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In the coming weeks I'm planting out my new 88 gallon. Before I committed to a large order going through this process I bought a couple plants from my LFS supplied by Dustin's plants. They started beautiful, and came out of the process just as beautiful. I didn't notice any small eggs on the leaves or snails in the lfs tank. But I'll be moving forward with this technique. Once I get to the end I will test my old plants that have plenty of snails and some BBA. The plants I did cycle: Bacopa carolina, Hydrophilia cordata after the first week I see nothing crawling around

I don't know that the pipes need to be higher up out of necessity, but mine are up out of the way. It works. Yours could be lower. Mine is not a "loop". It's just a long stretch that I've bent into a U. Maybe I'm getting away with it because my pump is oversized for what I need. I will say that the end of the line does seem to have a bit less pressure. But it's not horrible. I could pretty easily cut into it and complete the "loop". I have no plans on expanding anything, so I should be good like this. I would guess you could get by with the same setup. Here's a way simplified version that's in my fishroom's... side room. 😄 Separate pump, it just a couple tanks, couple aging barrels, and a couple brine shrimp hatchers. This type of setup would be plenty for your setup, I would think. Just make it the width of your tank and pre-assemble two drops per tank on average. There's different colored PVC or paint that sticks to PVC that you could use if you want it to blend in a little better. I didn't glue or seal any of my joints. I don't hear any leaks, but I'm sure there's some loss. If needed I want to be able to disassemble and reconfigure. Both of the airpumps that I'm using are fairly quiet, but I'm not sure they're "living room" quiet. It might make sense to run something through a wall and put your pump in a different room or a closet. Not sure about your house layout, but that's something to consider. Edit to add: one of the benefits of having it all up above water level is there's no chance of a siphon starting if your pump fails.

I didn’t have many updates here. These are adorable fish. Typical livebearer behaviors. Fun and active. I have the babies I needed for the BAP program so I’m swapping them for rummynose rasboras on Saturday.

The sky looked like a painting yesterday morning. Also I made a tasty cornbread today with some bean & bacon soup. I have been experimenting with our new Instant Pot. That thing cuts cooking time in half or even more. Hard boiled eggs 5 min. Baked potatoes 12 min. It did a good job with chicken thighs, as well as the soup I made today. My husband likes to use it for beef stew. Convenient.

Possibly corydoras elegans

I doubt the GH is an issue, but not seeing any nitrates seems like your tank might not be cycled. But it could be that your plants are keeping it all down. On another note, I have had absolutely terrible luck with bettas. I've been keeping fish for 25 years and bettas just never seem to last very long for me. I've only ever had 3 or 4, but they just don't seem to do well for me. Meanwhile some kindergarten teacher probably has one in a quart of water that's never been changed for the last six years. 😄

I'll repeat what @Lennie said "I would not worry about the GH reading myself. Keep the parameters you have stable." Your GH is not outrageous. My GH is always much higher. If the GH is too low Snelly will suffer. Again, I know nothing about bottled aquarium water, and probably will never use it. The purpose in suggesting RO water was solely to cut the GH levels, and you can still add some. RO water contains nothing but water, so If you use nothing but RO water, you would have to add everything that is missing. You could test your tap water. If you are using city water, and buying your fish locally, they may already being adapted to that water. Just be sure to use a conditioner/dechlorinator. If there is a reason for not using tap water, than bottled water for humans is an option. It is more important to maintain stable parameters, and not chase numbers. I think 20-25% weekly water changes are adequate. Because of the 50-30-30% water changes and cleaning the filter, you should keep an eye on the NitrAte and NitrIte levels. NitrAtes of 20-50 ppm are considered safe. Nitrites should be 0 ppm.

