nabokovfan87

The tank looks great. I would try to start slow. Especially considering that you want to have shrimp. Neocaridina is an option (GH might be slightly low), but any questions regarding their care I would immediately recommend checking out marks shrimp tanks on YouTube. Given the situation though, I think my suggestion would be to do something like otocinclus, amano shrimp, and white clouds. It'll be a single species tank in terms of the centerpiece fish with some cleaners, but you're talking a very beautiful, easy to care for fish. They would do well for you and it's a great place to start and learn. I would recommend doing an off-gas test and getting a GH/KH test kit to verify what you're seeing on the strips. If you're planning to keep shrimp, it's a great tool to have on hand as well. Off gas test meaning, that you simply take water from the faucet, aerate it for 24 hours with an air stone, then go ahead and test for everything. This would be what you'd expect the tank parameters to balance out to.

You wouldn't want or need to swap out the foam on an aquaclear. It's pretty good foam as standard. At most, you would want to add a prefilter. This turns the intake into a course sponge, the internal sponge is "medium" porosity and would be cleaned as normal. The change back to the standard foam should increase your mechanical filtration and potentially resolve the issue. You're not doing anything wrong. Really. It's just about density. There isn't enough layers and enough medium - fine filtration to polish that water off. You have a very thin layer of fine pad that is trying to do all the work.

I saw this video and maybe it fits a bit about where you're at right now. It's a unique approach by someone in the hobby who works at a shop and has the ability to do this video. The nice thing about the hobby is that there is a lot of different ways to achieve the tank setup. Maybe there is a space for a tank and a stand. You get a stand and all you really need is to move the flex you already have. Very straightforward! If you want a tank specifically in that spot, I would check out this video. It's a kitchen setup. It gives you an idea of how to position the equipment and what sort of equipment works well for that space. For me personally, it's a bit easier to visualize and fill in the construct of the plan if I have that understanding of what I want to do and what the needs are. Hopefully the above two videos help with context and filling in some of the visual gaps! As for the flex, if you don't already, please go check out a channel called pecktec. He's a really chill, easygoing person and has almost every flex and spec tank you can think of with years of content on those products. I would recommend getting a stand. It's very likely the counter will crack or something will fail. Most countertops can take some weight, but installation quality is all over the place. Better to buy a stand then remodel the kitchen. There is also a white version. Hagen HG Fluval Flex 15g Aquarium Stand Black, AHG15015 https://a.co/d/bKEnNfD For information clarity only.... as mentioned above, I would relocate the tank.... Yes you can have the light above a glass lid. The rimless tanks have a gap around the edge and that can damage some lights. It will not cause issues with lights that are certified to handle it. The coop light and the fluval lights are certified for this. They also have lights for rimless tanks that lift up on an edge mounted gooseneck and would be safe to use. They also have lights that come with "feet" called risers that would be safe to use as well.

My favorite tank was one that I had basically setup, loved it, and then it fell apart so fast. I am working right now on "version 2" of this tank and it's not anything where I have a decent photo at this time. Again, I've had some success, but it also seems like it's fallen apart! Anyways, it's my 75G aquarium. Ghostwood hardscape, seiryu stone, and lots of stem plants. Right now it's pretty much disassembled, but the plan is to have bucephalandra as well anubias on the hardscape. I plan to take the back glass and have a susswassertang wall. I want to have some pretty nice gradation of colors on the stems and focus on having species in sections. The tank looks pretty phenomenal, it's black, dramatic, dark, and the bright colors from the fish and stem plants will do wonders. Even deep green shows up as a very bright pop of color against the hardscape. It'll get there.... one day at a time.

You can feed a small amount of powdered food at night. They should be pretty active after lights out. They will graze on surfaces, so having the food in there in such a way will help to make sure they have what they need. I just use repashy powder, but here's another method as well. Once a week or so with the powder stuff. I tend to only do that when I see baby shrimp or I see a female with eggs that she's released. If you overdo it, can be a bad thing. Essentially, let's say I'm feeding the adults 3x a week, maybe 4. I just replace on of those with a powder day.

Grab 1 big boy of whatever brand you like. Look up the sicce syncra nano series of pumps and then something like the Fluval spraybar kit. You have the pump in the tank and then you just get some tubing to attach it to the bar, circulation done.

yes that is way too high. Temps should be 76-78 at most.

Yeah, it looks like the bent spine is now forming and getting worse. What do you think? @Colu@ @Odd Duck

Put it to the floor to the right?

Awesome. Tank looks great!

Not sure why, but a lot of the photos aren't showing up for me in the OP. Maybe it's a thing in you signature block as well? @Creedmoor Aquatics?

