Jimfish98

You have to check the lease agreement for details and if it is not in there, get landlord clarity in writing. In college our apartment had a policy of no pets written into the lease but the office published an exception for fish tanks up to 10g and eventually it was written into the next year's lease for all units in the community.

Been thinking of taking a bare bottom and doing artificial turf on the bottom before adding some stone and wood decorations to the top and to help keep it down. Has anyone tried this? If so, results? Pics?

Nothing in particular, but community like. I just picked up some FL Flag Fish to add to the tank and it had me thinking. Been working on replacing my grass here in FL with wildflower and native stuff and was thinking about maybe doing something new with the tank where I just stick with the local stuff that would be in our waters already. Figure as space opens, replace stuff with natives until the whole tank is converted.

Thinking of doing a tank of just freshwater fish native and my searches on info are just a hot mess between fishing sites, books, etc. Any good sites for native FW fish for aquariums? Know of two sites selling that look like they are stuck in the 90's with their site, but beyond that nothing. Even just a site with photos.

You nailed it I think. After Nabo's response I pulled out my phosphate test kit as I have never really had to use it. I am somewhere between 5 and 10 ppm. Tested the water out of where I fill the tank, at 1ppm. Filled up the test kit from the hose before the filter, 0ppm. Large water change brought the tank to 1ppm likely and the ATO has been pumping in 1ppm to replace evaporated water, likely pushing the PPM higher and higher. Added a giant bag of GFO and will check it out in the morning. If it drops, will have to build a bypass on the water filter to turn off for filling up the ATO and doing water changes.

No changes in my normal testing, but it got me thinking what do I not normally test for and found the solution I think.

Have had my tank up and running for some time and no new fish for months. System was running smooth until I got a whole house water filtration system. Goes through a sediment filter and a carbon filter, then an alternative water softener. There is no salt use in the softener. Did a water change and noticed a massive die off in tetra, about 15 in a few days. I am losing up to 5 a week now. My Danio, Barbs, Pleco, Mollies, Snails, and Goldfish all seem to be completely normal with no loss. Are tetra that sensitive that they would die off so rapidly? Did I strip too much out of the water and need mineral replacement? At a loss figuring this one out.

Curious as to thoughts on stocking level for a tank. The calculators just don't match the set up. I have 110g tank with 20g sump. Tank is bare bottom so no volume is consumed by plants, rock, etc. I am cycling water at about 700gph through felt rollers. I also have nearly half a cubic foot of Cermedia/Marine Pure in the sump. I am thinking of just going with a tank full of tetra, molly, platy, danio type of small fish.

Started using CO2 about three months ago and my dual stage regulator has already hit the fan. The repair kit and fix is absurd and the manufacture doesn't care. Just got a replacement and it's being returned as faulty out of the box. Any recommendations?

FL here, know your pain. I had a generator running after Irma on the pool deck. One cord to the fridge out there. One through a window to my office for my fish tank, and then one out to the pond for the air on it, one to charge all the ryobi batteries for night time. Would stop everything to run just the koi pond for a few hours, then back to just air and running everything else. We wanted whole house but we don't have natural gas running through here unfortunately.

If everything was off except air, you likely had a build up of nutrients from the filter not going. Carbon dose, reduce light, let the filter come back and do its job. Water change to remove any build up. Something to consider if you are a tool person, a Ryobi inverter. They have one for their 40V that you can plug into and it will run some stuff for you even if in short bursts during outages. If you have a lot of tanks or want to think long term, they have a generator that runs on 4 of the 40V that can run a fridge and other stuff inside the home and quietly. You can use one to likely run all the tanks you have at once.

"Experts" are a big reason why folks have a hard time getting started or staying in. The absolutes and such go way too far too often. Few examples... Go to any reef site and ask "where do I start" and you get a dozen responses saying "BRS 52 weeks on youtube" where you are told everything you need to be successful and these same experts say the videos are accurate and you must do it. People see these $300-$1000 systems being added to control one aspect of the tank and are instantly backing out over the money. Some can afford it or a modified version and move forward being told they will succeed with this stuff. Most have issues or fail and the same experts tell them they got the wrong stuff, didn't test right, etc. It becomes an attack and a lot of the new reefers are closing tanks in a year or less. Had a personal one about 11 years ago going to a koi site and being told my pond plans would fail. I would never succeed with the set up, never show fish, never grow anything large. Sadly it was driven by a well known koi keeper and show judge. Had I listened I would have walked away but thankfully I am too stubborn. Did it my way, found a less judging forum, and made him hand me a trophy at a koi show a few years later with a fish pushing 3ft. The supporting folks at the second one is what got me to that point.

Always prefer to deal with the tank taking care of itself with its occupants over chemicals. Carbon/Excel could help. You can always trade in for smaller at the LFS. Mine has a hard time getting larger ones in so will take the trade.

Snails and Amano will do good in there. Pleco could easily outgrow the space in time. Maybe SAE or FW Gobies, or both.

I would not bother as it is likely not to impact your water/sewage bill at all. Most water municipalities bill sewage on an estimate of the amount of water being used going back out the drain eventually. Some have winter rates assuming 100% in and 100% out and summer rates being lower assuming landscaping, pools, washing cars, etc. Measuring water usage is easy due to pressurization but gravity flow of waste out of your house is too difficult to get accurate. I would first check in to see exactly how it is billed before taking any steps. If you are looking to greatly reduce costs, a lower flow shower head or toilets would produce greater results.