Stef's tanks journal

[SWilson]

Edit 9/30/21:  I decided to turn this into a general journal.  Will hopefully give an update on the 55 SAP tank as well as introduce my other tanks and projects! 

A fellow forum member very kindly suggested that I could start a journal about this tank and my efforts to address constant glass surfing by my juvenile South American Puffers.  Here is the other post/thread, if anyone is interested: 

(I admit, the title is a bit melodramatic).  Basically, they glass surf constantly and - without getting into any conflict about the ethics or morals about what that means or whether we should keep wild-caught animals in captivity - I personally just do not find it enjoyable to watch animals do this.  So I was considering giving them up, but decided to take the other good advice I received on that thread (really I am so grateful to this community) and will try to adjust the environment to see if I can reduce this behavior.   

Attached is a picture of the tank as it currently stands.  It is a 55 gallon with half sand, half gravel substrate; planted with jungle val, java fern, java moss,subwassertang, and frogbit across the top; pH is a bit high (8, sometimes up to 8.4); nitrates are always pretty low in the tank (5-10 ppm at most).  I change out 15 gallons about once a week - mostly trying to clean up the substrate. 

There are 6 south american puffers - at first I intended to only keep 3, but there was one in particular that was much more stressed than the others and avoiding food, and I know they prefer to be in groups so I got 3 more.  The biggest group I felt I could manage in a tank this size.  They are still young (about 1"-1.5").  I got them in Dec-Jan.   They get 1 cube frozen blood worms once a day (I do occaisionally skip a few days when I see a lot of planaria in the tank), and 10-30 snails that I toss in throughout the day.  I tend to drop the snails into the plants, so that the puffers have to find them.  I tried live blackworms early on, but had a parasite scare (happy to elaborate later if anyone asks), so I've been gun shy on using those since even though the puffers loved them.  I thought the blackworms were from California Black Worms, though I bought them through a local fish store (I live in Northern California), so I'll have to look into a direct source since I hear that company is a trusted brand. 

Here are some links to videos of the behavior I'm seeing: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/u9p2Mno1Dhmp88Vk9

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fxbzbvVGKcgPPkCoRJWi7ESHf7WQF6JI/view?usp=sharing

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by SWilson

[SWilson]

The first update I did was install a HOB to the side of the tank yesterday, so that there would be more flow in the tank.  Initially, the puffers seemed to enjoy it and were using more of the tank space than just the back corners, for once.  

Video here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/a22a8TeN8essGuJM6

But today they are back to the sides and corners.  

Next alterations will be:

- to take out some of the plants, to try to actually create more open swimming space for them while having enough cover for them to feel secure (conveniently, I am setting up a 40 gal breeder upgrade for my corydoras and endlers, which will mostly be scaped from scraps from this tank and the 16 gal my endlers are currently in)

- swap out the current drift wood with some new driftwood that has more tannins in it 

- add more catappa leaves or alder cones also for tannins (when they come in)

- slowly try adding in a little bit of steeped rooibus tea water when I do water changes

 

EDIT: I forgot to add that, while I received lots of great advice on the other thread that I will be trying to implement, I am absolutely open to any and all feedback and ideas.  A tank-size upgrade is not completely out of the question.   

Edited April 7, 2021 by SWilson

[mikrogeophagus]

I agree with Fish Folk’s suggestions from your original post. Aquariums are ecosystems, and ecosystems are incredibly complex. I have often found that the less “perfect” an aquarium is the more the fish enjoy it, as long as parameters are appropriately met. 

I don’t have much to add specifically in regard to South American puffers. I have only ever kept pea puffers, myself, but my small puffers did enjoy frequent re-scapes. I did keep a group of young Geophagus surinamensis in a 55 gallon starting with fine sand, smooth river rock, and driftwood, and they would also tend to glass surf. After allowing the tannins to build up, adding leaf litter, and greatly subduing the lighting they did become more subdued. Less glass surfing and more swimming in the current directed the length of the tank.

I think your tank looks great, and that the plans you have of opening up some space, changing the wood, etc. could re-interest them in their habitat. I do find that footprint can also greatly change the dynamics of a tank’s inhabitants. I might suggest a 40 breeder or 75 for more usable back to front space, but that might just be a personal preference.

[SWilson]

One question about the rescapes, I had heard about how puffers enjoy frequent rescapes and changes to their environment to keep things interested and so I had fully intended on doing that.  But I hesitated because I noticed that even just doing a water change and gravel vaccuming in the tank would send all six of them into an hours-long glass surfing tizzy.  So I'm just not quite sure what to make of that.  

