SugarBassJoe

Yea, some of those rocks are 12"+, I'm still on the hunt for that right piece of drift wood, I'm hoping some swords and Vallisneria will help with the height of the scape, though I'm skeptical they will reach the top, I'm still researching tall plants. A bit worried about maintenance, the tank being 30" tall while sitting on a 30" stand makes it a challenge to get in there, the grabbers I got work but they're not much for delicate work.

Its the pic, here's one with a box for a 24" light for scale

Thank ya, that driftwood was given to me by a coworker, had that floating java fern tucked into it, but it keeps floating out, ill have to weigh it down and get it back in there.

So this has been in the works for several weeks now, but its close to being ready, so I think it might be time to share it. Quick rundown, its a 195G acrylic tank that was found on offer up for 200$, dimensions are 50L x 30W x 30H. Pea gravel and play sand for substrate, a driftwood stump that's been sitting around, some left over Seiryu stone I had and some broken flagstone from a landscape company ( I have been monitoring PH, so far so good). Waiting for some plants from the coop to arrive, right now just some Java fern, an Anubias 'gold coin' tucked into the stone house, and some loose java fern floating around I need to attach. Been running nearly a month, still trying to decide how I'm going to stock it, but I think its just about ready.

I did expect that, I'm hoping some other fish will help spread out their attention, even its just a little bit, I know all fish are different but keeping some pencil fish wit my apistos noticeably helped.

All good info, thanks everyone. I do like that dwarf rainbow fish idea, the thought did cross my mind, but I think id be more comfortable with that combo in a 40G or bigger. I will drop that temp down, but I think id like to keep it in the low 80's still, Rummy nose have been on my bucket list for a while, so I'm starting to lean that way.

Never had an issue with my clown pleco eating plants, and if he does its very minimal, he's in a heavily planted 20G and everything seems fine, I do see him munching on the driftwood from time to time, but not to often, I feed a a healthy amount of Repashys Morning Wood, that might be helping.

I've heard the same about cories, I pretty much ruled them out, since the footprint of the tank isn't that big, I'm pretty much considering the rams as the bottom dwellers, and yes these are the same Celestial rams on aquabid, but I went straight through the breeders website, they have more than these, really like the Black Rams and the Dark storm Rams they had, but understandably they were out of stock.

So I'm tempting fate and giving ram cichlids a go, I've done well with other cichlids but I heard rams could be a bit more difficult, but 3 weeks (and lots of water changes) in quarantine, and everyone is looking good. In another week or so, ill be moving them into their long term housing. I've noticed they're spooked quite easily, and when they are out, they're pretty "chasy", which I expected, so I've been researching dither fish, and obviously I've seen quite a few recommendations, so I wanted to ask any Ram keepers here, what fish do you use, if any? and any tips or anything I should look out for? Towards the end of the week, ill be moving the pair into a 29G, which will open up the quarantine tank for the dithers. From what I was told, these guys are a cross between black rams and electric blue, so they're not as colorful as the standard GBR's, so I was looking for something to compliment them, obviously neon's or cardinals came to mind, but obviously I like different. I know this is getting long, but one last question, I've been keeping them at 86, I've seen this is sort of their upper limit, but I really wanted them to "bulk them up" (I've been feeding frozen brine shrimp 3-4 times a week too), should I bring the temp down a couple of degrees? Thanks in advanced if you took the time to read this.

Would absolutely love a Bluegill, but I'm not sure on the legality of keeping one where I'm at, I know your not allowed to catch one and take it home, but I'm unsure if your able to purchase one for that purpose, or if you could even find one for sale (if anyone knows the rules about this in California, let me know), not sure if orange spots would fall in that category. Underrated? Rainbow Shiners, holy cow those are amazing.

I usually go with a month myself, just to be safe but I'm sure you could get away with a couple of weeks. In the past I've taken established filters for use in a new setup, and replaced them with new ones, hedging my bet that the bacteria in the rest of the tank will carry it over until the new filter is established.

Haven't considered those, I don't know why but I tend to gravitate to new world cichlids for whatever reason, according to test strips my water is at Nitrates-0 Nitrite-0 GH-300+ (its literally off the charts) KH-approx. 70 PH- approx. 8.0 I've gotten these number both before and after off gassing my water.

While I do want a few more tanks of live bearers eventually, I've already done most of them already, and have a colony of guppies at the moment, its not that I don't enjoy them, I'm just looking to broaden my resume at the moment. Totally agree, hence my post, been asking everyone and pouring through videos and articles researching my options. The Fire Reds also catch my eye, love the flame shape of their tail fins.

Since moving a tank to the office and thanks to the 1/2 off sale I'm able to expand a little bit, I've picked up a few tanks and now have a open 20L, but now I'm losing my mind on what id like to do next. I've narrowed my list to Rams, another Apisto. species or perhaps another species of Killifish. I think I'm still in a cichlid phase since I'm leaning towards them, either GBR's or Apisto. Agissizii, I'm aware of the extra requirements of the Rams, so I don't know if ill go that route since I don't like to mix RO water with tap (prefer to use straight tap) but since I'm in no rush, wanted to post this for others opinions and suggestions on anything I overlooked or didn't consider on either different fish or care requirements.

Currently its an unknown number of Guppies (photo doesn't do it justice, you cant see all of them), an unknown number RCS (mostly of the wild type color variety), 6 Amano's, and one female Koi Betta. My coworker is going to be taking some more guppies soon, after that I plan on moving my 6 Hasbrosus corys in.