Thank you for the welcome JE. I've had a 20 gallon tank since last year and recently upgraded to a 75 gallon tank. BIG jump. lol

This isn't normal behavior for a betta, unfortunately. Try a different type of food, like frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp, or a different pellet. But my guess would be a health issue relating to water quality (not saying it's your fault, it might be the fish had issues/concerns before you got it). So in addition to new/different food, get on top of the water quality issue (water changes). Personally, I'd avoid going down the medication rabbit hole. It rarely ends well, especially when you aren't starting from a solid diagnosis. I look at it like possible causes, that you cross off after you're ensured it's no longer an issue. Right now, you have a lot of unchecked boxes: food preference? water quality? disease or infection? water temperature (we haven't raised that issue yet... bettas do better a few degrees above normal room temp. they can do okay at room temp if all other requirements are perfect, but when you're trying to find/eliminate possible problems, I'd get the water to 78 or 80F, so you can cross it off the list too). doing the water changes allows you do cross water quality off the list. new food(s) gets that crossed off. a heater gets temp crossed off. if you're able, add activated carbon to your filter, and you can cross off contaminants because water changes and carbon will help with those. And so on.

It feels like just yesterday that they were in diapers and eating paramecium.

Until recently I rented out the basement as storage space. Our house was larger than Hubby and I needed. Storage tenant is leaving.They stopped paying rent so space available now. So I decided my fishroom-s needed to go downstairs to make it easier on me. Currently they are two converted spare bedrooms. One room still partly what used to be my dressing room. It’s now dual dressing room that is not working well as a dressing room and a squished in fishroom. When I put out my tote for water changes and bucket I siphon out used water there is no room to walk. It’s a step careful and try not to trip situation. I get water by running a hose through the house from the kitchen and used water goes out the window or to the bathroom down the hall. I store my buckets in my bathtub because I’m out of room. Very inconvenient and requires moving them every day to shower. Working in my rooms means everything I’m currently using for whatever fry hatch setup sits on the floor in front of tanks. I bought rolling shelves but they don’t roll over the throw rugs I use in front of each tank to protect the carpet. The house is split level so rooms are above the garage on the second floor. The basement is actually the first floor. This is the basement. 13’ x 26’ plenty of room. 😃 My Hubby ❤️ and friends from Smallworld Aquatics are helping me. One is a contractor. The challenges The room hits 44 in the winter. The HVAC was not installed correctly by the houses first owners. It was an attempt at finishing the unfinished basement. The foundation stone stick uncovered 3 inches into the room and works like ice packs. The garage is not insulated and drafty. We run a heater in the garage over winter to keep the pipes from freezing (they froze and burst one year) The only plumbing down there is hooked to the washer. No faucet available. No drain other than closed sewer line the washer is hooked into. 3 plugs wired to a circuit containing mainly outlets outside, in the garage. And my laundry room. Not usable in capacity for 20 plus tanks. I bought the electrical supplies to run more sockets my breaker box has room for more breakers. I bought the flex duct but they were out of boots the size I needed. Gup is learning to HVAC 😲 Hubby bought the paint and flooring. He also helped me get the first coat on. The insulation board will be delivered Saturday to cover the exposed foundation concrete This party has officially started 🥳 Flooring, utility sink and beautiful island Hubby surprised me with ❤️

Does anyone here have Black & White Crested Polish chicken eggs for sale or can recommend a good breeder? Any help is appreciated we trying to up our flock.

Haha, I did! My index finger is basically 1 inch at the first knuckle which is pretty handy to know actually. Next time I have to measure a snail I'll be able to figure it out! So thank you for that. And now I know I have a blue ramshorn so if I want more of them I can get the same color. He's a pretty great little cleaner. I'm kind of bummed he hasn't decided to spawn for me. Maybe he's not all the way mature yet.

Hehe! I was curious so I got out my cloth measuring tape and he is actually a very normal 3/4" and apparently I have no idea how big things are.

Thank you. Still have a lot of time left as well. Hopefully it comes together soon and I’m not up against the deadline.

You are far too hard on yourself. I know it isn’t what you’re looking for but it’s still gorgeous. You always seem to manage to pull it together and I have complete faith you will again!

I have a small (4 foot) piece of 3/4 inch pvc that I made into a manifold for my air system. It looks a lot like @jwcarlson setup in his side room. At first my pump was way oversized so I installed an extra valve and added a short piece of tubing (the vented air is quieter with tubing added then without tubing added) that I could open to vent off extra pressure. I have since added more tanks (and more air drops) so there isn’t any extra pressure! My advice is to research, plan and build… then don’t be afraid to tear it apart and build it better.

You're over complicating it. And making it too big (in my opinion). I would run one header just above your top tank and run all my drops from there. No siphon issue that way.

