DanPlanted

I'm pretty sure Seapora is just the private label brand for aquarium product distributor Royal Aquatic. Royal Aquatic is the USA wholesale distribution arm of Big Al's pet, and the only remaining division of the company that I'm aware of. My assumption has always been that Aquarium Industrial/Aquarium Masters/AI Incorporated (one company, multiple names) is the manufacturer based in California, although they import a bunch of product from other countries (I believe this is primarily raw material). I think "AI" manufacturers tank for both their brand "Aquarium Masters" and other brands (Deep Blue and Seapora). That being said I don't know who owned Deep Blue, but they are seemingly gone, although they could've just been owned by "AI" or Royal Aquatic. My assumption is that a Deep Blue, Aquarium Masters, and Seapora tank are all identical from the same factory.

Looks level to me 😁 I have a 29g that's definitely worse than that tank, I do worry about it from time to time but it's been ok for years now.

Ken's has a number of poor Amazon listings. That's why I just buy direct from them, although I haven't placed an order in a while. Are you in the US? If so where do you find Tropical foods? They are rather hard to find here. Omega One changed all their foods and shut down their factory when they were bought out by Tetra/Spectrum. They're definitely not as good as they used to be. I've been feeding Fluval Bug Bites flakes a lot lately and really like them, plus pretty inexpensive when you buy them online. I really just go for variety and always try something new. I think I have some Cobalt flakes right now too, they're nothing special but were cheap and different.

My older C-220 is a little finicky. But as another user said it's normally a dirty pre-filter that gets me. Also, double-check to make sure all the foam is clean enough too. I've had a few occasions where the bottom layer of foam which all the water flows through was completely clogged. There's also the usual cleaning of the impeller, although I rarely have trouble with that.

I have a few tanks with neocaridina shrimp and tons of various pest snails. No snails I actually put in the tank on purpose. I don't mind them, but they eat a ton of the food I put in the tank for the shrimp and I'd rather be feeding the shrimp and not the snails. Are snail traps my only solution here? What about those tall shrimp sticks? I would think snails could still get to those too. I can't imagine there's any food out there that snails hate but shrimp love.

I recently discovered that Aqueon has stopped producing bowfront tanks, at least that's what it seems like. The only bowfront I see from Perfecto is a Tetra Connect 28g kit, which is an oddball size and only sold as a kit. It seems like Aquarium Industry/Masters also doesn't produce a bowfront, and Fluval maybe has a 26 and 45, but if they still make them they don't seem to be available outside Canada. Aqueon has seemed to significantly slim down its tank sizes over the last few years. Their website has slowly dropped the number of listed sizes and even some of the ones they list are nearly impossible to find. Seems like their focus if still moving towards high volume of just a few sizes.

Out of curiosity, who? Of course, they couldn't get everyone, but I thought this was a pretty good mix of individuals.

I discovered the Museum of Aquarium and Pet History a few months ago and subscribed to their monthly newsletter and video. This is the museum Gary Bagnall of Zoo Med recently founded from his extensive personal collection. For the month of April, they released a twenty-year-old video from the NEC Convention with many of the hobbies "legends". There are some great stories and history in this four-hour-long video. They produce some amazing videos on aquarium and pet history each month as well as upload some great photos and documents on their website.

Plenty of interesting "community" fish out there. Angelfish and other Dwarf cichlids, or even maybe Discus come to mind. I would probably go with angels myself. As another said, gouramis may work too. Although I would certainly disagree with shelldwellers. They stay down the bottom and are typically kept by themselves, meaning you're wasting the majority of the tank.

I was laughing at how staged much of the video seemed, yet it made me wonder what you'd actually find in various Florida waterways. Given the history of ornamental fish farming and flooding, I could only imagine plenty of aquarium fish have made their way into local waterways. But WOW! What a terrible and sad YouTube channel, definitely not the content I enjoy seeing posted. With that said, those are some interesting (native?) mollies, and an unfortunate oscar which are commonly released into the wild.

I would permanently keep them much closer to 70 than 80. You could honestly probably permanently keep them at 70F. I believe their lifespan can be impacted considerably based on temperature, the hotter it is the shorter they live.

What's your room temp? Neos like cooler water, so often you don't need a heater at all for them, or only when it's very cool in the room. My initial thought is to immediately unplug the heater. Then I would probably watch the tank temperature to see how cold it gets, like I said there's a good chance you don't need a heater at all if you only have neo shrimp in there.

Looks great! Awesome work.

What material is everyone using for stuff that goes inside aquariums? I've heard some people recommend not using PLA and to use PETG.

Has anyone found a good WIFI temperature monitor? InkBird has two different options, a Bluetooth thermometer with an optional "hub" to connect up to four devices for WIFI connectivity. Otherwise they have the $50 WIFI temperature controller. I found someone of Reddit who basically made their own WIFI temp controller for less than $20, I'm considering doing something similar. The only other product I have found was a WIFI thermometer from AquaEL, which isn't available in the US and may not even be available in Europe yet.

Any updates to the build? I enjoyed seeing what you were building.

Love the progress updates! I always think I need some giant fishroom, but honestly one this size is way more manageable and should be easier to focus on the individual tanks more.