Growth and Development - Post your OLDEST and NEWEST tank photo here!

[nabokovfan87]

Hey everyone,

I think sometimes it's hard to remember and hard to realize exactly how far we've come in the hobby.  I am sure many of us don't even know what the oldest photo we have really is.  I am sure plenty of us will end up finding a great memory to explain or be able to see the journey you've taken as a hobbyist and feel a bit of pride. 

There is a saying, an old quote, "you can never step in the same river twice."  For me personally this speaks to a lot of things in life.  I look at each tank I've kept and every moment in the hobby as my attempt to start over and make it better.  It might take me a year, five years, or ten years to finish the project, but I hope that with everyone sharing their journeys in this way, that we can find some inspiration for new hobbyists who happen to find their way here.

If you can, take some time to find your oldest tank photo, let us know whatever you'd like to about it.  Following that, please post your most recent tank photo and be sure to let us know whatever you'd like to say about it.  Finally, I'll ask everyone who posts to try to give some sort of tip, advice, encouragement to a new hobbyist. 

Thanks!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I learned how to keep live plants! And how to prepare driftwood. Also added a sand cap. I moved away from store-bought decorations and into a more natural habitat.

 

New hobbyists - welcome! Rule 1 is have fun. Continuously learn, stay connected on the forum here. Everyone is nice and supportive! Watch Aquarium Co Op videos and research the needs of any new animals you plan to add - temperature, pH, habitat, tankmates, etc. Plus, try a live plant!  It’s pretty and it’s fun!
 

The knowledge on the Co Op videos is gold!

Edited June 16, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@nabokovfan87 this is a nice topic! I am looking forward to everyone’s before & afters!

[nabokovfan87]

Me too! I am trying to find photos but all my stuff is lost on old phones. Trying to dig through backups and files stored on random things.😩

[Solstice_Lacer]

Oldest pic vs most recent pic.

I guess my advice is be patient but don't try to be perfect. Setbacks will happen. Let mother nature take her course. She's been doing this longer than any of us.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/16/2022 at 6:56 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Me too! I am trying to find photos but all my stuff is lost on old phones. Trying to dig through backups and files stored on random things.😩

I didn’t have an old photo either but I had an old video that I paused and took a screenshot.

[gjcarew]

Love this. I originally started a fish tank because I lived in a dark basement apartment and I wanted to try to grow herbs hydroponically. 

I never liked how sad the fish in hydroponic setups looked so I added more and more aquatic plants until I realized that it wasn't the herbs I was enjoying, it was the fish and aquatic plants.

Of course now I've gone off the deep end in ways I never imagined at the beginning. I still love it!

Edited June 16, 2022 by gjcarew

[nabokovfan87]

I have a caveat, but more on that later.  This is my 75G tank.  It is very very similar in setup to my 75G setup.  This photo below is when it was "early on" and I was trying to figure out how to manage a planted tank.  I can tell from the years of photos on my phone I don't have many saved. I may have purged them, but it was a situation where I personally wasn't proud of the tanks I had. This one had plants, it had failures all over it! But this was a tank I could sit in front of and be very happy with, visually.  The tank itself was running a lot of equipment, you can see the CO2 on the left side there, the pleco on the right (see @Mark C.), and a bunch of random fish.  This tank was literally setup for plants and to hold corydoras as the main fish.  The tidal's skimmer grabbed the green tiger barbs while they slept and I'd wake up once a month to one of them passing.  It was very discouraging, very heartbreaking, and ultimately I am now trying to resolve that situation (experiments section, seachem tidal fix). 

Now, for the caveat. You see how there is sand and there is an attempt at a cap on the mixed gravel?  Well, this is AFTER the co2 crashed. After all of my plants died.  After the moss on that center piece of wood melted to nothing.  The anubias is doing fine, you can see one of them with two flowers on it. One on the right might have another. You can see some of the barbs left on the top right, but as I mentioned... this tank has "failure" written all over it.  This is of course perspective and not a determination.  I very much enjoyed the tank and it ran for ~1-2 years.  They were a blur, and the fish in that tank were extremely happy.  I did a trim at the wrong time and didn't realize that the plants were not receiving CO2 and each one slowly fell off one by one.  It happens. And ever since this moment I have been trying to get back to a "planted tank" that feels like that first setup.

