AnimalNerd98

I would say it depends on what you’d like to focus on in your dream store. I probably would have a mix of both depending on what I’m stocking. For plant tanks, I would use 20 longs because I would have more floor room. Same goes for if I wanted to sell lots of bottom dwellers in high numbers. For most nano fish and mid-sized fish, I would probably put them in a 20 high.

IME, the solar powered air pumps aren’t really worth it unless you live somewhere where you get full sun year round. The pump I had only worked in direct sun without any clouds. You can either just run a really long air line from a plugged in pump or not even use a pump at all. I have run all my outdoor tubs without air and they have done well for me. The caveat is that if you have green water, it can choke out your fish at night while they take up O2. I have floating plants in all my tubs so there’s never enough light for green water to even start ✌🏻

The Co-Op has an article on it: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/spawning-mop I have both yarn spawning mops and the ricefish spawning mops. Instead of using corks for the yarn mops, I just use a cut piece of pool noodle as the floater.

I keep about a dozen or so blue dwarf shrimp (Neocaridinia) in a 2.5 gallon. It has a fair number of plants with Java fern Windelov, Süsswassertang, and Salvinia minima. Will send a photo tomorrow when the lights are on. The shrimp and ramshorn snails chow down half a green bean a day.

I have been looking for the longest time for a nice brine shrimp sieve. I remember in one of the co-op videos where @Dean’s Fishroomis feeding a bunch of BBS, his sieve was kind of like a cup and I thought that was kinda cool. I hear good things about the Ziss brine shrimp sieve.

Hey! I have some family in Northern California, north of Sacramento. I have been there in the winter so I know how cold it can get! Onto your question, I don’t have any personal experience but I have heard of a rough rule of thumb for calculating the size heater you need for a certain sized tank within a specific temp range. The rule of thumb is it takes about 0.5 watts for every gallon of water to be increased by 1 degree (F). Or: take difference of ambient temp and desired tank temp, multiply it by number of total tank volume in gallons, and divide by 2 (to get number of watts you need). Crunching the numbers, for your 10 gallons: 20x10/2=100 watts In theory, your 10 gallons would need 1 100 watt heater each and the 40 gallon might need 4 heaters. However, I think it may be more cost effective to get your tanks in a smaller and more insulated place within the barn in the mean time. It makes me think about the tour shown on Steenfot Aquatic’s channel where he showed a hobbyist who had a mini fish room in a grow tent. You could do something similar to this: get the tanks in a grow tent or even an insulated shed and heating up the small space instead of heating up each tank individually. Something to consider, good luck! 😊😊

I don’t have a marine water test kit. I just have the Co-Op strips so I guess they’ll have to do: Nitrates 0 Nitrite 0 GH/Hardness (off the scale, 300+) Buffer/KH 40 pH 8 Chlorine 0

Day 13 update: More of the shrimp have that bent look to them. They have also taken on a reddish-bronze color.

You have a couple options: 1) You can get the pre-made ones at big box stores or Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/RA-AquaTech-Acrylic-Aquarium-Divider/dp/B08HYRTZ46/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=dividers+for+aquarium&qid=1663989972&sr=8-2 2) You can also build your own, I personally like this design best. It uses PVC tubes, connectors, and for the netting you can use cabinet matting (gives a more snug fit in the aquarium).

What are the other tank inhabitants? If possible, you can set up a temporary tank divider until the fry hatch and you can siphon them out to a different tank to raise up.

Who’s going to be following along for Spy x Family Season 2 when it comes out in October? 🙋🏻‍♂️

Fry will have an endless food source. You can use this to feed daphnia cultures too! Adult fish also love green water, especially for fish that are not from clear water conditions. I remember in the old tour of Lamont’s fish room, he talked about how he put his rescue bettas in his green water tank and they would come out colored up and fattened up. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EDCPFTi72io&t=1819s

Welcome John! Thanks for sharing your story! I think we all have those experiences where we got something not knowing how big they can get! For me, it was red eared slider turtles. Keep us updated on the the 90 gallon tank.

Cory talked about how the Co-Op root tabs are enriched and mineralized top soil. They do contain nitrogen-containing compounds, but if they are planted deep enough, they shouldn’t cause any noticeable spikes, especially if you add plants at the same time. However, if you want to be safe, you can always just set up the aquarium first with only plants and the root tabs in the substrate. Test the water over the course of a week or so before planning on getting some inhabitants.

