nabokovfan87

If you're having issue with space, I would just leave them in the tank where they were laid. They will eat off mulm and they will typically hide and come out at night. If you're specifically trying to raise / keep a lot more corydoras, that's when you'd want to pull the eggs and hatch them to increase your yields.

Finding a new rim is basically going to be the issue.

Lol, very healthy looking oto!

Nice! What is the plan? Depending how beat up they are, I just clean it normally.

I would have.... Green Tiger barbs Probably a very similar size school of Odessa Barbs white clouds Slate Corydoras Zebra Loaches 1 BNP 10+ Otos tons and tons and tons of amanos And something to add some color! (nano fish) Plants.... I would have a ton of anubias, especially the taller ones. I would have a good amount of stems, and this might be a tank that PSO can go nuts in and be contained. I would have val across the middle, Buces in front of that, S. Repens on the sides of that. It's an awesome canvas for sure! Choosing the right place for things is a great little task / challenge in terms of the scape!

@Patrick_G Totally curious what you mean! I have a few, very rotund otos 😂

I have a 29G I want to move slightly right. I just really, really, really don't want to stress the tank / fish out and it's a whole thing. I totally understand. It's a setback, but.... long term, you'll be happy about it!

Hello @Tabatha Welcome to the forums. I would suggest trying to remove that from the surface by removing the plant and then trying to clean it. It could be the plastic underneath the paint, the finish coming off the plant? It could be some sort of a coating developing due to algae / lighting and if that is the case it would be a bit easier to remove outside of the tank with a toothbrush or something similar. Do you see this only on this specific plant or many of them? Is it directly under the light? Is it on any other surfaces?

I understand what you're talking about. I am just saying... the media chamber is doing the same exact thing as a lift tube. If you want to mod it, get a 3d printer and measure the opening on the top of the ziss, make a custom lid. Easy to do it because you can use the measurements on the existing piece. You will need a pretty tall tank, and then just add a grill / guard at the base of the lid so the media stays below the modified cap. This is similar to what the ziss has now. The cap has a pathway for the water to escape as well as the grill to keep the media from blocking that path.

🤔 Question.... Were you placing all these tanks on the same surface and they broke one after another after another? Prior to buying them, in the shop are you checking the seams and checking the silicone health? Leak tests? I am trying to understand to figure out what on earth has caused such a string of bad luck! I'm sorry you're had such a bad experience, that is 100000% not the norm.

I've heard too many stories of fluval tanks with issues. Depending which one you're looking at, I would research "(tank name) issues" into google and see what comes back. In terms of cost and buying a nice setup, I would go to the other big box store, get a black metal stand (imagitarium brand) and whatever tank you want on the 50% off sale. I'd grab a versatop lid, and then order a pump, airstone, filter, gang valve, easy green, and some plants from the co-op. That would be my starter kit of choice! I would easily recommend a 20L/29G as a "my first tank" especially given you can get a decent stand for pretty cheap. Same thing with a 40 breeder if you have space. I would much prefer that setup compared to a 10G tank.

It is definitely the biggest drawback for me when I see kits. The marineland kit, I don't even think it came with a filter, but the tank itself was amazing quality and I loved the setup. (38g bowfront, I wish it was rectangular) The nice thing is you get a filter, but the biggest issue for me is usually that it's often undersized and missing basic features. There are some that come with "better quality" filters, but in general there isn't one kit tank that comes with a filter out of the box, ready to go. (even aquaclears). I also think, more often than not... The filter you're getting isn't the right size for the tank. This goes back to "missing features" so to speak. If all the filters had adequate flow control, it would mean less of them needed to exist. If they simply replaced the HoB with airline, sponge filter, and an airpump, then you'd probably be slightly better off. 10G tank, I'm usually going to run a "20-30 gallon" filter. 20G tank, I'm usually going to run a "50 gallon" rated filter. 30G tank, I'm usually going to run a "50 gallon" rated filter. 40G tank, I'm usually going to run a "70 gallon" rated filter. There's a lot of reasons for this, but it all goes back to when I install the filter into the tank, stock it, what does the filter perform and does that meet what I expect for the fish. I don't think I'd ever recommend, especially for a beginner hobbyist, to walk out of a store buying a tank, without having an air pump, air hose, air stone, check valve

I just wish I had a better method. I have a soldering iron somewhere around here....

