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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.

Mine really needed to seed and algae takes a good long while to grow. I would say I am still only halfway there after 1.5 years. Emergent plants are really coming in now although I had some die back during these winter months. This tank looks so good in full sunlight! Algae looks brown now but turns vivid red and green. Something that my lights no matter how bright cant seem to reproduce Above: algae algae so much algae: Gobies are much less camera shy now. Although I have to pay them in food or they get real cranky… divas

Here is when I set my 75 up and what it looks like now.

But that begs the question…. If you actively try to cultivate algae, does it struggle to survive?

No not really I am setting up a river/creek biotope and unfortunately it’s still pretty unpopular. Especially the use of algae as the main display plant. In the spring I can post pics of the algae when it’s in full production. Beautiful and it pearlesces(?) a ton. Here is a pic of water willow all grown up. It forms these woody rafts in high flow environments. And I also have white top sedge and some random riparian things I didn’t plant like some sort of violet and a deer fern that really take a while to take hold. It tests my patience sometimes but it’ll be worth it in the end and the gobies really enjoy tunneling into the island edit I found a pic from last summer, still doesn’t do it justice but:

Here is a transformation of one of my tanks. My first tank. 20gal

Ok here is my 10g, not anything special but oh well, will be different and upgraded soon, not about to show my 5g with diatoms coming out my ears in that one lol

Do you have a Walmart or Dollar General close? You could pick up a storage tote pretty cheap and use for the moment until you figure out a tank. The bonus would be the tote can be used as a hospital/ quarantine tank layer on… or an emergency aquarium for issues like this one.

Yes, but it's likely not the lube that is an issue. Over time the shaft itself will wear. That is why the impeller itself is the most often replaced item and it is a standard part for most filters. Same thing with o-rings. You can visually see this on the shaft itself. The other thing that can happen is things just aren't aligned correctly due to debris. Marina, fluval, and some other people sell impeller cleaning kits for this task. Something like a bottle brush for a straw works as well. In terms of lube, you want to use 100% food grade silicone grease. The one I use is from a dive shop and available on amazon.

Set up my first tank (10g) in December of 2022 for a betta and a nerite. One year and many plant casualties later… let’s just say it’s getting there. The betta and nerite are still doing great. Lots has changed, I’ve learned a lot… and I want more plants.😂 And I’m ready for my next tank! Dreaming of 20 longs!!

My suggestion is… be mindful of how huge Warmouth grow. They can max out upwards of 11 inches… IMHO … that will be gigantic for a 75 gal. You’ll likely have aggression issues. If you’re open to a very safe species much smaller, buy some Enneacanthus. I keep E. obesus… They’re perfect for a 75 gal.

Not really new, haven't really kept up here. Or talked. But here's the setup, and how things are going. This is a 90-liter. Three Apisto Trisfasciatas, four Nannostomus Marginatus (I know, I need two more minimum, working on it) bunch o' native paloeomonetes argentinus shrimp, six Oto's, and about twenty long apisto fry. And a truckload of MTS, ramshorns, one native unidentifiable snail which is awesome, and a new Anentome Helena that is unresponsive for some reason, albeit alive. And a bunch of freshwater worms, tubifex most likely, that I added so that they'd move the substrate around and occasionally provide a snack. Once I saw free swimming fry, I turned off the tiny filter I kept mostly for water movement, cleaned the sponge thoroughly to avoid the bacteria dying and spiking the ammonia levels, bumped up the photoperiod, started adding minimal ferts and let algae grow so that the fry can munch on more critters. Excuse the dirty glass pane, it's on purpose.

