kahjtheundedicated

I've used PETG to mount a heater and didn't have any melting issues The glass transition temperature of PETG is supposedly around 85C so about 185F. Plenty for our aquariums

Have to zoom in to really see any of the fish or shrimp A few of the shrimps

Thanks, and the shrimp are doing fantastic! Several berried shrimp, and I've seen a few shrimplets

My clown killi colony dwindled due to a heater failure (got cold), but has started to bounce back. However, I noticed several of the new crop of male killis seem to have skinny under-developed needle-like caudal fins, making it harder for them to swim. I'm wondering if this is a genetic issue, since females don't seem to be affected. Any ideas? Should I remove males with the under-developed tails? Under-developed tail left, more normal right (on the left there is a smaller male in front of a female. Wider tail rays are on the female) Skinny tail male Female (hard to see tail, but you can make out the rays. Appears fine) Several males

The Kessil Tuna Sun lights are supposed to be pretty amazing

I've wondered if you could use egg crate or some other plastic mesh to stop fish from digging up plants. Has anyone tried that? Might be a fine line between deep enough to hide, and shallow enough to let runners do their thing

A Stiphodon species of goby that could be bred in home aquaria. Part of their life cycle is in saltwater, and they don't live all that long. So being able to breed them in the home aquarium would be awesome. Same goes for nerites and amanos. Why must some of the coolest species need to be in the ocean at some point of their life cycle?

I also use boiled oak leaves. They seem to work good, and last a surprisingly long time in my aquarium. (Also the redbelly dace are looking amazing @Fish Folk)

I believe it is the Turquoise Darter Etheostoma inscriptum, and am unsure on the specific species of shiner. Yellowfin and Saffron shiners should be native to the area, but the ones we have seen don't look exactly like either when colored up, but could be a regional color morph of either? I have not set up a spray bar before, but was planning on using an internal filter with a spray bar, with a sponge filter for additional filtering/aeration/backup. Terrible photo, but these are the shiners we saw last summer. There was a cluster like this every 50ft as far as we could walk. Shame I wasn't into fish at the time. We assumed they were trout fry or something lol Looks like there is a color morph of the yellowfin shiner that, ironically, has white fins and head when colored up. So probably those. And this is the turquoise darter, for those interested

Hmm I have a 40 breeder I was planning on using. Is that too small? And good call, I was planning on testing the water with the ACO test strips. I doubt temps will be a problem, because outdoor temps go from regularly over 100F in the summer to winter temps below 20F. I know water temps are different, but still.

Does anybody have any experience with collecting darters? I recently learned that there are some beautiful native fish in my area, and am planning on putting together a darter and shiner tank, but have never gone collecting before. The streams in question are rocky with sand and gravel bottoms with moderately fast moving water with only occasional clumps of vegetation or algae in slower sections of bends. From my research, the fish I'm interested in have stable populations, aren't protected, and can be legally collected with a standard fishing license. I plan on collecting from a creek that runs through a friends property where we have seen beautiful shiners in mind boggling numbers. So I think I'm in the clear as far as legality is concerned. I would also appreciate any tips for keeping darters and shiners in general!

Has anybody tried using dark tinted window frost? It's a thing that exists, and might give better depth than the normal glossy black. Also I wonder how it would look putting some slate tiles behind an aquarium. I know it can look good in the aquarium, but not sure if it would look good or a bit cheesy behind.

Adding my experience to this, I just had mine get to the "starts working again if you hit it" phase after 4 months of use. Hanging on the rim of a 10 gallon, no check valve, and adjusting flow/pressure with a valve attached to a T, bleeding off excess to atmosphere. Upon disassembly, I also found some nylon shavings, and no indication of lubricant of any kind. But the off-center hole not yet significantly enlarged or disformed. I cleaned out the shavings and applied some teflon lubricant to the offset hole and shaft. It now starts up without percussive maintenance and is now working at a significantly higher rpm. I will now use it as a backup air source rather than primary, and periodically monitor it. If the wear continues and becomes progressively problematic, I may experiment with making a bushing for it. Also, has anyone opened up the new co-op air pump yet? Would like to know its construction and possible longevity issues or the possibility of maintenance and repair. I know the co-op is good about replacing faulty units, and disassembly voids any kind of warranty. But personally I would always rather repair a device than replace it.

@Pepere I have also had success shortening my cycle to about a week using a 1/4 cup of the darkest richest soil I could find in my yard, and that's free! As long as you're sure there aren't any pesticides/fertilizers/etc

Yeah you should be fine, injecting co2 into a filter's impeller is a pretty established method. If you have fish in the tank just check your PH, and run an airstone at least at night, if not all the time. From my experience with my 15gal, it's way too easy to throw stuff out of wack with co2

Yeah water changes can be bad news for shrimp. Of my two tanks, I can only manage to keep them in one. And I do that by doing zero water changes on the tank with shrimp, and top off with water from my other tank. Any time I've tried to do a water change with shrimp, I get deaths even with as small as a 5% water change dripped in if it's just dechlorinated tap water. But maybe my tap water is just unusually hostile for shrimp

Depending on the fish, some of the fast fish won't eat food off the bottom, but the slower ones might. In that case some fast-sinking food might do the job. Also you may find that some fish prefer some kinds of food, and be less eager to go for others, so feeding a mix can give the slower fish time to take the less preferred food. Other than that, the usual recommendation of feeding opposite sides, feeding in stages, etc.

That is interesting. It could be that your water is already high in dissolved gasses, so the pressure changes caused by the pump are causing some of the gas to come out of solution, being the bubbles you are seeing. Not sure why it would only be happening every few minutes, maybe it's pooling in the top of the pump until reaches capacity and is blown out with the water?

I had to glue rocks to mine to keep them down. On one of the pieces the glue came off, and the piece floated up after 3 months in the tank ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Seems like most clear shrimp turn that pink/orange pretty quickly after passing. I've never had amanos, but I've seen it happen with ghost shrimp, and shrimp from a brackish creek I grew up on.

If you are trying to gravel vac a tank that is low to the ground, you could look into using a powerhead to provide the suction for the gravel vac

Link to the thread @lefty o mentioned

How hard are we talking? According to Seriously Fish, Bronze Corydoras are tolerant up to a PH of 8 and 268 PPM of GH. For comparison, panda corys are stated to be tolerant up to a PH of 7.4 and 214 PPM of GH.

From my experience, a tank can be "cycled" almost immediately if you move substrate, filter, and water from an established tank. When I set up a new 10 gal, I used some gravel, water, and a sponge filter from my 15 gal, making sure neither the gravel nor sponge dried out. Despite having new driftwood and botanicals, and "ghost feeding" the tank for two weeks, neither ammonia nor nitrite increased above zero, and nitrate stayed in the ~25ppm range. Still, I would recommend against stocking immediately unless you're up for daily testing and water changes if necessary. For the "10 gallon filter" in your 20 gal, if the tank is moderately planted and lightly stocked, it is unlikely to be a problem. Many established planted aquariums can get away with no mechanical filtration, but it is still best to have an airstone or some form of surface agitation for oxygenation.

Figure if anything it's a source of calcium or buffer that I'd otherwise have to add anyway. Unless it's an eyesore, I can't imagine it being a detriment to anything.