The Amazing Aquarium Thread- Why is Fishy Sleeping Upside Down? - General

[I][B]Hey all, since I usually complain about my fishkeeping mishaps and whatnot over in stgym, I thought I should finally break down and make us an aquarium hobby thread since there doesn't appear to be one. I feel that I've gotten quite advanced at this (well at least the freshwater side of things) so I will give it a go and try to cover all the basics of freshwater. Reef and saltwater/brackish keepers are welcome to chime in here since I have no real experience with those. I've been keeping freshwater fish for at least 10 years. [/B][/I] [B]Well let's get started.[/B] [IMG]http://www.asianart.com/eventscalendar/pictures/1779_eskenazi.jpg[/IMG] Fishkeeping has been around since like an ancient chinese dude figured out how to build a pond and threw some carps in there like 3000 years ago and junk. Or something. Anyway over the years a lot of information and methods have been built up and research conducted. Now we have this hobby today and the amount of setups you can do is pretty amazing. Here's some with a quick google search: [IMG]http://styfisher.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Exotic-spacious-and-big-fish-tanks.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HjdpRxY8qZM/UN9KJzmrvlI/AAAAAAAADUg/Bf7_0xxzARw/s1600/B6770EE0-D065-57B9-742A2ECC41B20164.JPG[/IMG] [IMG]https://reefbuilders.com/files/2016/02/seabox-reef-aquarium-5.jpg[/IMG] From a tiny 2.5 gallon planted shrimp tank to a 5000 gallon monster reef tank the possibilities are endless... provided you have the cash... the hobby is a bit pricey but if you shop smart you will be ok haha. I've been able to do 3 tanks on a college budget. [B][I][U] Here's some basic things that you may not know if you have never kept fish or done any research:[/U][/I][/B] [I]-Please learn about the nitrogen cycle if you don't know what it is.[/I] This is one of the essentials. Basically there are beneficial bacteria that live in your substrate, decor, filter, and any surfaces of the tank. These bacteria convert the ammonia from fish poop into nitrite, which then converts into nitrate, which is removed with water changes and supplemented by live plants. A fishless cycle is the preferred way to go so your fish don't suffer. You can buy bacterial supplements and even stuff established filter media in the filter. The process can take anywhere from pretty much instantly with the established media, to a month or so from scratch. Hooray! Biology! -[B][I]SAY NO TO FISHBOWLS!!!!![/I][/B] There is no excuse for animal abuse now with so much information freely available on the web. You may have listened to a dude at petco who said a .5 gallon vase is fine for a betta with no filter or heater or a small 1 gallon bowl can hold 4 goldfish. DON'T LISTEN TO THAT CRAP. A lot of the time they have no idea how to care for fish, and the ones that do just have to make a sale or don't want to argue against an angry customer or they will be fired. Toxins like ammonia build up in less than a day because there is no cycle, burning the fish's gills and weakening the immune system so other diseases can take hold. Fish do feel pain and they become visibly stressed. Many fish like goldfish can easily live over 15 years. Bettas can live to be over 5. NOT 2 MONTHS OR 2 WEEKS IN A FUCKING NASTY TORTURE BOWL. Jesus. Fishbowls piss me the fuck off. They should be banned IMO. If you have one, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE try to get your fish into a bigger tank. Do the appropriate research. If you cannot afford it, try to find your pet a better home. Craigslist is a good place to find used tanks (sometimes for free!) and people who will take them. You can even set up an emergency tupperware container to serve as a temporary tank in a pinch. You will see an immediate difference when you start water changes and providing much better care. -[I]Fish growing to the size of the tank is a myth.[/I] What happens in a tank too small for the fish is that they get stunted. Basically the organs keep growing while the fish's body lags behind. This causes all types of issues from spinal abnormalities to organ failure. In most cases stunting cannot be reversed and it will significantly shorten the life of the fish. Plus if you can see that the fish can't even turn around properly it's fucked up. -[I]Make sure you test your tap water as well as your tank water.