sm1ke

How were the most recent fish acclimated to the tank? Personally, I've never had issues with Big Al's fish or Pisces fish, but I take my time using drip acclimation. I put the new fish into a gallon jug with the LFS water, and run a drip line from my tank to the jug at a rate of 2-3 drops per second until the jug is 50% or 75% full (usually takes an hour or two). It's definitely overkill, but I haven't had any issues with NTS. I've heard that if you want to be even more careful, you can introduce the fish in the dark.

Here's the coupon code. Good until July 29, 2016. 6BBBIFTHQY

So I ended up going for this regulator from CO2Art: http://www.co2art.co.uk/collections/regulators-solenoids/products/professional-aquarium-co2-dual-stage-regulator-with-advance-swiss-solenoid-and-smc-valve Total price including taxes and 5-15 day shipping was $160 CAD, compared to the $205 USD for the GLA GRO-1. Something to note if you're buying from CO2Art.. I put the regulator in my cart and decided to hold off until I had more time to think about it. I browsed reviews for about an hour and decided to go for it. By chance, I checked my email first, and there was a 15% off coupon code from CO2Art just begging to be used Also I may have access to cheap (possibly free) CO2 refills because one of the training sessions my coworker leads is Fire Extinguisher training. I'll post again when I get it. Thanks for your help everyone.

Any updates on this? I'd personally like to hear more about photo period and misting schedule, issues with mold (if any). Is the tank completely sealed off? Wondering because I'm doing a DSM as well

Thanks Nicolas and Hung, I appreciate the quick replies. I do have some space underneath the desk, so I may end up going the 5-10 pound tank route. I'll check out CO2 Art before I make any decisions. Hung, I went with the Azoo Flexi M. Not as fancy as some of the other units, but I was drawn to the minimalist design and the fact that it swivels out of the way. I would probably be interested in the used setup route.. could you PM me the details/pricing? Here's a pic of where I'm planning to put the tank: The CO2 setup would probably go right beside the gray cabinet, or next to the black cabinet in this pic:

This is my first foray into pressurized CO2. I'm looking for a system for my five gallon office tank (currently in the DSM stage). I was looking at ordering the GLA GRO or PRO regulator and diffuser and then sourcing a 5-10 pound tank locally. Is this overkill for a five gallon planted tank? I'm looking to maintain some carpeting plants like micranthemum, HC and e. parvula. I don't really want to piece together and build a regulator, so my other option would be the Fluval 88g kit at one of the local stores. What do you guys think? Also, can any sponsors here bring in GLA equipment?

Looks great so far!

I've heard of using tabs, and I'll keep that in my back pocket. I bought a phosphate testing kit and found out that I had way too much phosphate in my water, so I'm going to increase the frequency of water changes until it decreases. The nitrates are also higher today, so the zero reading is likely due to the water change I had done right before the first test. I also went back to 12 hours on and 12 off for my light. We'll see what happens. Been a great learning experience so far

Ammonia - 0 ppm Nitrate - 0 ppm I did a pretty big water change before this, so I'll continue to monitor parameters over the next couple of days. Unfortunately I don't have a testing kit for other parameters like phosphates.

I actually haven't been dosing anything. I was hoping I could get away with not dosing, but I guess I expected too much with my first dip into planted tanks. I'm going to do a water change, then post my parameters. Hopefully I can learn from this.

Here are a few pictures.

So, little bit of an update. All fish are good and healthy, neons no longer school tightly but that's to be expected as they become comfortable with their surroundings. I have tons of pesky snails but I'm not too worried about them. I used to leave my lights on from 6:30am to around 4:30pm, but over the past couple of weeks I have developed an algae problem (no CO2 or ferts). I'm currently using a T5HO fixture with a 54W 6400k light. I've cut down the lighting to about six hours a day, and the algae growth seems to have stopped. That said, the algae is still present on some staurogyne repens leaves. My ludwigia repens and alternanthera rosaefolia have suffered (leaves started to brown and small holes have begun to appear). Should I be doing anything different to combat the algae? What's causing the holes in the leaves? I used to have a bunch of glosso as well, but the gourami I added has been ripping away at them and there's barely any left, lol. I think he's also responsible for ripping some of the ludwigia leaves off. I'll try to get a picture of the tank later today. I'm also working on getting a small office tank from SKA, pretty psyched for that!

Most people will simply create a new post in the Buy/Sell Livestock subforum. If you'd like them to go to a good home, you can ask possible buyers/rehomers (I don't think that's a word but whatever lol) to provide specific details like tank size/footprint, filtration, tankmates, even tank parameters. Then, based on what they tell you, you can make a decision. Just keep in mind that people are people, and may lie about these things because they're keen on the idea of cheap or free fish. Good luck!

Damn, I knew I should have bought a couple yesterday. They're all sold out now.

Beautiful!

