon. They will lay in other places, but 90% of the eggs tend to be in that exact spot. Not sure if Salt-N-Pappas (Ah, push it!) prefer the same.

These brothers don’t often pause long enough together in front of the camera. Definitely mature!

Very surprised, I placed an order Thursday afternoon the 2nd and this morning Saturday 4th it arrived by noon! That is fast! It was suggested that Pennywort eat the nitrates, so that's one plant. Dwarf Hairgrass is another for a front clearing I want carpeted. Ammannia Gracilis looks similar to Scarlett Temple plant, but it's not offered at this time at the Co-op, so I'm hoping to get some red growth out of it. Plus some new food, test strips, EasyGreen looking forward to some new growth and a healthy tank.

Amazon is the best place to shop for 1/4" push-to-connect fittings (often called John Guest type fittings). Home Depot and Lowes carry them, but they charge an arm and a leg per fitting. BRS has good pricing on the tubing, as does Amazon. All RO units I have seen use 1/4" tubing and fittings. They make 1/4" adapters to step these up to other sizes, and to connect them to sinks or hose bibs.

I have an RO Buddie and am happy with it. It's about $100. Installation is easy, you can connect to faucet or hose, just would need some adaptors.

No switches required for a well pump - it is plug and played; the pump i have does have a switch where you can set the max pressure to run at - i have it around 40-50 psi which is the lower range. In the room upstair (office) i have a 450 and 550 on drip systems they have pressure adjusting thingy to standard faucet that then go to drippers that go into the aquarium - i have a flow thingy to measure the flow in the loop to ensure proper flow into the tank (approx 2gph; currently it is setup 50% ro and 50% tap so tds 60 in). I have a faucet next to my blackwater tank and one under the sink in the bathroom on the other side of the room so i can do manual water changes on my blackwater aquarium (~120 gallons) and ~180 gallons - i was using filtered tap for the 180 but today switched it over to ro since the cupido would prefer softer water - my full setup is this: house water -> temp control valve -> carbon block 1 -> valve -> carbon block 2 -> pipes for 'tap water' and -> ro unit -> 500 gallon tank -> well pump -> pipes so i have two set of pipes in parallel into three rooms - upstair office iwth 3 big tank - room next to machine room 'fishroom' that has some odd and end aquariums and top floor bedroom where i keep my bedroom aquarium. - Love that well pump but i suppose one day something will go horribly wrong and then i will hate it 😉

It was a full day at Aquashella! Amazing! Boy am I tired! So much adrenaline still pumping from all the cool stuff saw. To be continued here!

Tomorrow is the big day....it's auction day! Hope to find some more pygmy corys for the danio/pygmy tank. Mauve a honey gourami or two for the 29 gallon would be great as well. I know I will at least come home with some java moss and some more grindals to fortify my cultures. A fellow fish club friend is taking the last 3 pleco juvies tomorrow after the auction so I moved them over to the 5 gallon today so it will be easier to get them wrangled up when we get back. Until tomorrow here is a cute pic of one of the pygmys chilling on an anubias plant.

Was gonna post this one! It helped me understand it pretty easily and what to look out for.

1-can I screw an RO system on a hose when needed then unhook and put away when done? Yes, there are attachments. 2-is it worth it to get the DI thingy? Do I need the barrel thing that looks like a propane tank? You don't need the DI resin. I think a membrane-only setup with bring TDS below 25ppm. You don't need the propane tank. Just have the "good" water drain to a brute trash can or other container. The RO system is actually much less efficient when it is fighting to push water into the "propane tank." 🙂 3 is this one any good? Not sure. 4- if not is there one for 250$ or under that is? I mentioned this one in another thread ($218.99): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LJ8EXU https://www.123filter.com/ac/ispring-rcc7ak-uv-deluxe-under-sink-7-stage-reverse-osmosis-drinking-water-filtration-system-with-alkaline-remineralization-and-uv-sterilizer However, you might be able to find a good one without the tank or faucet (which you don't need). This simple one seems highly rated (and it comes with adapters, $61.99 for 50GPD, $81.99 for 100GPD): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DOG63OY 5- how do i install if I cannot hook a hose to it N/A 6- if I can’t screw it in a hose how do these things go in and could the Three Stooges install is safely You can screw it into a hose or your utility sink faucet in your garage or basement... 🙂 7 do I need to install a faucet Nope, just have the "good" drain go to a container. 8. Other issues? If you need a booster pump, it might make sense to buy a unit that already has one. That would make things easier. This video shows a simple setup where the RO unit is connected to the outside spigot and drains into a plastic container:

