Wonder Boy

Simple wish here - I want a sponge filter with a tall base so I can affix it to the bottom of the tank. I don't tend to change placement of the sponge or substrate, so it would be great to affix it to the bottom of the tank for level and ease of maintenance. Just pull the sponge off the base, clean, and reinstall. No more fiddling to get the sponge level or disturbing the substrate when cleaning.

Joel (Corvus Oscan) has a few good sump videos too.

The YouTubes.

Good ACO video from @Ireneon the topic.

Timestamped.

That looks like a Hygger to me. I have one on our quarantank. Good heater, just takes up a lot of room.

Not super ideal, but when I am changing water with shrimp babies, I use a gravel vacuum with coarse filter in it. I find that I can stop some shrimplets getting through, and can get up water and waste.

Two doses of Paracleanse and some solo feeding seems to have helped. Any concern for the white near the head?

Weird coincidence, but I’ve actually been to this store. Super well taken care of tanks. Got some red wag platys from them.

Lifespan is a little short (3-5 years), but I would want to try a school of Emerald Dwarf Rasboras.

+1 for talking to a LFS Probably obvious, would you want to rearrange to make less hiding areas?

We've got a single Bumblebee Platy with a sunken belly and is generally looking sickly. I need help figuring out the problem, pictures below. Here's the tank details: Tank Size: 56 gallons pH: 7 Nitrates: ~40 Hardness: 150+ ppm Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 KH/Buffer: ~40 ppm (need to add more crushed coral) Water Temperature: 75 degrees The little fellow seems to be eating and the rest of tank is fat and happy. We're feeding a combo of Xtreme Krill flakes and Nano bites, Hikari frozen Brine, and Tubiflex worms. It's a well stocked tank with Salt and Pepper, Green Lantern, and Blue Wag Platys, as well as Serpae Tetras, and a few mutt guppies. The thin fish did get nipped a while ago, before we got the Tetra aggression under control. There's many plants in there including swords, water sprite, and Japan. What do people think? Worms? I am moving him to our Quarantank so he can get some solo attention.

+1 for @Irene’s video. Very helpful. We are trying to plant our 56 gallon to the point we do the bare minimum water changes. Love getting my hands wet, but water changes are no fun.

I’ve been there and done that. Sorry about your fish.

For what it’s worth, I keep our QT tank bare bottom and without decorations. I do have a few plant clippings in there. The bare look makes setup and observation easy during the QT time. Also, in cases like this, it’s less to clean/worry about disease.

Thank you!

We just got some Java Fern and Water Sprite from a friend. It’s newly planted in our 56 Gallon tank, adding to Sword, Micro Sword, and Hydrocotyle tripartita. We’ve got a mix of platys, long fin Serpae Tetra, a few guppies, a bristlenose, and hitchhiking snails running around too!

We have two assassin snails in a 5 gallon to take care of some Ramshorns that snuck in then exploded in population. They've really brought down the population, but its taking many weeks. Factor your patience in your choice.

We water the house plants, throw it on the lawn, and in the garden. It's great.

We've got a tank with a few different platy varieties. A green lantern baby popped out recently, and its color is very similar to the adults. The only difference is that the adult fins are clear, and the baby has black fins.

It's just in one room? It'd be quite the investment, but do you have the option to heating and cooling that room separately from the rest of the house? If possible, you could try to do a through-the-wall unit or mini-split to heat and cool the whole room at 77-78. Not sure of the electricity costs of that vs individual heaters, but you might have have a little easier time keeping the tanks at temp since it'll be room temp.

Like that green Co-op mug. Nice gift package!

I got an all natural spray from the local big box that repels critters from my garden. It smells awful, but seems to work ok.

I did a DIY with acrylic from HD and my miter saw. Since you have the glass, +1 for getting it cut down.

You might consider a good nano fish - CPDs, WCMM, Rasboras - and decorate the tank with minimal hiding locations for the shrimp fry. If the shrimp can hide until they get big, they will multiply.