Mr. Ed's Aquatics

Since the air stone is close to the top, I would think you could put it inside below the air stone. The up tube would be clear, the bubbles would cause water flow, and the bio media would get water passing it that was filtered by the sponge. I'm going to try that on one of mine to see if it helps or not.

I second guppies for a taller aquarium. They are interesting, colorful, active and will use each level of the aquarium. Especially if you add guppy grass or something similar.

Chaotic evil here

I love the aquarium fork 🙂 I eventually bought a weight with a clip designed for fish tanks.... still like the fork better.

I mean more like this... sold as a 1.5" clown, 6 months later its 7-8" (fast growth rate) sold as a 1.5" bristlenose, 6 months later its 3" (slow growth rate). In this situation, probably didn't get a clown based on growth rate but you did get a bristlenose. Honestly, if you keep both you should notice a difference. Commons put on size quickly and with out stopping.

Depends on what kinds of pleco and what gender. Like 2 male sailfins would battle for territory but a male and female bristlenose would be fine.

Joe, that does look a lot like a baby common or sailfin (both of which get well over 2') but it's difficult to tell from the 1 picture/angle shown. Growth rate is a much bigger indicator. If it doubles in size in a short period of time then it's one of the very large varieties. I don't know of any of the smaller varieties that explode to full adult size and then stop. In my experience, the smaller plecos grow very slowly, I have baby rubber lips that went from 1" to 1.5" in 18 months.

Having a fish room full of African cichlids made having grow out tanks pretty important so I made a grow out setup in another room. When I was trying to take these pictures I stepped back into the unused closet... Then I thought to myself, why have a closet in my fish room? For all the fishes outfits? The result was me starting this. And now my fish room has a baby fish room. The bottom 2 shelves are spaced to accommodate 30B's. Once I source a couple I will have an extra 60 gallons for fry and another 90 for juveniles. And I no longer have to move fish between rooms now.

I was surprised to get a free Murphy pin with my latest ACO order. I think I might have ordered often enough to get all the stickers. One of my stands is covered with them.

Went on a rescue trip and picked up a few new fishy friends and plants. Got all the way home and after acclimating the fish I went to go get the plants and discovered I also adopted a blue eyed lemon pleco hiding in an ornament in the last bit of water I left in to keep the plants wet. Also noticed the huge java ferns were planted wrong but were thriving. This is the 2nd time I took home a tank with beautiful java ferns growing buried in the gravel. Last time I attached them to driftwood and watched them die, I think this time I'm planting it like it was to see if it helps.

I was getting a decent hatch rate from the cheap vials and instant ocean salt. With the Co-op eggs and instant ocean salt only I get an awesome hatch rate. My water is also close to 8ph with just chlorine. I have heard of people who have soft water having recipes that help them get good rates because just eggs + water + salt wasn't doing well for them. But I have liquid rock here so I never had an issue.

Not including sump capacity and excluding running tanks which are empty today. 885 total gallons / 44.25 avg / 20 Individual tanks. Actual total of tanks up and running. 1000 gallons / 40 avg / 25 tanks

I wouldn't worry about the reviews, I have lots of Aqueon aquariums and they've been working fine for years. I would not recommend a big box stand however. Some of the worst stands I've seen clients have were combo tank and stand deals. These are generally not very well built, and once you introduce water, they eventually fail or cause a leak. Get whatever tank you want and either get a metal stand, or just build your own from 2X4's. As far as filtration, it's going to depend on the fish you're stocking and how many you have. A Tidal 75 would most likely be able to handle the setup you're looking at getting with most fish. But if you want to do an overstocked mbuna tank or some large predatory cichlids, I'd run secondary filtration in addition to a HOB or upgrade to a smaller canister filter. I don't recommend Penguin filters, the media box is tiny, the bio wheel is a gimmick, and they clog up quickly and just overflow back in the tank.

