RovingGinger

I have 5 or 6 (it’s really, really hard to tell...) in a 6 gallon with some blue velvet shrimp, sponge filtered. I haven’t noticed any aggression, between them or towards the shrimp, but only one is approaching full size so far, most are about half an inch or shorter. They definitely like the plants. I have heard they need a decent lid and only a small gap between lid and water to have humid air for the adults to breath. Right now I don’t really see them go to the top to breath but I have it set up like that. I am moving them to a 20g as soon as it’s a bit more “aged” and planted and a lid is procured. Really charming little vanishing fairy fish that are surprisingly unfussy is my verdict so far. Floo the Flowerhorn on YouTube has that fairly well known series with them and an unfiltered tank.

I moved the pond guppies to the 40 community tank and picked up a used 40 g half-hex with stand for the outdoor goldfish. Set it up with some rocks and anubias and set them up in it (with a heavy dose of starter bacteria and their existing sponge filter + a new internal canister filter). Cleaned out the sparkling gourami tank, cleaned out the open 20 and refilled and sorta scaped it. Oofta. Tomorrow, more water changes.

I moved the pond guppies to the 40 community tank and picked up a used 40 g half-hex with stand for the outdoor goldfish. Set it up with some rocks and anubias and set them up in it (with a heavy dose of starter bacteria and their existing sponge filter + a new internal canister filter). Cleaned out the sparkling gourami tank, cleaned out the open 20 and refilled and sorta scaped it. Oofta. Tomorrow, more water changes.

I’d assume sparkling gouramis would at least try to eat some baby shrimp, but that’s what I have in with my velvet blues.

I scored this batch from my first ever aquarist club auction. Unfortunately the tank I have them in is very overgrown so I can’t even see them most of the time. They’re incredibly charming but manage to disappear entirely from sight so easily. Working on that today... You already have the lid for the tank so they’d be quite happy.

No, it’s a desk lamp. No light with the aquarium, it’s just a petco rimless.

I currently use something like this (may be the same brand) - it’s a little more rigid than a eyeglass lens and texturally feels close to a magic eraser kinda? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJSTD9M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_YN6sFbXRMXZDH Sure would look nice with a co-op logo on it...

Ok water flow I think? Nano sponge. Yes, 75 watt incandescent grow light. I can’t tell if the fish are impacted so far but I think for safety’s sake I’ll do that. Is 50 watt safe enough that if it goes it won’t fry them?

I have one 6 gallon nano that currently is fluctuating about 10 degrees (72-82) between day and night. It’s lit with a 75 watt bulb and the inhabitants are sparkling gouramis and blue velvet shrimp. Should I switch the light and go with a heater instead? Or force my husband and sibling to endure a 78 degree house?

I have one 6 gallon nano that currently is fluctuating about 10 degrees (72-82) between day and night. It’s lit with a 75 watt bulb and the inhabitants are sparkling gouramis and blue velvet shrimp. Should I switch the light and go with a heater instead? Or force my husband and sibling to endure a 78 degree house?

I ordered this book and it finally arrived. It really is an awesome read, partially because the author is a very personable writer which I don’t see as much of in other guides I have. Some of the things you read about (alcohol blow-torching “gum shellac” to create basically a drilled tank) are amazing. Plastic might be convenient but how can you not want your very own mason jar and wood fish carrying case? Imagine strolling to the Petco counter with one of these bad boys.

Trying to make a new lid for my 12g. The existing one was fine, but blocked the majority of the back filter area. This made it a pain to grow plants in the back section as they all had to squeeze in through a small hole and then be disturbed when I had to open the lid for anything. I can laser cut up to roughly 11x20, but a) my acrylic supplies are low and I didn’t have a full sheet of clear, and b) the lid dimensions I needed were 11.25x13.5... so it’s in two pieces. One piece clear for the back which won’t be moved as much and is directly under lights, and translucent for the front portion. I also discovered halfway through this process that the clips on the old lid were both too wide for the new lid (1/4th vs 1/8th), and too few in number thanks to the new design. So I also tried to prototype something small that could hand over the tank side and hold it in place. apologies on the poor quality. This is the front part of the lid. The make-do clips are in the hole in the center to save on material. The hole is because I don’t really have jumpy fish in there and wanted a simple way to feed and open. close up of the clip design. In hindsight, this should’ve been a part of the project measurements - the lid should’ve been a hair less wide, and the little part that holds the actual acrylic up should be a little bigger and bulkier. It works for this purpose but it’s a bit tight. this however is a literal representation of measure twice, cut once... guess we’ll be trying again once I figure out how you measure a curve. But, overall, for half an hour of fooling around it works for what I needed. And luckily since it’s in two parts, I only need to recut half of it. I’d prefer to do it all transparent too so I need to pick up some more acrylic.

