Shubunkin are the best goldfish.

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Hell yeah a smashed slammed fish edition thread.

Seriously, how does one look at this and think this is okay?

>>5100460
there is a contingent of fishkeeping people who really do want the most retarded and deformed goldfish possible

I have an empty 10g aquarium, what should I try to breed in it? I would ideally like to make some money if possible.

>>5100475
amano shrimp

>>5100475
Neoheterandria elegans, Phyllanthus fluitans, and Cryptocoryne wendtii "Pink Flamingo".

>>5100460
They look cute in ponds. I think puffer fish are a more interesting option for a fish of that shape though.

>>5100431
More like slop edition

>>5100489
more like ur gay

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>Heavy breathing

almost ready to 'scape my tank anons! i just need to break one big rock into two smaller rocks and put it all together.

>>5100475
Neocaridinia shrimp. They breed readily if water parameters are good and are easy to sell.

Don't do amanos. They breed in brackish.

>>5100574
I've been thinking about trying out one of the Open Source controller platforms. All the commercial platforms have some major deficiencies. At least with a DIY solution I could improve upon it myself.

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New tank has been set up with fish and sump running for over a week now. No sign of ammonia other cycle issues (used a big ass sponge filter from old tank to innoculate), and no leaks from the sump. Went a bit heavy on hardness but fish stock should all be fine with it.

It's a 60ish gallon tank (48x18x18 with small overflow/baffle) and a 25 gallon sump, of which roughly 18 gallons are moving bed filter, 4 gallons are static to act as mech filtration, and 3 gallons are the pump section - the 7 that aren't moving bed run very low because my intake is slower than I expected, but the whole thing can't flood from electricity or pump failure unless I overfill the system, due to the excess space in the sump.

The mulm you see here has all been removed at this point, by combination of quick polishing filter run and the corys tossing it into the water to make its way to the sump.

>>5100475
You won't much money breeding out of a 10g. You should do it for the fun. But if you are going to breed:

>Pest Snails
There are endless shrimp sellers. Plants are kind of a waste of the space since most grow better emersed. No one buys random guppies offline.

You can toss ramshorn and bladder snails in there with just an airstone. One it matures, you can pull out dozens or more at a time. If you could move them all you could easily clear $50-100 a month after minimal expenses

Honestly you do the same in 5g buckets and save the 10g for a nice betta tank.

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I've been dealing with bacterial blooms in this left tank for literally months.
I never wanted to do a blackout, but it went away on it's own twice for about a week.
I tried a power head with a polish filters once and it cleared in a day for about two weeks, and I was like hell yeah
It's come back again, had the powerhead running for a couple days and no change.
The powerhead is immensely oversized for the 10G, but the guppies seem to enjoy it.

I now have a bloom in this other tank next to it for the first time, which is infuriating. This tank just has some snails and plants, it's seasoning for shrimp I want to breed.
I've never had this happen in my 75G or 20G.

I just tested and found KH absent in the guppy tank, which is unusual for my hard water ~200-300 gpg.

I usually don't do water changes on the tank because I read that gives the bacteria more food, but I'm doing a 50% now to top off the KH.

Just a reoccuring annoyance, I'd be grateful for any insight.

>>5100726
Whats the filtration like? If it's been going on that long, I'd suspect there is insufficient biomedia space for the bacteria to colonize, which is why you're seeing it in the water column.

Looks like sand capped dirt, too? Could still be leaching into the water, which can feed bacterial blooms. But even still, more filtration will fix it.

>>5100728
I have two small sponge filters, fine. I alternate cleaning them and they haven't ever gotten clogged up.

>>5100732
oh and it's just sand, no dirt. there's some aquasoil spheres scattered on top and root tabs put in 6 months ago, I never topped them off. just use some fertilizer once every other week because frankly the plants are annoying to trim lol

>>5100732
How do you clean them? Could be doing too much cleaning. I'd probably replace one with a course sponge - ideally a larger one, too - and only cleaning the fine sponge.

>>5100739
I don't really. They've been in there for 6 months and I've maybe cleaned them each twice by just wringing out in water. The floss powerhead obviously I clean after use, but that's not supposed to be doing bacterial job.
I do a water change maybe once a month, just top off usually. Been using RO water to try to deprive the bacteria.

I do have some more medium coarse sponges coming, so I can try that. However it doesn't explain the bacteria in the right tank which only has the bioload of a dozen snails, tank is 30% hornwort.

Could it be from dust in the room? All my other tanks are in a room with much less dusty air...

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I saw one of these at the store. What can you tell me about them?

>>5100753
Identification Features

Distinct bicolor body:

Front half: vivid purple/magenta

Rear half: bright yellow

Sharp mid-body color transition

Small black spot on the dorsal fin near the front

Slender, laterally compressed body typical of basslets

This color pattern is diagnostic. Few reef fish have that clean purple-to-yellow split.

Species Overview

Common Name: Royal Gramma
Scientific Name: Gramma loreto
Family: Grammatidae (basslets)
Native Range: Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Western Atlantic
Typical Habitat: Reef caves and overhangs, 3–60 ft depth

Behavior

Semi-territorial but generally reef-safe

Often hangs upside down under rock ledges

Defends a small cave or crevice

Not aggressive toward dissimilar species

Aquarium Relevance

Very popular in marine aquariums because:

Hardy once acclimated

Small adult size (~3 inches)

Reef safe (does not bother corals)

Accepts frozen and pellet foods

Tank recommendations:

30+ gallons minimum

Plenty of rock structure with caves

Stable salinity (1.024–1.026 SG)

>>5100753
They are much better tankmates than the similarly looking as the also popular royal dottyback that has the same yellow/purple split (with an even sharper transition). If you plan to get one, make sure you're getting a basslet and not a dottyback. The dottyback does not have the black dot. I've had three over the last decade+ and they all have individual personalities, so be aware that your experience may not be the same as someone else's. My first one was rather curious and would always swim belly to the rocks. The second one was on the skittish and territorial side and unfortunately did not last more than a year. My current one is the most chill and does not hug the rocks much like my first one: he tends to swim out in the open. I don't think I've ever seen him take a defensive posture (flaring his mouth). I've had this current one for about five years now I think.

Do you really need a protein skimmer and all the other bells-and-whistles for a simple marine tank?
Can't I just use a canister filter?

Just saw some Cherry shrimp having sex before an Amano strolled along and started ripping one of them in half. Not sure what his problem was but that Cherry's dead now.

>>5100460
It has the same lifespan as a comet, can succesfully breed, and it swims well enough for the human-provided environment they were selected for. The fish doesn't care what it looks like if it can eat and fuck.

>>5100468
Every fancy goldfish is at least borderline retarded. One day I was looking at my oranda and I realized the fish had down syndrome. They can barely swim, especially the two tailed varieties. Koi coloration is beautiful though. Bunch of retarded little fish peacocks.

>>5100468
That's just people in general.
Look at people who get pugs.
My neighbor has a French Bulldog and I can hear it breathe through the walls. I feel bad for it.

>>5101052
>I can hear it breathe through the walls
That made me chuckle a little too much.

Sponge filter for nano fish tank
Y/n

>>5101098
Y

>>5100742
What’s the source of the dust? That very well might be your issue.

>>5101127
just normal human dust, they're in my bedroom and my PC tends to drag in the dust from the rest of the house.
I put in a UV sterilizer last night. They were cheaper than I expected. I know it's not addressing the root, but I'm still waiting on those coarse sponge filters and sick of looking at it.

What are Saltwater fish that have direct freshwater cousins?
Like thr tiger moray eel, freshwater puffers and stingrays.

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>>5101148
pipefish

>>5100699
My massive gripe, as with any brand really, is being locked into a system. Something a lot of marine owners complain about. Proprietary sensor this, proprietary cloud-controlled that. Fuck that noise - I want complete control and flexibility.

>>5100726
How often do you test for ammonia and nitrite?
I'm not asking as if talking to a new tank owner, but because blooms indicate abundance of one thing and a lack of another.
Sand finings are possible, but at least the former is easier to rule out at peak and troughs.

>>5101148
Deez

>>5101276
i have been testing regularly. ammonia and nitrate are never existenet

>>5101280
I would imagine you should see at least some nitrate, guppies/endlers may be low bioloads but still. With blooms, you should be detecting ammonia pre-bloom and nitrate post-bloom. The bacteria processes ammonia into nitrate and only blooms when a. insufficient substrate to colonize and b. surplus ammonia that overwhelms colonized substrate. When the bloom ends, the bacteria doesn't just disappear, it dies - which may spike ammonia again.

