Welcome to the C.A.R.E Forum - Look here first.

[cleoismyspiritanimal]

Hello everyone! Greetings from MI.  I found my way to Aquarium Co-op videos while looking up information on tanks and goldfish.  From there I found the live streams and while watching the stream earlier today I saw the link to the forums. So here I am!

My fishkeeping journey started two months ago with a 39g tank and stand which is home to four goldfish.  I started with 6 however there was an ick outbreak and I lost two.  😿 During my search for info on how to treat ick, I found the Aquarium Co-op videos on YouTube.  Thankfully I was able to successfully treat the tank and while there were casualties I now have a better grasp of what to do for my remaining goldies.  And the addition of a 10g quarantine/hospital tank. 

Special thanks to Irene's video on water changes, I have a good log of water parameters and have reigned in the feeding much to the chagrin of my fish. I  do a 10-20% water change each week but this has come down from the 20% I was doing daily during the first month.

Short-term goals:
-Continue to log water parameters and observe what is working well
-Find a better way to keep java moss out of the filter. (Currently using an old, clean! knee hi nylon in the 10g but will need a way to contain it in the 39g)
-Monitor Shu's (the shubunkin) suspected ammonia burn (what I thought were brown speckles have been 'coming off'? and revealing different colors)
-Monitor Baby's (red cap oranda) tail as part was lost in the ick battle and a bit seems to be growing back in bent
-Continue to work with all to be comfortable with people to make it easier to monitor these guys

Mid-to long term goals:
-Keep an eye out for larger tank at reasonable price as larger tank will be needed as these guys grow
-Research greenhouse pond set ups in MI

 

[Ryan W8]

 

Greeting from Atlanta, GA. Glad to have a safe place to discuss aquarium topics! Reddit can be pretty awful.

[LiamW]

Hi everyone!

I'm Liam from Chicago, planning to get a gold fish. Always dreamed about it!
Looking for tips from you guys 🙂 

[Isaac M]

Hi @cleoismyspiritanimal, welcome to the forum! Good to see that you are learning and growing as a fishkeeper, you have some great goals. May I recommend you start an aquarium journal to help keep track of your aquarium or aquariums? That would be helpful to all involved. 

Hi @Ryan W8, welcome! You are definitely safe here. We have a lot of great people here to discuss whatever aquarium topic you may be thinking of.

Hi @LiamW, welcome to the forum! May I recommend you start an aquarium journal? You can post your plans or just your dream of the aquarium and the people here will be able to give you some tips and ideas to help make your dream come true! 

[Zoidar]

Hi guys, 

I'm Peter, live in Sweden. I found this forum through youtube. I have had an aquarium for about a year, so I'm new to this hobby. I started out with 120 liters and recently upgraded to 240 liters. Fishes are black and green neons and panda corys, and shrimps. I hope to learn more to keep my fish happy and healthy. God bless! 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Zoidar

[Spicy Reef]

I everybody,

Nice forum! Thanks for getting this going Cory! 

I got back into this about a year ago... many years back I had a 30 gallon saltwater. This was my first tank. I really should have started with fresh water as the saltwater route has way too many equipment tangents for me to get lost on. After about 2-3 years of fumbling in the dark - no internet at the time (dates me) I ended up being successful with a very simple setup.

I would have started with salt again, but I came across discus! Cool, so I fetched my 30 gallon out of the shed... bing bang boom I've been off to the races 🙂

[Isaac M]

Hi @Spicy Reef, yes I agree, saltwater has a ton of gadgets one can use but are also not totally necessary. It can get easy to get lost when we try to make the hobby harder than it really is. Anyways, welcome to the forum! 

[Warren Peace]

Hi! Greetings from Washington! I've just decided to join now, but I have been looking on here ever since July. I got a kick out of the fish memes you guys put up there. 

[Back2Fish]

Greetings !! Joe here from Salt Lake City. Getting back into the fish hobby after years of not having the space. Starting up a couple 40 gallon planted tanks with my wife. 

[DomDom]

Hi all,

Watched and understood. Thank you for making this place. I miss forums! 

