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Paludarium - Maybe an Exo-Terra: Thoughts?

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Although I have seen these, I have never owned one.

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#1
The biggest idea with this is the keeping of some sort of fish and adding a tall front sheet of glass with sealer to make the lower portion deeper and better able to accomodate fish keeping.

Considering it to be about 4-6 inches taller than the glass at the bottom, below the opening doors.

This would add a few more gallons of water going from either 16G to around ~28G


If not an Exo-Terra, I have a 46G Bowfront which might end up being the Paludarium.

I like the idea of the Exo-Terra front doors opening for access
Here is a link to the type of tank I am looking at below.

Probably because of getting a used one it could be almost any of the taller 36" larger sizes, though less Gallons if it ends up with a cheap deal of a 24" tall (11G as is or with a siliconed piece of glass, 16 G...)
http://www.exo-terra.com/download/hi..._Terrarium.jpg


So the primary question is does anyone think it is worth the trouble and aesthetic possible issues, to add the extra pane of glass??? Maybe not necessary if I can get a deal on the 36"x18x36".

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This is a project in the simple planning stages. There seems to be quite a bit of planning to be done though.
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#2
Second idea is the possible idea of using a suspended covered egg crate and using just a couple triangle shaped rear side pockets for soil/plants.

Here is where I am like a kindergartener. Realized you couldn't really see the pencil drawing, so hit the other copy with some lines. Sorry for the crude drawings, lol!


Filter and plumbing would come through the center square. Grating would come almost to the 50% back to center point and the area at the triangular back corners would be built up soil pockets and bark and wood with plants and moss.

The center area in front and beside of the filter pump /waterfall would have some soil pockets and roots could in theory grow through the mesh into the water eventually.


So the center rear ~1/3 would also house a overflow for water transfer and for the pump for the center waterfall, with solid braces to hold up the egg crate at the triangle "planter" corners.

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If you could understand any of that...Any thoughts? ;)

I Need Advice For My Goldfish

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Hello there. I'm not very knowledgeable on many parts of keeping fish, I was raised with simple goldfish. I know the basic; detecting signs of sickness, water changes, feedings, and the likes. I have a 10 gallon tank that houses my baby, Snowflake. He's a simple feeder gold fish. He was originally bought by my sister to feed to her piranhas, but I stole him. He is blind, and I believe has cataracts. He has what I believe my sister said was eyepop? His eyes are enlarged and pop from his head. He gets around okay, and has no problem eating. We have a system that when I feed him I splash a bit to let him know. Well his tank mates died recently, a two spot Gurami(I think I spelled it right) and a Betta. I got two new fish a few weeks ago, a calico gold fish and a Oranda. Well things went fine, I used Lifeguard as I always do when introducing new fish. Snowflake seemed to perk up, but then the worse happened. The Oranda wouldn't stop attacking his back fins until they were raw and bleeding. It went on for at least a day before I noticed, and I had no way to separate them at the time so I admit I kind of our the Oranda in a clean pickle jar with a air pump and his plant. I kept him in it for a few days until I got my other smaller tank set up. The calico began picking at his wound so I placed them both in the other tank. Now I'm struggling, because Snowflake isn't acting right. I used the last five day treatment of Lifeguard today, but his wound is healing but he seems depressed now he's alone again? He just hangs out in one spot, either at the top of the water or laying on the bottom. He eats at least, but doesn't seem happy. He's also been getting these white raised spots in his fins and sides, which I believe is Ich but he's been in Lifeguard for a week now so I'm confused as to how he could get it. Maybe the new fish? I'm going to get another Lifeguard kit, but if you have other suggestions I'm all ears. Yes, I know I should have learned and researched when I first got him but that was when I was younger. Ice had him for six years now, and has the last fish that used to belong to my sister before she left. He means the world to me and so I'm finally asking for help because I'm scared something might happen. I don't have a water testing kit, I know I need to get one.

First picture was directly after he got hurt.

