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>>4837969
Should i buy a 29gallon biocube tor $200?

>>4837989
No.

>>4837989
Used for $200?? Fuck no.

>>4838000
Why?

>>4837801
>Doing an investigative look into "PAR" readings from a hobbyists is definitely something a lot of people would pay attention to/discuss, I hope you find the drive to do so.
It's less a drive issue and more of a time issue. I spawned my first child a year ago so both my aquariums have been mostly cruising ever since. But yeah, I was attempting to narrow down the delta with a simple multiplier but I just couldn't get enough solid data, especially in my tank as there is too much rock and coral. Since you've used the PARWise and are used to lux meters, you know how much these measurements jump around even if you think you're perfectly still. I was considering picking up a 40G breeder at the next Petco sale to get really good, controlled readings and set up a permanent isolation tank afterwards (my previous 20G was not cutting it), but the wife would very likely leave the country if I got another tank, lmao. The only reason I can still post here is because I can afford to half-listen during work meetings, which I am doing now.

>>4838002
I'm not a big fan of ~30G cubes. 20G long offer more effective capacity for freshwater while being easier to work with. For saltwater it's pretty limiting and a considerable cost for items that are effectively one-use trial equipment, as you are not going to be transferring anything of that tank to a larger saltwater tank in the future.

I assume you're going saltwater as there is a lot of reef stuff in the tank. It's not the worst buy, depending on what's all that stuff inside. I see some redsea ABC in there which is not particularly cheap and implies coral. I don't think you'll be super unhappy with it if you keep you expectations on stocking and future disposal realistic.

>>4838002
nta but you'd be better off just buying a bare tank used that you can actually buy a filter/sump/light for.

You will get a bigger tank for your money and a more modular tank you can change/upgrade. Buying 30g cube is like buying an alienware computer. Barely anything is upgradable or modular and you're stuck with whatever subpar shit is put in there.

People like the dude in the pic always overprice their set up bundling in worthless shit with it like water conditioner, treatment chemicals and nets. Stuff that you most probably already have, can get yourself in time for cheap or dont need in the first place.

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Current plant stocking in aquarium:
>background plants
Jungle val
Guppy grass (free floating, not planted)
some form of Echinodorus/amazon sword
>Moss
java moss (tied to wood)
christmas moss (tied to some wood, glued to big rock)
Fissidens Fontanus (tied to front rock)
>epyphites
Trident fern (glued to wood)
Bucephalandra Kedagang Mini (tied to front rock)
Bucephalandra Kedagang (wedged between wood, only tiny sample)
Hygrophila pinnatifida (tied to rock)
Bucephalandra Red (wedged between crypts)
Hydrocotyle tripartita (on wood, weighed down to keep in place)
>mid ground plants
dwarf sag
Staurogyne Repens (not doing too well)
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown (has carpeted out way too much and is taking over aquarium)
>carpeting/foreground plants
Marsilea hirsuta
monte carlo (carpet coming along slowly)

>added today
Pogostemon helferi
Bacopa Salzmannii Purple
Hygrophila chai

Current livestock
>mutt neocaradinas
>guppys
>platys
all of them breed like crazy. Thinking of swapping them out for a nice schooling nano fish. Could probably fit 30-50 in there if i really wanted to

I have a question regarding outdoor ponds.
I have a pond that's about 4.5-5 cubic meters of water and my KH is always too low at about 3. GH is at 6. I currently only have 3 small goldfish and some random floating water plants in it.
Ph is also too high, at about 8.
I have a calcium carbonate powder for ponds and when I add it it goes up to maybe 6 KH but it doesn't seem to dissolve properly and leaves a white dusty layer at the bottom and on the plants.
Recently I changed about 1/4th of the water with our hard tap water after the powder didn't seem to work, but a week later it dropped down to 3 KH again. It did rain for a day or so which probably diluted it again but it shouldn't have been that much rainwater.

My questions are:

Do I just keep adding the powder and hope it gets better?

Doesn't adding calcium increase the ph? 8 seems like it's already too high.

The plants are suffering and look very pale, I assume they are suffering from the high ph and lack of CO2? Since low KH also means a low CO2 capacity in the water, right? In that case would increasing KH actually lower the ph due to increased CO2?

I read on one random product article that a large UV lamp actually reduces KH too but can't find anything else regarding this. Is this true? I do have a large filter for this pond size and it comes with a large UV lamp. Should I turn it off?

>>4838186
Sorry the powder apparently is calcium chloride hydrate

>>4838186
Calcium carbonate only increases pH to around 7.8, after that it doesn't really dissolve as you found. Getting to 8 means there's other shit dissolved in there.

I recommend adding crushed oyster shells for calcium, as they won't look so shitty as a layer of white powder. Chicken feed ones are ideal. Then add as much leaf litter as you can stand. Oak, magnolia, capatta are the best but anything you know doesn't have chemicals (X-icides) are fine. Then, empty out a bit before it rains each time. Eventually that will settle at a nice 7.6ish pH.

I'd probably turn off the UV filter. It's going to be brutally expensive to maintain long term, or entirely ineffective, and neither is useful for stability.

Make sure you add ghost shrimp and pest snails (or better yet, local caught of both). Leave the UV on for a few days after adding and hit the thing with paracleanse for a couple weeks (use the instructions on the box, but only every few days at most), if you're worried about pathogens or parasites. Goldfish rarely care, they're built like tanks.

>>4838202
My ph test is not accurate enough to tell the difference between 7.8 and 8 so it might just be at 7.8.
If I wasn't too worried about the dusty layer it'd be fine to use the calcium powder for now to increase KH, right, as I bought a bucket of 5kg of the stuff. I'll look for crushed shells later.
Rain water is soft so wouldn't I be reducing the KH again every time it rains when I want to do the opposite?
I do have some native snails in the pond but I'm worried it's going to bloom algae again if I turn off the UV and then also add leaf litter.

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>>4838253
Picture related is how the water plants look, very sad and pale. I'd prefer if the plants grew instead of algae.

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>>4838254
>>4838186
>>4838253

is the pond stagnant? What is water movement like? How much light are the plants getting? Have you just put Emersed forms in to the pond in the past few weeks? Are you sure you arent putting a marginal plant fully underwater and killing it in the process?

I cant really see the PH/KH having THAT much of a bearing on your plant's wellbeing. Obviously you want softer water for your plants as it helps them take up CO2 and nutrients but it does vary from plant to plant as some grow in harder waters, but they should in general at least cope even in sub-optimal PH conditions.

I would be looking more at your lighting, flow and substrate. Have you tried replacing their nursery pots with pond compost capped with sand? Are you making sure they are in a high flow area of the pond so algae isnt getting a chance to form? Are they getting enough light? Pale plant growth is usually a sign of low light/nutrients. It seems you are focusing on the nitty gritty stuff (PH/KH) when the more basic stuff should be the first call.

>>4838279
I have a pump from a bigger pond that's suited for at least 10 cubic meters of water that's cycling everything into a flowing filter so believe it's moving the water well enough.
I only have water weed and hornwort that are supposed to take their nutrients from the water as I understood it, the pots are just filled with porous aquarium substrate to keep them from going everywhere.
The pond is facing the south side but blocked by two houses on the sides. It should be getting a handful hours worth of full sun though, maybe that's not enough? The temperature is a comfy 23 degrees at least.
There's almost no floating algae too from what I can see but I believe that's from the UV lamp. Before I turned the filter on this year the entire pond bloomed algae as soon as it got warm when I wasn't at home for a few weeks. Luckily that's before we put in any fish.

>>4838299
take them out of the planters and let them float for a while, they look pretty bad but hopefully not too far gone. This will allow them to get more light near the surface and should help. It could be that their roots are being suffocated by the planters and/or them not getting enough light. Hornwart/Elodea should be incredibly easy to grow in almost any condition. KH/PH arent the issue here. Im presuming you dechlorinated the tap water you added btw.

Elodea/hornwart do well just floating about and tangling in to a mass. They send roots downards towards the substrate as they grow and eventually anchor themselves. But you will have a huge mass of both of them filling the pond at the end of it and will probably have to be ripping them out as they take over 90% of the water column

>>4838309
>>4838299
you can also plant them in aquatic compost too btw. Either of these options is better than what they are currently. It seems theyre not getting enough lights nor nutrients. Doing either option at least ensures one of them gets taken care of.

>>4838309
RIP they don't even float anymore, they're just slowly sinking towards the bottom. But they do look like they are making new branches so they're probably not completely dead.
I'll put them at the shallowest part of the pond where they get the most light. I thought they're like weeds and grow like crazy to fill the barren space and give the fish some hiding spots so I'm surprised they aren't doing well and thought my water must be terrible.

So did people just not know about the nitrogen cycle until a decade or two ago? I've been reading through a 70s book about aquariums and they discuss the chlorine issue in tap water and removing it by letting it sit or using conditioners and stuff, and how pure water needs to be remineralized, but there's no mention of nitrogenous wastes beyond mentioning that fish wastes feed plants.

