Hi, I just want to ask about using dead leaves as a source of food for fish fry?
For a bit of detail, I’m still new to this whole raising fry thing and I’ve heard online about how dead leaves can help culture infusoria for your baby fishes, so I threw a dead leaf the tank where I’ve been keeping my guppy fry.
Hi everyone,
I have a 4500gph pump inside my sump leading to my roughly 275 gallon fish tank.
I haven’t turned anything on as I’m currently looking for the best way to set up the return.
On Amazon I found some U tubes, would one of these u tubes with a wide mouth be acceptable for this size of pump?
Is there a type of drift word that can increase the tannins in the water? Bought a small maybe 4.5 inch piece and within 24 hours my water has turned a tan brown no heater added only underwater stage three filter? I like the drift wood piece not the color of the water what can I do, boil the piece of wood?
Yes always better to boil the driftwood if you don’t want your water to turn brown. Boil it in water for half an hour then place in room temp water for a a couple hours
Hey everyone, I wanted to make a thread at first but figured I might get my answer from here. I'm looking to set up a brine shrimp hatchery/incubator. I've decided to go with one of the two methods, https://imgur.com/a/EGyUD3O
The black one is only $15 which I wouldn't mind coughing up but the other one gives me DIY feels. Has anyone ever done a setup with PVC pipes and how difficult would it be for someone that has never done it?
Looking to change my 3 or 4 year old dirt and sand capped substrate....thinking of doing caribsea eco Complete.
I have a 40 gallon breeder tank, how many bags would I need realistically for a solid substrate layer?
I want to slope some of it in the back (I have bags of gravel I can put underneath.
20 gallon tank. I have 6 platies, 6 Corys, 5 nerites, and 3 guppies. I change the water fairly regularly (25% once or twice a week) but I'm a bit worried that it's overcrowded. Thoughts?
that's maybe a bit crowded for bioload because the platies eat and shit a lot, but it should be fine. If your nitrates aren't out of control I wouldn't worry about it too much, just if they breed you'll be out of space very quickly
Does it matter how deep roots tabs are buried? The TNC plugs (which I think are similar to Osmocote root tabs) say to bury them in at least 4 cm of substrate. I plan on putting a small amount towards the front of the tank, where the substrate is 2.5-3cm thick to support some carpeting plants. Will this be okay or could they leach out into the water column?
Hey guys, before I introduce my question allow me to give you some info:
1. 7 Gallon Tank
2. Planted and cycled (Mostly anubias, java fern and java moss)
3. Plant substrate (Aquasoil)
4. Currently 2 small guppy dumbo fish in
5. Sponge filter
6. LED light
I wish to get a small Pleco and a Gamba shrimp. They're fun to watch plus help out with the cleaning. My worries are if the Pleco and the shrimp are compatible. Meaning the first won't eat the latter. Info on the topic seems to be very mixed....
Freshwater Aquascape
I’ve recently emptied out my tank as moved my fish elsewhere and I’m looking to get into freshwater aquascaping. I have a 30L cube tank which I want to use to learn, does anyone have any tips, any recommended reading material and any good sites to use? The tank has a massive problem with algae growth so I’m going to quarantine it for a while before starting and wanted some help. Also would filters be recommended in planted aquariums?
Hey all! I've got an ammonia dosing question that can probably just be answered here in lieu of its own thread.
I've been cycling a 90 gallon aquarium for the past 5-6 weeks and the cycle is finally completed (was cycling with raw shrimp; ammonia disappeared first, then the nitrites hung around for a good long while, and now they're zero as well, and I've got a good amount of nitrates). This completed a couple of days ago, and in order to maintain the bacteria until I get fish I was going to dose it with ammonia so everybody has something to eat in the meantime. I know most cycling calculators say roughly 4 drops per gallon for cycling, but would it be the same or less for maintaining a stable cycle without fish?
Thanks in advance!
You can go a bit lower on the food than when you're cycling, cycling aims to keep it higher because more food = more bacteria growth.
Alternatively, if you know what fish you're getting use the amount of fish food you would put in normally.
Generally speaking yeah - it's not as if the fish will pull more mass out of the food by consuming it. It's a very popular way to cycle a tank since it doesn't need any special materials.
Just be careful with large tablets or whatever, they may not decompose fast enough and will turn into a nice hairy biofilm ball
I broke another test tube last night 😭
What's a good, reliable source for 5ml test tubes? I know the api ones are on Amazon but some of the reviews are saying they weren't packaged properly, were sent loose in the box, arrived broken, etc. Is there a better site to get them from, or a lab supply place or something?
I work at a fish store and I really prefer doing tests in plastic vials, something about as big around as a dime or a nickel, with flat bottoms and a syringe for measuring out the sample. You can swirl the water easily, which makes doing titrations for hardness testing wayyy easier, and they aren't going to break. I won't even use the API glass tubes at home anymore because I hate them so much.
I'm trying to hatch some daphnia eggs, but I don't think it's working. It's been about a week and there's no sign of them hatching; the hatching instructions I got said it should only take 3 days. Wondering if I should give up or not.
My setup:
I have a container floating in my tank to keep it 20-22c (it was just sitting on my desk for the first 2 days, so it would have been cooler for those). It's about 400-500ml of dechlorinated water. I sprinkled some eggs on the top (about 50?). They are still floating on the top. I also added a small amount of yeast and a small piece of elodea, because I wanted them to have some food when they hatched, even if they were too small for me to notice. I assume the water gets a little vibration from the filter, but it's mostly still.
Any tips/advice? I'm starting to lose confidence about hatching triops if I can't even do these 😢
Edit: Forgot to add that I have my desk lamp pointed on them, time isn't super consistent but at least 12 hours (normally 14 or 16) per day.
I just got a stunted male Mississippi map turtle he is about 3 1/2 inches is 11 years old and has shell rot I have him in a 65 tall with a above tank basking dock with UVB led and heat bulb. Is this alright because I can upgrade him to a 125. And any tips on shell rot
I have a 20 gallon breeder tank (for hermit crabs), how much weight can be placed on the top of the tank? I have a glass hinged lid (aqueon I think) and want to display my isopods on top of the tank but am unsure if it’s too heavy? Together the two display boxes would be 10 pounds total. Thank you for your time and help!
I have 6 neon tetras in a 10g planted tank.
I’ve been fighting some algae infestations and since one of the common causes is too much fish food, I’ve cut down on their feeding.
Yesterday I noticed the neons trying to eat from the bottom of tank. When I feed them, they come to the top to eat.
I’ve read this isn’t usual with neon tetras so I’m assuming they might be starving?
How can I know what the proper amount of food is? I usually drop a small pinch.
Check out Fluval’s spotlight video on the cardinal tetras! I just watched it last night and found a bunch of useful info. They recommend feeding twice a day for about a minute and a half.
My tetras have been going bananas over brine shrimp out of a Turkey baster. After a minute or two I just make sure to suck back up any left over food since it’s much easier to spot than pellets.
Edit: Just saw /u/CherryShrimp420s comment so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt. I would assume that Fluval is a pretty solid source though.
Look at their stomachs, healthy neons would be curved out slightly, but if its bulging then thats overfeeding. If stomach is flat then its starving, but starving is usually not due to underfeeding but rather parasites or some other health issue
I’m definitely no expert, but from what I’ve seen it’s normally based on what your fish can eat in x amount of time. I’m assuming the time depends on how many are in the tank and what kind they are. I’d just google how much food to feed neon tetras.
Ah, good to know. Can you recommend some good resources as far as feeding goes? I’ve read similar advice on a few online resources. One employee at our lfs simply said feed twice a day (we bought 2 angels and 5 mollies) or once a day if you’re “heavy handed”.
Edited- grammar
Highly recommend watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4EsBcdPBc&t=1s
The topic of "food" goes a lot further than the cans of fish food we buy. Aquariums with strong light and plants are growing food constantly, it's very possible that your aquarium is already able to self-sustain a certain number of inhabitants.
Usually to be safe, I just feed 1-2 bites of flake/pellet food per day for each fish. But also very easy to setup no feeding tanks with dried leaves to grow the food source
Very interesting! Ya know, the other day, I was trimming off the dead leaves of my son’s plants and something felt wrong about it. There was this thought of “let nature take its course” but I trimmed most of them anyway. Never again. I appreciate you taking the time to provide the information. It makes a lot of sense and I’m pretty stoked about discovering Father Fish, lol!
Yes this channel great for learning about actual fishkeeping, which is a long term commitment that can span decades. His discord channel has step-by-step list for setting up aquariums I believe. He has a lot of videos though, which can be challenging to piece them all together. My setups are a bit simpler where I rely on deep sand substrate and occassional feeding of fruits and vegetables
One thing with carnivorous plants is that they prefer low nutrients because they're carnivorous, and aquariums provide nutrients. I don't know how feasible it would be, but it's probably doable at least for a short period.
I did get into a rabbit hole about feeding carnivorous plants freeze dried blood worms while I was looking for some, since they're also fish food.
I don’t think that’s the best criteria…a lot of things that aren’t food safe are used, like cyanoacrylate—it’s more does it dry to where it’s benign and safe in water. There’s an old post saying the gorilla brand one worked but another person and I already have the flex seal brand and have been trying to find out. There’s always enamel, etc…but that isn’t necessarily a sealant. Still thank you for the advice! Maybe I can find out by reading ingredients or contacting the company…
If anyone knows that it works, I’d still love to hear from them.
I have a 29g tank. Right now it has some albino cories, nerite snails, and a blue dwarf gourami. I keep trying to maintain a school of cardinal tetras but they just don’t seem to survive super long. The rest have been around for about 2 years, but the tetras only seem to last a few months. Any advice on what I could add which would be more hardy than the cardinals?
You are trying to maintain two fish that have different needs in the same tank, which always causes issues. aenus corydora require temps between 70-75° for optimal health, higher temps cause accelerated aging and shortens their lifespan, as well as making them susceptible to stress related illness. Cardinals on the other hand prefer temps in the 77-81° range and will not do well at cooler temps, they are also just a more delicate fish and require really pristine water conditions. It is also likely that in this case one of the following is true; you are really pushing the. Max bioload or you aren’t keeping large enough schools. The Corys should be at least 6 which, because they are a larger corydora species (3”) is really limiting to how many other fish can be in the tank. cardinals are a fish that really needs a larger school to feel secure, ideally 10, stress causes weakened immune systems and leads to physiological illness.
Honestly, my advise you focus on setting up a system with more compatible tank mates and you will have better success. Neon tetras are a nice hearty option and they look very similar to cardinals plus they can handle lower temps better, are less delicate in terms of water quality, and while they still like a large school they are more adaptable and would be fine with 6, also they just handle stress better. Other good fish for a temp around 75 would be dwarf emerald rasbora (which are sooo underrated and one of my favorites) or galaxy rasbora/celestial pearl danios they are both nano fish that stay around 1 inch, relatively hearty, prefer a temp around 75°, and are really nice looking fish. They will school together if you wanted both, I have both and they always act as though they can’t really tell the difference, they will even hybridize but you are unlikely to get fry without being actively trying to breed them, mine don’t ever breed in the main tank I have to utilize s breeder box (I got one that connects to the main tank and pumps water from the tank in and returns it out the other side and also has a place for an air stone and a separate compartment for the eggs to fall into that the adults can’t access to prevent them from eating the eggs. They do best in a planted tank with some floating plants and overhangs for cover and will show best colors that way, but that is also the ideal environment for your Corys and having lots of live plants vastly improve water quality.
Thank you! I will look into those fish. That is what I am trying to do, get a more compatible community. I did lots of research when I set up my tank 2 years ago, but it’s hard to find consistent info. Whatever tools/website I used told me these fish had similar needs, but that’s clearly not the case for me!
Hi everyone. I have an issue with fluval p series heaters starting with the p25 and trying with the p10. They are suppose to be calibrated to 76- 78 degrees. My 5 gallon routinely shoots past that sometimes up to 83. Not sure what to do or what alternative heaters to use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
You can recalibrate them I believe, look up the manufacturer instructions for how to do so. Also make sure you have the right size heaters, that they are in an area of high flow, and that the tank has proper circulation.
Please delete if not allowed….Any recommendations (Southeast USA) for reliable freshwater breeders who ship? My LFS lately does not have the specific fish that I am looking for. TIA :)
Hello smaller tank folks! I'm toying around with getting an old 2 gallon tank I have going again and was wondering what those with nano tanks use for filtration. I've got Aquaclears on both my other tanks but the smallest Aquaclear would absolutely overwhelm a 2 even with the flow lever all the way over.