Not in my experience. I wouldn’t just dump the whole bag of water from the store into the tank, but I haven’t heard about diseases being transferred from shrimp to fish or vice versa. Also, I’ve found that shrimp don’t really populate well if they are added after the fish (not if you’re trying to start a colony from less than 10 individuals). Usually, people let the colony of shrimp become established first before adding any fish, but it can be done! It might just be slow.

There could be a couple things, here’s what comes to mind: 1) The temp might be a little toasty for them. I think they can tolerate up until 85 F, but in my experience with my own shrimp and tanks, they seem to be most active at temps around 70-75 F. 2) If there is anything predatory in the tank like angels or an aggressive betta, they might be beating on them lower in the tank. They might not be killed, but they are getting hassled enough that they are chased up into the floating plants.

Let me know if you can’t find any locally… 😉

Saw these today at one of my LFS and thought of you @Fish Folk At Aquatic Evolution LLC in Utah.

Yeah, it can kind of spread out across the tank. Usually people see it start on their new wood, which is why I asked 😛 The antibiotics may have done something by killing off some of the beneficial bacteria, allowing other organisms in the tank to colonize and proliferate

I go bare bottom, but I keep floating plants or dunk my vining plants like pothos or philodendron in there to help with nitrogenous waste control

This looks like a kind of water mold/fungus. Did you recently add in any new pieces of wood? Regardless, it shouldn’t be harmful, but unsightly. It should clear up on its own, but you can also remove it manually or stir it up in the water column and do a big water change. Here is a video on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVYs4VtZUD0&feature=emb_imp_woyt

I have this dilemma with my CPD's. I have several fry growing up, but not enough adults to sell off. Here are some options: 1) I use a plastic tub as my quarantine for new fish and a grow-out when I don't have any new fish. It is functional but an eyesore. This may prevent you from just turning it into another community tank by using something that works for the short term, but ultimately you'll take down because it's not great to look at. After they grow out and you take it down, you can just use the box to store other fish stuff and use it as a quarantine when something gets sick or you get new fish. 2) If you have enough adults and are not particularly attached to them, sell off the parents and just raise up their fry in their stead. If you're not doing any intensive line breeding, I think this is a great option. You could also just select the few individuals you want to keep and sell off the less good-looking or desirable ones back to the fish store.

This looks like hair algae to me. What type of light do you have and how long does the light run every day? Also, what do you have in the tank in terms of plants and fish/other inhabitants? Here is what it says on the Co-Op Blog for algae: They’re generally caused by an excess of certain nutrients (such as iron), too much light, or not enough nutrients (to match the long lighting period). Therefore, try decreasing your lighting period, increasing fertilization, or decreasing iron. Siamese algae eaters, amano shrimp, molly fish, and Florida flagfish are good candidates to use as clean-up crew. You can also help them by manually removing large clumps using a toothbrush. I would try to manually remove as much as possible and employ some of the algae eaters listed in the article. You can also dose Easy Carbon (it won't kill it all at once), but will limit additional algae growth. I recently got a Florida flagfish to clean up some of my plants. I also have amano shrimp and platies in my planted 20 gallon that gnaw on this type of algae.

Nice! I intermittently play Pokemon Go, haha! I download during the school year, but I stop in summer because there's no one on campus. I collected cards, but I never actually learned how to play. Nice! My favorite is Greninja 🙂

This works fine, but if you have plecos, they can suck holes through these kinds of fabric. Recently, I've been looking at breeder boxes that you can hang on the side of the aquarium like this: 1) https://www.amazon.com/Marina-Hang-On-Breeding-Box-Large/dp/B005QRDCP2/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=m70Lq&content-id=amzn1.sym.8cf3b8ef-6a74-45dc-9f0d-6409eb523603&pf_rd_p=8cf3b8ef-6a74-45dc-9f0d-6409eb523603&pf_rd_r=YHC9Y39ZZA6R2VEAV7ZW&pd_rd_wg=KSied&pd_rd_r=532291b6-09aa-4734-95ee-0fbc78e90e6b&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mi 2) Cheaper Option: https://www.amazon.com/ISTA-IF-648-Hang-Separation-Breeder/dp/B07F12T5VP/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ista+breeder+box&qid=1663726910&s=pet-supplies&sprefix=ISTA+breeder%2Cpets%2C149&sr=1-1 If you are looking for something to hang inside the aquarium, the Ziss Breeder Box seems like a good option. They also made a video of Dean setting one up. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/ziss-premium-breeder-box Finally, if your fish are a bit larger and you want something cheaper and more DIY, there is also a video on a DIY fry trap.