Here is the one I usually share, before the substrate was moved out, before the plants crashed, and even before CO2.  this was the first time I had planted a tank at all.  This one is the 55G that I moved over to the 75G above.



So... what does the "main tank" look like now.  Is it fair If I give you another caveat? 😂

I have a 29G tank, much smaller, and the family fish are elsewhere.  This is the tank that I had off to the side of the main one. It housed a breeding project that I have tried for 3+ years now to get these fish to spawn and at the least to give them a good home.  I learned from the pandas that they wanted a lighter substrate to keep their bright white coloration.  In my 29 I have black corys that I want to highlight their coloration, so they have a dark substrate.  I have tried to have a nice aesthetic to the tank, but it isn't a situation where I am "happy" with the progress yet.  Visually, I like the layout of the tank.  The plants will get there.  The fish are happy.  That's the point right now.  With the state of everything going on, this is the tank I look at and I'm just calm.  When I'm stressed I work on it.  When I am trying to breathe I stare at it. 

This is the same anubias as shown above. The other plants are new. Bottom left is some Staurogyne Repens I've been trying to get to take hold and the other plant is Dwarf Hairgrass to try to carpet the tank.  The thing I like about this tank is that it speaks to so much work that no one will see.  That anubias on the right, that one leaf, every new leaf was months of effort trying to get it to come back after being in a tub and decimated with black beard algae.  Every time I'd try to add a plant it would melt, obviously I'm still working to get them to carpet, but it's not something I'm intimidated by the challenge at all.  I know what I have to do, and now I just have to monitor it while it happens.  There is new growth on every plant and that took months to get to this point. 



The advice I'd give someone new is to have more patience than I did. If you want to have a planted tank. Focus on the plants before adding fish.  It makes it much easier to fix things when you're not worried about upsetting other parameters.  The tank should be stable, reliable, and healthy.  This comes in many ways as well.  The push to have it "perfect" is only half or one quarter of the journey.  The idea for me has been to enjoy the process, focus on the method of that process, and to find myself trying to make time for that process.  It's taken me a long time to develop that mindset.

This is my goal.... filled out.  Substrate fixed.  It'll get there. In time.

Edited June 17, 2022 by nabokovfan87
Added photo

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/17/2022 at 2:09 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Focus on the plants before adding fish.  It makes it much easier to fix things when you're not worried about upsetting other parameters.  The tank should be stable, reliable, and healthy.

If we’re talking about parameters, I read something recently in the Walstad book, ecology of the planted aquarium I believe it was called. Plants eat ammonia. It’s their first choice of nutrients. Their second choice is nitrite. Their last choice is nitrate. Also if a plant is decomposing, the decomposition process removes heavy metals from the tank (awesome). I recently saw a video where Cory was talking about cycling a tank with plants. He said people are talking about the test kits and why certain things aren’t testing while people are cycling. Why did ammonia go away when there is no nitrite reading? Well, did the plant grow a new leaf? Yes? Then the plant ate the ammonia vs the bacteria eating the ammonia.

I’m super new to plants but I’m having success. I focused on the lighting. I bought a Hygger that has 24/7 mode. It does a gentle orange in the morning which it gradually brightens up, then it does gentle white light and that brightens up to midday, then it does bright blue, dimmer, dimmer, moonlight, off.  It seems to be natural for the fish and the spectrum is for plants. 
 

I chose all low light plants. I envisioned myself planting into the substrate. But then I read that most of the plants that get planted need extra ferts. I decided I didn’t want to mess with root tabs or iron and stuff. I don’t want the extra task and I hesitate to put metal derivatives basically, into the tank with snails, even though lots of people do it successfully. So everything is java fern and Java moss but they are thriving. The java fern made like 10 babies on the tips of the leaves. The only thing I do is Easy Green. Now, I do have some red ludwigia that I bought before I “knew stuff” and it melted. Was going to toss it but I was reading the book at the time and it said I can replant ludwigia stems, even if they don’t have roots. I did that. They all grew back. Some of them the snail chewed off at the base. 🙄 Stuck back in the sand. They grew back.