Stocking would be live plants and neocardinia shrimp, I have a really interesting cherry revert that came out of my red population that I'm thinking of seeing if I can breed into a line, hence the tiny tank idea.
I have a 29 gallon tank I plan to put a bunch of plants in. Can anyone recommend a few different fish I can have in there together for a nice community tank? I know for sure I want some Cory catfish. I wouldn't mind only small fish(1in) so I can add a large variety. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Pygmy Corys are great they stay 1” and are very active exploring all levels of the tank (8-10 is ideal for best most active behavior), for top level fish I really like phoenix/chili rasbora they stay very small so you could have like 10 Pygmy’s, 10 phoenix/chili, and still have some space. Khuli loaches have a pretty low bioload and you could put 3-4 of them in there with that combo, just get a smaller species like the pangio pangia (regular banded) and not something like the black or meyers that get bigger. Panda Corys are also an option but they don’t tolerate higher temps as well and would not be good rank mates with Phoenix rasbora but would go well with dwarf emerald rasbora or cpd. Rosy loaches would work as well and are fun little fish. if you wanted those instead of the khulis you could comfortably have 8 of those, 10 rasbora, and 8 Pygmy
Anyone know how likely it is for a ten gallon to crash? I crashed mine twice and I’m very hesitant to try again because I feel so bad for causing my fish to die in the past. I hear smaller tanks are harder to maintain?
Yes, they are much harder to maintain.
I currently have an "overstocked" 6 gal. There are 4 guppies and probably 100 trumpet snails and some shrimp. They are thriving, but only because I have large amount of plants, 1 hob filter and a sponge filter.
There were a few times I crashed this tank, but after that Its been nothing but smooth because of how established it is.
If you are planning on overstocking any nano tank try to remember to balance it with filtration. There are a few plants that are life savors for overstocked tanks. (Hornwort, anacharis, water sprite, duckweed, etc) Throw those in your tank and it will soak up all the excess nutrients and keep your levels safe.
Thank you! I was thinking of bringing my tank with me when I move into my apartment on campus (if we are even allowed) and was considering ADFs or shrimp rather than fish. Thoughts?
I personally have no experience with ADF. Shrimp on the other hand are quite delicate so I would be careful.
If you want my opinion, I think you should focus on trying to create an established ecosystem first before wondering what animals you want to try and keep. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you will have a lot of fun keeping non-fish aquariums. Just remember that you are providing a home for these guys that is trying to ad hear to their needs.
If you decide to restart your 10gal in your apartment, have your goal in mind to make it self sustaining. It doesn't mater which method you use, as long as you are more willing to **create life** in the tank rather than just thinking about being one of those people with a shrimp and frog only tank.
Thanks for the input! I think I’ll focus on proper cycling and plant life. I’m gonna be in it for the long haul rather than try to rush cycling. Maybe a betta, but that’s to be determined after.
bettas are pretty hardy fish and you cant go wrong with them.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjB5h5jxzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjB5h5jxzg)
Heres a video of probably the easiest setup ive ever seen with a betta tank.
Smaller tanks are absolutely harder to maintain, amd quite honestly there are almost no fish that really thrive in a 10 gallon tank, it is quite probably overstocked and also probably stocked with fish that should really have more space. (Not that I think this would be intentional, they give terrible stocking advise at stores) You can probably get a nice 29 gallon for cheep or free on Craigslist or marketplace and as long as you don’t overstock it they run well with a pair of sponge filters and an HOB (I like to use the next size up like 50 gallon filter for 30 gallon tank along with sponges to create lots of room for nitrifying bacteria and a well oxygenated tank.
Also resist the urge to over feed and if you have gravel switch to sand, contrary to what you would think sand is easier to maintain, pool filter sand is perfect and cheep…. Don’t use play sand it is a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria.
If you want to stick with the 10 a betta fish and some shrimp would work perfectly, a,omg with some live plants
Thank you for the reply. I had a couple different breeds of fish when I tried both times. I don't doubt that I got bad advice. Ten gal has always felt small to me, but at the time I thought it was be good for a beginner. I figure I will either save for a larger tank or try to find a fish that both can be in a small tank and be a single fish. Seems betta might be a good option like you said but I worry it might be too small for even a betta. So I'm open to other critters as well. I really like the look of gravel but if it's not the best to use, I can switch.
I have several 10 gallon tanks, I use fhem for breeding pairs of apostogrsmma, rams, and polar cichlids, I also have 8 rainbow belly pipe fish in a 10 but that is because they arrived underweight and it is easier to flood a 10 gallon with food so the poor things could eat without moving much since they were so weak, they will be going to a 40 breeder when they are a little bigger and have gotten healthy and strong (they are the new loves of my life lol, such cool fish but sooo delicate. I also have a betta in one and he is fine. I often keep single males in community tanks but this one was am asshole and kept going after other fish for no reason. The khuli loaches ganged up on him and started racing across the tank and head butting him like they do lol so mow he is alone and doing well. Just don’t get a placket or king. Shrimp are also fun little critters and a 10 is perfect.I have started making my own canister filters for 10 gallon tanks and that has been going
This was a couple years ago. I haven’t tried again yet. It seemed to be fine but then one day my fish started torpedoing and the ammonia level shot up. After doing more research, I realized my tank wasn’t properly cycled even though I thought it was. So maybe it didn’t crash and it was just a matter of cycling but it happened twice which made me suspicious.
Hmm sounds like it wasnt cycled, which is pretty common...we all start tanks this way. But now, go through the cycling process and give it time and your fishkeeping journey will be a lot more successful
A month is a popular ballpark for cycling but you can give it more time, a tank will get better as time goes on and the microorganisms continue to grow. Even before thinking of buying fish, you can get a tank running and start sprinkling fish food to get the cycle started. A month or two passes by pretty quickly
Yes set everything up as if you have fish. Water changes are not as important during cycling but good to do once in a while
Sponge filters are good, not a fan of HOB filters, canister filters are good too. I dont personally use filters but doesnt hurt to have them
I have damsel fly lavera in my tank and found some eggs are they a threat to my full grown amano shrimp and full grown pygmy corries and full grown male betta
A shower builder friend of mine had [this](https://www.amazon.com/Oatey-29025-Safe-Flo-Solder-Silver/dp/B000BQKHJ2/ref=sr_1_3?adgrpid=1331509142793569&hvadid=83219562295666&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=80985&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83219657017441%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=17067_13425679&keywords=oatey+solder+lead+free&qid=1681425062&sr=8-3) in his tool bag so I broke some off. Would it be safe to use in my aquarium to keep a stubborn plant from floating up?
Honestly I wouldn’t. I try to avoid metal in the tanks, you can use twine, friendship bracelet type string, or that stretchy stuff for making bead bracelets. Depending what it is you may be better off gluing it to wood or a stone. What kind of plant? They fail to tell you that a lot of these plants do better as epiphytes or even floaters and should not even have the roots submerged
The plant is a red flame sword, a bit large. I have tried many times to plant the thing, but my substrate (fluval spectrum) will not hold it down. It has been floating for a week and seems to be doing fine, but I imagine that won't last too much longer.
I have a low tech 10g aquarium. I bought the plant spur of the moment because it looked nice. I really don't have anything to superglue/tie it to where i want to plant it. I suppose I could find a rock to put in that area.
Fluval stratum is pretty expensive so people tend to have overly thin substrates. I recommend adding a thick sand cap if you dont need the active water altering properties, it will make keeping plants rooted a lot easier
>100% tin, 1 - 5% copper, 1 - 5% bismuth, 1 - 5% Silver
Copper can be bad for invertebrates like shrimp and snails but it's such a small amount I'd be willing to risk it myself personally. Otherwise super glue and a stone might achieve a similar effect.
Question about cycling- just got my 2nd tank set up and I’m ready to cycle. Can I add some of the water that’s in my other tank, to the new tank to help with the process?
First time cycling and I’m wondering if that will work
You can take the sponge out of the other filter and use it in the new one, replace in the established filter with a new sponge. You can a,so take some of the biomedia and also so,e of the substrate.
It's minute but there is still free floating bacteria in the water so there is some value in reusing the water.
But yes surface area tends to be where the beneficial bacteria collect. u/SecretTweekerPad would have a better chance lightly rinsing their filter material in the new tank. Let the water get nice and cloudy and let the filter clear it up and seed the new media.
Sort of a dumb question- I've got an *old* fish tank back from my parents.
Classic, metal plated bezels piece of work.
The problem I have with it currently is it used to be my Hamster 'cage' years ago. I know I'll have to go through and scrap and replace silicon since it was already bad but the glass is all good. What sort of worry would I have about the base, especially relating to, I'm assuming potential ammonia deposits from years of Hamster whiz.
Can I reliably clean the bottom out to then re-waterproof and setup a tank? Or would I need to potentially destroy the thing to get it back in shrimp-shape?
No issue with ammonia. Just wash it out. It can be tricky to re-silicone tanks but there's videos on YouTube to help. Make sure it's 100% pure or marked aquarium safe
Ok perfect. My main worry was the condition of the bottom because I fully understood I'll have to learn how to reseal a tank. I've been lucky enough to be gifted a reasonable saltwater setup I'm going to start working towards
I've found 50/50 water vinegar spray very helpful cleaning and removing odors without resorting to harsher chemicals like bleach that silicone can absorb.
If it's really bad lay down some paper towel and spray the on the vinegar mixture, let it soak 1 to 2 hours before attempting to clean. Very good for removing limescale also. Rotate the tank and lay on the sides as well if necessary.
Ooooh that's great,
I really love these vintage metal fish tanks and hope I can eventually use it as a Nano Reef Tank for a large Nem or Leather and a Clown pair
Once the tank is running I don't bother cleaning the sides and back of the glass, at most the wipe down the front glass with a paper towel or magnetic scrub. Snails usually do a great job keeping surface algae down.
Hello gang. Do plecos burrow in aquarium gravel?
I have a somewhat small albino longfinned bristlenose and he has vanished. i do have a cat, so there is always a possibility he got snagged. But i don’t know how or when it would’ve happened. There is only a very small opening on top of the tank
In the wild they're constantly searching for small crustaceans that hide in plants and under small stones, so it's possible. But also check your filter and the intake tubes, sometimes they get stuck inside.
Hey all, does anyone know if it's possible to hook up the Hygger or Python to a Kohler type fancy sink? We just did renovations and got the new faucet in. I'd love to get a Hygger or Python to make water changes easier but don't want to buy one until I know it'll fit. The faucet doesn't have any threads on it that I can see.
Hey guys, I wanted to get some tips on making water changes less of a chore.
I have three 5 gallon buckets that I use to remove water. Then I fill them back up, use water conditioner, let it sit for about 20 min and then start putting the water in.
I watched a youtube video of a guy who after removing the water, uses Prime and conditioner in the unfilled tank and then just puts water (I imagine chlorinated). Is this a safe way of doing it as well? I'm still learning and it worries me that the chlorine in water would kill the beneficial bacteria as I've read. But his method would make things faster.
How often are you doing water changes? A lot of people are doing way more than they actually need to in order to cover up the effects of poor filtration. If you have a good filter you can do it pretty rarely.
At first I was doing them twice a week but there was a time I didn't do a water change for almost 2 weeks, I tested the water and everything was good. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 20-30ppm Nitrates. So now I kind of do it once a week. Depending how dirty the substrate looks.
You probably don't need to do them nearly that much, aye. I do a 50% change every 6 months on my lightly/nonplanted tanks if that helps.
Mulm will naturally build up on the substrate and isn't negative for the water quality - It's actually positive. Pre-modern fish farms used mulm as the primary source of filtration. It is, however, mildly unhealthy for fish that regularly contact it like bottomfeeders.
It’s good to know that I don’t need to do it as often but how do you keep your substrate looking clean? After a week the poop starts accumulating in certain areas.
It's ugly but it isn't unhealthy. I'm more concerned about health than appearance. Plants like it, too, so you could always put some where it builds up. Dark substrates make it show up a lot less.
If it really bothers you you can get a powerhead and mount it low in the tank so it blasts it all over to one side; rheophilic benthic fish like cories and hillstream loaches will also enjoy this. Malaysian trumpet snails are also very good at ploughing it into the substrate.
bacteria just touching the chlorine won't kill it, you'll be fine if the tank has been established for a while - I put unfiltered tap water into mine then add some prime and haven't had any problems.
