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The oldest tank I have is a year and a half Here's when it was first setup: Here it is now:

This was a few months ago. To my current plant vomit scape I’m trying to fix 😆

My first effort in April of 2022 July 2022 Sept 2022 January 2023 March 2023 May 2023 July 2023 December 2023 mid February 2024 same tank, hopefully getting better…

you'd probably projectile vomit if you saw mine!!🙈

mine might look like this, sort of, not really. close? I thought this was the coolest thing I've seen today

I am not sure why but I can't get the pics to post in order but this top pic is what the tank looked like about 2 months ago before I did slight rescape. This is about the 2 year mark. This pic is what the tank looked like after the rescape but before I bought Val and Dwarf Sag to go behind the new structure. I will take an updated pic tonight and add it. This was 2 months ago so I would say this about 2 years still. Maybe 2 and a half. This picture was at about the 1 year mark and it is when the tank looked its best imo. For some reason I thought it was cluttered at the time and changed it up and I have been chasing this ever since. This is a pic from today. You can see the dwarf sag to the right. There is Val behind the structure but it’s melting at the moment. Hopefully it comes back with a vengeance soon.

I just watched a video on a guy that went with a group studying the Rio Negro and they tested the PH at different parts of the river and found it ranged from 7.0 to 3.0 but the fish were the same species in all tested points. His point was that fish can live in different PHs as long as its consistent. its better to use the PH out of your tap than to chase a desired PH.

Hello all! I am currently in the process of cycling a 75G tank for a native tank setup. I plan to add 3-4 Warmouth sunfish to it. Has anyone on here keep or have kept sunfish, more specifically warmouth? Also, i believe im right in assuming keeping warmouth would be very similar to keeping green sunfish, bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc? I plan to buy the fish from a fish hatchery online if i cant catch any locally. They are somewhat uncommon where i am at locally, and its possible it is a crossbreed with another sunfish type. I want pure bred warmouth. I currently have 2 other tanks, a 30 gal octagon tank with guppies and ghost shrimp, and a 15 gal bowfront with medaka and ghost shrimp. This will be my first native tank, and my biggest. Included is a picture of the 75 in its current state. I used rinsed play stand as a substrate, so i am going to buy some root tabs before i add plants in. I plan to re-decorate with bigger objects when the fish get bigger. i am also going to get a planted tank light as well before i add plants, this light is just temporary. Included is a link to the fish i am talking about: https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/war/

It is crazy to me how much of a beginner I was looking back and seeing how my tank had looked. Was a 55 gallon and man the stocking was all over the place... Surprised no one on the forum had bashed on me a while back for this 😂. But again I was beginner and now I have much more info then I did before and better skills. Now in 2024 I have more skills then I had before, still learning new things everyday, but thats what the hobby is about. My new discus tank is still pretty new I would say. A 75 gallon and started in July of 2023 and plants are still growing in but again patience is key in this hobby.

What up what up? Kept it pretty simple this week. Just water changed everything and added a bit of Indian Almond Leaves here and there. Black Neons have made it through their final round of dewormer. 2 weeks and they’ll be added to the display tank. I’ve been adding some IAL’s to their QT tank to get them ready for the display. Stoked to have them in there soon! Really not a whole lot to report. Tomorrow I need to swap the CO2 tank so that’s ready when the final create-your-own tank is empty. Once that’s set up we should be on auto pilot for a hot minute. Here’s some pictures I took today: Bristlenose kicked a clutch of eggs I didn’t even know they had. I’m thankful they kicked it as I don’t need any more Pleco’s. Boiled up 8 large IAL’s. Lotus Pods finally sank after a boil and like 2 weeks in the tank. Moved those bad boys front and center as I love the way they look. 29 Blackwater tank cruising right along. Stoked for the Black Neons to get in here. I’m going to take another picture tomorrow after the tannins from the leaves leech into the water more. It’s usually a pretty drastic transformation, to the eye at least. We’ll see how it shows up in the pics. Got my 2 year coin that now rides around in my pocket on the daily. Fun to have a new one! Cheers!

