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I have no idea why I was so lucky, maybe because the second I learned about them I signed up to be notified when they come in stock. But for whatever reason, ACO sent me one of the new upgrade kits last week and I’ve been meaning to post this review. I had wondered if the very top, curved piece fits the old nano size sponge filters - yes, it does, but it doesn’t have the air collar, of course since that only fits the other sizes and the newer nanos starting in 2023. You can put either end of the very top, curved piece into the older nano filter tops. I’ll attach pics below. It is a bit large and I’d like to see ACO sell just the curved bit as a retrofit for older nano sponges. I can cut them off clean to the length I would want so they would be less awkward and obvious in my 2 x 6 G cubes and the 14 G cubes (I’ve got a double stacked nano in there because I wanted the smaller footprint) - I would buy 3 immediately. My 2 G is too small for a top piece at all unless I cut it waaay down to barely more than the curved part. I don’t have any of the new nanos (I need to rectify this) so I can’t speak to how it would fit but I assume it fits the same as the other sponge filters. It comes in a nice, small box, so minimal packaging waste and shipping cost while being sturdy enough to prevent the tubes from getting crushed by anything short of a stupid degree of shipping damage. It has several parts and can make a very tall outlet to go across the surface of the water for better surface agitation and water turnover. The air collar produces equivalent air to a Ziss adjustable airstone that’s been tightened down to get fairly fine bubbles which is how I usually adjust mine. I don’t have video or an easy way to measure how much air was produced but it appears very equivalent, your mileage may vary. I used the exact same air pump - one of the ACO nano air pumps so things would be as equal as possible for comparison. The lower 3 pieces above the air collar are the same diameter tubing so you could easily remove one or two sections if you didn’t want it as tall. You can also remove anything above the air collar if you have an extremely short tank. You would lose the benefit of the curved piece that directs the flow across the water for move surface turnover. Here’s the pics. First - box, second - pieces in box (riveting content, right?), third - all assembled (if I was smart I’d have put a ruler by this), fourth - comparison of curved top to old style nano sponge top piece. Fifth - air collar and top 2 pieces running on a medium ACO sponge (lower piece of the top 2 is slid down as far as possible to make it easier to keep it all in frame), sixth - a new, Ziss adjustable airstone running inside the same medium sponge as usual, seventh and eight - the curved top piece fits into the old, pre-2023 nano sponge top piece on either end. Because of how tubes like this are bent, it may not fit readily if you were to trim it off too close to the curved part. Bending tubing often puts it slightly out of round at the curved part so DIY’er beware if you want to trim the length to be smaller to fit on older nano tops.

My tiny tank is loaded with pipsqueaks, both shrimp and snail.

Floating plants keep taking over the top of the Medieval tank. Let's face it, that's not hard to do being a small tank. So I spent some time yesterday clearing some floaters and doing my best not to bring any shrimp or snails with them. It was to the point where the "tree" was not recognizable as a tree as you could not see the spiderwood at all. Problem remedied, though it will probably only last a week: I've counted up to 20 rilli shrimp in the tank so things are going well, and yesterday saw one berried female. They are really hard to spot in the tank unless they are large and bright and considering these aren't the super high end shrimp that's only a few of them. Ramshorns doing pretty well too, to the point they've seemed to outcompete the bladders that were in there- only see a few of them in the tank anymore. Medieval wasn't the only tank that got maintenance, everyone did. All doing pretty good. My pretty pleco likes to hide but she's getting big and beautiful. Really she just likes to hang on the grapewood if she's not in the food bowl. My new Endlers are impossible to get pictures of in the Accidental tank but they are all doing well too. Finally, after I had a chance to settle down for the day after a long day of house chores was watching the Angry Man tank from afar and noticed that either recently they are doing much better or I just haven't had a chance to observe that Punk and Industry are doing really well. They were hanging out together and following one another around. No signs of even pretend chasing off. Was nice to see.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I put chili rasboras, ember tetras, and kubotai rasboras back in the tank when I was netting out duckweed when I had an outbreak in my 100 G nanofish tank. 🤦🏻‍♀️. It’s not nearly as bad when I use a comb to get the duckweed out and I seem to finally have it under control in that tank, at least. I still have it in 4 tanks, controlled and nearly gone in 2, still heavy in one, and still out of control in one because I will have to reset the tank for that one. It’s all in the pearlweed in there which is so rampant it’s growing out the top and has consumed the HOB filter. I also have a ton of susswassertang in that tank along with some mosses I’d like to rescue. That’s actually going to be one of this week’s projects, hopefully. I’m bracing myself for that one. I’ve got to get plants out of a couple buckets before I can even start to tackle that tank. Ugh. I keep telling myself, “It’s only 10 gallons, it’s only 10 gallons, it’s only 10 gallons.” And, “It can’t be that bad, it can’t be that bad.” 😝 It’s going to be even worse, I just know it. 😂 🤣 Forgot to mention, the 2 worst tanks are FULL of guppies and fry. 🤦🏻‍♀️