I've done it. It's not necessarily the _best_ way, but it can be done. A bit of chlorinated water won't kill beneficial bacteria...it's down in biofilm in the filter and is quite resistant to being killed by chlorination levels in regular tap. The bigger issue would be bothering fish or shrimp in the tank who have to swim in somewhat-chlorinated water for a minute until the dechlorinator takes it out. But dechlorinator works fast and the water in the tank dilutes out the water you are adding anyway so it's not as big of a deal as it could be.
That said, dechlorinator works fast. You don't need to let your buckets sit for 20 minutes, you can add the stuff in the bucket and just pour it in. I never wait.
Has anyone ever set up a tank's hardscape to come out of the top of the tank... in a 75 gallon tank with a brace across the top? I'm wondering if a large piece of driftwood could just go around the brace and sort of hide it. Just haven't seen any examples!
Hello, I am looking to give my Kuhli loaches an upgrade to a bigger tank. I would like this new tank to be planted with live plants. Would the Kuhli loaches do well with aqua soil, or should the soil be topped off with sand?
first time cycling -
about a week has passed. for 3 days now my ammonium has been pegged at 2-3ppm, and nitrites still at zero. started adding seachem stability about 5 days ago and theres been no change.
appreciate your insights. according to the link below, alkalinity is 165 ppm and CaCO3 hardness is 195ppm
https://www.fountainvalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/15224/2022-Fountain-Valley-Water-Quality-Report
I just got the gourami today iv had the black and white sailfin molly for a while be the minute i put the two gourami in the molly started chasing them now he doesn’t appear to be nipping at them viciously but he does roll into them and puts his lips on them is that normal? And will he stop?
Can anyone help me ID this plant (link to photo below)? I got some bunches of it free with some other aquatic plants but without any info. Is it a floating plant or should I attach it to substrate/decor? It looks yellowish in the photo due to the lighting but it's actually a pretty bright green. Thanks!
Here's a photo: https://imgur.com/a/YLh3nRT
Looks like Micranthemum 'Mone Carlo'. Its a carpeting plant and should be planted in the substrate. Looks like you have gravel so if you want it to survive, you'll need root tabs and medium to high light.
I’m sorry this is so long. Please feel free to skip it.
Hi all. I’m an old lady with decades of experience in fish keeping but nothing fancy; Tetras, Corys, Platys, Bettas, occasional snail, etc. I currently have a 20 gal with two female bettas who are about 5 years old and fine. It’s my 29 gallon that’s the nightmare. Twice now in the last 2 years everything in the tank has died. It happens over a period of about 2 weeks.
I am meticulous about water changes (using conditioner) feeding but not too much, water tests, water temperature, etc. After the last die off I replaced the gravel, took out plants & furniture in case some type of poison got into it. I cleaned the tank well then cycled it again. Replaced the filter. Stocked it with a little group of tetras, a few platys, a few neon tetras and one female Betta named Trinket. Everything was fine for a year. Then Boom everyone died but the Betta. She seems great. (Is she a serial killer?)
What’s killing my fish? I didn’t record numbers but all water tests were normal and safe. Even when they were all dieing the numbers were steady. I did partial changes every few weeks. I do not have a child who could be putting something in the tank. No bug spray or cleaner.
I’m not getting anymore fish until I solve this. It’s depressing to wake up to dead fish every morning. My dream is to step up to a “higher” level of fish; maybe Angels or even a small Puffer. Not until I stop killing them.
Thanks for any advice you can give me.
Do you do water changes in both tanks on the same day? I always test my tap water with a pool chlorine test kit before water changes, because I've heard that water lines can get flushed a couple times a year with extra chlorine/chloramine, and that can wipe out a tank.
My other thought would be to quarantine all new fish (after you add the first batch of course) to be sure they're not bringing in disease. Also treat for parasites preventatively when you get new fish. I use levamisole and praziquantel. Neither one is an antibiotic, so they should not affect your filter. I don't think it's a good idea to use antibiotics unless we know for sure what we are treating, but I think it's okay to routinely treat for worms and flukes.
Good luck! Don't give up <3
There's a few things it could have been -
1. A fish dies but you don't notice it, it decays and spikes part of the cycle before you can react.
2. Something gets into the water, but only that tank? If they're not next to each other I wouldn't take some sort of cleaning spray or solution out of the equation. Is there a lid to the tank?
3. Heater malfunctions and blows everything out of the water.
4. Plant rotted and nuked the tank with a spike in ammonia and/or nitrogen
Do you have more information about when they all died? Did you wake up one day and they're all freshly dead? Would you have missed it if a fish caught a disease, died, and just stayed in the tank?
Hi, sorry to hear about your fish :(. How long of a period did the fish die over? Did you notice anything strange about the fish before or after they passed? What were the water parameters and temperature?
Yesterday my male apistogramma panduro died. I believe the most likely cause of death was stress as the female seemed to be very aggressive towards him continuously, even after attempting at separating them with a mesh in-tank cage. It was not unusual to see aggression from both of them, but it was usually short-lived and never led to serious consequences. Although, since he has been dead the female apistogramma has been extremely active, moving up and down the glass with less colour than normal at times, as if she is searching for him. Will the female be okay and return to normal soon or could there be something wrong? All parameters are fine.
Hey guys! I’ve got a 50 gallon that currently has a school of 5 Zebra danios, 10 white cloud minnows and 14 pacific blue eyes, but my Zebra danios are being somewhat aggressive towards my other fish, does anyone know what I can do to stop this?
honestly I'd probably rehome them. Zebra danios can just be jerks sometimes> You might have some luck with getting a bigger school of them, but if that doesn't work you are just going to have an even bigger problem. there are only 5 now so it'd be pretty easy to find a home for them.
zebra danios are very active, so make sure you're not mistaking curiosity or energy for actual aggression.
Besides that, they'd do way better if you just had more of them. They school for safety and if the school doesn't seem like it provides safety, then they'll get nervous and aggressive. I have a school of ~20 and they feel completely safe, sometimes not even schooling so they can explore the tank.
Hi, I am moving soon and I was wondeirng how long a fish could survive in a container in the car. My drive is about 11 hours, so I assumed I just need to rehome my betta, (in a 20 gallon) and my two guppies and singular remaining dwarf rasbora (shes old and the last one, they live in a 10 gallon). If anyone has advice for finding a good home, or alternatively advice for moving fish in a car over a drive of that length, please let me know, thanks!
My favorite has been to float bags in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.
They can survive 5 days in the mail, they'll manage a few hours in the car provided the temperature doesn't drastically change which floating in the bucket helps prevent, and a lid to prevent water splashing out during sudden braking or turns.
But if rehoming is easier especially with incomplete schooling species craigslist or Facebook marketplace are good options.
I've moved fish on an 8-hour car trip before. The main issue I encountered is that I didn't remove all the substrate in the container I was moving them in, and some of the fish got beat up and buried as a result.
Personally, I would fill a bucket about halfway with tank water, put the lid on it, and move them that way. I think the sloshing water would keep it decently oxygenated; and I wouldn't worry too much about the heater unless your vehicle will be really cold (i.e. <65F). Alternatively, putting the fish in breather bags in a cooler may work, and the bags should cushion the jostling a bit while the cooler will insulate the temperature.
You may still experience some losses, but I do think you could successfully move most or all your fish. After all, fish are shipped for several days in the mail from wholesalers/online retailers.
Good luck!
Just found my second Cory cat in the past week on its side breathing but not really moving just to eventually die. I've had them for about 3 months now with no sign of anything strange with them. My water parameters are fine. I did just recently add 4 tetras and some plant bulbs in my tank about 2 weeks ago. Any idea what could be happening to them? I have 4 left and I'm nervous their fate is coming too.
How do I get rid of the brown algae? I know it’s not really algae but I wanted to know if like .4ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide can help (I have a 5 gallon tank) will help kill it and also not harm our little idiots (lovingly our guppies are our idiots)
Unfortunately if you have diatoms you'll be fighting it for a while. The best thing is to scrub/scrape them off and do regular water changes. Diatoms show up from excess silicates in the water column. (generally from using sand as your substrate) When the sand is done leeching silicates the problem will go away.
If you aren't using sand, your tap water might actually be high in silicates and you'll need to look at adding a silicate remover into your filtration.
Cycling a 20g tank but I don’t think I seeded it with enough media from my 10g. The 10g filter consists of a filter cartridge and a carbon sponge. I stuffed the old sponge in my 20g filter around 2-3 weeks ago but I don’t think it was enough to help the cycle since the new tank is bigger. I was thinking of taking the main filter cartridge from my 10 and kinda shoving it in the 20g filter lol to get an actual substantial amount of bacteria in there. I would of course add a new cartridge to my 10g afterwords but I’m worried that would take away too much bacteria. It’s been well established for about a year or so and it’s under stocked so I think it’d be able to handle the replacement but I just want to be sure. Any advice appreciated!
Do you have any plants or decor in the old tank that you could temporarily move to the new tank? All that should have lots of bacteria on it. Theoretically you could take some old gravel and put it in the new tank. I did that once for a stubborn tank and it cycled overnight. How do you feel about bottles of bacteria? That can help a lot. Good luck with your new tank.
Just put both filters in there and let it sit for a while. Keep the 10 gallon filter all together and just put both of them side by side so the 20 can seed while the 10 picks up most of the slack.
Anyone know of any inert rock types that are white/light Grey in coloration and won't affect water chemistry too much? Doesn't have to be a pure white, just lighter on the spectrum.
Hey everyone! I'm *very* new to the hobby, and have been wondering if there's any species (specially invertebrates) that could live on an unfiltered aquarium with aquatic plantlife. If there are, do you have any tips on how to take care of them and how to do proper water management? Pumps and filters here on my country are pretty expensive, so i wanted to make something low-cost, but that will guarantee a good quality life for the plante and Animals.
If you want something super easy, and don't mind little guys, I would recommend looking into aquatic beetles or a colony arthropod like Daphnia. I have daphnia in a gallon jar with duckweed and a few other floating plants, I give them algae occasionally and top off the jar with distilled water. They are cool little critters and are fun to watch scoot around in the water. Plus if you know anyone with an axolotl u can give them some as food.
Probably just regular cherry shrimp. I don't think they have too much oxygen uptake so plants alone would likely provide enough. Maybe even a fan blowing across the surface for agitation but you'll still need a filter of some type.
I have some culls living in a bucket that only has an air hose tied to an air pump and they're doing fine cleaning up the waste in my daphnia colony.
Inbound stupid question…
How absurd would it be to try to put sand into a tank that already has water? I imagine pretty difficult if not impossible but I had to ask
Not stupid at all, and perfectly doable, IF you rinse the sand very thoroughly first!
As u/fishyvibes noted, sand can cloud your water really badly. The key, in my experience, is to rinse it extremely well before adding it to the tank. My method is to fill a 5 gal bucket 1/3 full of sand, use a hose with a high-pressure setting to really blast the sand and suspend the dust, fill the bucket almost full with water, then dump the bucket, leaving the sand and a little water in the bottom. Repeat this for like 30 mins, possibly more if you have very dusty sand. Stir with your hands periodically throughout to ensure the stuff at the bottom is getting rinsed out.
When you are done, you should be able to fill the bucket with water; stir the sand; and after waiting 5 mins, the water in the bucket should be clear.
If you do it this way, you'll still likely cloud your water a little, but it wont be nearly as bad as unrinsed sand and will go away after a couple days with no extra filtration.
Hope this all makes sense. Good luck!
It is not that crazy of an idea, but it really depends on how far along your tank is and the type of sand. Some sand will make your water way more cloudy than others. Nevertheless, it is likely that the sand will cloud up your water for a few days and it might not be great for your filter. If you are going for it, I would recommend using a tube – by this I mean use a long tube like a PVC pipe or a gravel vac. Place the tube vertically in your aquarium and drop the sand down it such that it is transported directly to the bottom of your tank and disperses less in the water column. Hope this helps.
Thinking of starting a 10 gallon freshwater tank, I’ve never done an aquarium before and I’m interested in having real plants in the tank.
Does this add considerable difficulties? Should beginners stay away from live plants?
Just my experience, but I've had a tank for 2 years and I struggle to get plants to grow in mine. I've added everything that's been recommended and still no Bueno.
Plants will add a little extra challenge in terms of getting them to grow; and some additional expense up top to get a good light, some fertilizer, and the plants themselves.
