Leaderboard

Whether it be a new tank, old tank, small tank, big tank...I can't seem to stop staring and looking and lose track of time! I've had little slices of nature in my care for almost 6 years now and it still amazes me that we can keep them in our homes. Anybody else have the feeling?

What I've done in the past after the plants are in, I let the tank cycle for a couple months before I add fish. Everything is nice and comfortable then.

I have a tank in front of our couch, the TV is next to it, so you have to sit tilted to watch tv, but you can sit straight and stare at the tank. Guess what I do 🙂 But it is also the tank that I am the most unhappy with, feels like it is not perfect yet, because I stare at it all the time. I also have one right next to my work computer, two are in my boyfriends work room, next to a large armchair where I will go have coffee. The new one is next to our breakfast nook 🙂 I work from home and I spend hours, during workcall for example, looking at the fish. LOVE the hobby!! although I went mosquito larvae fishing today, as I noticed I had some larvae in my garden tub, and I am grossed out. I have not seen so many at once in ages! I even had to catch a water boatman from my other garden tub and plop it in this one to help control the population, cause EW. Take a look! The smaller container was sifted through artemia sieve to separate the smallest larvae for my smaller fish, the rest I fed only half to two tanks!! I have to keep the rest for tomorrow and it looks like aliens. Ew. Also it has small dragonfly larva. Definite downside of this hobby

I would add plants on Day 1, I’d also stay away from bacteria in a bottle. If you’re going to add snails or small fish, then skip the ammonia bottle as well. These just help complicate things.

My level of interest waxes and wanes depending on how busy I am and whether anything is new in the tank. No matter my overall interest level, if I sit in front of the tank then I will lose track of time. Its about taking the time to sit.

live plants go in on day 1 if you have them. put them in now if you have them.

Hey Stan! I would definitely add plants as soon as you can! I found that adding plants on day 1 helps cycle much faster and gives me the peace of mind when adding a light bio-load in the beginning. The key is to add a light bio load (snails, small fish, etc). Reason being is that the added bacteria to the tank need ammonia to feed on during the cycling process. Adding a small bioload will allow for the bottled bacteria to feed on ammonia from the waste produced by the snails and fish. Keep in mind to keep the feeding very light (once a day small amount) if you do go this route. Plants will have SOME beneficial bacteria on the surface of the leaves which will help jump start the current cycle you're in. Overall, just make sure to keep an eye are on your ammonia levels as well as nitrites during the process if you choose to add fish (toxic in high amounts). Good luck!

This is a tank I got a little bit ago for free from a teacher who was moving from my school. It is a five gallon tall tank with a built in filter system. I set this tank up by starting with a roughly inch deep layer of fine gravel. Then I put ontop a layer of sand about an inch deep in the front and 2 inches deep in the back. After, I put two peices of wood from my backyard into the tank along with some small river stones and a fossil. Later I found a tank decor that is a big hollow river stone with two big holes in it making a cave. For plants, I used water wisteria, java moss, dwarf hair grass, micro sword, water salvinia, and duck weed. I also have a peice of pothos with its roots in the tank as extra filtration. At first it was home to a small pet bass. I bought him 3 little feeder guppies and 2 feeder shrimp for him to eat. He ate two of the guppies but none of the shrimp. After the bass who I named Boomy wasn't doing so well, I released him back where I found him and found that my single guppy was pregnant. Since this, my guppy has had around 14 fry and my shrimps have passed. Here's the tank now: Now I'm building a backyard pond I plan to eventually use to house these guppies and some comet goldfish.

34 minutes ago Add bookmark #139 Its been a bit over month using calcium sulphate instead of the damn "clay breaker".. quite embarrassing that was to be honest. Still a few filamentous diatoms hanging about, which I'm really sick of actually, but it's not as bad as it was. My ludwigia super red continuously loses its bottom leaves and struggle to grow. I never had an issue with this plant using ADA soil. I'm not sure if I should have attempted the inert substrate, being somewhat newer to the hobby, or perhaps I'm just impatient. It's been about 6 months since I swapped to inert substrate. I've seen 'some' improvement in plant growth, but still having issues, like the diatoms and several species just not doing too well. Do I just need to wait for the substrate to mature further?