I have the same concerns. Honestly, you can get a pretty cheap water alarm and set the canister inside of a tote. If you get a lead, you'll know. There's a lot of good benefits.... right now I'm on the "pump + spraybar mod" side of things, but I know a canister is in the cards in future. What I have now works fine, but it doesn't work well enough for me, pump is a bit small, and it's pretty ugly. Maintenance is a prefilter sponge, extremely easy though! Despite a ton of reservations, it's the cheap sump option until I have a tank that can have a stand that has a sump below it. Alarm: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Basement-Watchdog-Battery-Operated-Water-Alarm-Sump-Accessory-BWD-HWA/100038838

The flow is "adjustable" but I swear you need a power hose to clean foam that dense. The media chamber is about the size of a small loaf of bread, seemingly massive. I ended up cutting the foam in half just so it was easier to clean the middle section. That being said.... you might as well really look at the 407/FX2 (or others) just for the sake of it. Price is one thing, but that tank having the center brace does limit a bit of the versatility that a large HoB offers. On end is best, but then you're having custom lids or no tops. That being said.... marineland has big ol filters, but I have no idea on dimensions. One HoB and some sort of air or circulation pump should be fine as well to avoid the cost of two of whatever you end up with. I'm honestly not sure there is a "best" here. Two tidal 75s is real nice, but you definitely want to mod them. Maybe there is something non AC70 that fits and makes like easy, not sure but I can dig if you want me to. I have to research it for my own setup. Yes, mounted on end. Mounted on the back, you need something to push the water across the entire right to left segment of the tank. You'll have dead spots. That's why it was recommended above to run something like a sponge on the right, secondary pump, etc. It'll work, but just really isn't "nice." Guaranteed you'll have a big void in the front of the tank with most AC110 size filters. It's just so strong and a lot of substrate is very light. It took about a day or two for my soil to no longer be capped, the sand moved, the glass exposed. Why they don't have the AC70 made for a 75G tank is a very peculiar mystery, but what do I know.

Won't fit on the tank.

Awesome to hear this little tidbit. I can't explain it at times how interesting it can be for some species only, or species behaviors, in different tank sizes and group sizes. I feel like it's helpful for us as hobbyists to keep this in mind when we make stocking choices, specifically the group size, and just making sure the fish have enough location to keep themselves engaged. I can only imagine how they greet you and how enjoyable that is. 🙂

Option 1. Risk it. Option 2. Off gas the water beforehand for 24 hours Option 3. (For chloramines) UV + offgass the water for about 5-7 days. Option 4. Drive to one of those water machines that takes coins.

Very beautiful little flowers. Congratulations!

That's the 4 foot tank dilemma. Right now, on my big tank, I'm running a single 75 and that secondary spraybar. Plenty of movement. So a single 110 (from whomever) can work. Don't get a tidal though, the reason being attached the end of that tidal testing thread.

I would say so. yes. 36" long light.

Common advice I've heard is two fold. First, make sure you're feeding enough protein for the females to develop the eggs properly. Second, make sure there's more males in the tank to ensure the eggs get fertilized. You should be able to cut the tip of a pipette and use that to pull apart eggs one a time, but I know it's not as easy as it could be. Some species have really sticky eggs.

I'm also from SoCal. Be sure to check out SCAPE if you haven't as well. Welcome to the forums, looking forward to seeing your tanks!

I wish there was a "408" or something slightly stronger than the 407 series. I am in the same situation on my own tank and trying to decide if I improve or change anything. I have one HoB filter (two is better) and then I have a co2 canister with a spraybar across the tank. If you don't have co2, I would just run a single canister (preferably) with a good spraybar setup or two HoBs. It might seem a bit overkill, but the real issue is that the rim on a 75G makes it so you have to use the largest size filters available. The aquaclear 110 will fit, tidal 75 will fit (much more reasonable), marineland I am not sure, other ones I am not sure, but I would opt for something like two of the marineland penguin pro 375s in lieu of a single 450 penguin pro.

One of the best resources is going to be planetcatfish. You can see the visual images here and try to ID something that looks very similar. Hypancistrus: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/genus.php?genus_id=7 Panaqolus: https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/genus.php?genus_id=762 It looks to be a hypancistrus type to me. For comparison sake, here is the page for a clown pleco with a few images to compare it to. It looks like a bit of a nicer species then just a clown to me. Some sort of tiger or other species. https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=734

I am dealing with this right now too! I have to try to hide so much "stuff". Most of the supplies I use day to day is on a small table like what you have to the left or in the stand. I have the big bulky items around the floor/space, but there really.... really isn't a good way to store or have space for those items. I would be so nice if the stands came with "bins" or space for totes. I've got 2-3 fish totes and the really unfortunate thing is that all of those items we need to use, buckets and pythons, pumps, nets, even a small fridge, etc., and there's just no real way to have those in a living space and have it be aesthetically enjoyable. 😞

Due to age of my strips, I ended up replacing the KH+GH tests with liquid versions. I use the strips for nitrates and nitrite though. As far as strips go, tetra I trust, API has always been hit or miss for me.