----

Quick update as I haven't been able to do much because, well, life.  The tank went 2 weeks without a water change and I noticed that two of the puffers have something going on with their tail fins - either ripping or fungus, but very slight.  I did a big water change and cleaned out a lot of debris.

But I removed a decent amount of hardscape and plants to open up more swimming space.  I also moved the powerhead to the opposite side of the tank and towards the bottom to create more overall flow that should hopefully also help with some of the debris that was accumulating in the subwassertang and java moss.  This seems to have helped a little...or the lil guys are hungrier because they seem to be coming to the front of the tank more.   

I also tried out the rooibos tea soaked water.  I only did about 5 gallons as part of a roughly 20 gallon water change.  But I love this look and will keep doing it with my water changes, 5 gallons at a time.  I'll monitor the pH, but for now it hasn't budged and is still at 8 pH or slightly higher.  But at least it's stable, I guess.   

Next step will be to add some new pieces of driftwood that should hopefully add even more tannins.  My plan for the subwasstertang and java moss that I pulled out is to construct "plant walls" to stick to the sides and corners inside the tank where they like to surf the most.  I also plan to get lamps to increase the light on the outside of the tank and reduce reflection on the inside of the glass.   

Other changes are to diet.  I stopped giving them bloodworms every day and am now mixing in myssis shrimp and spirulina brine shrimp...it's like trying to get kids to eat their veggies after you've introduced them to McDonalds though lol.  They are still getting a number of snails everyday, as many as I have time to pull out of the other tanks.    

Even though the glass surfing is still happening, I am feeling encouraged by these changes.  My partner and I also talked about possibly getting a 125 down the road that we could share which the puffers could go into potentially with some suitable tankmates, which perhaps could make them less bored as well.    

[SWilson]

So I have been slow to update this, have been having trouble getting motivated to put the time into making the further planned changes. 

Now I'm thinking about the possibility of trying dither fish to perhaps distract the puffers from glass surfing - maybe a school of cardinal tetras?   I tried putting some endlers in there but the endlers were so scared they stayed completely hidden.  And I felt like a horrible person.  The puffers didn't seem to pay them any mind when they were visible though...  

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

[Mike_M]

Cardinal tetras can be pretty meek in my experience. Maybe a smallish group of praecox rainbows? They'll swim all over without a care in the world. I'm biased though, I love rainbows. 😎

I've been thinking of trying my own SAP tank, and in my research I have seen that they do glass surf a lot. I don't have much to add, but I'm following to see how it goes for you!

[SWilson]

Thank you for the suggestion @Mike_M! I’m not especially attached to tetras and I like this idea a lot! Seems like my tap water would be good for raising the rainbow fry too! 
i also thought about tiger barbs as a fish not likely to take any abuse from tank mates. But they might get a bit too big full grown for the tank. 

[Mike_M]

1 hour ago, SWilson said:

Thank you for the suggestion @Mike_M! I’m not especially attached to tetras and I like this idea a lot! Seems like my tap water would be good for raising the rainbow fry too! 
i also thought about tiger barbs as a fish not likely to take any abuse from tank mates. But they might get a bit too big full grown for the tank. 

I've seen congo tetras recommended for puffer tanks. I've never kept them but they seem like they'd be fun to keep too.

[SWilson]

Okay - it's been a long hiatus, but you know, life.  I actually got thisclose to rehoming the puffers through my local aquarium club, but then I just couldn't.  A couple of things happened that renewed my appreciation and dedication to them.  First, I went to an aquarium store in Portland while I was there visiting family, and they have a display tank with Amazon puffers that are full grown (about 3") and they were just so cool.  Second, I started spending time with the tank with the prospect of taking them out, and they just swam up to the glass and looked at me with their little cartoonish eyeballs and their silly little bucktooth faces (neoteny at work, y'all lol).  I just couldn't.  Luckily for me, the person I had connected with to rehome them to was so supportive and it turned into a lovely conversation about long-term enjoyment of the hobby.   

Here's a recent video of the 55 gallon tank -- I have moved over most of my endler's livebearers females here to serve as dither fish and my hope is that the colony can just live in here and the puffers can help control the population.  The endlers were previously overwhelming a 40 gall breeder with no predators.  Well, the colony is living in there alright but I do not think the puffers are getting to enough of the babies.  *facepalm*

 

You know, the glass surfing is still happening, but I think it is a lot less since the addition of the endlers.  I am planning to add a window tinting background to the back and sides, which will be a pain in the rear since the tank is already set up and about 5" from a wall, but I hope will be worth it.  