I have only ever run very heavily planted tanks with overkill filtration, so I am speculating here, but so far as I can guess it's a reasonable guess.

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>>5101298
i meant nitrite. of course there's some nitrate; like 50 ppm. it's a whole floor of plants so that's not an issue
I haven't actually done any ammonia tests since I have to use the liquid kit instead of strips, and the tanks are seasoned. Figured there would be high nitrite if something was wrong with bacterial availability.
I just tested it and there's none, after 36 hours of UV bacterial slaughter.
I'll make make a point to test it next time, since I'm now very familiar with early signs

anyway got a UV sterilizer on on friday, was only 35$ on amazon and have had it running; striking results
put in the bigger coarse sponge filter yesterday
the right tank I just did a 100% water change on, had my shrimp arrive and didn't want to be experimenting on them

>>5101337
If it's seasoned and even reasonably filtered there's no nitrites or ammonia. Doubly so with plants. Those things are noob traps but after the cycle is done you should never at any point have measurable of either, unless you fucked up hard.

With limited mech filtration/outlets for the DOCs from the plants (which they put off even when perfectly healthy), and with UV having worked, it's definitely bacterial bloom, and probably heterophagous bacterial that are eating the floating plant debris. UV and generally more filtration should fix it.

>>5101346
That makes a lot of sense. It is FULL of whatever fucking plant that is. Its like a thin val and I have to cut em all down all the time because they just incessently grow. Don't do a great job getting all the debris. There's hundreds of snails in there always nommin on it.
And the right tank I had noticed the java moss was going completely brown, I ended up yanking it.
I don't see myself doing more filtration, I hate HoBs and it's just some 10Gs. I'll definitely see if it correlates with trim sessions though.

>>5101348
I'd guess dwarf sag or thin leaf chain sword or maybe even spiral Val (only spirals sometimes).

You could feed them both into a 10g sump fairly easily if you wanted to be fancy. Or grab some more sponge filters or internal canisters. Up sizing a sponge and changing to 20ppi (if it's higher ppi) would provide noticeably increased biocapacity. Or replace an air pump with a powerhead and aim it to chop the top of the water some, similarly significant impact.

HOBs are pretty shit in general, from any way you want to slice it. If you're using those with the custom made canisters, yeet that and throw some k1 media or (unironically) nylon scrubber pads in to fill it instead and you'll be better off.

>>5100460
>>5100468
Adam Ragusoya has two of those goldfish. They look like his wife, so it checks out.

>>5100486
opinion discarded

>>5100717
>easily clear $50-100 a month
bruh, who in the world pays for pest snails? you can get a few for free, and then you have an endless supply.

>>5100764
I only have a power head and a surface skimmer, it's been running for three years without any issues.

>>5101386
Puffer owners.

>>5101386
>>5101403
it's actually crazy. they for for like 3/15$
I have puffers and bought some to start but yeah they now cover all my tanks and I guess I could sell em
Already sell 1/2 cup floaters for 15$ on facebook all the time
Yeah guess i'll setup a bucket
it's unironically a chill ~45$/week at this point
they just keep growin

My Odessa barbs genocided the bladder snails. Before adding them, thriving population. After, zero. All the eggs, too. May have gotten all the ramshorn eggs and small ramshorn too, I only see a handful of big ones now.

>>5101148
archerfish, gobies, sculpins, cardinalfish, drum.

>>5101148
salmonids
gobies
sculpins
drums (Scianidae)
herrings
catfish

>>5101386
If you have an obligate live food eater like a pea puffer or some loaches, you have two options:
>devote literally just as much space to growing live food as the fish itself
>buy it

I do the former. Many people opt for the latter. One pea puffer can eat 20 bladder snails a week.

>>5101410
My red root floater and azollas are my food source for my bladder snails. I just throw it on a tray to dry and crumble it into the buckets. I pull almost a half gallon off my goldfish tank every week.

>>5101567
>My red root floater and azollas are my food source for my bladder snails. I just throw it on a tray to dry and crumble it into the buckets.
brilliant

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>Might have to work in a different country for 2-3 months starting mid-March
>Have 3 tanks and a pair of newts
>Half of the fish wont eat pellets, frozen
>The battery backup isn't complete yet
>But the tank controller for bigtank seems to be coming together nicely
ANXIETY
>Anon, how much could it possibly cost to have someone feed your fish?
Fuck you, that's how much. How much to confirm topup, how much to confirm X/Y/Z are eating, how much to troubleshoot on-site in an emergency, how much to test macro to make sure the autofeeders haven't gone ape shit, how much to do water changes and match temp/salinity, how much to do other standard tests.

I swear to fuck it's going to kill me with worry.

>>5101823
There are shit tons of places that will service your aquarium, including dosing, water changing, testing, top off, etc. This is not a new problem. You are not the first person with a big tank to need help. Ask your LFS. They will either have a service set up to do it or know who would.
You think rich people and businesses service their own aquariums? lmao
It shouldn't be that expensive. My brother-in-law did it for four weeks while he was on vacation, and he most certainly is not rich.

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>>5101824
I admire your gumption, but not so simple.
>EM
Possible that they know someone who services, considering they are 'the higher end' of 2 local stores Still a 1 hour round trip from their location. Also did I say higher end.
>RA
Nope. One-man band, much closer but runs the entire store on his own.
>HFFA
Lucky if they have anything other than clowns stocked
>HFFMR
Wouldn't trust them with tetras.
>AR
Only recently got into marine stocking.
>Pupuke
90's time machine, FW only.

It's a very niche hobby in NZ, we only get livestock imports every 3-5 months.

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>>5101838
Also I'm fucking poor.
Maybe I'll have to get work to comp the servicing considering going outside of the country isn't in my contract.

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I started a new aquarium a few days ago and, despite washing the substrate, the water became instantly cloudy and looks the exact same as it did when I started, should I just do a partial water change or remove all the water and restart the tank?

I've got a little medaka tank with some cories and a couple shrimp in it as well but I feel it's missing a mid level swimming fish. I've considered a betta (female), but do you guys have any considerations for a little companion for this tank? I've also thought of a paradise fish, flag fish, gourami, potentially rams - I do want to breed rams - Not sure what else to consider

>>5101860
Patience lil nigga lol. If you are really in a hurry throw some accuclear in there then vacuum the substrate a day later.

>>5101880
I thought about buying some clarifier in a week if nothing changes. I don’t plan on putting fish in there until Mid March. I’m probably going to add some water from my already established tank into that one once the heater arrives.

>>5101874
Medaka swim mid level in my experience. And a little tank doesn't have enough height to have meaningfully differentiated top and middle.

But if you insist, don't choose any of those you listed, they're all likely to fuck with your other fish. Get some microrasboras or similar. But don't be surprised if they hang out near the top with the medaka, because "midwater" fish tend to just swim X distance from the ground.

>>5101838
That is interesting, and horrible. Have you seen any businesses with tanks though? Doctor's offices, restaurants, etc? They gotta know someone.

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>>5101348
just read that purigen reduces DOCs and I have an extra bag from the set I got for my community cannister
I just threw it on the UV filter inflow for now, i'll throw it in place of of the sponge filter on it later. I've had the UV disabled for 36 hours since it cleared up and it's nice

can now actually see how many fucking fish are in there. some really nice groups of colors, can't really tell in the vid though. if I leave them all together will it go boring wild type or will there just keep being random different cool patterns?

tested and saw the kh is already dropping, so guessing that is what has been leading to the bacteria. I just recently got the gh/kh test kit. obviously this is because the tank is over the fuck loaded, can I help combat with crushed coral? my gh is already >300
kh starts around 120-180 and has dropped to ~60 in just a couple days

>>5102047
Just get alkaline buffer for straight KH additions.

I've kept mixed guppies (and endlers) and gotten some nice colors. I think in general the "domesticated" livebearers won't revert to wild type when crossed, you just won't always get what you expect.

>>5101919
Turns out my medaka are free swimming everywhere in the tank, some even follow the corys and just chill with them. I'm going to try get some kohaku's or different colours of medakas now

>>5102150
>Just get alkaline buffer for straight KH additions.
crushed coral was the recommendation I found for this. there's so much fucking aquarium add in shit, do you have something specific in mind?
i found some kh buffer chemicals but I really like the long term effectiveness crushed coral provides. i prefer not to be doing an hour of test tubes every week

>>5101386
I bought 2 mystery snails last week.

>>5102341
Mystery snails aren't great food snails unless you have clown loaches (an 100g tank). They get way too big and their shells are too tough. Even an assassin snail won't go after a full grown mystery snail.

Feeder snails are bladder and/or ramshorn. Ramshorn look nicer but bladder breed faster.

