Kathy F

Yes, not intentionally though. I had a 40 breeder with three lionchus and my fluval canister filter broke instead of running to the store to buy another filter I decided to use two large sponge filters (one was already fully cycled). There was always .25 to .5 PPI of ammonia in the tank after that because there wasn't enough biological to keep up with the load. I wasn't upset about it since I was already in the process of upgrading them to 75 which is why I didn't immediately run out and buy another expensive filter. The 40 breeder is still running with the same two sponge filter but now houses mollies, corydoras and loaches. I only ever get readings of 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia 10-40 nitrates since the sponges are more than adequate to handle the job of the 40 breeder's new bioload.

My favorite brand for a planted tank that is budget oriented is Nicrew Classic gen 2. If you want bells and whistles I would absolutely do a Fluval Planted but if you are on a budget Nicrew all the way. I am running one Nicrew Classic for three plus years on my 40 breeder, still works reliably and runs great. They only made the light better with the gen 2 (running on my 75 and growing plants beautifully). I don't bother with timers, I just use Amazon smart plugs and integrate the lights into my network of Amazon Echos throughout my home. The first time setting up a timed routine on Alexa was a bit of a headache but now that I have the routine set up it is snap to just add another tank smart plug and now all my tank on the Alexa network are synced but you can also set up different routines for each smart plug if desired.

First time I ever had to set up a hospital tank, I was ill prepared and all I had was that battery powered air pump. I was able to run 2 air stones off of my Marina battery powered air pump for 3 days non-stop, just make sure you use new batteries.

I have bought a 20lb bag of river rocks from a major home improvement store chain. They were nice and in theory they would have been cheap, except I only got to use them for one aquarium before a mouse crawled into the bag and died. There was no way I was going to use them after that *blech*. If you decide to buy in bulk do a better job of storing them then I did because with what I paid and as little as I was able to use, I would have been better off buying them by the lb at the LFS.

I picked this betta because he was the most active one on Aqua Huna's livestream. I have had him less then 24 hours and he is just as hyper here as he was on the live stream. I don't have any proof of aggression, and he seems to ignore the nerite snail so it might have been okay.

Okay thanks, I decided to do a deep clean of the 5 gallon until I irritated the amano shrimp into coming out of hiding. I was down to 25% level and was starting to believe A) this wasn't going to work or B) it had died or escaped when suddenly I saw it swimming around because I had disturbed its hiding place. I was able to snag him at that point and now I have one less tank I have to clean this weekend. Mr Amano is now safe with the endlers in the 10 gallon. Just thought I would post my solution in case someone comes by wanting to know the same thing about flushing out a well hidden amano shrimp.

I'm shuffling fish around. I have 2 endlers and one amano shrimp in a 5 gallon. I decided I don't like the look and I'm shuffling the endlers into a 10 gallon with 10 other endlers (all 12 are male). I just think they will look better swimming as a group then 2 solo in a 5 gallon, it looks kind of sad IMO. I have a koi galaxy betta coming to go in the 5 gallon. The amano shrimp is a sneaky little bugger (I have had him for a month and have only seen him once or twice) and I'm not 100% confident I will be able to catch him given the amount of coverage and hiding places. If I can't find the little beast how bad would it be to leave the amano shrimp with the betta? If I have to I can set up a spare 10 gallon hospital tank to house the betta until I can finally find the shrimp. Any tips on how to flush out a lone amano shrimp?

