AllFishNoBrakes

Soooo I was checking out my aquaponics tank today, and discovered I passively bred a couple Gold Tetras! I have a group of 6 Golds, 4 Neons, 1 male Endler, and 2 female Guppies. The female guppies have been dropping fry and I just assumed all the babies I was seeing were them. Was taking a closer look today and went, “Those don’t look like Endlers or Guppies” and they appear to be Gold Tetras! I didn’t even know you could passively breed Tetras. Learn something new everyday, I guess.

@Lori2219 Nice. I have a Fluval nano on my 6 gallon cube. All my other lights are Aquaneat full spectrum LED’s and they grow everything I want to. You should be just fine with your light. Try some things out!

@Lori2219 What kind of light do you have on there? Might just be the lighting of the picture, but it looks very blue. To the best of my knowledge, live plants can’t or don’t really use the blue spectrum, but algae does! Keep that in mind, especially if you’re thinking about hopping into plants. Here’s some of my favorite: -Anubius. The rhizome can’t be buried in the substrate, so these are often glued or tied to wood, rocks, etc. Slow growers, require fertilizer in the water column, and don’t require much light. Because they are such slow growers they will not out competent algae so I recommend snails to help with algae control. I’ve tried multiple different species of Anubius from the Coop, but they just don’t do well in my water from them. I’ve had better luck with big box stores either already grown underwater, or the plants that come in a plastic tube and you convert them yourself. -Java Ferns. I love the look of them, but they don’t do excellent in my water. Again a rhizome plant that gets glued or tied. Fertilizer in the water column, and are branded as a beginner plant. -Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus. Stem plant that grows crazy in my water! When they get big enough you can chop the top of the plant off and replant it, and then boom you have another plant when it grows roots. I do root tabs and Easy Green. Most of my tanks have this plant. -Pearl Weed. Another stem plant that goes very well for me. Granted, I have it in a dirted tank, but it crushes for me and every time you trim it it gets bushier and bushier. -Amazon Swords. I love them, they just get big. Heavy root feeder and don’t require much light. -Java Moss. Slow grower so can have algae issues. Does extremely well in one of my tanks, not so well in the others. -Floating plants. Do your very best to avoid the dreaded duckweed. Salvinia, Water Lettuce, and Red Root Floaters are some of my favorites. Provide shade to help with algae issues and any floating plant soaks up tons of nutrients from the water column. Those are all the ones that do best for me. As far as placement, the general rule of thumb is to put the bigger plants to the back and the smaller plants to the front to create depth. I don’t follow all the aquascaping rules. I put stuff in my tanks how I think it looks good and then just let it go crazy.

@Lori2219 I love Swords. An Amazon Sword was the first plant I ever bought. 2 years later and it’s MASSIVE. Takes up 1/3 of my 55 gallon by itself. Agreed that Pogostemon is an excellent plant as well. Java moss only grows well for me in one of my tanks. The downside to plants is that when you first start, you have to buy the plants and then the fertilizer. Thankfully though, the Coop now has the nano size of the Easy Green, small packages of root tabs, and an excellent selection of beginner plants. I highly recommend plants. Just like everything else, they can be intimidating at first but once you get the hang of it you’ll never go back.

@Lori2219 You gotta remember that we’re all constantly learning and this hobby is just one giant experiment. If you look at it as an experiment you can’t go wrong. Your stocking could easily be handled with a medium sponge filter, in my opinion. And, if you already have the air pump then you have everything you need! Plants can be intimidating, but once you get some things that do well in your water and your tank is balanced it’s awesome! I play with some c02 on some of my tanks, but I have plenty more without it and they all have plants. Best of luck with the switch of the filter! Feel free to message me if you have any questions. I’m happy to help!

Hey @Lori2219! I use both Coop sponge filters and some HOB’s. While I do not claim to be an expert, I do have a few years experience with the products. Here’s my thoughts. I love the Coop sponge filters and run them in all my tanks and I use every size. I have the large sponges in several of my tanks, and every time I have to clean them I ALWAYS wish they were mediums. Even with a 1 gallon ziplock bag, the larges are just a pain and I always fluff off a bunch of mulm and I ALWAYS wish it was a medium. Also, remember that ALL the surfaces in your aquarium grow beneficial bacteria (all the glass, wood, decorations, etc). Me personally, I would go with a medium, for ease of cleaning, but I also don’t know your stocking level. Dealers choice on what size you go with. I personally LOVE the usb nano air pumps with the sponge filters. They have more than enough power to give you all the water movement you need, and if you can hang them from somewhere/something they’re virtually silent. I run them all over the place and can’t get enough of them. If your intent is to take off your HOB and switch to the sponge only, I would run both for about 2 weeks to adequately seed the sponge with beneficial bacteria. Once the sponge is seeded you can take off the HOB and you shouldn’t (key word shouldn’t) run into any ammonia/nitrite spikes. Test often once the HOB is removed to be sure, but you should be fine. I personally hide my heaters and sponge filters behind rocks/driftwood/plants as much as possible. All of my tanks have the sponge filter in the back left. I hope all this info helps you out! Here’s some of my tanks so you can get an idea:

I have a 25 watt in my 4 gallon tank, and I do 50 watts for my 10 gallon tanks. I keep my house at 70° year round. I like the Orlushy heaters and I’ve gotten all of mine on Amazon. They’re easy on the wallet, have worked well with me, and they include a digital thermometer. I think I’ve replaced 1 in the 2+ years I’ve had tanks.