I have a Tidal and I'm not a fan. The Aquaclears that I have, I do like them better. But everything has its drawbacks. I thought I'd like having the pump in the tank on the Tidal and it might be one of the dumbest things I've ever dealt with. It's impossible to get it apart and back together. The cord never stays where it is supposed to. And it draws like 95% of the water it pumps comes through the skimmer, not the lower intake tube. In fact, I'm not sure it would really be appreciably different if it didn't have the tube at all. My biggest complaint is that any tiny amount of debris jams up the Tidal and tearing it apart to get to the impeller is a task that really upsets me. The Aquaclears will also have this issue, but it seems less often (and with less maintenance). And the Aquaclear you can pop the pump off without being up to your armpit in water. Also the Tidal's twist out leveling thing behind the tank will fall out everytime you bump it. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Yeah that’s fine nitrates are low anyway. Thanks for the info! Ok will NOT do, thx @Jeff!

If you already have the fish, then it looks like you are doing a fish in cycle. You want to get them out of the bag as quickly as possible. A fish in cycle is a decent amount of work for about a month maybe even 2 but its doable. tips: 1) Test water daily and even twice a day if possible. 2) do a 50% water change if you see any ammonia in the test. 3) Feed very sparingly during the cycle. more food = more fish waste = more ammonia = more water changes.

I’m not pro at this kind of stuff, but it looks like possibly green water. How long do you have your lights on for?

Today I used a large plastic bottle with the neck cutoff, then inverted and stapled back into place, to make a shrimp trap for the Bloody Mary shrimp in my 60 gallon office tank. In total I trapped 296 shrimp, of which 17 were culled. I bagged 50 to bring home for my new 55 gallon tank, and the remaining 229 were returned to the tank. I certainly did not trap all the shrimp in the tank, particularly the mothers with eggs and the smallest juveniles seemed less adventurous and eager to enter the trap. In fact I did not trap a single berried female though I spotted quite a few in the tank. On the other hand, I did manage to cull the shrimp I had specifically noticed in the tank and wanted removed. Of the 17 culls 1 would have passed for a Blue Dream, 2 could nearly have though they had a few red spots, 4 were a very dark, nearly black blue, 3 were an equally dark red, 2 were outright dark chocolate, and the remaining 5 were red but with very little color. Overall I was pleased with the results which seemed to justify my estimates of 500+ shrimp in the tank, as well as the overall quality of the Bloody Mary line, with 5.7% of the shrimp culled. This being my first culling I have no real baseline, but would be interested to know what other people with experience have seen.

I would put everything in a storage tote and strip the silicone and redo the tank. Not that complicated. Then you know it has fresh silicone.

Well you are half right; it is propagating but.. It's more of a survival instinct being stimulated. The plant is hating life at the moment and ensuring the survival of the species in case it doesn't survive the situation shes in!

What @Tony s said, then when you get your new tank you can just transfer everything over and not lose much if any beneficial bacteria.

start a tote up. probably right now. can put everything from the aquarium into the tote, temporarily. substrate, plants, filter, decor, whatever you want to maintain its cycle. treat it exactly like an aquarium, it basically is at this point. that gives you time to figure things out. and much better than ruined floors if you can figure out how high the leak is you could also run low water levels for a while. but it may be too far down to mess with

For JettsPapa and @lefty o I saw John Prine, live, in his Prime, at Austin City Limits.

Those are seed shrimp really pretty shells when they get bigger. completely harmless tank cleaner

Being 62, it's probably not surprising that I like mostly older music, but when I listen to Pandora on Shuffle (based on my stations) I never know what's coming next. It could be Bonnie Raitt, or Hank Williams Sr., or John Lee Hooker, or Stevie Ray Vaughan, or John Prine, or Jerry Jeff Walker, or Bonnie Bishop, or Ray Wylie Hubbard, or Ray Price, or CCR, or Gene Watson, or Lynyrd Skynyrd, or Freddy Fender, or Otis Redding, or Albert Collins, or Junior Brown, or Cody Jinks, or . . .

Less friction and abrasion as you fit the lid to the canister hence longer leak free life.

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

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’m not sure what you mean by substrate keeping it neutral. If you are just looking for inert sand alternatives Carib sea super naturals jungle river sand works fantastic my Corydora abs shrimp and is darker.