Goldfish or Loaches love snails. HOWEVER these both require a larger tank.

I stick a celery stalk on a fork and put it in the bottom of the tank. In a few hours it’s full of snails. Doesn’t eradicate em, but helps. They will finish the celery in 4 days. Plecos like it, too.

I stick a celery stalk on a fork and put it in the bottom of the tank. In a few hours it’s full of snails. Doesn’t eradicate em, but helps. They will finish the celery in 4 days. Precocious likes it, too.

I would like to see this if you have any details. I've got a playlist on YouTube and a thread in my signature regarding my testing. The skimmer is not "doing nothing" but water level absolutely plays a role with function of the skimmer as an "intake". The tidal has the skimmer slots, the heater holder alot, the pump slots, the gaps in all of the plastics due to molding tolerances, the gaps to allow the housing to attach to the pump cover, and then you have the intake tube itself, which has the half moon restricting flow out of the box. We can discuss the tidal in another thread given the subject matter of this topic. With most canister filter designs, even small ones, you have a much more direct intake and output path for the water circulation.

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

Flame sword grows more outwards than upwards. It is extremely slow growing, and more of a mid ground plant. It also appreciates a regular generous supply of root tabs

I live in Fl with about the same weather temperature wise. You can do Guppy’s in a patio pond but keep these things in mind… shade- your going to want to keep it mostly shaded, especially in the summer. Small ponds don’t take long to heat up. I have mine under a large patio umbrella but there is an hour or 2 in late afternoon when the sun gets to it Oxygen. You’ll definitely want an air stone to keep the water oxygenated to help keep the water cooler. I even have a small HOB filter on mine (mostly for the water sound) but it help with surface agitation and discouraging mosquitoes. plants. So fish can escape to some shade if needed feed less during warmer months.

I've used zoo med filter - i think the 30 (they have two models); they are fairly inexpensive and it seem to work well the past 4 years. It also has a nice quick release for easy cleaning. Yea i just checked (amazon has great purchase history); it was the 30.

Those are interesting patterns. How did you get them and how were they labeled when you bought them? They look a little like trilineatus, but no black spot on the dorsal fin. And it doesn't look like yours have any hint of the black spot up there at all. They look a little like sterbai, but sterbai don't really have all that connection in their pattern. Could pretty easily be a hybrid as well.

With that setup, I would run just one PVC header up above and run all the drops off of that one header. Unless you're worried about drop length for some reason? There's no reason to run a header at each level when you can just run a little big longer drop. That way everything is above water level as well. Here's mine. It continues to the right and runs 10' back along the other wall. So it's basically a "U". If I need another drop I just drill/tap a new hole and thread in a valve. I will say it's a bit of a pain to adjust because of how far up I put it. But I rarely adjust anything and this way the kids can't easily get to them. Ignore the paint job. 😄 😄

Aquarium co-op has a nice arrival about warm water fish that might help

Hello, My name is Dianna and I've been involved in this hobby now since early last year. Looking forward to getting to know folks around here and learning more about and contributing back this great hobby of ours.🐟

Thank you, I have been thinking about doing bladder snails because I already have a few, I have ramshorn snails to but I am trying to get rid of those,

Here are some Ideas. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/top-7-freshwater-snails The website says that rabbit snails can eat soft plants if they are not fed enough, but requires a male and female to reproduce. However, Bladder Snails can reproduce rapidly by themselves. The website doesn't say anything about Bladder Snails eating dead plants, though, so I recommend you do some research. Another warning, they are sometimes found with live plants and are referred to as "Pest Snails". Nerite Snails can only lay eggs in Saltwater, so don't go with those if you want a large snail population, even if they are good algae eaters and easy to raise. It's up to you to find the perfect balance. https://michael-langerman.medium.com/why-i-put-snails-in-all-aquariums-847fb87d9710 This article also says that guppies will eat snail eggs, so if you decide to get bladder snails, your guppies should keep the population in control.

I agree it is very hard to get rid of if you want it gone, I think it looks really cool so I keep it, plus it is native to where I live so it’s legal.

You can always add a few assassin snails to the tank to keep their population under control. But if you are the type of person that NEVER wants a snail in their tank....Buy the following and medicate your tank with it. It won't kill shrimp, but does a number on snails.

