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I think its a conspiracy from the big plant distributor(s). They pay influencers to promote clipping healthy growth cause it "helps plants grow". But in reality it only helps to increase the companies sales from customers rebuying and repeating this plant killing practice! 🤣

I only have 50 watt heaters on my 29 gallon tanks.. I have them controlled by Inkbird controls programmed to turn on the heater when the tank drops to 74 degrees and turn them off when the tank hits 76. This works well with room temp as low as 66 degrees.

Hello, I think they are New Zealand mud snails. You may look for some identification info to make sure here are some pics:

Ditch the cartridges and go with a coarse sponge pad instead that can be cleaned out and will last 10 years+

My old betta trying to eat a zucchini seed-

Its more spendy but worth it IMO. I have an Aquatop 7 gallon cube for my betta and I love it. I got this sponge filter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XZ831WR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which works great and is compact. I use this light: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093GZKYM9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Both Hygger products.

That’s clearly a peppermint flatworm. Mostly harmless since it doesn’t have the triangular head of the predatory flatworm. Likely will get eaten sooner or later, but you might have to get some big sailfin mollies to go after that big one.

Basically any plant that can be used in a hydroponic system, which is most plants, including vegetables to feed back to the fish. Or you

Any houseplant that can tolerate “wet feet” do well. Some if mine are peace lily, red mangrove, anthurium, different dracaena types, lotus bamboo, inch plants, spider plants be sure the base of the plant stays dry.

Just what the title says. I stopped using dechlorinator for about a year, and absolutely nothing has happened. Nothing died. I want to clarify a few claims first. I am not saying that dechlorinators are bogus or deceptive in their claims. I am not claiming that everyone should stop using dechlorinators. What I do may not work for you. This isn't some sort of click bate thing meant to cause a big argument in fish forums. So let me tell you how this came about. I live in a major metropolitan area that treats their tap water with chloramines. If I get water out of the tap and test it right away, Aquarium Co-op test strips rightfully tell me that chlorine is present. I used to treat this with a very common big company chemical dechlorinator. But here is what I noticed: it took about 3 or 4 hours for the chloramines to get "processed" before I could use the water. I started testing every 30 minutes or so after adding dechlorinator to tap water and made some interesting observations. 1. Testing water immediately out of the tap shows no ammonia present, but chlorine is evident. 2. After adding dechlorinator to the tap water, there is soon be an ammonia spike that is detectable with Aquarium Co-op test strips. (I think this once led to the death of some fish. I used dechlorinator and added this water to the tank too quickly.) 3. The ammonia dissipates and is no longer detectable about 3 hours after adding dechlorinator. 4. After 3 or 4 hours, no ammonia and no chlorines are detectable with test strips. This is when I usually add this water to the tank and call it a day. 5. The odd thing is that after 3 or 4 hours, the test strips show no chlorine or ammonia, but nitrates and nitrites are through the roof. It looks like it would be harmful to add this to a tank, but when I do, everything is fine. In fact, I can test the water in an aquarium immediately after a water change and it shows what I usually get with a planted tank: nitrates are at about 25ish and nitrates are undetectable. In other words, things are back to normal. This was my water change setup when I started all this: I have a 27 gallon plastic tote set up to receive tap water slowly from a hose in my basement. I have a horse trough set up where the hose shuts off when it is full. The tote is set up with an airstone for flow and a 200 watt titanium heater hooked up to a thermostat that will bring the cold tap water up to 78 degrees over time. I started with a 5-gallon bucket to condition water, but after getting up to about 10 tanks, this was my "upgraded" system. This setup was created more for temperature control and ease of use. I have a hose with a valve and the tote is above all my tanks in the basement. I look at the temp reading, and when it is up to temp I add water to tanks with a gravity fed hose. Easy. I used to add dechlorinator, but had an "accident" when I went too fast with this setup. I wanted to speed up my water change because I was pressed for time. So I mixed warm and cold water till I got to 78 degrees, added dechlorinator, and put it in the tanks. This is when I discovered this ammonia spike problem and started reading up on chloramines. So, through my obsessive testing, I discovered that adding dechlorinator to the water did not change the timing or the condition of the water. If I added dechlorinator, an ammonia spike would occur, and 3 hours or so later, the water had no ammonia or chlorines, but looked trashy with nitrates and nitrites. Add it to a tank, and all is well in the end. If I didn't add dechlorinator, nothing changed. So apparently, time and the mixing caused by the airstone is all that is needed. So one day I had sold a lot of fish out of a tank and there were only a few left. I wanted to do a water change, and I wanted to attempt doing it without adding dechlorinator. There were about 5 guppies left in this tank so I decided to roll the dice. I added the water without treating it with dechorinator and everything was fine. The next day, I did with a big 40 gallon breeder full of fish. Everything was fine. Nothing happened. Fast forward to today and this is now my process. I have been doing this for about a year. I can reliably get about 25 gallons out of my 27 gallon tote. I plan water changes accordingly. After I add water to tanks, I turn on the cold tap water and fill the tote. No more water changes on this day. I usually wait till tomorrow. I never really have emergencies anymore, but if I want to do a water change on the same day after filling the tote, I test it to see if the the ammonia spike has dissipated and the chloramines are gone. This takes about as long as it takes to bring the temperature up anyway. About 3-4 hours. But mostly, I just refill the tote and don't use it again till next day. I don't test the water anymore. Every time I do test a tank, everything is healthy and fine. I haven't bought dechorinator since I discovered this. It has been well over a year. I still use the dechlorinator for one thing and one thing only. I clean airstones by pulling them out of a tank and putting them into a tall glass milk bottle filled with a 10% bleach solution. I let that stone run in the bottle for a couple minutes and then transfer it to another tall glass milk bottle with tap water that has been treated with dechorinator. This does a really fine job of deactivating chlorine bleach. After the stone runs in the "dechlorinator" jug for of a couple of minutes, I put it back into the tank. So, this chemical does work. And I am about out of it. Time to buy some more. But I am going to buy a small bottle of it and that will last me for the next couple years. I'll never put it into a tank again. Why would I? I would like to re-iterate...this is just MY EXPERIENCE. I do not endorse anyone not using dechlorinator for your tanks unless you know what you are doing, test things properly, and proceed with caution. THIS MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. I do not want to be responsible for people killing all the fish in their tanks. But I also don't want you to buy chemicals you don't need. Do you condition your water in a container over night simply to get the temp up for the next time you use it? What you are doing now might make using dechlorinator unnecessary. Good luck and swim at your own risk. Have any of you had similar experiences?

