Luciferkrist

My most surprisingly enjoyable fish I have ever had was a raphael catfish - he was in my very first tank, and lived through ALL of my growing pains as a fishkeeper, including forgetting to put the lid back on. I found him in the morning croaking on the floor! He eventually gave up the ghost when I was away on a vacation and had my heater break. =(. My most disappointing fish so far has had to be my ropefish... at first he was pretty cool, but now all it does is hide in my filters.

For rocks, check out your locals landscaping places. The same rocks you find in stores for 3-5 dollars per pound can be have for 20-50 CENTS per pound. I recently got 135 pounds for my big tank - it cost me 35 dollars. Also check them for driftwood, they sometimes get them for ponds or landscape pieces, which also means you should try calling any pond builders. Another place to get driftwood could be taxidermists. Though they often use artificial things for some of their works, they may know of places to find/get them. If you're looking for the more traditional aquarium woods, you're probably going to have to resort to eBay and Etsy for any kind of decent prices, but you'll probably get nailed on shipping, especially larger pieces.

It would be a wraparound tank one either 3 walls of a room, or all 4 with a spiral staircase down into it. One side would be my monsters with every type of arowana, polypterus, and stingrays. Another side would be a NA native tank with every species in the lake I grew up around. The last side would be full of thousands of tetras and thousands of shrimp. If I had the 4th wall - Saltwater with some small sharks and lots of gobies.

I would imagine just about any medium-sized carnivore or omnivore fish would have a field day with those. I know I had a similar problem in an experiment tank, and just 6 khulis cleaned it up in just a week. And, if I'm being honest, a few of them would probably be fine in that jar while you breakdown and rebuild - Just not long term. They may seem to like being everywhere they aren't supposed to be, but they deserve enough room to actually HAVE their random spaz sessions.

Usually, I float for 20-30 min to temp. acclimate, then add about 25-30% of the bag water in tank water, then wait about 30 minutes. If the livestock is not showing any major signs of stress I dump them into a net into a bucket and let them free in their new home! I try to never dump shipping water or store water into my tanks. For shrimp, I ALWAYS drip for a few HOURS into a 5 gal. bucket, as almost every time I get them half are gravid, and I don't want to lose any more 'free' shrimp.

Well, finally ran into my first display of inexperience with tank building. Condensation. Cool glass hanging above 79 degree water... who could have know! 😃 I am going to try just removing it and keeping the lid dry to see if this will be a recurring issue. May end up putting some defogger on the lid, as soon as I can find any info if they release any water soluble chemicals. Now that I know it holds water, substrate, and rock - I wanted to make sure my plants flourish and maybe start a bit of carpeting plants. So I grabbed a simple CO2 'system'. It is just one of the 50 dollar Fluval kits, but I wasn't going to go crazy on my first foray into CO2. Now I wait for a suitable and cosmetically acceptable chuck of wood to effectively hide the heater and diffuser.

Always been fascinated with cartilaginous fishes, sharks/skates/rays. For aquarium fishes I love bichirs and arowanas.

Most likely this. They are nano-sized NOW, not what they will be.

It is the IKEA glass actually, I actually just cut some notches out of the trim with my table saw, the glass is exactly 2 blade widths, so it fits rather snug. A simple drill to hollow out the notches for the cord, and a lot of sanding with a dowel to contour the spaces for the lily pipes. I may just let them mix and end up with a grey/speckled substrate look, especially if my future stocking choices are going to be digging in it. Aesthetically, I would prefer a white substrate, but I fear it would overwhelm any fish I put in due to too much reflected light, and I would have to do so much more cleaning to keep it looking good. Next one I eventually build, will have MUCH better caulking, and I am considering a color theme, and tinting the beads, so can edgelight the base with a few LEDs. Though I may just make an all-in-one nano-ish (9-11gallons) tank so I can give it/them out as gifts to my family.