Second is after it healed, but when the white spots started appearing on his sides and fins. It's hard to get pictures, as even though he's blind I swear he knows when I want him to stay still.


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Tank in sunlight

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So I set up a tank in my foyer. It is now receiving a lot of sunlight and the water is slightly green. Yes water changes help but I can never seem to get the water clear anymore. Do UV sterilizers work? It is a 55g tank. Any suggestions besides water changes or chemicals?

Thank you

Pygmy corys - how many?

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I have a 20 long that I had as a divided betta tank. The bettas are moving to better accommodations, and I was thinking of just getting a bunch of Pygmy corys, or a smaller group of pygmys and a school of tetras or something. It currently has a hob filter for a 40 gallon, which I can upgrade if needed. Tried a google search and just got a massively wide range of answers from 2 to 60. Aqadvisor actually says around 45. That seems excessive to me. (I like to play on aqadvisor, but don't take it as the end all of information)

Baby Toads in Pond

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We have a small 2,000 gallon pond. I was out there one day and I noticed small baby toads everywhere. They were in the water, on the rocks around the water and by plants. There has to be at least a few hundred of them. I was wondering what I should do with them. I thought that I would let them be and have the goldfish eat them or if I should take out as many as I can and put them in a local pond. I also did not know if all those toads would mess up any of the other life in the pond. Any thoughts would be great!:thanks:

Flow Rate Sensor Recommendation?

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I am planning on plumbing a UV sterilizer off of (not through) the return line from my sump. The flow rate in the return line is much greater than what is optimal for the sterilizer, so I will install gate valves to control the flow rate of the water coming into the sterilizer. However, I would like to be able to accurately measure the incoming flow rate to the sterilizer to make sure it's optimal. I have been trying to find a flow rate sensor that is well constructed, accurate, and reasonably priced (a relative thing, I know).

I don't have a controller system, nor do I plan on getting one, so I'm not looking for anything connected to a controller. Does anyone out there have any experience with flow rate sensors that are accurate and well built?

Thanks for any and all input!

Newbie here: what to do with my pregnant guppies?

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Hi everyone!

I am new to this forum as a member, and I am also pretty new to keeping aquariums, so I could use some advice!

Little intro:
A couple of months ago my boyfriend and I decided we wanted to get shrimps, so we bought 14. In the first 2/3 weeks almost every shrimp died off, and after a few weeks we had only 2 left. In hindsight I realise this was probably due to high nitrite (NO2) levels in the aquarium, as I didn't let it ripe for 2/3 weeks. As the aquarium got quite empty, we decided to try again, but this time with guppies. We changed the water more often, kept a better eye on the temperature, added more plants and everything was going pretty good! Even the shrimps came back to a number of 8 adult shrimps now and many shrimplets in the tank!

We got ourselves 3 female guppies and 2 males (I know the perfect ratio is 1 male-3 females), but tried anyway. The ladies got knocked up in 1 or 2 days and were slowly growing bigger and bigger. When they reached the 21 days, we noticed that the males were really bothering the females a lot and we felt quite bad for them, so we transfered the 3 ladies in a breeding net, but as most people experience: they felt a little stressed, so that wouldn't help them with the pregnancy either. We decided we had to split the males and females up, and moved my Giant African snails from their waterless aquarium back to their old ugly plastic box, and we turned the aquarium into a second home for the females.

When we moved the females, we immediatly got rewarded the same evening (day 28) with atleast 6 guppy fry. As the ladies were trying to eat the fry (they got 1! maybe more) I catched them with a cup and put them into the breeding tank with some plants so they would be safe from the hungry mamas and they seem to be doing pretty well like that.

But, then the horror began: of course I didn't have time to ripe this aquarium, so ammonia levels reached 2,0 mg/l the day after. I immediatly changed 50% twice, and the level dropped below 0,5 mg/l. The next day it spiked again to 1,0 mg/l so I changed water again, and today the ammonia was ok, but nitrite spiked to 5 mg/l, so I couldn't keep the mamas and the babies in there so I moved them back with the shrimps and the males.

