What was your first tank and your newest tank?

[Mydonkeyfish]

What was your first tank, plant (etc.) compared to your newest scape?

I really need inspiration for my 75g...

Thanks so much!

My first tank was a 20 gallon with a tetra filter an air pump and a weird marble substrate. its inhbitant was an electric blue crayfish.(i moved him to a 55.) My newest tank is a 5 gallon shrimp tank with s repens and floaters!

[PineSong]

My first tank as an adult was an inherited 10g with three fancy goldfish in it. I promptly researched "goldfish laying on tank floor" and "goldfish red streaks on fins" after I brought it home, and they moved to a 30 and then a 55 with two giant Aquaclear filters, a couple of foot long bubble wands, and floating plants the fish invariably ate. It was a pretty boring tank for me, but the fish seemed happy.

My newest tank is in the process of being set up. It's a 29g that will house overflow female guppies and female platies from my population explosion in another tank. It will be moderately planted, with one or two Co-op sponge filters and my goal is to keep it free of duckweed, lol. We'll see how that goes.

[Patrick_G]

My first tank was a 5ish gallon guppy tank my mom gave me some in 3rd grade, 1979 or 1980 I think. 

[CT_]

I started with a 5g then quickly upgraded to a 14ish gallon bow front.  I think I later learned that most people get exactly one bow front (ie one and then never again.)  It looks great from far away but close up I feel cross eyed looking in.

 

I just picked up a 12" (30cm) cube for shrimp that I'm filling now! 😉

[FrozenFins]

My first tank was 10 gallons with blue gravel and plastic plants. My first set of stocking was:

• Juvenille Angelfish
• Female Swordtail
• Corydora
• Yellow Glofish
• Later on I added in a pearl gourami and threadfin rainbow. The glofish was given back to the store, and my corydora died after the tank bursted.

Here is my latest scape:

Its a fluval spec 5 gallon that houses a single pea puffer. Planted with Bacopa Monniera, Dwarf Sag, and Cyrptacoryne Undulatus. As well as various species of anubias.

Edited February 13, 2022 by FrozenFins

[Jennifer V]

My first tank was started in December 2020. It's a 10g Tetra kit with four pea puffers that I've had for exactly a year -- woohoo! After I got the pea puffers, I promptly set up a 5g (also a kit) to house snails for the peas. I've been waiting an entire year for the tank to get ready for some neo shrimp that I'm hopefully getting next month. Finally! 

In addition to my shrimp excitement, I'm obsessively planning a 20 long for some cories. I originally thought just pandas, but now I'm thinking maybe pygmy cories too. This time, I'm going to set it up with equipment I pick out myself rather than relying on a kit. It might take a year to finish and get cycled, but I've learned to have a lot of patience this past year. I'm pumped! 

[KaitieG]

My first tank was one of the infamous 1.5 gallon betta setups.  It DID have a filter.  It did NOT have a heater or plants and was cycled cycled.  It led to a dead betta but also to a lot of research to find out everything I did wrong (and which I should have done before buying the fish in the first place).

My newest tank is ironically a 5 gallon eventual betta tank (right now it has a trio of "extra" male guppies).  It has LOTS of plants and has been well cycled before adding anything.  Live and learn I guess.

[Odd Duck]

My first tank was a slate bottom, metal frame, asphaltum sealed (“sealed” being used very loosely in this circumstance), very well used tank purchased as a surprise for my birthday by my parents.  It was very much wanted, so an excellent gift for me.  It was set up in June of 1975 (yep, I’m old).  I made every mistake in the book, I’m sure.

My newest tank, ironically, was also a gift, but from friends getting out of the hobby.  It’s 100 gallons and will be a freshwater angelfish tank if I can get finally get my dry start done for a moss slurry painted on my wood (pseudo roots).  Now that I’m COVID negative, I’ll get my dry start going next week, hopefully on Monday.  Then only another 3-4(?) weeks until substrate and planting, then 3-8 weeks for the first fish.

[Torrey]

My first tank was an old fashioned, slate on the bottom, metal frame, 10 gallon tank. Livebearers, some black mollies, a trio of burnt orange swordtails, and a half dozen guppies.

