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

Yeah, I haven't set it up yet, I'm just leaving everything out until I'm happy how it looks. Seen about 20 of those drip loop safety instructions. Had a power monitor on it to calculate running costs. And which one is spot on, the white, or the tan I have currently?

Apologies for the shaky cam, asked my girlfriend to record and she's not great at holding things steady. Also I whoops'd at the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GMgIGBfyHY

Finally putting my 10L tank to use, going to use it as a quarantine for all the new plants I went out and got. Im considering giving the whole ecosphere thing a shot with it so if the plants take off I might just leave most of them in it and see what happens.

Ruined all my driftwood with bleach, accidentally left it in too long.....

I think the sand looks perfectly fine, it looks quite natural. If you want to play to the strengths of its color, get some darker colored driftwood and stones, as well as dark green/dark red plants to put to the back of the aquarium, and then brighter light green plants on the front, and if you're not set on specific fishes yet, get some fishes that are either dark or have darker stripes. That'd help give a visual balance where your eyes are drawn to the front of the aquarium (which is lighter in color) and because the fishes are darker in color, they "pop out" and become easy to spot quickly. This all assumes that you want a fairly "normal" aquarium though, the rules change a bit if you want a more specific theme (fully natural habitat, minimalist stuff, mountainous looking scape, etc.) I would advice against using aquarium "toys" that are very clearly plastic, IMO they make the entire aquascape look cheaper and more artificial. It's fine to use non-natural objects in it, just make sure they're not the cheapest plastic castles available. Also make sure to check that your fishes are compatible with each other when you get them, as well as compatible with the environment, temperature etc.

When you forget to wash the gravel before putting it into the tank. May as well have just filled it with milk.

problem is, its not fully bleached due to the weight falling off at night. Next time im just gonna boil the shit out of it

Depends on how dirty it is, I didn't wash the sand I put in the puffer tank and it was only milky until it got filtered out, no more milky.

Hm, the sponge in my tropical tank's filter turned red. https://i.imgur.com/i3eoLPp.jpg

So about canisters, my budget ia $400AUD max. Thinking aquatop CF400 vs fluval 406. Heard nightmares about the fluvals impeller cover tho

Never had trouble with Fuvals personally. Had a 306 iirc and never had issues with it.

The only complaint I've ever heard about Fluvals was the price. Eheim is another good brand. Honestly most canisters out there will do the job so long as you maintain them.

eheim blows my budget out of the water unfortunately. I might just bite the bullet. Also would I even need carbon media/purigen? I was thinking of going coarse sponge>fine sponge>bio balls>carbon media>ceramic noodles

Imo if you have decent bio filtration theres no need for carbon. My canister is just 3 layers of sponge of differing levels and then a heap of bio balls + noodles

This thread is so nice. Reminds me of the good 'ol days with my turtle before he sadly passed away. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CsGknppUMAAGSui.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0FG2spUkAAaRSP.jpg I'll probably start frequenting this thread more whenever I eventually get another turtle in the future. Red-eared sliders are so precious.

Carbon has been associated with lateral line erosion. Use at your own risk. Bio balls don't have enough surface area to justify the cost. Most ceramic pieces have pore sizes that are too small and just get clogged. Your bacteria need O2, and they can't get it if water isn't actually flowing through the media. If you're looking for ceramic stuff, MarinePure is excellent, but expensive. Honestly pot scrubbers and lava rubble will work just as well and are way cheaper. Save whatever money you were going to spend on fancy media and put it into a canister with a good pump.

I thought it only cause LLE in tangs? What about purigen then? So you would recommend pot scrubbers over ceramic or bio balls?

Man. I sure haven't been around lately. As an update my 125 is doing ok on the patio. Only lost 2 fish over winter. The 29 gallon is doing good but needs a prune. ust been busy and had a lot of shit happen to me, I figured posting here would be alright. Too much for one break to check the new (ish) forum out.

One of my puffers didn't make it, no idea what happened, it was just laying on the bottom when I got home from work still breathing, then about 10 minutes ago I looked and he wasn't.

Stolen from reddit https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/134138/9387ced6-d10f-4441-82cb-c0b973ec386c/bbSCsOQAOG-Az57ks4HduqXbEYe95GyhKm8i1r7xQcw.png

Found some sweet black granite for my setup, now all i need is driftwood and ill begin cycling

It's been documented best in tangs. Most people have stopped using it after that study came out. Purigen is pretty sweet, but again it's expensive. A tank full of plants is probably going to pull out just as much DOC. Both you and your fish will probably appreciate plants over purigen. I'm a big fan of lava rock. I picked up a ~5kg sack for $4 at a hardware store. I've used it in a number of tanks as filtration media, and I've also put it in nylon bags under my substrate to elevate things and save money on substrate. For biological media you just need something with a lot of surface area that's chemically inert. Pretty much anything will work, but you won't get the most bang for your buck with bio balls or ceramic noodles.

I have sand made from basalt, it's awesome. I also have some basalt as rocks in my puffer tank.

Hardware shops here suck none have rocks big enough, I wanted to make almost mountaind in my tank, Had to find rocks at building supply places, they just let me take whatever I wanted for free due to paying by the tonne.

I heard lava rock can be hit and miss, due to unknown impurities. Also, wouldnt ceramic be fine provided you use mechanical filtering first?

As the biofilm grows on the ceramic rings/noodles they usually get clogged up. They work fine, but the performance doesn't really merit the cost in my opinion.

Man, Dwarf Puffers sleep like they're dead. It's terrifying seeing them curled up in a ball, then you look at them for a while and they're just staring at you with their adorable eyes no matter where you look from.

I caved and bought Malaysian driftwood, currently boiling out tannins. Got the fluval 406, was wondering, should I use a coarse sponge then filter floss > purigen/carbon > seachem matrix > biomax ceramic, seem good? I tried lava rocks from around here that were cheap, but they all seem to raise pH. so that's a no-go.

Lava rock will not alter your pH. Seachem matrix is literally pumice/lava rock. You really don't want to load your filter with any chemical filtration while you're trying to cycle. You need to feed the bacteria to get them established.

The lava rock available here is contaminated with other minerals then