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Is there a specific epoxy that you intend to use. A quick search turns up some epoxies that are identified as aquarium safe, even some that are marketed as aquarium epoxy. I don't want to make a blanket statement, but if you propose a specific epoxy, I can help research.

@JessLynne7 I do not have much experience with heaters. I don't even remember the last time I had a heater in one if my tanks. I do own one, because it was part of a kit when I started back into the hobby. The m50 is a 50W heater. You stated that it will not maintain a temperature of 78 degrees. What size is your tank? What is the room temperature? If the heater cannot maintain 78 degrees, it will not maintain a higher temperature. The way most prefer to use the ink bird, it is a failsafe to keep a stuck heater from running away and boiling your fish.

There are popular tropical fish that are not very colorful. There are fish from the southern states that are fine with warmer water. I see two reasons that are hard to separate. Collection regulations, and desire for the exotic. I have heard that US native fish are more popular in Europe than here in the US. Who, besides a nerm like me, would brag about having a tank full of fish they caught in the canal in the back yard. Most would rather have something from distant lands. The farther away the better.

I was taught to use boiling water and an ice bath to calibrate the readings of a thermocouple. It all depends upon the accuracy that you need. I could have really overfeed with a discussion of heat flow, short cycling, and hysteresis. 😀

@JessLynne7, in normal situations you would want the ink bird at a higher setpoint as a failsafe. I assume this is not a new heater, but one that you have been using. How well has it been maintaining the temperature? There are many factors that impact the operating band of a heater, and it is good to know what that band is before you start changing things. Set the ink bird setpoint really high and watch what temperatures you normally see at the ink bird temperature probe with the heater doing all the controlling. Then you can adjust the ink bird setpoint down to just above the high end of the "normal" band. As a bad example to illustrate the concept, suppose you had a Lousy brand heater that maintains a +/- 5 degree band. When you set this Lousy heater to 75 degrees, it will let the temperature drop to 70 degrees, then it will come on and heat up to 80 degrees before shutting off. If you then hook this up to an ink bird with an upper setting of 78 degrees, you will see the ink bird shut off at 78 degrees before the heater shuts off at 80 degrees.

No, I have caught and kept the Bluefinned Killifish, at least until the gang of Mosquitofish murdered them. I have seen them larger than the Bluefinned Killifish. They seem to the same torpedo'ish body style, but a bit rounder. I cannot any color (only black, grey, and browns) anywhere but a baby blue on the tail. It appears that the full tail is blue, but they won't stay still long enough. And, there is too much glare to get a picture.

Out of curiosity, I threw the fish trap in the canal overnight. This morning I had a crayfish and a Sailfin Molly. That is the first time for either of them. But no sign of the mystery blue tail fish. You said that before I sent you the link to the Florida native freshwater fish.

Basil is listed as suitable for DWC aquaponics. There are red and purple varieties.

One of the scientific papers you brought to the discussion indicated that 443ppm was a safe level for Zebra Danio. I have no scientific data to add to the discussion. Anything else is anecdotal.

Have you seen this?

Good luck. Unexpected fry is so exciting. I had a pair of Zebra Danios in a tank I was setting up for a shrimp tank. Two days after moving them out and the shrimp in, I had Zebra Danio fry all over the place. I am setting up another tank to move the larger Zebra Danio fry since they are getting big and I am afraid for future shrimplets.

I have a pair, 1 male and 1 female, and I have not seen any problems. I have read that adding a second female would give some respite from the male's affections. I think having 2 males would require a larger tank with broken sight lines such that each male could stake out some territory. I do not remember who, but someone here reported some aggressive behavior towards other tankmates.

I think you are getting hung up on the differences between a general rule, species specific information, and absolute statements. There are very few absolute statements. There can be many exceptions to general statements. Sometimes there are more exceptions than adherents to the general statement, but the general statement is useful to explain a concept without getting bogged down in the details of every species. Using a general rule of an 80ppm upper limit and a 50% change to bring it down to 40ppm (assuming 0ppm source water) is useful to teach techniques that can then be extended to adapt to your specific conditions/requirements (25pp source water, or 10ppm species needs). I can find several sources that will tell you to feed your fish once a day. That is a decent general rule. I can find species (or age ranges) that require several feedings every day. I can also find species that might only eat once a week or so. In nature, at times the food may be readily available for the fish to graze when they feel like it. Other times the food may be scarce and it is a feeding frenzy to got it while it is available. These differences may be seasonal and the changing conditions may induce breeding. Are the sources saying to feed once a day being irresponsible, or are they providing a useful general guideline? It is the hobbyist's responsibility to research the fish that they are wanting to keep. Not only to understand the needed water parameters, but also to learn about behaviors, scaping preferences, and other special needs. It is also important to understand interaction with tank mates, and stocking levels (both supported by you tank, and species socialization. It would be nice to have sales associates knowledgeable in aquarium husbandry or nermology, but that is not always the case.