Depending where you got the tank, call the manager and they will likely swap it out for you. Depending on the store policy, or manager themselves. Worst case is you just buy the replacement and take the one you have back. I would swap it out. Especially given it's on the side panel and those tend to move under load. If it's on the front / back glass, definitely swap it out. If it's on the side, you might have a lower risk.

I can get that think pumping pretty fast. I understand what you're saying, but I think you may inadvertently be experiencing some issues you're not aware of and don't know to alleviate them. I would think that a "giant" or rectangular or slightly bigger shape for a moving bed filter will be a lot more effective at working as a solo filter. The first thing mentioned in the thread was how I specifically do not recommend these as your only filtration. Running 2+ of them, probably fine, but one.... it's a little easy to clog them up. The lift tube on the ziss is the entire green plastic tube. It's not what you think of when you use that word, but the actual "tube" itself is the filter and all the media lives inside that tube. The flow is done with air, just like any other use case for that filtration method.

I almost got the mod desk clean to work on modding a Tidal 75. An attempt was made. Whatever need be, I got you covered 🙂 EASY project.

This is the only reason why I have em, I want that crazy good bacteria!!! Ah, very interesting engineering issue. There is quite a few different media types, I don't really view that as a drawback, but just a facet of this type of a filtration method. I did try to "add more" of the media and I have looked into getting some other media to play around with it and see if I like it better. I did notice that specifically with the ziss, because it doesn't really have a robust intake and because of some of the design choices, these is a lot of crud that can get into the media chamber. I use a little strainer and rinse it off on deep cleanings, keep the media wet but that's where you run into this slowdown of flow over time. It's such an interesting design for me. Even if it was stuffed with sponge and used for chemical filtration, it has a ton of use cases. It's a pretty decent design and it will hold up and last a really, really long time. I appreciate the information, question for you, have you ever used or worked with the sponge based "moving bed media"? I think for hobbyist use the place to get it is from brightwell. Again, it's just a different method to try to replicate that same atmosphere. I don't know how well it would work in comparison.

The green container is your lift tube. If you want more flow just add more air. If you are having issues (apart from just unhappy with it, I totally understand that!) Please feel free to send me a video of your setup with flow on a message so I can better help in any way. I haven't had many issues, but I have thoroughly tested them in various setups.

I assume boiling it "helps" but doesn't guarantee anything. I have never used dechlorinated water.

That's just some beautiful photos of a gorgeous fish!

There was some cool stuff that I think it was @Chick-In-Of-TheSeawas using for the HoB from etsy where it hooks into the output and does a baffle, awesome little thing. That's a great route to go as well. The issue with the tidal was the flow in, it's actually extremely easy to adjust the flow out if need be. I would seal the skimmer at minimum. The mid-level skimmer might be "fine" but it's better to just seal it and then fix the actual inlet tube opening. If you have plants, I'd seal the midlevel one. In my use, I don't think most fish will have any issues with the mid or lower skimmers. My tiger barbs had a ton of issues with the skimmer. I hated going to sleep because they'd just be asleep and get stuck. Constantly.

1000000% ricefish.

Black silicone works well on the skimmer. But that leads to emphasizing the midwater skimmer, which just means you have to seal that as well. Photos are all in the tidal thread. I haven't had any issues with either. You're already running the prefilter sponge so you're set to go. A. Fix the skimmer just by sealing it, not required. B. Fix the intake (Dremel out or drill out the plastic chunk on the pump housing that restricts flow on the intake tube) C. Seal the mid level intake with the silicone. D. Run a prefilter sponge. Optionally drill holes on the bottom of the intake tube. Yeah, definitely an issue. Smallest fish I kept was white clouds with tidal 75s. They didn't have any issues long term. I only had one, so not a great example. The skimmer usually goes after wide/flat body fish.

I went to clean it out today... I just don't understand some design choices. I generally don't like prefilters because it's a hassle to clean. At this point it's mandatory until I get the plants functional and growing. Plant leaves go into the pump and that causes issues. 😞 But, I was cleaning it today and there was an issue there the sponge was compressed against the back glass and the flow got choked out. This left a not so nice smudge of gunk and trying to get the bag over the sponge, well I'll just let you imagine how dirty the water got. I lean the filter back or literally just remove the intake tube to clean it. I haven't found a good method, especially when the filter and glass is so tight on the sponge.

Well done to the ACO team! That is awesome. Your tank looks great and the fish look fantastic. The one with the spots is super interesting!!!