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I just had an Aqueon 75 spring a big ole leak all over my new carpet and the display cabinet that I had built for it, all while I was 400 miles away. Obviously, that won't necessarily be your experience, but based on the other reviews on Petco's website, it really seems like there is something going on with Aqueon 75s lately. I know for every bad review, there's a hundred good experiences that didn't have an issue, but I definitely think it's something to be aware of. In all honestly, looking back on it, there were some things that I did that may have contributed to it leaking (putting it on an uneven surface, moving it while partially full), but whether or not those were for sure the reason, it looks like lots of others have had problems with the 75s. Just my two cents when it comes to tanks that size.

I had good luck yesterday taking the top off and having a big fan blowing across the top. That cooled it down from about 82 to 78ish.

I've had decent luck with boiling wood before, but some pieces are obviously often too big. I've had two pieces of wood soaking in my garage/outside for about 3 months now and they are still very buoyant. My current plan is to put some of the "egg crate" light diffuser from Home Depot at the base of my tank, zip tie the pieces to that, put gravel on top of the diffuser so that it holds it down and hide the zip ties as best as I cant. I figure that also will do a decent job of relieving any unnecessary pressure points on the bottom of that tank that could be caused by the big rocks I'll be putting in.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is seeing inaccurate results from pH on the Coop test strips. I can't get anything above 6.4-6.8 on any of my tanks, even the ones where I'm using crushed coral to buffer up to 7.6.

@Griznatch From my (admittedly limited) research on the subject, it sounds like the standard bricks themselves are relatively safe. It’s when you get into some of the other non-standard pieces that can be more flexible or clear that could potentially be an issue because it’s a different kind of plastic. The submarine I had in there had some non-standard parts on it, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry and pulled it out.

@Georgiapeach88its when a fish “scratches” themselves on something in the tank by swimming up to, flattening themselves against it and kind of bouncing off. It’s pretty funny the first time you see it...until you realize it can be a symptom of external parasites...

I've been trying to figure out what's going on in my heavily-planted 20 gallon hexagon. I've had a betta in there for about 3 months. His fins are looking a little haggard, but that could be explained by other factors resulting from inexperience/experimentation: My plan was to move him to a smaller 10 gallon mostly plantless column tank that is currently a grow out tank for some juvenile platys, treat him with some salt and see if I can't get some fin regrowth. I haven't had any previous parasite issues or ich (as far as I know), so I thought it might just be stress or something about the environment that he didn't like. Before doing, that, though I wanted to see how the betta would do with the platys (and to see if they could make a dent in the hair algae that's been growing), so I moved two into the 20 gallon as my "canaries in the mineshaft" if you will. I kinda just dropped them in and didn't acclimate them at all. The betta flared at them a bit initially, but has since mellowed out. However, I have now noticed that at least one of the platys have been flashing off of my crypts and anubias for about a week. It's not super frequent as far as I can tell--I only see her do it 2 or 3 times once or twice a day. The tank is on my desk, so I'm able to keep a pretty good eye on them. I don't see any signs of ich or irritation to their scales and the betta and otos that are in there don't seem to be affected. Last Friday, when I did my weekly water change, I added the standard 1 tbsp of salt per 5 gallons and let them sit in it over the weekend. The flashing is still happening and my plants are already looking a little rough. Hesitant to continue down this road, I did a 50% water change yesterday and plan on doing another 50% today in an effort to get some of the salt out. Current tank parameters: pH: 6.8 - 7.0 Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 20 - 30ppm GH: 25 KH: 0 (?) Temp: 78 - 80 My questions: Is the flashing something to be concerned about? Could it be an external parasites or just the result of a different pH than the tank they were raised in? The pH in the tank that the platys came from is 7.6 thanks to some crushed corral in the filter and I know platys tend to like a bit of a higher pH If I move the betta and the platys into the 10 gallon in order to treat them, that leaves the 20 gallon empty, but potentially with parasite issues. I would assume that the parasites require a host to survive, but is it risky to put the platys from the 10 gallon in the 20 straight away or would the 20 gallon need to be treated in some way? If I can't move them into the 20 gallon, what can I do to treat the tank without killing the plants? I'm not too concerned about the bacteria in the tank because I have plenty of other tanks that I can use to jump start it if the bacteria are killed off. I would just hate to lose my plants. Any recommendations on a course of action here?

Now, I don't know if this is something that has every been discussed on this forum before, but yes, I did put Lego in my fish tank (a 20 gallon hexagon). It was an experiment to see how it would go and it has since been removed. If anybody is interested, I can provide more details, but for now, I thought this was just a cool photo you fine people might enjoy.

Yes, I've removed all the corner beads of silicone on the sides and the bottom. My main area of concern is where the side meets the base. There doesn't seem to be any silicone in there. I should be able to squeeze some into there, but probably won't be able to fill the whole seam. Would the corner bead along the bottom be enough to keep that area water tight if I'm not able to completely fill that seam?

