Emika_B

I also like the Inkbird controller. Mine is hooked up to both my heater and a set of fans since it gets really hot here and I don’t want my fish to boil.

ErinV - that’s a gorgeous catfish 🙂

Irene - thanks for the info. I thought I’d read in either one of your blogs or a post here on the forum about that. My search skills are lacking 😉

Gumbo99 - Looks great! I love the foreground planting. Is that the dwarf sag?

AdamTill - so far my pH has been steady at 7.2 and my KH has been 0 to 20 ppm. I know the KH helps keep the pH steady so I may need to find something to supplement that. My tank’s in the settling phase so I’ll probably have some swings as the mopani wood does it’s thing. Mahalo for the help!

Hi all, I have hard water (at least 300 ppm according to the Tetra test strip). Unfortunately I don’t know what makes up the hardness. I checked the board of water supply’s water report but it didn’t mention either component. I’ve found saltwater tests for calcium and magnesium but not freshwater. Anyone know of any testing mechanism for these two components, or does it matter?

It's day 5 and most of the particulate matter has settled, though still a bit hazy. And I'm sure the tannins are high, even after about 1 1/2 weeks of soaking. I might pick up a small hang on back and Purigen to soak up the particulates and tannin. Not sold on it yet, though. Today's readings: Temp: 75.8 Ammonia: 0 Nitrates: 20 ppm Nitrites: 0 pH: 7.2 KH: 0 ppm (though I'm not sure on that one) GH: 300 ppm There's still a while to go getting this tank settled. I knew I had hard water and that'll affect the fish I go with. I've pretty much nixed the goldfish - just too warm and the water's a bit harder than they like. Still, that leaves open livebearers and they're fun, too. I need to find the water quality report for my area to see if my GH is more calcium or magnesium. I want to do shrimp and if it's high calcium then I should be in the clear. Any thoughts? Here are some photos of my plants (all but the moss balls and anubias are from Aquarium Co-op). I'm happy with the crypts - no melt yet. I may pick up more val and add the rest of my plants (in a holding tank at the moment).

James Black - thanks! I'm debating on getting more valisneria, though I know it'll sprout new ones soon enough. Patience 🙂

Here's day 3. It's settled nicely. A number of the moss balls are still floating and landing wherever and I think a few of the crypts need to be tucked in better. Otherwise, I'm very happy with the results. Now it's letting everything settle and season. And keeping an eye on the temperature. Yesterday the tank got up to 79 and the fans kicked in. Of course, that was when I was deciding I was pretty much done with planting and finished filling the tank, so that cooled the water a bit and the fans turned off. Don't know if the heater ever kicked in overnight.

Here's day 2. The dust settled out nicely overnight. I'd left an Aquarium Co-op sponge filter in overnight but ended up changing it to the fluidized filters. It's dusty again because I tried to get the dirt off of the plant leaves. The little white bags have filter media from my other established tank. I was going to decommission that tank but for the moment it's my plant overflow until this one settles out.

Here are photos of the tank and day 1. Lots of substrate dust but mostly because I didn't rinse really hard and the substrate from my other tank was very 'mulmy.'

Here are photos of the scape materials:

Here are photos of the hardware:

Hi all, Finally got around to set up the newest version of my tank. I'm calling it 40 gallons, though by dimension it's 45 (36 inches long, 12 inches deep, 24 inches high). Hardware: 4-fan chiller (Petzilla) 100 W Heater (Aqueon) Air pump (AQQA) Fluidized moving filter (AQQA), 2 Heat/Cool controller (Inkbird) Planted+ 24/7 LED light (Finnex) Scape: Cholla wood (NApremium), 1 piece Mopani wood (Zoomed), 4 pieces Plant and shrimp Stratum (Fluval), 8.8 lb bag x 2 (more like 1.5 bags plus from established tank) Shrimp cave (Aquarium Co-op), 3 Plants (except for anubias and moss balls, all from Aquarium Co-op): Anubias nana (petite?) from established tank Cryptocoryne wendtii, 5 pots Cryptocoryne wendtii green, 5 pots Java fern wendelov, 5 pots Java moss, 1 mat Micro chain sword, 5 pots Moss ball, 10 Valisneria, 7 pots Water sprite, 2 pots Treatments: Fritz Complete water conditioner Easy Green fertilizer Parameters (Tetra EasyStrips): 1/15/21 Temp: 77.2 Ammonia: 0 Nitrates: 20 Nitrites: 0 pH: 7.2 KH: 0 GH: 300 I didn’t test the water on the first two days because I wasn’t sure how much the ‘dirt’ in the water column would affect the readings.