One of the LFS’s in my area sent out a newsletter regarding his passing. Life is crazy, and anything could happen, so you gotta enjoy it while you have it. RIP

I would do a partial water change (to at least below the level of the slits where the water will enter the chamber), turn the return pump off, and then take out and clean your sponges/media/whatever in the water change bucket. Put your media back in, fill your water back up, and then turn your return pump back on. I’m super quick with my water change on my little cube so I don’t worry about the return pump as I’m only doing 1 gallon, but that’s just me. And like I said I haven’t touched my media behind the false wall in longer than I’d like to admit

I believe the whole idea behind dithers is either A) it shows shy fish that’s it’s okay to be out in the open or B) fish that like to hide get annoyed with another fish constantly in their space so they just give up and come out into the open. I have no clue if taking the dithers out (assuming they do their job in the first place) will cause the shy guys to revert to their shy behavior.

@FrezhFinz My only experience with internal filtration is on my tiny 3.7 cube. The pros (for me anyways) is that it’s hidden behind the false wall. I have a bunch of sponge that the water hits first, then a bunch of bio rings in the next chamber, and then the final chamber holds the return pump and the heater. The cons are that it’s hidden behind a false wall, lol. Because it’s back there and I never see it I basically never service it. I have WAY more sponge and media with the bio rings than I’ll ever need, but it’s out of sight out of mind and never gets touched.

In my opinion, it sounds like you already have the answers. Dithers and floating plants (even though you don’t want those). The real reason I wanted to comment is because your username is too good not to! 😂

My 3 main staples for dry foods are Xtreme Krill Flake (I mix in some spirulina and essentially make my own community crave), Xtreme nano, and Hikari Vibra Bites. Then I do live and frozen foods too.

@TheSwissAquarist This sword was the first aquatic plant I ever bought. It’s over 2 years old now. Started in a 10 gallon and then got moved to a 29 gallon. Stayed there forever and took over the tank. Right before I moved it to the 55 I cut off the runner, chopped off all the little swords and those are starting to grow out now. This is now the second time this giant sword had produced babies for me.

Looks to be acrylic with internal filtration. Assuming it holds water I think $20 is a steal

@Jazz Pizza My first tank was, and still is, a 10 gallon aquaponics tank. My girlfriend bought me a pepper plant and I was curious if I could grow it out of an aquarium. Amateur scientist first, nerm second for sure.

@Jazz Pizza Very nicely said! Super early on in my hobby I accidentally sucked my female betta through my siphon and was pretty upset with myself. It was the last water change before her tank was cycled so the timing couldn’t have been worse. I looked away for one second and then next thing I know my fish was in the bucket with a ripped open belly. My girlfriend calmly reminded me that I was still learning and that mistakes happen. Since then, I’ve looked at everything I’ve done in this hobby as an experiment. I still look at everything like that and have to remind myself that it’s pretty amazing that we can keep fish in a glass box in our house in the first place. Also agreed that @Herefishie is in the right place. This forum is full of friendly people who all have a passion for the same thing. Welcome to the hobby and the forum! Things are super confusing at first, but it gets easier and people here will help you when you need it!

Also noticed that my big Amazon Sword is throwing off baby swords again! And the cardinals were looking majestic in the light, and the first Angel I got (one of the first fish I ever got) looked goofy peeking out in the back

Well, 2 years in and I experienced my first bacterial bloom. I think it was from feeding the Bristlenose Plecos zucchini like 8 or 10 days in a row. I’ve always fed this tank heavy, but I think the zucchini that many days in a row just tipped the scales. Had a small ammonia spike (.25) but I just did a water change and fasted for a day and we’re back on track. Water has cleared up and it’s all good. Took this as an opportunity to move some things around, too. The Amazon Sword in the middle was moved to the right and to the back, and the hard scape was rearranged a bit. Also planted some PSO trimmings that have been hanging out in my quarantine tank. I normally don’t really move fish around, but I did that for once as well. Bristlenose were moved to the 55 gallon grow out tank as they were destroying my Swords rasping on them all day long. I was trying to deter them from the swords by feeding zucchini so heavily, but obviously that just caused other issues. They can help control algae in the grow out tank so I’ll take that for what’s it’s worth. I also moved a m/f Panda Angel combo as my LFS told me to keep them coming, but that wasn’t working out so well. The male was being super aggressive and the female was hiding behind the breeding slate all the time. I gave it a couple of days and it wasn’t improving so the male got moved over the sponge wall and can help control the Platy population. I’m waiting for my last male Panda to breed with the all black female one last time, and then the male will be moved to the female so hopefully they can pair again to keep the Pandas flowing for the LFS. Only time will tell.

Dooooope. I hit my year next month and I’m stoked to get mine. Will pair nicely with my generic coin I bought when they released

@mountaintoppufferkeeper LET’S GOOOOOO! Where did you pick them up if you don’t mind me asking? I was at a LFS in our area this week trading some fish, took a look at the puffers they had available and wondered if any of them were yours lol.

@Jstewart0925 I found it on Amazon. I’ve had it for a long time and it’s basically brand new still. Pretty sure I just searched “brine shrimp sieve”.

It seems that I am of the opposite opinion here. If the silicone seals are solid you shouldn’t have a problem.

I love my hatchery. I hatch a tablespoon at a time, but freeze the majority and use X amount per day until I need to hatch again. I also built a stand and modified it to hold my sieve hands free!

I too use the digital thermometers that @Kurt Brutting showed. The only difference is mine are stamped FreeSea and came with my heaters. I like them, but they have small differences between them. The downside is they can run through batteries, but those are cheap to replace. I used to obsess over my temps, and now I just give them a glance every once in a while. Some of the thermometers are still in the tank, but need the batteries replaced. That’s always the “I’ll do that tomorrow” and then it doesn’t get done tomorrow… I also have a handheld infrared thermometer, and that’s super efficient to just go around to the tanks and pull the trigger.