Hello from Western MA!

[Kirsten]

Hello from the old, rolling hills of Western Mass, where Africa collided with North America to create the Berkshire mountains, where the water is soft, the soil is rocky, and the rocks are only slightly radioactive.

I raised bettas as a kid (in terrible conditions I now realize, sorry Mephistopheles!) and I am now crash landing into fish keeping by way of gardening and one expensive and probably terrible place to start: a hydroponic kit off amazon. But the brown, green and hair algae is getting under control now and everything's fine, just fine, thanks for asking! (It's not fine and I'll probably have to replace my plants, but that's another problem for another time).

Of course I'm already planning 2 more tanks: a nano pea puffer desk-pet tank, willingly infesting it with MTS to keep my puffer active and happy, and a 36g community tank for all my peaceful fish tired of being hassled by my hydroponic betta, plus a few more.

I secretly, desperately love nerite snails and their beautiful patterns and I'm so frustrated by a lack of local availability that I'm thinking of setting up a bare-bones brackish tank to start hatching them and selling them to my sorely lacking IFS. But I should probably get my feet under me with fresh tanks before I go crazy like that.

How are you?

Edited November 24, 2020 by Kirsten

[FrozenFins]

Welcome to the forum!!

[Kirsten]

For an idea of how it's going, here's a pic of the whole mess! The betta, Don Carlo, the nerites, Alberich, Mimir, Fafner, Big Red, Little Red, and the three less-than-happy pygmy corys, the Rhinemaidens, who need a bigger home and more friends. The brick is for lifting up a side of the hydro supports to fit even my delicate lady-wrist in for vacuuming, trying to squish some of my plants back into the inadequate substrate, cleaning the lifesaver aquarium co-op sponge filter. But my basil is growing very well! I'm excited to get some Easy Green to support underwater plant growth while the herbs above hog the nitrates and phosphates.

[johncondor]

Two hobbies in one tank! Very cool.

[Kirsten]

6 minutes ago, johncondor said:

Two hobbies in one tank! Very cool.

Thanks! There are lots of ways I'd design it differently, but it's going to keep me in basil through the winter at least! 

[Streetwise]

With the names, I see three hobbies.

[Kirsten]

Just now, Streetwise said:

With the names, I see three hobbies.

LOL yeah I've uh also kind of gotten big into opera since the Met started its free streaming. Funny, I'm not even that big of a Wagner fan, but the names are just crackin.

[Streetwise]

I have dirt road memories of childhood, driving to the dump in my Dad's Jeep, listening to Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, throwing garbage bags into a pit, with an aria going.

[Kirsten]

That's the only way to do it. Get some Anvil Chorus going, good times.