[/I] Get a good reading of your parameters, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, kH, gH, etc etc. For example, ammonia and nitrite should always be 0 and nitrate should be under 40 ppm to be safe. Exposure to levels above .50 for ammonia and basically any nitrite reading is doom for your fish! An API master test kit or individual liquid kits are much better than strips. They cost about 20-30 bucks depending on the store but it is very worth the price and it's cheaper than strips in the long run. And if you are rich there is even things like TDS meters you can buy and other electronic fancy lab quality testing stuff. [I]-Always try to quarantine your new arrivals in a separate hospital tank for at least a few weeks or even months if you are patient.[/I] This will prevent the spread of contagious diseases like ich and it gives you a chance to really observe the fish and treat it for whatever is wrong with it. Fish get really stressed in shipping! A cheap way to do it is get a used 10 or 20 gallon with a cheapo filter/heater if needed, stuff extra media in your established tank just for it, and put it up and tear it down as needed. If that makes sense. It needs to be cycled so you might even want to just leave it up all the time if you constantly get new fishies too. -[I]Do research on fish compatibility and stuff. [/I]You don't want your favorite fish to be stressed to death or eaten. Mistakes have been made on my end.. oops... [I]-Do research on fish diseases and the best way to treat them.[/I] A lot of times the medicine you think you need or the store sold you is the wrong type and can do more harm than good. Ich for example is sometimes treated with medicines like malachite green when treating it with salt and high heat is a safer way. That shit is carcinogenic as fuck to you and can outright kill a weak ich filled fish. [I] -Try live foods and look up the nutritional values.[/I] Many fish need at least some in the diet. Bloodworms, crickets, feeder guppies, daphnia, brine shrimp, tilapia filets, fresh veggies, etc. Some other fish might outright refuse pellets/flakes too. Don't feed live foods with thiaminase, including feeder goldfish which have a lot. It can lead to a vitamin deficiency. [I]-Find a good local fish store (aka lfs). [/I]Most are family run businesses and will go out of their way to help you out. Feels good to support the little guy. Some chain pet stores can be pretty good if they have a good team working but that is really hit or miss. Remember some lfs are shit too. Do your research before you go to the store. [B][I] *******Also please don't shop at walmart for fish. All the labels are wrong on the fish. Saw green spot puffers being fed flakes instead of snails/live foods, no mention of being brackish/marine fish as adults either. They had pacus listed as only getting to be 6". PACUS GET 3ft LONG AND WEIGH 40LBS AS ADULTS. Not to mention every tank is filled with dead fish and the bettas are dying in their own shit. Boycott them. Ugh. FUCK WALMART. They should not be selling live animals when they can't even take care of their employees.... that's another issue. :conspiratard:******** [/I][/B] [I]-Make sure the fish you are buying is legal where you live. [/I]Most states and countries should have a fish and wildlife list of banned stuff. Some may need a permit, but good luck getting one if you aren't like a science place. Sketchy places offering to sell banned fish are probably wildlife agents or like mafia dudes so yea haha. [B] -NEVER EVER RELEASE A PET FISH INTO THE WILD. [/B]This introduces diseases, and if the fish is compatible with the ecosystem it lives in, it can wreak havoc on native fish populations, completely taking them over. Plus that's a felony so yea. Not cool. Here are some examples of the damage done, probably by people with good intentions: [url]https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/science/discarded-goldfish-invasive-species.html[/url] [url]http://insider.si.edu/2016/12/peacock-bass-invasion-devastating-long-term-effects-native-panamanian-fish/[/url] [url]https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/flushing-nemo-home-aquarium-species-potential-threat-california-waters[/url] [video]https://youtu.be/CVe0BIY0ZDM[/video] [B][I][U]That should cover the basics off the top of my head. Here is an assortment of links I've saved over the