Mikey Walnuts

Thanks guys! Here’s a little update to the tank. I still have some more plants I want to add and then after that I’ll clean up all of the loose stratum. I also still need to find some accent rocks, but we got a foot of snow the other day so I’m not ready to venture down to the river yet. Next up I need to get a can of paint and redo the doors. Other than that, I need to refill my co2 bottle and maybe upgrade the lighting. I’m thinking two Beamswork DA units. I’ve got a couple of them at home that have been going 3 years strong and I love the growth I get with them

I had to break down my old work fish tank and figured I would set up a journal on the rebuild of it in my new location. I’m a manager at one of the big box pet stores and I decided to set up a planted 75 gallon aquarium on our sales floor a couple years ago because I hated throwing away so many rotted plants and I also wanted to use it as a teaching tool for my associates. Also, of course it was just because I wanted my own tank at work to satisfy my MTS 😂. Pretty quickly we went from throwing plants away constantly to being the best in our district in aquatic sales. Unfortunately this location is significantly smaller than my old location so it will have to go in our break room so it won’t sell as many plants but it will still be a great teaching tool. The first picture is what it looked like the last time I took a photo of it about 6 months ago. I wish I took a picture of it before I tore it down but hindsight is 20/20. The second picture is my progress so far. The substrate is the old stratum that came out and I plan to top it with Carib Sea Peace River gravel which should compliment the stone. Speaking of the stone, it was sold as “New England Stone” which matches perfectly to the rocks in the river by my home. I plan on snagging some smaller accent stones from the river but I am more than glad to pay $2 a pound rather than loading monster stones in my backpack in the middle of winter. Filter will be an Aquaclear 70 and possibly also a Eheim Pro 4 (I think?). Probably going to add CO2 as I have a spare set up in my basement and I would like to fill out with plants quicker. Lighting for now will be my current Fluval Aquasky and a spare Marineland LED I have in my basement. Plants are a long list but I’ll get to that later. The thing stumping me is what I should stock as I want everything 😂 I’ll keep you all posted though

Taken while watching tonight’s livestream. Just a PetSmart grade guppy

I’ve been gone for a month but I just had to share this picture I just snapped

Thanks everybody. I think I’m just going to stick with the salt we have and maybe pick up a cheap electric kettle to boil some water to dissolve the salt in

So, I feel like this is a no brainer, but is there any reason why you can’t use marine salt like Instant Ocean for medicating fish? I use API aquarium salt at work a lot for medicating fish and it’s always a pain in the butt dissolving it. I use Instant Ocean at home for BBS and it dissolves easily. The only issue I could see is it raising the PH more than API.

I’ve had one running since December of 2018 and I’m happy with the quality of the light. It did a great job at growing a S Repens carpet for a while on a 5 gallon and now I have it on a different 5 gallon with dwarf sag and crypts. Would I purchase it again? No, but that’s more because I like using super budget options. Most of my tanks are running led under cabinet kitchen lights I get at Walmart for $8 each. The main reason I have this light is that first 5 gallon was one I set up for our store betta fish at the chain pet store I work at and it really helped sell more of them. So, if you’re looking for a really quality light that looks sleek and don’t mind the price point, I would jump on it. If you just want a light that will grow plants and you don’t mind something that might not be as great quality wise, there’s other options

@Cole They’re a really neat fish and one of the easiest fish I’ve ever kept in a water quality way. The main downside is I’ve only been able to get them to eat live foods so either you have to maintain live food cultures or hatch baby brine. The other thing is they are very skittish and hide most of the time. For the most part I have to observe them from a few feet away and need to sit still long enough for them to come out

The new plants are looking good. I'm up in Burrillville. How about yourself?

You could get an Aquarium Co-Op coarse sponge, wrap it around the bottom and tie it in place. Or, if you have $20ish dollars to spend, get a sponge filter and air pump, let those run for a couple weeks and then pull your power filter. Then you have nothing mechanical that can suck up fry

@Aubreythanks. The ones I’ve been looking at on Amazon are closer to the $50 range and seem to be a but more powerful. I’m hoping to be able to take some photos of killifish eggs to watch the day to day progress of them developing