I'll also try to tackle these question one at a time .. . They have attachments for both sinks and garden hoses. Not sure what you mean by propane tank thingy. But the DI is worth it if the RO membrane does not reject enough TDS. DI will reduce your TDS to zero. This all depends on the TDS of the source water and how much the RO membrane can reject on its own. Most RO membranes have like a 90%+ rejection rate I believe (trying to recall the number off the top of my head). You will need a place to discharge the waste water, like a nearby sink. I replace mine once every year or two. Depends. Your water softener will take out the mineral hardness of the water, which means less work for the RODI unit, but it will replace it with sodium ions. So, in the end, it depends on which depletes your DI resin faster (if you're using DI resin). If it's a hassle to bypass it, or if you're not using DI stages, I'd not worry about it. Depends on the unit and how much water it is rated to create. This is a good one. I use it (well a version of it) and have had it for a bunch of years now and it runs great. It's currently on sale at BRS for under $200. It will create up to 75 gallons per day. --> https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/4-stage-75gpd-plus-ro-di-system-bulk-reef-supply.html ALSO ALSO ALSO -- keep an eye on your water when making it! I created a ton of floods this way! (I now have mine hooked up to a timer and solenoid valve cause I'm forgetful, very forgetful) One more item . . . . DI resin can get pricey depending on how fast you exhaust it, but there are ways to recharge it. I've been using the same resin for a couple years now, recharging it with a weak hydrochloric acid solution, as well as a weak sodium hydroxide solution (what you recharge with depends on the resin type). It's not hard to do and saves a lot of money over the long haul, if you're not afraid of working with caustic substances.

Salt-N-Pappas (oh, baby baby!) seem to be 100% happy laying on the aquarium glass, as do Sterbai. If one were looking to breed these as a breeding project and not just trying to have them breed in an established tank, then I would not use plants at all, as having them lay eggs on the glass is much easier to check for and remove, in my experience. If one does want to go the plant route, mine liked anubias, but I would guess any leaf with an adequate surface to adhere eggs to would work well. (Mine laid eggs on the egg tumbler containing the prior days batch). I'll add in the regular caveat that I am by no means an expert at cory breeding (or anything really). However, with the two mentioned species above, these are my hands-on observations thus far. @Potaqua if you have success, please share your experiences! We're always happy to hear them and like fishy pictures!

I didn't. I went for Sunset Honey Gouramis and Beckiford Pencilfish. I might do a killifish tank on my rack I am building tho. So any tips on preferred set ups, etc, would be awesome.

They’re scary chaps 😳. Last time I went to Singapore I went snorkeling around an island resort just off the coast in Malaysia and saw a couple of black tip juvies. They get pretty curious!

I seem to finally have another pair out of my angel tank. The darker gold koi was a fairly new addition and she(?) is pairing up with one I’ve had for months. Breeding tubes are starting to partially drop but only out a little then quickly back in so far. They are picking and cleaning some new sword leaves I just added and bossing around the whole tank today. I have the pair hanging around the middle and towards the right end. Everyone else is hanging around crowded into the left 1/3 of the tank. 😆 I’ll be moving the pair tomorrow to my 29 G after I do a big water change on it (which was planned for tomorrow anyway). Tomorrow is 75, 29, and 20 high WC day.

including Taco truck. 🙂 Something very interesting: I grabbed a bottle of easy green and brought it over to the counter. Just a little while later one of the employees noticed the display and moved a bottle into the empty location. Just those little touches are really cool... 🙂 Oh, and they had all the fish I wanted. 🙂

Do you live in a state where growing marijuana is legal?

I'll second that. 🙂 I notice that some folks add some of the waste water back into the RO water. With the correct proportions, they get the GH and KH that they want (and save some water).

Stop over thinking this, just buy a bulk reef supply system and problem solved. It wastes water, they all do, who cares. Run the waste down the drain to be recycled.

When I got my shrimp a few weeks ago they would ride around on my ramshorns, cleaning them, I guess. The snails had some algae growing on their shells when I got them. I don't see any now. Now, everybody loves the snello the best. Well, in the shrimp and snail jar. My mystery snails, which I made it for, could care less. Particularly the purple one in my 10 gallon. It loves driftwood and botanicals. Then it will go after any leftover fishfood and finally snello when I add some. My WCMM will destroy some snello though. So everybody loves the snello except for the mystery snails...lol. When it comes to feeding time the ramshorns will totally hog everything they can!