years:[/U][/I][/B] [url]http://www.myaquariumclub.com/another-look-at-the-nitrogen-cycle-1005.html[/url] [url]http://www.badmanstropicalfish.com/forum/index.php?topic=30277.0[/url] [url]http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Main_Page[/url] [url]https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/[/url] [url]https://www.petcha.com/farewell-to-fungus/[/url] [url]http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/top-10-for-the-10gallon-tank.htm[/url] [url]http://pets.thenest.com/ways-earthquakeproof-aquarium-12222.html[/url] [url]http://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/methods-of-euthanasia.107901/[/url] [url]http://www.aqadvisor.com/[/url] [url]http://www.barrreport.com/[/url] [url]http://rotalabutterfly.com/[/url] [url]https://web.archive.org/web/20160305161401/http://skepticalaquarist.com/[/url] [url]http://www.tfhmagazine.com/[/url] [url]http://homeaquaria.com/diy-5-simple-fish-food-recipes/[/url] [url]http://www.seriouslyfish.com/[/url] [url]http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_freshwater_algae.php[/url] [url]http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/[/url] [url]http://www.plantedtank.net/[/url] Saltwater: [url]http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/[/url] [B]Good online resources for buying crap:[/B] [url]http://www.aquabid.com[/url] [url]http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/pr/c/3578[/url] [url]http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/[/url] [url]http://www.marinedepot.com/[/url] [url]https://www.bigalspets.com/[/url] [url]http://www.thatpetplace.com/[/url] [url]http://www.liveaquaria.com/[/url] [url]http://www.aquariumplants.com/Default.asp[/url] Amazon and ebay have decent stuff. Be careful with ebay though. Sometimes chain stores like petco and petsmart have sales on certain items that are pretty good. Be aware that you should ALWAYS QUARANTINE FISH FROM CHAIN STORES/SHADY LFS! A lot of the time the people there have no idea what they are doing, or can't treat the fish because of retarded corporate policies, so the fish come home with ich, columnaris, or some other parasite that can easily wipe out a whole established tank if you are not careful. [U][B]So yeah, just discuss your fishy friends. What tanks do you have? Is your fish somehow better than everyone else's? Got a problem you can't seem to solve? Did your fish flop out of the tank when you left the lid off? Post away! PS. Normal fp rules apply yo. [/B][/U] [U]Also here are my current tanks and the stocklists:[/U] 90 gallon, planted, will need a reseal and a new front panel soon. Got it used, the front panel has lots of teeny scratches, the tank is almost as old as I am! - 1 ??? stumpy albino mbuna - 1 male salvini. King of the tank right now. - 1 baby gibbiceps pleco (AKA petco sailfin I think). Don't worry, he was a rescue, by the time he grows to about a foot I will be placing him in a 400+ gallon tank. Gibbiceps L083 gets to be over 2 feet long! - 1 baby chocolate pleco. Not sure what the exact L number is. - 1 VC-10 milomo - 1 Burundi frontosa, not sure if it's male or female. - 2 Extremely rare Mesoheros Atromaculatus cichlids. They come from a part of columbia where all the drug runners are so imports are limited if any. They will be in a separate tank soon. Yes, I know african cichlids and ca/sa cichlids don't usually mix but most of them were rescues which I received unexpectedly and they seem to be getting along fine. 20, gallon long planted. - 7 bronze corydoras catfishes - 1 trilineatus cory catfish - 1 genuine Siamese algae eater, Crossocheilus siamensis. Not chinese algae eaters which get over a foot long and eat slime coats instead of algae when adults... - 1932012910922 billion feeder guppies. They are treats for the cichlids. - 219093029830293 trillion ramshorns. I need assasin snails haha. 29 gallon barebones: -It's a convict cichlid jail with my convict pair. The dad was eating all my plants in the 90. Little shit. His babies will now be food. :evil: I will get decent pics later. Been typing too much. Hope all this makes sense! I typically do 2 25-40% water changes a week on each tank. Sometimes the guppy tank gets up to 3 a week if I feel like it. But my water changer broke so filling the tanks with buckets is a pain in the ass now haha. [IMG]http://www.picgifs.com/smileys/smileys-and-emoticons/fish/smileys-fish-721285.gif[/IMG]

