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

Yeah Prime is the bomb [editline]4th February 2018[/editline] [video=youtube;XCps14yycT4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCps14yycT4[/video]

Oh my god that catfish is adorable, what is it?

[I]Synodontis multipunctatus[/I], the cuckoo catfish :v:

I guess I know what ill be getting when I eventually upgrade to a 4ft or more tank (in like 15 years when I buy a house or something, fuck having a big tank while renting)

I rarely see him because he [I]is[/I] in a tank with some territorial assholes and all catfish are derpy and just wander where they want. Genus Syndontis are the type of catfish you want in cichlid tanks though because they're tough. [editline]6th February 2018[/editline] Also Bristlenose pleco can survive in there too, if they don't get their eyes eaten. They're aggressive enough to defend themselves, but their eyes are super exposed.

Picked up this lil dude last Saturday and I'm shocked at how much he's changed since [t]https://i.imgur.com/NiKwVPF.jpg[/t] [t]https://i.imgur.com/m4Ey6NV.jpg[/t]

Should I take my potted plant out of the foam thing the roots are growing in?

[QUOTE=Dr.C;53122994]Should I take my potted plant out of the foam thing the roots are growing in?[/QUOTE] Yes. You probably want to consider trimming your roots too.

Alright lads I may have messed up, A month or two ago I decided I wanted to give snails a try as I've heard good things about them cleaning glass/rocks so with my tank having said hard surfaces in abundance I grabbed myself a couple trumpet snails however when I dumped them into the tank I found there was another, not trumpet snail, with them. I figured it was just another pond snail like I once had so no big deal but it seems its an apple snail, he's gotten rather huge in a very short timespan and im worried that in a small tank (1x2ft 12g) hes going to start eating more than just whats on the glass. I've read that a single one shouldn't be bad but I've also read they can decide to start eating the plants pretty rapidly. All of my plants grow rather quickly but I think what im trying to say is, what do?

[QUOTE=archival;53123398]Alright lads I may have messed up, A month or two ago I decided I wanted to give snails a try as I've heard good things about them cleaning glass/rocks so with my tank having said hard surfaces in abundance I grabbed myself a couple trumpet snails however when I dumped them into the tank I found there was another, not trumpet snail, with them. I figured it was just another pond snail like I once had so no big deal but it seems its an apple snail, he's gotten rather huge in a very short timespan and im worried that in a small tank (1x2ft 12g) hes going to start eating more than just whats on the glass. I've read that a single one shouldn't be bad but I've also read they can decide to start eating the plants pretty rapidly. All of my plants grow rather quickly but I think what im trying to say is, what do?[/QUOTE] Wait and see. If it causes problems most LFS will take it off your hands as they're relatively popular

I introduced two mystery snails and 2 rubber lip plecos into my aquarium and when I put them in, the massive size difference between them hit me and I felt bad. Luckily my goldfish is fine with them and he's not messing with them, but the problem is that he's just so massive that when he passes through, he just plows through everything and pulls the dormant snails into his wake

New API Water test kit packaging, hooray! [t]https://i.redd.it/phzokvu4iog01.jpg[/t] Something that can actually be used.

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;53140487]New API Water test kit packaging, hooray! [t]https://i.redd.it/phzokvu4iog01.jpg[/t] Something that can actually be used.[/QUOTE] My test kit literally arrived yesterday in the shitty packaging you cant use.

Don't worry, they didn't fix the tubes leaking out the caps so you can make your own packaging and it'll be the same :v:

Only took them decades to figure that out. Will be another century before you get caps that don't leak.

Rumor is it took 8 years to actually design this new design.

Apple snail kept parachuting down from the edges of the tank whenever he got to the surface, managed to get himself stuck between some rocks and the glass in a spot that was covered by plants so I didn't know he was stuck until I found all the cories chewing on him :cry:

[t]https://i.imgur.com/OMEmn4O.jpg[/t] "Am I a shell dweller now?"