Thanks, I know what you mean about the pricey side. I actually have started breeding for profit instead of occasionally getting either free fish stuff (store credit) or grateful friends (give away). So far I've found it pretty fun, but today I realized it's also work. This was my day today... Started the day by doing a 50% WC on the shelly tank. While the water was low, I had to catch about 25 of them and get them ready to sell. This took substantial longer than expected. Next, I did 50% WC's on the guppy tanks. While they were low, I collected 20 fancy males, 20 fancy females, 25 dumbofin mosaic males and 50 dumbofin mosaic females. Prepped them for a ride to the store and then trimmed the stem plants so I could bring some pogo octopus and combomba bunches also. These are the after pictures of the tanks. With my coolers getting full, I started doing the WC on the endlers. I didn't really have to wait to collect them, they're super easy to catch. Separated 30 mixed cobras and 30 mixed double tails. Bunched up some Elodea to bring as well With all my coolers full, I head off to the LFS. Everything arrived doing well and I brought exactly what he ordered so that part of my day didn't take long. I Couldn't resist while I was there and bought some Otto cats. Got home, floated them in the tank I got them for. Thought about relaxing and taking the win (was a nice check from the LFS) while I acclimated my new lil guys... and noticed I had all 3 Acei females holding. I knew all my holding tanks were occupied, so I added the Rummynose I was quarantining and the Corys I was growing out to the new Angelfish tank. Moved the Snow White and Ice Blue mbuna fry out of the breeder boxes and into the newly empty holding tanks. Removed a bunch of rock work and started "trying" to catch the holding females. I ended up getting the 2 bigger ones and they both spit as soon as they hit the breeder boxes. Stripped both to double check and returned them to the tank. I had tossed in some hornwort when I put their tank together and now thought the tank below needed more plants too so I grabbed several kinds of Anubias and went about adding them to the Brichardi tank. Luckily, my wife came and asked me how long I had been doing stuff (from 6am , this was 6pm). Then she asked if I ate.... then I got in trouble for working 12 hours without eating. I think that's the end of my day with the fish, until tomorrow.

I really liked that video since I had actually been making that setup and just added a pair of Angels from Dean to go with some Appistogramm and Corydoras I bred myself. I thought it was a good mix for what I call "working show tanks". Once I saw Dean recommended it, I was confident it would work well. Almost spooky when it was like "hey, that thing I did Friday is a video on YouTube today" ... from the same guy I met on Friday.

Decided Seiryu stone was going to look the best and added it to the scape along with some black granite and even an Anubias. Connected some of the ledges and made a few caves and swim throughs. Coming along nicely, the Brichardi are out more now. Next week going to add some more Anubias and the Cips hopefully clear quarantine.

Is the tank glass framed, glass unframed, or acrylic? If it's glass framed, there's a pretty standard 2X4 / 2X6 stand you can build on the cheap. Here's a link to a video that shows you how to make it. Now if its either frameless or acrylic, it's super important that the weight is evenly distributed on a true and level surface. Buy a nice stand with a flat top. Not worth risking it breaking, that's a lot of water to clean up.

Yep, that's it. A big roll of floss is cheap on Amazon and lasts a long time, and that's the only repetitive expense.

There's a ton of DIY options for lids that I'm sure work great, but I have an almost OCD problem with matching everything. So all mine have Aqueon versa tops. Kinda spendy, I think they end up being more than some of the tanks if you get them during the dollar per gallon sale. But I really like them and they look very nice so I got them for all of them.

I had to remember which tank had that kind of HOB, but I found it for you. Here's the sponge and floss. Here's how it goes in the filter. And here's how it looks done. For the filter you're using (this kind) you can either put a carbon bag in the bottom (I have bio rings that I didn't want to disturb) below the sponge or just on top once you push the sponge and floss to the bottom. Those are the Aquaclear 70 sponges (takes 2). Hope that is more helpful with pictures.

For a long time I wanted Discus, but in my 20's that was too pricey. I finally ended up getting some from my friend when he needed a car more than a Discus tank and I had a decent trade in car that was not going to get me much off my next vehicle so we worked out a trade. He was pretty sure he had either all males or all females because he had been trying to breed them for profit for almost a year. I totally changed how it was set up and within the 1st month, 2 different pairs mated. I was super proud, and made quite a nice sum. Still my favorite fish in the hobby for sure.

That's exactly what I have and how I do it too. Works great and is so much cheaper than buying those cartridges.

Also, since you're the OP, you can edit your post title and content to include your reply. Unless you like the D ... to each his own

Throw the cartridge in the garbage, it's a scam to keep getting your money and creates a lot of unnecessary plastic trash. Hot rod it yourself, pick up some coarse sponge and filter floss. When its time to clean it, just replace the filter floss and rinse the sponge out in tank water. I like to clean them during a water change so I have plenty to rinse out the sponge. Depending on how much room is available in your HOB, you can add chemical filtration like charcoal or purigen (I don't) or just extra bio media like ceramic rings or bio balls.

The kitten will stare at the fish for hours, hasn't started chasing them yet.