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This is where I am going to post the story of the clear aquaponics HOB filter and the AMAZING journey of it. Along with questions about it and what I can add and ideas I came up with to pitch to you guys to see what you think!

story #1(the longest one). Every year my school does a teacher raffle. Students buy tickets and win small prizes like "this teacher brings in donuts" or "you can chalk this teacher's car", and that might seem off topic. Anyway last year, one of the teachers had a GOLDFISH prize. I had a big problem with this, and as i stated it "you are just sending the animals to die, these people don't know how to care for them" of course i was responded with the stereotypical "Its just a goldfish, they can survive in these enviroments". Oh, and everyone knowing i liked fish was asking me if i put tickets into that prize. Me: "No way, i cant care for a goldfish, and im NOT supporting this" After a long bought of complaining, the teacher FINALLY took the prize down. I came in the next day, and it was back up. Of course i went back to the teacher and asked her what had happened. she responded that the prize had been brought back by "popular demand". I responded with my you are just sending the animals to die, these people don't know how to care for them" rant, and the teacher said to make a care sheet that they can send to the parents of the winners. I ended up making a care sheet, (it was flawed now that i look back on it). I suggested large aquariums, and filters, and tried to emphasize DECHLORINATORs. I dont think that sheet ever reached the parents of the winners. A few days later, winners of the goldfish were drawn. (there were a few up for auction). It turned out the teacher had been keeping like 6goldfish in a 1gallon bowl, and SEVERELY overfed them. I went to the goldfish winners and told them i could help, and tried to give them good advise, of course that failed. 2days later i receive an email from one of the goldfish winners, he wrote that "it died overnight" and it turns out the other goldfish suffered the same fate. Of course i instantly ask "did you dechlorinate?" and was responded with a "Filtered water has no chlorine, i looked it up". This is a huge facepalm moment for me, as there is CHLORAMINE as well that you need to worry about. story #2 Last year i went to a sort of nerd summer camp,and one of the courses i was taking was Marine Bio. It turned out the teacher of the class was trying to keep a betta alive. She had a 5gallon tank and seemed to be doing everything right, i thought at first it was the source, as she only had a big box store near her. a few days later i was talking to her about it and i said "I assume you are using dechlorinator and everything" she looked at me and said "No, is that important". I responded that it is very important and she should get some. She also said she was just running the filter to cycle the tank, like the staff said. In this whole process i ended up showing her ACO, and suggested getting some reusable filter media for her tank. Basically she ended up getting some standard "starter" liquid from the big box store, and it worked, last i heard from her (like 7months ago, when camp ended), her betta was doing well. Moral of both stories, dechlorinator saves lives. Does anyone else have any "fun" aquarium related stories to share?

💗Hello everyone!💗 My name is Senna, I am a transgender (She/Her) 21 year old novice aquarist who grew up in Hawaii and has some truly bizarre aquarium experience. I like breeding Bettas. Yeah. The bizarre tale of how I ended up in the aquarium hobby: Back in high school I suffered from intense anger issues and was put into an anger management "home economics" class in the hopes that it will help me deal with it. The funny thing is that this home economics class was just a front for a senior teacher's dream: To own an army of Tilapia. This man, was obsessed with them, had several ponds built into the campus along with giant hydroponic setups with massive vats full of the fish. I am talking hundreds, and all of them were pets. I wasn't allowed to do anything with the fish really, just watch and do manual labor (like feeding or pumping gallons of waste into the runoff vat through PVC pipes) whatever he said went and I spent the better part of two years living in the shadow of the most irritable and stubborn guidance councilor / fish master you could ever imagine. I was truly the Morty to his Rick Sanchez. The living conditions for the fish were perfect! Pristine even (He was a perfectionist), the water was crystal clear with massive custom built filters that this man welded together in each one. He owned 9 of them, all in the back of a public school with a graduation rate of 73%. This man built an ecosystem under the school's very nose until my sophomore year where he did the grand reveal! (Of course the school was thrilled to find out where the school funding was going, turns out, it was all being turned into fish products but I digress.) It took years, my entire high school education actually but once it was finished, the day of reckoning was upon us, and it was time. The epic conclusion: For you see, this man had a dream, a dream so stupid, so bold, and so impractical that it would make any school supervisor shiver in their boots! To put a 55 gallon tank with a single live Tilapia in every classroom on campus without permission. And me being a dubious sniveling teenager with an impulsive disorder OF COURSE I AGREED THAT THIS IS THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION. Over a period of six months (including two in summer) we filled up the entire school agricultural warehouse with dozens of tanks, most of which he cut and made out of resin and glass himself. (45 in total.) and once the coast was clear, we were on the move! For you see, I had gotten my friend group of scrawny awkward misfits to agree in helping me move the tanks. We would duck into classes mid session and deliverer each one along with the inline filtration system that he had custom fitted to screw into the classroom faucets. And you know what? With the combination of a single old golf cart and sheer mortal will the eight of us got it done in only a week. And what is even crazier then all of this, is the fact that everyone everywhere on campus just went about their day, we had done it so smoothly, so perfectly, that the teachers all just thought it was approved, like a bunch of school board members just came together and was like "Ah yes, this school need more fish!" It was only two weeks before I graduated that I found out that the madman that had done all this was retiring only a month after, I was all according to plan, and it was executed perfectly, and it was his magnum opus. I never knew what happened to the fishery, the tanks, or the man since then... but a little part of me hopes its all still there, waiting for the next grouchy old man to rule the tilapia army. Back to me: Fast forward 4 years and here I am, the same old me, the same old problems, living in a motel with my girlfriend in (generic US location here) nowhere with crippling debt. I suddenly said, HEY! You know what we should do! Get a 5 gallon tank! And you know what, I did, and that is how I got here.