These male Apisto. Borelli “Opal” ($19.49ea) are looking colored up and ready for their forever homes 🩵

Great vendor ordered Rainbow Darter from them. https://g.co/kgs/1vEVa1Y

20 Gallon initial set up (early 2022) 1.5 years later: overgrown (I can't find a full picture but the entire tank was dense with and completely full of plants. Rescape: december 2023 (substrate changed, lots of plants removed) Re-rescape January 2024 (driftwood, rocks, and more sand added) I think that I like this current scape the most but I am definitely still working on it. I'm trying to fill in the space on the right better soon.

@Fish Folk has some NANF tanks. I have kept sunfish before mine were pumpkin seed. They lived in a tank of rejects and behaved like any other aquarium fish. I did feed them live insects and fish when they were young but they quickly started taking frozen foods and weirdly hikari algae wafers. They were quite territorial over those haha

I'm not a huge country music fan, but these Toby Keith (may he rest in peace) videos prove that they could not be improved with a bunch of electronic stuff added in. My 2 cents worth! I do like some older country artist. Can you imagine Merle Haggard or George Jones songs being improved on? No way!

I leave it off when I first add the fish. I turn it on an hour or 2 later on the lowest setting. My time length it normally the same as my other tanks. The brightness depends on how the fish are acting and adjusting and if I have live plants or not. I try to light acclimate them to whatever brightness and time length their final home tank is.

I recently rescued fish with both ich and epistylis. I identified this with my microscope to the best I could. I’m not a scientist. They were skinny so may have had a bacterial issue also. They were in very bad shape. I used ichx, salt, and maracyn in the water. Every other day 50% water change and redose for the amount taken out. They all cleared up well and are now fat and sassy.

Here is my latest news concerning this tank (and my others) I originally identified a filament algae I deal with as Spirogyra. It's not a horrible problem, and "seems to be" fueled by excess phosphates. Having a lot of free time on my hands and after A well meaning member offered to microscopicly ID it for me it became my white whale......... And that my friends is how a new hobby is born!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Below are pictures of the enemy in it's infancy taken at 100x, 250x, and 1000x

Since I decided to clear out everything, I started a new topic called "Rebooting a 55 Gallon Tank" under general.

For a budget friendly option since you are not focused on harder plants I use hygger lights from Amazon on all my tanks. They are adjustable and have built in timers. My plants including crypts all do fantastic.

Awesome, thanks! Ill have to get me some of that food, then. My LFS has 1 ghost shrimp for 25 cents. I actually have an extra 5 gallon that i got for free off marketplace, so maybe its time i got into shrimp breeding, lol! I also got this 75 gallon for entirely free off marketplace. It came with 1 koi, a fancy goldfish and 2 plecos. All were too big for the tank. Sold them to my LFS for 25 bucks in store credit. It came with the tank, stand, filter, and some fake plants, which went in the trash, not personally my thing. Also, its not a cheapo petsmart tank, its a marineland! All i did is remove the typical "beginner gravel", clean it up real good, rinse some play sand, decorate it with some extra rocks i had laying around from previous tanks, and that filled er' up! Just a waiting game now, and im super excited because this is my 3rd tank ive ever had and my first big boy tank. And i got it all for almost free, minus the play sand. Next step is to get some fish, some root tabs, better lighting and plants.

