Travis

@TheDesktopAquarium I had great success with frogbit in a low flow outdoor pond to the point it was trying to choke out the pond. I have had mixed luck inside aquariums. Is there a lot of flow in the tank? Many floating plants dont do well if their top surface gets wet routinely like overspray from an air stone. Could also be the water or nutrients?

@rotor there are a variety of companies that sell plants with the base inserted into a ceramic ring similar to what you are suggesting. It should work and help keep the plant anchored until it gets rooted. Be aware that once established it will be near impossible to remove the ring without uprooting the plant and it can poke up out of the substrate and be a bit of an eye sore. I prefer to loosely wrap a piece of soft plant weight around the base of plants that im stuggling to keep in the substrate. If you are handy with tweezers this can often be removed once the plant is established or it will sometimes just sink down into softer substrate over time. Something else that has worked for me is is using gel super glue to attach the plant to the side of a small rock. The rock acts as the weight until the plant is established but allows the roots to be planted into the substrate and the rock can be removed later if needed. This works really well for establishing something like anubius where you want the rhizome to remain above the substrate. Glue it to the top and then shove the rock into the substrate

@Galabar hard to tell what the flow is like in your tank but in my experience Chili Rasboras prefer less flow. That spot in the tank has plant cover for them to hide under and it could be a low flow area of the tank. Or it could just be their favorite spot. I have a group of Cardinal Tetras that spend 90% of there time in one area of the tank and only venture out when feeding. They are fat and happy and doing this for multiple years.

@Pepere Due to these type of plastic pails failing over time I decided to switch to a heavier duty bucket from a farm supply store with a thick stainless handle and much thicker plastic. The one I have is flat on one side for hanging it up against a horse stall etc. but that also makes it easier to walk with when its full. Worth the extra money 100%. Picture below is an example not sure if it was this brand.

@mynameisnobody @Gannon I couldn't find a load rating so I would be very cautious. However if the welding is solid and good screws were used I would think the capacity could be decent. On the one I posted pictures of reviews stated that the screws that came with it were all but useless. Of course for its intended use not much would be needed. @GannonWhat I really want to know is where they found the perfect 2x4s for that picture lol

I saw these brackets online for building an adjustable firewood rack and was wondering if anyone has attempted something similar for an aquarium stand? Could be a simple way to piece together a diy stand for someone with fewer tools etc. Though I wouldn't want to test it with something larger than a 40 gallon to start with. Or maybe something like the brackets that are used to piece together wooden dock sections 🤔

@redfish it's going alright. Quite a bit of die back on the Lemon grass after putting it back outside. Not sure it will make it. Ive added some mosaic plant that seems to be taking off. Pond still looks a bit rough at this point.

Moved the tub back outside today. It overwintered pretty well in my apartment with just a overhead lamp with a LED plant bulb in it on during the day. Its looking pretty scruffy at the moment will add pics when it grows back in. I pulled all the Amazon Frogbit. It was doing so well that if I didn't pull a bunch every week it would choke out the pond. Switched over to Salvinia minima for my floating plant this year. Something I didnt share last year was the build for my air pump. I didnt have a safe place for an air pump to sit so I made a housing to protect it from the elements. The outside is a small plastic ammo can I picked up at Harbor Freight. The lid has a seal so it is normally air tight. I drilled small holes in the bottom to let air in and notched a hole for the power cord back near the hinge. I drilled two holes on the latch end just big enough to press fit some plastic air fittings. Inside there are a couple double sided suction cups to cushion and keep the pump centered. In the back is a suction cup bracket from a tube heater to hold the excess cord in place. I run two lines off this with check valves to operate the air stone in the lift tube and a 2nd airstone that just hangs inside the pond for extra circulation/aeration when it gets hot.

They also added a link to the schedule under buy tickets on the main page of their website a couple days ago

Aquarium Co-op has been adding a few countries outside of the US recently so its possible their eggs may be available in parts of Europe in the future. While I am not familiar with some of the products I found I did see some Brine Shimp eggs available on Amazon.de if the hatch rate is as good as the description implies they should work well if you are looking for something sooner.

Welcome!

Enough of the new air pumps to swap my tanks over to battery back up

Im planning to attend my first Aquashella in Chicago this year. Has anyone seen an event schedule posted anywhere?