From the summary A nitrate concentration of 10 mg NO3-N/l (USA federal maximum level for drinking water) can adversely affect, at least during long-term exposures, freshwater invertebrates (E. toletanus, E. echinosetosus, Cheumatopsyche pettiti, Hydropsyche occidentalis), fishes (Oncorhynchus mykiss, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, Salmo clarki), and amphibians (Pseudacris triseriata, Rana pipiens, Rana temporaria, Bufo bufo). 10ppm nitrate-N = 44.3 Nitrate in our test kits Oncorhynchus mykiss = Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus tshawytscha = Chinook salmon Salmo clarki = Cutthroat trout I don't know anyone keeping these in their aquariums, but this paper indicates that they are quite sensitive and can be negatively impacted by long term exposure to levels basically half of the generally accepted guidelines. Note that these fish are all stream dwellers that need pristine conditions. They would are some of the most sensitive species.

@Aubrey had one.

This paper? From the summary on https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848616309115 A safety level of 100 mg L-1 nitrate-N is recommended for rearing of juvenile zebrafish A level of 100ppm nitrate-N is equivalent to 443ppm Nitrate from our test kits. I think a level of 80ppm is safe.

I hear stories from the olden days when there were tropical fish farms in the small town I grew up in. They were basically growing the fish in man made ponds dug as long trenches. After a heavy rainstorm there would be tropical fish swimming in the ditches and storm drains.

As @modified lung pointed out, when reading the scientific papers we must be careful to know and understand what form(s) of Nitrogen they are testing and reporting. The 80ppm number referenced is equivalent to 18ppm in the scientific papers. Also keep in mind that different species of fish will have different tolerances. There are some fish that live in pristine mountain streams where any wastes are quickly washed downstream, and there is not much upstream to be sending wastes down to them. There are some fish that live in areas that flood with the seasonal rains, but live in basically a mud puddle during the dry season. The native exposure to Nitrates varies with the location. There is no rule that applies to every fish, but you can make a general statement that applies to most fish. If you are keeping fish with specific needs, you need to understand and provide for those needs instead of the general statements.

Have you seen this resource? https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/florida-fishes-gallery/?_sft_status=native-freshwater

Many times out tanks are trying to tell us something is wrong, but we have to be paying attention and recognize it.

How's this?

Thanks. Every week I get that view as I am trimming the PSO and Bacopa. Any stems that would reach above the low water mark get trimmed back, with the clipping being replanted here or in another tank. I spend a lot of time on a stool looking down and looking from the side. I look from the side to find the stem to trim, but I have to cut and replant from above. The 37g is a bit too tall for me, but I wanted more water than the 29g. There is some form of Bacopa looking something in the canal in the back yard. I am always looking at that stuf from above. My first cut at this Community Therapy tank (no pictures 🙁) was with all flora and fauna collected from the canal. The wild Bacopa looked a bit different and didn't grow well. At least not better than the wild algae that tagged along with my collection. I was also trying to use the light that came with the tank kit.

I see the film and BBA on the Java Fern. The film could be early cyanobacteria. On the wood, the white film is most likely just the normal biofilm from sugars and such. I've had it form on spider wood when I first put it in the tank. A change in the tank could release more. Was the green algae on the wood before?

Here you go: https://apifishcare.com/pdfs/products-us/ammonia-test-kit/api-ammonia-test-kit-solution-1-safety-data-sheet.pdf https://apifishcare.com/pdfs/products-us/ammonia-test-kit/api-ammonia-test-kit-solution-2-safety-data-sheet.pdf

The pH buffer material would definitely corrupt the pH test if there was cross contamination during shipment and storage. There could possibly even be a concern for contamination in the production of the strips.