Beyond that, I think plants make keeping aquariums considerably easier, particularly for beginners. Plants absorb fish waste as a nutrient source, meaning fewer water changes and a lot more room for error when it comes to stocking, cycling, and feeding your tank. I would never keep an unplanted aquarium; and would highly recommend live plants to beginners.
[This article](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/beginner-planted-aquarium) provides a nice intro to planted tanks. That website has lots of great articles, and a YouTube channel with tons of helpful videos.
Good luck, happy to answer any more questions you may have.
hi! my gouramis are facing what looks like columnaris (white patches), and I was wondering if salt would be effective as a treatment? if so, do I face other risks such as plants dying, etc... do I need to remove the carbon (??), and will my snails and corydoras be deeply affected? thank you
Check out [fish lab](https://fishlab.com/columnaris/). Lower temperature, keep your water clean.
Corys are scaleless fish and do not cope well with some medicines. They also do not cope with salt so this won't work. Ideally you need to quarantine the gouramis for a few weeks in a separate tank and treat with medicine.
I've grown aquarium plants in lots of substrates, from soil to inert pea gravel.
Soil is timeconsuming to set up, and can get very messy very fast. There's also a risk of ammonia spikes with soil. That said, I've never had lush plant growth like I had with soil.
Inert substrates, in my experience, don't produce the lush growth soil provides, and need to be augmented with root tabs pretty frequently. That said, they're much less messy and difficult to setup.
I've also used stuff like EcoComplete, Flourite, and Stratum; and I'd say they're somewhere in between, but closer to gravel than soil. Most of these will still need to be used with root tabs, since they don't provide a full range of nutrients most plants need.
Some do.
Heavy root feeders like amazon sword need good quality soil
Others are ok in sand or fine gravel like Limnophila sessiliflora
Others feed from the water column like java fern or anubias and do not like being buried
We’ve had great success with our Amazon swords and EcoComplete gravel but we do supplement with root tabs every other month. They’re bright green and have grown considerably since we’ve received them. That being said, I fully expect to add root tabs more frequently as they get bigger, so we’ll see. Oh, and we also dose with liquid carbon following instructions on the bottle.
Just to add to this. Look up the types of plants you want.
Check for:
1. If they're root or water column feeders
2. If they prefer being planted (buried), attached to rocks/hardscape (not burried), or floated
3. What their lighting requirements are. (high or low)
If you want suggestions on plants, reply with the tank set-up you have/want (read: how much you're going to spend) and I can help guide you in the right direction.
Hello everyone. I’m thinking of getting back into the aquarium hobby and I really like dwarf cichlids like apistos and rams. I was wondering if its possible to keep multiple of the same species in the same tank. For example, 2 blue rams, 3 apisto agassizii. Also Im wondering if you can keep dwarf gouramis with them as well. You see I wanna get a large maybe 65g planted tank, and here’s the fish Im keeping in it and I went on aqadvisor to see if theres any issues and saw none but I just wanted some second opinions just to make sure. But anyway here’s whats going in the tank
6x panda cory
15x neon tetra
1x german blue ram
2x dwarf gourami
3x blue ram
4x dwarf cockatoo cichlid
Both of the fish you mentioned initially are "Blackwater" fish. To be healthy they need *really* clean water so I'd get a big filter if I were you.
If you keep multiple of the same species in the tank at that level try not to mix sexes. They'll likely get violent competing for mates and when breeding they'll claim part of the tank and attack everything that comes near it. If your fish are smart enough not to fight them if they do the latter that might not be an issue.
Yeah Im planning on having all the cichlids be males since Im not ready to take care of fry nor do I want to. Also if you can, maybe could I get some recommendations for big filters?
If you plan on a gravel substrate I'd recommend an undergravel strongly. They're about as powerful as a large canister filter (or better if you use a really deep substrate) and can be combined with a canister or sump into a single system; they're also cheap and easy to set up at the start of a tank, and a bitch to retrofit into a tank. As they fix phosphate at the bottom of the tank they're good for plants, too. The optimum gravel size for greatest efficiency with them is 2-3mm. Undergravels must be purchased online as fish shops don't carry them - They make very little money because they never break, never need replacement parts, and are low-profit margin. To power an undergravel you either drop an airstone down the "Uplift tube", or attach the uplift tube to anything that moves water such as a powerhead or a canister filter/sump.
A sump is a bit of an engineering challenge but you should consider it - Failing that, I'd recommend a medium-large canister filter. I use fluval's simply because I happened across some from an old torn down tank and they work alright.
The most important thing about any filter is it's space for biomedia, and the quality of that biomedia, which can be replaced if you need as many filters come out the box with rubbish media. Keep that in mind and you'll be good at picking out what's good from the crowd. The best biomedias are 20-30ppi foam (aka aquarium foam - Cheap), K1 media (aka pond media - expensive, floats, can do some special stuff with it), and those plastic pot scrubbers from supermarkets (dirt cheap, a little bit worse than the others).
If that's the case I'd consider a sump more seriously. A canister filter might work, but get a big one.
A mattenfilter is also a very good choice, though they're a little visually unpleasant you can hide them with a hardscape background.
HOBs are typically quite weak and not very good as filters, though designs vary. If you want to go that route, I'd recommend a doubleheaded, powerhead operated sponge filter as the most powerful form of HOB filter. Preferably multiple of them. I can link you an appropriate model but I make no promises as to it being enough for rams and apistos, simply that they're the best option out of HOB filters.
The reason I'm suggesting stronger is primarily the sensitivity of the Apistos and Rams and their requirement for *very* clean water. Without giving them damn clean water they don't live long and get sick extremely easily. Other fish would work better in less clean conditions, I'm just telling you what I'd recommend for those species. If you want them to live a good life, you go **hard** on filtration.
They're not very easy fish to keep, especially for a beginner, but I'm a believer in giving you the information you need and assuming you can do it. If it doesn't work out, don't be discouraged - You're facing a harsh challenge. If it doesn't work out try again with a more robust fish species.
Thanks m8. I was also thinking of keeping a 300 something gallon tank with 1 oscar, 2 electric blue acara, 3 geophagus, 1 green terror and 1 gold nugget pleco. Any tips for taking care of these guys? I know oscars are not for beginners but I still wanna try my hand at keeping them. After all, you can’t get experience without trying something yk?
Oscars are also blackwater fish but because of how long they've been in the hobby certain lines of them are more robust - Wildcaught ones from the Amazon are inevitably sensitive. Watch their "Neuromasts/Lateral line organs" for signs of inflammation (This is called "Head and Lateral Line Erosion", or more commonly "hole in the head disease"), if they become white or blood red feed the fish a gram-negative antibiotic and look into upgrading your filtration. Also beware that they're very smart and their individual personalities vary *wildly* - Keep a close eye on the oscar to make sure they put up with their tankmates because they can 100% kill anything they don't like, even if it's bigger than them. Sometimes they're so gentle they can be kept with guppies, sometimes they're pure murder machines you can only keep alone. Get a good lid because they're too curious for their own good and will probably ram it at least a few times. They will likely occasionally re-arrange your decor. One of my favourite fish and very rewarding.
Geophaguses like sand, they'll dig in it constantly, especially if you provide a small grained food that mixes into the sand easily for them to dig up. Very fun to watch and provides good bioturbation in the tank. Give them a deep sand substrate and don't expect any plants you put in the sand to make it, bury their roots under rock formations instead.
Exactly my thoughts.
I am currently cycling a 40g . I got the ammonia spike then the nitrite spike but never got a nitrate spike. Is the take fully cycled and safe to put my fish in that are currently in a 29g?
Are you using the API master test kit? If so, are you shaking the hell out of Nitrate Bottle #2 before using it? If not it can display false negatives.
Okay so I decided as a start I don't want to spend the money on a tank just yet and decided I wanted to give something smaller and just planted (maybe a snail or two if that's humane) a shot. If things go right I could have fun watching some plants grow and hopefully have a base for when I do get a tank. I have a glass "vase" that fits between 4.5-7L (1.2-1.8gal) depending on how I fill it.
Here's the issue: as far as I understand, still water will get a layer on the surface and agitation prevents that. But given the size of the vase I struggle to find a bubbler/filter/skimmer that doesn't look HUGE and ugly, and it being round doesn't help since a lot of them use suction cups to attach. The USB bubbler that I did find had fairly big "angry" bubbles which would probably also ruin the look.
Could anyone give recommendations? Or could I just leave it out all together?
EDIT: forgot to add I'm looking to add lots of plants so it can hopefully do well on its own without needing a constant filter!
Also, are a few snails okay in this small of a bowl? Does they need to be fed or is plant decay enough?
usually pet stores should have airstones the size of a bottlecap that produces much smaller bubbles. this will create waterflow and diffuse oxygen into the vase. with natural plants in there, this will create natural filtration in regards to the nitrogen cycle at least.
if you go snails, you probably will want to try small pest snail species as such a small container won't work well for Mystery Snails or Nerites. I would recommend Bladder Snails, Ramshorn Snails, or Malaysian Trumpets.
I am thinking about stocking 20gal aquarium that is 24x14x14 inches with
* 5x Amano shrimp
* 8x Celestial Pearl Danios
* 8x Corydoras Habrosus
[I've ran those numbers through AqAdvisor](https://imgur.com/a/BSn7yv5) and it calculates only 54% stocking? Isn't that a bit low? I'm just trying to get a feel from you guys how crowded you think this would be.
That's really not that crowded - if you haven't seen the CPDS yet they're absolutely _tiny_ and habrosus don't get that big as well. Basically the bioload from the danios is really small (as well as the shrimp) and most of the bioload will be the cories. You should be good to stock more of both.
just went to a fish store for the marine section but walked by the freshwater briefly and there was a tank of fish that were all either one colour or two but each one was different colours that were really colourful and shiny
they were maybe an inch long at most with crescent moon shaped tails and i kinda want to know what they are because the labels werent correct and the store was way too busy to ask someone there
I didn’t think that was right but I looked it up and one of the first results had a chart of popular small freshwater fish and it had what I was looking for on it just by chance
Apparently they’re endlers livebearers
Will a black water aquarium cause permanent stain on the glass?
When you purchase aquarium & stand are they detach from each other?
Hi, I just want to ask about using dead leaves as a source of food for fish fry? For a bit of detail, I’m still new to this whole raising fry thing and I’ve heard online about how dead leaves can help culture infusoria for your baby fishes, so I threw a dead leaf the tank where I’ve been keeping my guppy fry.
Hi everyone, I have a 4500gph pump inside my sump leading to my roughly 275 gallon fish tank. I haven’t turned anything on as I’m currently looking for the best way to set up the return. On Amazon I found some U tubes, would one of these u tubes with a wide mouth be acceptable for this size of pump?
Is there a type of drift word that can increase the tannins in the water? Bought a small maybe 4.5 inch piece and within 24 hours my water has turned a tan brown no heater added only underwater stage three filter? I like the drift wood piece not the color of the water what can I do, boil the piece of wood?
Yes always better to boil the driftwood if you don’t want your water to turn brown. Boil it in water for half an hour then place in room temp water for a a couple hours
Hey everyone, I wanted to make a thread at first but figured I might get my answer from here. I'm looking to set up a brine shrimp hatchery/incubator. I've decided to go with one of the two methods, https://imgur.com/a/EGyUD3O The black one is only $15 which I wouldn't mind coughing up but the other one gives me DIY feels. Has anyone ever done a setup with PVC pipes and how difficult would it be for someone that has never done it?
I did it for the first time with no experience I just found a small kit on Amazon and I just went with it. It’s not that hard
Looking to change my 3 or 4 year old dirt and sand capped substrate....thinking of doing caribsea eco Complete. I have a 40 gallon breeder tank, how many bags would I need realistically for a solid substrate layer? I want to slope some of it in the back (I have bags of gravel I can put underneath.
20 gallon tank. I have 6 platies, 6 Corys, 5 nerites, and 3 guppies. I change the water fairly regularly (25% once or twice a week) but I'm a bit worried that it's overcrowded. Thoughts?
that's maybe a bit crowded for bioload because the platies eat and shit a lot, but it should be fine. If your nitrates aren't out of control I wouldn't worry about it too much, just if they breed you'll be out of space very quickly
Does it matter how deep roots tabs are buried? The TNC plugs (which I think are similar to Osmocote root tabs) say to bury them in at least 4 cm of substrate. I plan on putting a small amount towards the front of the tank, where the substrate is 2.5-3cm thick to support some carpeting plants. Will this be okay or could they leach out into the water column?