Inhabitants also include a Green Phantom Pleco, Vedder, and a Clown Pleco, Wilbur, both of whom I never see lol.  

I'm sure this is overstocked, but the water quality stays pretty good, probably due to the "ceiling" of frogbit and duckweed that covers the tank.  I also added a second HOB filter.   Overall, I enjoy this tank, but since I either sold or moved almost all of my male endlers to other tanks, there isn't a lot of color in here.  

[SWilson]

As I mentioned in my edited top post, I decided to convert this thread into a general journal of my aquariums, in the hopes that I'll have more content to post and to keep it up.  I welcome any and all feedback, and hopefully there will be some useful information here too for folks.  

I'll start with my newest set up, which is a 15 gallon cube.  This actually came as a kit with a fluval filter and light, it was my partner's mystery snail tank that they broke down.  (I got both of us into aquariums, aquariums led my partner to reptiles, and as they breakdown aquariums to focus on reptiles, I get more fish tanks. Yay!) 

 

I turned it into my first dirted tank!  1" of organic dirt (maybe a little less, I was nervous b/c of the lower water volume) topped with a crushed coral ecocomplete mix.  For the height in the back I stacked sponge filter media cut to size.  I basically built "stairs" for the slope.  I've seen people use media bags, this was just what I had on hand.  

This is planted with 1/2 new plants I purchased and 1/2 plants moved over from other tanks.  I'm most excited about the fact that my pink flamingo sprouted its first truly pink leaves literally the day after I planted it in here, while it had been slowly browning in my non-dirted CO2 tank where I had it previously.

I planted the @#$# out of this thing, hoping to get out ahead of an overload of nutrients and algae.  Aquascaping wise, I am most proud of this aquarium.  I feel like experience and research has paid off here.  

Background: rotala, valisinera, and red melon sword

Mid/front: bronze cryptocoryne, bucephelandra,  pink flamingo pink, and scarlet temple (which also had been suffering and not looking very scarlet in my other tanks, I'm hoping it will make a comeback here)

Javamoss, subwassertang, and baby java fern attached to the hardwood. 

And duckweed of course got in here.  

I have an albino mystery snail in there right now, and malaysian trumpet snails.  I'm hoping to put my one of my bettas in there once I feel it is safe.  It has been set up for one week as of today (9/30).  

 

 

[Torrey]

On 9/30/2021 at 8:02 PM, SWilson said:

As I mentioned in my edited top post, I decided to convert this thread into a general journal of my aquariums, in the hopes that I'll have more content to post and to keep it up.  I welcome any and all feedback, and hopefully there will be some useful information here too for folks.  

I'll start with my newest set up, which is a 15 gallon cube.  This actually came as a kit with a fluval filter and light, it was my partner's mystery snail tank that they broke down.  (I got both of us into aquariums, aquariums led my partner to reptiles, and as they breakdown aquariums to focus on reptiles, I get more fish tanks. Yay!) 

 

I turned it into my first dirted tank!  1" of organic dirt (maybe a little less, I was nervous b/c of the lower water volume) topped with a crushed coral ecocomplete mix.  For the height in the back I stacked sponge filter media cut to size.  I basically built "stairs" for the slope.  I've seen people use media bags, this was just what I had on hand.  

This is planted with 1/2 new plants I purchased and 1/2 plants moved over from other tanks.  I'm most excited about the fact that my pink flamingo sprouted its first truly pink leaves literally the day after I planted it in here, while it had been slowly browning in my non-dirted CO2 tank where I had it previously.

I planted the @#$# out of this thing, hoping to get out ahead of an overload of nutrients and algae.  Aquascaping wise, I am most proud of this aquarium.  I feel like experience and research has paid off here.  

Background: rotala, valisinera, and red melon sword

Mid/front: bronze cryptocoryne, bucephelandra,  pink flamingo pink, and scarlet temple (which also had been suffering and not looking very scarlet in my other tanks, I'm hoping it will make a comeback here)

Javamoss, subwassertang, and baby java fern attached to the hardwood. 

And duckweed of course got in here.  

