Aquariums and Fish Keeping

UNS 45L low-tech iwagumi, no CO2. Planted with monte carlo and a "moss ball" torn up to decorate the seiryu stone. It was dry-started in January 2025, and has grown in a little bit but not as quickly as I'd like it. Stocked with 7 medaka rice fish, a massive amount of ramshorns, and 5 orange neocaridinas (which are showing cherries now). I have done only 1 water change on it since leaving the dry start, and weirdly has zero algae and is the least demanding tank I have.

The vastly oversized filter you see doesn't have filter media, but instead houses several terrestrial plants including some pothos (marble queen), some ficus variety, and a variegated syngonium. I picked a giant filter (made for 15 gallon setups) in order to create a "sump" to increase the water volume in the overall ecosystem to ensure everything stays stable.

I’ve had this tank for about 9 months now. While it’s been very beautiful, my background has been rough. First it was a simple foggy-glass film. Then I removed that to try to add a white one, which only looked worse.

But finally, I was able to afford a dream item - a lightscreen.

And damn, the difference is insane lol. It may show off the algae more, but it really makes the colors pop.

Origin: Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia Diet: Plants, lettuce, pellets and algae Size: up to 10 cm. Mine are 5-6 cm right now. Lifespan: Up to 5 years! Current age: around 7-8 months considering size, some fresh shells and selling + people breeding them fast for popularity.

I'm still figuring out how I'm going to set up a planted aquarium, after last having goldfish as a kid about 30 years ago. So forgive my naivete!

On that other big social media site, there's the AquaSwap community where I see a bunch of folks local to me in NYC are trading/selling/buying all manner of aquarium stuff (fish, plants, hardscape, more).

So for my friends on Lemmy: do you participate in trade with your local community? Where are they? Are they only on that other website…? Meetups? Mailing lists?

I put an Imagitarium all-in-one inside of an Ikea Rudsta and used silicone to attach cork to make the background.

I no longer remember all the plants I mounted or planted, but I have 5 ruby tetras, 4 sparkling gourami, 1 oto, and some ramshorn snails and cherry shrimp. There is a filter in the front right that pumps water up to a drip feature to keep things watered and filtered so that the only thing I need to do is water top offs and very occasional water changes to keep the tannins under control.

UNS 60L, with monte carlo carpet, red crypts, hydrocotyle, weeping moss, and salvinia minima. Terrestrial plants are some kind of scindapsus, syngonium, pothos, dragon's tongue, and a heartleaf philodendron, some of which is growing in a HOB with filter media removed. No CO2. I haven't done a water change in maybe 4 months now.

Stocked with crystal red shrimp, some orange neocaridina, pygmy cories, and ramshorn snails.

I’ve had it going for about 8 months now. Originally it was going to be only CRS, but unfortunately my KH was repeatedly on the rise. After testing my rocks, my water, etc I came to the conclusion that it’s due to the pea gravel I used in filter bags to prop up the rocks.

So though the CRS population has dwindled, there is still life. I got some RCS instead, which seem to be doing well, as well as 3 Amanos and 12 Pygmy Cory catfish.

Just wanted to share my aquascape :) I am happy to answer questions - I did a good amount of research but keep in mind this is my first tank.

Edit: please ignore the ugly fresh trim on the Rotala, and the horrible background!

I have a HOB filter that is also probably cooling the water down a bit.

Maybe these are just from snail trails and my snails have OCD?

Does anyone have experience with seiryu stone in their aquarium? I'm planning a dieted tank and was thinking about getting some, but I keep reading conflicting information about it with regards to raising the PH. Either it barely raises PH at all or it'll kill your entire tank. What has been your experience?

Hi, I'm pretty sure my corydora has cotton wool disease on its top fin and I'm not really sure what to do. We've had him quarantined for nearly two weeks and are daily treating with PimaFix but it doesn't seem to be helping at all, rather it's growing worse.

The good news is that he seems completely oblivious to it all... he still swims around like normal and scrounges around for food.

Is there anything else I can do?

