Leaderboard

This tank is my pride and joy!! Are there any other teens on here I'm 15 and I feel like I'm the only teen fishkeeper. how much is a normal price range to spend on fish per month I'm trying to budget. 🤣🤣🤣

The cost of the aquarium is nothing compared to the cost in damages, time, and materials to replace things when 124 gallons of water are on your floor. I would never buy that tank, and I have plenty of secondhand tanks bought used lol.

If you do buy it, report back but I would be EXTREMELY cautious. I can promise you it will be made with the cheapest materials possible. If you can lose $400 and its not a huge deal, maybe worth the risk but if $400 is a lot, I'd pass.

OMG!!!! I have a 40g breeder community tank, and have in the past few weeks had an outbreak of staghorn algae. I have tried manual removal, balancing nutrients and light exposure, and it just seemed to be getting a bit worse. I was hesitant to use any spot treatments, or anything chemical in nature, just because I always worry about the impacts on my fish and tank. My amazon swords and java ferns were covered. I found this post on the forums after searching for all sorts of solutions. The article is extremely in depth, but I do have a background in the sciences, and I couldn't believe the level of understanding and depth of the research involved. I HAD TO TRY IT!! I used a giant storage tote (solid blue color), 10L of seltzer water, threw my plants in, added a weight to hold them under the surface, then placed the lid (but did not seal the container) on top, and covered with a blanket. 12h soak. I prepped a 5 gal bucket I normally use for water changes, and added a spare ACO sponge filter which has a built in air stone, to aerate the water. After the 12hr soak, I removed the plants, put them into the bucket, and placed an aquarium light (LED) over the top. Set a 30 min timer, and just let them soak. When I pulled the plants out, I was ready to replant them into my tank. As soon as I put them into the water, and under my light, I could see all of the previously black-ish algae was either a burgundy-red or a pale white-ish color. I have 3 bushynose plecos, 3 mollies, and 2 amano shrimp in the tank, so I didn't manually remove any of the algae, I wanted to see if my fish would clean up the dead stuff. They either couldn't or wouldn't eat the staghorn previously, but I had read that once it dies, the clean up crews will take care of it, or it will fall off and decompose. I couldn't BELIEVE the results from this process. I am ever so grateful to ACO and the community, this forum, and the researchers who gave us this amazing information. I will continue to update as this week progresses.

I got these Monday from Dans fish. They were stunning metallic rose gold with a thin stripe. Tiday the boys are brick reddish and the stripe is wide. The girls are washing out and losing the stripe. This is the spawning color coming in. I caught some boys sparring today. It’s comical as anything to watch. It’s a Wiggle fight 🤣

They will not reproduce in freshwater. They will lay eggs. Occasionally the eggs may even hatch, but the larvae cannot survive in freshwater. I'm guessing the conflicting info is either due to this, or bot articles. There are bot articles out there claiming you can breed them in freshwater. Also, nerites are a great choice for algae. Mystery snails will graze on algae a little but have a diet that requires eating other things so nerites are best for the job. I tend to prefer keeping both in a tank because the mystery snails do a good job of cleaning out other stuff like extra food and dead plant matter.

I’m so happy you had success. Any leaves that were dying from the algae will melt off but you should see new growth happening quickly. We noticed most plants have a quick growth spurt from the co2.

I have gotten lots done this last week.

just wanted to share my goldies also for anyone that has goldfish, does ur tank water ever go darker blue/green? my tank parameters are good/ in the range for goldies. but idk what I need to do. please help me!

Hello! Relatively new fish keeper here debating on what to put in my planted 29Gal. Currently it has a quickly growing population of blue velvet shrimp, which I know will probably get snacked upon by most other fish, and will be moved to there own tank eventually. I'm thinking of getting 2 clown plecos, but can't make up my mind about any other fish. Are there any oddball/unique type fish to inhabit it? Some type of schooling fish and some type of centerpiece... Any ideas would be appreciated!