I have an albino mystery snail in there right now, and malaysian trumpet snails.  I'm hoping to put my one of my bettas in there once I feel it is safe.  It has been set up for one week as of today (9/30).  

 

 

I am out of reacts, wanted to say this is making me want a cube tank.

Well done!

[SWilson]

Next up is my 40 gallon breeder: 

This has been set up for about six months, maybe more.  I also mostly planted this with propagations from other tanks, except for the lilies and swords.  I don't have a view of it from the top, but I copied @Isaac M's idea of using a bath caddie and aquarium rocks for an emersed planter, and have a pothos growing out of that.  

I'm very pleased with the plant growth in this tank, here is a photo of it when I first set it up for comparison: 

 

Now here is a fish related question: my dream for this tank is a salt and pepper AKA habrosus corydora colony breeding project.  I moved out all of the endlers and all but 2 mystery snails from this tank, hoping to reduce risk of eggs being eaten.  I have seen eggs a few times now (just starting in the last couple of months) but no fry, at least none that I've been able to spot.  There are about 10 cories (I wanted a bigger group, have lost a few, and will keep checking in w/the LFS to see when they have them back in stock to add a few more).  I thought this type of cory could colony breed but perhaps not, maybe they are eating their own eggs?  The group is also still relatively young, so perhaps they are just not ready yet.  I'm fairly certain I do have males and females based on the size differences.  Should I try removing the eggs next time they lay? I would love to hear from anyone who has had luck breeding these.  

In any case, I'm trying to not worry to much about whether or not they breed and try to focus instead on enjoying and trying to take good care of the tank.  

They are so cute though, I just love the wiggles!

 

Alrighty, I think that's it for this one!  Thanks for reading! 

On 9/30/2021 at 8:53 PM, Torrey said:

I am out of reacts, wanted to say this is making me want a cube tank.

Well done!

Thank you! It was your recent Walstad-inspired tank journal that gave me the last bit of inspiration I needed to go for it! 

[SWilson]

Betta fin rot

This is Lo Ban ("boss" in Cantonese) 

Was definitely not planning on getting a betta but saw him at the LFS and yada yada you all know the rest. 🙂  

If you'll indulge me, my betta obsession origin story begins with a difficult experience in college.  Which now over a decade later I finally have the language to describe as depression, stress, anxiety, and a bout of alcoholism.  I was very lonely, and I don't even remember how, but one day I found myself in a fish store in Boston, and saw a blue fish with beautiful long fins in a planted community tank.  I bought him, a tank (yes same day, I know), and took him back to my dorm.  I honestly don't even remember if I had any substrate, filter, or plants--despite the fact that I distinctly remember seeing plants in the tank he was in.  My roommate and I decided to call him Bob Marley (once again, it was college).  Bob was my therapy.  I loved that fish.  Fast forward to the end of the school year, and I need to go home across the country.  I meticulously studied the requirements to bring a fish on the plane with you (wasn't sophisticated enough to think of shipping), which were posted on the airline's website.  I get to the airport counter at Logan airport, only to have the person tell me I cannot bring him (this was just after we stopped being able to bring liquids through TSA).  "but maybe someone in the back will take him home." 

I leave the counter, with my fish and my bags.  And I call my mom, I'm crying (okay I was bawling -- those were emotionally fragile years) about how they won't let me take my fish.  My mom and I don't have the greatest relationship, but I'll be forever grateful to her for the advice she gave and her empathy in that moment.  She straight up told me to lie to the check-in counter and say that my friend is coming to get the fish.  So I do that.  I get to TSA.  My carry-on, with a fish in a bag in a styrofoam box inside, is sitting in the xray machine.  The TSA guy looks at the screen, and looks at me.  And I look something like this: 😢 sniff sniff.  And he looks at the screen.  And he looks at me.  And he waives me through.  

6 hours on a plane, Bob and I land in Portland.  I check on him while we are waiting for our pickup, and the friggin bag has been leaking and he is in less than 1" of water.  

Long story endless, Bob lives for 5 more years after that at my parents' house, where he got a much larger aquarium (but we still didn't know anything about plants or filtration or conditioning water, so I have no idea how he survived that long).  He was constantly building bubble nests and loved to flare at a pen.  Bettas really are amazing, and I do believe that they used to be much hardier than they are now (I got Bob in '06).  

Anyway, fast-forward to about three months ago.  I'm in love with a betta again.  Lo Ban earned his name by chasing around the endlers that he originally shared the 40 gallon breeder with.  

