I started this tank as a concept almost exactly two years ago and it's finally finished! Swipe to see the progression (all the way back to when the hardacape was originally planned for a 10 gallon). Current tank is 20 gallons.

I'm incredibly proud of this tank and myself for being able to keep it looking as nice as it does by not flaking on my weekly maintenance. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work and persistence. From plastic plants and a 5 gallon betta tank in 2020 (the last photo shows my very first tank) to this in 2026. I'm incredibly grateful to this hobby. Bonus photo of my cat, Penny, helping me contemplate the hardacape on the right side of the tank.

I'm using an Oase Thermo 100 canister filter. I run C02, have a Twinstar S series light and dose APT 3 daily. Lights run 8 hours. Current inhabitants are CPDs, Pgmy Corys, Pumpkin Shrimp and Ramshorn snails.

Plants are Elocharis belem (carpet), Hydrocotyle Tripartita, Ludwigia Repens, Rotala Rotundifolia, various kinda of anubius and buce, Java Fern Sunrise as well as Myriophyllum Mattogrossense, Mayaca Fluviatilis, Homalomena Broad Sekadau South, Lobelia Cardinalis Mini and Samolus Parviflorus Red (lysimachia parvifolia).

Ask me any questions!

This has stumped both me and my professor. Its colorless, crunchy, and hollow, seems to have some kind of 'root' structure. The little tentacles things are something I just noticed. This is in my 5 gallon shrimp tank that has been going since January. I can get the parameters if anyone is interested. I also have a sucky microscope I can use. If I ask nicely I might be able to get it under a better one. I would really appreciate any information or insights that you guys have. I have never seen anything like it, irl, or in my amateur Google sleuthing. I'll post a picture of the full organism in the comments.

Curious as to the communities experience with invasive grass taking over their aquariums! How concerned should I be, any advice welcome

I've found 2 or 3 pieces of this big duckweed in my tank. Is it a different species or just a weird mutation?

Looking for some more ideas on plants I can grow above my tanks. Just the roots dangled in. But also open to letting plants grow up and out of the water. I have different sized tanks so all ideas welcome. I’m going to grow one of my swords up and out bc the huge swords look awesome when u do that. This guys on YouTube does it and it looks amazing. Looking for suggestions other than pothos and peace lily. Thanks!

do you guys think that I have too many plants to the point where it makes my fish feel cramped?

Stocking 20gal Long:
-15 Harlequin Rasboras
-1 Female Halfmoon betta (peaceful temperament)
-Ramshorn, Bladder snails, Trumpet snails, 1 nerite snail
-Detritus worms (unknown amount)

>=20 Neocaridina shrimp

Going 'minimal' this time.

Scape: seiryu stone, JBL white sand, salvinia, rotala hra and an unknown moss I found outside

Inhabitants: 1 honey gourami, 3 sparkling gourami, 1 stiphodon goby, many cherry shrimp, 2 clithon, 1 nerite, limpets & mini ramshorn

Equipment: fluval canister filter,

Found this little guy eating diatoms on my plant in a 5 day old tank. Second picture is around 24 hours after with almost all diatoms cleaned. I have always wondered how to get rid of diatoms before the cycle is complete so I can put otos in. Maybe limpets are the answer? Too bad no one sells them. I think I'll keep this guy for now.

Added this last weekend a healthy ozelot sword, 4 days later looks like this. Ive seen melt before in this tank on my ruben sword but didnt fully engulf the plant like this. Water params are normal, no co2 just root tabs and liquid fert

This is my UNS 45T. Full of easy plants such as Guppy Grass, Cryptocoryne, and Micro Sword. Fauna includes a mix of Micro Rasboras (Boraras sp.) and Blue Neocaridinia. No CO2, occasional PPS Pro ferts, and ADA aquasoil is the substrate. From first image to second is 2 weeks of growth from the Guppy Grass-a true aquatic weed!

I bought water wisteria, dwarf hygrophila, Anacharis and ambulia. I used one inch garden soil, then natural gravel stone from the river bed. After planting them, they are floating up to the surface instead of staying planted. Only Anacharis seems to have started Pearling. This is day 3 of planting them.

Unfortunately my town does not have many selections of aquatic plants. The tank is small only 12×8 inches. It is situated in my balcony, so full day indirect sunlight with direct morning sunlight. I introduced two nerites yesterday. No other fishes.