Get a uv sterilizer. Run that to get rid of green water. Once that’s gone add floating plants “not duckweed” but something to block light but easy to take out when it over grows. Add a grow light to the sump and a ton of emergent plants also in sump. Basically try to turn the sump in an algae reactor and keep algae out of the display tank.

Could have a bacterial component Bettas commonly develope tumors that start like this what I would do is add Indian almond leaves as they have antibacterial and antifungal properties you might have to add one leaf per gallon to get a beneficial effect and monitor if your seeing no improvement after 5 days then i would consider a course of maracyn 2 it's a broad spectrum antibiotic treatment active ingredient minocycline also has anti-inflammatory properties@Shepard Commander

First we need to get your tank cycled if you have not yet, the most important thing in fish keeping. If you’re unfamiliar with this process, l would look up what is the nitrogen cycle and how to do it. For fish I recommend a betta, male or female. And if your new, I want to mention a 5g is a small tank that doesn’t have many stocking options, a betta shrimp or a tiny nano fish is really all you can keep in this size tank. Personally I would go for a male or female short fin betta. Love them and you will too. Also I would consider live plants as it has lots of benefits for your aquarium. Hope this helps!

Try separating the female for a few weeks. Then introduce them into the spawning tank. Remove them after a few days and wait for the fry to pop up. Pm me if it doesn't work, we can go into more details there

Live plants as said should be added asap, many plants already have their own free beneficial bacteria that comes with them. Win-win! As for adding fish food to start the cycle I would but not too much. Too much fish food can lead to a bacteria bloom or algae bloom (not good!) a small amount of fish food will decompose and produce ammonia, the bacteria will turn the ammonia into Nitrites (which in large amounts is very bad) the bacteria will eventually turn the harmful nitrites to Nitrates which are harmless in smaller amounts (<20 ppm) Make sure to do regular water changes and check water quality with Test Strips. If you don't want to hassle with root tabs I would recommend stem plants like Java Ferns or Anubias. They like to be attached to rocks or driftwood. In my opinion, I have had great success with Dwarf Aquarium Lillies, it is a reddish lily pad plant that roots in the substrate but they get nutrients from the water column.

I think this might be it. I have Agasizii and they look different. Thank you!

Corydoras melanistius is another possibility. Regardless love that combo of bandit and the dots patterns.

Maybe black fin cory (c. Leucomelas)?

I have a 5 gallon tank, and I’m not sure what fish I should put in it. The tank is an aqueon mini bow with led lights. I don’t think fish that jump would work with the open holes. Just need some ideas! I’m also new to the whole fish process! Thank you!

Hi All! I'm just getting back in the hobby after two decades. I am currently stocking a 40-gallon tank. Right now, it just has long fin corys, green neon tetras, mystery snails, and a single cardinal tetra that snuck in with the green neons. To be fair, they are juveniles and the coloring was the same for the first couple of weeks. I still haven't decided what to do about the cardinal, but he is schooling with the green neons and seems happy right now. I am thinking of starting a nano tank with school of cardinals for him to join, but I am more concerned about making sure this tank is stable first. The plan for this tank is to add a betta and maybe a school of ember tetras (or similar) depending on how the tank is doing. For now, the corys rule the tank and are having a great time. I am getting ready to set up a smaller tank as a bachelor pad for the betta so I can quarantine him and observe his behavior before putting him in the big tank. If I decide he is too aggressive, then he has a home. If he works out, then I will have a nano tank ready for a school of cardinals or something else. See below for the cory tax. --Jenn

Fair enough😂thank you!

It will still seed. I have nano sponges I keep in my 55 grow out tank to keep them seeded. I’ve never hooked up air to them in that tank, but when I put them in a grow out tank for fry they process ammonia and nitrite. General knowledge is that in an established tank everything wet will have beneficial bacteria. You don’t hook up air to your driftwood, but the driftwood still grows beneficial bacteria on it.

Thanks. Most likely. I'm thinking of moving my bumble bee goby to this five and maybe going with rocket killifish and shrimp!