really, fish bowls aren't good for even betta? that... makes me feel bad. we have had a total of two bettas (not at the same time lol) several years ago, both short-lived (although not because of the habitat) in this large bowl. god

[QUOTE=Limed00d;51888350]really, fish bowls aren't good for even betta? that... makes me feel bad. we have had a total of two bettas (not at the same time lol) several years ago, both short-lived (although not because of the habitat) in this large bowl. god[/QUOTE] The minimum I would put a betta in would be a 2.5 gallon with a mini heater. That way at least some sort of cycle is established and the temperature is at least 76. You would still need to do several water changes a week though which sucks. I think we have all been there with a fish bowl at some point, the myths just get perpetuated and the people who make the bowls know it's money when the fish needs to be replaced in a short time.

I used to have a setup for an aquatic turtle. Kept having to upgrade tank size and eventually had to rehome her because she was growing faster than I could afford to provide for lol. Aquatic animals like fish/ turtles/etc are super fun to take care of though. It's just a lot of time and patience and money. Right now I own a tiny betta "tank" that houses a small Marimo ball since I can't afford an actual animal.

I'll try to get some pictures of my tank when I get home from work, glad you finally made a thread.

[t]http://i.imgur.com/8IuZS09.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/2JAQ5pX.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/DUxr4dI.jpg[/t] (they're the same size, I swear) [t]http://i.imgur.com/dDmr1dp.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/OZ5Gy5O.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/StgIGNZ.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/skJ5fqn.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/vyeBLpy.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/fOWdu2t.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/TBRTcgu.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/R4L6MGj.jpg[/t] This is my awesome plant My loach is in the mountain right now and won't come out until later tonight, I'll try to get a picture of him then. I also need more plants and some driftwood. [editline]e[/editline] Oh you can kind of see my loach in this. [t]http://i.imgur.com/D7JPxeo.jpg[/t]

Also see: King of DiY Fishkeeping YouTube channel for some cool tutorials/projects [URL]http://aqadvisor.com/[/URL] for stocking advice, I'll send this to the OP We keep a [I]Xenopus[/I] frog, a goldfish, blind cave tetras, albino corydoras, guppies, bumblebee catfish, and a bunch of snails in our apartment between 3 tanks. I'll have to throw some pictures on here later. Aquaculture is the best. Anyone else really enjoy keeping aquatic plants? I actually like the trillion little snails we have, they help keep the substrate turned over and clean up decaying plant matter. Pothos (terrestrial) rooting in your tank over the back is a great way to reduce nutrient levels in the water column. For plants I'd recommend water lace/indian fern for anyone with a low light tank. Algae control and rapid growth will follow its addition. The frog tank stays much more fresh with the help of the plants. Walstad Method 10g October: [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/vXxro2z.jpg[/img_thumb] Today: (needs maintenance, i.e. a trim but I kind of like the hands off look) [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/27AwZZX.jpg[/img_thumb] If anyone is interested I could write up a guide to low tech walstad tanks - they're super cheap to setup and easy to maintain. It's about as simple as using fertilizer/wood-free garden soil under a cap with a shitload of plants.[I] Xenopus [/I]tank [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/Txeljxi.jpg[/img_thumb] The bushy plant is the Indian fern ([I]Ceratopteris thalictroides)[/I], serious this still grows like a weed under a single 17w T8. Pothos can be pretty much just dipped in water to produce the water tolerant roots. They look a bit different. [editline]28th February 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Limed00d;51888350]really, fish bowls aren't good for even betta? that... makes me feel bad. we have had a total of two bettas (not at the same time lol) several years ago, both short-lived (although not because of the habitat) in this large bowl. [/QUOTE] No room to move around and not enough water volume to facilitate maintenance of clean water. No sense in not buying a cheap ten gallon aquarium and stocking it with a couple floating (live) plants. The plants feed on waste products and keep the water clean between changes. Your fish will live longer and will exhibit more vibrant colors.