>>5102310
Seachem Alkaline Buffer. It's straight KH, while crushed coral will generally raise gH some as well. Shouldn't be any more expensive than the coral, either, since the standard bottle is enough to add 3KH to like 50k gallons.

Why are fish so great /aq/

>>5102047
Good old 4chins removing all exif data.

>>5102400
Killer, thank you.

The purigen is browning just sitting in the tank

>>5100431
Was it really that difficult to find a real pic of a goldfish

>>5102594
People are really that retarded now, unfortunately. Even the simplest of actions are being offloaded to AI without any thought at all to the quality of the output that is being copy pasted.

>>5102594
i was trying to make a subtle joke about goldfish

>set up new tank
>potting soil, sand, rocks
>not cycling, no plants yet (soon, br0ther)
>tests indicate 0 for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate
>slight brownish haze to water, slight film on surface, no detectable stink

this is okay right? hopefully getting the plants tomorrow, might pick up root tabs or something since apparently there's no N-compounds in the water for them.

>>5102806
It's fine. Don't do root tabs yet. Fresh potting soil will have more than enough NPK.

>>5102806
All normal. Haze at this point is most likely dust from your substrate still in the water column. If you start your filter now it will help clear that more quickly. Expect the plants to show zero growth for some time. The root tabs are not necessary as you're using potting soil already. It's common for a bacterial bloom to start within a week or two. That will be more of a grey haze color instead of the current brown. You're looking to see two things show up in your tests: some ammonia reading above zero which will later be followed by a low reading of nitrite. With heavily planted tanks I rarely see any measurable amount of nitrate until I add fish, and not even then sometimes.

It can take a few weeks+ to see any ammonia so don't bother running tests on a daily basis. Once a week is more than enough.

>>5102824
>>5102825
thanks, I have been running the filter and heater to test out evaporation rate for about a week now. when I plant it I will do a massive 50 percent water change to see if that will reduce the brown haze a bit. no fish until April, will do weekly tests until the numbers are good

normally when people 'scape their tanks they leave them dry, but since I had washed my sand and it was wet I didn't want mold forming.

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>>5102845
well I have done it, with thanks to everyone that answered my dumb questions. now to wait for these plants to start filling out and growing

Dang nice rock

>>5103157
>>5103160
good deal. expect it to be ugly and nothing happening for a while. then when you're just about out of patience and assuming you've failed, you will see some stuff starting to grow.

it really helps if you can get some starter bacteria from someone elses's tank media

>>5103176
Idk why you would think that, my plants always grow pretty quickly post-melt. But there's usually some melt in swords and crypts. Hydgros and Anubias and Buce don't give a fuck.

i swear anubias just sits there and does fuck all for 6 months in any new tank i add it

just saw my alpha male molly connect his pp to pussy then proceed to have a few light seizures after cumming, first time seeing that, damn that must have felt good

I'm slowly preparing for a 29g tank in my home office. I already have a 40g in my living room.

I'm waffling between building the tank around a paradise fish or pea puffers. Live food isn't a problem. I already produce it. Paradise fish are beautiful and I could build a color tank around them. Pea puffers are so cool and unique.

Does anyone have either one?

>>5103176
I'm not in a rush, but what would be a good point to add some shrimp?

>>5103375
Since you're trying to get attention go with the paradise fish. Nobody will care about your heckin quirky unique lil blib blub snappy boy and it will injure/kill the guppies etc. that people will inevitably throw in your tank without asking.

>>5103408
>randos will throw fish into my tank
Lol wut

>>5103375
>paradise fish
I have a 20L with pea puffers, I quite like them. Lots of character. They're living with shrimp, pygmy cories(which are also adorable), and I'm looking at adding a small school of dither fish.
The peas stopped harassing each other as much as soon as I added the cories and haven't bothered them at all, they'll just swim next to each other.
Just a pain to do live food, I have a little brine shrimp hatchery next to the tank I redo every 3 days.
I also started a red ramshorn snail bucket for fun today... Make it easier to grab them snacks then messing around in my other tanks.

>>5103435
FAFO.

>>5103455
>Fish Are Free, Often

>>5103455
friends are fucking overrated? yeah

Guppy are cute and funny

>>5103408
Aren't paradise fish also aggressive?

>>5103678
And how!

>>5103375
>>5103678
Paradise fish are the meanest fuckers this side of gambusia. Imagine the most aggressive red betta you've ever seen, but faster and like 6x the body weight.

Beautiful fish, but they insist on being species only.

Maybe try Flagfish? They're also a bit of assholes but closer to dwarf cichlids rather than crayfish-in-fish-form. And the males are arguably the best looking fish this side of rainbows.

>>5103929
I've heard flag fishes are also a pain in the ass. Aggressive but also extremely fragile at the same time.

On a side note I would like to do an NA tank someday.

>>5104061
Keep your hands off our fish thirdie.

>>5100716
can't wait to see it all grown in, anon!

>>5104061
I didn't find flag fish aggressive but I did find them more fragile than the average fish.

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>>5103929
So it is true red bettas are more agressive.
My red veiltail was spicy for sure, and the current parl colored one is realy mellow.

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>Be known as fish anon at work
>Get asked why their goldfish seem to be favouring the surface more recently (during summer)
Sounds like an oxygen deficiency
>So add more water?
Maybe, but that wont add more oxygen into the water. Do you have an airstone or filter or anything you can adjust to produce more turbulent return/bubbles?
>No. I'll just add more water.
Dude has an honors in horticulture or plants or something.

Why even fucking bother asking?

>>5104638
I mean, more water will add more oxygen, both the act of adding it and the total maximum amount available in the body of water. But if the surface area doesn't change, and there's nothing regularly breaking the surface, then the main long term impact will be that the overall average temperature will likely decrease due to the deepest section being deeper.

It's like adding an extra rechargeable battery to a system. If outflow is greater than inflow, it'll still go to zero.

>>5104638
>Dude has an honors in horticulture or plants or something.
that is not a background that directly applies to aquarium water parameters so i can see why he would go the direction of thinking adding more water would help

>>5104745
As long as horticulture requires Chem 101 as a basic requirement, he should understand this stuff. Dissolved oxygen also plays an important role horticulture topics, like hydroponics and root respiration.
Let's not give this guy the benefit of the doubt. >>5104638's coworker is just a moron doubly for not applying his field of study in one of the very few times in his life he can (assuming since he is >>5104638's coworker that he is not working directly in his field) AND for not even considering to listen to the person he asked directly for advice.

>pigmies and otos hide all the time in the corner
>bought a new oto hoping to wncourage them
>new oto is exploring tank all over and gaining weight, the others keep on hiding

wtf

>>5104821
There are several species of Oto that get sold under the same trade name, which may or may not have variable levels of boldness. There's also the difference between wild caught and tank bred or raised.

Good news is the new one will likely make the others braver. You can also add more plants and hiding spots to help with this.

best brand of hang-on-tank filter?

>>5104905
Aquaclear is the clear favorite here, however hygger has been making interesting new products lately.

>>5104905
>HOB filter
>BRRRRRRRRRRGRRRRRRRIIIIIIINDSCREEEEEEECH

Stop while you are ahead and get a canister if you don't want to hear that 24/7. Also HOBs suck in terms of filtration. Canisters are better

>>5104905
The other anon is right, HOBs aren't worth the effort. Get a canister, toss it in a 5g bucket to avoid leaks, and fill it up with a ton of static k1 micro (or k3). End of the day, filtration is mainly a product of volume.

Or if you're going to be loud anyways, make a moving bed reactor from a 5 gallon bucket and enjoy more filtration than a dozen HOBs could give.

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This is my fishe

>>5105087
He needs a bigger tank.
1500G minimum, of course.

>>5105085
Not the other anon, but if I did the 5g filter bucket, could I put shit in it like toss in snails or cherry shrimp?

I saw a guy's set up that had water.pass through a 20 long he had pothos growing out of, along with fish in the tank. I've wanted to do that since.

>>5105097
If it's moving bed, no. If it's static, soft yes but they'd still need to be able to get through the media to bits of food.

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its trying to flower AGAIN

>>5105074
I don't really have a nice place to put a canister filter, my tank is on a (nice wooden top) workbench. If I did have a cabinet I absolutely would get one, possibly even an Eheim.
>>5104910
hey now let's not use the hard R, call it hygga instead

>>5105222
Put it on the floor next to your tank. You don't need to hide it. I have had HOBs and regreted it later

>>5105211
Why don't you want a Venus fly trap to flower?

My new bristlenose pleco died. Had been about two-three weeks so I guess it maybe starved? I had put in algae tablets but hadn't seen it take any, and didn't put them in at night, which was a mistake in retrospect.

