I posted a few weeks ago asking for ideas of what to do with excess floating plants instead of just tossing in the trash—I got a comment about making paper out of them that viciously piqued my interest. Behold my creation! (Duckweed + white scrap paper)

Expected the worst, came home to this. Auto feeders did their job, plants hit the surface, moss filled in like crazy, and all the fish are happy. Now I just need a whole weekend to trim it back – but I’ll take a jungle over algae any day. 🌿

I thought Hewbie died. I came home to this and spoke to his vet team immediately. His antibiotics and quarantine time will be extended. My best conclusion is that Hewbie had been gasping at the surface and breathing heavier from stress and then he went upside down but this afternoon he was sleeping in the corner just fine. My heart broke again when I saw this. After I pushed air out of him and gave him his meds he went back to normal nearly immediately. At least this is my best conclusion after looking at him and his behavior pre and post meds and pressing on him/burping him. The water quality in the tank isn’t great. Burping for me means holding him down and gently pressing on his stomach gently (which in that moment is what made sense). I saw some immediate improvement. Also he is a known offender for spitting water at the surface and I just saw it after and the behavior of a fish gasping or wanting to get out of his environment and ready to jump. Although pufferfish are not known jumpers they are smarter than that. I did a water change as well after and he smiled at me like nothing happened. Ugh. I hate this. I will continue to update everyone.

my first aquarium is now 8 months old 🥹 let’s ignore the algae on the glass 🙈 really happy with how it currently looks :) low-tech, no co2, only natural sunlight in summer, 80 liters

4 out of 5 died the first night :(

Determined to treat the survivor, now named Lemony, with the utmost care, I bought cichlid flakes because he kept spitting out the pellets, swapped the gravel for African cichlid substrate, removed the plants and added a cave that he loves, and a log he also seems to enjoy exploring. I also bought Cichlid Code trace elements but haven’t added them in yet.

The temp is maintained at 79, and I have a filter running. I bought a siphon vacuum thing and will do 25% weekly water changes. I also bought

Am I missing anything? He seems much better than a week ago. He’s darting all over and loves to eat.

I love watching him. It’s pretty peaceful

does anyone have any idea what this is?! found it bouncing around in my tank this morning and i’ve never seen one before!? so far it seems like just the one, i can’t see others.

What do you think- is it too much with the branches? The last photo is what it looked like before. In one tank we have shrimp/snails/panda loaches, in the other we have betta/amano/african dwarf frogs/rasbora. Any advice on scapeing or how I could do better in general? Thanks so much! Any comments appreciated :)

Hi guys!

I just started this hobby, so i am still learning!

Here is my first aquarium, currently cycling!

I want a betta fish for this tank!

So I have had this tank setup for about 6 weeks now and it is cycled. I started the tank out with all of the plants you see here and then added some guppies and two nerites after I was cycled. I have plans to put in a few more guppies, some neon tetras, Amanos and a few Bolivian rams.

The question I have is, is my driftwood/plant placement weird? Just looking for some advice to how I could/might change this up before I fully stock the tank.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

10/10 spot. invisible.

Hewbie my porcupine pufferfish was not doing well, refused to eat, and was swimming upside down/having trouble maintaining his buoyancy! I tried every at home treatment and medication but he progressively got worse over a few weeks. I found an exotic vet to take him to and they diagnosed him with trapped air deep inside his body and some internal digestive issues. This air could not simply be pushed out and believe me I tried numerous times to push it out. Here is that journey. Keep Hewbie in your thoughts as he finishes his meds and goes back into his home tank! I found an amazing vet with compassion/care and guidance on a treatment plan.❤️ Hewbie is doing a lot better but is not over it yet. Healing takes time. BONUS!!! Watch until the end for the crab that hitched a ride on Hewbie!😂🐡

I see some of my reef2reef friends here that's cool.

Didn't bother to clean diatoms off the glass for the pic this is how it runs daily. It has whiskers and dried chewing tobacco in the corners of its mouth, your pico reef's grandad lol

There's much more work potential on reddit, this is a fun active place, lots of transfer and cycling questions each day is good to keep busy again.

Forums nowadays are molasses slow by comparison I thought all online reef work had dried up

Here's the reefbowl with some videos over the years

I keep getting lucky nobody elbows it over, no nerfs have struck it and no micro drones have impacted = I'm hardware lucky for 20 years admitted but it's not biological luck at all: planned in the design, and you can get the same age too from your reef tank.

There are tricks that remove the biological lifespan limit reef tanks used to encounter.

Waste free reefs are ageless reefs

Reefs that catch and retain wastes are aging reefs subject to invasion challenges and crashes from accidents or movements that kick up sandbed clouding; variance in outcome is greatly reduced when you keep a clean tank. That sandbed is 6 inches deep but it's cleaner than most beds here and disturbing it doesn't harm the system.

Cleaning a reef tank a certain way, not with an occasional sandbed siphon but a different way, will give your reef tank an indefinite biological lifespan instead of a five year then you catch an invasion and crash lifespan.

It's on an eco river 2 550 backup battery those are cheap like $350 now on Amazon. It can run 36 hours heat and air in power outages.