True, Snoop is more on the gold hue. Also I have the light substrate working against her coloration. Sometimes when she swims up and in front of the sword plant, I'm like, dang. You are lovely! Snoop insists on eating a lot of the snail food, and she gets vibra bites quite often because they sink well and are a good size for her. She refuses to swim up to the surface for anything, but will usually come mid-level for things. She is an expert at finding the chunk of food that is still frozen vs the stuff that is floating off of the sides of the frozen cube. She always hones in on the big chunk and carries it to the back of the tank and eats it secretly before the tetras can figure out what just happened - LOL!

I made one of these setups once for chili rasboras. However, I did not keep it running long (can't remember the reason why). If I remember correctly, this was the basic gist of the setup. The uptake was kind in the middle of two partitions, with the floor/bottom of that being sponge. I believe both the light and the direction of the flow is meant to get the tiny fry to the other side. Encapsulating the uptake in it's own chamber keeps the fry from getting sucked up. I got this concept from the 'Barb Whisperer' video that is linked earlier in this thread (saw that a while back). Can't attest that this works, but the fella in the video seemed to have good results.

for not being afraid of the giant hand in their tank? 😅

Honestly I lean towards dumb because usually when they're doing that with me I'm scooping out floating plants to toss in the water change bucket for discard. *palm to face*

I sometimes wipe biofilm off the rhizome but I don’t try to dry it. Water sets the glue faster. If I’m having trouble getting something to stick I will scrape the wood a bit with the top of my fingernail to clear off some of the biofilm, especially for older wood pieces, or pieces that have been soaking a good while. Then glue specks applied to the rhizome, plant held in place whether fingers, tweezers, or glue cap, and drip a bit of water on the glue site but holding the plant and object very still! I want the glue to set faster once I have it placed or I know I’ll be reaching for the next plant, or my water bottle, or something, because I apparently have the attention span of a gnat when I’m holding plants on the glue. 😆

The cap of the superglue is my friend. I use it to press the plant into place on whatever object and oddly enough, it hasn’t gotten glued to the plant or the object, nor the plant glued to it yet (knocking on wood). I’m using the Loctite brand but I don’t know if that matters other than the top of the cap is smooth, and the glue tip is very small giving me better control of the amount of glue and placement of the glue. The cap hasn’t glued itself onto the bottle, yet, either, and I’ve gone through at least 10 bottles so far over the last 3 years. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ok. Just took these - not great but whatever: male angel: female angel: They are a pair but the festum always eat their eggs; so of course egg eating festum (I have 7; i think 2 female 3 male and 2 undecided): It is really hard to get great pictures with this large aquarium because the glass is so thick.

I'll definitely post a pic when it's set up. Thanks for the ideas🙂 I'll definitely check out what Aqueon has. We have false Julii corydoras in another tank, and they're thriving. They even bred earlier this year, so I'm definitely considering using them again. That's definitely worth looking into. I always use HOB, but with a longer tank you need a little boost. This could be exactly what I need. Thank you!

