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

I have an old Finnex Fugeray, it's killed nearly every plant I've put in my 29 since the light doesn't make it to the bottom to grow the plants back up. The $15 Nicrew on my 5 gallon grows plants better in it. Those Fluvals look pretty nice, might have to get one.

http://wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/51f9eb33fae.jpeg This is one of the reef systems I work on currently as a maintenance tech. its a real fun one to work on. specs: -1000g display -Metal-halide/t-5HO lighting mix, growing corals like weeds, pretty much have to trim them every day -Two 90g refugiums and one 150g frag tank, all connected to 200g sump in the fish room (or should I say lab, the place is massive) -400g saltwater mixing station with an 80g ATO reservoir -One of the two refugiums are exclusively for breeding Banggai Cardinal Fish, currently we are working on raising 23 juveniles -Full Neptune system setup (still waiting to get our hands on the new Trident Water Tester) -GEO calcium reactor and a massive ReefOctopus skimmer, BRS Jumbo reactors, and Two massive Reeflo pumps -Massive AquaFX RO unit. not sure what model.

Fucking hell a 90 Gallon refugium? My whole reef tank was 90 gallons. Got any pictures of the business end on that thing? Well made filtration systems are like porn

definitely a great white, now that you mention it. also uses a booster pump (its a real pain in the ass, in the process of fixing it) I wish I could get more pictures, my boss low-key took that one of the display. the tank owner is pretty nervous about pictures being taken in his house. I might get one in the future though, its a real treat.

Completely understandable. Idk if I'd be amused or creeped out if I saw pictures of my tank that I didn't take pop up on the internet haha

yea, definitely. I sketched a rough layout from memory to get an idea, sort of an un-conventional fishroom layout. it's a little off-scale to show all of the equipment http://wduwant.com/index_uploads/uploads/64e99828bf9.jpg top view: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/236079/244a614f-4093-46c4-8623-44d790749f81/image.png pardon the rough drawings

That's crazy

yea it can be a bear to maintain sometimes, but certainly a fun experiment. I didn't get to do the install, but I was there for the planning and delivery. lol 12 guys to carry it and we had to cut down a wall to get it in.

So you work as/for an aquarium install/maintenance place? Obviously do professional work. How's that gig?

I'm building up my shoal. These little fuckers rarely want to do it though so it kills the cool effect. I need to get a bigger fish like a discus so they got something to fear and kicks in the shoaling behavior. https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/ff4c88e0-019d-4d04-8c27-25a048cb35e1/IMG_20190516_221229.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/80cf8de4-b901-4c84-b781-067660f3ed0c/IMG_20190516_221217.jpg I want more

yessir! its been great for the most part! i've been in the industry for about 4 1/2 years. the salary is decent and work is stable. many of the accounts I do are pretty decent reefs, but there are a few terrible tanks peppered in there that I have to service. I have a good mix of residential and commercial accounts, both fresh and salt water tanks. Most of my freshwater accounts are commercial and all of them are boring and easy except for a few. The rest is just reef tanks and the occasional turtle tank or F/O system. It's hard work, but gratifying, there's nothing like taking over a tank from some previous dummy that was working on the tank and improving it successfully.

I've moved Kirby, my axolotl, into my 20-gallon aquarium. I wasn't expecting to have to do this so soon but he got bigger really quickly and I felt cruel for leaving him in the small bowl. It's been an uphill battle. I've been slowly filling the tank with conditioned water, just a few cups every 15 minutes or so as to not change the temperature or the bacterial conditions of the tank too quickly. I need to get the water level up near the top of the tank so that i can start running the filter again. Having to do daily water changes has gotten a lot more cumbersome with the additional water in the tank. I also need to add the substrate again. I'm considering adding it back in a little at a time after letting it soak in some of his tank water for a while. I also ordered him a better hide. I had a huge castle for him but got nervous about its rough edges and small holes where he might get stuck. I'm really worried because he's just being really lethargic, hiding out along the edges and in the corners of the tank. The water is really cloudy despite my best efforts so I can't see if anything's wrong. I'm not even sure if he's still eating. I just drop bloodworms in, wait an hour, then siphon out whatever he didn't eat. I just feel really bad for him. I'm basically having to set up his home around him and I feel like I'm just going to stress him to death in the process.

Don't worry about him being lethargic; axolotls are some of the laziest animals in general. It sounds like you're doing great so far!