I’m so happy for you @Guppysnail. My friend is on a hunt for Bolivians. We can’t find them anywhere! Not even at Aquashella which has basically everything! She may have to order from that place you suggested (Imperial?)

HD/Lowes have some wild pricing sometimes. For something like this buying one or two of something, it's OK. But if you start talking about multiples, it doesn't usually make sense. We have a farm store in town and if you needs lots of hardware like longer bolts, big lag screws, etc it is almost like they're giving them away compared to the big box stores. The farm store sells them by the pound, so you can go get a big bag of lag screws for whatever you're doing and it will be like $3 for what would be $30 from HD.

One of the importers noted that serious drought in brazil has killed a lot of them so collection has been significantly reduced.

Thank you for the responses, and the video!

It's always a good day when you get a Aquarium Co-Op order 🙂

I would just put in an airstone and call it a day

Hello. I’m Miss May from Annapolis,Md. I’m new to the aquarium world. I have a 10 gallon with gravel and artificial plants. I have 2 platys, tetra, and 2 Cory. I’m working on setting up my first tank (8)with live plants. I look forward to learning a lot 💜🔵

@Guppysnail On the RO Buddie (and maybe others, I'd guess). All of the connections are 1/4" push to connect for 1/4" tubing. Worse can you can probably go to a place like Ace Hardware or a local place and explain what you need and someone will be able to get you the adaptors you require. That's what I did when we tore out and replaced our shower. I bought adaptors for a faucet and hooked up a shower wand and could take "showers" standing in a plastic tub. 😄 It worked, but I have not clue what all the threads are on that stuff, so asking for help is a good plan!

You want your minimum KH to be no less than 170ppm for long term health of your Mollie's

Same fear for me with my auto water change systems. A year ago, I installed flood sensors wired to a solenoid in line with the plumbing feeding my system. This way if any water starts hitting the floor, the solenoid closes, alarms and stops the flow until I reset it. I put the sensors in spots that collect water first. How do I know about these spots? Hmmm, I wonder?

this one looks AMAZING😍

There is definitely competition for the shrimp pellets, but the Bacter AE powder, kind of dusts the tank with food, the shrimp appear content with the variety.

@anewbie Sweet! I do something similar, but I use a Kasa plug to trigger the pump to send water up a story in my house. I have mine plumbed directly into my aquarium (I only have one display tank in the house so I figured why not just go directly in), but I do really like the idea of triggering the pump via pressure changes. Do you have this wired up to something like a square D pressure switch?

Shrimplets and Ramsies.

You can hook them up to the sink but it depends on the fitting your sink have; you can also hook them up under a sink again it depends on the fitting under the sink. For the output you can have the output go into a 30 gallon pail (or similar) and then use a pump to pump the water out of the pail or siphon it out. Just remember that 30 gallon of water weight around 250 lb; if you want auto shut off you can use a float switch and if you put a lid on the pail dust won't get into it (you can put a little hole near the top for the tubing in and the float switch); bulk reef is fairly helpful and they have a lot of video - for high efficiency but low volume unit this would be a recommended model: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/75gpd-4-stage-value-ro-di-system-bulk-reef-supply.html?queryID=ea324875ec3ba70f69cafad04a8ed27c&objectID=6241&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products If you want one with less waste https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/4-stage-150gpd-plus-water-saver-ro-di-system-bulk-reef-supply.html?queryID=c383253cd4a4ac217dc6c89cf0069da3&objectID=6243&indexName=brs_prod_m2_default_products Buying via home depot or lowes might make it easier to get it installed but those units will be mostly targeted for drinking water. - The number of stages depend a bit on what type of tap water you have and what you want to accomplish (soften the water or produce water for salt water or black water aquarium). - You can email bulk reef or call them and their support is pretty good at discussing what they have and what you will need to hook it up. As far as i can tell aquarium-cop does not sell ro unit. btw amazon has a bunch of less expensive units and there is nothing wrong with them but your support might be better with bulk-reef. My hookup is a little more sophisticated - i have a 200 gpd unit that fills a 500 gallon container in the basement and then uses well pump that pumps it through pipes to the upstair where i can use it with my aquariums - turn the faucet on - pressure drops and the well pump comes on. Close the faucet - pressure rises and the well pump goes off. ---- *** those little 'barrel' like things are called bladder tanks; they are self presurizing but dont' hold much water and you don't need them in most cases - the way they are designed is they hold a little water and have air at the top of them in a bladder as they fill the the pressure increases then that pressure can be used to have the water flow out of them; the bladder do wear out relatively fast in the long scheme of things and then they have to be replaced - but they are kind of neat for what they are - the biggest problem is volume - the air takes a lot of space so the amount of water is relatively small for the size of the tank **.