That’d be good to know. I don’t have any woodworking equipment beyond a hand saw. What’s the kind of experience and basic hardware you need for a basic wooden stand? This is my main hurdle for that route - another big learning curve albeit one I want to climb sometime anyway.

That does add another 4-500 lbs of weight to the living room floor. It’d be against the very outside wall of the house, not an interior wall. Is that a huge risk there? Where on earth do people source affordable giant tanks and stands, or is it just that much $$$ once you get above 75?

This was the main thing I was noticing beyond just general thinness. I think he did it for style. My current plan is to kill two birds with one stone and purchase enough cinderblocks to test the weight (about 41 from my math). The cinderblocks will go on to become the building blocks for a rack downstairs. And potentially a 75 gallon stand. Is it totally awful to build something out of cinderblocks and 2x4s then cover it in faux cabinetry or something for aesthetics? This stand may end up repurposed as a plant stand of some sort. 😭

I bought a 75 gallon and enlisted a buddy to weld a stand out of steel to hold 900lbs. I am generally nervous and fairly cautious so could use a second opinion or five on whether this looks up to the job. The tank fits in it with a little bit of space, I am thinking maybe I should get a board cut to fit? It is right angle steel or something like that around the edge then square beams and thin steel connecting again at the bottom. I primed with self-etching primer and have started to paint with pounded metal finish spray + primer, both from rustoleum. I also have rubber feet for the legs. My plan is to put the tank up against a load-bearing wall in my living room. First floor above a basement, house is built in 61 and the walls are all thicker than usual but I don’t know about the floors. Would love to put it against a different wall but going downstairs, there’s no support underneath that wall. Headed for disaster or over-thinking? I’m not loading the thing up with 200 lbs of rock, it’ll be driftwood, plants, and black diamond sand substrate. 😰 But Sloane the blood parrot needs to not go boom in the middle of the night, and this is my first tank over 40.

Hydra are supposedly inert in household dust and gravel and things like that, they just tend to start multiplying and actually showing some size when you’re feeding fry because you generally have to over feed a bit and they benefit.

That’s sweet. Especially the Chinese lion statues.

There’s always a chance for not melt, so my entirely non scientific opinion is to not cut and just pull rotting leaves as they occur. My last batch from the coop did not melt at all (tropica).

I spent today lazily doing tank maintenance. Serviced the canister for the first time. In retrospect, rewatching the instruction video beforehand would have been a good idea. After I mopped up the living room and managed to get the thing started again, all was good. Like many on this forum I have a very understanding and helpful spouse. Set up the 12g and added 3 male guppies to start the cycle, as well as some filter media from previous filters and a healthy dose of bacteria stuff. And a crap ton of plant roots. and, found new guppy fry in 3 tanks including the 2 purebred tanks. They may have been born yesterday or the day before, but I’m calling them birthday fry.

One new pet now and the gift will keep on giving. 🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌

I had my husband talked into doing most of the lugging but his dumping methodology wasn’t the best for aquascaping... good price for a marriage protector.

You might want root tabs or other fertilizer more often because it won’t store nutrients the way an expensive plant-specific substrate like ecocomplete might.

I couldn’t figure out to hook mine into any of our decorative faucets and didn’t have something to remove an aerator. But our shower had an unused hand-held shower head portion.... tried that but it was not matching up. Took both parts to the hardware store down the street and the dude there thought for 5 minutes and found me a converter. Gotta love a decent local hardware store.

Newest member of the legion of tanks: used 12g nano with integrated sump type filter in the back. I wanted one of these to see how hard it was to potentially build the same system into some used 10 gallons. planned occupants: Pygmy corys (unavoidable at 10 for $15 and SO CUTE) and maybe, very maybe one other fish depending on how the load is with the corys.