KaitieG

I've just never even seen an egg clutch, even with lower water levels and when I had 6 or 7 adults. I should try again sometime...maybe when this next batch of fry grow out.

I haven't had luck breeding them (can't stop ramshorn and bladder snails, but whatever 🙄), but mine looooovvvveee Repashy food. What others have said about needing to feed them is definitely true!

My overall preference is HOBs because I just find the maintenence easier (I am TERRIBLE at getting sponge filters out without making a mess of the tank or snagging 15 guppies while I'm at it--it's on my list of chores to do today, and I'm already dreading it). With HOBs I just pull the media basket, take it to the sink, rinse (I have well water--no chlorine to worry about), put the clean media back in, and done. My Tidal 110 on my 95 gallon is my favorite (holds a ton of media and is nice and quiet, but I also have a couple of cheap Tetra Whisper IQs on smaller tanks that work great. They've been going for years. For me, quiet and self-priming are the features I care about most. I do also have 2 sponges in my 95 gallon, mainly for the added aeration and to help with flow on the side of the tank that doesn't have the HOB. They're fine, but I've had to replace the nano pumps that run them multiple times (it is a really deep tank which probably affects this) and I hate cleaning them, put it off too long because I hate doing it, etc.. I have a sponge on my 10 gallon grow out because it just seemed like the way to go with a mostly fry tank. I don't mind cleaning the sponges on my 5 and 10 gallon tanks--they're small and easy enough to take out without a mess, and it seems like a HOB would be overkill there. So, my answer is similar to others, except that I'd say that HOBs are my go-to preference maintainence-wise.

I recently saw on a video that fine sponges don't release as much crud into the water when you pull them out of the tank. That is the one thing that drives me absolutely NUTS about my sponge filters. I've watched Cory's how-to videos, but I just have terrible success with the technique (always end up with fish in the bag, etc.), so I'd switch out my coarse sponges to fine if that were true--I haven't tested it out yet, so you'd have to get other peoples' experiences to know if this was a real thing or not. Otherwise, I will say overall that the coarse sponges do a fine job for me and require infrequent maintainence. Only problem besides making a mess when I try to clean them (which might be a me thing, not a filters thing) is that I have Malaysian Trumpet Snails that like to crawl into them, and those things are SHARP when you're squeezing out filters!

I think you'd have good luck with those! I like their coconut shell caves too--I've grown moss on them, and they end up looking pretty cool, although the "door" on mine is different than what's currently on the website.

Just a heads up--the shrimp cave is good for shrimp, but it would be too small for a betta to use. The holes are maybe 1/2 inch. Here's a (not great) picture of mine in my 20 gal to give you an idea...and with a bad blurry picture of a female guppy and the one bad leaf on the anubia for a closer size comparison. The test strips are another great idea.

I agree about the sponge filters and nano pumps, and I'd add pre-filter sponges, too. Like others, I tend to buy the fertilizers (root tabs for me), plants, and food most often. Can't go wrong with a t-shirt or towel!

I know NOTHING about plumbing, but we do have a well, and it has a pressure tank that's in our basement. Is that something that could work for you? You can find examples just by googling "Pressure tank"

I have a water softener, and it does the whole house except cold water in the kitchen sink (and the tank my husband plumbed in for me that has its own water lines). I fill with a mix of cold unsoftened water and softened hot water mixed to the temp of my tanks. No problems here. I'm not sure if it would be the same if it was all softened or not--a lot of softener systems do have cold water that's unsoftened at the kitchen sink as it's not always considered the best to drink softened water, so it might be worth checking to see if that's the case for you.

The other thing I'd mention just from my personal recent experience is to pay attention to where you're feeding in the tank. I started to get my very first BBA when I switched feeding spots and the extra food (I usually feed Xtreme Krill flakes) was landing on my val and in my pogostemmon stelatus octopus. I moved back to the clearer area in the front center of the tank, and the problem is starting to fix itself.

If I were setting up a 75 it'd be a mbuna or classic angelfish/val tank. It's a great size, so have fun with whatever you decide to do!

I had a swordtail that jumped up onto the lid through a crack. I found it cooked under the lights when I went to do a water change. It was full-color, perfectly preserved...and crispy. 😕

I have a Nicrew on my 20 gal. that works just fine--probably the same thing you currently have though. Adding a 2nd one would let you adjust the brightness of each to be what you want. I really like my Hygger lights that I have on my 95 gallon too (obviously the size would be different). They're the Planted 24/7 Sunrise/Sunset ones. Not sure that they'd give you more light than the Nicrew though.

I also agree, I don't think you'll have trouble with 3 in a 10 gallon. Corys are quite adaptable from what I've seen.