Thank you!

Aww! So cool! Congrats, they are a joy to have around, no doubt they will have good personalities as I am convinced they all have very individual personalities.

Ok @Chick-In-Of-TheSea looks like 2 girls and one boy. They are almost an inch and a half standard length. I got to see video and photos of the parents. They were show stoppers so hopefully the kids are to. I doubt any of them could have Snoopy and Punks delightful personalities though. YAY. I’m part of the Bolivian Ram cool kids group. @xXInkedPhoenixX

I would use an acrylic tank. Preferably one with only one seam along the bottom or back. Then for a stand something with sturdy construction and I would make sure that joints can move but not give. For example my tank stand allows for some movement in the legs without collapsing.

I would set the tank on something called armorflex insulation. I don't necessarily know where a person would get it, I get it from the plumbing and heating shop where I work. It's used as insulation on piping and ductwork. About an inch and a half thick, black, very dense insulation. I set tanks on it a lot

Hi Colu—here’s the update after a few weeks. I only had one more fish die. That is wonderful! Thank you for helping me through this crisis!

Perhaps you can set your tank on a piece of 2"×12" from the lumber yard or Home Depot. Make sure it's dry and flat, not cupped. They can cut it to length for you too.

I use the color note app to note everything, movies I want to watch, books I want to read, random things I want to research. The only to-do lists i make are lists of things I think I need at stores. And as you said, many times these things listed are less than important!

Sorry for the late response. I tried to respond in my works break room but without service it logged me off. I will happily ask for advice. I don't pretend to know anything about this hobby. I have learned things. But I'm no where near educated enough. I actually remember you helping me out when I first started on here. I was chasing parameters, and losing mollies along the way to do so. I came here frustrated and discouraged and this group really helped me to trudge on. And the one thing I can say I picked up and it's how I operate my tank(s) is to just leave it. Until the move, my 10 gallon never got water changes. Just top offs. Everything ran great, and I'm pretty sure if I didn't have the coral in the tank it would still be great with the new water I'm using. I only asked about the substrate because I don't know what/how much it's going to do to my water. And I didn't want to use it and ruin my tank.

@Potaqua pretty much some species of corydoras just need the right setup in the tank. Things like having certain plants for them to lay on or certain surfaces can be all it takes. With those ones in particular I think a bit of moss and just let them do their thing is 90% of the battle. As @Guppysnail mentioned food helps. Things like aqueon nutrinsect or krill based foods would be good sources of protein for them as well as live foods. Repashy also have foods that they love and would be very helpful to condition them for spawning. Conditioning, meaning you would feed them a bit heavier for a week or two and then have the hopes of that triggering them to spawn.

It's totally normal, I talked to support and they said their's do it as well. I have it in my bedroom with little to zero background noise so I hear it really well. It makes a high-pitched sound when it's actively heating. I have a degree in electromechanical technology and when a lot of power is put across resistors, heating coils, or inductors it can make a high-pitched sound. Any of those three things that heating elements commonly use get an insane amount of power sent across them for what they actually are. For reference, the average LED bulb in your house nowadays uses around 5 watts and 20 of those bulbs worth of energy are put across a component that's smaller than your thumb. There are ways to negate the noise and I'm sure when further iterations of the aquarium co-op heater come out, it will get implemented as it gets better. I have noticed with time the sound has gotten noticeably much more quiet.

Whoa! Just noticed this one cruzing along today!! Most are blueish, some with dark spots. But this one has a pearl look to her.

I threw about 25x fry into a 5 gal, but I’m only finding 2x pairs now. It went all “lord of the flies” in there at some point…

Hello everyone! Greetings from Miami, FL! Looking forward to actively participating on this forum and learning as much as possible. Here are a few of my babies!