Added it. Totally forgot to stuff it in there haha. It's a good resource when stocking. Anyway here are my setups. My tanks aren't looking show ready right now so bear with them haha. The 90 has been up for maybe 7 months, the 20 has been up again for at least 4, and the 29 has been there for maybe a month and a half IDK, been losing track of time. Here is the 90 today. Once I save more money up I'll replace the 2 lights I have on there now with a big ass t5. I also have a new driftwood soaking outside: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_173857_zpsfptyihzu.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_173904_zpscuwc0vue.jpg[/IMG] Recently added root tabs and the plants are happier I think. They get co2 and liquid fertilizers too. They get ripped up all the time though. Cichlids and plants are hit or miss. [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_172632_zpsnehpfhem.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_172624_zpszqng2s4a.jpg[/IMG] The 20, pretty barebones with old decor and plant cuttings from the 90. T8's work great for certain plants: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_173101_zpsvtcuqxnz.jpg[/IMG] Here is the 29, again barebones. All those diatoms are for the fry, plus I'm lazy as fuck since they are just dumb convicts: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_172644_zpse4fyfm41.jpg[/IMG] Also here they are over the years: My first major tank project in a while was this 5 gallon. It had a white betta and some endler's and corries. I ended up moving the fish into my 20 long. I still have one cory left! [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/IMG_85241_zpsb3a749a5.jpg[/IMG] Setting up the 20 for the first time: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/tank_zps9a401764.jpg[/IMG] After that I bred mollies for a long time, here are some nice ones I sold, the money paid for all my food: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/KIMG0516_zps7qlu2ts9.jpg[/IMG] And here was the tank a few months later: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/unnamed_zps3149f271.jpg[/IMG] I kept changing the tank around a lot and I let it overgrow a bunch of times: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/phone%20backup/kyocera/KIMG0089_zpsqfiar5ly.jpg[/IMG] When I had to move from my parents I decided to get a way bigger tank. Here is the 90 gallon soon after I reset it up. I bought it used off craigslist and completely redid the decor. Before it had some convicts in it with nasty ass blue gravel and an undergravel filter. I only kept the original female. The baby molly got ate it was kinda funny. The baby green terror she always followed around died of hexamita unfortunately, it was too late to save him by the time I noticed it.[IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20161017_182405_zpsozmfh0vo.jpg[/IMG] Shortly after my craigslist fish rescue fiasco with the africans: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20161118_163150_HDR_zpsvxdrbzkx.jpg[/IMG] I tried coming up with an aquascape there but they destroyed my pebble thing though. Little shits. Oh and here was the 10 a little while ago when I rescued a few goldfish. They healed nicely and went to a lady with a big aquaponics system: [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/20170118_1159322_zpsxbgiagr2.jpg[/IMG] It used to be set up as a guppy tank/quarantine. Also I second what you said about the pothos vines. Dear god they grow so well that I have some shoots around the place as houseplants too. Oh and I grow mint out of the top of my big tank for tea. Here is a recent picture, they are growing from an aquaclear 110. The roots are pushing the media basket up though so I need to do something about that haha. I doubt the media in there has actually ever been replaced, the tank was in disrepair when I bought it and I never bothered to get new stuff. I'm running a single philips LED floodlight 6500k daylight bulb in a cheap home depot worklight. I have the same clip light with a cheaper bulb on the 20 which I use on my quarantine too. Works great. Also dat sterilizer. [IMG]http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb295/liopleurodonz/Mobile%20Uploads/20170228_172608_zpskvdngsid.jpg[/IMG] Oh, I forgot to mention, if you want to be in the hobby for the long run get a good quality notebook to use as a log and you can remember important stuff like breeding or water parameters or what you bought or who went belly up. :buckteeth:

Oh hey, is Stumpy still alive? I can't remember if you said anything about him or not. [editline]28th February 2017[/editline] I also want to make a PSA. Don't use Top Fin flakes for your main food. They may be cheap, and they may be available in giant sizes, but in comparison to some of the other flake foods you can get it's crap. Get something with garlic in it, good for the fishies.

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;51890493]Oh hey, is Stumpy still alive? I can't remember if you said anything about him or not.[/QUOTE] Yeah he is. He is stumping about as usual. A month or so ago he was partially responsible for the deaths of 2 SAE's that I had as dithers. He piled up sand in order to build a nest. He left it on top of the plants and I didn't wanna deal with that shit so I left it. I smoothed it all out and that was a mistake letting it sit. Bam nitrite spike. The 2 SAE's are in the freezer until I can bury them properly. They lived 3 years. Gotta get the remaining SAE some buddies. Since there are no more dithers my Salvini has been a douche. Maybe I will get congo tetras or something else big and fast. Ugh. FUCKING STUMPY. [QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;51890493] I also want to make a PSA. Don't use Top Fin flakes for your main food. They may be cheap, and they may be available in giant sizes, but in comparison to some of the other flake foods you can get it's crap. Get something with garlic in it, good for the fishies.[/QUOTe] Also I agree. Use cheap foods only as a treat or supplement or to feed your feeder fish with. They usually contain bad additives and a lot of fillers. New Life Spectrum is a good brand for garlic. You can also crush fresh garlic bulbs to make juice and then soak pellets in it. If you are looking for good brands Hikari and Omega One is what I use. Seachem also has a pretty good line of flakes called nutridiet.