I have never kept a journal so I am not sure if I am going to enjoy doing this or not. I am that… I want to try things at least once type person. I spend a lot of time reading all the fantastic journals on here. Two weeks ago my bearded dragon BOOP’s suddenly passed from a stomach tumor he was diagnosed with last year. Boop’s spent nearly every minute of the day with me including the fish room. He had a shelf in front of each tank he liked to watch his fish and chase shrimp. He was probably a better plant guru than me 🤣 (you have no idea how hard it was finding info on which aquarium plants are dragon toxic) He always tried to eat them when we worked on them. For the two weeks it took me to process the worst of my grief reading everyone’s journals and posts kept me sane and filled the time I normally spent with my dragon. Thank you everyone for sharing your journey. I have had fish since around 7. All whatever I could catch with mom’s kitchen strainer in the creek when I was younger (her rule was no snakes all else I can have) and keep alive using creek water and bugs. This is how I learned anything in nature that fits in something else’s mouth is food. I also developed a weird fascination with all the nifty critters and hitchhikers that end up in aquariums. I’m the weird old lady that even finds value and cool snooping entertainment in hydra. I have been hooked ever since. went through job demands of travel so way more up and down with tanks than I want to think about I watched every video and livestream (although never in live time) the coop had. I wanted more. So I joined the forum. It’s really great as I have no one to talk fish to. Hubby only likes my giant mystery snail but loves that fish make me happy since I rarely leave the house (it’s my garden of eden why would I venture into societies current chaos) I’m new to the internet in the past few years since I retired. I used email but mostly fax before I retired but that’s it outside of works dedicated computer programs. I have never done any other social media so I feel awkward and was and I guess still am a bit intimidated most of the time trying to convey things to others in a way that seems friendly and helpful as typing seems so blunt and impersonal. I try and use a lot of the cute face cartoons. I hate offending others so I hope the cartoon faces convey niceness. Most of my fish keeping knowledge (if you want to call it that and not just ok this worked for me and this distinctly did not) comes strictly from Observations of my tanks over my life, trial error heartbreak National Geographic magazines learning about fish not aquariums and other assorted magazines in the mail. Finding the internet fish keeping prescribed guidelines baffled me and I still wonder if some of the people doing the articles ever actually kept the fish they were writing the article on. Seems fish are supposedly super delicate??? 🤣 I never knew that I always loved fish because they were so amazingly resilient. Silly me. That’s why I got hooked on Cory’s videos he seems to go with what he has seen with his own eyes and learned instead of what the internet spews and is willing to try things just to see what happens. (He also finds benefit in hitchhiking micro fauna and snails 😁) So enough about who I am…just an eccentric old lady who loves fish ….here we go…. My multi tank syndrome has taken a drastic turn since my health declined 6 years ago. Getting old stinks but is also the greatest. I cannot physically take care of large tanks anymore so now it is how many fish and different things can I keep in each tank and healthy. My current tanks that I have up and not in storage are standard 29 gal, 20long, 2 x 10g 8.75 gallon shrimp tank I got on sale and hate but guppies and snails have too many babies and it’s handy for a dozen or more things, 5G QT 2.5G QT i do not ever actually plant plants i float them tie them to something or suction cup them on the wall. Even root feeders do great that way for me. I don’t use fertilizers or chemicals I am afraid of them. I tried easy green half dose in 2 tanks and panicked after 6 hours and did late evening water changes so I could sleep. I admire the fabulous aquascapers I’m not one of them I love plants they keep my fish happy and healthy and grow well for me i stuff every tank to the gills because our water is miserable even in tanks years old with so many plants I can barely see my fish brown diatoms live on. I tried recently using jugged spring water from the store for wc and it all went away … came right back when I used hose water 🤷‍♀️ over the years I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of it though 🤪 the fish and assorted critters like it YUMMY 😋 29 g stock 11 panda corydora, 6f/1m guppy(the wolf pack and Little Boy, Nemo the nerite snail, 3 female magenta mystery snails (the wonder twins and microdot) bladder snails and some stray shrimp that migrated on a coop large sponge filter. I stopped there because my 2 longfin lemon blue eye bristlenose plecos are trying a second time he has not left the cave in 3 days other than to get a quick nibble of the green bean I put outside his door. I’m hoping it’s a fruitful spawn and may need to rehome the pandas and set up another 20 long for them? This is a newer tank set up with established filters gravel plants from other tanks and such so we are waiting for the micro fauna to establish. I think the Pandas and guppies are eating most of it so I may not get much. 20 long is my pleco pair (sweet pea and baby girl) 4 huge male mystery snails 2 magenta (the baby boys) 2 chestnut (chestnut and bandit) 10 celestial pearl danio(only one has a name she is huge and eats everything Meg as in megalodon) more neocaridina shrimp of every color than I can count. Some bladder snails (someone keeps eating them I do believe 😕) many random assorted micro fauna and a gorgeous little colony of tiny green hydra in one corner that never seems to travel or grow bigger even though I feed cpd bbs. I may actually like this journal thing. I’ll detail the rest another day and add more pictures. my pointer/typing finger is cramping at this point 🤣