Thanks! Basic substrates found at the local petco, back half is gravel, the front is Caribsea aquarium sand

Finally moved on setting up an office tank. Waited this long because it just never felt like the right time, but with renovations starting at the house soon, I thought it be good to move a tank over here. Bit of an upgrade, tore down a 10G guppy tank and set them up in a new 20G at the office, they seem to be adjusting well. Going to move my small school of Hasbrosus Corydoras over here soon, and hopefully get started on the upgrades at the house soon as well.

Agree with FishFolk , either one should be fine, though I'm eyeing that one one with all the Anubias in it, but that's just an aesthetic thing for me, nice looking tank. I haven't seen a huge impact from the shrimp, and vice versa, but once pond snails started showing up, fry production started slowing down for me, and I've lost a few from jumping, even if that gap in the lid doesn't look big enough they can get through, I use a floating mat of water sprite to help mitigate this, but any floating plant should be sufficient, I also stuff little gaps for airlines and such with filter floss, its a little bit of a pain to remove it every time for feeding, but it helps. I also recommend starting with a bigger group, the latest colony I have I started with 8, lost two, why exactly I don't know, they just disappeared, didn't find any bodies near the tank, and they're so small they could have easily been eaten by the shrimp in there within a few hours, I know they can be pricey, but any losses from a bigger group wont be as detrimental. I feed live BBS, freeze dried daphnia and crushed flake, mosquito larvae sounds like a winner too, any thing small enough for them to eat.

Anyone know if play sand or the like is a better option?

Is there a freshwater version?

Looking for a larger grain sand rather than the fine grain stuff, no luck yet. Hoping for something that will work better for plant, but still be ok for sand sifters

i would use the bucket for the shrimp and the neons, cut some holes in the lid for an airline and maybe heater if your going to use one( heat ,im unsure of the best method for this) i think if i was going to do it, i would find the biggest piece of sponge i could and cram it down at the bottom of the bucket for the shrimp to hold on to. Your betta, again this just my idea, if I was travelling alone I would find the biggest cup that would fit in my cup holder, i'm thinking those fast food style cup with a narrower bottom, so i could keep an i on him, if you're not travelling alone i would find a something bigger than the cup but smaller than a bucket and have someone hold him. I would keep a couple extra gallons of de-chlorinated water and bottle of de-chlorinator for emergencies. Keep the drive as smooth but as fast as possible, good luck.

they are an appistogramma caucotoides pair.

The home owner I rent from is finally tearing out the carpet, and putting hardwood floors in, been waiting for a while. So unfortunately ill have to break 4 tanks down, which I'm not looking forward to, but like some say "In difficulties, comes opportunities" so since ill have to move everything out the room, ill take the opportunity to rearrange and streamline my set ups. Instead of having each tank in different spots in the room, ill have a wall dedicated to them. I'm also going to go ahead and make some housing adjustments, as of now the plan is this: the 10G halfmoon tank with the guppies will be retired ( I actually liked this tank more than I thought I would, but I still prefer the standard rectangular tanks). I'm goin to keep the three best males, six of the best females, and the last batch of fry (ill be giving the rest (about 40 fish) to a friends 55G community tank) they'll be moved to my standard 10G. Mugger, the Clown Killis and the RCS'S will stay in their own 4G cubes, just moved closer together so I can run air from a single air pump to each. The big upgrade will be for my pair of Apisto's, its finally time to get them in some proper housing, so ill be setting up a 20G Long for them, (wanted to do at least 29, but its hard to convince my room mate, her mother is the home owner so I aint going to push my luck, pick your battles) and this where I have some questions. If any one has read this far I would appreciate some insight. Would it be a bad idea to find another female to add? As of now my current female seems to be the boss, so I don't know if adding another female is a bad idea, or if there would be enough room. Tank will have some hard scape and will be fairly well planted. If there is enough room, would adding another species be problematic? would like to add some neon's or something similar later on, maybe a small pleco (if there is a small enough species, still doing research). I would like to get some breeding started eventually, but I'm still a lazy breeder, I don't have the room to dedicate empty tanks for this purpose, so for now id like my tanks to be breeder as well as show tanks if possible. I'm also going to have a empty 10G halfmoon style tank, as much as id like to keep it, I don't have much room for storage, and also prefer the standard style of tanks, so I'm willing to part with it. I've had no issues with it and has worked well for the guppies, so if anyone is interested in taking it off my hands in the near future (its still up and running for now, ill be taking it down closer to the end of the month/beginning of next month), it will be completely free, I'm in San Diego county, but I work in a warehouse, with lots of boxes and packing materials, so if your willing to take a chance with shipping, I'm willing to ship it to you (shipping would be free for you) if interested let me know. AGAIN this will be closer to the end of the month/ beginning of next month, don't have an exact date yet. Thanks all.

I use polycarbonate sheets like@xXInkedPhoenixX suggested, the only difference being I prefer the single sheet, not the double wall variety, I've seen no difference in evaporation rates between that and the glass lids I use, I would however assume the greenhouse effect is stronger with the double wall, so heat retention is likely better than with the single sheet, but for my purposes its works just fine. Easy enough to work with, power tools are gonna give you cleaner cuts, but I've used heavy duty scissors before, though its not as easy, for finer work I got the cheapest soldering iron I could find to melt sections away (if you're going to do this, I highly recommend doing it outside, your melting plastic after all), I've done clips, but for the sake of easiness I prefer to let it rest along the rim of the tank. For handles, I've superglued cheap drawer knobs on some.