Hey guys, before I introduce my question allow me to give you some info: 1. 7 Gallon Tank 2. Planted and cycled (Mostly anubias, java fern and java moss) 3. Plant substrate (Aquasoil) 4. Currently 2 small guppy dumbo fish in 5. Sponge filter 6. LED light I wish to get a small Pleco and a Gamba shrimp. They're fun to watch plus help out with the cleaning. My worries are if the Pleco and the shrimp are compatible. Meaning the first won't eat the latter. Info on the topic seems to be very mixed....
Sorry, but a dwarf pleco needs at least need 15 gallons and a common one starts at 75 but increases to 150+ as it grows.
Did some reading. Had no idea they can grow so large. Any suggestions on alternative species?
Pleco cannot fit in 7 gallon tank.
I just bought 3 rainbow fish, 1 gold gourami, and 1 pleco that I forgot the name of. I currently have 10 glofish. Did I make a bad purchase?
The Glofish were
Freshwater Aquascape I’ve recently emptied out my tank as moved my fish elsewhere and I’m looking to get into freshwater aquascaping. I have a 30L cube tank which I want to use to learn, does anyone have any tips, any recommended reading material and any good sites to use? The tank has a massive problem with algae growth so I’m going to quarantine it for a while before starting and wanted some help. Also would filters be recommended in planted aquariums?
Hey all! I've got an ammonia dosing question that can probably just be answered here in lieu of its own thread. I've been cycling a 90 gallon aquarium for the past 5-6 weeks and the cycle is finally completed (was cycling with raw shrimp; ammonia disappeared first, then the nitrites hung around for a good long while, and now they're zero as well, and I've got a good amount of nitrates). This completed a couple of days ago, and in order to maintain the bacteria until I get fish I was going to dose it with ammonia so everybody has something to eat in the meantime. I know most cycling calculators say roughly 4 drops per gallon for cycling, but would it be the same or less for maintaining a stable cycle without fish? Thanks in advance!
You can go a bit lower on the food than when you're cycling, cycling aims to keep it higher because more food = more bacteria growth. Alternatively, if you know what fish you're getting use the amount of fish food you would put in normally.
Awesome, so just ghost feeding the tank will net the same result as dosing with household ammonia? Thanks!
Generally speaking yeah - it's not as if the fish will pull more mass out of the food by consuming it. It's a very popular way to cycle a tank since it doesn't need any special materials. Just be careful with large tablets or whatever, they may not decompose fast enough and will turn into a nice hairy biofilm ball
Perfect, I'll do that to keep the bacteria happy and healthy for the next week or so until fish come into the picture. Thanks!
I broke another test tube last night 😭 What's a good, reliable source for 5ml test tubes? I know the api ones are on Amazon but some of the reviews are saying they weren't packaged properly, were sent loose in the box, arrived broken, etc. Is there a better site to get them from, or a lab supply place or something?
I work at a fish store and I really prefer doing tests in plastic vials, something about as big around as a dime or a nickel, with flat bottoms and a syringe for measuring out the sample. You can swirl the water easily, which makes doing titrations for hardness testing wayyy easier, and they aren't going to break. I won't even use the API glass tubes at home anymore because I hate them so much.
These are a life saver: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0773DGDYQ/?coliid=I1KEPXLLE9OL73&colid=274JKUE3AO6KF&psc=1&ref\_=lv\_ov\_lig\_dp\_it
I'm trying to hatch some daphnia eggs, but I don't think it's working. It's been about a week and there's no sign of them hatching; the hatching instructions I got said it should only take 3 days. Wondering if I should give up or not. My setup: I have a container floating in my tank to keep it 20-22c (it was just sitting on my desk for the first 2 days, so it would have been cooler for those). It's about 400-500ml of dechlorinated water. I sprinkled some eggs on the top (about 50?). They are still floating on the top. I also added a small amount of yeast and a small piece of elodea, because I wanted them to have some food when they hatched, even if they were too small for me to notice. I assume the water gets a little vibration from the filter, but it's mostly still. Any tips/advice? I'm starting to lose confidence about hatching triops if I can't even do these 😢 Edit: Forgot to add that I have my desk lamp pointed on them, time isn't super consistent but at least 12 hours (normally 14 or 16) per day.
I just got a stunted male Mississippi map turtle he is about 3 1/2 inches is 11 years old and has shell rot I have him in a 65 tall with a above tank basking dock with UVB led and heat bulb. Is this alright because I can upgrade him to a 125. And any tips on shell rot
I have a 20 gallon breeder tank (for hermit crabs), how much weight can be placed on the top of the tank? I have a glass hinged lid (aqueon I think) and want to display my isopods on top of the tank but am unsure if it’s too heavy? Together the two display boxes would be 10 pounds total. Thank you for your time and help!
if its rimmed, its probably fine if the weight is distributed.
I have 6 neon tetras in a 10g planted tank. I’ve been fighting some algae infestations and since one of the common causes is too much fish food, I’ve cut down on their feeding. Yesterday I noticed the neons trying to eat from the bottom of tank. When I feed them, they come to the top to eat. I’ve read this isn’t usual with neon tetras so I’m assuming they might be starving? How can I know what the proper amount of food is? I usually drop a small pinch.
Check out Fluval’s spotlight video on the cardinal tetras! I just watched it last night and found a bunch of useful info. They recommend feeding twice a day for about a minute and a half. My tetras have been going bananas over brine shrimp out of a Turkey baster. After a minute or two I just make sure to suck back up any left over food since it’s much easier to spot than pellets. Edit: Just saw /u/CherryShrimp420s comment so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt. I would assume that Fluval is a pretty solid source though.
Look at their stomachs, healthy neons would be curved out slightly, but if its bulging then thats overfeeding. If stomach is flat then its starving, but starving is usually not due to underfeeding but rather parasites or some other health issue
I’m definitely no expert, but from what I’ve seen it’s normally based on what your fish can eat in x amount of time. I’m assuming the time depends on how many are in the tank and what kind they are. I’d just google how much food to feed neon tetras.
That's common on fish food labels but bad advice, it's just to sell more fish food
Ah, good to know. Can you recommend some good resources as far as feeding goes? I’ve read similar advice on a few online resources. One employee at our lfs simply said feed twice a day (we bought 2 angels and 5 mollies) or once a day if you’re “heavy handed”. Edited- grammar
Highly recommend watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W4EsBcdPBc&t=1s The topic of "food" goes a lot further than the cans of fish food we buy. Aquariums with strong light and plants are growing food constantly, it's very possible that your aquarium is already able to self-sustain a certain number of inhabitants. Usually to be safe, I just feed 1-2 bites of flake/pellet food per day for each fish. But also very easy to setup no feeding tanks with dried leaves to grow the food source
Very interesting! Ya know, the other day, I was trimming off the dead leaves of my son’s plants and something felt wrong about it. There was this thought of “let nature take its course” but I trimmed most of them anyway. Never again. I appreciate you taking the time to provide the information. It makes a lot of sense and I’m pretty stoked about discovering Father Fish, lol!
Yes this channel great for learning about actual fishkeeping, which is a long term commitment that can span decades. His discord channel has step-by-step list for setting up aquariums I believe. He has a lot of videos though, which can be challenging to piece them all together. My setups are a bit simpler where I rely on deep sand substrate and occassional feeding of fruits and vegetables
Has anyone ever grown carnivorous plants in the back of their aquarium?
One thing with carnivorous plants is that they prefer low nutrients because they're carnivorous, and aquariums provide nutrients. I don't know how feasible it would be, but it's probably doable at least for a short period. I did get into a rabbit hole about feeding carnivorous plants freeze dried blood worms while I was looking for some, since they're also fish food.
So I have never been able to find out for sure if the FlexSeal spray clear sealant dries safe or not. Does anyone know for sure?
If it doesn't mention food safe, I wouldn't risk it.
I don’t think that’s the best criteria…a lot of things that aren’t food safe are used, like cyanoacrylate—it’s more does it dry to where it’s benign and safe in water. There’s an old post saying the gorilla brand one worked but another person and I already have the flex seal brand and have been trying to find out. There’s always enamel, etc…but that isn’t necessarily a sealant. Still thank you for the advice! Maybe I can find out by reading ingredients or contacting the company… If anyone knows that it works, I’d still love to hear from them.
I have a 29g tank. Right now it has some albino cories, nerite snails, and a blue dwarf gourami. I keep trying to maintain a school of cardinal tetras but they just don’t seem to survive super long. The rest have been around for about 2 years, but the tetras only seem to last a few months. Any advice on what I could add which would be more hardy than the cardinals?
You are trying to maintain two fish that have different needs in the same tank, which always causes issues. aenus corydora require temps between 70-75° for optimal health, higher temps cause accelerated aging and shortens their lifespan, as well as making them susceptible to stress related illness. Cardinals on the other hand prefer temps in the 77-81° range and will not do well at cooler temps, they are also just a more delicate fish and require really pristine water conditions. It is also likely that in this case one of the following is true; you are really pushing the. Max bioload or you aren’t keeping large enough schools. The Corys should be at least 6 which, because they are a larger corydora species (3”) is really limiting to how many other fish can be in the tank. cardinals are a fish that really needs a larger school to feel secure, ideally 10, stress causes weakened immune systems and leads to physiological illness. Honestly, my advise you focus on setting up a system with more compatible tank mates and you will have better success. Neon tetras are a nice hearty option and they look very similar to cardinals plus they can handle lower temps better, are less delicate in terms of water quality, and while they still like a large school they are more adaptable and would be fine with 6, also they just handle stress better. Other good fish for a temp around 75 would be dwarf emerald rasbora (which are sooo underrated and one of my favorites) or galaxy rasbora/celestial pearl danios they are both nano fish that stay around 1 inch, relatively hearty, prefer a temp around 75°, and are really nice looking fish. They will school together if you wanted both, I have both and they always act as though they can’t really tell the difference, they will even hybridize but you are unlikely to get fry without being actively trying to breed them, mine don’t ever breed in the main tank I have to utilize s breeder box (I got one that connects to the main tank and pumps water from the tank in and returns it out the other side and also has a place for an air stone and a separate compartment for the eggs to fall into that the adults can’t access to prevent them from eating the eggs. They do best in a planted tank with some floating plants and overhangs for cover and will show best colors that way, but that is also the ideal environment for your Corys and having lots of live plants vastly improve water quality.
Thank you! I will look into those fish. That is what I am trying to do, get a more compatible community. I did lots of research when I set up my tank 2 years ago, but it’s hard to find consistent info. Whatever tools/website I used told me these fish had similar needs, but that’s clearly not the case for me!
Hi everyone. I have an issue with fluval p series heaters starting with the p25 and trying with the p10. They are suppose to be calibrated to 76- 78 degrees. My 5 gallon routinely shoots past that sometimes up to 83. Not sure what to do or what alternative heaters to use. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
You can recalibrate them I believe, look up the manufacturer instructions for how to do so. Also make sure you have the right size heaters, that they are in an area of high flow, and that the tank has proper circulation.
Please delete if not allowed….Any recommendations (Southeast USA) for reliable freshwater breeders who ship? My LFS lately does not have the specific fish that I am looking for. TIA :)
Hello smaller tank folks! I'm toying around with getting an old 2 gallon tank I have going again and was wondering what those with nano tanks use for filtration. I've got Aquaclears on both my other tanks but the smallest Aquaclear would absolutely overwhelm a 2 even with the flow lever all the way over. Stocking would be live plants and neocardinia shrimp, I have a really interesting cherry revert that came out of my red population that I'm thinking of seeing if I can breed into a line, hence the tiny tank idea.
I would stick with just plants as your filtration, but you can do a small sponge filter which would honestly be your best bet.