My mom got it to help explain where babies came from 😅

May have been a little too effective, as when my parents brought home by baby sister, I asked where the rest of them were, or had she eaten them🤣

My newest scape will be revealed on 4/1.🧐

[H.K.Luterman]

My first proper tank was a ten gallon I had in junior high sometime in the early 90s. I have no pics of it, but I remember it had natural looking gravel (kind of brownish) and plastic green plants. The filter was a plastic box type with charcoal and a cottony filter floss. The background was a photographic print of aquatic plants you can pick up at pet stores. Every part of it was a struggle against my mother, who did not want it in the house. I remember having red wag platies, and so platies feel very nostalgic for me. 

My first tank since rejoining the hobby after a long break is my 5 gal betta tank. I use it to farm anubias which I spread to other tanks. I set it up in early 2018 I think. This is it now.

 

My newest tank is a walstad-inspired, dirted no filter 20 long. It started as an invertebrate (shrimp and snails) only tank, but I have since ordered some endler/guppy hybrids and they will be arriving soon. 

Edited February 13, 2022 by H.K.Luterman
typo!

[JettsPapa]

I've had fish three times in a 40 year time span.  I don't remember what tanks I had or what was in them the first two times.

Other than those brief forays into fish keeping, my first tank was my 40 gallon breeder community tank.  The stocking took a while to get stabilized, but it's settled in a big group of pearl gouramis (14), along with serpae and pristella tetras, Corydoras trilineatus, and two pea puffers.  No real scaping; just plants in pool filter substrate.

My latest tank (#10) is a 20 tall I set up for propagating pearl weed to sell.  There's a layer of dry cow manure on bottom, then a layer of potting soil, and capped with pool filter sand.  It's also being used to grow my colony of gold guppies, and I plan to add blue shrimp soon.

[813aquatics]

My first tank 25 years ago was a 10gal kit my Uncle encouraged me to get. I stocked it with mickey mouse platys, several black mollies, and two albino corys. Everything retail was artificial plants and decor back then. 

Now I have tons of tanks. Latest is another 20L for some apistogramma caca. to breed. Still really wanna try browntail pencil fish in there.

Edited February 13, 2022 by 813aquatics

[Flumpweesel]

My first tank was the cut glass trifle/punch bowl when I came home with a surprise goldfish. Someone gave us a metal framed tank to replace this happily before Christmas and the bowl could be returned in time to it's proper use. No filtration, no heater, no dechlorinator, occasionally pond weed. Gravel bottom. Fish lived for years.

Current tank after many down and upgrades  for same fish is 230l ( approx 60gal) long tank with fluval 306.  Became a tropical planted community tank from about 2018 after the loss of the goldfish at the start of this story.

[Bev C]

My first tank LoL  I never had fish before as a kid  ,,,  i kinda  fell into as adult due to My  Mom had a outdoor pond and all her  goldfish fish died but one fish he was a small one ,, and she wanted me to babysit  him while she was gone a month she brought him to me in a 5 gallon ,,  she did not want him back would not take him home

so i adopted him bought a 20 gallon and then a 29 gallon had one gold fish for 2 years in a 29 gallon only  had cheap filter and heater ,, gravel

  i loved taking care of him and the tank  when he died got small tropical community fish for my 29 gallon i upgraded my heater and filter but could not have live plants,,due to pelco   would eat every plant even with vegetables after he died ,,  i had the 20 and 29 gallon 11-12 years  with fake plants

I have the tank i have now but

I gave my 29 gallon to my niece and her sons for their first tank and i still use the 20 gallon as a quarantine tank 

The tank i have now 

I only have room for a 55 gallon  I always hated i settled for a 29 gallon  and not a bigger tank  my brother gifted me with a new 55 tank  and tank stand  ,,, i moved my fish over and upgraded my filter and heater  and replaced gravel with black sand  and got new lights 

 the only new fish i have is a new bristolnose pelco and snails  and  love the 55 gallon and love my fish and snails love taking care of it ,, after i found out my new pelco will leave plants alone if he has vegetables I stated with live plants still trying to get the plants lights and algae just right 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Bev C