>>4838001
Tgey usually want 400-500 for them used

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>>4838104
also carpet progress. 1 week between photos. Reckon i'll have a proper carpet within 2-3 weeks. Any plant/stocking recommendations would be appreciated. am wanting to get rid of guppys/platys and replace with something schooling. Maybe rummynose tetras?

>raccoon chewed my fucking airline again
its war you piece of shit. I am going to kill you, butcher you and throw you in the freezer so i can shave off pieces bit by bit to feed the fish you covet.
previously he also destroyed my ez-flow extender tube.

>>4838425
scientists have been aware of it much longer but fish hobbyists aren't scientists. I would say that drop kits started appearing in the late 70s maybe early-mid 80s and (really terrible) strips started appearing some time in the 90s. Testing wasn't commonplace among casual aquarists until the late 90s though that might be different area to area. Before the internet most knowledge was highly localized, fragmented and scene based, if your local club or store had the right mix of nerds who knew their shit, and if your local fish store had connections to get cool shit the sky was the limit. Small numbers of people were even keeping corals successfully that far back. But 99% of the world was consigned to basic bitch fish that they could barely keep alive in most cases.

Back in those days even many of the common aquarium fish weren't yet described by science. There are actually relics of this in some fish names like the Odessa Barb, which was noted because it first got popular in Odessa in the 1970s, long before it was described by science and classified in 2008.

>>4838463
I imagine most people's aquariums cycled anyway because bacteria are gonna do their thing regardless of whether or not we're aware of it, but it's pretty wild that something that's now considered aquaria 101 top priority was unheard of for a long time. That being said, obviously people had plenty of success with various popular species like guppies, bettas, mollies, corydoras, etc, having their own and sometimes pretty expansive entries in the text. Java fern, elodea, and duckweed were also common plants even fifty years back

>>4838434
That's because people are retarded and think their used garbage is worth what they paid for it new.

>>4838481
yeah for basic fish you really don't need to test. Just be patient. That was the guidance most ancient boomer fish keepers had and it still applies. The only thing is the whole 'old water is good water' myth isn't true and I think most of the shit around stability being everything is a myth in freshwater though it does apply in salt.

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>>4838186
>>4838254
Wait, maybe I figured out my problem. I need a sanity check.
So due to the carbon-calcium balance, if I have too little CO2 in my pond, the pH goes up because there's not enough carbonic acid. The calcium also falls out of solution and ends up as calcium carbonate and can't be detected by the KH water tests anymore?
Hornwort and Elodea then start decalcifying the water to get their carbon any way they can, leading to a pale white layer ontop of them.

So I would solve high pH, low KH and plant health if I just increase CO2 in the water? How do I increase CO2 in the long term preferably without having to buy a ton of additives? Does the pond just need a lot more microbial activity? More fish and fish poop?

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>>4838515
>>4838186
why are you trying to get your KH *UP* when high dKH levels inhibit plant growth? They reduce nutrient and co2 intake which is BAD for growth.

anything below 3dkh is GOOD for plant growth you numpty. In fact it is sought after in aquascaping because it increases nutrient/co2 uptake. Having hard water is bad for plant growth. Many people who grow plants in aquariums use RODI and then remineralize specifically to avoid using high dKH water in their aqaurium. You are actively inhibiting plant growth by trying to buffer your dKH levels in the first place.


PH is basically irrelevant. Most plants can handle PH all the way up to like 8-9 range and PH can easily be buffed down to the 7.5 range with a peat moss or aquatic compost and is linked to your KH level anyway. KH is what matters and you are actively trying to raise it when it is better off not being raised all to be able to grow plants that are easy to grow in pretty much anything.

read this.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/ph-kh-gh-tds/kh-explained

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>>4837969
Could this work?

>>4838530
and to be specific this is for ADFs

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>>4838530
https://youtu.be/slmnoxfOgx0

yes and you can make it look great if you know what you're doing. ADFs are little cuties

>>4838536
Thank you anon, my main concern was that the stupid friggers would get themselves caught on the cave ceiling and drown.

>>4838519
Why is everything contradicting each other. All the stuff I'm reading tells me having a low KH leads to a much lower CO2 capacity in the water which is bad for plants, skews the balance of Ammonium towards Ammonia due to the higher pH and which is bad for fish. And that it has less capacity to absorb sudden pH drops during algae growth which is bad for everything.

I'm not making a tropical aquascape tank. I just want a small pond with clear water, some colorful goldfish and some green.

>>4838186
If you're planning to create a small pond with goldfish and aquatic plants, aim for a neutral to slightly alkaline pH level within the range of 6.5 to 7.5. This pH range is suitable for both goldfish and many aquatic plants like anacharis, moneywort, and duckweed. These plants can help create a clear and vibrant environment. Maintain a water temperature of around 65 to 77°F (18.3 to 25°C), as goldfish prefer cooler temperatures. Regular water changes and a suitable filtration system are crucial for maintaining optimal water conditions.

>>4838545
>I'm not making a tropical aquascape tank. I just want a small pond with clear water, some colorful goldfish and some green.
nigger plants are plants. The rules for growing aquatic plants outside arent different to the rules growing them in an aquarium. In fact the plants you have (hornwart + Elodea) can be and are grown in tropical tanks anyway.

>>4838548
>pond
>water changes
Thanks ChatLGBT!

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>>4838548
>slightly alkaline pH level
>within the range of 6.5 to 7.5

>>4838552
>Thanks ChatLGBT!
You're welcome! Good luck with your pond project. Let me know if you need more help or suggestions. Have a wonderful day :)
>slightly alkaline pH level
>within the range of 6.5 to 7.5
Very good Little Timmy, You can read!

>>4838558
meant to respond to >>4838555

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>>4838559
anything under 7 is acidic.

>>4838560
>acidic
so alkaline?

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>>4838562
no....
>>4838540
im sure they'd be alright. They're blind and retarded but they seem to make their way to the surface pretty easily as long as your aquarium isnt incredibly deep.

>>4838549
I'll get a CO2 test the next days. If my train of thought is correct then I should have a very low CO2 concentration of like 1-2 ppm.

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>>4838575
i get a feeling like you're baiting here. Because you're quite obviously overcomplicating something thats quite simple to solve lel. Obviously your co2 is going to be low, co2 concentrations are low underwater, hence why people inject co2 in planted aquariums. But you are trying to mess around buffering KH, lowering PH, checking co2 levels to grow the most basic bitch ass plants that could be grown in a vase left outside for 5 months in rainwater.

Is this your first pond/aquarium? Heres what you should actually do. Bring the plants closer to the surface, take them out of their nursery pots perhaps and wait. Thats it. You are trying to fiddle around with way too many parameters in an open pond system that you will never be able to keep consistent anyway and are fucking up the balance of your pond's ecosystem/equilibrium.

>>4838721
>>4838575
oh and STOP dosing calcium chloride hydrate. STOP trying to lower PH. LEAVE your pond to mature and come to equilibrium naturally. You fucking around with your KH levels is what caused your plants to look so shitty in the first place. Just wait and give it time. I

If you did want to try one thing that allows you to fiddle with the pond and be impatient as you seem to want to, buy pond fertilizer balls or liquid and chuck them in there once in a while.

>>4838725
>>4838721
I feel like just chucking in an airstone here is all that's needed. Little flow, little atmosphere injection - done.

That said, there have been a few different typing styles (some prominent) with consistently edge-case questions.

>>4838721
I'm not baiting, I'm just not making sense of what you're asserting.
I didn't put in the pond last week and want results now. The pond has been filled since fall last year and the plants have been in since at least february. I wasn't surprised at them not growing then because obviously the water was cold but it's been months of having above 15°C water so they should have recovered, especially if they are as low maintenance as you say. The lighting is also not nearly as bad as I think you believe. It doesn't have a full day of full sun but it has at least 4-5 hours of it and a lot of diffuse outdoor light over the rest of the day so it can't be worse than an indoors aquarium.

I did put them all close to the surface as you said and I'll see how they will do for now.

I was asking for a sanity check exactly because I want to know why this chart >>4838515
is supposed to be wrong or not applicable to me because I'm seeing it everywhere when I look up what KH value I should target for my pond. I do believe I might be seeing biogene decalcification on the plants and surfaces which people say is due to a lack of available CO2.
I'm not doing anything at all to the pond right now. I just want to know if this train of thought is right or not and why.

>>4838766
Doesn't more air circulation drastically reduce CO2 in water because the atmospheric concentration is much lower in air? I have read that I should reduce air splashing in as much as possible.

Sure hope goldfish can withstand warm water because their shallow pond in full sun is getting hot.

>>4838768
Stop fucking with it
Let it be
Retard

Time for my quarterly 20% water change in my shrimp tank. Wish me luck lads.

>aqua huna increasing their shipping to $15
it's fucking over bros...

>>4839298
>has to buy online due to crippling social anxiety
>passes his pain on to his pets in the form of being shipped and handled by gook niggers on min wage
idk supporting my local seem way cozier, if you ask them they will give you supplier lists of fish to pick from!