I have never seen an aquarium foam like that unless I put in Prazipro (Fluke medication). What chemicals did you put into the aquarium? Did you use a chemical to clean the aquarium before setting up? Just trying to figure out if there is a chemical residue causing this. As for when to add fish, it depends. I never do a full fishless cycle. I find ways to put in bacteria from other tanks. It is a bit harder to do if this is your first tank but not impossible. If you have a friend with a tank that has been running awhile then you can ask them if you can borrow some old filter media or a little of their substrate (put in some cut up pantyhose or a filter bag so it doesn't mix with your substrate for easy removal later). Another thing I will do is to buy immersed plants from the LFS meaning they have been kept under water in one of their fully cycled tanks. Yes, you can have a planted aquarium with fancy goldfish, you just have to careful what type of plants you buy. I have had luck with Crypt Wendtii, Dwarf Sagittarius, Jungle Val (mine will eat american val so it needs to be jungle val), Java Fern, various Swords, various Anubias. Now goldfish are rough on plants so don't go in expecting a tank that looks immaculate because that is unlikely to ever happen, but your plants can survive. I have fish coming this week for a 10 gallon I haven't even set up, but I plan to pull a sponge filter, Anubias on some cholla wood and Windelov Java Fern from other tanks to jump start the tank so it will be safe to add fish. Also feeding a fish sparselyin the beginning and testing the water frequently is a must. I like to use medium weight blaster sand easier to keep plants rooted because it is heavier than regular sand. I have a much harder time with regular sand and gravel isn't optimal for fancy goldfish. This is just the way I like to do things. It isn't the only way to do a setup, but I have been successful keeping fish healthy and happy doing this without having to run an empty tank for weeks on end.

I found some of the smaller linear piston air pump with an L tube (small L shaped black tube attached to either an 8 or 12 manifold (you the buyer choose which). The Alita AL-15A and the AL-6A are the models that come with those options. I have been looking at them because I have enough aquariums now that the ambient noise from so many pumps is starting to get annoying. No clue if it can be done on the larger linear pumps. I haven't bought any yet because my aquariums are all over the place and not centrally located but if you want to give one of the little pumps a try let me know how it goes. If it goes well maybe, I'll use it as an excuse to start an aquarium rack.

You can try Facebook and Reddit. I just joined a Facebook group for rehoming unwanted fish. I know there is also a forum on Reddit as well.

The glodanios and gold laser corydoras I bought shipped well. I did have problems with internal parasites and lost 2 danios before I could get them treated fully with General Cure but everyone else survived. I have only done one order with them.

The sponge filter lift tube is too tall for my 5-gallon frameless tank is there a way to cut the uplift tube without breaking it? I find if the tank water level drops even a little bit the tube sticks out of the water.

I have fish shipped multiple times a year due to lack of availability in my area. My one and only shipping disaster was through USPS. I have never had problems with Fedex overnight but there were a lot of Fedex scandals in my area recently that give me pause on trusting them. I have had fish sent UPS overnight and again no problems. I actively avoid any shippers that use USPS but there are times I have broken that rule and the fish were still okay, maybe that one shipment was just rotten luck, I don't know.

I have the huge Seachem Tidal 110 and they are 1/2 the noise of my son's Top Fin 30 filter on his Top Fin kit tank. The Tidal does have a skimmer and if debris gets caught in the skimmer it will get obnoxiously loud. The issue is a quick solve but if you have a planted tank, you can't always control when something is going to break off and get sucked into the skimmer. So if this is a bedroom tank and the skimmer sucks in debris in the middle of the night it is definitely going to wake you up with how loud the blocked skimmer can get.

I have done that although instead of silicone it was some hair that had gotten stuck to the side of the tank. A new house is exciting. I always have fun planning new tanks. Hopefully, you will have fun brainstorming a new setup to match your new space. I hoard dechlorinator. I don't have the luxury to run to the store at a moment's notice so I keep duplicates on hand when I can afford to buy extra. For a while, I had a bunch of Tetra Whisper air pumps because Amazon was selling them for $3-4 a piece. The supplies I have problems hoarding is fish medicine because they expire and are never on sale. It never fails that the one medicine I am out of is the one a sick fish in my tank needs.

I will start. Today, I threw out a perfectly good heater because I thought it was malfunctioning. Installed a brand new Aqueon Pro from my LFS. Only to find the temp still wasn't rising. I then thought it was the plug so started checking electrical output. Finally pulled out the temp gun to find out that my digital tank thermometer was malfunctioning. I feel like an idiot, I should have just double checked with temp gun from the beginning before pulling and trashing equipment, lesson learned.

Usually, it starts up after the big tank sale at Pet Supplies Plus ends. I'm not sure what the new pricing on the Aqueon tank sale is going to be now but I suspect it will either be 40% or 50% off. Pet Supplies Plus is doing 40% off so I doubt Petco is going to let their competitor to undercut them on the tank sale so I will be very surprised if they go cheap and only offer 30% off.