You said it is not going well but it looks pretty decent to may novice eye.

Tank update: not going well at all. At this rate, no AGA this year. It’s obviously early, but hashing out a layout isn’t going well. Recent changes in dosing: Moved GH to about 6 degrees, Ca to 35ppm and lowered Mg to 5ppm. Reduced water changes to 50% while double dosing after water change and then 2 more doses over the week. Micros dosed 3 times a week. Trip wall is going well and only the left side needs to be added. I’m trying to use 2 Dutch streets but I’m not liking it so far. I do have a few plants just in the tank for future use making it look chaotic but some are in place. 5 more plants ordered and all green. Decisions will be made shortly whether to use 3 or 4 reds.

Three fry still going after light on this morning. Watched the parent group swim all around them paying no attention. watched a fry swim under water lettuce right into the mouth of one of my frogs floating up there 🫤 So I rescued them to a German breeding ring into the cory grow out tank. Water is a good deal softer in that tank so I hope they can adjust at such an early stage 🤞🏻They look good so far. My frogs like to climb inside the breeding boxes, rings and nets. I learned that the hard way. That’s why a different tank.

Howdy! Remember when I said I was done tinkering and had everything I could ever want and need? Ya… we all know how that goes. The Tetra 150 I had hooked up to the grow out tank started acting a little weird. It’s a single outlet, with a T, to be able to run two lines. Out of nowhere, one side was barely pushing. So i put some control valves on there, and that worked temporarily, but I was always having to balance it. Not sure why it happened, but I got my Q1 bonus, and decided to try a new pump. Hygger 10 watt dual outlet. Someone else on the forum tried it out and was pretty impressed, so I figured why not. Especially at the price point. The thing is a beast! Absolutely cranks some air and I love it. Now, the opposite easy flow kit is “glugging”. I know why it’s doing it, but I’m having a hard time getting it to stop. The top piece of the Easy Flow kit is not quite straight up and down, so the bubbles are jamming up, and glugging out the top. Looks like I’m not quite done tinkering… Other than that today was just your standard maintenance sesh. Just water out and back in and I was done in less than 4 hours. Felt good! It’s been a while where I didn’t have to do something extra, so the speedy water changes were nice. Some pics from the week: My Pothos vine is easily over 10 feet at this point, and I had a section that lost all of its leaves. I decided to cut that out a few days ago, and today I noticed perfect water droplets coming from the stems where it hadn’t healed over yet. I thought it was pretty cool. Lots of things blooming in the aquaponics tank. From top to bottom, the start of a jalapeño, a baby strawberry, and some lavender starting to bloom. Panda pair in the community tank had their second spawn. No eggs kept from this one. Color on the 29. It has taken a lot of time, but we’re where I wanna be! My girlfriend was awesome enough to pick me up an Anbernic RG405V emulator handheld console. It arrived today, I got all the ROMs on the SD card, and I’m having SO MUCH FUN playing all these games from my childhood on a portable handheld console. Anything from NES through PS2 and GameCube. So sick! I’m loving it. Cheers, friends. I hope your tanks are well and you’re having fun!

I think the question here (posed by the OP) isn't "what' the instruction?", it's "why is the instruction different depending on how new water is added?" Say I'm adding 5 gallons of new water to a 20 gallon tank. 0.5mL of prime is enough to treat that 5 gals in a bucket, but if that new water goes from tap to tank, I need 2mL of prime? Why is that? I'm already sensing the answer isn't available here (at least no one who has seen/read this thread seems to have it), but still, why? Can I follow directions without understanding why? Yes. Am I curious nonetheless? Absolutely.

These bits are why I like having old fish books for references

So, luminatus fry has been in the box since 11th of March. It is growing slowly, I feed it once or twice a day, microworms, bbs, hikari first bites. It is like 3-4 mm I would say However, next week I am going to be away for 4 days. Does the fry have higher chances of finding food in the box, or in the tank with adults, who should be not able to eat it, as it may be large enough? Thanks

Ahhhh ...There's something in my eye! 😜

Check out my little legs!!

I have 25 or so Pygmy corys in my 60 g and it’s almost like they aren’t there. Only at feeding time do I see big groups. I keep telling my wife I need to add another 10-15!