>>4839302
My local fish store is mostly salt and monster fish
I go there for food and shit like scrapers or siphons but the fish are always sketchy

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>>4837969
>>4837969
Should i? Idk how good 55 gallons are for reefs

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>>4839357
Im also concerned something is wrong with it because its been on marketplace for weeks

>>4839357
I personally don't like dealing with how skinny 55's are. They're actually kind of a pain in the ass to maintain. But volume-wise it's not bad. I'd definitely ask how old it is though.

>>4839390
I just think they look retarded with how skinny they are but idk
I have been fish only in a 36 gallon for awhile and i don’t have any coral lights so i was kinda wanting that just as a way to add corols and keep a few more fish because im really maxed out at 6 in my 36 gallon

I think I accidentally made a zero water change setup. I checked the nitrates two weeks ago and they were 40ppm-ish, and yesterday it's reading no more than 10ppm. Must be the bigass pothos

Is there anywhere online (in the US) I can source lace shrimp or other smaller filter feeder shrimp? I want more filter feeders but would prefer smaller ones than bamboo or vampire

>>4839392
>I just think they look retarded with how skinny they are but idk
Same. Also if your interest is corals, 55G is also kind of difficult because it is fairly tall, considering its volume. It's as tall as a 75G Aqueon so you'd need lights suitable for a larger tank just to hit the bottom, even if you don't need that much square footage of coverage. Although I believe if you have a 36G bowfront, it's as tall as that. (21-22").

It's very hard to find the perfect setup used (especially for saltwater), so don't focus tooooo much on perfection even though everyone here will be like, "THAT'S TERRIBLE." Just look at used equipment as something you will not be carrying over to the system after this next one. If you are okay with the system as a one-off, price-wise and usability-wise, it's probably good enough.

my mom got a tiny half gallon or some shit bowl and threw some shrimp in it will they be fine if it's heavily planted? is walstad suitable for something like this? I don't know shit about fish but I do know she won't get a bubbler.

>>4839616
Depends on number of shrimp but yeah, they should be fine. Or they'll die quickly due to molt fail from the suddenly hardness change. But shrimp are nearly zero bioload, you can put dozens per gallon in a planted, unfiltered tank.

>>4839302
Who do you think ships them to your local store?

>>4839630
cool thanks I'll pick up some extra plants for her. they're pretty cute so I hope they do okay.
looking into setting up a 10 gallon with shrimp and some nano schoolers for myself now too.

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Currently doing EI dosing with CO2
Supposed to do 50% water change once per week to reset nitrates (in EI dosing you literally dose nitrates/phosphates) but i checked my nitrates today and they're showing at 5ppm. So is there actually any point in doing a water change? It seems the plants are sucking them up quicker than i can dose em.

>>4839710
It's not just for Nitrate. It's NPK, S, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cl, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo, with a heavy emphasis on the holy trinity, NPK. It also sounds like you could up your dosing and see additional growth. The whole objective for EI is to remove macro- and microelements from being limiting reagents. But if you are not noticing anything weird going on and you are happy with the growth, you can try to not do a WC. It's very likely fine, especially in the short-term. It just no longer is the EI method. That's just normal ass dosing (which I find better anyway as doing 50% WC frequently just to eke out a tiny bit more growth is wasteful and a needless time sink).

Where do you get all the cool microcritters like scuds and detritus worms?

>>4839725
i am dosing macro/micro on a daily A/B schedule so its already quite heavy dosing. Im not really measuring out specific amounts and am just splashing in a tiny bit. I did the calculations ages ago and the actual amount in my 125L aquarium for I need daily is like 1ml so any kind of dose is enough. What i am worried about is the total TDS of the water going up with all of the macro/micro nutrients. I dont know if higher concentrations of things like copper or iron can fuck up your plants/fish and also the things im not testing for such as phosphates could still be high even though my nitrates are low.

My plants seem to be growing pretty fucking quickly desu. I planted the Hygrophila Sp chai on tuesday and it is already sprouting new leaves within 3 days and growing slightly upwards which is kind of insane becuase its supposed to be both slow growing and a difficult plant to keep.

You can actually see the difference in this pic >>4838441 and this one >>4839710 if you compare them.

>>4839732
they appear much more readily if you use potting soil/compost in your tank. You can always buy them on ebay and add them to the tank.

>>4839557
Would the 2 lights that come with it work? A lot of the reason i was buying it wss to get the lights

>>4839357
>>4839358
Bumping before i impulse buy tomorrow despite being a broke poorfag
I want the lights for corol and the extra volume for fish but idk if the lights are worth it

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Saw this little dude going full hulk trying to flip this empty shell over this morning at about 3am thanks insomnia. Woke up to find he'd succeeded.
Been looking for a range of shell sizes at the beach over the last week but I think in my area the population of these fellas are population-limited by available shells because I couldn't find any. Well, I found one, but now I have another hermit crab.

>>4839476
That';s how nutrients work.
Note, however, that nitrates are not the only nutrient.

>>4840153
>now I have another hermit crab
Congrats! You can never have too many hermit crabs.
One of my crabs changed his shell to something slightly bigger and then never again - I keep telling him "buddy, you need bigger shoes, your buddies already got bigger houses" but he won't listen.

>>4840130
I have no idea what those lights are. Redsea ReefLED?

>>4839734
>copper or iron can fuck up your plants/fish
It most certainly can. Copper especially will fuck up inverts. However to get to those concentrations, your parameters would have to drift for a looooong time, if they are drifting in that direction at all. If you want to err on the safe side, you could always just schedule a big water change once every few months. I haven't done a WC in either my planted or reef tanks in over a year though, lmao. (I do do ICP and home testing on the latter though.)

>>4840262
>Congrats! You can never have too many hermit crabs.
:| Plenty of shells and food for everyone, but my crabs tend to go Thunderdome on each other if I have too many.

I have a 10gal Father Fish tank that is dedicated to invasive floaters (it was gonna be my moina tank but the colony crashed) that I like to move from my main tank to keep it from taking over the tank. Once or so a month, I'll take a bunch of floaters from that tank and either grind it up and freeze it into cubes or dehydrate it, then grind, then dehydrate. I bought a couple of feeder fish to put in that tank as an experiment to see if it would survive with no outside help from me. Since it's filled with water lettuce, I haven't been able to see it for awhile so I just assumed it was dead. I JUST saw it swimming around. It's been six months with zero feedings from me and he's alive. That's rad.

>>4840265
Niccrew

Does this setup sound good for a newfag? Looking to keep it low tech and do minimal water changes, but I'm pretty much at a loss for what method to use. I think I may be partial to how Fishtory keeps his tanks but it seems fairly advanced and he doesn't have a proper noob guide. MD fish tank just started a self sustaining aquarium series should I just follow along with that?
>10g tank
>single beta (open to suggestions for less common centerpieces, just don't want to keep a single of something that's social unless a pair would work but it seems like that would be getting into overstocked territory, idk. but then again I've seen some heavily planted tanks with a lot of stock)
>8 chili rasboras
>mystery snails
>cherry shrimp

>>4840695
>Does this setup sound good for a newfag?
Sure that'll work fine.

>>4840695
Yeah sure it's feasible. Are you intending to plant it? I'd still recommend a water change once every 2 or 3 weeks regardless

>>4840695
yes anon i think for a first tank you're better off just going for a bit of aquasoil and some plants.

Also one tip is to check your water's Kh levels with a an API test kit to see how hard your water is. MD fish tanks has very soft water which leads to plants growing very well in his low tech tanks. anything below dkh 6 is great, if you're above dkh 10 you're probably better off with only certain plants like java fern.

but overall thats a good set up for a beginner. Doing minimal water changes is something you can only really do if you have a well established tank with low stocking and a lot of plant mass. MD fish tanks re-uses filter media, aquasoil etc so his stuff is already well established with benificial bacteria. You wont have that privilege. Just make sure to plant heavily and leave your tank time to cycle.

>>4840695
Double (or triple) the chili swarm, they're shrimp tier bioload and size. But otherwise should be fine. Definitely add lots of plants to break up line of sight and decrease water changes.

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>>4837969
I've been away for a month and a half or so

my plants have exploded along with the snail population holy crap, kinda wondering what I do here. let it ride I guess.

>>4840776
trim the rotala (stem plant) and re-plant the cuttings in a cute little group. It will look nice.

>>4840793
nice good call, I could use some filler in the back corner. No idea what to do with the broad leaf one but its my favorite because I plucked it from the wild. I also have rainwater killifish that hatched in the tank, I guess the eggs were on one of the plants I collected.

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>>4840776
>>4840793
>>4840799
getting ready to clean and change water today.ill post some after pics.

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>>4840800
fortunately I caught these mystery snail eggs before they hatched. I love my snails but holy crap that would be too many.

>>4840805
I only have 1 mystery snail btw. is it possible this clutch was not fertilized any way?

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>>4840776
for reference this was the tank about 1.5 months ago

>>4840824
is your substrate inert? looks inert. would look good if you got a little carpet going.