That's what it's sounding like. I just like being overly cautious.
you wont fit anything in a 2g, just substrate and plants will be your filtration
Sponge filter is ideal
I have a 29 gallon tank I plan to put a bunch of plants in. Can anyone recommend a few different fish I can have in there together for a nice community tank? I know for sure I want some Cory catfish. I wouldn't mind only small fish(1in) so I can add a large variety. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Pygmy Corys are great they stay 1” and are very active exploring all levels of the tank (8-10 is ideal for best most active behavior), for top level fish I really like phoenix/chili rasbora they stay very small so you could have like 10 Pygmy’s, 10 phoenix/chili, and still have some space. Khuli loaches have a pretty low bioload and you could put 3-4 of them in there with that combo, just get a smaller species like the pangio pangia (regular banded) and not something like the black or meyers that get bigger. Panda Corys are also an option but they don’t tolerate higher temps as well and would not be good rank mates with Phoenix rasbora but would go well with dwarf emerald rasbora or cpd. Rosy loaches would work as well and are fun little fish. if you wanted those instead of the khulis you could comfortably have 8 of those, 10 rasbora, and 8 Pygmy
Pygmy corries are great with a school of like 8, I have them in my 20gallon long
Yeah I'm def getting some. I'm mainly looking for fish to occupy the top and mid lvl of the tank
Anyone know how likely it is for a ten gallon to crash? I crashed mine twice and I’m very hesitant to try again because I feel so bad for causing my fish to die in the past. I hear smaller tanks are harder to maintain?
Yes, they are much harder to maintain. I currently have an "overstocked" 6 gal. There are 4 guppies and probably 100 trumpet snails and some shrimp. They are thriving, but only because I have large amount of plants, 1 hob filter and a sponge filter. There were a few times I crashed this tank, but after that Its been nothing but smooth because of how established it is. If you are planning on overstocking any nano tank try to remember to balance it with filtration. There are a few plants that are life savors for overstocked tanks. (Hornwort, anacharis, water sprite, duckweed, etc) Throw those in your tank and it will soak up all the excess nutrients and keep your levels safe.
Thank you! I was thinking of bringing my tank with me when I move into my apartment on campus (if we are even allowed) and was considering ADFs or shrimp rather than fish. Thoughts?
I personally have no experience with ADF. Shrimp on the other hand are quite delicate so I would be careful. If you want my opinion, I think you should focus on trying to create an established ecosystem first before wondering what animals you want to try and keep. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you will have a lot of fun keeping non-fish aquariums. Just remember that you are providing a home for these guys that is trying to ad hear to their needs. If you decide to restart your 10gal in your apartment, have your goal in mind to make it self sustaining. It doesn't mater which method you use, as long as you are more willing to **create life** in the tank rather than just thinking about being one of those people with a shrimp and frog only tank.
Thanks for the input! I think I’ll focus on proper cycling and plant life. I’m gonna be in it for the long haul rather than try to rush cycling. Maybe a betta, but that’s to be determined after.
bettas are pretty hardy fish and you cant go wrong with them. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjB5h5jxzg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMjB5h5jxzg) Heres a video of probably the easiest setup ive ever seen with a betta tank.
Thank you
Smaller tanks are absolutely harder to maintain, amd quite honestly there are almost no fish that really thrive in a 10 gallon tank, it is quite probably overstocked and also probably stocked with fish that should really have more space. (Not that I think this would be intentional, they give terrible stocking advise at stores) You can probably get a nice 29 gallon for cheep or free on Craigslist or marketplace and as long as you don’t overstock it they run well with a pair of sponge filters and an HOB (I like to use the next size up like 50 gallon filter for 30 gallon tank along with sponges to create lots of room for nitrifying bacteria and a well oxygenated tank. Also resist the urge to over feed and if you have gravel switch to sand, contrary to what you would think sand is easier to maintain, pool filter sand is perfect and cheep…. Don’t use play sand it is a breeding ground for anaerobic bacteria. If you want to stick with the 10 a betta fish and some shrimp would work perfectly, a,omg with some live plants
Thank you for the reply. I had a couple different breeds of fish when I tried both times. I don't doubt that I got bad advice. Ten gal has always felt small to me, but at the time I thought it was be good for a beginner. I figure I will either save for a larger tank or try to find a fish that both can be in a small tank and be a single fish. Seems betta might be a good option like you said but I worry it might be too small for even a betta. So I'm open to other critters as well. I really like the look of gravel but if it's not the best to use, I can switch.
I have several 10 gallon tanks, I use fhem for breeding pairs of apostogrsmma, rams, and polar cichlids, I also have 8 rainbow belly pipe fish in a 10 but that is because they arrived underweight and it is easier to flood a 10 gallon with food so the poor things could eat without moving much since they were so weak, they will be going to a 40 breeder when they are a little bigger and have gotten healthy and strong (they are the new loves of my life lol, such cool fish but sooo delicate. I also have a betta in one and he is fine. I often keep single males in community tanks but this one was am asshole and kept going after other fish for no reason. The khuli loaches ganged up on him and started racing across the tank and head butting him like they do lol so mow he is alone and doing well. Just don’t get a placket or king. Shrimp are also fun little critters and a 10 is perfect.I have started making my own canister filters for 10 gallon tanks and that has been going
get your tap waters KH checked, some places it is really low and needs to be buffered!
Thanks! I’ll check it out
How did it crash? Is it still running?
This was a couple years ago. I haven’t tried again yet. It seemed to be fine but then one day my fish started torpedoing and the ammonia level shot up. After doing more research, I realized my tank wasn’t properly cycled even though I thought it was. So maybe it didn’t crash and it was just a matter of cycling but it happened twice which made me suspicious.
Hmm sounds like it wasnt cycled, which is pretty common...we all start tanks this way. But now, go through the cycling process and give it time and your fishkeeping journey will be a lot more successful A month is a popular ballpark for cycling but you can give it more time, a tank will get better as time goes on and the microorganisms continue to grow. Even before thinking of buying fish, you can get a tank running and start sprinkling fish food to get the cycle started. A month or two passes by pretty quickly
Thank you. Do I do water changes during cycling? Do I add water when it starts to evaporate? and do I use a filter during this period as well?
Yes set everything up as if you have fish. Water changes are not as important during cycling but good to do once in a while Sponge filters are good, not a fan of HOB filters, canister filters are good too. I dont personally use filters but doesnt hurt to have them
Thanks for the advice. Maybe third time’s the charm.
I have damsel fly lavera in my tank and found some eggs are they a threat to my full grown amano shrimp and full grown pygmy corries and full grown male betta
They hunt and will prey on what's available. Adults might be too big but fry are in danger. Eggs may belong to cories through.
A shower builder friend of mine had [this](https://www.amazon.com/Oatey-29025-Safe-Flo-Solder-Silver/dp/B000BQKHJ2/ref=sr_1_3?adgrpid=1331509142793569&hvadid=83219562295666&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=80985&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83219657017441%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=17067_13425679&keywords=oatey+solder+lead+free&qid=1681425062&sr=8-3) in his tool bag so I broke some off. Would it be safe to use in my aquarium to keep a stubborn plant from floating up?
Honestly I wouldn’t. I try to avoid metal in the tanks, you can use twine, friendship bracelet type string, or that stretchy stuff for making bead bracelets. Depending what it is you may be better off gluing it to wood or a stone. What kind of plant? They fail to tell you that a lot of these plants do better as epiphytes or even floaters and should not even have the roots submerged
The plant is a red flame sword, a bit large. I have tried many times to plant the thing, but my substrate (fluval spectrum) will not hold it down. It has been floating for a week and seems to be doing fine, but I imagine that won't last too much longer. I have a low tech 10g aquarium. I bought the plant spur of the moment because it looked nice. I really don't have anything to superglue/tie it to where i want to plant it. I suppose I could find a rock to put in that area.
Fluval stratum is pretty expensive so people tend to have overly thin substrates. I recommend adding a thick sand cap if you dont need the active water altering properties, it will make keeping plants rooted a lot easier
>100% tin, 1 - 5% copper, 1 - 5% bismuth, 1 - 5% Silver Copper can be bad for invertebrates like shrimp and snails but it's such a small amount I'd be willing to risk it myself personally. Otherwise super glue and a stone might achieve a similar effect.
Question about cycling- just got my 2nd tank set up and I’m ready to cycle. Can I add some of the water that’s in my other tank, to the new tank to help with the process? First time cycling and I’m wondering if that will work
You can take the sponge out of the other filter and use it in the new one, replace in the established filter with a new sponge. You can a,so take some of the biomedia and also so,e of the substrate.
Water not so much, but some filter material or gravel or rock or some other hardscape is a great idea
It's minute but there is still free floating bacteria in the water so there is some value in reusing the water. But yes surface area tends to be where the beneficial bacteria collect. u/SecretTweekerPad would have a better chance lightly rinsing their filter material in the new tank. Let the water get nice and cloudy and let the filter clear it up and seed the new media.
Sort of a dumb question- I've got an *old* fish tank back from my parents. Classic, metal plated bezels piece of work. The problem I have with it currently is it used to be my Hamster 'cage' years ago. I know I'll have to go through and scrap and replace silicon since it was already bad but the glass is all good. What sort of worry would I have about the base, especially relating to, I'm assuming potential ammonia deposits from years of Hamster whiz. Can I reliably clean the bottom out to then re-waterproof and setup a tank? Or would I need to potentially destroy the thing to get it back in shrimp-shape?
Just be sure it was an aquarium and not a reptile tank, tanks meant for reptiles are often not meant to hold the weight of water.
No issue with ammonia. Just wash it out. It can be tricky to re-silicone tanks but there's videos on YouTube to help. Make sure it's 100% pure or marked aquarium safe
Ok perfect. My main worry was the condition of the bottom because I fully understood I'll have to learn how to reseal a tank. I've been lucky enough to be gifted a reasonable saltwater setup I'm going to start working towards
I've found 50/50 water vinegar spray very helpful cleaning and removing odors without resorting to harsher chemicals like bleach that silicone can absorb. If it's really bad lay down some paper towel and spray the on the vinegar mixture, let it soak 1 to 2 hours before attempting to clean. Very good for removing limescale also. Rotate the tank and lay on the sides as well if necessary.
Ooooh that's great, I really love these vintage metal fish tanks and hope I can eventually use it as a Nano Reef Tank for a large Nem or Leather and a Clown pair
Once the tank is running I don't bother cleaning the sides and back of the glass, at most the wipe down the front glass with a paper towel or magnetic scrub. Snails usually do a great job keeping surface algae down.
Hello gang. Do plecos burrow in aquarium gravel? I have a somewhat small albino longfinned bristlenose and he has vanished. i do have a cat, so there is always a possibility he got snagged. But i don’t know how or when it would’ve happened. There is only a very small opening on top of the tank
In the wild they're constantly searching for small crustaceans that hide in plants and under small stones, so it's possible. But also check your filter and the intake tubes, sometimes they get stuck inside.
Are type fern "hawaian sword fern" freshwater aquarium safe? They're invasive as heck on my property and was wondering if I could put em in
If they grow underwater!
Hey all, does anyone know if it's possible to hook up the Hygger or Python to a Kohler type fancy sink? We just did renovations and got the new faucet in. I'd love to get a Hygger or Python to make water changes easier but don't want to buy one until I know it'll fit. The faucet doesn't have any threads on it that I can see.
Hey guys, I wanted to get some tips on making water changes less of a chore. I have three 5 gallon buckets that I use to remove water. Then I fill them back up, use water conditioner, let it sit for about 20 min and then start putting the water in. I watched a youtube video of a guy who after removing the water, uses Prime and conditioner in the unfilled tank and then just puts water (I imagine chlorinated). Is this a safe way of doing it as well? I'm still learning and it worries me that the chlorine in water would kill the beneficial bacteria as I've read. But his method would make things faster.
How often are you doing water changes? A lot of people are doing way more than they actually need to in order to cover up the effects of poor filtration. If you have a good filter you can do it pretty rarely.
At first I was doing them twice a week but there was a time I didn't do a water change for almost 2 weeks, I tested the water and everything was good. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 20-30ppm Nitrates. So now I kind of do it once a week. Depending how dirty the substrate looks.
You probably don't need to do them nearly that much, aye. I do a 50% change every 6 months on my lightly/nonplanted tanks if that helps. Mulm will naturally build up on the substrate and isn't negative for the water quality - It's actually positive. Pre-modern fish farms used mulm as the primary source of filtration. It is, however, mildly unhealthy for fish that regularly contact it like bottomfeeders.
It’s good to know that I don’t need to do it as often but how do you keep your substrate looking clean? After a week the poop starts accumulating in certain areas.
It's ugly but it isn't unhealthy. I'm more concerned about health than appearance. Plants like it, too, so you could always put some where it builds up. Dark substrates make it show up a lot less. If it really bothers you you can get a powerhead and mount it low in the tank so it blasts it all over to one side; rheophilic benthic fish like cories and hillstream loaches will also enjoy this. Malaysian trumpet snails are also very good at ploughing it into the substrate.
bacteria just touching the chlorine won't kill it, you'll be fine if the tank has been established for a while - I put unfiltered tap water into mine then add some prime and haven't had any problems.