I’m going to base this off of the tank I set up for my nephew. If it can survive in a 9 year old’s bedroom with maintenance done by my non-hobbyist brother it should be bullet proof for anyone else. -If it’s going to be in a doctor’s/dentist/whatever office I’ll choose a 55 gallon for that full picture view. -Gravel would be a sand/gravel mix from the river in front of my house. I’m using this in some of my tanks and it’s the most “natural” looking and plants grow well in it. -Hardscape would be few “wild caught” rocks while I’m down at the river. I like driftwood in my tanks but this would prevent any questions about tannins -Plants would simply be Val in the back, crypt wendetti up front, and Amazon frogbit for floaters. No stem plants so they don’t need to keep up with trimming. If the plants go wild they can just pull a few out. -Light would be a BeamsWork since I’ve been running a couple for 4 years now and they’re just as good as new. We’ll make sure to add a mechanical timer here so we know the light turns on and off on its own. Mechanical because I feel it’s easier for someone who doesn’t want to fiddle with apps. -Filtration would come in the way of two sponge filters. No need to remind them to replace cartridges and I’ll admit I have some sponge filters I haven’t squeezed in 6+ months. -Finally fish would be variatus platys. Super hardy. I’ve kept them in summer tubs the last couple years (Rhode Island) and they’ve done well from May to October which means they’ve experienced the mid 50’s to the high 80’s. I even left a few fry out this year to see how they would fare over winter. I went outside today and they’re still kicking. This would also mean that they wouldn’t need to run a heater which is one less thing they would have to pay attention to and we all know it’s hard to find a reliable heater. The variatus platys will pack a ton of color and people get excited about seeing baby fish. Altogether I would be in for $100 for tank and glass lids, $90 for the light (I could’ve sworn the 48” DA used to be $60ish dollars. Must be tarrifs and the Covid tax), I’ll say $20 for plants, $20 for a Whisper 60 air pump, $15 for the sponge filters and hose, $5 for a timer, and finally $20 for 6 variatus platys to get it started. Final tally is $270

@Aubrey is that a microscope app or is it one of the plug in microscope cameras? I’ve been looking at them on Amazon for a while but still haven’t pulled the trigger

Welcome @Adsfm_joe! It’s nice to see another Rhode Islander and with such an awesome tank. I’m really liking the scape

Excited to announce my first batch of golden wonder killis are hatching. I received them as a surrender at the pet store I work at because another pet store sold them saying they were great in a community tank. Turns out this family was not happy with them eating everything. I put them in a tank with a spawning mop and the next day I was pleasantly surprised with eggs

@TheDukeAnumber1 projects like this sometimes make you wonder how much of this hobby can be simplified with the K.I.S.S. method

@Daniel Thanks it’s a nickname I’ve been using for years. I hatch out live baby brine shrimp every day so they get some of that as well as a pipette full of vinegar eels everyday for any fry that might be in there. I’m trying to get a white worm culture going so I can offer them that for some variety but I keep crashing them due to impatience and over feeding. What are you feeding yours? Any success at breeding them?

I caught the sun lighting up this little breeding jar and felt I should share. This jar is a no-tech jar with no light other than the sunlight and no filtration other than the pothos, Java moss, susswasertang, and hornwort. They’re real hard to get a picture of as any movement spooks them, but in the second photo you can see a bit of one of the females

It’s just ecocomplete and there’s a little crushed coral to buffer the water. Working in a pet store can be nice at times but there are also a lot of horror stories too. You have to really try and remember to not get caught up on the negative interactions. It’s definitely killed any idea I’ve had about opening my own fish store one day

I don’t get to see this tank often, but I set up this 20 gallon tank in my nephew’s bedroom for his 8th birthday. It’s a real simple set with ecocomplete substrate, rotala rotundofolia, bacopa, and Java moss. I also added some dwarf sag that I collected from my summer tubs last month. Stocking started out as 4 platys but a few months ago he came to the pet store I work at and he wanted to add some neon swordtails and I also added a lemon blue eyed bristlenose cull from my colony. It’s been a year and a half and this has been a really awesome hands-off tank and it’s always exciting when I go over and he wants to show me his new platy fry. He even asked me the magical question of “Uncle Mike, can we put another fish tank on the shelf under the tank?” Unfortunately his mother turned that down 😂

Gardneri Killis that I’ve been successfully breeding in tank with parents in tank and no spawning mops

This is such an awesome idea! I've been wanting to try and catch out some fry so I can take some clear photos for BAP points but I haven't wanted to destroy my set up. I'm going to have to run to the gas station and scope out water bottles

I really suck at record keeping but I find the easiest way for me is simply taking pictures and video. Pictures I generally just keep in my camera roll and I can scroll back to find hatch dates and such. For video I’ll usually ramble on about what’s going on, plant names, etc and then post it to YouTube. I hate the sound of my own voice and don’t feel like they’ll get traction but it has really helped me in keeping track of things. I wish I had the self control to keep actual documentation but this will do for now

I don’t have a macro lens, but this is one of the better shots I’ve ever taken. IOS auto edit helped a bit too. This little guy (all 1” of him) loves to attack and bite my hand while I scrape the glass

Like others are saying, adding large numbers of a single species of tetra could be nice. I have a planted 65 gallon that I've had running for 3 years with 50 glowlight tetras and it's real cool watching them all school together. Even with that big school, 3 angels, an 8 inch gibbicep pleco, 4 full grown bristle nose plecos, and multiple young bristlenose plecos, I still only have to do a 25% water change every week. That's also mainly to gravel vac up the mulm as my nitrates never go above 20ppm. I will add the caveat that part of my success with this tank (I believe) is I have a ton of rotala that grows like a weed and must soak up a ton of those nitrates. If you like the idea of going with a big school (25, 40, 50+ whatever) you can always feel out how you like it by adding a 6-12 every few months and see how it effects your maintenance schedule. Also, for something different than the other recommendations, a 55 with a few angels is always a classic look. They could also keep your guppy population in check if you're worried about overpopulation