Thank you Cory and team for all you do.

Cheers

Dom

[RMarquez, MBA CPA]

Hello, I was introduced to the hobby by someone giving me 7 baby molly/platy fish in a small container about 3 years ago. So, via Craigslist I quickly found & purchased a 12-yo girl's 20 gal neon tetra tank - she was looking to get out of the hobby and her and her family gave me EVERYTHING they owned for $150? I think? It came with amano shrimp and 3 neon tetras, all the chemicals, a handmade, poly-urethane stand, 3 food grade buckets, etc etc. I added my platy/molly and a bristlenose pleco and thought I ruled the world. Little did I know. . . 

After finding your youtube channel, and girl talk fish's channel last year, I have learned SO MUCH. Live plants, water cycle, hard/soft, ph, logging my test results - oh, my! Now, I have a successful 20 gal community tank and just started a 10 gal cold water tank last month. Looking forward to learning more about this journal concept. Not sure I can be part of the 1-hour a day challenge this time around, but maybe next time. Pics are from when I FIRST go the tank. Will have to grab new ones for you next time. Cheers.

 

 

[Isaac M]

Hi @RMarquez, MBA CPA, welcome to the forum! I always love hearing how people got in the hobby. Thank you for sharing! Looking forward to seeing your current aquariums and your progress in your future journal. 

[HTCINCS]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:18 PM, Preston John said:

About me: I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with others, although I find it harder to want to share with people that come across as entitled to my experience or those looking to try and make money from my information. I also find I have less patience teaching other hobbyists that are tariffed of failure, but I’m working on it!  

At any point in time I’ll have anywhere from 25 to 100 tanks. Although I’m trying to refine my needs to as few tanks as possible.

I enjoy experimenting, studying, observing and tinkering. I enjoy live food cultures as much, if not more than the fish they feed. I very much love creating entire food webs within my fishroom. 

I love snails. They are like Pokémon to me... I’ve got to “catch them all!” This also comes in handy in that I also love freshwater pufferfish. Mainly the Tetraodon species from Africa. As far as I know, I’m still the only person in the Americas to have successfully breed the Tetraodon schoutedeni repeatedly. This is not a point of pride for me, as it makes me realize how bad of a teacher I must be. Although, there are a few people very close to success! 

My current project is to captive breed all the other Tetraodon species, minus species he Tetraodon mbu, that is just too large for my current setups. 

Hello Preston!

would you be able to help sex my SCPs?!? What’s the best way to send the pics to?!? I don’t have images from URL to upload here.

Thank you in advance.

[Preston John]

@HTCINCS we started a thread just for sexing the puffers: 

 

you can upload photos right into the thread by clicking on the “Add Files” button next to the 📎 below.

[HTCINCS]

2 hours ago, Preston John said:

@HTCINCS we started a thread just for sexing the puffers: 

 

you can upload photos right into the thread by clicking on the “Add Files” button next to the 📎 below.

Hi Preston,

 

here are my 4 SCPs. Thank you in advance.

[HTCINCS]

Just now, HTCINCS said:

Hi Preston,

 

here are my 4 SCPs. Thank you in advance.

 

[JWinter]

Hello from Pennsylvania. Just getting back into fish keeping, and am looking forward to sharing experiences with everyone. I have 2 20 gallon longs I will be setting up. Currently I am waiting on bits and pieces of equipment so I can get started. I'll be doing planted tanks, and a fishless cycling off the tanks. Will post pictures once the tanks are up and running.

[Kale241]

Hello everyone I just joined this forum, I like fish a lot 

[CoSpy]

Hello - I'm new to this forum and new to this hobby.  I'm retired and feel as though I can now devote time to be successful (or at least not a fish assassin).  My daughter moved out and left her 55 gallon tank.  The size has been a challenge in that I can't pick it up.  Fortunately, she had a lot of supplies, including a nice siphon.  