A few days ago I was in the Tallahassee area on business, and was fortunate enough to get to make a quick detour to Wacissa Spring. This is a beautiful and well-known collection point for the Elassoma gilberti, also known as "Gilbert's Pygmy Sunfish". Collecting here was fairly easy so long as you didn't mind getting a wee bit wet. I was able to do it with a small hand dip net that I bought from Walmart with a small bucket. There are numerous species at the spring which are worth collecting; gambusia including a melanistic form, Lucania goodei killifish, dwarf crayfish, ghost shrimp, and a myriad of aquatic plants. In addition to the Gilbert's sunfish I also collected some Vallisneria and Anacharis for my own use. The springs themselves are gorgeous and are well worth the trip even if you are not collecting fish for their natural beauty alone. It is a piece of Florida that few people associate with the state; the numerous clear springs and waterways which make up the natural places which can be found and enjoyed by looking for the large natural areas along the state's Gulf Coast. The water itself, thanks to the sandy, loamy bottom is a gorgeous crystal blue and reminds me of wading in a large aquarium. There are some individuals who have posted Youtube videos of themselves collecting here. If you go, I implore you not to over-collect as some of them have. From experience, you only need a few Elassoma to build a nice colony of them. This place is a treasure and we should keep it that way.

Moved the Sterbai cory's over to their own tank. Emptied the Cube tank - substrate and plants gone, fully bare bottom now. This tank will house the L134 colony when they come in, just need to figure out where to house the L213 that is currently still in here. Pics to follow

I'd suggest that keeping Emerald Rasboras at 68-F would be at their _bottom end_ parameter. Sometimes you can "cheat" and get a few degrees by putting the tank up near the ceiling. The closer to the basement floor, the colder the tank will stay. I definitely keep a LOT of fish with no heaters. North American Native Fish (NANF) come in loads of glorious colors. They'd all _love_ a 68-F tank. Here's a random bunch of photos from NANF species I'm currently keeping. Feel free to ask any questions...

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea @beastie For now at least, my only sand tank is PFS, pest snail only, and no tech beyond the light. The PSO does better here than anywhere else. I do surface vac occasionally, Accumulated detritus seems to cause the Wisteria to drop leaves sooner and also causes some interesting algae issues. @beastie I can't think of reason deep cleaning the sand causes algae. That's a new one for me. @Matt B Two of my gravel tanks run HOB and UGFs together. Either one is capable of handling the tank by itself. Because I tend to over think things, I begin to wonder about how much gravel cleaning I need to do if any. From there it went to: If deep gravel cleaning is bad, why are the crypts the only plants that are actually growing? I quickly ended up with more questions than answers, so I decided to throw it out here and see what others thought.

I've never kept Apistos, but I do know they might have different water parameter needs- if the ones you choose do not (as Bolivians seem far less finicky so that shouldn't be an issue) I would say 1 male Apisto and 1 Bolivian male theoretically is fine- why because if the Apisto had a female there would be issues with other fish- without a breeding partner to get aggro about then the tank would probably be peaceful, and vice versa for the Bolivian. Again this can be dependent on personality because at times this can be a problem- but I would try it. I'm currently in a "wait and see" holding pattern for if my male/female start breeding. I'm wondering if my male will get more aggro with the community fish or not. He already kind of just keeps them clear of the bottom of the tank most of the time.

Well if you notice, Industry has colorful fins too, all depends on lighting and the angle I'm taking pics at, some days they are more colorful than others. As evidenced, this is actually her front/center: Her previously giving me lip: Bolivian males and females have the same coloring and often the same shape, which is why many say they are very hard to sex and I believe the only reliable way is by protruding sex organs. My two change color a lot, sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. I've also noticed some Bolivians are more gold than blue which I think Snoopy is more gold, whereas mine are more blue. This is just an observation though. I feed them Fluval Bug Bite flakes, Xtreme Krill, ACO fry food, occasional Hikari Vibra Bites and 1x a week they get frozen bloodworms and the tank gets baby brine (frozen) but not sure how much of those they eat.

