Daniel

I have kept the tank with and without plants so both photos are of the same tank. The discus photo was 2010, and the angelfish photo was 2020. Currently it has few plants. I use an Iwaki for circulation and all the plumbing goes up through the bottom, here is a photo from inside the cabinet the tank sits on (the thing to the left of the pump is an inline heater): The last detectable nitrates were 14 years ago. I have well water, and initially the water was not soft. Later when I was attempting to breed Heckel discus, I setup a RO system.

All I can say is the tank has been up and running since 2007 without a hiccup. Water changes have varied from weekly to going several months between water changes. Once for 5 years, it had 75 adult angelfish in it. In the photo with discus above, the are approximately 75-100 other fish, rummy nose tetra, cardinals, corydoras, apistos, etc. I cannot say this is the mainstream way to do this, but I can say from personal experience of over a decade that this is the most stable and easiest to maintain aquarium I have ever owned.

There is a fourth (sorry guys if you have heard this before) option. In a large tank, especially one with plants, you can go with no filter at all. Here is photo of my 500 gallon that ran for years like this with no filter and no problems. All the biological filtration is handled by the substrate and plants. For ease of maintenance, it really can't be beat.

@BigTank24 The forum is not the right place to get in touch with customer service for Aquarium Co-Op.. Contact Aquarium Co-Op at shipping@aquariumcoop.com. I have found them to be quick and responsive whenever I had a question.

I had this happen earlier. I just changed out the pads on my Magnavore 8 magnetic algae scraper when I let the 2 halves get too close. Bam! 2 fingers and a thumb slammed inside. Fortunately my wife was nearby and was able to help me get my fingers and thumb out. Now, beside the pain, my current problem is separating the 2 halves again. The nearest strong thing metal thingy nearby were kitchen knives and I have gotten those wedged in but still no luck at getting even a millimeter of separation. My wife is incredulous at this knife solution saying, 'I'd film this but I don't want to get blood on my phone.' Any ideas on getting these 2 magnets apart that won't involve a trip the emergency room?

Dang! I can't even pass that *test!

There are never any nitrates as the tank cycled 13 years ago. I do water changes occasionally because I use this tank as the source of water for all my other aquariums and their water changes. But I don't think this aquarium would ever require much of a water change to get rid of nitrates or whatever. As I said though the water does get changed, because of the other downstream aquariums. As far as waste or uneaten food, I think the bacteria just cycle it. I don't gravel vac it and the is a bit of mulm but it is not unsightly. I think aquariums left on their work better than people realize or are willing to try. Since it is rarely attempted everyone assumes it doesn't work, but at least this one experiment shows it is possible.

In a large aquarium there is a lot of surface area for beneficial bacteria to live an on. What that means is that for a large tank that is not overstocked the filtration needs might be very minimal. On my 500 gallon, it is mostly hardscape with minimal plants. The result is no filter at all is needed. I use a recirculating pump, but other than that nothing. Adding sponge filters or canister filters would be overkill and add nothing except noise and expense. Neither one would improve water quality.

I have never used bottled bacteria, but I strongly suspect they are useful. Every aquarium whether newly setup or established is teeming with bacteria, and in a newly setup aquarium there is a race to colonize all the available habitats. The beneficial bacteria are autotrophs and double their populations about every 24 - 30 hours. The other bacteria are heterotrophs and double their populations much more quickly, about every 10 - 12 hours. By giving the beneficial autotrophic bacteria a much needed head start, they are able to hold their own against the inevitable oncoming tsunami of heterotrophic bacteria. At the very least it can't hurt and much more likely it is a safe bet in more quickly building up the desired beneficial bacteria populations.

I got 6/6 Cryptocorynes this morning!

On my biggest tank, when I have needed to change or rearrange the substrate, both my wife and son have crawled inside to complete the work. So at some point, the bigger the aquarium, the easier it is to maintain.