Yeah LOL, I heard that myth also that they were prone to aggression. Completely bought into it and thought they would be great population control. They literally sat there and did nothing while the fry circle around them. The fry had no fear whatsoever. This has happened with more than once because I thought the first time, I must have gotten a placid one but nope. I can only assume that there are more aggressive individuals painting all dwarfs as aggressive and chalk it up to being the same as bettas sometimes you will get an aggressive one but often if the stocking and swimming space is right, they will be fine and peaceful. Although they are shorter lived so that is correct IME.

I have had great luck with dwarf gourami's in a breeding tank. They didn't even eat the fry or anything.

I would probably do a dwarf gourami. Mainly because they are almost always in stock at the LFS. The Honey and sparkling gourami would be good choices also. I don't know where you are sourcing your fish from but my LFS tends to only order males so I have only ever put one in a tank at any given time.

Have you tried the Repashy Grub Pie? The main ingredient is black soldier fly larvae meal. I have been feeding the grub pie to goldfish, glofish, cories, mollies, platies and guppies. They all seem to eat it rather well. You can get that at Aquarium Coop.

Been a while but I always set up one new tank a year for myself. This year I'm thinking of doing another 75 gallon. Nothing is purchased I'm just into the brainstorming ideas right now. I never sink money into equipment until I'm absolutely sure what I will stock in new tank so I make sure to buy all the right equipment up front. Some of my ideas are 1- Discus setup Buy 5-6 baby (2.5 inch range) Discus raise them up in a bare bottom tank with lots of food and water changes. Then as they get bigger add some sand, rocks, caves/hides, wood and some anubias, java fern and the like (nothing that roots in the soil though). Eventually add 1-2 bristle nose plecos, 2 golden ram (or german blue ram), 6-9 rummy nose tetras (focus will be the discus so I want other fish to fulfill other roles not very many). 2- The overflow setup - 6 Yoyo loaches, siamese algae eaters (not sure how many), mollies (moving my adult mollies would help with overcrowding in another tank), possibly move my platies with them also from same overcrowded tank, 1 angel fish as a center piece and population control, 3 - unheated tank setup 3 gold dojo loaches, a school of giant danios (6-9), 3- hillstream loaches. since I FYI I run one other unheated tank and temps tend to fall 72-73 during winter and 75-76 during summer, Before I narrow my selection down even more, I just wanted to run my ideas by others to see if there are problem with size, compatibility or the like that I'm not seeing, just in case the needed change would impact my decision. Option 2-3 I would run as a regular planted tank but I would leave large open areas so the loaches would have lot of room to be crazy. I'm heavily favoring the loach tanks because I really want some crazy loach antics but grooming fish and seeing the tank change and evolve over an entire year would be interesting also.

You go down the list of weekly orders for my LFS Juli Corydoras are ordered every single week and by the time they are out of holding they are mostly sold out. I wouldn't call them trendy just more or less in constant high demand.

Currently stocked with 12 glodanios 12 glotetras and 8 gold/orange laser corydoras. There is a small HOB, small sponge filter (I used to seed the tank, now just keeping it seeded for my next tank project) and UGF with large chunky smooth gravel on top. I have been going back and forth whether to add an algae eater to the tank. Currently have good algae growth, lights on 6 hours a day. I have manually been removing the algae. No, I can't add plants, rocks or wood this is my son's tank and he only wants fake decor nothing else so there aren't any hiding places other then the fake decor itself. I have been considering mystery snails, nerite snails, various loaches, flag fish and even a bristlenose pleco but nothing sounds quite right for this set up so I have just left it alone. What would you use for an artificial well stocked aquarium or would just keep doing manual removal of algae? I also keep the aquarium on the cooler side at 75 degrees.

$49.99 for juvenile chinese ranchu this of course doesn't take into account the $50 overnight shipping fee. The pricing is for a single fish though if you are talking most expensive aquarium fish population overall it would be my son's glofish aquarium. 12 glotetras, 12 glodanios plus 8 orange laser Corydoras add up to nearly $300 total but it would be closely followed by my ranchu & lionchu tank which total fish population was around $250. My community tank has way more fish but they were fairly cheap even the 3 borneo spotteds I got on clearance.