The fry are fine in their breeding tanks, but the males are again bothering the females, and even though there are hiding spots, they will find them and they will harrass them. I already turned the light off to give the females a bigger chance to hide, but they are so big! They really need some rest to drop the rest of their fry and they're not getting the chance.

Soooo, my question is: how do I fix this? I don't have a second tank for atleast the next 2 weeks as it needs to ripe. The breeding tank is amazing for fry, but not for pregnant guppies. Is it an idea to put 3 extra females in to get the ratio right? Is there anything else I could do?

Info on the tank they're all in now:
Tanksize: 30 litre (7,9 gallons)
Habitants: 8 adult fireshrimp +shrimplets, some pondsnails, 3 female guppies, 2 male and 5 fry

Water stats (as I know y'all are always asking!:D)
-Temperature: 27 degrees celsius (80,6 fahrenheit)
-pH: 7,5
-gH: 10 dh
-Ammonia (NH3/NH4): <0,5 mg/l
-Nitrate (NO3): 15 mg/l
-Nitrite (NO2): 0,5 mg/l
-Phosphate (PO4): 0,5 mg/l

Thanks for reading this long *** post and thanks in advance for the answers!
Lots of love, Pytroc

Epsom Salt treatment for Popeye?

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Hello, I have a 10 gallon aquarium with a male betta in it. A few days ago I noticed it had a whitish glossed eye that may be swollen. It appears he may have popeye. I already did a 90% water change as well. I was also reading up on treatments and I was thinking I could try epsom salt treatment before I try medicine. I'm not sure if this would be the proper thing to do or not. And I do not know the proper ratio. I'm sort of new to Betta keeping so I would appreciate any advice on this whole issue! Thank you!!

Hello Everyone!

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Hi I'm Marissa! This place looked like a great way to get help from more experienced fish keepers when I need it! I have been owning aquariums for around 4 years now. I started with a 30 gallon tropical community tank (which got taken over by pest snails ugh) , and now I have a 10 gallon with a Betta that I've had for around 2 and a half months now. And I have already created a thread about my Betta because I'm worried about him, and I think he might have popeye :( I am not as experienced as I'd like to be, but I'm hoping I will eventually learn a lot more! Thanks everyone!

New member, new to aquarium fish keeping.

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Hello folks. I got into this hobby about a year ago when I happened upon a cheap used 130 gallon aquarium for sale. i then proceeded to watch every YouTube video on aquariums that I could find. So I got around to setting up my first tank back in January, it has been up and running for 6 months now. I am fairly pleased with how it turned out but my dang neon tetras keep going belly up and my water tests are all good. If anyone has advice on how to keep neon tetras, I would be happy to hear it. I may just give up on them and stick to other more hardy fish. Thanks

Takashi Amano's final masterpiece

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I'm sure many have seen this. I just ran across it.. So I am sharing it here for others to be see.



Takashi Amano - Creator of the Nature Aquarium • Aquascaping Love



Lisbon Nature Aquarium, Takashi’s Final Masterpiece.


https://youtu.be/XOXaaIG4wew


Quote:

In 2013, Amano received an invite from the aquarium Oceanario de Lisboa in Portugal, one of the most renowned aquaria in Europe, to design and install the world’s largest Nature Aquarium. The challenge laid down was to create this aquascape of unprecedented scale within one week. To achieve success with this project, Amano spent an extensive period of time planning and preparing for the feat. He had assistance from people he had trained in his methods and workings to support and work under his leadership for the project.

The grand opening ceremony was 21st April 2015, opening to the public on the following day. Critics acclaimed the Nature Aquarium as a masterpiece. It was a testament to Takashi Amano’s passion and creativity.

Tropical Paradise was the concept of this aquascape and displayed Takashi’s passion and understanding of the tropical forests. The delicate planting compromised aquatic plants that were placed as if they were in a tropical jungle.

how to get rid of snails

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ok so my 10 gallon tank is full of pond snails the tank has 3 amano shrimp, 5 orange shrimp and about 5 baby shrimp. i used to have assassin snails in the tank and they pretty much got rid of the snails but they also killed alot of my shrimp

Once upon a time there was a mussel

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Hello there!