>>4840857
I've got fertilizer topped with sand topped with gravel. suggestions?

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>>4840870
>fertilizer
do you mean compost?

For a carpeting plant dwarf hairgrass, monte carlo and Marsilea hirsuta would all work in a low tech tank but i dont think their root systems would actually reach the compost below because your cap is too thick.

Moss on mesh dug in to substrate, dwarf sagittaria or trimmed pearlweed are probably your best options if you did want a carpet. pearlweed looks great but requires a lot of trimming because pearl weed is actually a stem plant.

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>>4840883
No, I mean literal cow shit.

I need to move the tank soon, so I may try this out when I set it up.

>>4840885
desu that is what most of what compost is comprised of anyway. Cant see that being great for your water system though lol. Way too much literal shit leeching in to the water column even with the cap. No wonder your water is yellow af lol

>>4840887
all my levels are fine

>>4840776
pee pee water from cheap cow poo poo method

>>4841056
>>4840887
you sound like fucking nerds my tank looks great

>>4840885
I did the father fish thing with this and my tank is doing great

>>4840288
if your hermit crabs are killing each other then they're probably starving.
drop in some mysis shrimp and turn off the flow for a few minutes, so it has time to go to the bottom of the tank and the crabs can eat it.

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I got some new fish today.
>5 inch kubotai loach for my group I'm building
I have one 3 inch individual in my 75 and three 1 inch juviniles I am growing out in a 20. They take so long to grow though its a pain in the ass.
>1 yellow acara and 1 threadfin acara
I like acaras a lot. I've been collecting types and putting them in my 125. I have a wild type blue acara and a port acara. The yellow I just got is really beat up because it was in with firemouths and africans at the store, while acaras are peaceful enough to be kept with discus. My lfs guy lets me net out the fish I want myself, and I dropped the yellow acara like a retard. I think he is fine because it's been about five hours and he is cautiously exploring the 75 (I put him in my more peaceful 75 because he was so beat up that I didn't want him to get sent over the edge by my 125 cichlid community teaching him the pecking order). The poor thing is absolutely terrified of me though. Acaras are like that, pretty trusting by nature, but can get traumatized and be terrified of you easily. Fortunately they always warm back up to you with time. As for the threadfin, I've kept and quickly lost one before, but this one is a turn in and thus is probably healthy. I tend to have really bad luck with geophagus type cichlids, they always come in sick and not eating.
Speaking of, I got a winemilleri geo recently too. He seems to be doing well.

>>4841089
bad news
After I added my new cichlids and also did a ton of maintnece, including installing a powerhead to oxygenate the water more, all of the cichlids got on edge and are now fighting over territory, mixing other innocent fish into it as well. I think my male port acara and female blue acara also decided to breed, because they were doing the breeding dance and chasing all the other fish. I promptly moved the female because I don't have the space to clear out the tank for them, and I don't want a batch of hybrid fry nobody will want to take from me anyways.
Hopefully the male will get over himself and behave now... I think thats how it works. I would be confident if the incel sunfish male in my pond didn't make nests regardless of the presence of females, but then again, south american cichlids are far more tame than sunfish.
Remember anons, SA cichlids are angels until they decide they want kids. Then they become the opposite

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Where do you guys get your aquarium stands? Been wanting to set up my aquariums again and I've been having a hard time finding one for this big 75g I've had for a while now. I can find stands for 55s all day, but anything bigger seems to be a specialty item. The ones I do find look like cheap chinesium that'd buckle under 75 gallons of water + gravel, plants, fish, etc. I guess I could just stack up cinder blocks and do it that way.

Also not sure what to do with the little 5.5 since I just found it while cleaning my basement. Shrimp colony? A single betta?

>>4838536
I feel jipped. I was waiting for this dude to add ADFs and it never came. 0/10 would not recommend.

>>4841150
I would put a shrimp colony in that 5.5g.

>>4841063
>gets butthurt
>starts calling people nerds
lmao Look in the mirror.

>>4840805
I let my mystery snails lay a dozen clutches and let them all hatch. I now have a hundred snails or more

>>4841150
I literally just bought one on Amazon and it seems pretty good. Space for a ten gallon on top and space for a five gallon down below, supposed to be able to hold over 500 pounds and it's made of steel.

>>4841150
Yeah, I got a 75G super cheap brand new that was really difficult to find a stand for. I got one used off of craigslist. 55G seems to be a really popular size due to people new to the hobby being retarded. It's such shit dimensions.

I'd probably use the 5.5G as a reservoir for auto top-off.

Just set up my first tank. Filled with water, hardscape, and fluorite gravel. No livestock, no plants, minus a cutting of pothos in the top. While running this thing for a couple of weeks, should I do water changes or just keep it topped off? How long should I wait for adding plants (just planning on a couple of Anubis) and fish (single betta)? 9 gallon tank. Thanks a ton for any help.

>>4841464
You need to add an ammonia source to get it to cycle

>>4841464
Add plants immediately, they'll have bacteria that hells speed up the process, and generally won't be impacted by the ammonia seen during cycling - they'll actually use some instead of nitrates until the nitrates show up.

>>4841467
Sorry, should've mentioned that I did add recommended dosages of both API Quick Start and Accu Clear.
>>4841475
So plants are ok to add immediately then? I just wasn't sure. Wanted to make sure anything in the water wouldn't kill them.

Thank you both! I've done a lot of reading, but have no practiced knowledge or anyone else to ask, so it's an enormous help.

>>4841482
>So plants are ok to add immediately then?
Yes go go.

>>4841482
Forgot to mention: I do have ACO Easy Green liquid, as well (none yet added). Will this work for an anubias or two?

>>4841482
Plants will be fine as long as there's light, nitrogen, and not excess salt. Some plants will be fine with ambient room light but anyone who wants some proper greenery which'll reduce nitrogen wastes a ton will want a dedicated light on a timer

>>4841482
Yes, and anubias are all but impossible to kill, until they randomly get anubias rot and die.

>>4841484
The pothos will absorb almost all of it, but it won't hurt the anubias. Pothos vs anubias nutrient uptake is like scooping from a pool with 5gal bucket vs a spoon.

>>4841488
Pothos can even compensate for waste-heavy fish like goldfish

>>4841487
The tank came with a light, and I have a mechanical timer. Both work but are off right now, just the filter running.

It came with 7500k led lights. Adjustable with colors/intensity. Good enough for anubias? I figure I didn't NEED a bunch of fast growers for just a single betta. Damn tank is setup so I can't even do floating plants with the way it's intake is made.

>>4841488
>>4841492
Holy crap. That's cool. I have tons of all kinds of varieties of that stuff. Just used golden because I saw it was the most recommended kind I saw.

>>4841490
Accidentally you'd myself instead >>4841494
. Sorry.

>>4841464
>>4841482
>>4841484
>>4841492
>>4841494
>>4841495
I have shit this thread full. Sorry guys. Just nervous and want to do a good job.

>>4841494
>>4841495
Yeah I just went to a Lowe's garden center, bought a potted golden pothos for like thirteen bucks, and broke it up into four different plants. I stuck the biggest part in with a three inch now 4.5 inch goldfish and the nitrates are going down at this point, not up.

>>4841492
What's the wattage on the lights? Probably fine for anubias but if it was an "all in one kit" unlikely to do well for anything else.

Even with plenty of nitrate intake, do occasional (monthly 25%,+/- a bit for either, is what I'd do) water changes and use the liquid now and again to refill any micronutrients that the liquid fert might miss and to manage potassium and bacteria load.

Also get some snails. Malaysian trumpet to aerate substrate, ramshorn and/or bladder to clean up uneaten food and dead plant bits.

>>4841513
Yeah. It's an all-in-one thing. Fluval Flex 9 gallon. Says the lights are 7500k. I have no idea what that means. But I understand some plants need more light than others. Figured lowlight and slower growing for just a betta. Tank is too small for me to do much else with.

Was considering the blackwater tannin stuff, too. Just to maybe reduce light a little more and bettas are supposed to like it. Plus it looks nice, imo.

>>4841519
Throw some floaters in there, even the maligned duckweed, and they'll cut down on light a lot too while removing nitrates

>>4841519
XXXXK is a color, not the strength of the light. Lumens are the best approximation for power, wattage is next best. Color is really up to preference, at least unless you want to really dig into the specs, then different color mixes (e.g. How many red LEDs vs. White vs. Green vs. Blue) has an impact but I couldn't tell you the ideal for anubias.

Get a cheap nicrew, whatever fits the top of your tank, and run it 8-10 hr/day at max level, and you're good.

>>4841521
Going to avoid floaters. The top intake on this tank is kinda made like a skimmer. Figure it'll just clog it up. Otherwise, I totally would. I'm not especially handy and am just working with what I got.

>>4841524
Just found info on the lights. Manufacturer says 7 watts, 1900 lux.

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>>4841527
That's passable but fairly weak. For anubias it'll be fine. If you end up with floaters or stem plants, I'd get picrel (I have several different nicrew lights, they work well on timers and put out good light)

>>4841537
Cool. I've heard those are really good for the price.