All your tank setups are making me miss my aquarium lol. I think some day I'd be able to get another aquatic turtle, I'd just have to spend some good money on a real good enclosure/tank.

[QUOTE=Pascall;51890564]All your tank setups are making me miss my aquarium lol. I think some day I'd be able to get another aquatic turtle, I'd just have to spend some good money on a real good enclosure/tank.[/QUOTE] Eventually I do want a cool water pond of some type if me and the fiance can get out of this dinky apartment and into a real house. I will probably get turtles from the animal shelter or rescue them. Red eared sliders are pretty chill little dudes. I want a huge tropical pond too. I really want redtail and shovelnose catfishes.

I used to have a 90 gallon reef. [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/XWa9DfP.jpg[/img_thumb] (feat: 2011 era Facepunch in reflection) I tired setting up a 2.5 gallon pico reef but it never got off the ground and I aborted the project before I put anything I'd feel super guilty for killing in there(would've had to drop a lot of money on building it a better sump and light system). One day I'd like to get back into the hobby and build a 100% sustainable reef out of concrete but right now it's just way too expensive. However, during it's short existence, I did use the 2.5 gallon tank as a prison for a [I]very[/I] naughty boy. [img_thumb]http://i.imgur.com/uLb37it.jpg[/img_thumb]

[QUOTE=GamerChick;51890577]Eventually I do want a cool water pond of some type if me and the fiance can get out of this dinky apartment and into a real house. I will probably get turtles from the animal shelter or rescue them. Red eared sliders are pretty chill little dudes. I want a huge tropical pond too. I really want redtail and shovelnose catfishes.[/QUOTE] I had red eared sliders when I was little, dudes are vicious if you let them be.

This reminds me. I need to clear off my desk and see if one of the nano tanks I got for free will fit up here. I want shrimpies. Someone on craigslist just had them on the curb so I snagged em.

Aqadvisor is a neat tool, but be careful with it. Don't take anything it suggests literally. [URL="http://www.barrreport.com"]Tom Barr's forum[/URL] probably ought to be added to the OP, as well as archive links to the [URL="https://web.archive.org/web/20160305161401/http://skepticalaquarist.com/"]Skeptical Aquarist[/URL]. This [URL="http://rotalabutterfly.com"]website[/URL] also has some good calculators for nutrient dosing. This video is probably one of the best I've seen on foods for freshwater aquaria: [video=vimeo;117102317]https://vimeo.com/117102317[/video] I'm about to pick up some dwarf shrimp this week and rescape a 20 gallon tank. Next week my daphnia should hopefully come in alive and kicking.

Mine wasn't an RES but a yellow bellied slider! Pretty similar though. I think I have some old pics sitting around. [t]http://68.media.tumblr.com/8d7527203902614e36bc06d931f9c7b7/tumblr_ntyuhi0Psu1ql7e99o1_400.jpg[/t][t]http://68.media.tumblr.com/84d17d88afb9a4a1dcbaf95348fb35dd/tumblr_nox8p4Kvo51ql7e99o4_400.png[/t] [t]http://68.media.tumblr.com/71826067f529050d11020e595dcf6d73/tumblr_inline_n9fnmvTsit1qjyqfe.jpg[/t][t]http://68.media.tumblr.com/2e51ebdd940c586c3e0a38203065f9dc/tumblr_nox8p4Kvo51ql7e99o2_1280.png[/t] These setups are from when I was barely learning how to care for a turtle lmao. I kinda had her dumped on me by my sister so I had to hit the ground running. Probably would go a whole different route now if I had the opportunity/money for it.

Looks awesome..

Updated some links in the OP. I will make a list of beginner things and good equipment soon.