First off just wanted to give a quick update: Kirby's doing fine, he's started swimming up to the surface and checking things out. I even got a little video of him: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/487754227561660416/580511124194328577/VID_20190521_174322.mp4 Okay, just wanted to make sure. I see an animal burying its face in the corner and I can't help but feel bad or like something is wrong. I'll look into switching up his food source. I have some frozen nightcrawlers that I could cut up for him but I'll look into dew worms and cichlid cubes. I also got a tip from someone on reddit about how to feed him and keep the mess under control: I bought some mason jars that have a very slightly tapered neck. If I put a piece of frozen food inside, it will float, but be trapped against the top of the jar until it melts and settles on the bottom of the jar. He can then eat the food off the bottom of the jar, and I can retrieve it once he's done, taking the mess with it. They've got a very wide opening so there's zero chance of him getting stuck in any way, and have flat sides so it won't roll around the tank at all. I'll eventually transition to just putting food in the tank by hand once he gets bigger. Right now he's still pretty small, only about 2 - 2.5 inches. Once he gets older then I can feed him bigger food. That'll be easier.

So uh, I got really bored the other day and dug out my old hermit crab tank, cleaned it, and bought a slew of really really cheap fish from the local petstore. It's pretty much entirely like a dozen 16 cent minnows, a half dead ghost shrimp, and a red beta. Unfortunately I'm a bit of a retard and seriously underestimated the complexity of owning / running a fishtank so now I've got no idea how to make this tank not-a-hellhole on a shoestring budget. If you guys could throw me some ideas and advice it'd be much appreciated as I feel really really bad for these guys right now especially after reading the OP. Also, water plants: cheap ones? Low maintenance ones? Other info: ~10 gallon tank Well water non chlorinated, ~ozone treated~ or something like that. Wells 600ft deep because of some dumb memeshit and has no sulfur. Fish have been in there for ~3 days. A couple of random blue pebbles in there. Obviously undecorated, recommendations? https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/548350993335713792/580533726392352775/0521191912a.jpg

Dude, whaaaat!? I just came back to facepunch today, and now this is top in the General thread! Well, it just so happens, I'm starting my aquarium adventures (I've done fish before, that was a while ago) with an axolotl. I'm super excited, all of the gear is coming in the mail by tommorow. My axie is going to be coming later when I get the water ready and have all of the stuff inside. I would wait for all that, but I wanted to post today because of the insane coincidence. Also, if you may be so inclined, there is this listing on eBay for a 20 gallon fish tank that is insanely cheap (and not a scam, since I got far enough to order and receive it), only 60 dollars. I'm not sponsored or anything, this is just a really cool offer for anyone interested. I'm very, genuinely surprised! I will update you all when I have Ordis in a new comfy home. And yes, I decided on the name prematurely.

Anubias is a low maintenance and low cost plant. It explodes in even low light. Get some gravel or sand. Your betta will likely eat that shrimp if he hasn't already.

If you go back a page I have a shot of my tank and all of the plants in it are fairly cheap and grow well in a tank with no CO2 system set up. (currently contains Java ferns, Java fern is A+ in my books. Slightly more expensive than most low light plants you can pick up at a pet store but its incredibly hardy. I started with one and its produced so many new ferns (New ones grow from the ends of its leafs then drop off) Im having to throw a few out every other week. I hear guppy grass and hornwort are also really good for a low cost/tech setup, been meaning to grab some hornwort myself to add some variety to my tanks rear

Buy a glass top/vera top, you'll have to be really careful with the sizes though as one brand is generally a little off for different size rims. I think the marineland ones generally fit best for me. https://www.liveaquaria.com/product/5352/?pcatid=5352 Get a cheap LED light off Amazon, I've had really good luck with my Nicrew and they have some nicer ones now. Also pick up a digital timer so you can automate the light, I have this one but it seems to be out of stock or something now. https://www.amazon.com/NICREW-Aquarium-Planted-Spectrum-Freshwater/dp/B07G5BSYYB/ https://www.amazon.com/Century-Heavy-Digital-Programmable-Timer/dp/B00MVF16JG/ You realllly need a heater too, these generally aren't cheap and I'm going to shill Aqueon because when I told them my last two died, they happily sent me two even though I had tossed it when I replaced it. They also recently updated the design so they might be more reliable now, although my 10 gallon one has lasted like 6 times longer than the ones in my 29 gallon. https://www.amazon.com/Aqueon-Aquarium-Heater-Black-Multi/dp/B07JWLGMMX/ Make sure to get a bucket that's easy to pour with a spout and a siphon with a priming pump, no point in saving $5 and sucking aquarium water. https://www.amazon.com/Laifoo-Aquarium-Siphon-Cleaner-Cleaning/dp/B07DBJ9YVB/ As far as substrate, the local aquarium place repackages sand blasting sands. They should be pretty clean without any harmful stuff in them because they're for cleaning but you'd probably be better off buying locally and price checking online but shipping 10-20lbs of substrate isn't very cheap. Decorations, I would have recommended DrFostersandSmith but since they've been Petco a while and acquired LiveAquaria too they moved all the fish stuff to there and their inventory isn't great anymore. They might still have a bunch on clearance that you can mix in with some other stuff. I use Seachem Prime and API Melafix with every water change. https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-116043304-Prime-500ml/dp/B00025694O/ https://www.amazon.com/API-MelaFix-for-Aquariums-16oz/dp/B0061POEXW/ Also might not be a bad idea to get a better filter depending on what you have, Fluval makes some really great filters but really what you want is something with readily available. cheap filter media or designed in a way where you can use your own that you cut/made yourself for much much cheaper. None of this covers the basics of aquarium ownership though, you really need to go learn up on how to properly cycle a tank and general ownership ASAP.