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>>4841537
How bright are those? I need lights for everything besides maybe the 5 gallon. I've got a single t12 light that goes with this but it's output is...it's there. it makes light. Not enough for plants, though, so I need something brighter for this big boi. I'm not opposed to spending money if it's a buy once cry once deal.

>>4841559
Brighter than a t12. I use a pair of them on my 30g but the floaters (mostly water lettuce) covers the whole top within a week of culling 90%, so I have mostly low-med light stuff. If I keep the floaters down, it keeps stuff like hydrocyte small and bushy, so I think they're strong enough to do carpets and such, I just don't ever keep up with culling floaters.

What's recommended for raising some tadpoles from my unmaintained ponds? No clue what kind they are which is part of the reason I want to raise them. If it's cheap and easy enough I might get some supplies for my nieces as a fun biology/pet project.

>>4841086
>>4840288
worry not, anons! i have the perfect counter to starving hermits:
> have a female clownfish that's being a pig
> no food can make it to the bottom, and if it does, she eats it up
> no food ever left for hermits
> abandon sinking pellets, or mysis shrimp, fuck all that
> grab a handful of bladder snails from my freshwater tank
> they sink to the bottom and kick the bucket
> hermit crabs eat the now dead bladder snails
> scoop up the bladder snail shells and throw them back in the freshwater tank
win-win, try this method anons, it's basically free food!

>>4841498
I assure you, this is the best thread we've had in fucking months.

>>4841492
>>4841513
>>4841519
>>4841524
>>4841527
PAR is another metric you may see floating around. It's possibly the best metric to go by, but it's the least common measurement you'll find, and there's no standard of how to measure and present the numbers, so one manufacturer may measure it in open air, another through 3/6/9" of water, some may only do direct illumination, some may do off-axis, etc.

>>4841593
>3/6/9
Damn you fine
Come on Flanders, post yo' Betta one mo's time
Get low get low get low get low
To the plaaaaaatyyyyyys...
To rasboras!!!
Plecos sucking on my walls!
All these mollusks crawl!

I've begun eating the duckweed that I scoop out of my aquariums. Is this the beginning of my transformation into a Deep One?

>notice guppy tangled in roots and hair algae
>try to unravel it and pull off the algae as quickly as possible
>he just sinks to the bottom
Should I have bothered to save him at all? He went motionless seconds after I managed to get the algae off him

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Anyone know what kinda buce this is? Got it randomly and forgot to get the name off the sale tank.
Sorry for the shitty photo, is it also true they are easy to keep? Just slow growers like anubis?

>>4841637
Maybe Kapang? There's a billion versions all slightly different, but looks to be long narrow leaf, medium-darkness green.

Yes it's basically impossible to kill (I've had some survive floating, and a couple pieces move around my tank every few weeks), but it makes anubias look like a fast grower. Particularly the ones in less than ideal conditions - ideal being attached to porous rock or wedged between other hardscape - will put out one leaf per two or three weeks and gain less than an inch on current incomplete leaves per month.

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Ich or epistylis? My first time actually dealing with disease in my 5 years of this hobby.

>>4841766
So far, looks like ich. Epistylis looks way more irregular, but considering we're only looking two dots, I wouldn't count it out.

>>4841766
Looks like ich. Hit tank with ich-x. Or change water. Or both.

>>4841766
>Ich or epistylis? My first time actually dealing with disease in my 5 years of this hobby.
Ah, dealing with a first time fish disease can be challenging, but let's take a look at the symptoms. If your fish is displaying white dots or fuzzy growth on its body and fins, it could potentially be ich. On the other hand, if the growth appears as small white or grey pearl-like formations on the body, it might lean more towards epistylis.

>>4841843
>fuzzy growths = ich
Ok, why are you intentionally being slow in the head?

>>4841846
Actually, you're being "purposefully being slow in the head", faggot. Ich, also known as Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, is indeed a parasitic disease that causes white spots, and is often fuzzy in appearance. It's literally one of the most common illnesses affecting fish in the aquarium trade. If your fish is displaying white dots or fuzzy growths on its body, it's an Ich infection. End of story. So, it's important to treat the fish accordingly to alleviate the symptoms.
>inb4 You're wrong becuz.... JUST BECUZ, OKAY?!?!?
In that event, I except your concession.

>>4841848
>i except
epic ESL moment!!

>>4841849
>>4841848
>>4841846
>>4841843
Samefaggot arguing with xerself.

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Hello team

I'm looking to put acrylic painted ceramics into my empty tank.

Is there a sealant that y'all recommend for this, like epoxy resin, or is it pretty much a no-go.

Bless up, /aqg/.

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>>4838441
carpet progress.

Just 2 more weeks!

>>4837989
Yes and then clean them and sell each for $200

>>4842318
Goddamn. Some of you guys are really good at this, lol.

>>4837969
What the fuck are these fuzzy black blobs growing in my fishtank? They're everywhere.

>>4842318
>Just 2 more weeks!
lmao I see what you did there. But yeah, great job. Soon you will know the pain of having to trim that shit. (Get angled scissors ASAP.)

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Gotta wait to the weekend to get plants. How's my hardscape placement?

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tank from front. I keep adding some nice lil twigs i find outside to the driftwood that look like vines growing up it.

>>4842471
You can do it too anon. Im really not that good compared to top aquascapers. Growing plants with co2 is easy once it's set up.

>>4842485
hehe thank you anon. Im going to try using my shitty kitchen scissors, i just bought some aquascaping tweezers and they're expensive af lol. Think ill wait until i get a full set.

>>4842490
One word. BIGGER. Bigger hardscape that reaches the waterline is best and looks most dramatic/creates a sense of scale. You could do it with literally one piece of driftwood with a tank that small. also have an idea of what plants you're using, as there is no nutrient rich substrate in the tank you're going to have to rely mostly on Epiphyte plants or weed-like plants that grow in literally anything. If you are dead set on that hardscape you're going to limit yourself a lot because theres barely anything there to attach plants to and you are going to have to make the tank look impactful with plant growth. A taller piece of driftwood or rock would be best. Also if you did want some plants in there that normally require aquasoil you could try planting some root tabs in there.

Good, easy epiphyte plants to fill up a small tank :
Bucephalandra (almost any species is fine. best attached to/wedged in wood)
Anubius petite (Best attached to wood/wedged in)
Trident fern / Java fern
Hydrocotyle
most mosses (java, christmas, weeping)

Easy, weed-like plants that can grow in almost anything
guppy grass
pearlweed
valisineria

Have a read of this for insparation etc.
https://aquascapinglove.com/learn-aquascaping/aquascaping-styles/

>>4842494
Yeah... I went small on purpose. The glass on this tank didn't seem to be very thick compared to other regular ones and I didn't want to accidentally bust the bottom.

The idea was about 3 or 4 anubius, a betta, and nothing else.

The wood is literally just there for tannins to help the fish and maybe darken the water a little for the anubius.

Completely new to this. It's always interested me, so I figured I'd do something very basic/small to attempt it. If I can keep a single betta and a few plants alive and healthy for awhile, I'll try a "real" tank, lol.

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>>4842490
Also to add to this >>4842490

watch this video
https://youtu.be/iX_dLhJ-ckE

look at how big the pieces of driftwood he uses are. They literally come out of the tank. Emulating something like this would be a good start if you want the tank to look good. You probably wouldnt even need to buy the driftwood and could use sticks/wood from outside if you wanted to that you thought looked good. Dont worry about busting the tank you arent going to break it with hardscape.

Another tip would be to buy lots of plants more than you think you need. Dont skimp out on the plants. If you're buying trident fern, buy like 2-3 of them on ebay. Buy 3-4 Bucephalandra, 3-4 anubius, tripartita, tie moss to the wood before you even put it in the tank. You'll end up with an instantly great looking tank that will be healthier and more vibrant and impressive and will cycle easier and be more easy to maintain. The betta will like it more too as it has more places to hide and it will feel more comfortable.

>>4842501
Neat! Thanks for the links and info.

How often do you trim your valisnerias? Mine seem to never stop growing so I end up trimming them like twice a month.

>>4837969
Is an alligator gar difficult to keep? if not, is there any smaller gar that's still big?

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HOW DO I GET RID OF HYDRA

Hey guys, I had 2 of my balloon belly Mollies drop dead this week and so I thought to do a water change which I did but now I have a third fish hanging out at the bottom of the tank. I keep them in an understocked 10 gallon with valisneria, crypts and one anubias nana and a stem of cuban oregano that occassionally drops leaves into the tank to feed the snails. What might be the issue here thats causing my fish to die?

>>4843228
Forgot to add, water change was 30%

I don't wanna stick my hand in nasty pond water with pests but high tech is gay.

>>4843189
get fish that eat them.

>>4843228
Probably not your water change that did this. Balloon mollies are genetic trash and get sick/die easily.

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>>4843228
>>4843331
This.
"Balloon molly' is _literally_ genetic trash.

