[Cory question]

Hey all! I just added some Venezuelan orange Corydoras to my community tank and was wondering what a good food for them would be with everyone’s experience, I have been feeding the community Bug Bites tropical formula small granules, but my other fish in the community get to them so fast that there’s hardly any left by the time they would reach the bottom for my Cory’s to eat. Any suggestions on some fast sinking food for them? Thanks in advance!

[Cory queries]

Hey all! ive got a 30 gallon community tank with a couple of mollies, a couple of cardinal tetras and a rubber lipped pleco in it, how could I go about adding some corydoras to the tank? My temp stays right around 78f and my ph stays at 7 or so. which type would work best in this environment? any insight helps!

[Freshwater snails]

Hey all! I am pretty new and looking to add some snails to my freshwater community tank but have no idea which ones to go with that would work with my water, I keep the tank right around 78F, and my PH stays right around 7. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Replacement hood]

On 2/2/2022 at 9:19 PM, Guppysnail said:

I use the standard glass Aqueon with the plastic strip on back that can be cut to any hob needs. Only downside is the black strip in the middle but I never noticed plant issues because of it. They are modestly priced. I do use silicone adhesive not the sticky strip it comes with for the handle though. 

oh sweet! what do you recommend for cutting the plastic to size?

[Replacement hood]

Hi guys! anyone have any good recommendations for a 20 gallon high (24inch) hood? preferably one I can use a HOB filter and fluval plant 3.0 with! I am looking to swap out the hood that came with my tank as its light is pretty awful. Anything helps!

[Newbie filtration question]

On 2/1/2022 at 9:14 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@NicoNico welcome to the forum and the hobby! I started with a 20 gallon Aqueon kit myself- that tank now has 2 sponge filters running but I did actually like the stock HOB (Aqueon Quietflow 10) so I have it running (modified with sponges I put in there and some crushed coral) on my 10 gallon (overstocked) Oto tank- WITH a sponge filter. 

One tip I can give you: what has worked IME is using 2 filters- ALL of my tanks have 2 filters either both sponges or a pump system or HOB HOWEVER (keeping in mind I only have small tanks no bigger than 20 gallons most of them are under)- at least one of the sponges in each of the tanks are supported by an air pump that has a lithium back up battery. Meaning, if the lights go out at my house at least 1 pump in ALL of my tanks continue to run. It's really a stress and lifesaver for me. 

Never thought about it like that! With power outages being somewhat frequent during some parts of the year here that sounds like a great idea! Thanks!

[Pleco problems]

Hi guys! Newbie fish keeper here(only about 6 months in the hobby) and I had a question regarding a rubber lip pleco that I recently added to one of my 20G tanks, firstly small side question, what I found online said that this was a reasonable size to house one of these plecos in, but I second guess everything I find online so was that correct? Now onto the main issue. In this tank I already have some golden panda lyretail mollies and this tank has been doing well since I entered the hobby. I wanted to add a plecostomus to the tank as they are one of my all time favorite fishes and I’ve wanted one since I started. Since my tank cycled a few months back and has been doing really well with ample water parameters for the rubber lip, I finally felt ready to get one. So I went out to my local big box and picked up what I deemed to be (on my limited experience) the healthiest looking one of the bunch. Brought it home and did the usual temp and drip acclimation and he has seemed perfectly okay ever since. The problem is feeding. I’ve never seen him eat! I’ve tried cucumbers, zucchini, potatoes, and most recently a small algae wafer. At night before I turn the light out for the night I place it nearest him inside the small cave like decor that I have that he likes to hide out in during the day. In the morning the wafer is gone but I’m afraid my mollies are eating it because I’ve seen them picking at It before. How can I make sure that he’s not going hungry? I really want to be giving him the best life possible so I worry! Anything would help!

[Newbie filtration question]

On 2/1/2022 at 2:43 AM, 813aquatics said:

I think you are doing things pretty perfectly to start out. If you mod the HOB so that your media includes sponges/polyfil/ceramics you will have far better results than expensive cartridges, like you pointed out. Having the sponge filter doesn't just add additional filtration but it's also a very useful fail-safe if something were to go wrong with your HOB, especially power outages. Losing power to your HOB may mean losing any beneficial bacteria colony housed inside of it and your media. Losing power with a sponge filter doesn't pose the same risk, as it remains submerged. Additionally the sponge filtration will provide excellent aeration which is especially helpful when starting out.

You can't really "overfilter" per say, it eventually just comes down to space and appearances. In my 20L I always use this same setup. When it comes to maintenance you can also rotate between which filter you clean on a given cleaning, allowing your system to experience less stress if you were to accidentally remove or kill a bit of the bacteria on one filter. If you want to further increase the biological and mechanical filtration, you may want to consider adding a coarse pre-filter sponge to your HOB intake. It will also save you maintenance headaches/extend your HOBs life by keeping large particles from damaging your impeller.

Look forward to seeing your tank's progress!

Thank you so much that helps a lot! I too am excited to see what I can do with this tank! I’ve wanted a community tank since I entered the hobby but never had the confidence to start!

[Newbie filtration question]

Hey all! I am pretty new to the fish keeping hobby(started about 6 months ago) and I had what may be a dumb question, but I have a new 20g that I wanted to set up as a freshwater community tank for a very small number of fish/species. I bought an aqueon starter kit from my local big box store and began scaping and setting it up to begin cycling it. With this size of a tank, would having the HOB filter that came with it(with some minor modifications of course as I believe cartridges to be a waste of money) AND a sponge filter be overkill? Like I said this may be a dumb beginner question but I can’t seem to find anything on this. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!