I had crystal red shrimp for a few years, they made babbies and then after a couple years they began to slowly whittle away one by one. They're great btw, you can even get some money selling excess. I was wanting to get back into it with a 10-20 gallon small reef tank, but I'll probably wait until I move before I attempt that.

So, one of my housemates decided to get a tropical aquarium back in December, focusing on African Cichlids, but also having some diversity. A 200 liter one, we got it running the proper way, planting bacteria and letting it get stablished before intoducing some fish. We started with 3 young cichlids and a catfish (I think bumblebee, wasn't there when we got it), then we kept introducing about 3 fish per week, mostly cichlids, but also a young pleco, a chinese algae eater (which vanished after the fish were unfed since Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening, and we are blaming the catfish), a spotted puffer (which was doing quite well, not being very agressive and keeping the more violent cichlids at bay), an argus (which harassed the puffer into constant curling, then death), and even a tiretrack eel. Other than the puffer and the algae eater, the only death we had in a month and a half was a cichlid that was somewhat ganged upon. However, after we added some sea salt in low concentrations, as we were suggested (100 g for the 200 l aquarium, so 0.5 g/l, when 1 g/l seems to be the usual), we ran into a bit of an issue: 7 hours after adding it, everything was going fine, but, 5 hours later, most of the fish were dead, with 3 of them having jumped out of the aquarium (incluiding the eel), and the remaining live ones were mouthing at the surface, incluiding the normally reclusive catfish. We did some siphooning and changed plenty of water, and the remaining fish are now back in track, but I'm curious about what may had gone wrong; the behaviour exhibited seemed to be more in line with lack of oxygen rather than with high salinity, and seeing the argus (which requires salt to grow up healthy) died, while the pleco lived despite being quite sensitive to salt, I'd bet we had higher than healthy nitrite/nitrate levels. We usually siphoon the aquarium and change 5-10 liters once a week, have a canister filter running, 5 plants, and LED lighting turned on for about 7 hours a day. The fish are fed pellets daily and Artemia twice a week (and I'm having trouble convincing my housemate to feed them more specific stuff, as well as getting him to give up on the idea that the pleco can survive by eating algae growing on rocks). Any useful tips? EDIT: Pic, the aquarium as it is now, other than the 3 smallest cichlids, the rest are the survivors of said event. The catfish is, as expected, in a cave doozing off. [t]http://i.imgur.com/ev76mCh.jpg[/t]

I would pick up a master test kit and test your tap water. I've had issues before where the city has added extra chloramine into the water raising the ammonia to unacceptable levels. If it was a lack of oxygen as you think I would make sure the temperature is at an acceptable level. If the heater farted out and raised the temp above like 85F somehow, they could be gasping. The hotter the water, the less oxygen there is. Make sure there is sufficient movement at the top. I would also try to increase your water changes to at least 25% (so like 50l) a week too with that much bioload, cichlids are messy and especially the pleco. 5-10l a week seems too little. Get a quality tap conditioner like seachem prime too, if it is the tap water that's bad it detoxifies ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate without killing your cycle. If it was the salt, which if I'm right was only about 7tbps for that 55 gallon (bad at metric haha) that should have been low enough to not do any damage. I would keep watching them closely though. If you added salt though before a water change remember that it doesn't evaporate so the concentration can get high if you aren't careful with that. If you want to do a scat/green spot puffer tank again I would separate them though into their own brackish tank in the future. I believe some cichlids can actually live in brackish but they would have to be acclimated, not sure on that process and I can't remember what species. Sadly it's also probably a good thing that the chinese algae eater died, they really shouldn't be labeled as beginner fish. They get over a foot and end up eating the slime coats of others and leaving wounds when they are adults. Siamese algae eaters would be a better choice if you can buy or order them online where you live, they make great dithers too, you might need dithers if that green terror or the africans get all angry at each other. My baby gt was a sweetie though. In the meantime, your pleco should do the trick, if he gets nipped they are pretty tough and a dorsal spike might ward off the other fish haha. A good idea for the pleco is to buy some cheap zucchinis or cucumbers. Cut them lengthwise and strap them to a sinking rock or plate or something where the seeds face up with a rubberband. Spinach is also good. I strap mine to an old flat seashell. It should get him some nutrients if he won't eat pellets and the other fish will eat it too, good fiber for them. Nice aquascape BTW.