My name is Manon, I'm from the Netherlands and I've always had a huge passion for fish. My first memory is owning a freshwater mussel when I was 2/3 years old and even though it didn't do much, I cried my eyes out for days when he died 😂.

Anyway, I started with aquariumkeeping in February 2017 and I love how much progress I've made and how much I'm learning. I really could spend all day talking about fish, but the people around me were getting crazy so I decided that this might be a better way to vent!😁

The longterm goal for me is to have a Lionfish in the future. They're are my fav fish and absolutely stunning. Right now I have two 8 gallon tanks with fire shrimps and 5 guppies and fry. I'm planning to start my first saltwater/coral aquarium later this year.

Neon Guppy Breeding

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Does anyone have any experience with breeding neon guppies? And so, did you mix them with other patterns? What color variations did you have? Please let me know :D

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New cardinal

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I recently moved and broke down my reef. Not ready to do the investment of setting up a new reef so going to do FW.

I plan to make cardinals the main part of the tank. My water ph However is 7.5.

Is simple LFS acidic buffer sufficient ? I'm trying to have a low maintenance tank.

Also any suggestions on a nice show fish to offset the cardinal background. Thought of discus but those are way more work than I'm interested in right now.

Tank advice

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I've had my tank for at least a year (dimensions are 3ft long x 2ft high x 1ft wide) the tank is currently cold water and I'm currently changing to warm or tropical and I'm wondering what's the best warm/tropical fish to keep ?

Led aqaurium hoods

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I've been looking for led aqaurium hood for my 30" top for 29 gallon. Find some but I want day and night bulbs aqueon has one but comes with 1 day bulb, marineland has one but you have to lift whole lid for feeding,and tetra has one but comes with 1 bulb and has a feeding port that's always open which I don't like. I did find 30" aqueon light bar that looks like it could possibly replace flourescent but not sure? Any ideas or anyone used light bar for existing hood they have?

Using Seachem Prime daily in lieu of filter. How practical is it?

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Hello,

I posted recently about moving my Crowntail Betta out of his 2.5 gallon rectangular tank and into a 3 gallon bowl. (I already have a Veilteil Betta in a 5.5 gallon tank, heated, filtered, and cycled. I am truly following the best practices in terms of betta care in that first 5.5g tank). So I know the bowl is not the best habitat. I was immediately advised not to use a bowl because its rounded nature could make the betta disoriented and lead to agitation. The glass bowl arrived yesterday and, purely from an aesthetic perspective, it is beautiful. I put the Crowntail in the bowl to see how he would do, and so far I haven't noticed issues with his behavior. In fact, he is quite active and inspecting his new surroundings. I will be adding more plants.

Now, regarding filtration: Currently, there is no filter. On my last thread a couple people had suggested the Walstad method if I was to go filterless. I need to do some more research on that, but I imagine it will take some to establish that. There is also a model of a filter I am considering for the bowl. In the meantime, until I get filtration sorted out for this bowl, I plan to dose the volume of the bowl each day with Seachem Prime. I understand this detoxifies harmful ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate for 24-48 hours. My main question is: how practical is this method? Can Prime actually serve in lieu of a filter/cycled tank if used daily?

I will be monitoring my betta Khorshid, and if he appears agitated in the bowl, I will remove him, and get him a larger rectangular or cube with a filter. In the meantime, I am seeing if I can after all make this bowl work for him.

Finnex Planted+ 24/7 SE

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For a regular dimension 75g with dirt and sand substrate, what level of light would this be considered? And would you advise C02 with it if I hope to add plants.

Dwarf puffers not in stock through LFS

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These are not currently in stock at my lfs. Now that my cycle is complete, I would like to order these, but since I can't get them locally, does anyone have any experience with online companies or forums where I could buy about three of them?
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