Not at all. Mine stay at 7.5 consistently. And there’s the key. The last thing you want to do is be chasing a certain ph. You’re best off using your tap water in most cases. That way it’s always consistent with little fluctuations. Almost all fish will adapt. The thing about ph ranges, most of the guides give you ph ranges in nature. Most aquarium fish are raised by hobbyists or farm raised not in nature. Most of them are raised in whatever water is readily available. Usually much higher than in nature. Figure most of the US is harder water with higher ph. Same with Europe and east Asia where the farms are. Your platys would actually do very well with ph around 8

Back in October, I found a 65 gallon tank (36x18x24) for $45 on FB Marketplace...not a bad deal, but it needed some work and I wanted to build my own stand for it. I work from home 4 days a week, so this tank is my zoom backdrop and also just as a stress reducer when I have to deal with annoying people 🙂 Here's the tank after we took the top rim off - it was cracked and there was some dirt between the glass and the frame from the previous owner leaving it outside on its side. It was not a pretty removal, but it made it a lot easier to get all of the silicone off - which took a LONG time...at some point, someone tried to reseal the tank but just went over the old stuff, so it wasn't pretty here's the tank after I removed all of the silicone (forgive the blue...its an old Aqueon light that I threw on there) my stand build - it has since been painted black Heres the "pre-water" look And here's the (almost finished...I might add more H'ra and/or a rock or two from another tank) planted look - forgive the cloudy water, most of the plants have been in other tanks for over a year, so its going through a bit of a bacterial die-off I'm still not 100% sure what I want to put in there, so if anyone has some suggestions, let me know I will be putting in (from other tanks); 6 pepper cories, ~5 Otos (2 existing, plus 3 new at some point), ~10 amano shrimp, (~10 CPDs...not sure on these) My current thought is to add Black Ruby Barbs and Bloodfin Tetras (maybe 9-12 of each), but again...not "married" to this idea Tank is currently sitting right around 73, but will most likely push it up to ~75/76 once I add the second ACO heater (currently in use), sponge filter, FX2, Small Aquasky light just for the sunrise/sunset, ACO 36in light, currently set at 40% (turned up to 100% for pic above), currently running a tetra air pump, but will be swapping with ACO pump so I have the battery backup if needed in the future. Let me know what you think I'm happy with it so far 🙂 *edited to swap last picture for one with fewer glare

I've posted several times in the last few days in the introduction forum under the subect "I'm new also..." After struggling with the dreaded "Grey Gunk" for at least six months I've decided to start over. I'm taking out the water, gravel and substrate. Please feel free to recommend subtrates and gravel for a 55 gallon - fresh water - planted tank. Currently I have a fluval 307 filter, Coralife Seascape LED Aquarium Light and 2 "generic heaters". May upgrade some of this later.

I am currently thinking about upgrading the tank lights on my 29 gallon planted tank. The tank has been running with the current lights for as long as I can remember and once had grown a massive forest of java fern. Since taking over the tank from my parents, I trimmed down and removed some of the java fern and introduced some new species of plants. I have a schedule for dosing iron and potassium liquid supplements and Easy Green Fertilizer. I have not changed the lighting and after nearly 3 months, the plants have grown quite well with no die back or any problems with growing. But I feel like maybe the lights aren't good enough? There is no visible brand on them or any specifications for wattage, lumens, etc. so I am unsure how good it actually is. There are 2, 12 inch lights on the tank, one is dimmer than the other (notice the left side is not as bright) and they look similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/CFPATT-Aquarium-inches-Spectrum-Hidden/dp/B09VDKDFXD Does the lighting seem good for what I have? If not, and I should upgrade and get a new light, what should I be looking for regarding watts, lumens, and such, and what lights would you recommend? Thanks! This is how it looks when there is no daylight entering the room, so all the lighting is from the tank lights. I'm a little embarrassed by how the tank looks right now, so don't make fun lol.