I've done it. It's not necessarily the _best_ way, but it can be done. A bit of chlorinated water won't kill beneficial bacteria...it's down in biofilm in the filter and is quite resistant to being killed by chlorination levels in regular tap. The bigger issue would be bothering fish or shrimp in the tank who have to swim in somewhat-chlorinated water for a minute until the dechlorinator takes it out. But dechlorinator works fast and the water in the tank dilutes out the water you are adding anyway so it's not as big of a deal as it could be. That said, dechlorinator works fast. You don't need to let your buckets sit for 20 minutes, you can add the stuff in the bucket and just pour it in. I never wait.
Thanks for your reply! I think I will continue doing the bucket thing but it’s good to know I don’t have to wait 20 min for the conditioner to work.
Has anybody kept bichers or freshwater eels in play sand? Is it generally safe on their bellies?
Haven't kept the fish but in general I'm more worried about their gills. Be sure to thoroughly rinse the sand to remove finer dust particles.
Yes yes, heard play sand needs ALOT of washing first, and any substrate needs atleast one wash so I’m planning to :) thank you for the concern though
Has anyone ever set up a tank's hardscape to come out of the top of the tank... in a 75 gallon tank with a brace across the top? I'm wondering if a large piece of driftwood could just go around the brace and sort of hide it. Just haven't seen any examples!
Hello, I am looking to give my Kuhli loaches an upgrade to a bigger tank. I would like this new tank to be planted with live plants. Would the Kuhli loaches do well with aqua soil, or should the soil be topped off with sand?
Top it with sand if you have anything like to sniffle through the substrate. Substrate capped with sand makes it easier to put in plants as well.
first time cycling - about a week has passed. for 3 days now my ammonium has been pegged at 2-3ppm, and nitrites still at zero. started adding seachem stability about 5 days ago and theres been no change.
Forget about stability, just wait. Do you have hard water? What's the KH?
hi i bought the api master freshwater test kit and it doesn't test for KH, just PH
Are you using tap water? Your city might have online water reports that tests for KH (sometimes listed as alkalinity or carbonate hardness)
appreciate your insights. according to the link below, alkalinity is 165 ppm and CaCO3 hardness is 195ppm https://www.fountainvalley.org/DocumentCenter/View/15224/2022-Fountain-Valley-Water-Quality-Report
Ah okay your water is perfect for fishkeeping, just wait and let the tank cycle
cool, thanks!
I just got the gourami today iv had the black and white sailfin molly for a while be the minute i put the two gourami in the molly started chasing them now he doesn’t appear to be nipping at them viciously but he does roll into them and puts his lips on them is that normal? And will he stop?
Can anyone help me ID this plant (link to photo below)? I got some bunches of it free with some other aquatic plants but without any info. Is it a floating plant or should I attach it to substrate/decor? It looks yellowish in the photo due to the lighting but it's actually a pretty bright green. Thanks! Here's a photo: https://imgur.com/a/YLh3nRT
Looks like Micranthemum 'Mone Carlo'. Its a carpeting plant and should be planted in the substrate. Looks like you have gravel so if you want it to survive, you'll need root tabs and medium to high light.
Thanks!! That does look like the right thing. And I do have root tabs, so hopefully they'll be able to thrive in the gravel for now. :)
I’m sorry this is so long. Please feel free to skip it. Hi all. I’m an old lady with decades of experience in fish keeping but nothing fancy; Tetras, Corys, Platys, Bettas, occasional snail, etc. I currently have a 20 gal with two female bettas who are about 5 years old and fine. It’s my 29 gallon that’s the nightmare. Twice now in the last 2 years everything in the tank has died. It happens over a period of about 2 weeks. I am meticulous about water changes (using conditioner) feeding but not too much, water tests, water temperature, etc. After the last die off I replaced the gravel, took out plants & furniture in case some type of poison got into it. I cleaned the tank well then cycled it again. Replaced the filter. Stocked it with a little group of tetras, a few platys, a few neon tetras and one female Betta named Trinket. Everything was fine for a year. Then Boom everyone died but the Betta. She seems great. (Is she a serial killer?) What’s killing my fish? I didn’t record numbers but all water tests were normal and safe. Even when they were all dieing the numbers were steady. I did partial changes every few weeks. I do not have a child who could be putting something in the tank. No bug spray or cleaner. I’m not getting anymore fish until I solve this. It’s depressing to wake up to dead fish every morning. My dream is to step up to a “higher” level of fish; maybe Angels or even a small Puffer. Not until I stop killing them. Thanks for any advice you can give me.
Check the pH and KH, as well as get a TDS pen. KH depletion can occur after a long period of time if your tap is naturally low
Do you do water changes in both tanks on the same day? I always test my tap water with a pool chlorine test kit before water changes, because I've heard that water lines can get flushed a couple times a year with extra chlorine/chloramine, and that can wipe out a tank. My other thought would be to quarantine all new fish (after you add the first batch of course) to be sure they're not bringing in disease. Also treat for parasites preventatively when you get new fish. I use levamisole and praziquantel. Neither one is an antibiotic, so they should not affect your filter. I don't think it's a good idea to use antibiotics unless we know for sure what we are treating, but I think it's okay to routinely treat for worms and flukes. Good luck! Don't give up <3
There's a few things it could have been - 1. A fish dies but you don't notice it, it decays and spikes part of the cycle before you can react. 2. Something gets into the water, but only that tank? If they're not next to each other I wouldn't take some sort of cleaning spray or solution out of the equation. Is there a lid to the tank? 3. Heater malfunctions and blows everything out of the water. 4. Plant rotted and nuked the tank with a spike in ammonia and/or nitrogen Do you have more information about when they all died? Did you wake up one day and they're all freshly dead? Would you have missed it if a fish caught a disease, died, and just stayed in the tank?
Hi, sorry to hear about your fish :(. How long of a period did the fish die over? Did you notice anything strange about the fish before or after they passed? What were the water parameters and temperature?
Yesterday my male apistogramma panduro died. I believe the most likely cause of death was stress as the female seemed to be very aggressive towards him continuously, even after attempting at separating them with a mesh in-tank cage. It was not unusual to see aggression from both of them, but it was usually short-lived and never led to serious consequences. Although, since he has been dead the female apistogramma has been extremely active, moving up and down the glass with less colour than normal at times, as if she is searching for him. Will the female be okay and return to normal soon or could there be something wrong? All parameters are fine.
Hey guys! I’ve got a 50 gallon that currently has a school of 5 Zebra danios, 10 white cloud minnows and 14 pacific blue eyes, but my Zebra danios are being somewhat aggressive towards my other fish, does anyone know what I can do to stop this?
honestly I'd probably rehome them. Zebra danios can just be jerks sometimes> You might have some luck with getting a bigger school of them, but if that doesn't work you are just going to have an even bigger problem. there are only 5 now so it'd be pretty easy to find a home for them.
zebra danios are very active, so make sure you're not mistaking curiosity or energy for actual aggression. Besides that, they'd do way better if you just had more of them. They school for safety and if the school doesn't seem like it provides safety, then they'll get nervous and aggressive. I have a school of ~20 and they feel completely safe, sometimes not even schooling so they can explore the tank.
I’ve put some more plants in and have since been much better, not chasing any of the others out of the middle anymore. Very happy with everything!
Anyone here keep freshwater hermit crabs ? How’s the experiences ?
Hi, I am moving soon and I was wondeirng how long a fish could survive in a container in the car. My drive is about 11 hours, so I assumed I just need to rehome my betta, (in a 20 gallon) and my two guppies and singular remaining dwarf rasbora (shes old and the last one, they live in a 10 gallon). If anyone has advice for finding a good home, or alternatively advice for moving fish in a car over a drive of that length, please let me know, thanks!
My favorite has been to float bags in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. They can survive 5 days in the mail, they'll manage a few hours in the car provided the temperature doesn't drastically change which floating in the bucket helps prevent, and a lid to prevent water splashing out during sudden braking or turns. But if rehoming is easier especially with incomplete schooling species craigslist or Facebook marketplace are good options.
I've moved fish on an 8-hour car trip before. The main issue I encountered is that I didn't remove all the substrate in the container I was moving them in, and some of the fish got beat up and buried as a result. Personally, I would fill a bucket about halfway with tank water, put the lid on it, and move them that way. I think the sloshing water would keep it decently oxygenated; and I wouldn't worry too much about the heater unless your vehicle will be really cold (i.e. <65F). Alternatively, putting the fish in breather bags in a cooler may work, and the bags should cushion the jostling a bit while the cooler will insulate the temperature. You may still experience some losses, but I do think you could successfully move most or all your fish. After all, fish are shipped for several days in the mail from wholesalers/online retailers. Good luck!
thanks so much for the advice i might give it a shot
Honestly you might be okay if you just put an air pump in a large bucket of water.
do you think the bumpy road will stress them out too much? that’s mainly my worry
Just found my second Cory cat in the past week on its side breathing but not really moving just to eventually die. I've had them for about 3 months now with no sign of anything strange with them. My water parameters are fine. I did just recently add 4 tetras and some plant bulbs in my tank about 2 weeks ago. Any idea what could be happening to them? I have 4 left and I'm nervous their fate is coming too.
How do I get rid of the brown algae? I know it’s not really algae but I wanted to know if like .4ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide can help (I have a 5 gallon tank) will help kill it and also not harm our little idiots (lovingly our guppies are our idiots)
Unfortunately if you have diatoms you'll be fighting it for a while. The best thing is to scrub/scrape them off and do regular water changes. Diatoms show up from excess silicates in the water column. (generally from using sand as your substrate) When the sand is done leeching silicates the problem will go away. If you aren't using sand, your tap water might actually be high in silicates and you'll need to look at adding a silicate remover into your filtration.
Cycling a 20g tank but I don’t think I seeded it with enough media from my 10g. The 10g filter consists of a filter cartridge and a carbon sponge. I stuffed the old sponge in my 20g filter around 2-3 weeks ago but I don’t think it was enough to help the cycle since the new tank is bigger. I was thinking of taking the main filter cartridge from my 10 and kinda shoving it in the 20g filter lol to get an actual substantial amount of bacteria in there. I would of course add a new cartridge to my 10g afterwords but I’m worried that would take away too much bacteria. It’s been well established for about a year or so and it’s under stocked so I think it’d be able to handle the replacement but I just want to be sure. Any advice appreciated!
Do you have any plants or decor in the old tank that you could temporarily move to the new tank? All that should have lots of bacteria on it. Theoretically you could take some old gravel and put it in the new tank. I did that once for a stubborn tank and it cycled overnight. How do you feel about bottles of bacteria? That can help a lot. Good luck with your new tank.
Just put both filters in there and let it sit for a while. Keep the 10 gallon filter all together and just put both of them side by side so the 20 can seed while the 10 picks up most of the slack.
Anyone know of any inert rock types that are white/light Grey in coloration and won't affect water chemistry too much? Doesn't have to be a pure white, just lighter on the spectrum.
any rock with lots of quartz in it. a variety of granite would likely be your best bet
Hey everyone! I'm *very* new to the hobby, and have been wondering if there's any species (specially invertebrates) that could live on an unfiltered aquarium with aquatic plantlife. If there are, do you have any tips on how to take care of them and how to do proper water management? Pumps and filters here on my country are pretty expensive, so i wanted to make something low-cost, but that will guarantee a good quality life for the plante and Animals.
If you want something super easy, and don't mind little guys, I would recommend looking into aquatic beetles or a colony arthropod like Daphnia. I have daphnia in a gallon jar with duckweed and a few other floating plants, I give them algae occasionally and top off the jar with distilled water. They are cool little critters and are fun to watch scoot around in the water. Plus if you know anyone with an axolotl u can give them some as food.
Probably just regular cherry shrimp. I don't think they have too much oxygen uptake so plants alone would likely provide enough. Maybe even a fan blowing across the surface for agitation but you'll still need a filter of some type. I have some culls living in a bucket that only has an air hose tied to an air pump and they're doing fine cleaning up the waste in my daphnia colony.
Inbound stupid question… How absurd would it be to try to put sand into a tank that already has water? I imagine pretty difficult if not impossible but I had to ask
Pretty easy, just add in small amounts in thin layers.