I havent used salty shrimp but I use shrimp gh+ product and mont clay powder of another local brand and used to use equilibrium in the past. usually these sort of gh+ and gh-kh+ shrimp products come with extra minerals and different ratios from what I understand. Im not exactly sure if the following info is true, I saw this chart on reddit; Bee Shrimp Mineral GH + Soft Water Mineral GH + 17.88% Calcium 6.76% Magnesium 2, 11% Potassium 0.69% Hydrogen Carbonate 41.50% Chloride 16.91% Sulfate 0.35492% Trace Elements and this is the equilibrium chart on Seachem’s official site ; Guaranteed Analysis Amounts per 1 g Soluble Potash (K2O) 23.0% Calcium (Ca) 8.06% Magnesium (Mg) 2.41% Iron (Fe) 0.11% Manganese (Mn) 0.06% Equilibrium has way more K. And different ingredients. The main thing that increases gh reading is calcium and magnesium from what I know. So it is also a question of what else the products you use have while you are reaching those wanted numbers. I personally didnt want to increase gh but also dose so much K at the same time, it felt harder to balance a tank in terms of nutrition for me. Someone also shared their experience like this: “I did a crude experiment on a gallon of RO, targeting 10gH on each gallon using saltyshrimp, GLA GH booster, and seachem equilibirum. The saltyshrimp ended up being 244ppm TDS and 11GH. The GH booster was 386ppm/12GH. The equilibirum was 426ppm/12GH.” Another point is gh is usually affected heavily by calcium and magnesium but TDS is affected by many things added. Neocaridinas are hardy. They are tolerant to many tank conditions. If you can support trace minerals in the water I think you can use equilibrium. If you are keeping sensitive shrimp species, or already struggling with controlling nutrition in the water column, using a shrimp specific product might be a better idea if you ask me. Overall, using a well known shrimp product for a shrimp tank makes more sense for sure. Maybe equilibrium+ Montmorillonite clay for trace elements and molting? I use it and very happy about it, solved my molting issues I have a tap with 18 dkh so I have never used kh products, I cant comment on that one. I used equilibrium with my orange neocaridinas in the past and I still had some molting issues going on now and then until I used mont. clay powder. (I have a wTer softener tho). Switching gh+ product was not all alone enough to stop molting issues totally but I didnt use salty shrimp and it probably have different ingredients than mine.

Here’s several sassy Orangebelly Darters and Banded Darters scooting around their planted crib today…

I do not recommend human medicine @Shepard Commander. But what seachem products are you referring too? Also, the catappa leaves could help o think as well.

Thanks for the info! There’s actually no redness at the site, the pics are a little misleading. There’s definitely a lump on that side though. I have maracyn on hand but not maracyn 2. Do you think I should definitely order and treat with maracyn 2?

This is the best one I think have seen thank you

Here is a picture of one. I have done this before in the past, works quite well. this specific one is not mine, but one I found online. @notronaldreagan

I would consider a round of maracyn2 just like @Colu said @Shepard Commander. Sorry this happened. Most bettas have a tumor later in life or anytime actually sadly. My betta experienced this as well.

Thanks! @Whitecloud09

Oh well great! That is good your tank is cycled, I recommend a small radbora, chilli rasbora or something like that. Or have an all shrimp tank with a cool looking species like blue ocean shrimp, red cherry shrimp. Hope this helps! @Harleyjo

I already have a betta in another tank so I’m looking for a different option, and I have already done the cycle and have a few plants! I might look into some nano fish though! Thank you!

Well, a thermostat to control room heat rather than heating individual tanks… the only way an inkbird could do it would be to have multiple circuits and I dont know that there would be much of a savings with just combining the housig…. Ie they would have nearly the expense of three units to have three separate controls on a single unit…. AndvI cant think there would be much of a market for it… I run three tanks in my well insulated bedroom and in the winter I find the tank heatloss heats the room to about 73 all by itself. If I had a few more tanks, I dare say it would be just as well to heat the room itself to tank temp rather than heating each tank individually.

I agree woth extra plants, and extra fertilizing. Weekly water changes. Early on I would suggest deeper water changes along with gravel vaccing after cleaning walls and equipment snipping off algae infested leaves,(they ever so rarely recover) Clean sponge filter, increasing water flow is good too. Adding an easy flow kit to your sponge filter gives a healthy flow boost… water changes are not just for reducing nitrates…. Weekly water changes reduces dissolved organics.

Just add crocodiles.