I followed along with some tips from Father Fish. He answers every comment on YouTube. I put 2” sand cap on top of cruddy nasty gravel. The depth is important. The top layer will have aerobic bacteria and the stuff under that, anaerobic. Different bacteria live in each and provide filtration. If planting plants, he says to only go 1” into the sand. Because plants can get “burned” if forced into nutrients that they are not ready to take up. When they are ready, they will reach their roots toward the nutrients: the anaerobic sand layer and the cruddy gravel stuff.

Here are some shots of the ludwigia where the stem melted and I put it back into the sand anyway. Anything that floated off got replanted.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Odd Duck]

My oldest “tank” which has fish in it this year (golden white clouds) for only the second time in it’s lifespan.  I’ve had it around 20 years with the same, un-named, dwarf, hardy water lily in it we got free when we bought other aquatic plants for this and  another tub.  It was growing in a random container with no label.  It had 2 pads that were an inch across with stems 2” long.

The tub seeps a tiny bit of water once in a while (about every 3 years or so) which self seals with our hard water.  My first try many years ago with goldfish was a bust, I suspect because of our crazy Texas heat and not enough plants/shade at that time.

Newest tank is the angelfish 100 G.  Everything you could want to know about it, and probably more than you wanted to know, is in the link in my sig.

Hmmm, I could do a write up on the pond.  I have just a few older pics, too.  Maybe tomorrow.  Gotta go to work to pay for my tanks/fish.  😆 

 

[Odd Duck]

New pic after pulling out about 2/3 of the frogbit to give to friends locally. It’s taking over the pond.  Gave a small amount to my coworkers son to see if his goldfish find it yummy or leave it alone. I’m betting they’ll eat it.

Larger amount to another friend that breeds various African cichlids outdoors in large totes.

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Odd Duck
Grammar correction

[modified lung]

This is the same 20 gal long over the years.

Edited June 18, 2022 by modified lung

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/17/2022 at 2:37 PM, Odd Duck said:

My oldest “tank” which has fish in it this year (golden white clouds) for only the second time in it’s lifespan.

That’s really cool, @Odd Duck. Do you have cold temps at times and how do you manage that?

On 6/17/2022 at 8:37 PM, modified lung said:

This is the same 20 gal long over the years.

Wow, plant growth explosion! 😍 Are you doing CO2?

[Odd Duck]

On 6/18/2022 at 5:47 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Do you have cold temps at times and how do you manage that?

We do get quite cold but usually only for short spells in the winter.  I have a small pond heater to keep at least a small circle open even if it gets very cold (well, cold for Texas, 😉).  Most years it keeps the entire surface open, but I’ve had a couple years with very short cold spells bad enough that only the center of the pond heater stays open.  Since this is my first year with fish in the tub, I’m not sure if I’ll leave fish in over the winter.  I’ll probably try to pull all the white clouds to sell locally.  I know a local guy that has a nice variety of rice fish and I’m thinking to try either platinum or red cap rice fish in this little tub/pond next year.  I haven’t done fish in the past out of concern for the heat, but having fish in has better motivated me to keep up with refills on the tub and I’m more aware of the water temps, and they aren’t getting excessive as long as I’m doing my job keeping the tub topped off.

[modified lung]

On 6/18/2022 at 3:47 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Wow, plant growth explosion! 😍 Are you doing CO2?

No CO2 and no fertilizers. Just UNS contrasoil and some hyperactive glolight danios. There's about a two month gap between the last two photos.

[Barbvday]

I took a break from fishkeeping while I was raising my kids. Once they reached an age where I knew they wouldn’t try to jump in, hit the tanks or dump stuff in them I figured I would start small and set up a 2.5 gallon with a betta. That was 1.5 years ago and the latest tank is this 75 gallon setup.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 6/18/2022 at 9:29 AM, modified lung said:

No CO2 and no fertilizers. Just UNS contrasoil and some hyperactive glolight danios. There's about a two month gap between the last two photos.

Beautiful!