>>4843382
KEK AT LIL NIGGA ON THE RIGHT

>>4843228
>Mollies in a 10 gal
>Understocked
>Bait this obvious
Kek, you must be new here.

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>Big wild caught royal farlowella died randomly.
>Big emerald rainbow suddenly has the gasps (constant mouth movement and refusal to eat- I have never brought a rainbow back from this)
I really hope this isn't the camalanus infestation I fixed earlier this year coming back. Most of the fish are in top condition so I hope not.

A couple astraea snails showed up in my aquarium out of nowhere. The only recent thing I added to the tank is a new zoa colony a month ago so they must have hidden themselves in the plug when they were really tiny. At first I thought they were limpets or some barnacle thing but they seem to have the typical triangular shell shape of the species. I have a margherita snail in there as well but the shell shape is pretty different so I don’t think it’s a stored sperm sort of thing.

>>4843189
Fenbendazole

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>>4844058
They can be really small at the beginning, you probably didn't even notice them.
Mine have started reproducing, which is incredibly neat. I can see little tiny snails crawling around.
Can't wait to have millions of them on the glass, like I do in my freshwater tanks.

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>>4844219
Those aren't astrea snails.

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>>4844225
>like I do in my freshwater tanks.
>Those aren't astrea snails.
>posts a snail covered in dinos
laughing my lmao - aren't the ESLs supposed to be sleeping?

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Shrimpniggers, I need your help.
A couple days ago, I found 2 dead cherry shrimp in my 10 gal. Today, I found another 3 dead, making for 5 dead shrimp this week and 7 noticed deaths in total within the last 2 months since I got the colony started from 2 females at the start of the year.
At first, I was skeptical about the dozens of the shrimplets disappearing into thin air. Now, it's painfully obvious my population of adult cherry shrimp has dwindled from 30+ to maybe 10-15ish. The tank walls used to be covered in them but now I have to put effort into searching for any remaining shrimp.

Tested parameters and ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and etc were fine. Going to get a GH & KH testing kit tomorrow, but it's hard to believe the recent deaths are all molting-related even if gh/kh levels are low since they've been doing fine at this population density for months.
Any thoughts or guesses on what's going on?

>>4844366
Are you using tap water and how often are you water changing? Notice any pests in the tank or parasites from the bodies? Get a copper test too

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>>4844373
Sourcing water from a large local river and did my last water change back in mid-to-late May after I noticed the 2nd shrimp death. The first was my og orange cherry who died from molting issues and spawned 90% of the bastards in the tank. The second was a blue cherry I bought and introduced nearly a month earlier.
Last time, I did a pretty substantial water change. Probably 20-30% but things seemed fine until this week.
Been sourcing my water from the river the whole 2 years I've had this tank and things've been fine.

I'm starting to suspect it might have something to do with the earthworms I feed my salamander. Sometimes he doesn't finish it all before the shrimp swarm his den fighting over what's left.

Anyone ever order plants? How'd it go? Places to recommend? To avoid? In central US.

>>4844394
>central US
Glassgrown. Wait for sales and you can get stuff ridiculously cheap, and free shipping over $60

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>>4844382
>local river
I would hazard a guess and say you have a pest living in your tank, killing shrimp. What is the shrimps behaviour like? Are they sitting still or are they still getting around scavenging for food?
If they are all still moving constantly, I'd bet money it's a pest. Watch out for nymphs from plant matter, I got dragonfly nymphs from a pothos cutting from outside.
If they are sitting still it's the best indicator that the water quality is shart.
Best of luck anon.

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Is this some type of planaria worm? I wasn't able to find something with this movement pattern from my quick research.

>>4844403
that's a leech

>>4844404
That makes sense, thanks

>>4844219
Yeah, it’s nice. I think they grow a bit too large for my tiny 5g tank but I will probably upgrade to a 15g soon so it’s not a big deal.

>>4844366
Happened to me as well. In my case it was come bacteria or toxin that lead to a 100% death rate among shrimp and a pretty high mortality of snails. The snail population has just picked up recently but idk if I want to put cherry shrimp back on just yet. The cause in mine was tap water or high DOC, maybe both. Not a lot you can do, sadly.

I want to keep red bellied piranha into a diy greenhouse. is it possible?

>>4845282
Why wouldn't it be?

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>>4845266
hired goons

Fucking pet store bullshit...

Need to rant. Closest place for plants, over an hour drive. Call first. Fucking nearly $60 for the best looking, non Blackbeard covered horseshit. Fuck it, need plants. 3 pots. One had no rhizome, one had a rotten one, and one was ok. No receipt as the "thing isn't working". Didn't realize the complete ass raping I got until I was home.

Long story short, thinking about bricking their windows and letting all the animals free and sticking plants in public lakes.

Fucking hate my life. Sorry, had to bitch.

>>4845438
>buys plants
>can see the plants he is buying
>silent during bag up
>pays like a bitch
>cries at home
average 4channers day touching grass, you only scammed yourself nigga what did the boomer do put a gun to your head at the counter and say buy my dead anubis?
you ever heard of agency?

>>4845443
Wool pots nigger. Took what I could. Ask your mother cuz I know you don't know your father.

Ever hear of leaving the house?

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>>4845445
lol lmao get WOOLED nigga

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What is this random straight fin on my betta? I researched their anatomy and can't find anything mentioning one singular long, straight fin that's only on the left side.

>>4845466
It's his dick

>>4845470
fuck yeah my boy is hung

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>>4845466
Nice cock fellow betta chad.

>>4845478
thanks yours is pretty sick too. what morph is that considered?

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>>4845438
Buy them online stupid retard this is 100000000% your fault

>>4845487
And what? Bought stuff sight unseen, paid more, and paid shipping on top, retard? Done looked, sadly took what was a slightly "better" option. Just a shitty day and THOUGHT I'd be in a crowd that could relate. But I forgot, being 4chinz, I run into someone with no regrets who's never had a bad day.

Fuck me, right?

Good thing I'm hung like a horse and have a wife who lets me stay home and do fuck-all all day otherwise I might have a hard time getting over it, eh?

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>>4845479
thanks, it's a betta imbellis, he's missing an eye and my LFS gave me him for free which made me smile :^)
known as the peaceful betta supposedly

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>>4845516
>mfw some retard pays full price for half rooted anubis
feelsgoodman

>>4845519
I'd do some more research personally, but yeah, some of those wild types are "tamer" and I've heard of neat setups for like, 2 mouth brooding males and one female with some, weird sororities with others, all kinds of cool stuff.

Keep me updated, lol. I don't know why, but I think he's the bee's knees. We don't get cool stuff around here. I was lucky to find a Plakat(sp?) at a local place and thought I won the lottery.

>>4845516
>And what? Bought stuff sight unseen, paid more, and paid shipping on top, retard? Done looked, sadly took what was a slightly "better" option.
>done looked
>sight unseen
Any halfway decent online seller will have a return policy on a garbage shipment, plus free shipping on orders of a certain dollar amount, usually below your $60 ass rape. Even the jewest of jew shops, Aquariumcoop, has a DOA policy and free shipping on a $60+ order, plus you're not going to be paying lmao $20 per plant.

So no, you did not look around. You have no idea what you were doing. There is a lot of sympathy in this particular general for those that deserve it, for instance people who lost fish (or pets in general) after years of care, or people who lost systems due to circumstances beyond control (weather related, usually). But you brought everything upon yourself. So yes, you can go fuck yourself. Feel free to keep replying though. Your tears are hilarious.

>>4845548
I might be an idiot, but you're a cocksucker. Probably got it from your mother and unknown father.

But yeah. Me dumb. Me new. Glad I was so entertaining.

>But at least my breath doesn't smell of penis.

Speaking of cocksuckers, what happened to the fag with the mollies/platies/whateverinthefuck and his boyfriend? Finally join the 41%?

>>4845552
>Speaking of cocksuckers
kek we got an expert here, an expert in sucking cawks

>>4845563
Hey, it's always good to know who sucks what and who's best at it. Remember that. Keep a list if you have to, lol.

>seriously not a pleco on a laptop

>>4845566
i agree, here is the start of my list:
sucks at buying plants (You)

>>4845548
kek

>>4845572
Gotta agree. Oh well, I'm good at nearly everything else so it's ok. Just needed to vent and bitch a bit. Thanks for helping me laugh it off, though. You may be a cunt, but yer my cunt and I love you.

>>4844403
That's 100% a leach. Tons of leech species have that body shape and move like that. Whether or not it's dangerous is a whole other question, probably not.

>>4841778
Ich-X, water changes, add salt, and turn up the heat. Should annihilate ich.

I found an intact and unused Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine subscription ticket thingy in a book from 1980. If I sent it in, would they even reply?

>>4845638
Do it.
But if you get something cool you have to share it because I helped.

>>4845438
>this nigger paid $60 for some dying algae-covered plants
>most people pay $2-3 for perfectly healthy plants
lol

>>4845637
Visine. No shit. One little bottle to every 10 gallons. Just the regular stuff.

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>>4845466
>>4845478
>>4845519
we posting bettas?

