FishyMike

Interesting thought!

Thanks for that! Yea I guess your right! I’m I. The process of peicing together a fish rack with auto change system and thought it would be cool to put it underneath the tanks so I wouldn’t have to put one in each. How to others keep multiple tanks warm when it gets cool in the winter? Does everyone buy a bunch of hang on heaters? I’m fairly certain heating up the room to 80 is not an option. All year round

When I was into making hard cider a couple years ago I would buy these electric Mats to heat up the cider so it would’nt freeze. Has anyone tried to do this on a full size tank?? I have a temp control module I would use as a regulator? Anyone ever heard of someone trying this?!?

Thanks for the tips guys! And just to be clear it already had a hiccup and got everything wet 😑. I’m trying to salvage my ehiem air pump as we speak. 💩 I noticed alittle drip from the bulk head then when I took the tank out to tighten it the water peed out of the pump hose……

XL Breeder Box: Plastic habitat from Petco 11$ pvc bulk head .69 cents 25 gallon per hour 5v water pump 10.99 Thin water tubing 1/4 maybe 2.49

So I got it running tonight. It was super simple, me be a waste of a perfectly good thread lol. The inlet or actually outlet is straining a bit to much water so I took it out for now. Fingers crossed we don’t have any problems!

Hoping this will keep fry from being sucked up

Sorry for the wicked glare!

sorry for the glare

Thank you!! I got it at a local place they called it ghost wood. It’s 2 peices.

Next plan is to get either an inlet hose or a course sponge to fit in the drain pipe. Do people usually use substrate on the bottom or should I go bare bottom? I should take a poll

So far….

I really do wish I had enough space (and a wife that would allow me to have a fish room)! haha so I pivoted again from my original idea I took a ride to petco on lunch and found a huge holding habitat (acrylic tank its about the width of the 20 long. that I think will work. in my mind im thinking it will work like a hang on breeder box. drill a hole for a small bulk head raise the box up over the 20 gallon about 3 inches and have it drain back and ill use the small pump I have to pull water from the 20 long. so my next hurdle how to raise the holding tank 3-4 inches decisions decisions. thank you again everyone i will let you know what i come up with!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! thank you all of your advice!! the only reason it was a thought was because the the volume of water would help with water stability and i wouldnt really need to do a filter and heater because the main tank has that stuff! I will deffinitly let you guys know what i come up with!!

And to make it easier I found a 5 gallon acrillic tank at Petco so I won’t have to drill glass

I don’t really have the room for all that. So my plan B fingers crossed get a second tank drill a hole in the back and raise it about 3 inches higher then the large one. It will drain in to the larger then use the small pump to pump from the larger aquarium to the smaller?!?! So when the smaller one fills up it will drain into the larger one….. and if for some reason the pump stops working in theory it won’t drain the small tank because the hole will be at the top!

I think you might be right! i do have fairly clean water and i could get the water from the top wards of the tank but it is a big risk if clogs i might need to do more research on the drilling overflow method! does anyone know if sumps use 2 pumps?

Interesting I haven't thought of that I could just raise it accouple inches and over flow right back in to the main tank. Didnt think if that.

I will have to make sure both pumps are pushing the same amount of water I'm thinking or else it could be disasterous. hopefully that'll be the only issue. i would love to put a 10 gallon as the secondary but unfortunately room is a bit of an issue at the moment I might try it out with a 5.5 gallon first...

Hello everyone, Thank you in advance for your responses! My 20 long community tank is doing amazing everyone is happy and healthy including all my plants (going on 10 months..... my apitsos are looking beautiful and it looks like the female in my trio is looking like she might be able to spawn soon!!! So I have this crazy idea and I was wondering if its worth doing or not! I acquired 2- 5v 25 gallon per hour pumps awhile back and had the idea of buying a smaller tank and putting on the side of my tank and creating a sump like system. I could take the breeding pair on apistos put them in the smaller tank then when they spawn take the parents out and put them back in the community.... is it worth doing? in my mind more water going thru smaller tank would be less of a problem with fluctuations in water parameters? "more water volume" im a little pressed for space so this might make up for the small size of the secondary tank..

Its my understanding that the java fern is a rhizome plant that feeds from the water column. I'm not sure how they will do planted in the substrate. I'm a fan of gluing them to rocks or wood. your other plants look okay! I didn't have any luck with bacopia Caroliniana.

something with aloe* looks like his slime coat is minimal from the pictures

7 years is a good run for living in such a small tank. I would start off by trying to get his water parameters more neutral. I would maybe do a 50% water change with a touch more prime or whatever water conditioner you use.

Its my understanding that root tabs will break down and stay in the soil/substrate and be absorbed into the roots of the plants. while carbon would take out organic materials from the water column thru mechanical filtration. So yes I would say keeping carbon will have no impact! good luck!!!