I recently picked up a free 75 gallon (what I would guess is an Aqueon) glass tank from OfferUp. The seller repeatedly dodged questions about whether or not it held water and when I got it home and filled it, I found unfortunately that it leaked. I also saw that the silicone seals had been redone in several places. Being the spiteful lover of free stuff that I am, I'm determined to make this thing usable. I've already scraped out the silicone corners from all the seams and removed the top and bottom frames with the intention of resealing everything. I've noticed that the bottom has separated from one of the sides on the long side, so I would need to figure out some way to reseal that area as well. I'm not expecting it to be my main display tank or even to go anywhere other than my garage but is it worth putting the time in to try to basically completely overhaul this thing or is it a lost cause? Should I just refurbish it a bit and see if I can sell it as a reptile habitat? Does anybody have any experience doing this?

Working with CSVs in Python isn't too bad once you get the hang of it. You're basically doing the same thing you're doing with the .txt file, just with a CSV. And if there's one thing that makes sense to keep in a table, it's water parameters import csv # if you're opening a new file, it would be output = open('water-parameters.csv', 'w') output = open('water-parameters.csv', 'a') writer = csv.writer(output, delimiter=',', quotechar='"', quoting=csv.QUOTE_ALL) # if you don't already have a header row writer.writerow(['Date', 'PH', 'GH', 'KH', 'nitrates', 'NH3', 'NO2', 'PO4', 'misc']) rowOutput = [thedate, theph, thegh, thekh, thenitrates, theNH3, theNO2, thePO4, themisc] # you can also do writer.writerows if you have a list of lists (multiple lines to write) writer.writerow(rowOutput)

I've been a frontend developer for years (HTML/CSS/Javascript). I took a Python class a few years ago and really enjoyed the automation possibilities. I'm also an ecommerce web manager, so it's since saved me hundreds of hours of work automating repetitive tasks like renaming images, downloading files and categorizing items to sell on the web. I really geek out writing little scriptlets to chunk through large amounts of data and manipulate it so that it works for what I need it to. My latest project is kind of a dashboard display for a TV mounted on the wall in my kitchen. Currently, it's got a Google calendar integration, a meal planner, a countdown, weather forecast, notes, basketball scores and messaging capabilities. I'm working on trying to find some cool way to display my water parameters there, but I haven't had the time to complete. And I keep getting more tanks, so that widget keeps getting bigger...

I loved the idea of the Python when I first saw it, but using it in practice seemed to waste a ton of water. For water changes, I basically built my own Python "hook" from a couple bucks worth of PVC and vinyl tubing from Home Depot and use buckets to take out and water my lawn. For filling, I use a Lee's version of the Python Super Pump hooked up to a coiled plastic garden house that I had lying around. I built another PVC "hook" for filling that I screw on the end of that which hangs on the tank as I fill it. The whole thing cost me maybe $20 (with the exception of the garden hose that I already had)

I could, but no matter what I do, I'll still be left with little white chunks in my otherwise black substrate, especially if I get anything that will sift through (planning on some panda corydoras)

I have pretty soft, acidic water and I've been using crushed coral in my tanks to buffer my PH for livebearers. I currently have it in mesh bags in my HOBs, but I'm thinking of only using sponge filters in the new 75g I'll be setting up soon. I don't like the look of the coral as a substrate (my gravel is black) and I obviously don't want to be looking at a mesh bag all the time, so does anybody have any creative ideas of how I can hide the crushed coral while maintaining the dark look of my gravel and other stones?

True story

Well, that would somewhat make sense since they were purchased separately from two different stores. But, they've been together for at least a month now. I would have thought they would be used to each other at this point.

I have 7 neon tetras (well 8 actually, but one is currently being treated for god knows what) They seem to be constantly fighting and chasing each other around. It doesn't really seem like it's one particular one either. They all seem to end up chasing each other around across the tank or chasing each other/fighting in a tight circle. I was hoping that moving them from a 10 gallon to a 20 would make things better. They were initially more chill as they acclimated, but are now back to the same behavior. I wasn't able to catch them circling, but you can kind see what I mean here: Anybody ever seen this before?

Thanks, everybody. I got a pretty close look at one today. Based on the shell coloring and thing antennae, I'm thinking bladder snails. I don't really mind, but I'll definitely be cleaning new plants from now on.

Managed to snap a picture of one when I transferred to my other tank. I'm thinking pond snail.

The title pretty much says it all. I got a shipment of plants from Aquarium Co-Op about a week ago, planted in my tank I'm setting up and found at least three snails this morning. I'm fine with that since I don't mind snails and it's my own fault for not cleaning/quarantining. I'm just wondering what kind they most likely are? They're still really small and easily hidden, so they're hard to get a picture of unfortunately (Edited to add picture of actual snail). The looks a bit like the nerite snail that I already have, but I was under the impression that nerite snail eggs didn't hatch unless they were in brackish water (which mine is not for planted reasons and I can't imagine AC's is either). Anybody know what they could be?