Mmm, we are trying to keep the temperature at suggested Malawi values, around 25 ºC (so, 77 ºF), and we've never seen it surpass 30 ºC, so that is probably fine. pH is also generally within the proper values, as tap water over here is somewhat alkaline and soft, and when we checked nitrites/nitrates this week, they were down to almost nothing. However, with 16 more fish living in the tank, those ought to be higher. Still, we had been adding water directly from the tap when making changes, so chloration was probably the issue. Ought to do that more carefully.

I'm surprised there wasn't an aquarium thread here before. I just moved last Saturday and I upgraded my 55 community tank that had a canister filter to a 75 with a 29 gallon sump. So far everything is going awesome, no flooding yet, and I'm loving the extra space the new tank gives me. Here's a picture of the tank about an hour after I got it set up a week ago, the water is cloudy cause I didnt have time to let anything settle because It was a very hectic move, the water was crystal clear the next morning though. I'll take a better picture when I'm not at work. [IMG]http://imgur.com/t2g6JIR.jpg[/IMG]

[URL="http://www.plantedtank.net/"]http://www.plantedtank.net/[/URL] ^lots of info, user-to-user sales/trading, sometimes you'll see users giving away plants for free, high quality forum for anyone interested in the planted side of aquariums

[QUOTE=Pascall;51888401]I used to have a setup for an aquatic turtle. Kept having to upgrade tank size and eventually had to rehome her because she was growing faster than I could afford to provide for lol. Aquatic animals like fish/ turtles/etc are super fun to take care of though. It's just a lot of time and patience and money. Right now I own a tiny betta "tank" that houses a small Marimo ball since I can't afford an actual animal.[/QUOTE] My family eventually put the turtle in the bathtub. It wasn't an issue because no one used it. It now lives in the pond in the front garden.

[QUOTE=Propane Addict;51909337][URL="http://www.plantedtank.net/"]http://www.plantedtank.net/[/URL] ^lots of info, user-to-user sales/trading, sometimes you'll see users giving away plants for free, high quality forum for anyone interested in the planted side of aquariums[/QUOTE] Added to the OP. [QUOTE=download;51909860]My family eventually put the turtle in the bathtub. It wasn't an issue because no one used it. It now lives in the pond in the front garden.[/QUOTE] Once I get a house I wanna get an old crappy bath tub to make a shitty mosquito fish pond. :what:

Did anyone ever have triops? Got an old kit knocking around and I'm thinking about cracking it open.

[QUOTE=Mr Kotov;51910077]Did anyone ever have triops? Got an old kit knocking around and I'm thinking about cracking it open.[/QUOTE] I've heard you can actually breed them yourself. IIRC they only live a few months though so you have to breed a constant supply. I think there was a link here: [url]http://thetriopsforum.com/forum/60119/2/[/url] Haven't really looked through that site too much but they should obviously go in a cycled tank and not a tiny gallon kit haha.

This is a quality thread. Man, I miss my tank from when I was a kid. When hurricane Isabel hit Virginia back when I was young, my mom's friends power went out. Her husband had HUGE cichlid tanks. He decided to get out of the hobby after a large slice of his tank died during it, and my mom let me take home a clown loach and a green terror along with a tank he gave us, which were cool as hell. I always tried really hard to keep the tank clean, and got pretty darn good at it. I kept up on a few cichlid forums for a while, as best as kid as young as I was could, anyways. Then, my parents fucked up trying to change the water when I was off at camp, and killed my fish, we had them for like 9 years, which was actually pretty long for the green terror, but was cutting the loach's life incredibly short. :v: Reused the tank for a pretty underprepared saltwater tank later on, with mixed success. Then again, I bought what were likely half-dead PetsMart fish. I'd love to get back into it, but considering I'm probably moving away in the foreseeable future, it'd be a huge hassle. Maybe once I settle in somewhere. Probably MUCH better equipped to get a good tank up and going again now that I'm not a retarded child.