I'll wait for the tank to age and maybe get some algae and try again. I know they need a plant heavy diet.

>>5105563
it's possible but id be surprised if a bristlenose didnt take to algae tablets easily

>>5105569
Could have been insufficient cover then? I have a couple big logs, some mods and one tube thing but maybe he didn't feel safe.

Could have also just been internal parasites or something I guess. Or too much of an adjustment to the hard water or temp of 73-75, but I've always heard that tank bred BNPs are incredibly hardy and don't give two fucks.

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Update on the new 60g tank with 25g sump. All is well, only one casualty from moving (and I think it was from physical injury when being caught) out of roughly 50 fish total. Considering a few more dwarf neon rainbows (one lfs has them 6 for $22) or some peacock gudgeons. Otherwise it's golden, and with enough filtration and plants (eventually) to not need changes often, I'm confident. Water is very hard and not terribly warm (73-75 so far in winter, in unheated but finished basement so likely won't be any/much more in summer).

>>5105602
Very nice anon. Envious of your lack of green dust algae and biofilm!

>>5105563
Did you get it at petco? I ask because I tried two BN and a clown pleco from petco over the years and none of them made it more than a few weeks.

Then years later I bought a bristle nose from a better pet store and I've had it for a year now. I don't think it's the feeding schedule. He'll happily suck flakes out from between gravel pellets at noon. They graze constantly.

I think a lot of plecos just arrive best to shit and don't stand a chance in the tank.

>>5105779
No, got it from a lfs, not sure how long they'd had it. Noticed its front fins had split the first part from the rest when I got home, possibly from being caught, maybe it got an infection from that injury?

It was a super red so presumably would have been tank bred and in fine condition in the shop, I didn't see any issues and he was eating zucchini there when he got grabbed.

Probably won't ever know, of course. He hid the entire time I had him and then showed up dead. Mostly I'm bummed because the kiddo helped pick him out and now I can either replace him (or her, too young to know) or eventually explain it died.

Think I'm going to just hold out until summer, let the plants grow in and tank settle a bit, then try and get a honeycomb or white seam or other more interesting looking one. Or just hillstream loach max.

>>5105602
What's with the guy sitting on the toilet?

>>5105861
Lol it's a little wooden figure a family member gave me years ago. He's sitting on a stump or stool and reading. Now he guards the cords because that's where he ended up when I moved.

>>5105765
Nerites fix the green dust issue. I keep at least one in every aquarium and it keeps the inside of the tank clean. If the situation hasn't improved after a couple weeks, slowly add more until clarity is achieved.

>>5105863
Thanks for the tip! Nerites can't reproduce in fresh water, right? How long do they live? I had Malaysian livebearers in my tank when I was a teen and they kept the place spotless, except for all the empty shells in the gravel

I set up my HOB filter for now and the biofilm has gone from the surface, at least. I'll consider other anon's advice about a canister in time. Replacing my internal powerhead filter with one that has a spray bar might also be an option (if i tune up the filter with biomedia and floss)

>>5105895
Nerites can't reproduce, no, but the females will leave little hard white eggs on things. They eventually dissolve, but it takes a while. Doesn't bother me but Google nerite eggs.

They live a long time for snails. I think I've lost every one that died due to it either somehow wedging itself onto its back or climbing out of a tank and not being found for several days. Otherwise, no losses in more than five years.

Trumpet snails are good for keeping the substrate clean and shifting mulm under, I've not been as impressed with their glass cleaning ability, but they're not a bad choice. Self regulating population based on available food, which is nice.

ramshorns readily self regulate/reproduce as well. i got pink ones and get some gold and blue varieties sometimes, they're attractive and do great work. I haven't had to scrape algae in 6 months.

very fond of them. even made a bucket to mass produce them for resale. people pay like $5/snail lol

>>5105933
I came around on them after accidentally introducing some or some eggs or something with a new plant. I had bladder snails before but the ramhorns eventually outcompeted them. Their reproduction rate is generally manageable if you're keeping tank clean and feeding rate reasonable. On my planted tank I found it necessary to add a pair of assassin snails to lay down the law a bit. The two are more than enough for the job in a 30g.

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>>5105928
Are they frequent escapees, like apple snails? those sons of bitches just WILL NOT stay put in a tank, even with absolutely no water quality issues
>>5105933
I'd love to get some ramshorns or even bladder snails but i can't see any for sale around me and I don't know any other fishkeepers who might have some spares.

shcrimp pic from before i cleaned the glass

>>5105964
Not frequent, just very occasional. If you keep the water level a half inch below the top of the tank - or more - it drops to nearly zero. Less than once a year have I had one escape, and if you find it within a couple days it'll probably be fine dropped back in.

>>5105964
If you are in Budapest I can give you snails

>>5106007
I have a handful of bladder snails but they apparently are heavily out competed by the ramshorns, which is fine by me. I usually find them in the floating plants while the ramshorns dominate the tank.
I had trumpet snails when the tank started but either they're completely happy buried or they've also been outcompeted, haven't seen any in 6 months.

I've never had a ramshorn escape but find the bladders on the rim sometimes

>>5105964
i've never done business with someone on 4chan but would happily send some ramshorns, they ship easy. I got my first handful on amazon before I realized there was so much of a local fish community and monthly auctions...

>>5106172
I'll also add I haven't had algae ONCE in any of my tanks with snails. I overfeed and slam in nutrients for the plants, run my cheap lights at max.

Only tank I clean algae on every week is a 20G puffer tank, because snails don't get to live and the 4 amano shrimp don't care about glass algae I guess. Really there's just biofilm on everything in there... Haven't found a solution yet besides dialing down the light to 5 hours

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>>5104831
I think it's a vittatus. She is not afraid of me at all which is neat. Added some new plants I hope it will help.

>>5106174
My snail breeder jar is green water. Works perfectly. They keep shut from colonizing on the glass and their poop keeps the green water going. They also break down organic solids that algae don't eat. Then I use the green water for copepods. I'm honestly having more fun making my live food then keeping the fish anymore.

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Fuck plecos, I'm hillstream maxing now.

Found this beauty at my local store, sold as (and looks like) a Lizhou hillstream loach. Gorgeous and not even a little shy. Also had my order of a bloody Mary hillstream loach come in from aquahuna, smol guy but very bright red caudal and dorsal fins.

>>5106019
sorry, other side of the Atlantic
>>5106172
>>5106174
enticing, these two nerites are LAZY so far (one has polished a stone completely, at least)

>>5106261
Would you be willing to detail the process of green water. I can happily sustain it with snails.
I'd like to raise some large bbs for the pea puffers or maybe daphnia
the bbs is so underwhelming compared to them grown out

>>5106410
>clear container
>clear cover or seran wrap (for flies)
>add some fertilizer 10 - 1 - 10 is the sweet spot to start. 15 - 1 - 15 for maintenance
>make sure you got micronutrients
>airstone if you can, stir a couple times a day otherwise (airstone will make it much denser)
>16 hours of light
>keep multiple containers so you always have a culture
>don't add tank water or fish foods. Green water doesn't est organic solids


If you want to get autistic
>pipettes
> <=50 micron filters (tea baggies work)
>experiment with different fertilizers

It's fun putting daphnia in a green container and coming back the next day and seeing it clear.

I've never done it marine but would imagine it's similar.

>>5106542
Also, if you're colony gets polluted, filter a portion through a sub 50 micron filter into a clean container and start over.

Your colony should be British racing green. If it's lime or yellowish, add potassium.

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Rate current state of my nano tank

keeping fish in aquarium shouldn't require that much maintenance

>>5106692
>why do things take work?
Take a bucket of water. Just water and a bucket, nothing else. Put it on your floor. Leave it there. Don't touch it.

What does it smell like in a couple months?

>>5106693
no reason to turn nasty with me,I was just expressing my discontent. I know that things require time and effort, specially good things

>>5106692
That is a good thing imo, otherwise I would keep hoarding fish

idk guys my tanks are pretty low maintenance. plants are underratted. no alage, no nitrates. have to add nutrients every couple days, but that's as fast as feeding fish.
i mostly just have to trim plants every other week, top off. every couple months do a few weeks of water changes to reset buildup from top offs.
and that's probably overkill

>>5106787
in a mature planted tank the nutrients are often unnecessary depending on your local water parameters

>>5106692
fish are not even remotely high-maintenance
>feed fish - twice weekly or weekly, depending on tank
>change water - if you're doing this more than weekly you have a problem, and you shouldn't be doing huge changes anyway
>trim plants - biweekly at most, if you have fast growers
>clean filter - weekly, takes like thirty seconds, do it as part of the water change
if you want a show perfect aquarium/car/dog/house then yeah you'll spend all your time maintaining it to be perfect and spotless, that's how it goes.