I got new aquariam for gold fish going to pick them up tomorrow on way home from work. But here is pic. I washed the gravel but still a lil cloudy. Ordering drift wood for too. For anyone one who doesn't know me very well I love rocks! Lol think posted upside down🤢🤣

Bigdog99 thank you....I did send an email and got an answer with in 24hours. I'm in NY and they in Washington State.....time difference in all think sent kinda late but 24 hours is still amazing

Given the length of time between deaths it's less likely to be a bacterial infections I couldn't rule it out with bloating and raised scales can be caused by a parasitc infection I would have expected it to have affected your other fish given the length of time what it's been going on have you notice any aggression between your CPD it's not uncommon for them to kill each other if you do need to use an antibiotic treatment I would use maracyn2 active ingredient minocycline won't harm shrimp kanaplex isn't effective in food as very little of the medication makes it into the blood stream though the intestinal tract

I actually only grow those 3 types of plants as well, with the exception of the single amazon sword. I also only have the lights on for ~8-10 hours a day and I have not had any problems with algae or plant growth with that many hours. I am happy with my current plants and I'm not really interested in many of the high light species anyway. I like crypts, anubias, java fern, etc. and will probably continue to stick with those species. I guess my biggest issue is that I don't really like how uneven the lighting is, with the left side being a different light and it being dimmer. I should also say, I didn't necessarily mean an upgrade but maybe just a replacement light that is good for the plants I'm trying to grow. I may just be better off switching the current lights with one that is better overall, but not necessarily an upgrade, if you know what I mean.

Got some Water Wisteria from my friend yesterday. I have it floating in the tank now, I hope it does well for me. Also some breakfast pictures: I also now have a new mission for today. I heard from my friend there is a different tank in the school with some platies in it and one of them is significantly bullied. So far we are not sure if the bullied one is a male or a female, but i will have to check it out and potentially rescue it later today.

For just Java fern you do not want to go much brighter. In tanks I grow only crypts, Java fern and anubias I turn my lights on only the second lowest setting. Much more and I get algae. Your sword may benefit from additional lighting or it may start having problems. The more light available to faster growing plants the more nutrients it needs. My swords grow painfully slow because I do not use root tabs or fertilizer. If I turn my lights in those tanks up the swords start struggling from nutrient deficiency. To answer this question I would have to ask how much farther are you intending to go? Wanting to do plants that require more light or nutrients then yes an upgrade. Happy with your current plants? Then I probably would not make the investment other than for the convenience of having only one light and aesthetic of even lighting.

I am a board member of the Northwest Ohio Aquarium Society as well as a member of the Ohio Cichlid Association. I love being part of aquarium clubs, it opens a whole new dimension to the hobby as you mentioned.

MD Fish tank uses the steel bottles on his tank. He has great results until he gets bored and rescapes everything.

Yes they poop like crazy. If anyone says they dont poop much, probably not feeding them enough. If fed daily with good amount of food, their whole schedule is about eating and pooping while taking a nap. And sometimes they wander around

I have both butterfly and reticulated hillstream loaches. They can look pretty similar. Butterfly are bigger and have spots whereas reticulated has swirls or stripes. Neither butterfly or reticulated are aggressive. Even when multiple males of the same species are together their scuffles rarely get very aggressive with each other. It's more likely the fact that plecos are nocturnal than anything. This is worded better than I said it lol. I typed mine before reading other responses. I will caution this though. Although plecos are not by nature aggressive, they have been known to attack and even kill fish by sucking off their slime coat if they are not fed properly. As they age they become more carnivorous. Many people don't understand this and don't feed them enough protein. This causes them to try to get protein from other fish.

Don’t think it’s aggression, bn’s are mostly nocturnal. It may be you’re not as active when it is

Yes there is, there can also be frustrating challenges. You have one of those currently. It gets better. I know it’s hard to believe right now, but it will get better. the smell concerns me. Even a ton of mulm doesn’t stink like that. Bacterial infections do. Honestly, I would absolutely hit it with erythromycin. Usually thought of as fish medication. It also works on bacterial growth in the tank. If you’re really getting frustrated, what have you got to lose. Hopefully it works, if it doesn’t, it won’t hurt either

