Question of the Day What do you regret about your aquarium?

[Art]

What do you regret about your aquarium?​

For me, it always seems to be the size of the aquarium that I end up regretting the most. Always too small even though initially I think it will be fine because the bigger one costs too much.

How about you?

 

[ElleDee]

I regret using aquasoil in my most recent tank! Coming from old school dirted tanks I thought it would be a big improvement, but I didn't like it at all.

While it is easier to plant in and less messy, I hate how it looks and how lightweight it is. Plus, my planting and uprooting technique has improved over the years and I've learned that dirted tanks get less messy over time, so even those initial perks have been nerfed.

I know lots of people swear by it, but it's not for me. Never again!

 

[Art]

@ElleDee thanks. That's very interesting to me. Most people go the other way around. Wishing they had used Aquasoil instead of something else. Certainly dirted tanks where they can be a mess, or so I'm told.

So you didn't like the look and how lightweight it was? What did you use before to top the dirt?

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, so much as hindsight is 20/20. I love having my tank, but with young ones and at this busy time in my life, free time is limited to none. My water changes and maintenance are not nearly as frequent as they need to be, resulting in my tank having excessive DOC and algae. This in turn makes me loathe the tank and the worse it gets, the less I want to do maintenance. I guess I’d have to say I’d avoid stems and stick with more manageable plants or strictly reophyte types. This is difficult since I love having red stems, especially when I am able to grow them successfully and they are thriving.

I REALLY love George’s African cichlid setup with all the anubias and stone, and may consider something similar after I decide to revamp my current setup.

 

[ElleDee]

@ElleDee thanks. That's very interesting to me. Most people go the other way around. Wishing they had used Aquasoil instead of something else. Certainly dirted tanks where they can be a mess, or so I'm told.

So you didn't like the look and how lightweight it was? What did you use before to top the dirt?

Well, my aesthetic dislike of it is just personal taste. I find the perfectly round shape to be distracting and artificial.

As for it being too lightweight, I hated that the top layer would get blown around when I did maintenance. There were certain plants I felt had trouble rooting because they kept being disturbed. And of course trying to keep a decorative sand area was a nightmare that I eventually gave up on. For a while I just did less vigorous cleaning of the substrate and while this solved some problems the resulting build up of detritus was even worse. I've never gotten rid of the BBA that resulted even when I resumed more through cleaning, though it's slow growing and only in certain places.

This is probably a skill issue on my part, but it's never been a problem with my dirted tanks. I've used both polished natural gravel (Caribsea Gemstone Creek) and something that is either very large sand or very tiny gravel depending on how you look at it (Caribsea Peace River) as caps and Peace River was the clear winner. I would prefer it if it was a little less multicolored, but the grain size and smooth texture is really dreamy.

 

[TRyan]

Great question!

I regret focusing so much on hardscape layout, sand paths, Seiryu stone layouts, complicated spider wood scapes, etc, before I could successfully and repeatedly grow plants well and with very little algae.

Thanks to some great minds and wonderful tank journals from the likes of Burr, Greggz, Unexpected, Yugang and many others, I've completely changed almost everything from when I first started. Maintenance, ferts, substrate, CO2 delivery, RO water, front loading, micros....the list goes on....My tanks have made huge improvements from the tips I've picked up from you all.

 

[*Ci*]

I so, so, so, regret putting both a male and a female albino bristlenose pleco in my 84g.
They do not bother my plants, but they breed incessantly!
More than 50% of my maintenance duties involve picking tiny baby plecos off the glass until I finally, maybe, have found them all, then, whatdoyouknow, a new clutch arrives. I’ve tried everything I can think of the catch the female for removal, to no avail. They are both very wary and the jungle scape is too thick.
Now, I am spotting a couple of 1” juveniles that I must have missed … arrrgh!
I know I need to tear the tank down to remove them, but it just looks perfect and I am reluctant. I will just keep picking away at them … sigh.
Moral of the story -think very carefully before you put a male/female pair of anything in your planted tank!

 

[Art]

Wow @*Ci*, that actually sounds wonderful to me. To have created such a perfect environment for procreation, especially with bristlenose. Amazing.

You do know you could probably print your own money by selling them, right?

 

[*Ci*]

You do know you could probably print your own money by selling them, right?

Not around here … the longfin albinos, or the blue-eyed ones will go for a few bucks, but the ordinary albinos are hard to even give away. I throw the fry into my outdoor lily ponds, knowing that they won’t survive the winter, but in the meantime they can splurge on algae galore.

 

[Koan]

the ordinary albinos are hard to even give away

He's right, there's a market out there..



Could be fun!

 

[Art]

I know around my parts you would make a fortune.