>>5106790
>clean filter - weekly, takes like thirty seconds, do it as part of the water change
You got bad filtration if you gotta do it weekly.
Unless it's like hang on back cartridges.
You can take those out and fill the void with a big ass sponge you won't need to deal with nearly as often. Carbon, bioballs, whatever else is just a waste of space. More sponge, less maintenance.
Cannisters and sponges should last months if they're sized appropriately.
two medium sponge filters in a 75G works for example, every month clean one of them.
Idk, why are you having to do it every week?

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Tank is eternally hazy - this picture is taken edge-on. It looks alright from the front but the water definitely isn't good.
I've heard this can be due to overfeeding but if I "starve" the tank, won't I kill off all my cherry shrimp if they don't have scraps to scavenge?

>>5106812
they have biofilm to eat

>>5106812
my eternally 'hazy' tank seems to have been due to insufficient carbonate for bacteria to break down plant debris and whatnot
I started with a UV filter to clear it, then added half a cup of crushed coral and the problem has been gone for weeks
after months on months of it not going away for more than a week

if you don't have kh/gh tests, I suggest getting strips that include it.

>>5106819
I never considered this as a possibility but I'm skeptical of the accuracy of those testing strips

>>5106836
I started with the liquid and it was a pain in the ass, took too much time to bother usually
the strips are plenty good enough to give you ranges and ideas oh problems
it's not like we need to be precise with anything
plus the liquid tests still just make you color match a range, i doubt it's any different
but it's a hell of a lot faster

>>5106799
I'm not, that was just a general guideline. I'm also not changing water weekly.

>ludwigia palustris listed as Medium difficulty
>it's the fastest growing plant I have
>algae doesn't even touch it
wtf Dennerle

>>5106836
Test strips are fine. Reddit just wants everyone to suffer. And a cap full of carbonate is better than crush coral. A couple capfuls will put you from 0 to 60ppm kh.

>>5106911
>cap full of carbonate
what carbonate salt? Doesn't that mess with the pH?

>>5106911
Which Carbonate? Carbonate is an ion, not a complete compound.
>>5106924
Sodium Carbonate will raise pH. Sodium Bicarbonate won't. Those are the two most common additives in this category.
>>5106836
Strips are okay for generalized trends. If you're really trying to dial in something specific, it might not have enough precision for you though. Then again, the liquid tests that both people here and on reddit use tend to be mediocre as well (API), so you shouldn't delude yourself into thinking that because you spent a tiny, tiny bit more money upfront and more time/effort testing that you have more accurate results with these budget liquid test kits.
No test is without uncertainty, not even if you send water samples for consumer ICP testing (people have taken the water samples from the same tank at the same time and sent them to multiple ICP labs and gotten different results).

my plants are in a 1 gallon jar, no circulation, still alive somehow. I only do zero maintenance zero effort

>>5106947
Many plants don't need circulation. As your experience shows.

Just got a new tank and a female Veiltail Betta. Any tips on doing a good transfer from its cup from the store into the new tank? Will room temperature water be ok? How often should I cycle the water in a 2.5 gallon tank?

>>5101052
With them you can at least fix their airways via surgery. What the fuck can you do with a fish?

no (You) for (You), faggot-kun

ANYONE??? I am brand new to fish

>>5106961

get cancer lol

>>5106961
Just use your hand. It's safer for their tails. Temp match the cup water and the tank water and you should be fine.
Read some stuff in the OP, particularly on cycling. You don't cycle the water, you cycle surfaces. If you already have the fish and the tank then it's a moot point. It takes weeks to get a good colony of bacteria going. Just keep up with dechlorinated water changes to keep ammonia and nitrite down and the fish will be fine. After about 1.5 months, you can scale back on the water changes (but not cut them out entirely, unless you have adequate plants, which is doubtful). Again, read up. Lots of guides up top.

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Do you name your fish, /aq/?

>>5107003
No. I think about it from time to time, but there's just never any inspiration. My current longest living fish are my clowns that I got in 2019 and I have never had a great desire to name them.

>>5106911
>And a cap full of carbonate is better than crush coral
yeah I bought the equillibrium at the recommendation here but already had the coral coming. My understanding is I'd have to keep adding the carbonate regularly, especially every top off or water change.
Meanwhile coral will just slow release perpetually to keep it at a reasonable level.
I wanted something that wouldn't be so tedious, so started with the coral. It worked within a few days and should continue working for months with 0 interaction...

>>5107004
>are my clowns
Mine are Gadget and Gizmo.
The other ones aren't distinct enough to name.

>>5107061
The crushed coral doesn't raise levels much, even an entire baggy. Adding a capful of carbonate once in a while is nothing. If you want the crushed coral just because, it does work technically, but not well.

I also feed calcium pellets. The shrimp and snails love them.

Is there a way to tell if nerites are dead or just lazy? both of mine have 'fallen' off the glass, I flipped them back over but they're just sitting motionless on the sand for over a day now. they've always been extremely low energy.

I don't want them to rot and pollute the water but I also don't want to toss sleeping snails in the garbage and kill them.

>>5107129
If they're dead, they'll smell awful if you pick them up. Or eventually the shell will be empty.

Otherwise, if they're right side up, just leave them. I've had some go to sleep for literally two weeks.

>>5107129
take them out briefly and smell them

>>5107129
Snail rot is overblown and it goes away fast. If you are really worried, pull the snail out, give it a sniff, then put it down in the tank in a conspicuous spot. Take a picture and note the time. If it's still there 48 hours later, you can probably chuck. If you are really paranoid, just keep doing the sniff test every couple days.

>>5107139
>>5107140
>>5107141
thanks, no stink from either snail and the operculums were shut tight, so they're just lazy. looks like I have at least one bladder snail working away on the algae so I guess he gets the OT pay on his next snail paycheck

>>5107111
it's working perfectly
my kh was dropping daily before the coral
now it's holding steady for weeks

between fresh water and salt water aquariums,which requires the more maintenance? assuming both have "entry-level" fishes

>>5107256
Maintenance is more determined by what's in the tank.
Salt just adds an extra parameter to check. And you have to buy and mix salt - but I wouldn't really describe it as taking more time.
Normally you get a bucket of water and dechlorinate it; with salt you have to also add salt.

>>5107256
FOWLR is about as hard as a heavily stocked cichlids tank. Reef tanks are much more effort, depending on the coral.

A well designed, heavily filtered planted freshwater tank needs very close to zero maintenance. If you really understock, it only needs top offs and maaaaybe some fertilizers now and again.

>>5106234
Just noticed this is charcoal gray oto, and the other 2 are dark olive green maybe they are in fact different species

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technically it's lights off right now, mid day
all the cories just chill like this
but why the platy harassing him?

it's the only platy in the tank of tetras, i rescued him from a tank I bought that he was left in. maybe he's trying to make friends ?

>>5107641
no idea but that's a very funny interaction

>>5107641
>beta platy attempts to frame-mog sigma cory

>>5107256
I agree with >>5107390 completely. I have currently slimmed down to just one planted tank and one reef tank, but I have kept all kinds of tanks, fresh and salt, in the past, including FOWLER, cichlid, low tech, high tech, etc. I can set up some pretty low maintenance saltwater systems, but I will always be able to make an even lower maintenance freshwater system, usually for lower cost to boot.
Neither of my tanks are particularly hard to keep though. Both are largely automated and can run for 15 days before I have to touch it (the kind of autofeeders I use only have 15 doses, however it is far more consistent than normal tumbling feeders, the element dosers and top-offs can go for months without refill, and my CO2 tank lasts about six months and is on a pH controller).

>>5107641
He wants the fuck. That's most of male livebearer life, chasing fussy.

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I want to make a patio pond like pic related. Anyone have tips? I want to plant everything, add bacteria, give it 3-4 weeks to adapt and then add fish, shrimp, maybe snails. Also considering a water proof LED somehow that I can turn on to make it look cool at night.

>>5107763
They're easy, but you need a winter plan if you're somewhere that gets below freezing. A small pond like that, over the ground, will freeze solid.

Shrimp population exploded in my tank. Now I have a new problem. Shrimp corpses. I'm sure I've always had them, but they were less visible before the population exploded.

How do you deal with them? Right now I'm mushing up the corpse with tongs and they seem.to disappear soon after.

>>5108188
a bunch of snails as a cleanup crew, they'll happily take the extra nutrition

>>5108190
This, I have ramshorns in my shrimp tanks and I never see a dead shrimp.