Keeping hybrids is, and should be, personal preference. Some hybrids can look really nice, and at the end of the day, if you like the way they look, you should keep them. With that said, selling hybrids is widely seen as a no no. Most people in the hobby appreciate the pure lines as they occur in nature. Just like jvision said, probably the biggest issue with hybrids being sold is the fact that some sellers don't identify them as hybrids. I personally bought a group of what I thought were Yellow Lab fry a few years ago, only to discover that they were hybrids as they matured. I didn't mind how they looked, but I was annoyed at the fact that I paid the price of a pure line and got a "watered down" line instead.

Yeah, the corys seem fine if I leave the tank alone. The explore everywhere and they have a decent number of places to hide. Hopefully as the plants grow, more natural hiding places will develop. That said, if I come near the tank to feed them or just watch them, they kind of freeze up and become skittish at any sudden movements. Apparently that's common with corydora sterbai though. I haven't been to Pisces yet, I'll probably check them out sometime this weekend.

RIP

Thanks for posting your experiences elf_poop. I decided against the rams and will stick with a single dwarf gourami. I currently have 10 neon tetras and four corydora sterbais in the tank. So far, no casualties Corys are doing fine, no barbel issues and they are exploring and eating normally. I know, I should have got more corys, but Gold only had four left by the time I could add them (thanks fishclubgirl for the heads up). Big Al's has a bunch, but they're like $16 a piece, compared to the $4 Gold was selling them. It's gonna be hard to bite that bullet and add a few more. I have added a Fluval U3 internal filter to the tank to eventually swap from the high flow of the AC50. I also added the driftwood to the tank (which still floats), but I have it weighted down with a piece of dead hard coral from Hawaii. I'll be adding the dwarf gourami at the end of the week, and that will likely be it for stock.

I'm stepping back into the hobby after a long hiatus, and decided I would try my hand at a low tech planted tank this time around. Bought some substrate and a few plants from ckmullin aka Keith, who also suggested that I upgrade the old T8 fixture to a T5HO. He showed me how I could gut the old T8 fixture and stick a T5HO fixture in its place, then pointed me to Incredigrow here in Calgary to buy the new bulb and fixture. I stopped by there during my lunch break just now, old housing in hand, and the gentleman who helped me out actually retrofitted the bulb and fixture into the housing on the spot, and it took him less than 10 mins. Very very clean work as well, much better than I could have done at home. No pics, but I can upload one later on if anyone wants. The point is that they are very helpful and do great work. Thanks ckmullin and Incredigrow!

Hi Janoch, thanks for the suggestions. What do you guys think about a dwarf gourami (now bouncing between powder blue and sunset honey), a pair of german blue rams or bolivian rams, a small school of fish like tetras or rasboras, and a clown or other type of dwarf pleco? I'm mostly worried about the rams and the gourami getting into it, but I've read that a lot of people have kept them successfully in 20g high tanks. Also a quick update, stopped by ckmullin's place to pick up some substrate, a few starter plants and a bit of driftwood. Hoping to begin adding fish slowly starting next week. Driftwood isn't in the tank yet, I'm just trying to waterlog it in the sink first.

Pic of the finished stand:

Hi everyone, I'm Mike. I grew up in Winnipeg, but moved to Calgary in September of 2014. I'm not new to the hobby, but I am new to the site. I used to keep SA cichlids in a 130g, lamprologus ocellatus in a 20g long, and CRS in a very lightly planted (only hornwort) 10g. I left all of that behind in the move, and thought that was the end of the hobby for me.. luckily, I came across a free used 20g high tank with a top - perfect for my first house, which is just a townhome. The tank was pretty dirty and old, so I resealed the inner silicone bead with some aquarium safe black silicone. Cleaned it up as much as I could with some vinegar and a razor blade and water tested it at full capacity for a few days. Pretty happy with it now. I also ordered an LED strip light off eBay and bought a used AC50 off of kijiji. Heater is on order, along with a back up pump and sponge filter. While waiting for that stuff to come in, I started on building a stand. I built the frame out of pine 2x4s, a dense melamine base, and a layer of styrofoam, then faced it with stained 1/4" plywood. I'm just putting the final touches on it (some moulding to cover up the seams), and then I can post a finished picture. I also mounted a power bar on the cross brace of the frame of the stand to help keep power cords neat and also create a natural drip loop. In the meantime, I've attached a pic of the tank and frame. This is the second tank I have resealed and the second stand I have built. First reseal was a breeder's old 110g that I ended up selling because I didn't have the room. First stand was for the 130g. I plan to do a lightly planted tank, with a male powder blue dwarf gourami as the centerpiece, some schooling fish, and either three corydoras or a bristlenose or other type of small pleco. I'm planning to put down a layer of eco complete or something similar, then layer some black sand over that. For plants I want to use some rotala rotundifolia, red ludwigia, and stargrass. I wanted to try a pair of electric blue German rams, or maybe a pair of Bolivian rams, but my wife really likes the gourami, so of course I had to oblige. As they say, happy wife, happy life. *shrug Let me know what you think. I also need some ideas for schooling fish, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd appreciate your input.