Ammonia clears up once your nitrifying bacteria colonies have grown enough. Adding live plants may help to bring in some beneficial bacteria. Certain plants can absorb ammonia, but that won’t necessarily render your tank ready for adding fish. If you have sponge filters going, adding FritzZyme 7 as directed on the bottle can kickstart your cycle. I _think_ most liquid bacteria suspensions are in something like a cystic state. They take a little time to jump-start. I always add an air-stone as well because the type of nitrifying bacteria colonies you are trying to cultivate are aerobic. Generally speaking, I’d say plants always help! Just to give some sense how much I believe in plants 🌱 🪴 … More plants!!! Always!!! 😎🌱🪴💚

Hello, I have not seen an issue with root tabs specifically made for aquariums (non-osmocote based, such as aquarium co op, nilocG thrive, our seachem flourish) causing ammonia or nitrite spikes in my aquariums. I do see nitrate levels increase for a week or so, which I believe is because some of the fertilizer gets into the water column. If you only put 6 in a 20 gallon, I would look for another reason for the spike, and change water frequently (I would do 50% every other day) while you are seeing the elevations until you figure out what is causing it. I would not remove the tabs if it were me. You may make things worse by stirring up substrate.

thats what pops into my mind. if you can afford to lose $400 buying something cheap, well whatever. 124 gallons of water loose in your home, now thats something to be concerned about.

Test your tanks for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate. When fish respirate and defecate, they release ammonia. Unless your nitrifying bacteria bacterial colonies are ample enough to convert Ammonia to Nitrite… and Nitrite on to Nitrate… any tank becomes a death trap. Nitrifying bacteria coats all hard surfaces over time. I suspect that your sponge filter was not sufficiently primed.

Agree with @Tony s & @Cinnebuns 100%. Nerite snails require brackish or salt water for the eggs to hatch. So you will NEVER get baby nerites in a freshwater tank. You may however see lots of eggs. Snails as a group are very diverse, and have many reproductive strategies. Some species have male and female individuals, some species have individuals that have both male and female parts, and some are apparently parthenogenetic (females can make clones without sexual reproduction). Further, some lay eggs, while some give birth to live young. Nerites have male and female individuals. If you have a male, or a female who has never mated, you'll never see eggs. But a female that has "got jiggy with it" can produce eggs for a long time after that using stored sperm from the... encounter. And if at least one male and at least one female are in a tank together, you can end up with LOTS of eggs over time. The eggs don't fall off easily, so after a few months of laying, you can end up with a lot of eggs to scrape off things. It's easy to get them off glass with a razor or credit card, but wood and rocks are harder to clear.

nerite snails do not reproduce in freshwater. They will lay eggs. tiny white dots allover. but the eggs won't survive. mystery snails are easy to control, you just have to remove the egg capsules, or fill the tank up enough to keep them from laying. they wont survive under water.

Yes, 8g is small, esp as a cube. yes a bigger tank would be better. But if this tank is your only option, and re-homing the kuhli doesn't work for you, then I think adding a few is better than not. I really like kuhlis as clean up crew, even if I hardly ever see them. I find they are pretty gentle on your bioload too. For an 8g, I'd aim for 4-6. They love the small stacked tubes that are sold as shrimp hides. Also rock piles and potted plants (plants in gravel in small pots, placed on the substrate - they get in the pot around the plant stems, and under the pots in the substrate).

It looks to be a combination of left over food that is growing the bacterial colonies and fungus that break down the excess. Try feeding less and doing weekly gravel vacuuming. Also adding more flow and mechanical filtration like a hang in back will help or a powerhead with a sponge prefilter.

I've been setting up a planted 10 gallon for the first time ever so I haven't exactly had time to make a good intro post, but hello! I'm not exactly new to the hobby but I am new to plants and snails so I still have a lot to learn. This is my planted tank it's about a month old so I'm still dialing it in. My main issue is my red root floaters melting slightly but that's probably because they're new to the tank. This is Kaz, my black crown tail male. Though, he stopped being black pretty soon after I got him and now he's more Dr.Pepper red and silver. I've had him for almost 2 years and moved him from his 5 gallon tank with fake decor to this one. He has one dream in life and it is to one day bite the hand that feeds him. This is Slurp the Chestnut mystery snail. I've never had a snail before and I've only had him for about 3 weeks but I'm feeding him calcium rich food and he has plenty of exploring space. He has a routine that makes no sense to me but it involves parasnailing every night at 6pm. That's the whole tank! It's still new so it will probably change a lot in the future but I'm pretty happy with where it's at.

To me it just looks like mulm but maybe there's something more to it

Not the new 20 long tank ready for my dwarf emerald danios and pygmy corys. I call it the anubias garden.