3x pairs of Etheostoma zonale (Banded Darters) arrived today from my favorite NANF dealer… Within 30 minutes of adding to their new digs, they began spawning… I’m already seeing eggs…

Inkbird makes a couple of two zone controllers. I use them for a couple of snakes. But they wouldn't be perfect for aquariums. I don't know of a larger solution. The problem is the two zone controllers are more expensive than the stand-alone 1 aquarium setups which can be had for less than $20 if you wait for sales. It would be nice if someone made a centralized one with maybe 5 zones. The problem is they'd probably be more than $100.

@beastie that is absolutely nasty. Excuse me while I go gag in the corner. Just kidding😂 but you seem to have all your tanks spread out in the most convenient places! Sounds like a great layout to me😉

I agree with what’s been said that adding live plants from the beginning is the way to go! However in my experience adding fish food as a source of ammonia is a very tedious process. I found that I had to add a ridiculous amount of fish food to even be able to measure ammonia. Do you have a local fish club or local fish store that can give you some filter media from an established tank? That is definitely the quickest and easiest way to start a cycle. If not, I would opt for bottled ammonia versus fish food. With the cycled filter media, you boost the tank with tons of beneficial bacteria which makes it easier to add a couple fish right away. Then you can just feed lightly and keep testing water, and doing water changes whenever you see fit. 🙂

Here is a new picture taken a few mintutes ago of the tank. Val is shifting runners like crazy. Amazon sword kinda struggling sadly. But I a, going to add EG soon. And root tabs next week since it has been a month,

Oh yes. Get me a cup of coffee, sit in a chair in front of my tanks, and absolutely just STARE. What am i thinking about? What plants i can add and where. Why? Cause i love FISH TANKS!!!! Best hobby.

If there is no one willing to commit then you’re fighting a loosing battle. There is no quick fix. Either they commit or they have to deal with an eye sore.

Yep, I taught them about cycling, and I seeded the tank for them with BB from one of my tanks. It has actually been running fairly well for over a year, amazingly enough. Until now, the main problem has been diatoms growing all over the glass. I showed them how to use an algae scraper, and things were going ok. They were doing water changes, but not vacuuming the gravel. So, after a year of detritus accumulation and 24/7 ambient light, they got an explosion of planktonic algae about two months ago. I did two 80% water changes with lots of gravel vacuuming. This diluted the algae, but then they grow back. I think the pothos plant will grow nice and big, and absorb lots of nutrients, but it’s still new. Yeah, there’s only one person (a high school student) trained on how to maintain the tank. They definitely need more people on the team.

Algae as bad as it looks will clear up slowly if you get your light, and fertilizer more or less dialed in. Congratulations on joining the world of fish. You really don't want to change the substrate "gravel" just use the syphon maybe break it up with your hands first then vacuum it up with the syphon. Blub will be less stressed and happier with slow gradual changes. Stability is better than chasing pH values. If you have a 6.2 from the tap I would see if blub will do well, I believe Betta will, I would leave it alone. The easier and less fussy we make it the happier we and our friends will be.

Did you cycle the tank first?? But yeah, the 24hr lights are the biggest issue on top of zero water changes in a non-planted tank. For low maintenance, you're going to have to go with a lot of plants, but even then somebody has to trim the verge on occasion and just keep an eye on things. Tanks won't maintain themselves. I'd redo the substrate to aquasoil, put in a ton of plants, definitely keep the sump, and make clear to the school that the janitors/teachers need to cover the tank at night. A suggestion here, is to put in a curtain so that this job is always super easy and convenient: just pull the curtain closed.

I believe that both of those products work, and I definitely used them when I was setting up my first tanks. 700 is just the super concentrated version that must be kept refrigerated. 7 is less concentrated, and therefore shelf stable, so it doesn’t require refrigeration. Same thing, just pick your concentration.

Ok, I used 7 did it make a difference over the stems and Java fern I planted bringing in bacteria from the lfs, I really don't know. But I slow aged my tank for like 3 months before fish were added.

I'm not being silly at all. Fish-in is the way to go!

Oh, absolutely. Nothing wrong with low kh. Or lower ph for that matter, as long as the keeper knows how to manage it. I, on the other hand, can’t actually use my water as is. Way too much iron and iron bacteria in the well. Watering grass here, you turn everything the water touches to a burnt red color.