Edit: I've tested the water and all parameters seem to be fine. No nitrite, nitrate or ammonia and the pH seems average

Late update: after treating the tank with melafix for a couple weeks, his "wool" just fell off and what seems to be his wound seems to have just healed. I don't know if it was just luck or what but he's made a full recovery :)

Once I bought a set of plants cheaply, but the disadvantage was that even the seller himself did not know the exact names of these plants. Please help me roughly identify the plants in my aquarium if you have free time. :)

I know that there is a bit of Java moss in the upper center.

Other photos:

1- https://pxscdn.com/public/m/_v2/97422265439883264/9da63c77d-bc90ba/2Y7ztxF5OhF5/XatFdsUf93W6m1btC7H3ZDFhFzTAB1RuTO2LYsvt.jpg ^ This one looks like some kind of Vallisneria.

2- https://pxscdn.com/public/m/_v2/97422265439883264/9da63c77d-bc90ba/xwq36tdy7LMh/NLgm3lgdnBLrTi6irJ6bWD5wxnurhfnb59zJ9Vvt.jpg

3- https://pxscdn.com/public/m/_v2/97422265439883264/9da63c77d-bc90ba/ZPr0zlmeF1LE/7VqCUvRyJn0Q3JKFSp15vi5LzIabjAOu4H2uUZWq.jpg

4- https://pxscdn.com/public/m/_v2/97422265439883264/9da63c77d-bc90ba/xjGyvctbwP1u/0iCuXZisnxnmqwiFlRsqGRWEnuIb2CMMRgVIgSOs.jpg

EDIT:

Thanks all for your answers.
2.- I think it is Ludwigia Repens. And it's across all of aquarium.

Recently planted this aquarium with stems and mosses. This long thin green moss-like plant showed up and I like the look of it. Hoping ot is something I can cultivate and use for a hanging vine effect on my driftwood and not a pest plant. Any help is appreciated.

It suddenly appeared and took over most of the aquarium floor and wrapped around some plants too. It looks terrible and no matter how much I change the water and vacuum the aquarium, it comes back after a couple of days.

Can I cultivate live food in the same tank as my Endler guppy? (I plan on adding other fish in the future). I have read that it is not smart to grow daphnia as they reproduce very quickly and outcompete for oxygen.

So is it possible to breed live food in the same tank to create some kind of biome, maybe with some other species? (Monia, fairy shrimp, Rotifer Brachionus)

How does the nitrogen cycle “survive” large or even 100% water changes? I don’t want to stir up a discussion about what is best, and I understand that we all live in different places were conditions and water quality is different and also that we all choose to keep our fish differently because we thinks its the best for them. Therefore I am simply looking for an explanation on how the idea of regular huge water changes works in practice.

I see recommendations of very large water changes in goldfishkeeping, especially in bare button setups and grooming setups. This is very practical, for systems that are heavily stocked. I also see them have filters in them, and this I can’t really understand, unless they are there only for mechanical filtration.

What stirred up this thought, came from a recent experience where I lost some fish. I had a tub with 10 fry in a tub (90 lit – 20 gal) with fresh tap water (no chlorine or chloramine in our systems here). I added a cycled filter from my main tank. I then added the fry (after acclimatizing them slowly) and I expected this to work well. The fish got a very serious fungal infection within 3-4 days, and I lost most of them.

My theory of what went wrong is, that the cycled filter did not have access to ammonia and nitrite to maintain the bacteria balance, and therefore crashed. The breeder that I got them from, told me that he changes the water daily, but he had approximately 100 fry in a tub that was the same size, so I assumed that a cycled filter would have not issue with keeping up. I fed them 3-4 times a day but very moderate quantities so I did not expect the system to crash like this

So my question is, do very large water changes work, if they are not made often? Don’t larger water changes crash or almost crash the filter in systems that reliant on biological filters? In systems that are reliant on biological filtration, is partial water change not better, to maintain a more balanced filtration performance?

I've been fighting it for awhile. Various nutrient levels, light levels, etc. Considering getting a nerite snail, but heard they can be a bit of an escape artist. Any tips?