After always being a bit of a DIYer and seeing a video from Seradesigns on YT ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir4kHioCSM0 ), I decided I was going to try my hand at making a tank. After a disaster trying to make a betta tank, too many 'cuts' in the glass made it very weak, I decided to try some of those precut ones from the video. I started this project on October 10, and ended up getting much further on that day that I anticipated! I was so absorbed I forgot to take pictures of the actual assembly and designing the cover. Basically, I used some PVC trim to make a slotted riser that will help conceal my filter plumbing and wire for the heater and eventually the hose for my CO2 system. (Hopefully!) After waiting 3 days to fully cure the silicone, I put it up in my garage and filled it with water. Now to wait another 3 days... Once it was proven to not have fallen to pieces or leak I started making the stand for it. Since This was like no other standard aquarium I knew I had to either make due with something too big to custom build it. After seeing the price of wood, I decided to ask my LFS's partner for all their custom stuff - $500 for a basic stand, so to the Home Depot I went! I spent more on wood than I wanted to, but now had my next project lined up! After a few days of planning and math I didn't want to do, but I decided on a design that would fit my plans for the tank. Added a 'bracing' piece between the doors just in case and to keep the doors even when closed. Once everything fit and opened and closed, It is time to paint. After 3 coats I felt confident enough to call it done. After another day watching the paint dry I am finally able to move it to its new home in my living room. Ignore the mess around it, I had to move a little cart full of stuff that was there before. But now I can start designing the tank and adding my necessities. Will have to clean it all up, but I wanted to make sure that everything I had planned fit! I put a vinyl background on the back of the tank and I decided to make up some fences to separate the two different substrates I planned on using. Used some leftover acrylic from another project to make the general shape I wanted. So I started adding the substrates and some of the hardscape pieces. Which is when I tried to figure out how to mount my lights without obstructing the clean aesthetic I was kind of going for. And, as you can see, since this tank isn't a normal size I had to off-set them, and used some heat-resistant mounting tape. I know this will be terrible for thermals and may cause them to overheat, but I wanted the look over the longevity! To cover the ugly tape and wire I added an accent stripe on top of the lid with some textured vinyl, which will also keep my cats off the tank! Note: The picture in the background isn't me, it is my Mother and her cats! I started adding some more hardscapes, and it is time to test the light. So I decided to add a few trimmed plants from one of my other tanks and some 'placeholder' decos. Where the green rock is, will be a wood piece, spiderwood most likely and quite a few more plants. And as you can see some of them have broken free when filling, and my plan is to cover up the heater. I have a few cups of Monte Carlo in another one of my 10 gallons waiting for this one's cycle to start some carpet. Things I learned: 1) Keeping two colors/types of substrate separate is a nightmare. 2) Wood is expensive. 3) Glass lily pipes will break when dropped. 4) Paint adds size to pieces that are cut and made to specific tolerances. (Yay sand/paint cycle). 5) I want to try to make some small, self-contained bookshelf tanks now. Future plans, obviously I need to finish the scape once I find the piece of wood I like and start thinking about stocking. I want to stick to the black/white theme with small color bursts. I am thinking about a group of rummy nose tetra, or scissortail rasboras, with julii corys, maybe one of those awesome plecos. Feel free to add your suggestions, but keep in mind this tank is only 34 inches long and about 25 gallons!

Been looking for an alien betta pair for a LONG time, and when wandering into Petco during their 50% off tank sale, to see if I can resist the urge to expand my MTS, and when walking past their bettas.. I noticed they had some! I was not expecting them to have them, let alone the exact colors I wanted! Unfortunately they only had males, so I am still on the lookout for a female. Here he is in his half of the tanks: He is still a bit stressed and my ability to photograph this tank is a struggle. Here is the tank, a 15 gallon split down the middle - the left half is reserved for this guy's future lady-friend. I will try to get a better pic of him once he is more comfortable and some color comes back. I am thinking about the name Makoto, after the Persona 3 Protagonist. Getting him acclimated, and getting some good quality food in him. I have no idea what happened with the frogbit, some of those roots are over 18 inches long! As you can see the water is quite tannin-rich, and I am probably going to keep it that way, since these guys seem to prefer that type of environment from everything I've read. I also have some endler guppies in there that were part of the overpopulation from my breeding tank.

