yannachka

my fluval edge journal i bought a used fluval edge that had a cracked top, it sat in storage for close to a year before i had a hurst of boredom/inspiration and decided to scape it at 2am one night when i couldn’t sleep. i could only use the hardscape materials and plants i already had on hand. i snapped these photos an hour or so after setting it up: the next morning: i had it sitting on my nightstand for 5ish months before i got bored and decided to redo it. i wanted something super low maintenance and this tank was just more work than i wanted to deal with in terms of keeping it looking pristine. i ordered 3 pieces of malasyian driftwood (at random) online and the 3 pieces that came in fit perfectly in the tank so naturally, i did another late night scape test fitting the wood: scape and first full up: after a few days: i added some emersed plants, i bought it as creeping jenny but it looks more like pennywort now that its grown in. you can see the little amount i started with next to the wood piece on the left: a couple weeks later and the pennywort is starting to flourish: another couple weeks later, the riccia has attached itself to the wood and is growing like a moss now: the fish are growing, i put them in as tiny juvies initially: a month later and the pennywort has taken off. i am doing bare minimum ferts (easy green once every couple weeks): taken a couple days later: the original shrimp from the first scape are still in here: and finally, the current state of the tank: its very overgrown and looks more like a pond but i personally love it. it feels like a little slice of nature right on my nightstand and it is so low maintenance i barely do anything. if you’re interested in the specs it is: •fluval edge 6g without the top •no heater • nano sponge filter for water movement • ferts every few weeks when i remember • water change every 1-2 months and top offs with either distilled or water from my goldfish tank weekly/bi-weekly depending on need • stocking: galaxy ricefish, pumpkin shrimp, cpo, lots of snails •fluval stratum mixed with fluorite as the substrate id love to hear your thoughts and suggestions !

this is sound advice. i cant remove the cave though, the wood is long and it would uproot all of the plants i have growing on and alongside it. im more attached to my plants (i have them set perfectly and they’re grown in now that the goldies cant uproot them) than i am to the fry as bad as it sounds. the tank is just too established with the plants for me to uproot them for some pleco fry. i think ill just leave them in and what survive survive. appreciate the good advice though!

the 4g is planted/scaped and is already holding ricefish (not rasbora oops) fry in it. the cave is underneath wood and plants in an inconvenient spot to cover with another tank without uprooting a bunch of plants. im not that attached to the fry if im being honest to ruin the look of my display tank. i appreciate the advice though, im sure in another set up that would work pretty well

this tank is kept between 74-76F, i do have a perfect 4g (gets daily wc) i have some rasbora fry growing out in that is covered in algae for them to feast on which is where i plan to move them for a couple weeks to clean it for me

hey all! been super busy with work and haven’t had much of a chance to get on here the last couple months. i have some bristlenose plecos in my goldfish tank that breed pretty regularly. the eggs/fry never survive cause of all the other catfish and goldies. my super red male has been fanning the last week or so and when i just checked, there were wigglers that somehow survived at a decent size. im worried they may be too big to siphon out with a standard baster but removing the cave isnt really an option since it is buried video dad keeps blocking the cave so i cant get a good photo. id appreciate any advice! the babies are large enough to show color, id say 1/8-1/6 of an inch in range it’s hard to gauge from the small glimpses i get.

on top of sand? yes, but not sure what the point of that would be.

my favorite combo is fluval stratum and fluorite, i mix the two 50/50. it gives me the best balance in planting ability, nutrients/nutrient absorption, and appearance.

it’s been a week and there are no bad side effects in the plants so far. im gonna up the concentration from 30% to 40%. the plants actually seem to be thriving more with the salt? my giant jungle val has sent off a bunch of runners randomly when it has been very slow to send any prior to adding the salt floaters spreading like a weed like always, i was expecting those to show some side effects. my emersed plants are still fine, here is a monstera leaf slowly uncurling and a new leaf that finished uncurling stats gh: 11 kh: 12 ph: ?, i have used two test kits (one expiring in 2021 and one in 2025) and cannot get a proper reading. id appreciate any help with this. from left to right it is: 2021 ph, 2021 high range, 2025 high range, 2021 ph, 2025 high range for tap, 2021 ph for tap. they all measure between the highest standard ph at 7.6 and at 7.4 on the high range ph. the tap looks like it may be 7.2 in the photo but it is the same color as the other in person so it’s just the lighting.

wanted to post this moss and skull jar i made, its slightly overgrown but i wanted to go for a “skull found in the woods” vibe. i keep forgetting to post all my little projects on here

@Irenethanks! i actually got the idea from him a while ago, he mentioned reef salt in an offhand comment and ive been wanting to try it since. i just realized that i should be monitoring the ph/gh/kh as well so ill take some tests today.

these just look like scrapes from an injury. do you have driftwood or decor in the tank they could have scratched themselves on?