It took 17 months, but I've finally passed all of my CPA exams. My husband asked how I'd like to celebrate. I reply nonchalantly, "Eh.. probably start setting up a 55 gallon tank" (not rly making eye contact with him...lol..."testing the waters", if you will). He smiled & laughed so I'm taking that as a green light. 💚

Yes @Guppysnail @J. Holmes my male/female are in a 20 gallon tall with Black Neons and Harlequin Rasboras, so they don't have much "floor space" because they occupy the bottom half of the tank while the others occupy the top. Male was there first and I confirmed I had a female when adding her. I would imagine a few males MIGHT do ok in a 40 as long as you had a lot of line of sight breaks BUT personality definitely makes a difference. I've read accounts were one gets singled out and bullied to the point of starvation and stress. So you definitely have to have a backup plan.

Thank you very much! That’s very true, despite the troubles the tanks are full of life and bring me a lot of happiness. Thank you for the encouragement. Most of the jars are experiments! Since the green water was an accident, and has since switched from Jar C to the current Jar G, I’m still trying to figure out why and how. I diversify to keep it going in case the main jar crashes, just like with white worms or grindal worms. They are holding plants, seed shrimp, scuds, snails, and other critters. They can be moved around easily to find the best sunlight through the day. Some are food for the fish, others are my attempts to introduce biodiversity to the tiny ecosystems in the tanks that I’m trying to create. Like a food web.

Next time I set up a tank that needs a large piece of wood I will take you up on that offer. Thank you 🤗

@Guppysnail my LFS always has spiderwood. I could go in there and take photos and you can tell me what you’d like to buy, then I can ship it we can do it over text or something

It's a whole lot of things glued together....

It could be because you also find it hard to pay upwards of 40 bucks for a stick?

3 day old glowlight tetra fry. Completely helpless and somewhat small. 😅

pretty much everybody that keeps fish has killed some off due to errors. all you can do is not make the same error again.

Pipsqueak pics are hard, but here's a quick picture of a couple of my newly acquired African Butterfly Barbs. The rest of the herd are hiding, of course.

Bay leaves are from the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) plant. They grow here in North Carolina natively. I have collected freshwater ghost shrimp from shallow pools of water that were littered with the fallen leaves of bay laurels and the shrimp seemed perfectly healthy. And I find shrimp in pools of water with maple leaves, oak leaves, hickory leaves, beech leaves, etc., and even long leaf pine, pine needles. I am not recommending that you put pine needles in your shrimp aquarium but I found more shrimp in this little pool full of pine needles than any other place that I collected that day.

Today I attended Aquashella Daytona 2023! It was epic! I learned a lot of things from a lot of cool people. It is 10pm and I just finished acclimating my new kids to their respective tanks and tidying up the fish room because with all the merch and previous maintenance I failed to clean up, it looked like a bomb hit. For now, I will leave you with a few photos and a video of the entrance. I have a lot of photos and videos, so we will have to do this in parts. What would you like to see next? 1. Interesting items I found, or 2. Shrimp contest

PH for me is near 7. KH is 60-80 and GH is as high as you can make it. They were perfectly fine in those conditions for a really long time. With any invertebrates, it's highly recommended to get a liquid GH and KH test kit.

I've had some similar species pretty low, but not that low. I think in winter on a cold water change, I've had things at mid-high 60's, but pushing below 68 you can see some behavior where certain fish will start to go dormant and just sort of shut down. (speaking specifically of minnows, barbs, rasbora, etc.... cypranidae species)

Congrats! They’re such a cool fish.

3 day old tetra fry seem to be doing ok (they don’t do much!). Zebra danio fry have just celebrated their 6 week birthday. Somehow they look more like black neons than anything else. 😅

Endler fry

African Water fern (Bolbitis Heudelotii).