Great looking tank! From my experience keeping Honey Gourami they tend to pick a territory and chill there most of the time outside of feeding. They might like the left side because of the cover and if the flow is slower there it could be a spot for them to create bubble nests. The less colorful ones could be female but its rare to find females at most stores. They could be males that are not dominant. If they have a clearly rounded anal fin its a male. Hard to tell from your photos but how much flow is in the tank? These fish originate from mostly slow moving waters excess current could be keeping them from moving around the tank as much.

Spending some evening time on the deck. Solar LED just kicked on @redfish

@redfish pond is doing really well. The Frogbit is growing so fast I have to pull a bunch out weekly. The drain is I believe a 1 inch slip fit on the back side. I had a hole saw that was close to the same size as the outer diameter. After drilling it out I just press fit it into the hole. Didnt glue or caulk it since it was very tight. It drains out the back if I over fill or if there is heavy rain.

@redfish Thank you! They are hybrid Tiger Endler's liverbearers and yes they are breeding quite a lot lol @OnlyGenusCaps Glad you like it!

In the past I have temporarily setup a plastic storage tote using a seasoned sponge filter. Ran the fish through quarantine,meds, etc. then emptied it out and put it away until needed again. Probably want to find something that can hold 5-10 gallons depending on the fish maybe larger?

@KungFuKoi-ish I will be putting some gravel in the bottom at some point from another tank that I'm changing to partial sand. @binkysmom @JettsPapa I could have gone much simpler with this for sure but I wanted to give this idea a shot and see how it works (fingers crossed)

@RareFeeshCollector If you go bog type I would suggest pumping water onto the surface (above water)and let it run down through to prevent it from clogging up. Planting into a mesh basket or your choice of container with a mesh bottom will also allow plant roots to grow into the water column and allow extra nutrient uptake. Either way setting up a tub with a bog container that wont overflow outside the tub could be tricky without taking up a fair portion of the tub. Have you considered 2 tubs next to each other at 2 levels? The lower tub would be the pond area and the upper your planted bog filter with some type of return to the pond...

Looks like some type of seed shrimp. Perfectly safe. If this was a nano fish tank they would likely get eaten quickly but if this is shrimp only tank they will just be a part of your ecosystem and shouldn't get out of hand if you aren't over feeding. Any fast methods to get rid of them if you wanted to go that route would likely also harm your shrimp.

I am working on my first tub pond. I took inspiration from many different sources such as @Dean’s Fishroom @Cory Serpa Design etc. If you see something that you came up with and I haven't mentioned you please know that I am not claiming any of this as my own. I have mashed together ideas into a pond experiment that I'm hoping works well for my situation. I wanted to share progress and maybe get some feedback if anyone else has ideas or has tried any of this previously I live in Wisconsin so overnight lows aren't plant friendly until about mid May. I have the tub filled and cycling but I will have to add update photos once I can safely plant and add fish. I started with a 70 quart (17.5 gallons) Muck Tub from a local farm supply store. I drilled a hole for a low profile drain that I had. I added this to keep the water level several inches below the rim and if it rains heavily act as a over flow to maintain that depth. I wanted do a combination of emersed plant filtration and air driven undergravel filtration so I will be adding a plastic 12 inch pot to the center of the pond. Finding a pot that wasn't tapered so that the base was more stable was the most difficult part of this build. To get the pot sitting at the depth I wanted I had to add 2 patio paver bricks to the bottom of the tub. Using a hole saw I drilled holes around the pot. These allow water in for access to the plant roots and the undergravel filtration. I siliconed in strips of knitting mesh as a barrier to hold substrate in but maintain water exchange. Another paver was added to the inside of the pot to increase weight/stability as some of the plants im considering grow quite tall and on windy day could cause the pot to shift. I added a cheap adjustable uplift tube that I purchased online and filled in the space around it with small lava rock. Above this layer I added another piece of knitting mesh cut to fit as a barrier to keep substrate from filling in the bottom of the pot. I am using layers of extra substrate that I had on hand to fill the pot. I started with a base of Fluorite on top of the knitting mesh followed by a layer of Stratum. I only had enough spare stratum to make the 2nd layer a few inches deep so I capped the pot with more Fluorite. The goal here is that pot is driven by a small air pump that lifts water from the base of the flower pot and exits into the main pond. Water returns through the sides and surface of the pot and is filtered through the substrate and nutrients are taken out by the plants. I'm currently running a heater to keep overnight water temps up but once overnight lows increase I plan to remove the heater and only run the air pump until October. The tub is small enough that after draining down I should be able to move it indoors for the winter. If things work out I will add updates in the future. Let me know what you think