Went to the reef store today to ask a few questions on salt water aquariums. A single good quality protein skimmer is almost as expensive as my entire freshwater setup. Don't think im going to be getting into salt anytime ever

Saltwater equipment can be expensive. If you're a DIY guy you can make a protein skimmer yourself. The principle behind them is fairly straightforward. I probably couldn't afford to get back into saltwater right now.

I meant to do water changes and clean up all that shit that's in the pleco picture but didn't. I feel so bad for neglecting my fish.

OvB you've made me consider just making one for the sake of it to see whether or not I could... [editline]23rd February 2018[/editline] I just saw a video where someone made one out of an empty drink bottle and an air-stone, starting to wonder just how cheap can you go and still have a functional tank [editline]23rd February 2018[/editline] Ugh you did this to me, I noticed the amount of film over the water was getting a little bit extreme so I made a surface skimmer using half a coke bottle and an old hang on the back filter. Only had it running for like 10 minutes and the surface is crystal clear, this worked way better than I expected! [t]https://i.imgur.com/0xUz7f3.jpg[/t] My little betta was not too please since it sucked up his bubble nest...

[QUOTE=archival;53152780]Went to the reef store today to ask a few questions on salt water aquariums. A single good quality protein skimmer is almost as expensive as my entire freshwater setup. Don't think im going to be getting into salt anytime ever[/QUOTE] it doesn't hurt the wallet as much to start small.. I've always kept my reefs under 30g which has kept it around the same price as my fresh (dry-goods and equipment in general). yea some of those skimmers can be pricey and they are generally fussy pieces of equipment. over the years as a reef tank service technician, I've learned that skimmers aren't necessarily the most important piece of the filtration,though they can be a good addition. really all there is to it is good live rock and decent lighting as well as simple filtration. Unfortunately there are companies like Eco-Tech that sell a majority of the reef products for a premium price. its hard as a retailer to do business with them because their really asscracks about margins, but we have to keep their stuff in stock because their about the only ones around that are universally popular and at least decent in quality. They really shine in their Vortech circulation pumps even though they are ridiculously pricey. in short, a simple freshwater like system will be just fine for SW. the only hard part is live stock prices and difficulty of maintaining consistant parameters.

I got snails and plecos to clean my algae but now there is even more algae on the sides since only one snail bothers to go on the glass. Should I stop dropping them algae pellets to make them hungry enough to clean the tank?

Turns out the plecos or snails or both have been cleaning the rock instead of the glass. They're pretty good at giving it the succ since parts of the rock are cleaner than when I take it outside to blast it and give it a scrub

I really wish I didn't take this picture with a messaging app, so it could be full resolution. [t]https://i.imgur.com/sxiB1RM.jpg[/t] I can't believe how well it turned out.

I managed to overstock my tropical tank without realizing it because I finally found loach friends for my kuhli. [t]http://aqadvisor.com/AquStockImage.php?N=&L=36&D=18&H=24&J=&UV=gUS&UL=inch&F=3:200909300005:,2:200909300155:,1:200909300109:,8:200909300114:,2:200909300246:,2:200909300009:,2:200912111343:,1:200909300186:,4:200909300093:,1:201004011155:[/t] I feel bad now [editline]4th March 2018[/editline] (The weird numbers are also from fish dying but me not being able to replace them with identical fish.) [editline]4th March 2018[/editline] For the most part I have nowhere to move any of them either except that tank, which sucks. I [I]could[/I] move the shark to the cichlid tank but I don't really want to risk it and that wouldn't really make a huge difference.

I have algae growing on my plants. Is it worth scrubbing it all the time or should I get some shrimp to munch it off?

I use snails and plecos.

Turns out my snails aren't too fat to climb onto the plants to eat the algae growing on them. I'm worried about the plecos though, I never see them since they're only active at night so I don't know if they're really eating. I assume they are because they sucked the rock clean but I don't know what else they're going after.