I am currently putting together a home-made tank and stand, and am trying to find some flexible LED lights that could be used on the underside of a glass lid. (Don't worry, pics of the 'completed' project will be coming!) The tank is only about 25ish gallons and about 14 inches deep when empty, I assume it would be 11 inches or so when scaped and substrated. My lid will be 34 inches wide and I am hoping to be able to affix it to the inside of the lid, so I can effectively 'hide' the lights and the wiring when the lid is closed, adn my first thought was some of the trimmable led strips, but they all aren't very water resistant. The lid canopy will actually have a 2.5inch gap for gas exchange and to hide the routing for the wires and tubing for the filter and heater. Now is when my inexperience with lighting - Specifically the levels, spectrums, and what they all mean. I only in the last year started planting my tanks and I'm not going back! I have been poking around Amazon and wonder if any of you fine folks have had any suggestions or experience with some more unique lighting solution?

Okay, finally did my first canister cleaning. Wasn't too bad, mostly probably due to my fairly light bio-load, but I did have a few surprises still! First was the amount of snails that were in there. Probably a dozen or so on each of my 3 trays. Also I noticed that there were quite a few egg bundles all over the inner wall of the canister! Next was a seemingly solo orange neocaridina shrimp. I never put on them in. Figured it hitchhiked on a plant. My last surprise was once again, my bloody ropefish! I moved him to the big tank so he would STOP ending up in my filters. Somehow this guy crawled down one of the outlets! He can't get to the input, as it is behind the overflow with slits too small for even him to sneak through. If he ends up in there again, after I raised my outlets above the water level now, I might have to give him back to the store, which is a shame as I really like him.

I am actually leak-testing one of these IKEA glass tanks I put together on Tuesday! Only additional advice I have is to 240-400 grit sandpaper the beveled edges where the silicone actually goes. Anyway, As mentioned - Overbuild. Especially on anything that will have water on it - shifting fluids are a dynamic mess of forces. If you're not confident enough to stand on it and jump around a bit... add more bracing.

Still having a hard time getting good pictures on it, always shows up yellowish for some reason. Still waiting for the plants to fill in, added some recently, and ahve a new red lotus bulb growing now as well! He is hiding behind the gourami on the left.

I originally disliked them as they always looked so gaudy, and the idea of keeping a fish by themselves in a tiny bowl never appealed to me. Than I learned how they are SUPPOSED to be cared for and the more natural/wild type varieties. Then fell in love with the 'Alien' type - been looking for a few months for a pair of blue/turquoise, or maybe silver for a tank I have just waiting for them. Looking forward to getting them eventually, and maybe try my hd at breeding them - I know that they being hybrids means they have a very low chance of being viable, but damn if I wont try!

Just got one actually, very young one, he is set to be the king of my 210 tank. Yes, I know I only have about a year or two before he may be too big for that size tank - Hoping to get something custom by then, but I always wanted one and really love their graceful swimming... and it was 20 bucks at the show in Chicago... Luckily I already accidentally started a guppy/endler colony in the tank when transferring some plants, so he will have something to hunt, but he is already eating pellets and shrimp.

Well, got back from Chicago. I have mixed feelings about Aquashella - Cool things to see, but very little to learn. Sure, the speakers were interesting, but I was hoping to be able to talk to people a bit more. Anyway! I did bring back some unlikely friends - the price and fish were just too good! Well, one dream fish down! I was hoping to find some inspiration for my final stocking, and a 6 inch silver arowana for 20 bucks! He is already eating pellets, but I am going to leek to get him some more 'real' food this weekend. I also managed to get my hands on a Delhezi and Endlicheri bichirs! But they are VERY small... and they haven't come out much since I acclimated them. Now all I need is an Ornate, and I will have collected the whole set! Also added a couple plants - but I am still only floating them until I figure out exactly where I want to put them.