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>>4837969
hey guys. I recently started this 30 gal tank after rehoming my pet turtle which had previously occupied it. Currently my residents are
>1x comet goldie (2 or 3 years old, was a feeder for the turtle that evaded being eaten and i kept as a pet)
>3x common pleco (owned for a week, love these guys. i'm aware they get big so i'm gonne replace them with bristlenosed plecos)
>1x lace catfish (impulse buy, he loves to hide so i don't see him often, also owned for a week)

can i get some recommendations on plants that the goldfish won't destroy? otherwise i'm just gonna get some fake fauna. the plastic bucket and yellow container are some temporary hides, i'm gonna buy some better stuff this weekend.

>>4845726
fake flora*
i am stupid

>>4845726
>(impulse buy
lmao They are all impulse buys. Have a plan to rehome or upgrade the tank in the future.

As for plants, possibly valisneria and hope it grows as fast as the goldfish prunes it (and it prunes from the ends and not the base). You could try to just have so many hardy plants (java fern, val, maybe anubias) that combined they outgrow your fish's appetite for destruction. But that would assume it is nibbling equally across the board. Fish tend to have favorite plants/areas..

>>4845745
i'll look into those anon, thank you. i love my comet goldie but he can be a pain in the ass lol

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>>4845684
luv me betta
simple as

>>4845752
pretty betta

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>>4845726
A good picture of my Goldie. Still hard to believe he was only about 3/4" long when he was bought to feed my pet turtle. Still haven't thought of a good name for him

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>>4845754
And a pleco. I love how stupid these guys look

>>4845552
>the fag with the mollies/platies/whateverinthefuck and his boyfriend
Still living rent-free in your head after all these months, I suppose.
I guess you're this general's biggest fag now that he's gone.

>>4845647
$60 for 3 pots of plants, too. Lol. LMAO even.
And then has the nerve to complain about buying plants online.

>>4845552
Wait, you've been around long enough for the whole Flanders/FBF thing and you're still this dumb? LMAO

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I have a 10 gal that contains 6 corys and 10ish shrimp and 40ish baby snails. I usually do small water change once a week, ever since my mystery snail's egg clutch hatched, ammonia has been slightly elevated. Yesterday I see a white spot on my catfish. I've dealt with ich in this tank in the past, but my ich medication is harmful to invertebrates. It was easy when I had zero shrimp and 2 snails. I'm not really sure how I should go about treating it this time. I don't want to hurt the snails and shrimps, and the only other tank I have is a lil 3 gallon that I can't imagine shoving all the snails in there for a week while I treat the big tank. Anyone have any advice?

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>>4845759
>all that seethe over one woman
shiggy diggy

>>4845805
Bump up the temps to 86F and add a bubbler.
No chemicals needed and those ich parasites will be dead before you know it.

>>4845438
>$60 for three pots
nigga what the fuck. Are these plants all like 3ft tall/wide or something? Post your tank nigga post your tank.

does anyone have experience growing a pearlweed carpet?

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>>4846029
What do you wanna know fren? I have a shrimp tank full of pearlweed.

>>4846042
nice skrimp. im just curious what the planting process is like if you're going for a carpet. I have a 5 gallon with a betta that I want to add cherry shrimps to and I think a pearlweed carpet would be great for them to hide in and it looks awesome when maintained. how many plants would you say are necessary? and are they best spread out through the substrate or bunched together? I don't have a CO2 setup unfortunately.

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>>4846068
It's called pearlweed for a reason, you shouldn't have much trouble growing it even with no co2 (mine isn't either).
For planting I would divide the stems up and plant evenly through the substrate. It will send runners sideways but if you are impatient, you can trim the upwards growth and replant it. You can even plant stem by stem if you have the autism to do so, for me I just planted it in clumps, and it worked out fine.
I don't use any ferts, but the substrate is about half aquasoil and half gravel. Good luck fren, come back and post pics when it's grown in :^)

>>4846068
>how many plants
One bunch should do for 5gal, cut them in half and now you have two bunches :D

>>4846023
Some insanely overcharge for their plants, some stores give you them almost for free. If you aren't retarded you only buy plants from the cheapest possible stores you can find within a two hour drive from you because plants are far more sensative and unreliable than fish. Unfortunately most people are retarded paypigs

>>4846151
i have bought plants, corals, fish online and had a problem with maybe one or two corals in that entire time. Plants i have never had a problem with. You people are retarded. Buying plants at stores is usually not the best idea because they overcharge and the plant selection sucks most of the time
>ah, great i get to pick between amazon sword, java fern, anubius, java moss, the list goes on!

>>4846201
Java ferns are great.
Buy one and in 6-12 months you have 50.
They tend to explode when you change light levels though. BUt then you have 100 in a couple months after that.

>>4846201
I always buy plants in my lfs. I order a week in advance and they add my order in the bulk shipping straight from the producer (who doesn’t do retail). I think plants are a loss leaders for fish stores. I’m pretty sure most of them don’t sell.

>>4846226
Usually why you'll see one or two holding tanks for plants, sometimes a shelf or two for cultures but seemingly half the store on consumables, replacement parts or nutrients.
My local LFS practically runs a loss on every single saltwater item they stock, all things considered.
Shit like seachem flourish with 5g of dissolved elements in a 1L bottle is where it's at, second is live fish.

>>4846231
Yeah. Scaping shit like rocks, driftwood and gravel probably have a nice margin as well. And premade aquariums, of course.

>>4846151
>sensative
Good morning sir, this is Steve from your local fish store, I see here you have bought plants from us in the past. We are seeing an unexpected balance in your account, is there any options to do the needful with a Target gift card, sir? Please advice.

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>>4842318
just two more weeks bros!

>>4846201
Your store sucks bro. My lfs has a ton of different plants to chose from.

>>4846527
Firstly , it probably doesnt. Secondly, if your LFS actually is good it will have tropica pots and 1-2 grow pots or some equivilent, which are designed to be shipped anyway and are shipped to the store. So you're just needlessly driving to the store to buy a plant for a higher price than just getting it online. Thirdly, all of the plants stores stock are basic bitch hardy plants for retards. dying brown spotted Java fern, anubius, moss (algae) balls, java moss, some form of amazon swords. If you're lucky they'll have some dwarf hairgrass, monte carlo, val, crypts of some kind, Heterophylla, maybe a few floaters. But most of the time they dont. If you want anything else at all, which is literally thousands of plants, including the most attractive plants like bucephalandras or any other carpeting plants than dwarf hairgrass or monte carlo , you need to go online.

If I get a tank can I just steal rocks,plants and fish from a creek?

>>4846546
Yes. Just be aware that you'll still need to dechlorinate water if you are not using that same creek's water.

>>4846546
you can but just be aware that it wont be 'clean'. You will get a lot of foriegn insects, algae, mulm, bacteria in the tank which is fine but just be aware youre gonna see random fuzz all over the place. You can still have a cool tank with this look but you need to be aware that it will look closer to one of father fish's tanks than some aquascaped tank.

If you're going to steal the rocks/fish/plants may as well take some of the sand/dirt from the creek as well.

There is a guy in the UK that goes to the seaside and does this with saltwater fish/macroalgae. Its cool.

https://youtu.be/WagzPjRdjeE

1. What's the biggest freshwater shrimp you think I could keep in a 20 long?
2. What's a decent price for plants? I want to know if I got scammed. Everything was $10 except for javas+anubias which were 12

>>4846561
1. Would think you'd be able to probably fit any commercially available freshwater shrimp in a 20 long. Maybe not one of these guys though.
https://youtu.be/tAJL0FtOfdo
2. $10-12 seems alright. Sounds like the standard LFS pricing to me. Usually they have deals where if you buy 3 it's cheaper.

I have a strange interest in a cave-style nano aquarium with zero light, and probably blind fish. As in the kind of aquarium you could legitimately stick in a cupboard and forget about it forever and it would be fine.
Possible?

>>4846569
can it be done? Yes. There are cave style aquariums with spotlights that look great. Greyworm on youtube makes the best looking ones imo.
https://youtu.be/fB8zTZIHICo
https://youtu.be/0GyN8sSJBQ4
https://youtu.be/lX7GPPPUVw4

Cave tetra would be perfect stocking for it if its big enough (these are the only blind fish i know are somewhat suitable for what you're talking about.
>nano aquarium
>stick in a cupboard and forget about it forever and it would be fine.
these are the parts that wouldnt work. Obviously they'd need to be fed, the water would need to be topped up, would still need water changes, even with low light i can imagine the tank still getting some form of algae/diatoms. The tank would have to be bigger than a nano aquarium to house cave tetra too.

My main question is, why would you have an aquarium that you would lock up in a cupboard and not look at?

>>4846084
>>4846086
thank you anons

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Do you guys think this would work for an aquarium stand?

