Schuyler

Right now I have a fairly small tank that I'm using to make as many mistakes as possible so that (in theory) I don't make those same mistakes with my big tank. I'm still at least a month out from actually seeing it up and I want to take my time so I can get it right. Over the last few weeks I've gone through a few different iterations of what I want to do. This is my 40 breeder that I'm taking my time setting up. I bought the tank and filter (new fluval 407) second hand, the rocks are basalt with quartz that I gathered from my yard (and broke up some with a sledge hammer), and the wood is old weathered drift wood that I boiled and am currently soaking (after taking this picture). I'm going to pile aquasoil under the wood with plants poking out and then sand to the right with the rocks as a barrier. I'm planning on stocking at least 3 honey gourami (1 male & 2 female), 6 otos, guppies (from our existing tank), 6 corys, cherry shrimp, and probably ramshorn snails (because I have them and they will probably find their way in anyway). I plan on adding the substrates and some moss to dry start for a few weeks (maybe some plants too but not sure what would benefit from a dry start). Then I'll add the rest of the plants, flood the tank, seed bacteria from other tank, and add snails. Wait a week or two doing frequent water changes. Then add corys. Wait a week or two then add shrimp and otos. Wait again before adding guppies. Then finally I'll add the gourami. Now my questions: I like pigmy corys but do they actually sift around in the substrate and help clean? Would julii corys be better? Is that filter too big? I thought it was a 207 when I went to buy it from the guy online but it turned out I read it wrong somehow. Could I potentially add another school like ember tetras or just leave room for inevitable guppy fry? What about a bristle nose pleco or two instead of otos? I like the idea of having fish that are fairly easy to breed. Last time I rushed in so I want to try and take my time on this one but is this plan too overly cautious? Any suggestions for plants? The only things I'm firm on are dwarf lilies, water wisteria, and Java ferns.

Wouldn't the Betta and gorami likely fight? Maybe you could do a honey gourami and ember tetras? Both bright colors that would contrast with the green

I'm the same way. My wife was excited that I was excited about aquarius at first but now I think it's starting to get on her nerves a bit when I talk about trying a new fish store or going somewhere to look for rocks/driftwood. Yeah the one in Lakewood is pretty good. Surprisingly it looks like there is also a really nice one in Port Orchard. Judging by the pictures they have loads of basically every your of Cory you could want. Also, not sure if this is your thing, but Pet Works just got a huge shipment of hardscape stuff. Also if you buy moss from them they will give you a cup to put it on and basically as much more as you can cram in the is $8. It's a bit sad looking but way better than the $10 bag of brown Java moss at Petco.

Haha That sounds very similar to my introduction. Kids drive getting initial fish, bad advice, disaster, go off the deep end to try and figure out where things went wrong, and you're hooked... I guess it's a common intro to the hobby. At least you're kids are kinda creative with their names. My son (4) named his after himself and my daughter (2) named hers "food." I think she thought we were going to eat them for some reason.

I'm new and slowly trying to build up stuff for my big planted tank and buying things on sale to build up. Is the fluval soil good and is this actually a good deal? Or if I wait for black Friday or something will there be other deals or other better soil to try?

Thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll just wait until the fry are big enough and then get more fish to add to the tank. I don't want to sterilize the tank because I have plants and the snails in there still

I was starting small. 14 gallon tank with 4 guppies and three Ramshorn snails. The tank has been up for a little over a month and send to be cycled. I never see ammonia when I test and nitrates are consistently low. I got it from my sister for free and I'm pretty sure it's meant to be a sadly water tank. It's an older biocube 14. It seems to have fairly strong flow and I'm wondering if that added stress to the fish. It had been two weeks since we lost any fish but then we had a female give birth and promptly die soon after that. We moved the babies we could find to a separate 2.5 that we had before getting the bigger one and they seem to be happy and growing. After she died I suspected the nitrate levels could be too high so I did a large water change in the evening. The next morning one of the females had white bumps (I think ick?). So we treated the tank with ick off and some aquarium salts. The only thing that seemed to do was stain one of the decorations. We ended up treating three days and it seemed to get a little better. On the fourth day she died. I did another water change and gravel vac to try and clean up any poop because there was some nitrites showing up. That was yesterday. Today we had another fish die, one is floating by the filter intake not looking like he's going to make it, and the last female now has spots and isn't looking great. I'm fully prepared to wake up to two dead fish. Now my questions: 1) Besides quarantine what else could I have done once they were showing as sick? 2) What should I do with the tank now? I'm going to try again but what should I do to get the tank ready for new fish (probably more guppies once the fry are big enough to fend for themselves) 3) How long do fry take before they are big enough that others won't try to eat them? Any advice would be helpful!

Novice question: What do you select for in a Ramshorn snail?

Cool! Other than pet works are there any other good fish stores?

Online it looks like in Europe there are aquarium stores everywhere with lots of plants but here in the US it seems like the only moss you can get is Java and even more from my LPS is pretty sad looking. I know aquarium co-op and Java moss sheets and they are good but if I want to get something else where are some good places to look? I'm hoping to retry doing a dry start (my yogurt start is doing a great job at growing mold but all the moss looks pretty dead)

Yeah. I mainly kept the 2.5 to be a hospital tank and in theory we'll get rid of the 14 once the 40 is ready to go but we'll see what happens... Now I'm working on convincing other people to get into it so I can help them set up their tanks

Hi everyone! I'm new to the hobby. My kids wanted a fish but I said no for a long time. As a kid, my dad has a fish tank and I remember it was a lot of work so I was hesitant. Finally I gave in but said "If we're going to do this we're going to do it right. We're not just going to get a bowl and put a goldfish in." Then grabbed an all in one 2.5 gallon tank, two guppies, and some Java Fern. Needless to say, I didn't do it the "right way." One of the fish dyed the next day. So we brought it back because they said they would replace them. That one died even faster... Needless to say it was a bumpy start. I didn't want to keep killing fish and making the kids sad (both under 5). So I started watching and reading everything I could. That's when I went down the rabbit hole and found Aquarium co-op's YouTube channel along with others. Fast forward to now, all my YouTube recommendations are aquarium or aquascape related. I got a free 14 gallon biocube from my sister. One of the original guppies has survived, his color has almost completely returned, and he has a few lady friends. My 2.5 gallon is now my hospital tank and currently holds 3 tiny guppy fry. I've been scouring OfferUp and Facebook market for stuff to set up a more substantial tank. So I have a 40 breeder, a fluvial 407, and some coconut huts that are currently growing more mold than moss. Probably going to have to restart that and not do the yogurt method this time...