First thing today I went to were those alien bettas! I had been looking for a pair for about 2 months! Nobody near my home ever get them. Too bad I probably won't be able to get them from the show as I have a 4ish hour drive home on Sunday. I was also kind of disappointed with the lack of bigger fish fishkeepers, I had lots of questions. The wood was so cheap too!

Originally I thought it was bye-ker, as I had only saw it in print. Lol. I usually say bye-sher, which is still wrong - it is supposed to be bye-chur according to most dictionaries.

Anything planted will be some work, and probably a snorkel, so probably want to stick to hardscapes and some of those really nice 'false' plants that Cory found when in Germany - Look damn near real! I recently fell in love with bichirs and other polypterus, because I found a few at my LFS and immediately went home and start looking into them - My advice is to go check out some LFS, make a trip to an aquarium (bring a notepad!), or make a weekend trip to some check out some other cities LFS's, as they will often have different fish/breeders. Maybe you'll find a type of fish, colors of fish, type of scape, or fall in love with something you never expected! Sounds like you like cichlids though, they're not my thing, but I can appreciate them for their wild array of colors and behaviours and a well-done tank is quite a sight to behold. I would have to resist the urge to put 200 rummy nose or scissortail rasboras in a tank that big. I'm still actively fighting the urge with my 210 because I want my bichirs!

Now that you have a picture, you CAN put them back in place or close to. Worst case scenario you have to do some ametaur archeology; Mark on your glass with some masking/blue tape for their position and as you pull them out, make sure to keep a consistent orientation and number each one, bottom to top, until you have them all out. Make a number mark on a photo to correspond to the number you pulled out, and you SHOULD be able reconstruct the scape fairly well.

LOL... you should have seen the faces of the people that delivered the tank when they saw it.

Then you really have nothing to worry about. Superglue and its contemporaries are probably safer than MOST of the artificial decorations you see for sale. Who knows that is in those paints, plastics, or ceramics?

Two birds one stone this time! Got the rats next of lily pads out of my 75, well one of them, and transplanted it into my 210. Look at the size of that monster! It was blocking so much light my other plants were suffering, and it was just getting too big, and I didn't want to trim it. Believe it or not, that is about 6 months growth from one of those 5 dollar bulb packs from top-fin! It was supposed to be a DWARF lily! Extra bonus, when I pulled out the roots, I had an extra bulb! Planted it behind the rock with the little anubis glued to it - hopefully it will get right up there with that one! Now for the sad news. My 10 gal that I had some green neon tetras in and a few banded barbs growing out in, went crazy. Lost 6 out of the 10 neons, and 4 of my 5 barbs over a week! I pulled them out, and am quarinting them in a 65 - guess I found out what THAT tank is gonna be for - a hospital! I broke down the tank, cleaned it out, and boiled all of my old hardscape. Now I have a free, empty tank.... I decided to try something I always wanted - a natural 3d(ish) background . So I started siliconing broken pieces of slate flooring (always ask if they have any when you're at a big box store, they usually just give it to you!), and wanted to make some jutting out. After about 12 hours, I propped it upright and spray-painted the back, re-set my newly sainitized hardscape, and replated the plants I was able to save - Though not all are in top form now. To top it off, I sprinkled a few of my garnets around, but I'm not exactly sold on them with this color palate. The center rock is actually green quartz, but will not photograph green! I also need to replace that fugly heater that came with the tank, but I am quite happy with the background! This will be the last update for a week, as I will be heading to Shedd Aquarium, then Aquashella this weekend, first vacation in 6 years! Hope to see some of you there! Maybe when I get back I will know what I want to eventually PUT in my small swimming pool!