my 90g is a somewhat high tech set up with co2, lots of ferts and medium-high light. i have noticed over the past few months that the substrate i used (safe-t-sorb) is absorbing too much. it works similar to eco-complete in my experience but my ph/gh/kh is lowering, which is natural with co2 and this substrate, but i want to raise it. i decided to run a little experiment and, hopefully, not kill all of my plants. i picked up this bag of reef salt: it is high in calcium, magnesium, and other good minerals. i would just use crushed coral but i want to see if i can use salt in a planted aquarium to benefit my goldfish. one of my goldies ripped his tail on some driftwood (i did some rescaping and hopefully fixed the issue) and i want some salt in the water to help him a little. plus who doesn’t love running experiments. tank: 90g dosage: 30%, i decided to start off light and work my way up slowly. this bag treats 10g up to a salinity of 1.021 which is way way too high. i decided to dose it like regular aquarium salt with 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. i dosed for 30 gallons to start off with. it has only been 2 days so too soon to tell but my plants didn’t keel over overnight lol. ill keep this dose for the next week and add another 3 tablespoons. ill just keep repeating this weekly till i start seeing some negative effects on plants. photos arthur with his ripped fin, some stress veins around the area of course but overall not looking too bad all my vals are looking healthy i was concerned about my emersed plants but the pothos is springing a new leaf today and the monstera is still fine. usually you see negative effects pretty quickly with houseplants and salt. new monstera leaf uncurling, on sunday it was still tightly wound so the salt hasn’t had any immediate negative effects. also as a small sidenote, the roots outgrew the diy pot so i just removed it. these are mostly peace lily roots with some pothos thrown in. they’re still holding on to a lot of eco-complete, i didnt bother removing the plants to rinse them. now i know this is a low dosage to start out with but i didn’t want to just bomb my tank from the start with how much work i put in. ill keep this thread updated as i raise the dosage and the effect it is having on the plants. anyone have any experience with marine/reef salt and plants they’d like to share?

appreciate the call out, if you do use it @Joe V please document it and post your experience on this thread, in trying to gather clinical studies done on pimafix/melafix and tea tree oil use on fish as well as personal experiences.

glass catfish. ill even let them sit in the store for a couple weeks before bringing them home to acclimate to our local water and they still fall apart.

i didn't realize that was you, my bad. i was just curious cause you aren't the first person who has accidentally bred them lol. id visit multiple stores and see if you can work out a bulk deal with them to take 20 at a time of mixed genders/colors, most stores won't really take more than 20 from my experience. you can also advertise and sell on reddit and other forums directly to customers. i think it will be a challenge in my opinion but they can definitely be sold, just know you're probably gonna sit on them for a while. blue tends to be a dominant color in bettas as well so you can expect most of them to be primarily blue marbles with some wildcards thrown in. if i were you id cull pretty heavily so i am only left with 40-60 of the top bettas to sell.

as @Alexa said realistically it really isn't possible unless you are willing to spend a good chunk of change. there are traditional chinese bowls that are 40-50 gallons that look beautiful but they're practically non-existent in the states and importing them may be the cost of a used car. i can't find any examples right now but i believe cory showed some off when he was in hong kong? you need to always have in mind the adult size of the fish when setting up an aquarium and even the smallest of goldfish should get to 6" or so if kept properly.

while bettas aren't very difficult to breed (in my experience) i'm very curious how you were able to breed them accidentally? accidents don't really happen in betta breeding since it involves some conditioning and keeping the male with the female. your pricing is very good for retail and selling directly to customers but compared to wholesale lists, they're very high. i know you said those aren't the set prices which is why i'm mentioning this to you. if i were a store i would not purchase at that price since they're practically 50-75% of the retail shelf price. stores also want variety and most bettas will look rather similar in a spawn. it will be hard to find a store to purchase 20x minimum bettas that look similar at those prices, you're going to need to half the prices if not discount more. i can currently order assorted halfmoon males for around $5 from our wholesaler so you'll need to stay around there to compete although this will vary by your location. unfortunately bettas are a pretty flooded market and it is very difficult to sell them unless you have a good social media presence and have working relationships with many stores before you breed. it's why i stopped breeding them, as fun as it was actually selling 100 bettas was a pain, especially when most people would rather go buy one for <$10 from petsmart than spend money on a high quality betta bred locally. just my 2 cents.

i have your issue. i have noticed over the years that bettas don't live as long in this water (likely accumulative stress from the super hard water). you will also start seeing fin curling in the long finned varieties. i have had more luck with locally store bought bettas (they are usually kept in tap water) rather than imported ones that were kept only in the soft water. i was able to breed in my water though so that did not pose any issues. you can dilute your water with r/o water or distilled (r/o tends to be cheaper when bought in a lfs), you'll just need to test the water to see how much dilution is needed to get it to the levels you want.

the goldfish fry are very clearly goldfish now and pretty big also have some surprise galaxy rasbora fry

just made a post about this cause i didnt see it! i have to wash my hands after doing anything in salt water tanks, my hands tend to break out in mild hives. bloodworms turn my hands red (ironic!) where they touch and it itches uncontrollably. eating fish makes me nauseous so aside from sushi every now and then i avoid it.

lots of plant farms grow their plants outdoors where the adults lay their eggs on them. the eggs then hatch out in your aquarium. ive stopped ordering from 2 different plant suppliers bc they would constantly bring in unwanted critters. once i had a big clump of java moss that was teeming with crane fly nymphs i couldn’t salvage and ended up tossing. im very careful who i get my plants from now.

@akconklin glad you found it useful! i personally really like the look and texture of that combination for a substrate. it looks very natural and the fluorite helps weigh down the stratum.

forgot to add: i do another rinse to clean off the soap before planting. sorry!