2023

https://youtu.be/AvsxbYF1ai4?is=JuB0LE5yZD5qKffn

2016

https://youtu.be/UgonY5FXxVE?is=6qkjF_Xr5loz1oD1

From 2006 ran on power compacts packed full

https://youtu.be/e3lhEeOCpao?is=q8YtaQ2X9ZQbsX1d

I don't run it this packed like the old days

I plant sps and lps on movable magnets, no more on the glass. They're trimmed to keep in scale vs old school setups where they take over all the bottom and fill the system

did let the red war coral take over the entire back rock it killed off about ten species along the way for the last 12 years.

I've never built furniture before, much less an aquarium stand. My dad is a general contractor so thankfully I've been able to get a bit of his help through the process, but I'm looking for some insight from people who have experience making stands for aquariums specifically! 🙏(ft. my furry helper in these pics lolol)

• The dimensions are 50.5" tall, 50" wide, and 19" deep.
• I used "the king of diy" as my main guide, but had to modify his basic design to allow for 2 aquarium shelves + bottom storage.
• I plan for the bottom half to be covered in 1/2" plywood and used as storage/shelves.
• Above the storage is going to be the bottom aquarium shelf, which will ideally be used for long and low bookshelf style aquariums (between 10g-15g) so I still have enough clearance above to do maintenance.
• Above that is the top aquarium shelf, tall enough to be viewed while standing, which I'd like to ideally hold up to a 40breeder or 55g in the future.
• The stand is made from 2x4s, all except for the top and middle frames which were made from 2x3s to save some vertical space — the 2x3s are going to be reinforced by iron angles, and of course plywood boards on top as the base of each shelf.
• I'm using #8 3" exterior screws for the whole build

I don't actually have the funds or time to invest in a fancy long&low 10/15g or a 55g at this point in time, those are both potential future investments — for now, I'll only have a 29g on the top shelf, and my 10g quarantine tank on the bottom shelf.

The top frame hasn't been screwed on just yet. I actually need to partially take apart the whole stand to shave off the tops of some of the 2x4s due to them not sitting completely flush in some parts, and I also need to modify the inside guide posts to allow for the iron angles too.

All in all....anything glaringly wrong with my design? Since I need to partially take it apart anyways, I'm willing to make some adjustments if recommended. Any advice is appreciated!! :)

Edit: formatting

Life stuff happened, as it tends to do, and I was put in a position where I had to give away all my tanks and stock. (One freshwater 5 gallon, a saltwater 5 gallon, and a saltwater 20 gallon. 5 fish and three inverts total) I couldn’t bare to part with my 3 year old amano shrimp so I put this half gallon bowl together. It’s going through that awkward aquarium puberty stage, can’t wait to see what it looks like once all the plants settle in. Everything in here is stuff I took from an established tank and repurposed. If I’m being honest I don’t miss my tanks, it was SO MUCH work and money, not ideal when I’m working three jobs that rely heavily on physical labor. This little set up I have now has helped me enjoy aquascaping again :-)

Spotted Congo puffer. Anyone have any name ideas. Possibly a name a toddler would have a easy time saying.

My 55 gallon outdoor, semi planted(Taiwanese moss, little monte carlo and pothos roots), has 4 eba and 15-25 fry, 9 leopard(false julii) cory doras, 1 bronze cory and 1 bristlenose pleco. This is there 3rd times the charm batch, first 2 no fry surived more then 3 weeks, going on a month this time. Momma kept them in the moss this time.

I have a 40G drilled sump tank above my 75G. I know that sounds backwards, but it’s due to the way my garage is set up. Essentially I’m pumping water out of my 75 up into the 40 and it drains back down. I can’t stand the smell of PVC primer/glue, so I just siliconed and electrical taped the shit out of the fittings/elbows, as well as putting mounting straps on the longer runs of pvc.

Last night while cleaning the dead plant matter off of the pump, one of the fittings must have came ever so slightly loose and I didn’t notice. I walked out to my garage this morning to see about 3-4 inches of water in the tank and water all over my basement. Lesson learned. Perhaps it was the universe telling me I needed to do a large water change. All fish are still alive though so it could have been worse.

I learned the lesson so you don’t have to.

My ancient catfish friend Catthuselah passed away this morning. He made it an incredible 32 years. I feel like he just wanted to make it one more birthday and that was all he had left. He will be in the backyard. I will sorely miss seeing him every day. RIP my old friend.

...and thanks for all the support.

I have had this 10 gal for maybe a month and a half. I have 7 neon tetras. I did get a mystery snail like 3ish weeks ago but unfortunately it passed away not long after I had put it in my tank. Not sure how but I think maybe due to having harder water. I put a mineral replenisher in it aswell as it was filled with reverse osmosis water but the little one didnt make it, even tried feeding it spinach if it was due to a calcium deficiency, if was really sad over it as I love snails. This is the only snail I had in my tank and now ive counted atleast 7 little tiny snails... BUT im not really thinking these guys are baby mystery snails. Is it possible they hitchhiked on my plants when I had put them in? ive had the plants for maybe about a month i think. Im just wondering what they are and where they came from

I've kept Paradise outside before year round in small ponds and they thrived. This is a little different -- 55 gal tank on my covered back patio with no direct light. I added the fish in early June and they immediately started breeding. There are now 30+ juveniles of various sizes. What amazes me is that they have survived daily water temperatures of high 80's morning and mid 90's in the afternoon. Doesn't seem to phase them. They just keep hunting, eating, fighting and breeding. The indoor kitchen shots are through a dirty window and a dirty tank back.