Then I notice a little tear in his fin, then the color loss on the edges.  Then the full-blown fin rot.  I take the endlers out of the 40 to reduce crowding in the tank.  It still gets worse and worse.  I moved him first to a 20 gallon long with only 5 male endlers in there (he never bothered with the male endlers when he was in the 40, just the big females) and then finally to a 3 gallon by himself.  I keep him at 81 degrees.  I've treated with salt, maracyn one and two.  This is what he looks like as of about 3 weeks ago (and still pretty much the same today): 

(not to mention that his body turned blue, which was a little disappointing but the base of his tail still has that pretty mettalic color) He's lost the most of top half of his tail fin.  I'm also realizing as I'm looking at these before and afters, that I thought he was a half moon, or half moon plakat, but he's a veil tail.   

Fortunately, he is still active and interested in food.  He swims up to me any time I approach the tank.  Finally, one medicine that seems (fingers crossed) to have stemmed the rot is metronidazole.   I'm not sure, it only looks like it hasn't gotten much for the first time in months.  When the metronidazole is done, my plan is to do frequent water changes, low levels of salt (I'm currently just putting in 1/2 table spoon once a week with a 50% water change), and indian almond leaf steeped water.  I'm not sure how long to keep him in this 3 gallon quarantine tank.  It's got substrate but I hadn't put any plants in it yet because of the salt.  

I'm hoping someday to move him into the 15 gallon dirted tank, which he'll have to himself except for the one mystery snail.  But this setback has been disappointing.  I'm not sure what I could do next if the metronidazole doesn't work.  

[Torrey]

On 10/1/2021 at 1:18 AM, SWilson said:

  I'm not sure how long to keep him in this 3 gallon quarantine tank.  It's got substrate but I hadn't put any plants in it yet because of the salt.  

I agree with you that bettas used to be hardier.

Hornwort can handle the salinity of a quarntine tank. So can some of the duckweeds (frogbit CAN NOT). After listening to Gianne's talk on bettas, I suspect that most of the bettas in stores are shipped here after being bred and raised in salted (like QT) water most of their lives, and the combination of stressors just makes them super susceptible to illness.

If I get another betta, I will be saran wrapping the top to keep the humidity up, so their labyrinth organ isn't as stressed. Malaysia and the Philippines (predominant breeders and suppliers for the trade for the box stores) is low humidity when it's 90%.

Most of the breeders in the US that I know, say it takes 5 generations to get them acclimated to local waters, and they need an enclosed tank where the air they breathe stays above 90% humidity, or the fry don't survive. 

Sadly, I didn't learn this until **after** I had the bright idea to move my betta from the Back2theRoots tank to a larger 10 gallon to give more space and make water changes easier. 

I hope this information helps you have a long, enjoyable relationship with your Lo Ban.

1. High humidity, warm air to breathe 

2. Clean, warm water (I think Gianne said 82° to 85°, but I can't remember)

3. QT levels of saline until fully healed, and then slowly reduce salinity

4. Lots of catawpa / Indian almond leaves for high tannin water at all times

Wishing you the best of luck!

@SWilson

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23885412/

[SWilson]

@Torrey thank you thank you thank you so much for all of this.  I've been in the early stages of thinking about focusing on bettas in my hobby for a bit, and this is all very helpful.   I think it's time I became a member of the Coop for this Gianne talk!   

[Torrey]

On 10/2/2021 at 11:28 AM, SWilson said:

@Torrey thank you thank you thank you so much for all of this.  I've been in the early stages of thinking about focusing on bettas in my hobby for a bit, and this is all very helpful.   I think it's time I became a member of the Coop for this Gianne talk!   

You are welcome!

Nerms help each other out.

[SWilson]

score at my local book store! 
 

also wanted to give an update on my Walstad-inspired tank:

AKA green hair algae city. Which I know I introduced from the rotala that I propagated from another tank.  I started to pull out some but it was uprooting the rotala and pulling up soil so I just left it alone.  
 

BUT the scarlet temple never looked so good!  Seriously some of these stalks came back from the dead.  And my pink flamingo crypt is growing out pink leaves. 😍

This method is amazing, I am a convert. 

I recently added my betta Lo Ban in here, will add some pictures soon. His tail fin is looking better after the course of metronidazole.  
 

I haven’t been posting here as much as I would like. I had a long post written on my phone and accidentally deleted it which took the wind out of my sails for a while.  
 