1st pic: current photo of my tank
2nd pic: other tank i have no issues with
3rd: middle point between current and my old tank
4th pic: when i set the tank up

sorry for the confusing layout.. wasn’t sure how to put it

anyways, i’ve been actually so upset with my tank. it’s a 10 gal currently in some type of bacteria bloom(water parameters have been tested and are normal) but over the past year i guess that i’ve had this tank set up, plants would die, i’d take them out.. put more in. i woke up this morning after putting an algae tablet in for my other snail/kuhlis and it bloomed weirdly with white stuff on the ground..(mostly guessing i had a buildup of duckweed that stilled the current of the sponge filter).. but honestly i have no clue what is going on. i’ve used root tabs, flourish, the only plant that has never fully died is the duckweed, even my water lettuce and red root floaters died. my betta will eat shrimp so i can’t add those. i have no issues with my other tank, the plants grow amazing and look vibrant and i use the exact same things for each tank. i don’t have a co2 system if that matters.

i guess im just wondering what the next steps can be.. just very disappointing for not making this work i want to have this tank thriving fr. however i dont want to keep on funneling money into things that wont work. any advice is appreciated!!

Hi everyone,

This is my first tank build (Fluval Flex 57L / 15 gal), currently about 6 weeks old.

I upgraded the lighting to a Fluval AquaSky 2.0 and the filter pump to an Eheim compactON 600, and things seem to be settling in well so far!

Current Stock:

* 11 Neon Tetras

* 11 Yellow Fire shrimpy shrimps

* 3 Orange Ramshorn snails

* A few Bladder snails

(Note: I know the tank footprint isn't ideal for the Neons long-term. I already have my eye on an 90P where I plan to move them into a much larger school, so this 57L will eventually transition into a dedicated Betta tank.)

Looking for advice on two things:

1. Low-tech carpet plant: I'd like a carpet between the driftwood and the stones in the foreground transition. I’m running no CO2 and don't want it growing tall. What hardy, low-profile carpet plants would you recommend for this setup?

2. Betta layout prep: What should I tweak or add to make a Betta happy here? Do they need floating plants, resting spots near the surface? And what should I do to baffle the flow?

Thanks so much for your recommendations! General feedback on my first tank ever is also very welcome. I'm really loving this hobby, have so much to learn, and am super excited for the next tank!

My tank survived the first month 😁🙏🏻

this is the tank I just planted is my monte calro planted deep enough I just did it yesterday is there anything I should be doing today? how long till I have the lushest carpet in the league? I also got some glue marks during some trial and error will those go away?

I set up a new 75 gallon dirted tank with the intent to slowly move the plants and fish over from my established 29 gallon tank and then take it down. I ordered some plants and transferred a few from my established tank. Yesterday morning, I look in the new tank and there are at least a dozen fry swimming around. I really want to know what they will grow up to be so now I'm stuck waiting until they grow enough not to become a snack for my other fish. I wish I knew if the eggs came from my tank or hitched a ride in from the plants I ordered.

All plants have the same tones. Which plant would you complement to make it more exciting.

I have the following plants in my aquarium:

- Hydrocotyle tripartita

- Cryptocoryne parva

- Hygrophila angustifolia Rubra

- Cryptocoryne balansae

- Bucephalandra sp.

- Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Talwan

- VESICULARIA MONTAGNEI

My water parameters are 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 5.0ppm nitrate GH is 12 and KH is 1. Temperature is 31.6 degrees throughout the day. I’ve been dosing seachem potassium and seachem advanced to see if it helps. I know the temperature is far from ideal and I can’t help it as it’s way too expensive to buy a chiller($1000+), but I did grow them last time in the same temperatures so I’m not sure why the leaves just die like that. Also I have some trident fern in there and I have seen practically no growth at all and some of the tips were darkish brown. I googled it and it said it might be due to strong lighting? The trident ferns are directly below my lights but I’m thinking it’s also due to the temperature? Basically I just wanna know if it’s the temperature causing this issues like browning leafs tip on the Cyperus helfrei and if it’s meant to grow that slow and for the hydrophilic pinnatifida(pic 4 and 5) why its leaves keep melting even though in pic 5 you can see it propagating to the side(trimmed off the melting leaves and new ones appear within a week). Picture 6 and 7 are bucephalandra and again I’m not sure why they are yellowing even though I have other types of bucephalandra(kedagang) not yellowing at the moment and they were introduced the same time. Sorry for the long post, let me know if any additional info is needed.

I am fighting a losing battle against algae in my two tanks...