Hi forum folks! We are changing the format of my postings here on the forum. I will still be posting updates, but now they will be organized into monthly postings and updated weekly showcasing fish, plants, and anything else related to the store for that month. If you have any questions on anything mentioned, please don't hesitate email us at the retail store directly at store@aquariumcoop.com and we will happily help you out. Here is the link to our first retail store weekly newsletter along with some photos of the fish and plants featured in the newsletter 😃

After we moved to a new home, we just don't have a place for a tank. So we were thinking of a 5 gallon. They're too small for a sponge (to my liking at least). So I was wondering, are there any 5 gallon kits that have a low flow filter (for a betta)? Also, one reason we've been hesitant to have tanks are kids who could potentially throw things. So I also considered acrylic. Are there ways to get the scratches off, or once it's scratched, it's there for good? If the latter, I need a glass 5 gallon. I can find tanks, but not reliable kits. Or if someone knows of a good HOB for a small tank and low flow, maybe I can put something together.

I currently been using hikari shrimp cuisine and frozen San Francisco bay frozen foods but I can't find alot of shrimp food out there so I'm wondering what fish food is also good for neocaridina skittles. I'm about to have many babies and I wanted to maybe mix the foods and grind it for them . Please any tips on food much appreciated

Yes I agree It saves you money.

Upgraded from the tray to a 10 gallon where they'll get daily 50-100% water changes. There's so many of these things. Very light colored, but they've been in an all white tray, so I am interested if they color up. They have the pattern, just washed out.

I started digital planning again with Goodnotes. So I Started a fish notebook with dosing instructions, fish and plant info. Purchase dates, etc. Thought this would be a good idea to share if anyone uses Goodnotes. I even made digital stickers of the dosing bottles so I can put them on the weekly pages. Also a pages of the dosing directions, other info and my schedule. It’s easy to remove the background on almost any image in file on the iPad. Press and hold on an image in files, quick actions, remove background. Easy planner sticker, of fish, plants, or fert bottle. 🙂 Hope it inspires someone else to start a digital Fish notebook. Also that’s my killifish sticker. I have a terrible memory so this helps.