Monster Fish Keepers is really useful as you can usually scale their information down for smaller tanks.

Funny you say that I started with 3 shrimp, again as expected of my shoe string budget they were like 16c, and two were alive one pregnant one was dead after the first night. Now the pregnant one is alive and the other two are really dead. So far though the beta hasn't had any interest in the shrimp though. Also thanks for the plant recommendation. I've been looking into live plants and as you recommended java plants came up a lot, as well as the Anubias. Thank you. Yeah I'm seeing marimo balls all over. Grabbing one of these bois. Yeah shipping is $$$ so I'm just gonna role local. Definitely at the bare minimum grabbing some prime.

The two main groups have come together now and they seem to be shoaling as one. Maybe they heard my complaints, or maybe it just took a few more days of them warming up to each other. Either way, theres only two that seem on the out group and they're both kinda runts. That window glare is annoying. Hard to get good pictures during the day. They're also too fast for my camera so I figured making a gif would be better https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/1861/2e242070-e1fa-4c3d-83f8-e5d5eab0c5cd/20190522_193934-ANIMATION.gif

Progress, two more plants not shown. Also ignore the murky look it's not actually murky. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/512430412178653224/580923117656866857/0522192050.jpg Still waiting on other stuff in the mail, got gravel a lil' house and some water plants at the store today.

It might be a given but obligatory "Do you know about water parameters such as PH and the nitrogen cycle?"

As stated before i'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to my fish project hence the haphazardly throwing fish right in. I don't know what the current PH level is nor the current nitrogen levels but I have a test kit coming in the mail from amazon. I'll remove 25% of the water rn and replace it so they don't croak on me.

Please read this and all other parts: https://m.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=76 That site also has tons of other great articles that will be very helpful to you.

Don't do this. Discus and angelfish are natural predators and you will see them slowly disappear. Their fear will literally be justified by that point. Tetra species when introduced to a new area as a school will be exploratory to investigate their surroundings, then coalesce once they feel comfortable that everything seems safe. All three species that you chose naturally will produce mixed shoals, akin to how zebras and wildebeest will group as there is safety in numbers. It's a natural behavior as neon tetras and cardinal tetras are both native to the Orinoco river and closely-related and glowlights naturally associate with other species. I'd recommend some plants as all three species will find the lack of shade to be stressful, especially as any remaining tannin from the woodwork disappears.

Want to be clear I never meant I'd introduce a predator to make the Tetras stick together. I've just always heard that having anything larger or abundant in the tank will make shoaling fish stick together more. Even having the same effect on the discus. I've been wanting to get discus for this tank as the primary stock, but wanted to start with other first first as discus are less Hardy and more expensive so I wanted the tank well established by then. I've been reading that Cardinals are fine tank mates for discus and that they're generally too large for discus to eat. Any discuss get would be small, in the 3" range. I assumed since this was said to be the case on many discus sites/threads, that it wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't intentionally put a predator with prey on purpose. It was a lapse of judgement on my part to mix Neons with Cardinals to expand my shoal given the parameter difference between them. I'll make sure from this point on to only expand with Cardinals. Those 5 Glowlights I've had for years from a much smaller tank and they're absolute units. Towering over all the others. I want to moderately plant this tank and will look into swords. I have some small plants in there but between the bad tannin outbreak and subpar lighting, they aren't doing well and I plan to redo them all. I'd also like to get some ground cover plants like dwarf baby tears, but I'm open to suggestions.

It depends heavily on the discus personality and gene expression for size, which you have little control over. I've seen reports of them even eating adult zebra danios, which reach 3" and are active at all times of the day or night, as they're quick to sate their hunger if you even skip feeding them for one day and have the jaw power to rip live fish apart. It's going to ultimately be a gamble on whether you end up with a tank where they're tolerant of the cardinals and glowlights or not. Though 5-7" is normal, it's not unheard of to end up wit 9" behemoths that would love to snack on them. The neons will be in perpetual risk regardless of what you do, as discus will hunt in the early dawn and prey on the sleeping. (Angelfish will almost always eat the neons and can fit the other two in their mouths, as they generally get bigger than discus)

We all gotta start somewhere! The hardware just came in, the tank has been running with Prime and filter to get Nitrates and Nitrites out, which has worked a charm. It's still very soft and acidic, something that I hope to mitigate by replacing a good portion of the water with treated tap and some baking soda (calcium carbonate). https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/377014/e617e9fb-a32a-4c61-937d-1b65341acff5/1558667518968230686533.jpg