Tank 1 with the green algae

HOB filter with co2 diffuser

Chihiros light at 30% intensity for 6h, 30min ramp up and down

I have been doing weekly 40% water changes. The problem is it is SO difficult to get out that algae. It's this thin film that clings on to everything, my substrate, my plants, my rocks. My siphon can't really suck it up and I have no idea how to manually scrape that off my substrate etc.

Tank 2 with the brown algae

HOB filter, no co2

Chihiros light at 20% intensity for 5.5h, 30min ramp up and down

Same, weekly 40% water changes and I have no idea how to get rid of this brown stringy algae that clings onto everything.

I have apt fixlite but how do you spot dose SO MANY areas with algae? Can I just inject it into the water column?

Help and advice much much appreciated.

Thank you!!

Hey folks, one of my tanks is a brightly lit planted acrylic 30 gallon. I haven't ever cleaned the glass because I'm terrified of scratching the soft acrylic and this is the only acrylic tank I've ever had in 25 years in the hobby. How do I do this? I know I can't use a razorblade like I do on my glass tanks. I tried using some aquaclear foam to rub it off with zero success. It's the tiny little green dots the really rock hard stuff. Even if it was glass and I had a blade I'd have to really put some elbow grease into getting it off.

What do I do guys? Is there a product I need to buy to help me clean this stuff? I'd rather not use any chemical type products like algae killers or seachem flourish excel etc as the tank houses my betta antuta and their fry and they are rare and priceless to me.

Thanks in advance and happy fishkeeping!

My tank survived the first month 😁🙏🏻

I've posted a few snips of this tank over the past months, and here is the "final" result. I studied the Dutch aquariums from NBAT in the Netherlands (Incredibly useful reference in English here: NBAT Dutch Scaping Aquarium Guide) and took a shot at my first "true" Dutch style per the design rules of NBAT and AGA. I'm fairly happy with it other than a couple plant selections I would have swapped out if I had more time/plants avaliable to me locally. It was also starting to get out of control and needed a big replanting session shortly after the video was taken.

This tank has been a dream as far as maintenance and stability are concerned. Five or six days after the water change I'll get the tiniest bit of green dust on the front glass, but other than that there is no algae whatsoever. I scrape the glass and do small cleanup sessions frequently where I will just trim a handful of leaves/stems that aren't looking good or are getting overcrowded. My total maintenance time per week is probably two hours split over a few days and including my water change.

Here are all the details for anyone interested in doing something like this:

Tank: 75 gallon Marineland

Filter: Fluval FX4 and Fluval 207 with spray bar outlets along the back wall (the 207 is used to drive the CO2 reactor)

Light: Week Aqua P1200 (started at 50% output power when plants were still filling in but I am now at 100% power)

CO2 injection: Yes, lots. Yugang horizontal reactor sized for 1.5 point pH drop although it doesn't achieve quite that much

Substrate: Fluval Stratum, Biostratum, and APT Feast

Water Changes: 40 gallon water change weekly (~60% since a "75 gallon" tank only holds about 65 gallons of water). As part of my water change, I gently stir up detritus in the substrate using a turkey baster and siphon it away per the 2Hr Aquarist method. I use RODI water that I remineralize to 0 dKH and 6 dGH because my local tap water is very hard and varies with the seasons.

Fertilizer is dosed with dry salt mixtures from NilocG. I dose once per day Mon - Sat and twice after my water change on Sunday to attempt to keep levels stable. I split these weekly totals into 8 doses:

Weekly totals:

-24ppm Nitrate (when tank first started I was only dosing 12 ppm Nitrate, I ramped up to 24 later)

-8ppm Phosphate

-25.5ppm Potassium

-0.5ppm Iron (using a micro mixture that covers other micros)

Plants:

Hydrocotyle Leucocephala

Ludwigia Arcuata

Penthorum Sedoides

Bacopa Monnieri

Lysimachia Parvifolia

Echinodorus grisebachii (Regular Amazon Sword)

Micranthemum Umbrosum

Eriocaulon Vietnam

Lobelia Cardinalis

Limnophila Hippuridoides

Hygrophila Siamensis 53b

Mayaca Fluviatilis

Java Fern Petite

Weeping Moss

Livestock:

25 Green Neon Tetra

12 Dwarf Hatchetfish

10 Otocinclus

100+ Cherry Shrimp

I’m trying to see what this plant is to make sure it’s not toxic to cats. Can’t figure it out through google lens.