Too big for a 20. they can get 6 inches long

@Colu He is doing great! Thank you! All the white areas are gone. So far so good, no clamped fins and he swimming around and eating just fine 🙂

I've had good luck with shrimp envy and banquet blocks attracting shrimp. Probably the most shrimp I've ever seen at once is when I add a mulberry leaf to the tank though. I'm lucky enough to have a few trees I can harvest from but I've seen some stores stock them with botanicals as well.

My skittles neocaridina colony has been thriving and overpopulating in all of my tanks for about 5 years. I give them away by the dozens and have resorted to using them as feeders to try to control populations. I used to buy expensive shrimp food and such. I stopped buying shrimp food completely. I found my shrimp thrive equally well on any decent fish food. I crush flake to powder so it gets to new hatch shrimplettes wherever they are.

Here is a photo of my stocked tank. Fish refused to pose for the photo. All are doing well, just waiting for plants to establish. I'm comfortable with current stocking. I did make some changes to plan, I'll list 'em. I think there is room for a few more fish maybe a small school of tetras. No rush. 2 Bolivian Rams - Both males. With addition of tank mates they seem to get along very well. 9 Emperor Tetra - Kerri Tetras were original plan but at the two stores, that I saw them they were so tiny, so I changed gears. I got three males in case if there was some aggression, it could be distributed. 5 Red Eye Tetra 5 Sterbai Cory My quarantine tank has cycled, but at this point is being used to grow some frog bit and a couple other plants.

The Marina 5 gallon kit I have has an adjustable HOB. You can turn it all the way down to a trickle. Its not very customizable though.

This has the potential of getting outa hand!!! I Know nothing about that and love our big plant overlords!

Big Plant controls the levers 😂😂😂

@JoeQ i think your on to something…it’s really the Aquatic Plant Industrial Complex controlling the information on the internet 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Random Garra Guy Pictures: And some Vulcan Pictures

Add an extra air stone as your seeing rapid breathing it's possible graphite disease with the dramatic colour change if its is he will start to go down hill rapidly hopefully if it's not graphite disease salt and maracyn2 will help I would do second course of maracyn2 back to back if your not seeing much improvement

I also use 50 watt heaters. One on a 29 gallon, and use 2 on my larger (50 & 70) gallon tanks.

Definitely looking like popeye now and I’m a bit worried that his right eye is looking a little swollen. For sure, go for the salt and Maracyn-2. You should probably consider an Epsom salt soak, though. Same as for others we’ve talked about.

Mint

Because I have become a 'Nermy' Sponge Filter convert. I have be considering options for my HOBs..... 🤔 Future water fall feature in a wine barrel pond!

Bolivian rams are social and he is probably presenting his good eye simply because he wants to see you. Please let him know I still think he’s very handsome. Maybe you can do the IAL tea and raw IAL since they have antifungal and antibacterial properties. Plus they can be used with other meds if you should decide to try any. Has anyone diagnosed this as popeye yet? Per the chart Maracyn “TWO” is the treatment. But I’m no expert so I’d get a second opinion, of course. Seems we all have the same conclusion @xXInkedPhoenixX? Ha @Colu I think we were typing the same thing at the same time 😄

Yes, I think the same guy gave the talk to ACO club.

Yikes! What kind of detritus worm just crawled out of my tank?.....

In that size, I'd go shrimp only. I had 20 shrimp in a 5G, they breed untill they are 60-80 and than they stop. If I remove 50, they start again. It has a lot of moss, I'd recommend trying plants again

The idea started with me making a 3d printed overflow when i realized the overflow is a perfect basket for foam and filter floss. I think its better to pull the water through filter media rather than pushing it and siphon should do that without the chance of overflowing. There is a union on the underside of just incase you need to disconnect overflow and get the siphon going again (tumble it around in a bucket or tank till the air comes out). The valve and cam lock is for clean out. I've upgraded my python to camlock as some of the python fittings were leaking. Large chamber is to reduce the speed of the flow and allow for a more efficient airlift pump. It also works as a nice place for bio media Con's I see 1) probably will need substantial airflow to get 200gal per hr which is the same as the current pump i have on the tank 2) Overflow is a surface skimmer so you need a ATO system. (already in place for me) 3) kinda large and plumbing parts are expensive right now I haven't decided if i'm going to make it but the overflow box is in production on craftcloud . Ill test it out on the bench and see if everything works. What do you guys think?

