Brandy

If we are complaining about Eco-complete, I don't like that it is SHARP. When it is new it is hard to plant in, I simoultaneously damage plant roots AND can't secure plants without weights. When it gets older it seems to lock and pack a little, leaving a deep skift of mulm sitting on top instead of getting down in the cavities where the roots are. I have decided to go with sand and gravel. (sand in the "open" unplanted areas)

Hah, if there had been a slab on grade house I would have been thrilled, nothing to support!! The ground here is jello. The basement is at least a cement floor. But I will have to be very careful about the 200 gallon I want in the livingroom...

Sadly, the first steps are the boring ones. Running more wiring, basic plumbing upgrades, getting a ceiling installed...I kinda love the cement and the beams, totally keeping them.

YES!!! AND HEAT!!!😎

So...I went and did a thing...Ta-Da!! No I didn't build it. Silly. I did buy it! And it came with this...Ta-Da!! Fishroom-in-training!!! Obviously, this is not going to be as grand as Cory's Urban Fish Farm, but I have a few tricks planned that I think will be special and interesting. Also I expect this to be an unfortunately LOOONG, SLOOW process, so hopefully I do not lose everyone by dropping this here and then dissappearing for long stretches. Very, very to be continued...

OMG, I love this!! I have some deep beds "for plant growth" and have see this too. Having worked with H2S in a lab setting, I am WELL aware that even those tiny bubbles would be detectable to my nose if they approached any kind of purity, so I also doubted that they were sulfurous. However... this leads me to wondering what specific kind of bacteria we are actually culturing in deep beds. I will enjoy watching this project progress.

Hi. I like this try it and see approach. I will preface my remarks by saying I am a science nerd in real life (bio bench scientist) so feel free to answer my questions on whatever level you are working from, I will (hopefully!) follow. I don't believe in controversy where empirical data is concerned. 🙂 If it seems wrong but works then we just don't understand well enough yet. I suspect scale may be a problem, and as @ARMYVET points out flow will be a huge key to resolving the scale issue. Larger bodies of water stratify, and that contributes to the anoxic layer. It seems to me you almost can't have ANY flow in a 10 gallon if you want to maintain that stratification. The convection currents created in the water column by your light source might be more than enough, and you could maybe even harness that by replacing your short tube with a black colored lifter tube that is longer, and delete the airline. In a 10 gallon you could do a straight walsted and have a sucessful nonfiltered tank. A sponge filter is more than enough alone, also. So (here is the science question) how will you gauge the anoxic condition of the UGF, and how will you determine its contribution to water quality? What will be your metric of success? How will you rule out that "something other than plant matter" is not simply algae? Will you black out the tanks or something? I am pretty sure my 12 chili rasboras, 30-odd shrimp and 2 pea puffers do not create enough bioload in a 7 gallon to even overwhelm one anubis, let alone a mop of java moss--my tank is plant crammed to provide cover and sight breaks, so I do need to fertilize, but if it wasn't for needing to clean up the snail carcasses (which I could just net out but siphoning is so much more fun) I would never need to change water for the fish, ever. In fact if I don't fertilize, I just get an algae bloom, but still no nitrates.

Hi @HH Morant. It looks like you are trying to link to some videos on youtube, but your youtube settings are blocking anyone from seeing them. I would like to remind everyone that there is a line between sharing cool stuff happening in our tanks and promoting content that is monetized in some way, which becomes spam...after looking at your profile and previous posts I do not think that is your intention. I am reserving judgement until I can actually see what you are attempting to post. 🙂 At the moment this takes me to a screen that says "video unavailable". Your security settings on you tube may be too tight.

Good catch @Guppysnail. @Krillan1r, your tank is bare bottom and looks new-ish. How long has it been set up?

@Jungle Fan do you happen to recall what type of plants you were growing?

Additional thought: you might do really well with a UGF if you treated it as a long term project. Start with plants that float or feed from the water column, and don't add the root feeder plants until later, or you could use an easy planter with root tabs to get them established while the filter is getting a good mulmy base established?

here you go @ARMYVET! not sure how easy the thread would be for you to find. I don't know about root tabs and UGF, I would think that the filter would make root tabs unnecessary once established? Maybe someone who has tried it can weigh in.

no worries at all! 🙂

This topic has drifted, if you don't mind @ARMYVET, I am going to split this off to a new thread "Root tabs and UGF?"

Fair. I did really like the topic @quirkylemon103, but flame wars suck for everyone. It is a pity that sometimes, due to the actions of a few, we cannot have nice things. I am seriously considering attempting a UGF in the future, I remember them being pretty great back in the day and when I restarted the hobby I didn't even know they still exsisted. 🙂 If I do, I will be sure to document my efforts!!

I got busy, didn't try, and a friend gave me a clean culture later.

I will be doing this soon. For 10 tanks. by the end I will have a tutorial, lol. Good luck. My plan is to bag or bucket all fish, drain and lift small tanks with sturdy plywood under them to provide support and a handhold. The 40 breeder I am sad to say, may get broken down. My Val is not going to be happy. I have tried to move tanks with low water. I strongly do not reccomend. The sloshing is more damaging than being out of water (but covered in damp paper towels) for plants, and fish can be injured on hardscape.

@Robert or @Cory, wanted to check if you plan to be open regular hours Memorial day, Monday. Also, since I figure this question will recur in various forms I have pinned it. The sales site says your hours are (for the record):Monday - Friday: 11am - 7pmSaturday and Sunday: 10am - 7pm Thanks!

Hey, if you have jumped the first few painful years, happy to work with you to expand the line, cull hard, and do back crosses to the parental strains.

If you add floaters or lily pads it will shade the pond...

Have you tried the ACO blog? it has a disease section. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium

It is the bettas with the highly metallic scales that also change over time. I had a red betta that had pink/lavender scales on his body...over time they colorshifted to a darker purple red. I would expect a blue would shift more to black and green, but not likley pop up with more red. Also, really like the craigslist rescue idea! I have a college in my town, right around June you can find ANYTHING as students move.

this thread has a ton of tips, and I think there have been others, but I have actually used a tiny tank--like a 5 inch cube, that nothing should EVER live in long term, with a really bright light over it and black background/sand, to get super close ups of guppies under good light. Also, I have baited fish fry with baby brine to get them all to come forward, feeding in the same corner consistently...then when I put my hand above that corner, everyone comes up and stares up at my hand, waiting.

So jealous--next year I will have a YARD! I am ridiculously excited, and can NOT wait. (Hang on to those long finned golden white clouds just a tiny bit longer @WhitecloudDynasty, I am almost there, tank space in 3... 2...)

Also, in adult tanks some of my fish peck at the roots, likely cleaning them off of anything edible.