Great looking tank! I'd also probably start with the kuhli loaches. They tend to have a very low bioload, so they can be pretty easy on the cycle. One tip if you're using the API liquid test kits, be sure you smack around the bottles for the nitrate test like CRAZY before you test. They form crystals in the bottle, and then you get readings of 0 nitrates forever. You have to really bang them on the table and then shake the crud out of them before you do the nitrate test. Ideally you want to see some nitrate (not from fertilizer) at the end of the cycle, but your plants may also just be consuming the nitrate. Just always like to pass along the bottle smacking tip because it was SO frustrating for me when I was waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for my first tank to cycle.

If it's been sitting, you'll want to make sure everything is still sealed well, too. Sometimes silicone can dry out. I don't know how clean/dirty any of it is...if it looks good still, just do what @Levi_Aquatics said, but I'd do it somewhere you don't mind getting wet to check for leaks before setting it up in, say, a carpeted living room. If you have to do a bunch of cleaning (mineral deposits, etc.), I'd move the gravel to a couple buckets, clean and leak test the empty tank, rinse the gravel, and then move everything where you want it to end up.

I think the most important advice here is to be sure your tank is cycled--no ammonia, no nitrites, nitrates climbing (you'll need some type of test kit)--and the add fish GRADUALLY. This gives the tank time to adjust to the bioload of each new addition of fish. Plus it gives you lots of time to decide on your final stocking decisions AND you get more trips to the fish store 😉 One thing that might also be helpful would be making a list of what you and your son would be interested in keeping and then run it by people here. Even if not everything on the list is feasible, people will give you some good suggestions of numbers and combinations that can help you be successful. If your son is in love with plecos, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to make a bristlenose pleco super happy (plus there are some awesome color options!). But like others said...stick with bristlenose plecos. They're easy to find, easy to care for, and get along well with most other fish. Most other plecos get WAY too big, even though they look tiny and cute at the pet store.

Yes--they ship Priority Mail, not overnight, but I'm still not sure how they do it for what they charge. They are very good at packing fish and are great about DOAs. I had dwarf chain loaches and hillstream loaches shipped late winter/early spring last year, and it got lost in the mail for 9 days. All but 1 bag arrived alive and survived QT. Last order thankfully arrived in 2 days instead, so that was a relief!

RO does seem to be the best way to set yourself up for success. I know our LFS kept them in a 80/20 RO mix before they closed. I've also wanted to keep them, but they are NOT the right fish for my lifestage with young kids. Maybe if I ever get to retire I could have fun creating just the right setup and maintaining it. I'd love to see what you end up doing!

I have the exact same colors for my Ph as well, and I call it 8.0-8.2. I really haven't had trouble keeping what I want to keep in my water, but I haven't done discus. I did recently sell fish to a longtime hobbyist who said he used to keep fish in 350 gh/ 8.0 ph water about 25 years ago and just kept them like any other fish with weekly water changes and tap water. He got them from a local LFS that also kept them in hard water while they were there. Breeding may have been different then, but I have heard of hard-water strains (from Germay I think). I don't know how you source those though. I struggled a little with angelfish until I found an old local hobbyist who breeds in water that's like mine too. I have no idea how he does it since everyone else says they struggle with hatching rates/fertility in that water, but he has some great fish. Maybe you can luck out on a source for discus that would be hard-water adapted. Good luck!

Clean quart sized yogurt containers. I use these all the time for water changes on the smaller tanks, scooping up fish, moving fish from tank to tank, bagging when I sell, keeping sponges from dripping all over my floor, etc.. They're my free version of a specimin container I guess--disadvantage: they're not clear.

Ha! I was going to say something similar--"Put it in my 20 gallon. It'll die." I tried every floater I could get my hands on in that tank, including duckweed several times and they NEVER EVER survive. They go nuts in the 95 gallon, and they hang in there more or less in the 5 gallons, but that 20 kills it every time!

I grow a few of mine sort of half in and half out. Submerged leaves seem to do totally fine for me too. Haven't tried it fully submerged, but if you do, let me know how it goes. Could be a nice cheap filler plant!

In my very small experience of 4 angelfish, I've struggled the most with platinums eating. No idea if it's actually a "thing" but kind of an interesting coincidence. The first one I had was a half-dollar size from a small fish store, and he absolutely refused to eat anything--flakes, pellets, frozen, live. Would sometimes take a mouthful and then spit it back out. He died after about a week and a half. I think it may have been an issue with adapting to parameters, but I'm not sure. The next ones I bought as adults from a breeder who breeds in rock hard water like what we have. They all ate, but it took the platinum one about a week before he'd eat anything. He ended up getting bullied, so I moved him to a different tank, and he again refused to eat for about a week. Both times he ended up doing fine and eating after a while, but the others never missed a beat and ate well right from the start. I think they are all just a little different. I'm sorry this is not really offering a solution, but I feel for you--it's super stressful!

Yep. About the lowest I can get mine is 40. I have one tank that's almost all stem plants and floaters that gets down to 20 occasionally, but that's as good as it gets for me. I'd love an "Easy Green Nitrate Free" version 🙂