>>5108188
Shrimp love eating dead shrimp. Just leave them, unless your tank is tiny and terribly filtered they won't cause any harm.

is aquariumscience.org legit? some of the info sounds great and highly scientific and some of it sounds like some boomer nonsense.

>>5108319
It's legit but biased from the perspective of a cichlid boomer. His info on relative value of various biomedia is as good as you can find online, and his disease info is mostly right, but he has no idea about planted tanks.

It's better than random redditors or most other sources, but still not perfect because the hobby is an art as much as a science, and needs experience more than anything. If you're a newbie, he's a better starting point than most.

>>5108320
awesome, that's exactly where I had questions. his stuff on water chemistry is solid (testing water is part of my job) but his stuff about plants set off my 'this guy's bullshittin' alarm.

I'll get an updated pic of my tank later I'm doing a 10% water change right now.

>>5108321
Can't say I've shit tested all he says, but I've seen improvements in my filtration by replacing other things with k1 micro and sponges. Undergravel is kino but has to be built in from the start and still keeps equipment visible in the tank, ymmv. Never had fish with issues from running low 70s. Overfiltration is the entire solution to nearly every problem.

That said, I definitely think he underrates plants, particularly floaters, as an outlet for materials. Medium to high hardness via crushed coral or oyster shells, a ton of floaters you scoop out every couple weeks, and occasional root tabs can easily replace water changes.

Unrelated, but for bigger tanks (30+ gal) that are heavily planted, clams are fantastic additions. Get assassin snails and/or MTS and they won't even spike ammonia when they die, and they clear out the plant debris like nothing else. They need a sand section though, I haven't ever gotten them to burrow in anything else.

>>5108326
>a ton of floaters you scoop out every couple weeks
i've literally made a side buisiness selling these babys on marketplace for $15 a scoop

i just felt bad throwing them out and was gonna give away but...

I didn't even know planted aquariums were a thing till I started in my 30s, it's awesome. Highly underrated in the world

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>water change done (A/N/N was 0.5, 1 and 20, gotta play it safe)
>nerites were dead and stinky, chucked 'em
>lost two shrimp, possibly old age?
>saw a tiny baby shrimp, got foam over the filter inlet
>need to remove all the A. ficoiedea, didn't do my research, it can only survive submergence half a year
>getting more Ludwigia and some Sagittaria ASAP

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>>5108342
the single fish inhabitant, hard to photograph up close

>>5108342
is there context to this ramble
>>5108346
based king of the jungle

>>5108332
Too much effort for me desu, though a fine choice if you want the $15. I use them as green mulch or straight compost.

>>5108348
yeah i posted an update about my tank in the /aqg/

thanks for reading my blog, subscription fee is 9.99 monthly plus tax and tip

>>5108351
>yeah i posted an update about my tank in the /aqg/
usually you quote the previous post in your blog

>>5108342
Nigga you should never have ammonia or nitrite. The barrier to entry for those is so low, the average normie puts an undersized hang on back and keeps those at zero for a feeder goldfish or betta and hm handful of tetras. Your cycle isn't cycled.

Or you fucked up the test. But nitrite in particular is essentially impossible to see unless you're uncycled. And incredibly bad for the fish. Doesn't impact shrimp though, because of biochemistry.

Don't get sag or Ludwigia, they're going to get too tall too fast. Just get floaters and crypts and Anubias.

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>>5108332
I also sell floaties and shrimp but can't sell for much, still it's a nice little side money I can invest back into the hobby.

also traded some duckweed on marketplace for some of these cool little ramshorns

>>5108357
>your cycle isn't cycled
yes, I think I jumped the gun on cycling and should've let it go for another two weeks. initial tests were clear, then last week I got trace ammonia and nitrites. I'm still safely below the toxicity threshold for my pH so water changes should control it. also I'm sure two decomposing nerites didn't help things.

>>5108359
>these cool little ramshorns
wait till you see what people will pay for pink ramshorns
NOBODY TOLD ME THIS WAS MONEY PRINTING
>>5108360
is it your first tank? after my first tank I was just squeezing used sponge in the new tanks and they were good to go pretty much day one
as long as I didn't drop in 30 fish at once
but you could put the first batch, and couple days later next, etc

Any of you keep newts or salamanders?

>>5108364
I had an aquarium when i was in my teens, had several fish live for 6+ years and mostly lost them through aggression (kept choosing 'cool' fish over peaceful fish.)

>>5108360
Did you add a source of ammonia? If not, it'll likely never get there.

>>5108373
/herp/ might if no one here has

>>5108458
unfortunately I'm stuck doing an unintentional fish-in cycle. have to leave things alone to develop slowly, at least another 2 months

>>5108572
It won't take that long, shouldn't be more than 6 weeks without fish and plants. With some level of starting amount of bacteria in fish shit and plants, you should have sufficient cultures to zero nitrate and ammonia in five weeks from start at longest, likely shorter. Just make sure you're feeding the fish lightly.

>>5108373
Firebelly newts used to be everywhere now I don't even see them on expos. Probably related to the invasive fungus that attacks amphibians, bans were placed on many newts.

>>5108584
I haven't added any food actually, the one fish and the small amount of shrimp have just been grazing on algae. Even though I've definitely got some bacteria going I might ask my coworker for a jar ful of dirty filter water from his tank.

>>5108522

cool thank you

>>5108588
yup, amphibians of all sorta have pretty much been completely expelled from my local fish stores bar like the occsional tank with a pacman frog

>>5108609
>I might ask my coworker for a jar ful of dirty filter water
yeah this will save you weeks bro

>be only assassin snail in tank
>crawl into middle of chollah branch
>get stuck
>die
Fucking retard.

>>5108639
go easy on him, his brain is the size of a grain of sand

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>>5100431
Are these eggs? All that's in this tank are African dwarf frogs and tiny snails. I've seen them "hugging" a few times so it wouldn't surprise me but the images online of ADF eggs look a bit different. It looks like a clear sack with a bunch of tiny white orbs in it while the ones on line look like clear orbs with black dots. Is this just the eggs at an earlier state of development, or skin shed in a weird way, or what?

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Gave a sex hotel for my celestial pearl danios, great succes

Considering adding scuds and/or seed shrimp to my sump's ~5 gallon non-moving section. I figure some will be swept into the main tank, and most will live and eat the mechanically filtered detritus on the sponges and static media. Only issue I see is that section only fills to about 2 gallons deep most of the time, and flows fairly briskly.

Thoughts? Anyone with experience? I want some population in the tank to improve overall ecosystem diversity but the rainbowfish would immediately genocide them.

fishes are the coolest animals there are

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I don't have the current space or time for a tank that needs a lot of care, so I was thinking of raising some daphnia because they way they bounce around with their little antennae is very cute

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>>5109076
become a Triops chad

>>5109075
>this guy doesn't know about ruffed lemurs

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>Open big bag of XTREME CRUMBLE
>Drop it on the carpet face down
Jesus FUCKASGNOSJ:DGN"OSDJKGHn'ol

>>5109234
time for some floor fish

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>>5109273
Based and climbing perch pilled

>>5109075
what is your favorite thing about fish

fishy belly full of foody
fishy belly full of poopy

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>>5109279
>honey, it's raining, did you remember to let the fish out to poop?

spent an hour today rigging up a bucket mount and hoses for a little DC pump i had only to discover you can buy submersible pumps that run off a 12v battery for 20 bucks on Amazon.

Does the ceiling touching lad still browse here?

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can anyone identify this plant? not the anubias
it's a long stem that keeps growing, i wrapped a weight around 6 of of their bases and it all just floats
there's some trailing roots that have started to grow off the stem in various places
i got it at lfg auction but didn't take note of what it was called, was just cheap and looked cool and has done very well in my hard water

>>5109613
looks like Egeria densa

>>5109640
thank you
it was sold as anacharis
but i can now do some research
cool plant
think i'm adding to to resales

>>5109641
Anacharis is just an outdated term for it, I should've said Elodea but Egeria is still used by some people

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>>5109642
i'm only posting this because you did a clarrification

>>5109541
their variety in shapes,sizes
how much they grow from larvae to adults
their different kinds of fins
they are just very cool and interesting animals in general

>>5109643
>>5109642
>>5109641
Just call it anacharis, don't matter what species it is.

will extra aeration help speed up the clearing of a bacterial bloom during tank cycling? will removing that aeration later on when things have cleared hurt the system?

