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Cory

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Hi Cory! I'm a new aquarium owner, but had a betta and algea eater in a small tank many years ago. I'm currently cycling my 45 gallon tank with ammonia, bacteria starters and lots of plants. Some trumpet snails came in on my plants last week, and somehow they are still alive, even with ammonia and nitrites at ~2-4 ppm consistently (just wanted to throw that out there since it seems very strange they could survive in that!). I watched your show last night - interesting! I want to end up with 2-3 pearl gouramis, 10 or so harlequin rasboras, and 6 peppered cory cats. Wish me luck - my LFS carries all these fish but it's hit or miss on whether they're in stock. I feel like I'm going to love this and get more tanks. 🐟

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27 minutes ago, Maggie said:

Hi Cory! I'm a new aquarium owner, but had a betta and algea eater in a small tank many years ago. I'm currently cycling my 45 gallon tank with ammonia, bacteria starters and lots of plants. Some trumpet snails came in on my plants last week, and somehow they are still alive, even with ammonia and nitrites at ~2-4 ppm consistently (just wanted to throw that out there since it seems very strange they could survive in that!). I watched your show last night - interesting! I want to end up with 2-3 pearl gouramis, 10 or so harlequin rasboras, and 6 peppered cory cats. Wish me luck - my LFS carries all these fish but it's hit or miss on whether they're in stock. I feel like I'm going to love this and get more tanks. 🐟

Greetings Maggie!  Hope you find the board as helpful as I have.  A 45 sounds great, I went with a 37 because my house is small, and I didn't entirely trust the floor support for a 45.

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On 7/14/2020 at 2:15 PM, Preston John said:

A warm greetings from Mesa, Arizona! Ok, maybe more of a scolding hot greeting from my Arizona Garage fishroom! Hope everyone is staying safe and hydrated!

Hello John,

I have recently moved to to Yuma, AZ  and I want to start a fish room in my garage. How do you cool your garage in the summer. I am considering using an indoor out door evaporate cooler, but not sure if it will keep the tanks cool enough. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

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I did a few things to keep it cool in the summer. I wish I would have done it all before building the fishroom.

  • I insulated my garage door with garage door insulation from Home Depot. 
  • I insulated the ceiling and exterior walls.
  • I Installed an air conditioner/dehumidifier. (I have two. One for Summer that blows cold air. One for winter that blows warm air.)
  • I also run a fan or two in the middle of summer when it's 125F outside. 

Note on the Air Conditioner. Don't go too cheap. My first one just could not keep up and would freeze up.   

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On 7/14/2020 at 3:54 PM, Sharon said:

Hi Everyone, I live close to Dallas, Ft. Worth. Tx. I have really hard well water, pH 9.2. I got an RO filter and I'm making my own water. I'm kinda new to fish keeping and have decided to keep "easy" fish who can tolerate higher pH, like CPDs, tetras, mollies, guppies. I got 11 Phoenix Rasboras a few months back. They also tollerate my higher pH Water. Theirs is about 7.6. I seem to love nano fish, most. Ive raised quite a few from eggs like the CPD's, Serpa Tetras, golden White Cloud Mountain Minnows, Danios. My Cory Catfish laid a bunch of eggs and I hatched some of them, too. I'm rather overwhelmed. Like 20 tanks. Or more. 

I do not feel that bad now because our pH is 8.0 I am attempting to use aquarium peat moss to bring it down. Not really having great results.

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5 hours ago, PattyF said:

I do not feel that bad now because our pH is 8.0 I am attempting to use aquarium peat moss to bring it down. Not really having great results.

I'd use your tap water if you possibly can.  RO water is a lot more work.  If you can raise babies in your water, they'll be much better acclimated to it.  If you can get the parents to spawn in such hard water, that is.  I use Seachem Equliberum (for GH), Alkaline Buffer, and Acid Buffer(for ph, KH)  to adjust my RO water to the proper GH/KH/pH.  My well water (pH 9.2 before RO) AFTER the RO treatment has a pH of 8.4 but it quickly drops (1 - 2 days) to 7.2 pH because there is no KH to keep it stable I suppose.  It will not go lower than that.  That being said, I must wait two days before I use my RO water.  I have 3 32 gal. Rubbermaid food grade containers.  I transfer the RO water from the newest made container (8.4 pH) to the other containers where I can usually count on the pH being 7.2. But because there is practically no GH or KH, I must use the Seachem products to adjust depending on which fish I'm using it for.  What a pain.  If anyone has a better way, I'm up for suggestions. 