My initial plan is plant fairly nice with, Java fern, crypts, and some dwarf hair grass or guppy weed, some stems just not sure what yet. The fish where I am more knowledgeable in I am thinking Tiger barbs a good school or more than 12 if the wallet works, Black ruby barbs 6 or more bristle nose pleco 2 Cory cats haven't decided specific breed Kulhi loaches 6 or more Any suggestions or comments about my proposed stocking, this is going to still be a bit down the road as my tank isn't yet fully filled with water much less cycled

Totally agree on cories being great at getting mulm into the water column. In my experience with HOBs, they won't get all the mulm and detritus up, even with a supplemental powerhead in the aquarium, but they do tend to push it all to one or two places where it can be easily removed with a siphon. I tend to rely on this in my messier tanks, and arrange things so it all ends up in the easiest corner of the aquarium to remove it. As for cories, if you have a bunch, their movements are so randomized (cause they have minds of their own!) they do a great job at kicking everything up in a way that it doesn't find an eddy or calm spot to settle in as easily. Plus they are super fun to watch! No matter how hard you try, pumps and filters tend to create that one slack zone where everything collects, but this isn't such a bad thing as it makes maint easier.

I am not sold on the benefits of rock, pumice ceramic hard media types…. I never put them in. I put in nylon scrubbies instead. In essence the marketing claim of the various hard media is their porous structure gives dramatic surface area for growth of beneficial bacteria. I suspect that the functional surface area of such media is dramatically less than the calculated due to small pore size. Ie: once a biofilm forms, flow is impeded to the smaller internal pores. The second marketing claim for these media types that the inner core of these products are anoxic and breaks down nitrate to nitrogen gas… which would require decreased flow… My suspicion is that the nylon scrubbies give dramatically higher surface area than hard type media. I dont have lab proof, but the hard media folk dont seem to offer lab results either… We all get to make our own decision about such things. Mine was to substitute nylon pot scrubbies over ceramics, pumices etc…

Same here, except once, when I added Flourite sand to my tank without pre-rinsing, and the pump forever forward sounded like a dying goose (even after an impeller replacement). But this an outlier. I have a few other AquaClears that run nice and silent and are workhorses. In general, I love the AQ's but wished they were self priming. I also love the Tidal, but wished it didn't have the skimmer. This is specifically in regards to tanks that have shrimp and smaller fish. Even if I turn down the skimmer flow, shrimp still go in their out of curiosity!) Honestly, those are the two considerations that I would think about when choosing one over the other. Do you have small fish or shrimp? No. Then I'd favor The tidal. Yes. I'd favor the AquaClear. Both are great choices. --- Oh, have to add the following . . . AquaClears are waaaay easier to fully disassemble and clean, if you need to. The Tidal parts are fit together pretty tight and I'm always scared I'll break them when taking them apart to get at the pump, etc. They are obviously meant to be snapped apart for maintenance, but I find you have to put some muscle into it.