I have big plans for the office-fish room — hopefully soon. Including 5 10 gallon tanks purchased at the sale previously known as the $1 per gallon sale. 
 

For now, I’ll just wrap up with this snail train:

 

[Patrick_G]

How are those Puffers doing? Are they still glass surfing? How are their teeth?

[SWilson]

On 10/19/2021 at 9:22 AM, Patrick_G said:

How are those Puffers doing? Are they still glass surfing? How are their teeth?

Thanks for asking!  They are doing well, at least as far as I can tell.  They are still glass surfing, though I feel like it has gotten better with the addition of the endlers as dither fish.  The puffers also can hunt for babies to entertain themselves in addition to glass surfing.  I bought some window tinting vinyl recommended on another user's post, but haven't had a chance to apply it yet.  I plan to put that on the back and sides, which hopefully will help.  

I have 1 or 2 that are getting long in the tooth, but they still appear to be eating well.  I did try to trim teeth for the first time after I noticed one had really long teeth and a bloodworm or brine shimp would get stuck in their mouth, causing other fish to try to steal it during feeding.  I used Tricaine instead of clove oil, but the instructions are kind of confusing about dosing.  I was conservative and I don't think I used enough.  The fish was not completely sedated and it was an traumatic experience for both of us (did not puff up though, thank goodness).  I did take a video of the process, and I've been meaning to edit it down and share it in case it is at all useful (at least of an example what NOT to do 😬).  Plus, it was much, much harder to get the cuticle clipper on the tooth than I expected.  At least, I have not come across people having issue with that in my research.   

In the end, I thought I had managed to clip some but after releasing the fish back into the tank, my partner noted no difference at all in the length of the teeth.  😤  Seems to be doing okay though and getting enough food.  

Another trick I've been meaning to repeat is repashy on rocks.  I did that once, and I think the puffers ate some but the endlers ate a lot of it.  

[SWilson]

Disaster in the fish room!  One of the HOB filters in my 55 gallon overflowed and dumped gallons of water floor, soaking the power outlet, tripping the breaker.  All soaked into my concrete floors/floor boards.  Giant mess all around.  Oh and my indoor cat ran out at the same time. 😤r (he later returned home safely, but very wet from the rain)

Sigh.  Maybe this is just a rite of passage in the hobby, but not a great one.  

I'm a new homeowner and am really out of my depth in terms of what damage I've done to the outlet (not to mention water damage to the house itself) and what's safe to do.  Against my better judgment but out of desperation, I plugged the power strip with most of the electrical components besides the problem filter back in after drying everything off with towels.  But that kept tripping the breaker every few hours.  I need to have some water flow and oxygenation going in the tank (it is pretty heavily stocked), so I plugged in just one hob filter (the one I'm calling the not evil one) into the wall outlet.  It seems to be able to manage that without tripping the breaker.  Because plugging in a higher load trips the breaker, I'm worried there's some water damage to the inside of the outlet.  😞 

I think I know why the HOB filter overflowed, and believe I have a fix to that.  They're called sponge filters 😂  

Any advice on better practices re: the electrical would be greatly appreciated.   

This is really the first time I called the room where I've set up my tanks the "fish room" -- it was really supposed to be my office and served as that but the fish tanks have completely taken over...including my desk 😅  So now my home office is our dining table and my office is a fish room.  🙂   My partner can't say anything because they took over the garage for their future reptile related business.  

But an overflowing fish tank seems like the perfect way to inaugurate my fish room.  I would have rather popped champagne but oh well.  

The night before the flood, I set up tank #6: another soil capped with substrate tank.  Hopefully a future betta home (plakat female most likely, don't worry not putting flowy fins in with that hardscape)  

This is a g*d-awful tank photo, but I'm too excited to share it to go down and keep trying to photograph it.   Just take my word, that it's very simple and lovely in person (at least I think so).  I'll probably need to add more plants to battle the algae, and have plenty of val from other tanks I can add to the background. But I really hope the crypts take off and spread.  Each of these plants have been just living in a bucket of water (with light, and a dose of easy green maybe once or twice when I remembered) for almost 2 months.  

Would love a future Co-op Club event (or a video) that is a tutorial by Jimmy on filming/photographing your tanks for amateurs. 😃

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by SWilson

[Guppysnail]

That stinks! Hobs overflowing I believe is possibly a right of passage unfortunately.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you that it works out with minimal permanent damage. I think the simplicity of the new scape makes it very beautiful. I love that wood piece.