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Hello, everyone; I live in Florida and am excited about joining and participating in this forum. I am new to the aquarium hobby, having fallen in love with my little friend's Betta fish this past spring when I would babysit and help her with online schooling during quarantine. Her Betta, Zooma, was in a little bowl, and we learned that Zooma needed a bigger home in order to be healthy and happy. Not having a clue, I found Aquarium Co-op on youtube through a Betta Breeders channel and now here I am. I now have a couple of rubbermaid tubs with plants and sponge filters in them, preparing for a shipment of Neocardinia shrimp and tiger Limias to be delivered the last week of October (from Greg at Select Aquatics). I'm setting up a 29 gallon tank for them. I also bought a 10 gallon and 40 gallon tank to set up in the future. This fish hobby is turning out like the chicken hobby (I used to breed and show poultry)...you can never have too many, LOL! I now have my own 5 gallon Betta tank with Fred, the Betta, Mr. Kool, the Kuhli Loach (2 others died ), a Nerite snail and other pond snails, and one little red shrimp (the other 4 died). I did have a ghost shrimp up until recently, but I found him dried up on the counter last week. He somehow got out through the small space in the lid. I used to belong to a backyard chicken forum years ago, before they started having advertising throughout and the format changed; I really enjoyed the camaraderie there. This forum seems to have the same feel; like "old school" online communication again (I don't know if that makes sense to anyone but me)!

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Oh, and I have 2 fry now and of course don't have a clue what they are...they got here on some plants I brought home from the LFS. Thank goodness for Cory's fry food! They're a little over 3 months old:

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Hi @JudyS  Be sure to let us know what your fry are when you find out.  I have found that Celestial Pearl Danio and Zebra Danio swim close to the top and remind me of those college rowing crews (I'm sure there's a proper name for them, but cant think of it right now.) because they go forward in bursts.  The Serpae Tetra that I've raised seem to stay motionless (for protection?)  They will hardly move to get food when they are really young.  Golden White Cloud Mountain Minnows have a blueish "light" that seems to come from their insides.  They seem to swim like Daino fry.  I'm a chicken keeper, too, although I've never raised show chickens.  Some of mine have been beautiful, though.  I have 10 right now, and two roosters.

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Hi fish fam!  I love the aquarium hobby.  I love my fish and taking care of my aquariums.  I have mainly planted tanks and nano fish.  I have a hillstream tank which I dearly love.  Also African Mudskippers which are so much fun.  I have bred my Medaka Rice fish, Plecos, guppies, and mystery snails.  I love watching aquarist you tubes and learning all I can.  So glad to become a member of this forum!  Sharron🐟🐌 

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11 minutes ago, Detroit Shrimp And Aquatic said:

Hello everyone, we are Detroit Shrimp And Aquatics, we love talking shrimp and nano anything. We breed shrimp in our home and love all of the colors. I think this is the spot for us to nerd out.

Welcome!!  I've thought about shrimp, but seeing the voracious appetite of my angelfish decided they are too expensive of a treat to put in the tank.

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23 hours ago, ADMWNDSR83 said:

Welcome!!  I've thought about shrimp, but seeing the voracious appetite of my angelfish decided they are too expensive of a treat to put in the tank.

Yes, Angelfish do like shrimps and they are not good tank mates. If you ever choose to get another tank think of going nano. It's a great balance with a big "fish" tank.

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Hello I’m Jessica from Southern California! I got into the hobby because I wanted to save a dying betta from a flea market. It was in one of those plastic critter tanks with dyed blue water that was so low the poor thing was sideways! Unfortunately I had no idea how to take care of bettas and it passed away after three days 😞 I wanted to save all the sad flea market and pet store fish from bad conditions but now I know not to help raise demand for these neglected and abused fish. I got my one and only tank in Feb 2020 and I’ve learned so much about taking care of aquatic animals. I know there’s still so much to learn, and I look forward to learning from such a supportive community like the one Cory and Co are making 🙂 
 

first pic is when I first started my tank (I thought you had to acclimate plants too haha) 