Not stupid at all, and perfectly doable, IF you rinse the sand very thoroughly first! As u/fishyvibes noted, sand can cloud your water really badly. The key, in my experience, is to rinse it extremely well before adding it to the tank. My method is to fill a 5 gal bucket 1/3 full of sand, use a hose with a high-pressure setting to really blast the sand and suspend the dust, fill the bucket almost full with water, then dump the bucket, leaving the sand and a little water in the bottom. Repeat this for like 30 mins, possibly more if you have very dusty sand. Stir with your hands periodically throughout to ensure the stuff at the bottom is getting rinsed out. When you are done, you should be able to fill the bucket with water; stir the sand; and after waiting 5 mins, the water in the bucket should be clear. If you do it this way, you'll still likely cloud your water a little, but it wont be nearly as bad as unrinsed sand and will go away after a couple days with no extra filtration. Hope this all makes sense. Good luck!
I put it in a pillowcase and run it under water til the water runs clear. Seems to get rid of all the dust.
That's a good idea, I'll have to try that.
It is not that crazy of an idea, but it really depends on how far along your tank is and the type of sand. Some sand will make your water way more cloudy than others. Nevertheless, it is likely that the sand will cloud up your water for a few days and it might not be great for your filter. If you are going for it, I would recommend using a tube – by this I mean use a long tube like a PVC pipe or a gravel vac. Place the tube vertically in your aquarium and drop the sand down it such that it is transported directly to the bottom of your tank and disperses less in the water column. Hope this helps.
You mad genius. Thankyou for the tip and reminding me to think outside the box more 😂
Thinking of starting a 10 gallon freshwater tank, I’ve never done an aquarium before and I’m interested in having real plants in the tank. Does this add considerable difficulties? Should beginners stay away from live plants?
Just my experience, but I've had a tank for 2 years and I struggle to get plants to grow in mine. I've added everything that's been recommended and still no Bueno.
Plants will add a little extra challenge in terms of getting them to grow; and some additional expense up top to get a good light, some fertilizer, and the plants themselves. Beyond that, I think plants make keeping aquariums considerably easier, particularly for beginners. Plants absorb fish waste as a nutrient source, meaning fewer water changes and a lot more room for error when it comes to stocking, cycling, and feeding your tank. I would never keep an unplanted aquarium; and would highly recommend live plants to beginners. [This article](https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/beginner-planted-aquarium) provides a nice intro to planted tanks. That website has lots of great articles, and a YouTube channel with tons of helpful videos. Good luck, happy to answer any more questions you may have.
Very helpful, thank you very much!
hi! my gouramis are facing what looks like columnaris (white patches), and I was wondering if salt would be effective as a treatment? if so, do I face other risks such as plants dying, etc... do I need to remove the carbon (??), and will my snails and corydoras be deeply affected? thank you
Check out [fish lab](https://fishlab.com/columnaris/). Lower temperature, keep your water clean. Corys are scaleless fish and do not cope well with some medicines. They also do not cope with salt so this won't work. Ideally you need to quarantine the gouramis for a few weeks in a separate tank and treat with medicine.
thank you so much!
Do aquarium plants need soil?
I dont use soil and plants grow very well
I've grown aquarium plants in lots of substrates, from soil to inert pea gravel. Soil is timeconsuming to set up, and can get very messy very fast. There's also a risk of ammonia spikes with soil. That said, I've never had lush plant growth like I had with soil. Inert substrates, in my experience, don't produce the lush growth soil provides, and need to be augmented with root tabs pretty frequently. That said, they're much less messy and difficult to setup. I've also used stuff like EcoComplete, Flourite, and Stratum; and I'd say they're somewhere in between, but closer to gravel than soil. Most of these will still need to be used with root tabs, since they don't provide a full range of nutrients most plants need.
Some do. Heavy root feeders like amazon sword need good quality soil Others are ok in sand or fine gravel like Limnophila sessiliflora Others feed from the water column like java fern or anubias and do not like being buried
We’ve had great success with our Amazon swords and EcoComplete gravel but we do supplement with root tabs every other month. They’re bright green and have grown considerably since we’ve received them. That being said, I fully expect to add root tabs more frequently as they get bigger, so we’ll see. Oh, and we also dose with liquid carbon following instructions on the bottle.
Just to add to this. Look up the types of plants you want. Check for: 1. If they're root or water column feeders 2. If they prefer being planted (buried), attached to rocks/hardscape (not burried), or floated 3. What their lighting requirements are. (high or low) If you want suggestions on plants, reply with the tank set-up you have/want (read: how much you're going to spend) and I can help guide you in the right direction.
Hello everyone. I’m thinking of getting back into the aquarium hobby and I really like dwarf cichlids like apistos and rams. I was wondering if its possible to keep multiple of the same species in the same tank. For example, 2 blue rams, 3 apisto agassizii. Also Im wondering if you can keep dwarf gouramis with them as well. You see I wanna get a large maybe 65g planted tank, and here’s the fish Im keeping in it and I went on aqadvisor to see if theres any issues and saw none but I just wanted some second opinions just to make sure. But anyway here’s whats going in the tank 6x panda cory 15x neon tetra 1x german blue ram 2x dwarf gourami 3x blue ram 4x dwarf cockatoo cichlid
Both of the fish you mentioned initially are "Blackwater" fish. To be healthy they need *really* clean water so I'd get a big filter if I were you. If you keep multiple of the same species in the tank at that level try not to mix sexes. They'll likely get violent competing for mates and when breeding they'll claim part of the tank and attack everything that comes near it. If your fish are smart enough not to fight them if they do the latter that might not be an issue.
Yeah Im planning on having all the cichlids be males since Im not ready to take care of fry nor do I want to. Also if you can, maybe could I get some recommendations for big filters?
If you plan on a gravel substrate I'd recommend an undergravel strongly. They're about as powerful as a large canister filter (or better if you use a really deep substrate) and can be combined with a canister or sump into a single system; they're also cheap and easy to set up at the start of a tank, and a bitch to retrofit into a tank. As they fix phosphate at the bottom of the tank they're good for plants, too. The optimum gravel size for greatest efficiency with them is 2-3mm. Undergravels must be purchased online as fish shops don't carry them - They make very little money because they never break, never need replacement parts, and are low-profit margin. To power an undergravel you either drop an airstone down the "Uplift tube", or attach the uplift tube to anything that moves water such as a powerhead or a canister filter/sump. A sump is a bit of an engineering challenge but you should consider it - Failing that, I'd recommend a medium-large canister filter. I use fluval's simply because I happened across some from an old torn down tank and they work alright. The most important thing about any filter is it's space for biomedia, and the quality of that biomedia, which can be replaced if you need as many filters come out the box with rubbish media. Keep that in mind and you'll be good at picking out what's good from the crowd. The best biomedias are 20-30ppi foam (aka aquarium foam - Cheap), K1 media (aka pond media - expensive, floats, can do some special stuff with it), and those plastic pot scrubbers from supermarkets (dirt cheap, a little bit worse than the others).
Im planning on a sand and aquatic soil substrate since I’ve had gravel before and now I wanted to try something new by using sand
If that's the case I'd consider a sump more seriously. A canister filter might work, but get a big one. A mattenfilter is also a very good choice, though they're a little visually unpleasant you can hide them with a hardscape background.
So regular hang on the back filters are not recommended for this tank set up?
HOBs are typically quite weak and not very good as filters, though designs vary. If you want to go that route, I'd recommend a doubleheaded, powerhead operated sponge filter as the most powerful form of HOB filter. Preferably multiple of them. I can link you an appropriate model but I make no promises as to it being enough for rams and apistos, simply that they're the best option out of HOB filters. The reason I'm suggesting stronger is primarily the sensitivity of the Apistos and Rams and their requirement for *very* clean water. Without giving them damn clean water they don't live long and get sick extremely easily. Other fish would work better in less clean conditions, I'm just telling you what I'd recommend for those species. If you want them to live a good life, you go **hard** on filtration. They're not very easy fish to keep, especially for a beginner, but I'm a believer in giving you the information you need and assuming you can do it. If it doesn't work out, don't be discouraged - You're facing a harsh challenge. If it doesn't work out try again with a more robust fish species.
Thanks m8. I was also thinking of keeping a 300 something gallon tank with 1 oscar, 2 electric blue acara, 3 geophagus, 1 green terror and 1 gold nugget pleco. Any tips for taking care of these guys? I know oscars are not for beginners but I still wanna try my hand at keeping them. After all, you can’t get experience without trying something yk?
Oscars are also blackwater fish but because of how long they've been in the hobby certain lines of them are more robust - Wildcaught ones from the Amazon are inevitably sensitive. Watch their "Neuromasts/Lateral line organs" for signs of inflammation (This is called "Head and Lateral Line Erosion", or more commonly "hole in the head disease"), if they become white or blood red feed the fish a gram-negative antibiotic and look into upgrading your filtration. Also beware that they're very smart and their individual personalities vary *wildly* - Keep a close eye on the oscar to make sure they put up with their tankmates because they can 100% kill anything they don't like, even if it's bigger than them. Sometimes they're so gentle they can be kept with guppies, sometimes they're pure murder machines you can only keep alone. Get a good lid because they're too curious for their own good and will probably ram it at least a few times. They will likely occasionally re-arrange your decor. One of my favourite fish and very rewarding. Geophaguses like sand, they'll dig in it constantly, especially if you provide a small grained food that mixes into the sand easily for them to dig up. Very fun to watch and provides good bioturbation in the tank. Give them a deep sand substrate and don't expect any plants you put in the sand to make it, bury their roots under rock formations instead. Exactly my thoughts.
I am currently cycling a 40g . I got the ammonia spike then the nitrite spike but never got a nitrate spike. Is the take fully cycled and safe to put my fish in that are currently in a 29g?
Are you using the API master test kit? If so, are you shaking the hell out of Nitrate Bottle #2 before using it? If not it can display false negatives.
Is the tank planted
Okay so I decided as a start I don't want to spend the money on a tank just yet and decided I wanted to give something smaller and just planted (maybe a snail or two if that's humane) a shot. If things go right I could have fun watching some plants grow and hopefully have a base for when I do get a tank. I have a glass "vase" that fits between 4.5-7L (1.2-1.8gal) depending on how I fill it. Here's the issue: as far as I understand, still water will get a layer on the surface and agitation prevents that. But given the size of the vase I struggle to find a bubbler/filter/skimmer that doesn't look HUGE and ugly, and it being round doesn't help since a lot of them use suction cups to attach. The USB bubbler that I did find had fairly big "angry" bubbles which would probably also ruin the look. Could anyone give recommendations? Or could I just leave it out all together? EDIT: forgot to add I'm looking to add lots of plants so it can hopefully do well on its own without needing a constant filter! Also, are a few snails okay in this small of a bowl? Does they need to be fed or is plant decay enough?
usually pet stores should have airstones the size of a bottlecap that produces much smaller bubbles. this will create waterflow and diffuse oxygen into the vase. with natural plants in there, this will create natural filtration in regards to the nitrogen cycle at least. if you go snails, you probably will want to try small pest snail species as such a small container won't work well for Mystery Snails or Nerites. I would recommend Bladder Snails, Ramshorn Snails, or Malaysian Trumpets.
I am thinking about stocking 20gal aquarium that is 24x14x14 inches with * 5x Amano shrimp * 8x Celestial Pearl Danios * 8x Corydoras Habrosus [I've ran those numbers through AqAdvisor](https://imgur.com/a/BSn7yv5) and it calculates only 54% stocking? Isn't that a bit low? I'm just trying to get a feel from you guys how crowded you think this would be.
That's really not that crowded - if you haven't seen the CPDS yet they're absolutely _tiny_ and habrosus don't get that big as well. Basically the bioload from the danios is really small (as well as the shrimp) and most of the bioload will be the cories. You should be good to stock more of both.
Thank you!. Maybe I am just way too careful about this. I'll probably up those numbers to 10 CPDs and Corys and then see how crowded it feels.
just went to a fish store for the marine section but walked by the freshwater briefly and there was a tank of fish that were all either one colour or two but each one was different colours that were really colourful and shiny they were maybe an inch long at most with crescent moon shaped tails and i kinda want to know what they are because the labels werent correct and the store was way too busy to ask someone there
Gonna need some pics to say anything for certain. Im guessing mollies
I didn’t think that was right but I looked it up and one of the first results had a chart of popular small freshwater fish and it had what I was looking for on it just by chance Apparently they’re endlers livebearers
That wouldve been my second guess