Hi @suzanneisalive, I've had dojos for about 4 years, raised from juveniles. When I first got them, while in QT, a vicious, fast-moving infection tore through them and @Colu helped me medicate them. During the course of antibiotics, they all developed a similar issue with constipation and buoyancy. Unable to sink, unable to stay upright, and I may be anthropomorphizing here, but they looked terribly uncomfortable. With 6 of them unable to sink or swim normally, I used the Epsom salt bath which worked on one but not the other 5. I did some research on using vibration devices for impaction on fish and spoke with @Odd Duck about it. She had mentioned also that she has seen similar devices work for sand impaction in, I believe, axolotls (but I don't actually remember what the specific creature was). When I used the Epsom salt alone, at least with dojos and with one silver dollar, I had mixed results. For one, it seems to greatly irritate the dojos. I don't know if that has anything to do with being scaleless or they were just so sick. However, when I combined the Epsom salt with the device below, the dojos released an incredible amount of fecal matter overnight. The following day, you could see the swelling had reduced and the buoyancy issue was gone. However, two of them died anyway so it was inconclusive. Of course, it could have been too advanced, or the prior infection may have done damage as well. But I can tell you that it "emptied" them out and rectified the buoyancy issue. What I am still mystified over is the 'psychological' effect the vibration had on them. I've since seen this with a sick German Blue Ram and a silver dollar. It renders a calm across the tank and in fact, some of the fish make an effort to stay or 'hug' the vibrator. Dojos seem prone to this issue. Ever since, once a week I soak the entire tank's food in Garlic Guard with a teaspoon of Epsom salts dissolved in it and I've not seen this issue since. I'm sorry I have no more than anecdotes for you, but this is what I used to the mixed results cited above: Mini Facial & Eye Massage Ball Portable Travel Pocket USB Rechargeable Skin Care Massage Tool Here are two links that may prove helpful. The first is a better alternative to sterilizing your plants in the future: And this is a short piece on the potential benefits of vibrational therapy: Good luck.

I realized my nerite snail probably was not too happy in the 2 gallon with no algae in it, and the tank at school has started developing some glass algaes, so i ended up moving the nerite snail to the school tank, she seemed happier in the bigger tank with food for her. I also wanted to free up my 5gallon for QT and breeding purposes so i moved the orange shrimp that we in there to school as well. I've pretty much decided at this point that a 2gallon tank besides for maybe fry is too small for fish, but as it is heated it could work well for live food cultures, which i want to feed more of because they are more sustainable then just prepared foods which are more expensive to feed. I also noticed that in the shrimp tank we have developed an outbreak of )stracods, which from a biodiversity side of things is exciting. I want to try to culture some and maybe feed them out to my tank once a week if i can get the culture going strong. While the shrimp did not eat that much of the zucchini today, it definitely attracted Osstracods. So i had an idea to use a planaria trap i had on hand with zucchini as a bait to try and catch out a starter culture of Ostracods. (Black dots in picture are Ostracods) My setup for them at this point would just be the 2gallon tank, i might have an issue if they get sucked into the matten filter, but i can turn down the air on the tank to prevent the issue. The tank has no inhabitants besides for some little snails. The substrate is a coarse gravel originally intended for blackworms, which will be my next live food project. The tank just has some guppy grass floating in it and right now it has a piece of zucchini so i'm hoping it will be a good setup for the Ostracods. From the article i read they sound like are pretty easy to culture so i thought i'd give it a try. Open to ideas and suggestions though. On the topic of zucchini my fish were big fans, i put it in at 7am this morning and this is what it looks like now: I also got some water wisteria from my friend so I'll see how that does for me.

FWIW, my son has a 20 pound tank he keeps in his basement. He makes his own soda that he then places in pressurized containers and carbonates them. he also has a sodatream for convenient seltzer water upstairs, and he refills the soda stream container himself. other places to inquire about refills might be home brew supply shops, fire extinguisher service companies etc. I have seen regulators that fit on small fire extinguisher bodies.