second pic is the current state of my tank

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Hey Everyone,

This is Tom from Niagara, WI. A little about me and what has become my addiction as of late. I Grew up in Milwaukee, WI. In early 70's I had a 55 gallon with under gravel filtration and 2 crappie, 2 sunfish, and a bullhead. I could never convert them to eat the Tetramin flakes I had bought for them so I fed them minnows from the local bait store. I found that those fish are much heartier than any of the fish I have kept since. Then when I got my first house in the 90's I upgraded to a 125 with a boat load of Haps and Peacocks, They were beautiful. But when I moved up here to take care of my elderly parents, I had to put the tank in a storage locker. Fast forward 10 years and another home. I started with a 55, planted community tank. all was good. It turned into a great tank after the plants filled in. Then I started to watch Cory's videos on YouTube, and thought about getting a little 5 gallon shrimp tank. I met a woman that wanted to get rid of a 29 for cheap, so I set the 29 up last week, instead of getting the 5 gallon.  It just has swords, platties, and two gouramies. But it's my first attempt at a dirted, planted tank. Last week I got a smokin' deal on a 75 gallon and stand, so now I have to set that one up, soon as I decide on how to set it up. Which also means more plants from Aquarium CO-OP. Here's a pic of my 29, minus the latest shipment of plants. It's a little cloudy but its only a few days old. So much to learn so little time, lol.

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Hi all, 

My name is Ruud and I am from Netherlands but living in Spain since a few years! I currently do not have any tanks, as the past years as an expat I have been moving around quite a bit and in my current apartment there is simply no real space for one (complicated story). BUT hopefully in the next few months we will move to a real house where I want to have a small fish room. Anyway, I found some photos from tanks and fish from around 10 years back when I was still in NL:

Juwel 180 liter south american tank

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8 hours ago, Nikkifoofoo said:

Hello everyone,  Nik here from Pittsburgh PA.  hope everyone is doing well.  Wanted to introduce my new puffer to everyone.  My Nephews decided it was a girl and her name is Bumblebee.   

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Welcome to the party, Nik!  I'm down in Baltimore, MD.  Bumblebee's a good name, I would say, even if one day you lift up her skirt and realize she's a he!  I also like the shameless plug for ACO with the sign in the foreground. Well played indeed!

 

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Hello everyone,

I’m Steve and I’m from Boston, MA. I fell in love with the aquarium hobby when I was younger. My uncle used to have a 10 gallon freshwater tank and passed it on to me when he no longer wanted to keep it. I kept it for a while but I found that my fish kept dying so I kind of lost interest. I came across aquascaping online and it brought me back to the aquarium hobby. It’s been about two months since I started my 16 gallon tank so I’m fairly new to all this, especially a planted tank. I attached a picture of my tank. Thank you Cory for all the YouTube videos. Huge help! I look forward to participating in this online community!

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Hey  folks,

I'm David from Minnesota looking at all the newbies and wishing I had access to fish keeping forums when I started my first tank in the 70s.  I had to check out books from the library.  I made many, many mistakes along the way, but now consider myself to be an expert and proudly so.  But even still, there is always, and I repeat, always more to know. 

I've gone from live bearers, to planted tanks, to salt water, to African cichlids, to South American cichlids, and currently running 12 tanks including 3 planted, one salt water, and both African (mainly frontosa and peacocks) & South American cichlids, mainly geophagus.  I'm posting a picture of my front crew, they are Kitumbas.   They stare a lot. 😃  Also posting one of my cichlid playgrounds.   They fight a lot. 🙃

 

Fronts chilling.jpeg

cichlid playground.jpeg

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On 10/2/2020 at 4:08 PM, ADMWNDSR83 said:

That's understandable with a 55, @DesertFishKeeper!  Either way, it's great to have you hear.  I've thought about putting in a pond, but I'm not sure what I would do with it and what I could/would put in it.  I'm all the way over in Maryland, though!

Comets, goldfish.. they'll winter over well if pond is deep enough.. can supply some heat to it too.  Comets and gold fish come in a variety of patterns that mimic Koi.. my were all feeder fish, and they were a great flash of color and fun to have.  For 25 cent's each feeder fish it was worth the risk monetarily and they did live 9 years 🙂 

 

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