And it turns out the 'Gamer's Wife' is the Co-Op and Forum's very own @Irene! So you have definitely come to the right place! She now is 'Girl Talks Fish'.🙂 https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/tags/irene video/

It is the 3 dots in the upper right.🙂

My guess is that this is a new piece of driftwood. It is very common for new driftwood to initially develop a 'biofilm'. These biofilms are short-lived and harmless. In fact shrimp love to nibble on them so I wouldn't do anything about it.

The middle tank is capped with Black Diamond Blasting Sand over dirt and has had excellent plant growth. The tank on the left has CaribSea 'Peace River Sand', the tank on the right has EcoComplete. I don't think the Black Diamond Blasting Sand would affect the EcoComplete (EcoComplete doesn't do that much anyway). I would likely go with Black Diamond Blasting Sand for aesthetic and financial reasons. I bought theBlack Diamond Blasting Sand bag locally at Tractor Supply for $10.

Seachem Equlibrium works well: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/water-care/products/seachem-equilibrium

I have left mine in the pots they ship in for weeks at time with no harm to the plants.

Perhaps. But if there is more than enough biological filtration on sponge filters with the larger sized pores, then adding more than enough doesn't really add anything, except for having to clean it more often.

I have gathered all the Moss ball Zebra Mussel threads here and pinned this to the top. Hopefully this will help with visibility.

North Carolina is the nationality of many of my tanks. I have several tanks with fish and shrimp I collected from NC highway ditches and stocked with plants from the same ditches as I collected the fish from. The substrate is from from the creek in my back yard. I am pretty sure the tank was homemade diy in North Carolina from the 1920s. The shrimp are grass shrimp from the same ditches. The fish are Enneacanthus gloriosus. North Carolina is its nationality. 🙂

Yes, CO2 enters through gas exchange. Every atmospheric gas is in equilibrium with that gas dissolved in your aquarium. When any gas is in contact with water, some gas will dissolve in the water. The amount that dissolves at a particular temperature depends on the pressure, or partial pressure, of the gas. The dissolved gas and the undissolved gas are in equilibrium. CO2 can dissolve in water 200 times more easily than oxygen, because carbon dioxide has a slight negative charge near the oxygen and a slight positive charge near the carbon. CO2 is soluble because water molecules are attracted to these polar areas. The bond between carbon and oxygen is not as polar as the bond between hydrogen and oxygen, but it is polar enough that carbon dioxide can easily dissolve in water. The amount of CO2 dissolved in water will always be less than that of CO2 in the atmosphere, say 10 parts per million for your aquarium versus 412 part per million in the atmosphere. But in a low tech tank, the surface agitation will allow a greater amount of CO2 from the atmosphere to dissolve in your aquarium water to replace the CO2 that your plants are consuming. The plants in your aquarium are either consuming CO2 and giving off O2 in the daytime because of photosynthesis, or conversely at night time consuming O2 and giving off CO2, again because of photosynthesis, which runs in reverse at night. And because CO2 changes the pH of your aquarium, your pH swings up and down on a day/night cycle as seen in this data I collected recently from one of my aquariums: So, if you are not injecting CO2 in your planted aquarium, surface agitation will help maintain CO2 levels in the water. But paradoxically, if you are injecting CO2 and changing the natural equilibrium then just the opposite will be true and the agitation will cause the CO2 in your water to more quickly reach equilibrium with the atmosphere, thereby lowering the amount of CO2 dissolved in your water.

I can't help but thinking of Robert's retirement party in ~2060. What will the Co-Op be like? What will fishkeeping be like? What other products will have been added to the 'Easy' line? . . -

I am thinking 'Live Fish' would be tough.

I think there is a 'Fish Room' LFS in Wilmington, NC. I shop at the one in Raleigh, and if the one in Wilmington is anything like the Raleigh store, then it will be first class. Check it out and let us know. I bought some Apistogramma nijsseni from Aquabid this summer and I am very happy with them.

That is mostly the approach I take. The most sensitive and reliable indicator there is for water quality is the the behavior and health of the fish. If they are happy and eating and growing and breeding, then your water parameters are good.