Posts by darrie53

Are there any marine fish (excluding any species that are way too big or species that are endangered or rare in nature as-is) that should NOT be kept by the average home aquarium hobby owner, and why?

I do not, since it is a straight-up PITA to remove from canister filters and has little overall benefits unless you know you want to remove some trace element from the water over time (and know you replace them semi-frequently).

I don’t think there is ever too much filter media for things do grow, but there can be as you noted way too much water current generated by filters. Any reason you think your current filter media setup is lacking (showing signs of becoming not cycled a tad or something different)?

I currently have a glass top, a plastic hood for my cheap tank, and an open top for the big one.

Wow what a change when I first came back, the dark theme looks good though! Appreciate the updates to keep things going since so many other communities just stick to what works and won’t update anything else!

I 100% agree with Li0nFish here - show them some good articles, or videos that go over the concepts. I try to also show them the negatives (such as sick fish, tanks not taken care of correctly, etc.) to show them that a little knowledge beforehand can seriously make these fish thrive and act as they would in the wild, in your own tank.

I’ve found them to have deals on opposite times for various fish species. Ironically, I find more unique fish (and well, saltwater only fish) at Petco than I would see at Petsmart. It seems some Petco will even take fish from local breeders and sell them compared to Petsmart which wouldn’t even take any outside fish in.

I’ve seen them, but I tend to just go out and buy one of those APS units for computers (that keep them on when the power goes out) if I was worried about living in an area that had power fluctuation. I guess the best part of having a USB air pump is that its strength is probably low, which might be ideal for newts.

I try to check the height of what will be around it and make sure that if I want something to be seen from the top view that I have a low stand. Otherwise, I'll buy a tank stand that will have the tank slightly below my eye height (normal sized stand and height for tanks).

Since there are a ton of options and knowledge online and out there, what size of a sump would you recommend it for someone just getting into the game, and why would you recommend that size?

For me, I'd personally recommend a sump size of 55 gallons, since it not only has a lot of room in order to grow your filter media size - but also has a lot of water volume room to make sure that it's that much harder to make a mistake water parameter-wise at once.

I honestly believe that any bred-designed fish tends to be pretty expensive. If it's not a generic coloration or fin style, breeders tend to inflate the price to take into account the rarity of it being bred that specific color (since it can be a pretty large shot in the dark, or take many, many generations of breeding to end up with one that is ideal).

I’d say that it's safe in decent doses (like don’t use a whole bottle without a huge water change), and try to use it with a syringe to make it the most effective at targeting the algae vs. using a cup or other method.

I know years ago that Walmart sold live fish, but now it seems that they only sell aquatic supplies and tanks. Anyone know of any that still sell live fish at all (or even Betta fish?)

Yes, I've done this a few times inside of my tank with slow-moving fish by using items like cut-up water bottles even.

I’ve seen these at like every big chain pet store, aren’t you worried that they will try to jump out of the tank at all?

Also do you plan on keeping them as a species only tank (outside of the snails)?

Like most algae, they just feed off of any excess nutrients in the water that are leftover from food, waste, and other things within the tank. You probably cured it for now by changing out everything with a different substrate and using the planted dirt tank method. Hopefully it doesn’t return on you!

Makes you wonder if they are going to increase the sizes offered since they have also expanded outside of just the Aqueon tanks now.

I’d toss the sand, ideally due to its age it could have bugs, poop, or the discoloration from gas bubbles at the time when it was under water.

If you really want to keep the sand I’d rinse it heavily.

I’d say average, since it test it maybe once a month. In the early stages I would test it around once a week (or multiple times). I only really test it more frequently if I’m doing water changes to make sure everything is the same from old water parameters to new water parameters.

Depends on the species, some small cause they grow fast others big cause they grow slow