I think we may have seen the same video and I believe it took 6 weeks for the Cryptocoryne Tropica plant to have leaves. This will encourage it to stay small. I would add a root tab or plant it in some nutrient rich soil to help the growth.

no, it won't unless you find an extremely tiny amano shrimp.

I think this is my best for my 15g Thx

Towels on top of plastic or puppy pads help to contain any sloshing but you should be able to transport the tank with minimal water. Lay down any upright pieces so they can’t fall against the glass or squash any shrimp you can’t catch. Definitely a board to stabilize and a rim around the edge of the board could be helpful. Extra fancy would be cleats on the bottom thick enough to prevent finger squashing when setting the rig down. IP clearly has the skills to put that together in only about 10 minutes. 😉

When I had to do mine, thankfully the seats went down and the car was generally flat and there wasn't a lot of issues with plastic things on the seatbacks or anything. If you do have any issues like that I recommend making a "pad" of towels or blankets. Just be sure not to pop out any bottom glass and support it as well as you can. It's a bit tense of a drive, but wishing you the best of luck on the journey as well as all of the little critters.

Just to add, I recently discovered by reading the 2 hr aquarist site, that in a co2 supplemented tank it takes about 2 weeks for plants to adjust and reprogram and to see a response in terms of robust new growth. In a tank that is not supplemented with co2 it takes longer. Possibly as long as 6 weeks to determine if your changes are making a difference. Changes will be observed in terms of new growth. Oftentimes the old growth will be abandoned by the plant, and as a leaf is getting weaker it leaches organics from the leaves that algae likes to munch on…

Im sure its much different then anyone listens to as thats the vibe i usually get but my favorite band for the past few years has been sleep token. The vocals and lore of this band makes it more then just music if you truly get into it and i always recommend them to people who are open minded with music

Journal Update Today I visited preuss pets in Lansing, MI, which is about 1.5 hours from my house. It was really cool and significantly larger than any of my more local fish shops. All the fish seemed great and there was so much stuff I wanted but I didn't want to go overboard. Anyway, I got 4 new fish. 2x Male Guppy, 2x Copella arnoldi, the Splash Tetra. They were a bit of an impulse buy because I was surprised to find them in person but I had done some previous research. I only got a pair of these guys. There is not much information out there about them but I have an old book and it said they should be kept in pairs. The employee at the shop agreed with this so I only got a pair. They are really interesting fish because they jump out of the water to spawn on leaves. They went into the 10 gallon with the A. panduro but that is not their permanent home. So far though, they are kind of boring and dull in color but they should become better over time. Next, an update on them and the Apistogramma and their tank. They are doing really well and I think the male is approaching full size. Not much spawning behavior yet though. This tank is cloudy in the picture so don't mind that because I just did a water change to remove tons of tannins. Now an update on this tank as a whole. I don't like how this tank looks. In my opinion it's just a bit boring, especially because it is on my desk. I think this is a combination of fish and scape. I feel like the 10 gallon is incredibly limiting and I think I can see this reflected in the fish behavior as well. That's why I want to phase this tank out as a permanent display and change it into a quarantine/breeding tank that I can keep in the cabinet. I want to breed my Honey Gourami in it soon. Now an update on my main bedside tank. Don't mind my bad iPhone photos but I am really happy with how this tank looks. I think it showcases the fish really well but this tank is a bit overstocked, but all the fish get along well and this tank now has both a canister and sponge filter. I got the green neon tetras a little while ago from aquatic arts and they really make this tank look amazing. View from sitting on my bed. Now I am planning a new tank: An Amazon Paludarium semi-biotope tank. This tank will be 20-40 gallons and house the Pencilfish, Splash tetras, Apistogramma, and maybe the green neons or others. I am planning to build a double stand to have a poison dart frog vivarium on top. This project will be probably a little while but I am really excited. More pictures below: Thanks!