Most epic waterfall ever

I am not sure, but it is entirely possible the co op heater has a glass tube inside the plastic housing… when I first bought heaters, I purchased Aqueon pro heaters as they marketed them as shatterproof since they dont have glass, but metal. Aluminum I believe, which that metal has a tendency to brittleness. True enough, but the metal does not mean the metal tube is free from catastrophic failure. I am not certain of the failure mechanism, but the have had incidences of the metal swelling at a point that results in a catastrophic failure of the metal tube splitting open. Cases where this killed all tank inhabitants… I removed all of the aqueon pro heaters… There are metal tube heaters constructed of Titanium as well. I don’t know if those are free from tube failure… without question the safest most reliable aquarium heater is one that is not in your tank, but rather heating your room the aquarium resides in. Unfortunately I prefer keeping my aquarium water about 3-4 degrees warmer than I like keeping the air temperature in the room my aquariums are kept in…

@Fish Folk That's what surprised me. I've never fed blackworms before. 🤔 From my understanding, it only takes a segment of a worm to make a worm. I wonder if frozen blood worms or another food source contained them? It's pretty cool how things just seem to mysteriously happen. 😎

I’ve had some similar snails in my tanks that I was told before I saw them in person were Thiera winteri (Prambanan snails) but they are definitely not because they don’t get anywhere near big enough. They only seem to get to about 3-4 mm long but they don’t seem to bother anything and spend most of their time stirring my sand substrate for me so I don’t care if they’re there. I’ve not been able to identify them but they look a lot like your pics. If your’s only get about 1/8” to maybe 3/16”, they might be a match for mine. I can’t tell you what they are but I can tell you a lot of species they aren’t. 🤷🏻‍♀️

It has been about a year and maintenance free. I have literally done nothing to it. bear in ind though the gravel is separated from it by essentially a wall of rocks. Idid have another tank I excavated out some gravel and put in sand and that would continually get covered by gravel… so same level would be different than different elevation with a rock wall separating…

If you've ever fed that cube black worms, my guess is absolutely yes.

Sure here is an step file for the overflow. Bulkhead is a aquarium coop 3/4". The airlift is a 3/4" jetlift i found on Esty, works good but the sockets aren't deep enough for proper gluing overflow part 1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nByI4Ox8o0iC_F8phvjDwYCvVfAD2kmN/view?usp=drive_link overflow part 2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fGbng40MXsahySwW1u8EDqINrJkOUs-i/view?usp=drive_link This is set up for a rimless tank around 10mm thick so if your glass is thicker or a rimmed tank than you'll need to modify it. Also may need to vary intake height depending on where you keep your water level I printed it out of ASA which i believe is a more UV stable ABS like plastic. I really like how simple it is to start the siphon. Just submerge the in tank piece rotate 360 till the bubbles come out and place into holder box. I havent seen any overflow boxes this easy to start without pumps/airline tubes/disconnecting hoses etc

Cleaned up the glass on the spotted congo puffer adult colony 40 breeder ....then gave them a bit of a MTS and ramshorn meal Also cleaned off the front glass of the 270 pond for the hold back cross river and his large colony of cuban limia. Probugs ecofresh dubia roaches are a hit with this puffer. The superworm version and soldier fly version also are eaten.

Flipped the pipe around so it’s the right way

well works pretty good. nothing is glued so all the joints leak but I think it passes as an air powered hob.

Rice fish are quite active and probably not well suited for a 3.5 gallon. A single betta is borderline and 5 gallons is better for bettas and more easily kept stable. A 3.5 gallon can be tough to keep stable - my 3 gallon shrimp only tank just crashed last week and as far as I can tell killed all the shrimp I had in there. And I have nearly 50 years of aquarium experience although much less time with shrimp. Don’t set yourself up for failure by trying to keep very active species of fish in a tiny, nano tank. It will likely be far more frustrating than it’s worth. Shrimp would be a better bet with small, weekly water changes.

Little Riddick and her buddy.

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to mention that we're in the process of editing down Reverse Respiration to hopefully see formal publication. In doing so and revisiting my notes, I found a chapter I had written on how Reverse Respiration destroys algae using Einstein's earliest equations. In trying to keep this brief (believe it or not!), the current version was incomplete and not well explained. As it turns out, the original I just found was quite a bit better and far more comprehensive in explaining Reverse Respiration's algicidal effects. If you have a moment, please go to Page 1 and scroll down to the Relativity section entitled "Nothing and Something Create Each Other" to see the new content. I think it's a more lucid description of how this whole thing works. I hope you like it.