drewzero1

Sorry for the delay... I don't check in here often any more, but the tank is surviving. At the beginning of 2023 I moved everything to a 10 that I partitioned for a filter/heater/pump chamber. Lost the hermit crab last summer, recently replaced it with another blue leg who has been absolutely chowing down on the algae like an absolute champ. I have been vaccilating for a long time over whether or not I'm really ready for corals but I decided I had to finally just try something and see if I (and the tank) could handle it, so to that end I added a zoanthid frag. Still very early on that one and only time will tell if I can keep it happy, but so far it seems to be acclimating well. The caulerpa and aiptasia have completely disappeared. Now most of the inhabitants of the tank are tiny isopods and digitate hydroids. I also lost the molly after a while and have not repeated that experiment, but I would like to try another fish in here: probably either a watchman or neon goby, or possibly a clownfish. My ultimate goal with this tank was clownfish, but I still don't feel quite prepared enough to care for marine fish. As my kids get older and more independent I hope to have more time and energy for my aquaria again!

This is exactly what I was going to suggest, there are lots of floaters that have the benefits of duckweed without being so invasive. I've never heard anybody complain about a dwarf water lettuce infestation in their aquarium. I had duckweed for a bit and then it all kind of died off for about a year. I found about six leaves hiding in a corner and suddenly it took over again. Now I've got to scoop it out at least weekly to give my other plants any chance at getting any light. My algae problem is solved though.

It's natural for them to eat them sometimes, and it's also totally natural to feel sad about it. My way of dealing with it is to minimize intervention; I don't catch out the fry, and I try not to count them, so I don't feel too much responsibility for not being able to save some. I try to help them help themselves by keeping a lot of guppy grass, java moss, and vallisneria for the fry to hide in. I also try to make sure I'm feeding them enough, but that still doesn't always prevent them from getting ideas.

I started with the strips and let people talk me into the liquid kit when I ran out-- never again! Testing is much more cumbersome which means I end up doing it much less often. Chemicals and glass test tubes are just more things I have to keep out of reach of my children. The strips may be less accurate but really I just need to know if it's time for a water change or not. Most of the time now it's just easier to reach for the siphon and dechlorinator instead of going through the trouble of testing first.

I haven't kept bettas but I've had a few of their cousins the gouramis who can be a little *ahem* snail-curious. I've had mostly positive experiences with nerite snails. They keep their tasty-looking eye stalks and feelers pretty close to their shell so they're a lot tougher target than e.g. a mystery or rabbit snail. They can't reproduce in freshwater but if you happen to get a female she might lay little sesame seed-like eggs on tank surfaces.

The kid likes it, but it's too bitter for my taste. ...What?! It was a tight grocery week! What were we supposed to do, not have salad?

Love the "forbidden tea," gotta remember that. We use it for houseplants and I'm trying to teach my toddler (who helps with the watering) that it's "yucky water" that's good for plants and not good for people. Same thing with duckweed on his hands after he helps feed the fish 🤢

I really like the way the socket's shade ring is used to securely mount it inside the base, and also appreciate the conical interior ring to avoid the need for supports when printing. Appreciate thoughtful details like that.

Besides patience and research, the biggest piece of beginner advice for me was that we don't keep fish, we keep water. Keep the water healthy and the fish will follow. Now whenever I have a sick fish I reach for the test kit before the meds.

Never said anything about any air stone, but I did forget to mention that I added two sponge filters (with air stones inside). Other than the two air hoses going into the tank and the overhead light, the tank has no connections to equipment. I really like not having any wires going into the tank.

When I upgraded from a 20 long to a 40 breeder I left the 20 up, pulled out the HOB and heater, and moved in my white clouds. Upkeep has been easier than tearing down the tank would have been. Feed lightly, clean algae and change some water once a month or so, and they've been my best bang-for-buck fish. Their behavior is a bit boring compared to something more curious like livebearers or gourami, but it's hard to beat the low bioload.

I've used it in nearly all of my freshwater tanks, but I no longer recommend it to people because of the variability between batches and the need to rinse it so much to get the water clear. I haven't had any issues that I could pin specifically on the sand, and my banjo cats spend most of their time burrowed under it.

The outside diameter of my breeder box's uplift tube is approximately 13.4mm or ~0.52 inches. Usually tubing is measured by the interior diameter, but I don't have that measurement handy.

I've seen some massive (3"+) platies in one of the "trade-in" tanks at my LFS. They could possibly have been a swordtail cross, but I didn't see any swords, and I've never seen swordtails with a mickey mouse on them.

Certain species of danios have color variations. I've seen subtle variation in my pearl danios but I've also heard that leopard danios might be a color variant of zebra danios. Rosy red minnows and (grey) fathead minnows are color variants of the same species as well. I've currently got a mix of gold and natural white cloud minnows that school together.