I saw a video explaining what is going on with java fern the box stores are selling leaves with a bit of rizome is tied up in bunches so they struggle and die. Because nobody tells us the buyer about the threads holding them together.

I've never kept sunfish but I've caught a lot of them on ultra light gear. They can get absolutely enormous as far as a tank is concerned. The smaller ones like pumpkinseed or green sunfish (if it's legal they're invasive in some states) or even long ear sunfish may be a better choice.

Here are some older pics of the tank. This was my second time putting a scape together. I was very happy with the original look, which only lasted a few months. I used Eco Complete on top of media bags initially, but lost countless stem plants. I had a very hard time with planting in this substrate, and it ultimately forced me to start over. The substrate wasn't deep enough, and removing the media bags was a hassle and stressful to the fish. Here are some older pics of the tank. This was my second time putting a scape together. I was very happy with the original look, which only lasted a few months. I used Eco Complete on top of media bags initially, but lost countless stem plants. I had a very hard time with planting in this substrate, and it ultimately forced me to start over. The substrate wasn't deep enough, and removing the media bags was a hassle and stressful to the fish.

Pros and cons to all filters. I've never had any noise issues with the AquaClear series.

Bantam Sunfish (Lepomis symmetricus) are very closely related to Warmouth, being located in the same clade within the genus Lepomis. They look similar, with the main difference being that Bantam Sunfish are significantly smaller with a max size of about 4 inches. The only problem is that Bantam Sunfish may be hard to find, but I imagine Warmouth would also be hard to find.

I use a 3g bucket to fill my 29g tank and I’ve always just added the drops per gallon to each bucket as I’m filling . Then transfer it to the tank. Never had an issue doing it this way

The barbs died in quarantine. It was during a water quality issue that affected many tanks. But, I have serpae tetra now. These guys are fun to watch. Very active.

Started the journal blog what have you. Lots in store for the weekend as long as weather works out

I have ordered hinges for the hoods I will be making from polycarbonate and I ordered my light starting with a hyger 48 inch light. Pictures will follow.

I have a 36g bow front which has the same problem. Its deep but not as deep as a 90g. To find appropriate light intensity I used ludwigia as my indicator plant. I planted it at various spots and at various heights , some pretty close to surface level and watched for its reaction to the light. When it opened and closed in tune with my light cycle I was confident I had enough light reaching the surface.

So im planning a 29g tank for a group of German Rams. But some sources says ideal temp is 23-30, while others says 28-30. So which one is right?

26.5 C - 29.5 C (80-85 F) is the window I recommend aiming for. They will spawn at that temperature, and remain in optimal health. Here is a crazy grow-out of Gold Rams we bred a few years ago. This was a 20g tank. Insane stocking, but they’d all grown up together. It was a project where we’d bred in an electric blue male ram into the genetics… My son did a whole series on breeding these. I posted it on the forum here somewhere…

From some sources I have seen sometimes nerite snails with holes in their shells can be permanent. Not all the time this happens but I guess its one of those "rare" occasions that it can happen. All you can really do is just supplement with calcium as their diet making sure you feed them other things as well.

If it was my filter, replacing the impeller would be my first attempt to fix the rattle. Its the only moving part. Its what is going to make noise, and it is what is going to wear. My guess would be the tolerance between the shaft and the impeller itself is looser than when new…. But, I have guessed wrong on things before….

I love Imagine Dragons, although I know most of their fans are young teens. That's OK! We are each allowed our own taste. And this old lady looooves the Dragons. 🐉

@Colu Thank you for the aquarium salt suggestion. Both fish healed up nicely! Nicole

For quiet, I would look into the Seachem tidal series. I have a tidal 35 on my 10 gallon tank that's right next to my bed. Once in a while there is a vibration\rattling noise. That's when I clean the filter and everything is fine after that. Otherwise, I don't hear a thing.