I seriously want answers of why I can never find awesome cool wood like these

Fish for sale at Aquashella Bettas already starting to sell out. This is the Badfish booth: a sister store of Aquarium Co Op. My friend bought a betta from Badfish. Here is another booth selling bags of fish hung up. Trust me. This setup is good. Also each bag had ammonia removal sponge. (Friend bought a trio of bumblebee gobies from here) Some booths had bags of fish in bins. Sorry, but that was a hot mess. All the customers were picking up the bags to look at the fish; the fish were freaking out; then the customers put the bags back down; the next customers would come and do the same. So much stress for the fish. I bought my fish out of the clear bin next to this one. I asked the shop to hold my purchase until I was leaving. They bagged the fish and kept the bag in the bin for me. Easy peasy. Display tank at entrance Coral frags

The standout line in the film for me, "I'm working for generations after me." It's kind of crazy to think a bit big picture on this one and to think of all the damage done during certain decades and how we are still trying to understand and recover some of those species (and their habitats). The 1960's was specifically mentioned here, and I'm sure it's not the only basin or environment with the story. One of the cool things is to see the generational work and the pride in that work for doing what feels like good work. One year they have 5 return, the next near 130. It's a big of a miracle how useful 4 tubs of water can be and a simple setup in the middle of a desert and it was really cool to see the impact of their setup. Hopefully there is some sort of a follow up piece in the future or further videos like this that we share as a part of this effort. I really enjoy stories like this and it's helpful to share what went wrong and the recovery efforts for those issues.

They really should apply backgrounds for the contest or do something like rate it from both sides? That first photo, I can't imagine the color that the background would be, but having it without peoples legs would greatly improve the visual aesthetic! I love the idea of using watercolor as the background (or oil paintings). What a visually striking and really impactful piece of the design.

Aquascaping contest All of the above tanks were being raffled off after, everything included but the stand. This may not have been part of the contest? It was part of a vendor booth. The gentleman found a hole puncher that made leaves. He used that on catappa leaves and put those at the base of this tree. This one was in a vendor booth. And then don’t tell the contestants but, my favorite scape was the sunset tank at the CaribSea booth.

This shows the difference between Kat’s Aquatics calcium vs competitor calcium. I asked the guy, what’s so bad about phosphates? He said phosphates = algae probs. Noted! A pepper grinder with fish food! They sell several varieties. Dr. Tim’s products are worth another look. They have a bunch of media to help with various tank issues. Also a gel food that doesn’t turn to mush in the tank. You put in a block; it stays as a block. Seaweed-based binder vs gelatin. But some cons: must be kept frozen. Once prepared, can only freeze 1 week. Once in tank, must be removed in 2-3 hours. I won full size bottles of Prime and Stability. This is tank safe: corydoras re: The paludarium in the video. BiOrb has similar with built in light and mister, and they are pretty slick! They are not marketed for animal use but they sure are cool for plants. The bottom of the biOrb will detect dryness and inform the top of the biOrb to put out mist. Also these products are built with such ventilation to regulate humidity as well as keep the glass clear for viewing. I had grandiose plans to see speakers. I never saw any! There was too much going on, and a lot of ground to cover! We even forgot to eat, until about 2:30 when we realized our tummies were grumbling loudly. We were living off the Halloween candy that practically every vendor booth had available! 🤣 We didn’t get to all the booths, but we believe we got to all the freshwater ones at least, skipping some saltwater things as the event closed for the day. Speaking of saltwater, one booth had this pill bottle lookin thing with holes. It attaches to the side of the tank with magnets. You put frozen food in it, then you slide it down to the bottom with the magnets, and it allows the bottom feeders to eat the frozen food as it thaws. If you download the Fish Stream app it will notify you of the livestreams happening at the event today (today is the last day). I got to meet Joanna and Jason from Prime Time Aquatics, Dustin from Dustin's Fish Tanks, and the gal from Aquarium Info. She was so sweet! I also got to see MD Fish Tanks and Matt from Matt's Fish Room (they were on their way to a speaking engagement so I didn't get to meet or speak with them due to their "bouncer" with the big frown). What would you like to see next? 1. Who I adopted 2. Aquascaping contest

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.

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

Let's see what they will produce and what gene is hidden within gastromyzon double redfin They would be a great addition to the bottom of my whitecloud/ rainbow shiner aquarium

Around 25% would be pure koi, 50% a mix of koi and dumbo ear, and 25% pure dumbo ear; if I’m getting my punnet squares right. @Fish Folk Both strains however are quite inbred, so be prepared for some weird variations.