Cheap is very risky word when looking to purchase an aquarium. Sometimes, spending an extra $50-$100 now can save you the headache of something going very wrong. There are definitely ways to be frugal in this hobby, but this is not where I’d start.

So far, my goal has been to learn to grow healthy plants… my goal used to be killing algae, but, if you grow healthy plants, you are not going to have them infested with Algae…. So I learned to concentrate on growing healthy plants. I threw away my remaining Easy Carbon. I never really perceived it was doing much anyway… I am getting rather comfortable growing healthy plants and avoiding algae…. My tanks however tend to confused and overgrown and cluttered…. case in point… I learned early on that plant species look better when in bunches rather than a stem here and a stem there…. Little colonies of plants… But the background of val is just too much… and covering the top shades out the understory excessively… This actually after a fairly heavy retrenchment. It opens up the surface for light penetration and allows some negative space… This clean up was a good start…. But… here is a major rearrangement. In the first photo you barely see any of the rocks. Just a hint here and there… and several rocks you dont even see a hint of.. and to what end? I mean what purpose is a rock in the tank if you never see it? You sure cant plant in that spot unless you glue a rhizome plant.. So I pulled out three rocks. The remaining ones were brought forward on the left allowing me to move the tiger lotus Forward and to the left allowing a stand of Ludwigia repens to grow behind it. Yes it is all there behind it and will be visible after a few weeks of growth…. Thank you @Mmiller2001 for this suggestion. Anubias reduced and excess moved to other tanks.. MyScarlet Temple was replanted where there was a rock to move it back from the front glass, and the Rotala Walichii was moved to the background between the Ludwigia Repens and Cardinal Lobelia,. I also completely removed the Bacopa as it was cluttering more than anything… At this point I am going to let it grow in for 3-4 weeks before considering other options. Honestly I am rather overwhelmed with all I have to learn. Composition, trimming pruning , complimentarity, textures colors shapes… But, @Mmiller2001 says its easy. Just keep removing what doesnt look right and adding what does…. I suppose a Chimpanzee pecking at a keyboard long enough might just type out Shakespeare eventually…. But I need to remember how overwhelmed I was with Algae and at a loss of how to deal with it…

Day 18 Update: These guys for the most part aren't as picky of eaters as I feared. I have 1 that will legit eat anything I put in the tank, 1 that isn't far behind, 1 thats 50/50, and 1 that will pick at stuff but only gorges itself on Beefheart. I fairly worried about the beefheart one because its the smallest and it seems interested in other food but never takes more than a bite or 2. For example, it will approach blood worms but back off at the last second and only actually eat a worm or 2. With the repashy, he goes, gets close, but never takes a bite. Its very strange because it looks like it wants to eat it but just doesn't. It will completely fill itself with beefheart though so that is a bit reassuring. The one that eats everything is the largest and a bit of a thief when it comes to meal worms. I usually drop 5-6 in the tank and he will eat like 3 of them. If he doesn't get to a worm first, he will try to take it out of the other puffers mouths. Its kind of funny to watch. But back to the Repashy, 2 of them east it well and a third does partake but not to the extent of the other 2. My Pleco seems to love it the most though. Luckily he comes in, gets his fill and then leaves. The fish are getting along with their tankmates fairly well. They do occasionally chase other fish but not relentlessly and I swear I can see them smiling when they do it. Its definitely more fun for them than any type of true aggression. I'm sure my other fish don't find it nearly as amusing. @IanB can you share any pics of your puffers? I am curious as to how big these guys will actually get. Also have you had to do any beak trimming or have yours been able to maintain on hard foods alone?

I've got 12 of these and they're pretty interesting to watch. The sparring gets pretty aggressive for something with such small of a mouth and being not very big. The males is almost jet black too, it's hard to see them against a black background. Good luck with them!

Little bit of fungus on fins never bother me - they get into scrapes; fungus forms while the wound heals and then poof it is gone. The worse mistake i ever made was trying to treat a fish that had some fungus on a wound. To be honest i'm not even sure what the difference is between 'fungus' the disease and fungus on a wound but it seems like different stuff because one actually seems to eat into the fish and needs to be treated the other frequently appears while the fish is healing from a wound and seems normal.

Well to be blunt 0; the tank doesnt' really offer enough swimming room for kuhli. You could try pangio shelfordii; these are sort of like mini kuhli and they would do better in an 8 than kuhli but ... sometimes larger is better and in this case a larger aquarium....