AdamTill - Thanks for the encouragement! It's been a while since I did goldfish but they're such goofy critters I'm hoping it'll work out. I'll monitor the water temperature while I'm cycling/seasoning the tank before adding the goldfish. If I can't because the water's too warm, oh well, guppies are fun, too 🙂

Patrick M. Bodega - thanks for the reassurance. I watched the ‘pimp my filter’ video on Corey’s YouTube and I get the impression that lots of sponges are the way to go. Not sure how big the chamber on the Penn Plex is but I’ll most likely just use sponges. And the AQQA is similar to the Ziss filter that seems to be so popular. Add the plants and I’ll have lots of filtration and hopefully good water flow. AdamTill - I’m glad to hear you’ve had success at 74 degrees. I have a smaller tank (5 gallons I think) that’s a bit over 80 today. I’m sure I’ll need the fans but it’s good to know I might not need to get all the way down to 70. Mahalo!

Is it weird that I felt it was rude not to talk to my fish? My last fish passed about 5 months ago, the last of my zebra danios. Every morning it was, “Good morning, Fishy,” and “Here’s your breakfast, Fishy.” And I’d wish the snails a good morning, too. At night it was, “Good night, Fishy.” Sometimes I’d forget to turn his light off and I’d apologize to him in the morning. Yup, fish are family.

Aloha all. I have a 36 (inch) L X 12 W X 24 T (45 gallon breeder I believe) that I’m going to be starting up again. I think the last time I had it up and running was a very heavily planted Walstad-style community tank. Very little external filtration on that one. This time I wanted to go with goldfish and the last time I had goldfish they pretty much destroyed my non-Java Fern plants. So, on to the new tank - goldfish if I can keep the temperature low enough. I have a set of fans and a heater that will be hooked up to a controller. It’s the cooler time of year, so this might skew my results a bit. Summer here can be very hot and I don’t know if the fans will do the trick. Goldfish may not be the way to go. For filtration since this might be a goldfish tank, it’ll be heavily planted but with Java Fern and Anubias mostly, maybe Val or Sag for visual interest. I have on order a Penn Plax Cascade canister filter rated for 100 gallons at a flow rate of 265 gallons per hour. Also an AQQA fluidized moving filter media (submersed) rated for 15 - 55 gallons. I want to get 3 fan tail or veil tail goldfish and figured these should do the trick. Flow rate may be an issue so I also have some filter material to act as a baffle. If someone were to get sick, I’d remove the AQQA filter and put it in the hospital tank. If it should come to pass that I’m not able to keep the tank cool enough for goldfish, would the above amount of filtration be overkill for a community tank? Is it actually overkill for goldfish? After spending quite a few hours watching the Aquarium Co-Op and KTG YouTube pages, I’m a bit conflicted on going with the canister filter. Maybe two of the AQQAs and a sponge filter? Or one AQQA, one sponge filter and add more plants?

Streetwise - that sounds pretty neat! I’ve seen something like what you’re describing (I think) for sale for hundreds of dollars, depending on the size. For a project like your school’s doing that would make sense. Not so much for a personal fish tank. As a side note, for a while I was into aquaponics and had read that on the Mainland (or ‘the States’ as some say) many do tilapia for the warm months then switch to trout for the cold months. Doesn’t quite get cold enough here for the tilapia to have issues but I’d love to see a tank full of trout - must be really pretty.

Hi Wendypizza - yes, on Oahu. I’ve had goldfish before with moderate success. I’m going to try fans, lots of water circulation (though not too fast so I don’t tire the fish out), LED lights and an open top. I’ll give it a few weeks once it’s set up to monitor the temperature. I’m hoping for 70 degrees but who knows? Hi Patrick M. Bodega - I love the Murphy cam! My husband wants something in the tank but I have yet to find one that’s not for fishing and streaming 24/7. So far it’s either an external, like the Murphy cam, or my husband’s idea of a vase with a camera in the tank. We’ll see what we end up with.

I’ve kept fish tanks off and on since I was a kid. I think the last one was a Walstad-style, which was an interesting experience and probably one of my favorite tanks. I’ll be re-starting my tank, 45 gallon breeder I believe (36 L X 12 W X 24 H), just waiting for all of my bits and pieces to come in. I’m hoping to do goldfish but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to keep a stable 70 degrees. I’ve got a heater and fans on order with a controller that should keep temperature swings to a minimum. I’ll track the temperatures while I’m cycling and if I can’t keep 70 degrees, then I’ll go with tropicals instead. It’ll be a planted tank (goldfish oriented), more wood than rock for the hardscape. Odd question - anyone ever have a camera in their tank, like a webcam for live streaming? I’ve got a Go Pro knockoff with a waterproof case for short video shots but I’m thinking for 24/7. So far my husband and I have figured on a very tall glass cylinder vase (26-32 inches tall) with something like a Wyze cam inside. I’ll try to document everything to share later.

(Oops, meant to create a new post, not glom onto this one.)