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>>5107003
I bought like 5 zebra nerite snails once, the biggest I named Gargantuan. It died like 1 year in, after that I named nothing anymore

>>5109748
>will extra aeration help speed up the clearing of a bacterial bloom
no
>will removing that aeration later on when things have cleared hurt the system?
you just gotta sit through it
you can UV it out, but it isn't going to benefit the development
just be patient

>>5109807
>>will removing that aeration later on when things have cleared hurt the system?
no

meant to say no again

>>5109807
>>5109808
thanks! I did not realize how FAST this stuff can occur.

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>be fish
>benevolent creature of divine power watches over you

Try not to be too jelous

>>5107003
nope

>>5107003
My 5 y/o has named some of them, and I've had a few over the years I've named. The main named critter I currently have is a 5" long bamboo shrimp named "La Creatura", and a betta.

>>5107003
I had a jack demsey, guess what we named him

>>5109912
Daniel

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I have four goldfish that I don't want. The local pet shop doesn't want them either. So do cats eat goldfish or what else can I do with them. They have until Monday or I'll just toss them over the fence where there's vacant land and maybe a snake or lizard will eat them.

Any other suggestions?

>>5110004
Petco or petsmart will probably accept them

>>5110004
Based autistic ceiling toucher

>>5108639
F

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>>5110008
>Petco or petsmart
Those companies don't exist in my country, and I've asked my local pet shop if they can take them and they said no thank you because growth stunting.

They're about 20cm long so too big for my cat to eat unless I cut them up which is something that I don't want to do because gross.

If I boil them will they die quickly and without pain? Do fish even feel pain?

>>5110004
So what's the lore behind this autist? I've been here for many, many years but very sporadically and I missed this era.
Did anyone actually do any measurement? 'Cause that's a 15G fluval, 75G Aqueon, and 6' shelving unit. It'd be super easy to figure out how tall his ceiling and he is.

>>5110023
Do you have some sort of social media marketplace? (e.g. Craigslist but for your country.) Facebook marketplace would do. Just advertise free for the taking.
In America you can also ALWAYS surrender it to an ASPCA or other animal rescue. If they can't handle it, they will figure out a place that can. It is literally their job to do shit like that, and they will often come pick up the animals themselves.
And yes, fish feel pain. Perhaps not in the same way we do but pain nonetheless. It might be more humane to freeze them. Their metabolism just slows down then stops. Clove oil is the go-to solution here.
But yeah, do some googling for a fish rescue in your area. Failing that, a general animal rescue. Failing THAT, facebook marketplace.

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>>5110025
Thanx, but facebook is full of Karens who actively seek out ways to take offence to anything you say so they can ban you from their hugbox page, so I refuse to use it.

I could freeze them to death but disposing of their bodies in the trash seems like a waste. I might descale them and cut off the flesh to feed to my cat but I don't want to poison my cat because goldfish are bottom-feeding dirty animals. Their flesh might be tainted. I guess I should probably google that. Thanx for responding.

>>5100431
A question regarding cycling:

Would I need anything to start it? Like any random aquarium plants that already have the bacteria needed that would just need to be cultured? I don't understand how it can be propagated just from adding fish food to dechlorinated water, unless I'm missing something huge.

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>>5110027
The nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in your urine will greatly assist the cycling process. If you can't pee directly into your tank then pee in a cup and pour it in.

Post your face when you google to see if I'm trolling and you realise that I'm not.

>>5110028
I know that ammonia and waste products are necessary to cultivate the bacteria, I just don't understand how the bacteria gets there in the first place from purified tap water.

Would I literally need to only provide waste material for the ammonia eating/putrefaction bacteria to eat or do I need to introduce the bacteria too?

>>5110026
>Thanx, but facebook is full of Karens
That was just one example. Literally any social media/local marketplace platform. If you can google about goldfish edibility, you can google marketplaces or rescues which you have conveniently completely ignored.
It seems like your mind was made up and you really didn't care about finding alternate solutions. Also, your cats eat literal vermin whereas your fish are in a tightly controlled environment. I somehow doubt someone as lazy as you keep your cats indoors. Be gone, retard.
>>5110027
No. You do not need starter bacteria. It exists in the air. You can certainly speed up the process though. Any plant will have some, whether aquatic or terrestrial, especially on their roots. Any moist surface will likely have it really. A good source is dirt from your back yard (assuming you don't use weird fertilizers or pest/weed control).
Really what you need is an ammonia source, as >>5110028 suggests, and yes, he is correct.

>>5110033
Wait so practically, I can just take some dirt and something to decay in a cup, let it sit for a few days and add it to water with java fern or whatever aquarium plants and it'll all settle itself?

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>>5110033
>your cats eat literal vermin
Tell me you're a dog person without telling me that you're a dog person.

>your fish are in a tightly controlled environment
What makes you think my fish aren't in a pond?

>someone as lazy as you
You know nothing about me.

>keep your cats indoors
My cat is as free as a bird so why should I keep him contained? Keep your mangy dog on a tight leash tho. You and your dog are a menace to society.

>Be gone, retard.
no u. You give shit advice and spit the dummy when people don't take your shitty advice.

>>5110033
>and yes, he is correct.
I'm always correct, but thank you for acknowledging that I'm correct. Now please kys

>>5110032
People have been keeping fish in tanks for over9000 years. Do you think anyone cared about nitrogen cycles and ammonia all those centuries ago? You're trying too hard. Just pee in your tank because nature always finds a way.

>>5110038
>aislop
Not reading.

my bacterial bloom cleared up in just a day
i noticed a ton of baby snails now as well as copepods and hydra too :0

Any of you ever made a mangrove tank?
Thinking of trying my hand at it, making a bonsai mangrove and keeping it in a freshwater tank. Maybe have some shrimp and small schooling fish nothing crazy.

I haven't had any kind of aquarium since I was a kid though, so no real idea what I'm doing. Thinking I may just go ahead and buy some mangrove starts and grow them in a bucket in my backyard for now. My main concern is I have a lot of "house plants" that, since they grow so much better outside in full sun, they've gotten too monstrously huge to come back inside...

>>5110099
Oh also it seems like most of the info I've found online is growing mangroves in reef tanks, but I don't know if I want to try and get into saltwater aquariums just yet, or even brackish tanks. Though I'd like to go for a sort of tropical estuary type biotope, but just keep it fresh for simplicity.

>>5110038
Flanders?

>>5110032
Bacteria is literally everywhere all around us all the time, just in tiny quantities. The water has some, whatever survives the chlorine. Your skin has some, but not much. And so on. The cycle process is creating an environment where the small amount that get in by coincidence and lack of a truly sterile environment can reproduce and grow to a large enough amount to process the waste that's provided.

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What the fuck is going on with this fish? Is this a tapeworm or similar dying and being shat out? I dosed with ich-x and prazipro this morning, then saw this.

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>>5110106

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>>5110138
>>5110106

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>>5110106
Just tell me what to do with my unwanted goldfish, for fuck sake. Are they safe for my cat to eat? Should I cook them first?

>>5110140
If you cook them they'll be fine. Kill them first, blunt head trauma or cutting their head, boiling is very painful and yes fish feel pain.

I don't get why "being banned from hug boxes" is too much of a risk to try finding someone who will take them, though. 20cm is not at all stunted, so the lfs is retarded. They could easily resell a full size goldfish for $50-$100+.

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>>5110142
>easily resell a full size goldfish for $50-$100+.
Wait a minute... I can ackshually SELL them and make money? I suppose I'd probably have to use HugBox Marketplace to do that tho, or is there a dedicated website for public fish trading?

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>>5110139
That AI slop image is fake news because Flanders' fish would never look that unhappy. Here's an actual real life photograph.

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>>5110144
>is there a dedicated website for public fish trading?
Bumping for serious answers. Or is facebook marketplace really the only option?

$50 x 4 fish (+ my delivery fee) = $239.99

How much can I get for about 150 platies?

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I have commandeered this thread.

Kek it was flanders

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>>5110154
the bringer of life

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>>5110149
Full sized goldfish take a few years to get there, and time is money. Aquabid is the US one, but since you're elsewhere, no idea. Maybe ebay or ebay equivalent.

Platys tend to sell for between $2 and $10 each, depending on size and coloration. Dwarf "fireball" red coral platys tend to be around $4, from what I've seen.

I'd absolutely buy some of Flanders' nurgle-platys, if he wasn't in Oz. Those fuckers would probably cause plague to the tank but they'd survive it, almost guaranteed.

>>5110126
Update: It dropped off him and snails are now eating it. I think it's a dead parasite. Gonna feed metro flakes (because these prissy-ass rainbows won't touch anything more than 4" below the surface) for a week or two, and continue the ich-x/prazi treatment for at least a few more days.

