Always had them since I was a kid. Oscars, big ones, could feed them from my hands.
For many years I had a dozen tanks in my house. I bred Angel fish, African Chichlids
and would sell them to local fish stores. Hatched the brine shrimp. Reverse osmosis
filters. It's been 15 years, maybe get a 90 gallon and freshwater plants. I have CO2
tanks. Any advice for a freshwater plant tank?

In my youth. Fresh water. Thinking about getting back into it.

Used to have a 72 gallon saltwater setup, then added a 40 gallon nano setup. It was one of my many hobbies. Never took it to the reef level.

I did as a kid, kept just about everything freshwater including most predators. I started again when my kids were young and did a CO2 planted freshwater, had some cool fish breed in our tanks, moved into saltwater, and then into reefing. I am down to one nano reef tank which houses a clown fish I have had for the last 13 years and coral I’ve had even longer. I have dreams of building out a large fully autonomous system but don’t think I have the time to invest fully in the idea. We had a reef tank heater fail while we were on a trip about five years ago and electrocuted every living thing in the tank destroying nearly three thousand dollars worth of coral and livestock.

Yup. My last fish just died. Had a skimmer that went faulty and electrocuted my entire tank a year or two back. Killed 10 yr old corals, fish and inverts alike. I never recovered from it, and haven’t rebuilt it beyond an occasional fish. I guess I’m afraid to invest all that again and lose it to a fluke.

I was fortunate when my reef tank went tits up that I had another system full of coral frags from the main display tank. These days, most of my dosing supplements are paid for with coral frags from my tank. I haven’t bought or needed to replace a SW fish for 4+ years. There is one coral that I didn’t have fragged that bothers me to this day.

I was the same as you - did it for years and then had stopped for about 5 years. Then my next door neighbor gave me a 28 Gal Nano Cube - he had a reef in it but I never did anything Salt water. I cleaned it out and went fresh - medium fine substrate and plants. I went with the easy button and got the plants healthy and then added the fish and 3 Amano's to clean up. I've got Cardinal's, Blue Rams, Honey Dwarf Gourami's, Cory Cats, Panda Garra's, a couple of Clown dwarf pleco's, and I let it run. Plant to fish ratio is good - I do a water change about every 10 days and keep the plants healthy with fertilizer. I had never tried a C02 system - thought about it, but with the plants I have I don't need it. Garra's, Pleco's and Amano's take care of the algae - My recommendation is to get everything going with your plants, maybe for about 30 days or until they are going well and rooted. Then start adding your fish and inverts. I'm a firm believer that healthy plants keep your tank healthy.

I've never done a plant tank. CO2 seems to be needed, and some seem to say you'll want some soil under a layer of gravel or sand.

Let us know what you do.

I had a 70 gallon with African Cichlids when I was in middle/high school. My Mom thought it was going to be a neat project. She got a little bit freaked out when I drug the garden hose through the front door and upstairs to my room to fill up the tank!

Definitely! My thing was the large, clumsy-swimming fancy goldfish, such as the Oranda and Ranchu varieties. These are usually imported from China or Thailand.

I kept a 75 gallon and 125 gallon with dual canister filters and an Emperor 25watt UV sterilizer. Fun stuff.

Probably old news to you but are you familiar with Aquatics and Exotics down in Mt. Healthy?
Had a buddy in High School big into Cichlid tanks he was a frequent customer there.
Always did enjoy checking out all they had to offer but never got into any tanks myself.

quote:

Originally posted by irreverent:
Yup. My last fish just died. Had a skimmer that went faulty and electrocuted my entire tank a year or two back. Killed 10 yr old corals, fish and inverts alike. I never recovered from it, and haven’t rebuilt it beyond an occasional fish. I guess I’m afraid to invest all that again and lose it to a fluke.

Sorry about your and dkings loss. I know reef tanks take a long time to become established.
I always kept one 55 community tank. I think Tiger Barbs were my favorite. Would keep 15-20
and loved to watch them school around.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Probably old news to you but are you familiar with Aquatics and Exotics down in Mt. Healthy?
Had a buddy in High School big into Cichlid tanks he was a frequent customer there.
Always did enjoy checking out all they had to offer but never got into any tanks myself.

Yes. But I think it had a different name. Bought many fish there. My favorite was
House of Tropicals in Delhi.

I miss my Discus tank.

Not an enthusiast

I have a 125gal salt tank, 175gal fresh and a 40gal fresh. I keep them maintained for the Mrs.

I hate them, pain in the ass. Fish are stupid

My friend has about 4 tanks freshwater going. Very cool when I visit. I thought about having one then decided not to since I can barely take care of myself. My cat agrees.

It got to be a PITA to keep them clean, water changes etc.
Maybe I'll try just one freshwater plant tank.

I started with a 20 gal at the start of covid for something to do. I shortly upgraded to a 75, a 40 breeder and a 20Long. The 75 is heavily planted (no CO2) community tank (platys, congo tetras, odessa barbs, couple blue gularis killis and a pair of electric blue acara. Love watching the fish in that tank.

The 20 long has a small (8) neolamprologis caudopunctatus in it and a heavy cap of water lettuce.

The 40 breeder is cycling and I may try some native/north american fish - something in the sunfish family. I kept a couple bluegills growing up and they were absolute murder machines so I'll probably stick with something smaller (orange spot if i can find them or bluespot sunfish) and do a species only tank.

I did tons of small freshwater setups as a kid, loved it. Just thinking about it brings back great memories. I was a fancy guppy man myself, loved live bearers, wasn't interested in egg layers. Some Mollies too. Once I put an african something or another in a tank of guppies. You can imagine the carnage. That was the last mistake I ever made with any fish in the cichlid families.

I never made it past 20 gallons, couldn't afford it delivering papers and mowing lawns, but damn it was great fun. If I didn't have so much responsibility now, and more income, I think I'd enjoy building and maintaining a medium freshwater setup.

I never had enough balls or money to learn about saltwater setups making the same mistakes along the way I did with freshwater fish. But back then there was no internet or personal computers to help with any of that.