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So to start off i am currently invested in 4 tanks ranging from 5.5 up to 30 gal. Been in the water about 2.5 years now, Dang carnival goldfish got my 2 year old and I at the time.. stopped on the way home got the cheapo acrylic 6.5 walmart tank with a lid and a 10 gal filter.. oh man did i not know how bad my wallet would hurt from the time i opened google upon getting home and now, but wouldnt trade the hobby and how much its brought into my life even it seems to take up more hours of my weekends then id like its worth it! Starting off I have my 5.5 my intro to plants... beeen through alot of growing pains in that tank. Equipment is a Hygger auto timer light (little lcd screen most all my lights are), a sicce nano internal, and and a ziss airstone, no heater (77-79f). This lovely rectangle housed a number of super nano fish over the 1.5 years its been up and running, the current inhabitants are 1 dwarf puffer and 1 oto. yes i know about all the things they both need. I have my reasons and i find them acceptable. the plants i have going in there at the moment is Val, elodea, ludwigia repens (red?), and ludgiwia broadleaf red (dont remeber but its one of my favorite), with salvinia floaters on top, and a peice of drift wood. Up in size from there is my Fluval 15 Flex (scored on FB market place for 65$ and it happens to be a dream tank of mine) its been up for about 4 months now and doing amazing. All standard equipment that comes with the flex with the addition of a hygger 5 gal sponge filter and a Fluval 100w heater (79-80f). This amazing cube is housing a small fully grown (2.5in) polar blue cichlid, 8 ember tetras, and 1m1f sword tail. it also has Val, Anubias Barteri, Asian water fern, ludwigia broadleaf, and a crpyt I was gifted i cannot identify, a couple peices of drift wood. Onward! my 20H has been running a month (recently broke it out of storage). This bad boy my first Aquarium Co-op Course sponge filter!!! hygger double sponge with bio ball container on bottom, and a Fluval U1? 15 gal internal filter, hygger light, cheap amazon adjustable heater (75-78f). This is my least stocked tank... 1 fully grown rescue opaline gourami (5.5-6in). Plants is pretty low too 2 Java Fern and 1 Water sprite (planted) For the finally is my horribly over stocked 30 gal... alright bear with me here and dont yell at me the 20 was suppose to be a community too but someone is a bully.. it has a tetra whisper 60 gal HOB, a 40 gal hygger double sponge with bio ball containers, a aqueon 150w heater (75-78f), and a hygger led light. This is the crazy part but everyone is getting along just fine. 1 polar blue, 1 gourami, 1 clown pleco, 2 yoyo loach, 6 corydora (aneus green), 3 leapord danio, 4 zebra danio, 3 platy, 4 Molly (1M3F). Val, Ludwigia Repens, and a huge Anubia Barteri, and Asian Water Fern. Huge piece of drift wood and river rocks. Yes i could do better but im learning and saving money to do so, as this is a hobby and i have a family so ya know every day is something new and some days are easy, that being said i started this journal to remind myself where im at and where i was when i look back in the future. this hobby is my escape and i love every aspect of it. As my future of an aquarist i want to start to breed Corydoras of all species and also get into more livebearers so far ive seen fry from time to time in the 30 gal but i never see any make it to a good size ( you could guess why huh). Thanks for taking the time to read and give input into my aquarist hobby! (Pics in order of listed) (also some pics are a week or two old so things have changed)

Hey! I’m Rome. (He/him) I’m new to the forum, I’ve been a member of the youtube channel for a while, I’m almost up to my taco badge. 👌🏻👌🏻 A little about me: I’ve been a big fish nerd for maybe forever but wasn’t really in a place to learn and expand my knowledge until the last few years. I was working at Pet Smart when the pandemic hit and as my hours got reduced I just kinda kept adding tanks. 😅 I keep freshwater, saltwater, paludariums, terrariums, basically the whole gambit. I’ve done brackish in the past. I’ll keep my posts focused on my freshwater and freshwater community tanks. 👍🏻 I’m currently going to school to become an aquarium maintenance professional. So like working on the aquariums at the zoo, or large systems in private residences, or retail/business tanks (like the one at my dentists office). Not that I’d be opposed to working at a local fish store either. I’m currently the manager for a halloween store. Spoopy. 🎃 👻 Photo info: Sorry my khuli loach is upside down? I didn’t know how to flip the picture. But I found this gem at a local fish store. She’s a lot chonkier now but I couldn’t get a good pic so this is from the day I got her. Not sure if she’s just a different color morph or exactly why she looks like that, but I thought she was cooli lol. Second pic is my false julii cory cat holding an egg. Never did find where she put it, and it definitely got eaten. But it’s still neat to see how she holds the egg between her fins. So the crab is a tomato vampire crab, technically in my freshwater paludarium, but I love crabs so you get a pic anyway. About to redo that tank because it got overgrown with an invasive plant from a seed pack. (Yes I know seed packs are a scam, but I didn’t know this at the time and I was hoping for some cute aquarium clover. Alas. 🤷) And last but not least, a platy fry. Because when is it not a good time for a cute little fry. Once I move my green spot puffers into their larger tank, I’ll have a free 29g to build a new freshwater community in. I’m looking forward to posting updates about that build as I go. Thanks for reading! I’m excited to be a part of the community. Michigan peeps- Heyo! Rome signing off to hammer apart a lava rock.