I much prefer the industrial minimalist look to the standard aquarium stand which usually looks tacky and cheap. Says it supports 330lbs on top shelf which is enough for around a 120L tank at least.

what website do you guys buy your plants from?
>US-based

>>4846598
If you're gonna get it, check the bracing strength laterally by getting a fat cunt to sit on it and shove him around.
These things usually have no lateral strength and a large wobbling body of water will test that.
If it's shit, you could always get a couple strips of barstock and pop-rivet them on the back legs in an >< arrangement.

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Hey.
Hey.
What's this thing. It's got a poofy base and what looks like fibreglass poking out.
THere's another one halfway up the base of my hammer.

>>4846547
>>4846548

Cool thanks, if I do go this route I'll be sure to research a bit more. One last question, if I buy a used fished tank is it recommended I peel off the silicone and reglue the tank if there is a life expectancy of the glue?

>>4846735
i wouldnt recommend re-siloconing the tank. You will probably do more damage than good peeling and re-sealing if you dont know what you're doing. There is a life expectancy for silicone but it is probably in the decades. If the tank isnt 20-30 years old or more you're probably fine.
Unless the tank is really old and fucked, it will still hold water. If you really wanted you could perhaps go over with another thin layer of silicone over the existing layer to plug any potential leaks (there wont be any).

Just try filling the tank up with water for a few days before properly getting it set up to make sure it isnt leaking.

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>>4846735
My tank is from 2008 and still holding water just fine. Father Fish has some ancient looking aquariums that don't seem to be leaking anywhere. If you're looking at nano tanks, those are generally safe since there isn't that much water pressure on the walls - think of the square-cube law.
As for plants, I got my ludwigia while I was hiking, and it ended up getting huge in my coldwater tank. Picrel, you can see it poking above the water line.

>>4846835
My tank is from 1993, had a hamster in it for half its life, and still holds water without issue. Rimmed tanks are pretty sturdy if you don't try to move them when full of water.

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>>4845726
Hey anons it's me again. I went and harvested a plant and some mosquitofish from a pond a frequent (I've vetted this pond as I've kept mosquitofish from here many times), and I ended up getting some of these guys as bycatch. Any clue what species they are? They look like teeny tiny bass, and I assume they're juveniles of a larger species.

i forgot to flush when i took a shit this morning and the first thing I thought when I got home to take a piss and saw the poop water was "poop tannins"

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It's impossible to get a decent photo with my phone, but the base of this neon tetra's tail is a completely white lump, and the tail itself is at an awkward angle so it can no longer swim straight, should I euthanize? It almost looks like the tail fin will detach altogether if the white lump progresses any more.
I read in a book that you can dispatch a fish by hurling it against a hard surface, but that seems a bit violent

>>4847079
If you're dispatching a fish that tiny just crush its head. It sucks I know but it'll be instant.

>>4847079
Yeah that fish is gonna die. Never seen any fish come back from that bad of an infection.

>>4846201
>>4846151
i source all my plants from my local springs, the last ones came with free rainwater killifish!

>>4846548
that's what i did

this is my tank
>>4840824
>>4840776

I got some sweet snails and rainwater killifish from harvesting wild shit too

>>4847059
That's how I field-test wastewater anti-foaming agents.
>Hey man I know you pay X/gallon for your current stuff, but I left a log in the shitter for a week, chopped that fucker into a dozen pieces with my big morning piss and man - no foam. Buy my product

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>>4837969
What kind of worm is this? I have a reef tank, and I found dozens of these things when I was scrubbing rocks. I came to find that they primarily live in the sand, and there are TONS of them. I had a bristleworm that hitchhiked on a coral I bought several months ago, but these don't look bristly.

>>4847520
According to Samsung ai (tm) it is a bristleworm

>>4847520
>>4847556
There are a lot of different types of bristleworms. Fireworms are type of bristleworm, for instance. However that kind of looks like a dorvilleidae worm, which each mostly algae. Hard to say. tons of worms look similar and I am no expert. But if your tank is otherwise healthy, you're not seeing any issues with fish or coral, and you see a ton of them, they're probably not a nuisance species, however you may want to figure out if it's excess nutrients or something that is causing the population to explode.

where do you guys buy indian almond leaves?

>>4847761
from indians duh, it's in the name

>>4847774
is there an indian store where you can buy those almond leaves? and do they have gift cards which you can redeem for almond leaves?

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Has anyone set up an automatic tank water change system? I think it could be a neat project, there is this 400 mL/min peristaltic pump on Amazon for example, and I reckon you could divert the flow between input reservoir, tank, and waste reservoir using one-way check valves and reversing the pump direction.
I'm mainly motivated by the fact I put a piece of mopani wood in my tank, and it's leaching tannins like a motherfucker. The water goes brown in a matter of days.

>>4847079
>I read in a book that you can dispatch a fish by hurling it against a hard surface
lmfao don't do that

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How's my hardscape look? This is my first time setting up a tank this small and all I can really fit in it are rocks. The only piece of driftwood I have would literally displace half the tanks volume and would only fit one way. Also not sure on plants since I feel like basically everything will be growing up out of the water (although a good size anubias growing up out of it might look cool).

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I want a vampire shrimp in my 20 gallon.
I know they greatly desire current so they can perch in that current and filter feed. Are there wavemakers sufficiently weak enough to make a nice underwater "breeze" for my shrimp without butchering the other small weak-bodied freshwater fish? I plan to put the wavemaker near the surface of the water: only the sticking-up hardscape should notice it.
If ANY current is too much for most freshwater wish, is there a place I could get a list of fish that could handle that current?
The only flow in the tank at the moment is a sponge filter, so not much at all, and it hasn't been stocked with anything yet.
I just really like the idea of shrimpbro perched on my driftwood picking passing bits of food from the water flow while a nice long grass plant billows in the breeze.

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Is that a leaf of hydrocotle japan growing up from my monte carlo? This tank is still pretty fresh, and I only just noticed this leaf is different. +1 plant I guess, I should move it before it entangles in my MC but I don't wanna kill it while doing so.

>>4847914
It's totally possible with a combination of a pump and creative use of hardscape.

>>4847899
Stick some ephiphytes to those rocks and it will look great. Consider nymphoides hydrophylla (taiwan lily). I know internet has conflicting and WRONG information on this plant. I can personally confirm that you can glue this stuff to rocks and wood the same as you would with anubias and it will grow just fine like that. In fact the taiwan lily i attached to a rock in my aquarium has been growing better than the section I planted in substrate just because it's a bit closer to the light.

Or, you could do all frogbit on the surface. The long roots would look good draped over those rocks.

>>4847893
>>4847084
>>4847090
Well it turns out I didn't get to him in time and now his stupid corpse is hidden in the tank somewhere, hopefully the shrimp will eat him

>>4847832
I've been considering the same project here recently, because I'm also lazy. I believe there's more to it than just "turn on the drain pump for 1 minute, then turn on the fill pump for 1 minute." My main concern would be how consistently the pumps will be, so I would want to insert a flow meter that can track how much water has passed through it. That way I could have a microcontroller read how much I've removed from the tank, and replace that exact amount.

>>4847899
I have saltwater tanks, so I don't know anything about how you'll plant this, but I'd consider places for the fish to hide. I always like to have caves and such for them to take cover in. I like the way it looks and the different kinds of rocks.

>>4848439
>I believe there's more to it than just "turn on the drain pump for 1 minute, then turn on the fill pump for 1 minute."
Most definitely. I think you could use magnetic reed switches along with a floating magnet to detect water levels. There are also infrared liquid level sensors that give a signal when they touch water, I was thinking of using one of those to detect max fill level.

>>4848445
I considered the float magnet and hall effect sensors for my auto top off system, but ended up using the contactless IR sensors from a different system. My concern with using a magnetic float is that it might not be close enough to the sensor to get a reading. I thought about having it attach to a vertical rod or something to keep it in a predictable place, but that seemed like more work than the sensors

>>4848454
>contactless IR sensor
how does that work?

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>>4848457
Induction* not IR.

>>4848459
that's wild, I didn't realise you could do that

>>4848460
I had an idea to make a circuit using these and an SR latch. Which would be like 50 cents to make, $2 for a pump, and $8 for 2 sensors, making the cheapest ATO system I can think of.

>>4848461
>$2 for a pump

Where on earth are you finding those? Anything halfway decent seems to be 20 USD+. I am assuming a peristaltic pump is the most rugged option as it doesn't need to be kept constantly immersed in the water

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>>4848462
Step up your AliExpress game bro. I'm not talking a nice Sicce pump or even a peristaltic. The main advantage of a peristaltic pump is that you have more control over the flow and they're FAR more precise than regular ass dc pumps. It might be worth noting that I have a nano tank, and I need a half cup of water to top it off. That being said, I saw several pumps for $5-$6 that are your normal, submersible water pump.

>>4848465
Wew lad
OK, looks like I have some research to do.

>>4848466
NTA but if using Ali, just note that there are a lot of shops that sell unit X for $5 but shipping is an additional $8 per unit to recoup profit. Some may charge $8 for unit X and only $2 shipping adds up per item, so chuck a couple units in your cart and compare pricing if purchasing half a dozen.
I've had one of those USB 200L/hr pumps in one system for almost 2 years now.