My biggest issues with the liquid/drops test kits is time. If you have to test multiple tanks, or a single tank multiple times (eg couple times during the day, or even a few - or all - days per week), the time spent drawing the samples, counting the drops, timing the reactions, shaking (and shaking and shaking) the bottles, and repeating for various parameters just isn't worth it. With strips, you swirl, give it 30-60 seconds depending on the brand, and you're done. The accuracy might not be as precise as liquid tests, but that doesn't mean they aren't accurate enough. You don't need to know/see the difference between pH of 7.2 vs 7.5, or 0.1 vs 0.2 ammonia or 10 vs 20 nitrite. For monitoring health, you just need to be able to distinguish between zero, low, some and lots. Zero and low (for ammonia and nitrite) means you don't need to do anything, some might mean you need to do something (or maybe just monitor and retest), and lots means you should be doing something to bring that level down. I'll also add that of the test results I categorized above, zero, low and some rarely result in fish deaths. Lots can (result in deaths) if it's persistent or critically high. But if you're seeing regular deaths and ammonia or nitrite are low or some, that's probably not the silver bullet you're looking for. It might be a contributor, but there's probably more going on. Not trying to diagnose your issues, just laying a framework for how to proceed. Personally, I like and trust the API strips, and the coop brand. I'm sure others have their own brand experiences.

Yeah, take the advice @TMartins said and it will also it will go away eventually, I mean diatom algae stays and stays and stays so yeah.

Correct, this is fresh water.

@Bigdog99 I did not mean a literal $50-$100, I mean you either spend it now or potentially inherit someone else’s problem. This isn’t the hobby to get by as cheap as possible from the beginning. You will have to spend some money and a peace of mind is well worth it.

Very odd looking, that is for sure, never in my life, but I am sure with time (which usually is always a good thing, to wait it out) it will go but if u have corys like @TMartins that is an option

It looks like what I get in my tank and I agree with @Schuyler that it could just be mulm. I either gravel vac it or eventually goes away when the Cory’s stir it up and into the sponge filter. It hasn’t affected any off my fish and my water parameters are good.

This was my first foray as I re entered the hobby. There was an incredible learning curve of learning how to grow healthy plants and avoiding algae growth. My concentration at current is in the plant composition and placement and working on the grouping sizes and trimming them and forming them in to the forms I want. I do understand that the hardscape forms the backbone of the composition, and will be an area of focus when I start up a 75 gallon tank in the future. At present, I am loathe to tear this current tank up to do the work necessary to get that backbone in. I sort of view this tank as a sandbox to learning the plant side of aquascaping right now.. I am fond of the hardscape layout in George Farmers favorite personal tank as shown in this video. when I start up a 75, I intend to transplant a lot of the plants from this tank as well as another 29 gallon tank in to it. Then remaining plants will be consolidated in to 1, 29, and this one will be emptied and cleaned and be left a clean slate to restart at a later date once the 75 stabilizes… It may well be a foray in to dutch style with no hardscape at all… I definitely agree with the Val. It requires frequent pruning back and hair cuts…. It came with my first tranche of plants as a package deal of plants as a single bunch. I somewhat doubt it will be included in the 75. I am planning on thinning it back a fair amount on the back left side corner next weekend as it is getting a bit overpowering there. I am also not so much a fan of Java moss either though I have been enjoying the colony that self established on the top of the rock just to the right of the Pink Flamingo Crypt. I never placed it there myself, it simply hitched a ride in with other plants and chose that spot for itself…

One of my favorite tanks ever was a 12 gallon bookshelf tank (36 inches long) with 6 honey gouramis. They were constantly playing/chasing (but not in a stressful way) and truly didn't need anything else in with them (though I did have some clithon snails and shrimp).

I feel like we don't have good "mid-tier" aquarium choices. We have aqueon/marineland/topfin or much more expensive choices. In the days of yore, we had Oceanic, which fit the level that you might be talking about.

Thank you. I noticed the pelvic fins had white tips on a few. I was worried it was fungus. My eyes are old and not great, they are small and very quick.

That just looks like scales that have a metallic colour it's no uncommon for Bettas to change colour as they get olderI don't think that's anything to worry and doesn't need treatment

No idea. Could be some form of bacteria bloom. I once had some sand grow 2 inches of brown muck on the bottom of a tank. Never cleared until I treated the whole tank with erythromycin

I just just took a photo of her with a macro lens and they are not spots they are the same as on her head. I should have been more descriptive. Thank you.