[Torrey]

Due to 2 divorces and a house fire, no chance of an oldest photo from before 2017.

"Turtle Pond" right after the house fire, using a nebulizer to aerate the water, lol. Took a while to recover from having lost everything.

 

First day after an actual filter and the airpump were replaced. Karma was happy.

First attempt at a scaped tank after we accepted we were staying in the apartment:

First time we set up the big tank after the fire, and discovered it had gotten chipped in the upper right corner:

Above is a May 2021, below is now

Scape from Scraps tank started in February, I think hthis picture was in April

 

My advice to a new fish keeper just getting started is think long and hard about goals. Evaluate how much time and energy we are willing to dedicate to the hobby, and what will we do if supply chain interruptions prevent us from getting a key item, or we have an unexpected emergency? What's the back up plan?

Then, bravely fill up that tank, and embrace every supposed "failure" as an exciting learning opportunity. Before adding any living creatures, play with exploring what impacts different foods have on the nitrogen cycle (by testing water chemistry).

Add plants, and learn their language. Play with what plants like to be at the top third of the tank, and which grow well at the bottom of the tank.

Play with perspective. What do things look like all on one level? What happens if you "break the rules" and put the biggest plants up front and finer leaved plants in the back? What is the easiest way for you to add "slope" in your tank?

In other words, learn about how to keep healthy water in a container by playing with it, and apply what is learned to daily life (and vice versa). Channel the inner child before we were trained to make judgements about failure versus success, and learned by making spectacular messes that brought us joy.

Have *fun*

 

 

[Patrick_G]

Here’s a now and then of my largest tank.

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/16/2022 at 11:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSeaBecause you LOVE to make fun of me about my worms.  These aren't them, but all I can see is worms now!

 

 

On 6/16/2022 at 11:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

A slight update on my tank...  Added the new plants, final attempt to push out this algae and so forth.  There is a lot of good things happening, still some struggling plants, but it'll get there.  I want to see some more before / afters!  Let's see what you got!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/19/2022 at 7:15 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

@Chick-In-Of-TheSeaBecause you LOVE to make fun of me about my worms.  These aren't them, but all I can see is worms now!

 

 

A slight update on my tank...  Added the new plants, final attempt to push out this algae and so forth.  There is a lot of good things happening, still some struggling plants, but it'll get there.  I want to see some more before / afters!  Let's see what you got!

😳 I’m sorry for picking on you @nabokovfan87. The worms freak me out, especially when you’re describing a lot of worms, and my “coping mechanism” is to joke about it. It’s like laughing when someone embarrasses you. And don’t forget I have worms too! I just choose to look the other way. I do make sure they don’t bother the critters though. 

Also if it makes you feel any better, in the summer sometimes I get maggots in the garbage bin. The big rolling one the our county provides. Omg. They won’t die with sprays or anything. And also.. eggs that can’t be seen.. So I end up having to boil a kettle like 5 times, and each time dump the boiling water down the sides of the can. Then I have to overturn the can and a big pile of dead maggots slides out. ☠️ Your worm situation triggers the maggot PTSD. 

[nabokovfan87]

LOL, that definitely doesn't help. I apologize for the PTSD triggers. I definitely can relate now.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/19/2022 at 7:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

LOL, that definitely doesn't help. I apologize for the PTSD triggers. I definitely can relate now.

Nah you’re good. 🙂 But that’s why I joke.  Also I like to read about the worm situation. Kinda like a morbid curiousity- something is gross and yet, I can’t look away? 😅

[Solstice_Lacer]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:21 AM, Solstice_Lacer said:

Oldest pic vs most recent pic.

I guess my advice is be patient but don't try to be perfect. Setbacks will happen. Let mother nature take her course. She's been doing this longer than any of us.

Just an update, I kind of re did my hornwort corner, made another cave up there. My carpet continues slowly filling out, I added an air stone to my filter, and put in an amazon sword. Some other minor adjustments. My crypt wendtii red seems to be coming back with some nice red. Hopefully it continues getting bigger.

[nabokovfan87]

For anyone that missed this.  Please feel free to jump in and participate! 🙂