Now we just need that ceiling touching manlet and we have the whole crew of australian cunts together in /aq/ again :3

>>5110149
No one is paying 50 for adult goldfish. They are either worth nothing or $1000 each for being a rare and desirable variant

>>5110157
There's literally 0 goldfish for sale on aquabid right now. Guppy is the biggest category with 70 fish from 12 sellers. Aquabid is a graveyard unfortunately.

I have thought about this a lot. If you think about who would buy a fish online from a marketplace as opposed to petco or a major website like flips. Given the endless variation on bettas and guppies, you might have people that will buy a vibrant color, but if there were a lot of buyers, aquabid would be much busier.

I wish more people owned fish eaters. Then it would be farely simple to dump culls. I think that's the key, promoting Oscar's and sunfish and pikes

>>5110126
That looks like feces. If the fish takes a hard poop sometimes mucous lining gets in the poop. It's white like that. Skip a day of feeding, or give some veggie flakes.

Hey guys.
It's been a while since i've created a system and I want to do a gravity fed three different tanks.
I'm forgetting what order I want to do this, but it's either

>top tank is sump, middle is showcase, bottom is accessory (plant)---> feeds back into sump
or
>top is accessory (plant), middle is showcase, bottom is sump---> feeds back into plant
I wanted to make sure all my fish have plenty of water per fish, I was going to fill the plant or sump with a bunch of shrimp that if they get sucked down to the lower level they might survive.
Am I overthinking? it's been like 15 years since I last had a tank, 200g saltwater. I digress only the showcase will be seen and the top and bottom will be hidden by woodpanels I am building. Should be close to 300 altogether freshwater.

>>5110245
Three in a system is asking for trouble. Just put plants in your display tank, it makes fish less skittish.

>>5110270
I mean plants will be in the main tank, but that's not the point.
I want to ensure the fish actually have enough water supply to account for their mass. The second tank is just going to be a giant refugium of plantsand other such things.
More water == more stable environment == more fish in showcase.

I want something long that waves in the current - eleocharis, or valisneria?

What do you think about recommended tank size metas?
For example I find it ridiculous that bettas are now required 10 gals when these fish absolutely thrive 3.5-5 gal planted tanks as long as the water quality is good and is densely planted.

>>5110505
it's retarded for bettas since they barely move and probably an overreaction to decades of normgroids putting stuff in tiny bowls and saying that fish 'only grow as big as their tank allows'

on the other hand why are stores like PetSmart still selling bala sharks when zero percent of their customers have an appropriately-sized tank?

35 gallon hex tank, yea or nay?

I know fishes appreciate width more than depth so they have somewhere to go, but what about shrimps and stuff, and maybe a few tiny fish? Especially if the tank is only filled like halfway, and has lots of plants up top?

>>5110454
Yes but are you going to light the sump/refugium?

The key point is, trying to balance the flow between 3 tanks instead of just 2 adds a lot more opportunities to break something and flood out. If you're worried about keeping the water pristine, build a moving bed filter of as big size as you can fit for the sump, add a bit of mech filtration on the inflow or before the outflow or both, and stop overthinking it. There's nothing in freshwater that absorbs enough nutrients - even with light - to really be worth a whole box to itself rather than just using a moving bed filter. Sufficient (floating) plants in the display tank will remove nitrates and phosphates (dose the former if there's buildup of the latter), scoop out excess floaters frequently, and be done with it.

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>>5100726
There is foam on top of the water of your guppy tank. Not a lot but visible bubbles that stay on top.This is ammonia foaming, i don't care what the tests say. What does the water TASTE and SMELL like?
The bacterial bloom fits. This is one of natures way of dealing with ammonia, so no immediate harm to your fish, but i'd recommend switching to a filter with a higher flow rate. I kept guppys for 17 years by now, always in incredibly overstocked tanks and in my experience they do best if they have a fliter that cycles the volume of a tank about 3-4 times an hour. The fish love the flow, just as you noticed yourself.

>>5110619
>>5100726
I can second that guppies actually seem to enjoy flow - I've always seen mine playing in it when the plants aren't so heavily overgrown they block out the flow.

But turnover has very limited impact on filtration effectiveness. You need more biofiltration. Worst case, slowly replace the whole filter house with 15 or 20ppi foam (or k1 micro), best case add a small canister (in a bucket in case of leaks) filled with same stuff. The various ceramic shit is bad because it clogs very fast, only useful for low stocking. Higher light + more floaters will also help but honestly you just need more filtration.

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>>5110619
>>5110625
the bubbles were from sponge filters
there was no ammonia
>>5106819
It's been fine for over a month since my changes
>week with uv sterilizer powerhead with sponge
>crushed coral
>two coarse small sponge filters
it's been crystal clear and gucci, took out the UV/powerhead a week ago (was just running the powerhead filter, no UV)
this week it is getting a little hazy again and nitrites are up
So I need even more bilogical filtration... Nobody is buying the guppies either so I need to offload them somehow. I'm setting up a tank for plants outside, I might offload some there...
For now I guess I'm throwing in another sponge filter, considering a cannister but really don't want one. Also hate HoB.

>>5110627
If you add another sponge, put a powerhead in it instead of air powered. It'll improve the overall filtration - higher power means harder to clog and water hits a higher % of the overall surface area, so it has a much better filtration impact. Leave the one air powered for aeration, or put at least one powerhead high enough to cause turbulent flow on the surface.

>>5110630
put a power head in a sponge? could you elaborate?
I have two powerheads that have sponge filtration chambers of varying lengths, but I don't want them up on the walls...
sponge filters can hide in the grass pretty well

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>>5110627
it was so nice when it was clear, I just got tired of looking at the big filter...

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>>5110631
Picrel. Exactly as it sounds. Powerhead sucks water through the outlet tube - through the sponge - and sprays it out. It's way more vacuum power than air pump, which means more of the sponge actually pulls water through and thus more filtration.

Anyone here do stock tank ponds? I'm thinking of 150g (or bigger, up to 300g idk) between my two sheds with a tarp setup to pull the water off them into the tank. Bunch of floaters, maybe some potted lillies, and medakamaxing plus using it to water a couple raised beds, 10x10 flower plot, or whatever else. Ideal would be to run from roughly mid-April to early October (in central MA), then sell most of them to the LFS (who sells medaka for about $6/fish, so will give me a dollar or two each) and putting enough to start again next spring in a 20g with sponge filter in unheated basement at ~50F until spring.

>>5110642
Oh that's both awesome and funny, it'll be like a prarie dog peaking over the grass
thank you sir

>>5110619
NTA but I have 2 questions:
>can you get a bacterial bloom from something other than ammonia build-up?
>do BB blooms smell sulfurous?
I had one recently that cleared up in 24 hours, right after I did a water change.

>>5110662
Heterotrophic bacterial blooms are feeding on organic waste and has nothing to do with ammonia levels

>>5110662
You can get a bloom from any sort of sudden increase in organics. Adding a bunch of dry leaves, for example.

>>5110665
>>5110666
so is there any way that a water change (using dechlorinated tap water, not well water or anything) could trigger a bacterial bloom or was it just coincidental?

>>5110679
a water change will add minerals (unless you're using RO) that will fuel bacteria to proliferate

>>5110680
>>5110679
it's inherently not a bad thing, they're solving a problem for your benefit because your current systems aren't handling it
it doesn't look good, but they aren't the enemy

>>5110680
uh oh
these still happen on fully-cycled tanks?
also my tap water is definitely on the hard-er side (250ppm)

>>5110682
It was a problem for me because I'm the anon inadvertently doing a fish-in cycle and my fish jumped out and died trying to escape the anaerobic conditions. All baby shrimp survived, two adults have since died but they were fully grown and old.

>>5110683
definitely. post your tank. having a lot of plants is GREAT for nitrates, but if there's detritus build up you aren't removing there's a seperate bacteria to deal with it than that in a seasoned tank for ammonia->nitrate
the best solution is blackout for a week or two, but we don't have aquariums to not look at them and it sounds miserable for the fish. I have a detailed journey through this in the thread
I also have super hard water, I found KH was dropping dramatically from dealing with the organics and when it ran out this would happen
you can get buffer, baking soda(?), crushed coral works alright
more filtration always help
I even have dozens on dozens of snails, they can't keep up with the load
do you have lots of plants, a dead fish? do a trimming and be lazy about removing the cuttings?

for me it's crazy, my 75 tank I leave dying plant matter all the time. i did some shit today and there's like a layer of frogbit under the surface frogbit I know is going to rot and die and it won't make a difference
buy my 10G tank a little pile of detritus causes these issues
the 75 has a cannister and sponge, the 10 is under filtered

>>5110685
do you have any bubblers introducing oxygen?
shrimp are champions