It's now set up and the water and filter has been running for 2 weeks.  I want to test the water before getting fish.  I found some test strips "Jungle quick dip" test strips with the supplies.  How accurate are these compared to if I took it to a store?  Should I be anal about the accuracy?  I tried one, but it didn't match up with the chart.  Do these have a shelf life?  I appreciate any advice and help getting  started.

[1moretank]

On 1/14/2021 at 5:52 PM, Shelley said:

Hi I’m Shelley I live in Roswell NM. I started out with a betta fish now I have 3 and starting a new tank. I have a problem with water flow I have 2 Mari land glass led and a fluval spec the flow from the filter is way to fast it’s becoming an issue I need some ideas on how to fix the problem I’m afraid I’m no very inventive so any suggestions would be very welcome. Take into consideration I’m 70 years old so instructions need to be detailed. I hope I’m in the right place for this

Hello, if your filter is a "hang on back" try a pre filter sponge on the intake, if that doesn't help enough, see if you can put a sponge (co-op sells a big square you can cut to shape) where the water dumps back into the tank.  If you can't get a sponge to  stay there, can you float the sponge on top of the tank and let the water spill onto the sponge.  If you are using air line and a sponge filter, you can add an air valve to the airline.

I hope this helps.  Good luck

[1moretank]

On 6/1/2021 at 12:42 PM, CoSpy said:

Hello - I'm new to this forum and new to this hobby.  I'm retired and feel as though I can now devote time to be successful (or at least not a fish assassin).  My daughter moved out and left her 55 gallon tank.  The size has been a challenge in that I can't pick it up.  Fortunately, she had a lot of supplies, including a nice siphon.  

It's now set up and the water and filter has been running for 2 weeks.  I want to test the water before getting fish.  I found some test strips "Jungle quick dip" test strips with the supplies.  How accurate are these compared to if I took it to a store?  Should I be anal about the accuracy?  I tried one, but it didn't match up with the chart.  Do these have a shelf life?  I appreciate any advice and help getting  started.

Hello, I'm not familiar with the strips you named, but in general if the strips were sealed tight and they are only 1-2 years old I would expect them to work.  If your local store will test for free, that's a good place to start so you know if the strips are working.  Once you know what your water is, that's your "base line".  You just want to test occasionally to make sure your tank maintains the same parameters.  If it varies too far from your "baseline" then you want to figure out why.

Starting with fish that like the water parameters you have is one of the best ways to be successful from the start.

Good luck and have fun.

[CoSpy]

Thank you for your information.

I went over your video of recommended beginner fish that I found very helpful although I need a bit more clarification:

 Does a "beginner" fish also include the likely-hood that we (beginners) may not have their tank working at optimum efficiency?          a. water conditions    b. beneficial bacteria (I heard that's important for fish survival)   c. Do they all tolerate the same temperature and lighting preferences

The water conditioners address chlorine and other chemicals typical for city water.  We are in a rural area and have well water.  Is there something different I should have tested or may have to address with well water?  That being said, will letting the tank water sit for a couple of weeks take care of most impurities that harm fish, or may it need special treatment?

 

 

 

 

[HH Morant]

I agree that beginner fish, like Steven Seagal, should be Hard to Kill.

Chlorine will evaporate if you let water sit, but your well water probably doesn't contain any chlorine. Most contaminants will not evaporate. Particulates, of course, are not going to evaporate.

[Nicks Aquatics]

Hi everyone! I'm Nick McLain from Iowa and I have many tanks full of everything I could ever want. I am also starting to create youtube videos as well on everything in my tanks and outside pond. Its amazing to see what everyone's doing with this hobby and I'm glad I just joined the forum! I like to specialize in what Cory calls "Experiments" but where I have a tropical peaceful community living well with a cichlid/predator community. I'm more about watching how fish communicate within their own species and how they interact and communicate with different species.

[Khamomeal]

Hi all!! I’m Kham located on Atlanta GA. Just got into the hobby a few months ago ( it’s been a slippery slide from my first 3 gallon tank I started purely for poop water for my plants). I am still learning but trying to take it slow and focus on freshwater (cause again . . . Plants) not the best aqua scaper but my 20 gallon and my new 60 gallon. 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Khamomeal