Am struggling to see any white spots in the picture do the mean the metallic scales on the head @MRCABDRIVER

I love your tank! I think a big school of harlequin rasboras plus 3 honey gourami would be great in there, plus a few hillstream loaches as others have suggested. I doubt the rasboras or loaches would mess with your shrimp much so you could add them pretty quickly. My honeys tend to leave my shrimp alone, at least the adults, but they may prey on the young ones (so you may want to add after a few months so your colony can take off). Clown plecos would also be great! I would probably just keep one in there though. They do make more waste than most fish their size. With those fish you won't need to heat it as much, could keep the tank more room temp around 72-75 F.

If you allow the shrimp population to explode enough, you could keep the shrimp and add fish both. Yes you will have some shrimp eaten but they will populate fast enough to keep up. I enjoy hillstream loaches as an oddball. Foe schooling fish there's TONS AND TONS of options so I'll answer it with questions instead. This will help narrow down what fish you would be happy with. 1. How much color do you want? 2. What specific colors appeal to you? 3. How much activity do you like in the fish? This is one I realized is very important to me personally and I think many people don't consider. Do you want a highly active fish or a chill one? 4. How important is "personality" for you? These questions can also help narrow down a centerpiece fish but there are fewer options here. I tend to love gourami personally but there are other options like a betta or a ram. A betta would take some more steps to accomplish.

Great to see another person keeping these @NOLANANO. I have a group of six and have had similar ups and downs with food. They love bloodworms and like clams but not the shells. When hungry enough, they will eat frozen krill. Mine get along well with mid-size schooling fish (say rosy barb size) but have made a snack of some smaller rummynoses. Corys are completely ignored. Some love playing in the bubbles from an airstone, while others prefer to be a bit more sedentary and slowly cruise around waiting for something to play with/chase a bit. They seem to appreciate a heavily planted/hardscaped tank. Edit: I should note that mine are probably twice the size of yours, maybe a bit more, so they are much larger than the rummys. I'm sure at their current size, yours are fine with them. When they get bigger.... well I caught one of mine with half a rummynose sticking out of their mouth.

Never used them but from what I’ve seen there pretty similar to api the thing is if I was going to spend that much on testing I’d choose a higher quality kit for a smaller amount of tests personally I’d just do api but if you really want to know all your perimeters it’s not bad

2 more weeks of growth. The Rotalla Wallichii is starting to grow in nicely, and the Cardinal Lobelia is getting up to a nice height. The corymbosa compacta on the left offsetts the val background and the Tiger lotus nicely to my eye. The Scarlet Temple doesnt really look to be doing much of anything. It just seems to be sitting there, but it is free from Algae, and that is always a plus.

Looks like you already got excellent answers for the questions I was tagged in. Sorry I’m not on the forum every day. Also sorry for your loss but agree with @mountaintoppufferkeeper that there will sometimes be losses. Especially in such young fish that have been through a lot before they get to you. I think you’re on the right track now.

@Cory My suggestion is less with the functionality of the site and more with the content. I very much appreciate that the forum is here to help new folks and by all means I will keep commenting and trying to assist, but I really enjoyed it when it was a members only community for several reasons. For one, the size worked really well. I could get answers on posts in hours; now I have been trying to get answers on a certain issue for several days but it keeps getting drowned out by new posts. Second, the content was a little different with members only because a lot of members have more experience and so there were fewer questions that can be answered by doing a thorough Google search. I totally respect that the forum is designed to spread the hobby and we were ALL beginners at one point. But it would be nice to perhaps have a "members only" section. That's just my personal opinion and I totally respect whichever direction you choose to take the forum. I'm not trying to throw shade at new people! Just nice to read posts about newer topics and to not have posts drowned out.

Was a bit overdue on the water change and trim but I got it done today. Before/After pics

Added a piece of Malaysian driftwood and some Süsswassertang to my dumbofin mosaic / cherry shrimp / mystery snail project. (You guessed it, I did watch that video) Might have to add broadleaf water Sprite to the list of plants I can kill too. Looks so bad on the left, the octo looks so good on the right. Maybe going to replace it with guppy grass. Even I can't kill that stuff.