Cthulukelele's hodgepodge softy and anemone 120g

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Cthulukelele

Cthulukelele

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I set my FW tank up at work.

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The grand total for literally everything minus livestock and fancy Boi soil? 278 bucks. Oh I also got a bottle ato with that price. Reefing is an order of magnitude more expensive lol
 

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The grand total for literally everything minus livestock and fancy Boi soil? 278 bucks. Oh I also got a bottle ato with that price. Reefing is an order of magnitude more expensive lol
I'm like $15 deep into this one...
 

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The grand total for literally everything minus livestock and fancy Boi soil? 278 bucks. Oh I also got a bottle ato with that price. Reefing is an order of magnitude more expensive lol
I told ya lol SW prices have nothing on FW prices!
 
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Since things are slow to add on the main tank rn since I'm just waiting on a cheap one spot foxface and for my nutrient levels to equilibrate with new husbandry practices, I'm going to start talking about the new freshwater 15 here lol since there's no place for it on the forum and a few of the people who follow this post are freshwater people as well.

I got in some mopani driftwood last night and it looks great! So great that I ordered 2 more pieces from the same vendor. Will take pic when I get home. Those will arrive tomorrow. Then will soak the 4 pieces for a week or 2 to release tannins and get it waterlogged. Since it's a very dense wood supposedly it sinks readily, but we shall see! Sometime this weekend probably I'll head to the lfs to get some soil and generally browse their freshwater offerings I never paid much mind.
 

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Since things are slow to add on the main tank rn since I'm just waiting on a cheap one spot foxface and for my nutrient levels to equilibrate with new husbandry practices, I'm going to start talking about the new freshwater 15 here lol since there's no place for it on the forum and a few of the people who follow this post are freshwater people as well.

I got in some mopani driftwood last night and it looks great! So great that I ordered 2 more pieces from the same vendor. Will take pic when I get home. Those will arrive tomorrow. Then will soak the 4 pieces for a week or 2 to release tannins and get it waterlogged. Since it's a very dense wood supposedly it sinks readily, but we shall see! Sometime this weekend probably I'll head to the lfs to get some soil and generally browse their freshwater offerings I never paid much mind.
Looking for one of the cheap One Spots as well.
 
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Looking for one of the cheap One Spots as well.
Dude locally it's gotten insane! One lfs that offers bro deals on most fish hasn't had a small one stocked in months so even the one spots have been huge and over 120 bucks. The other lfs has given up all pretense of caring about the consumer and is charging 180 blanket for all their foxfaces
 

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The grand total for literally everything minus livestock and fancy Boi soil? 278 bucks. Oh I also got a bottle ato with that price. Reefing is an order of magnitude more expensive lol
Starting out I heard $10 a gallon for fresh and $25 for salt. I set up a dirted tank for less and my reef is probably more but I don't want to count.
Since things are slow to add on the main tank rn since I'm just waiting on a cheap one spot foxface and for my nutrient levels to equilibrate with new husbandry practices, I'm going to start talking about the new freshwater 15 here lol since there's no place for it on the forum and a few of the people who follow this post are freshwater people as well.

I got in some mopani driftwood last night and it looks great! So great that I ordered 2 more pieces from the same vendor. Will take pic when I get home. Those will arrive tomorrow. Then will soak the 4 pieces for a week or 2 to release tannins and get it waterlogged. Since it's a very dense wood supposedly it sinks readily, but we shall see! Sometime this weekend probably I'll head to the lfs to get some soil and generally browse their freshwater offerings I never paid much mind.
I like the blackwater look. Looking forward to see what you do with it!
 
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Starting out I heard $10 a gallon for fresh and $25 for salt. I set up a dirted tank for less and my reef is probably more but I don't want to count.

I like the blackwater look. Looking forward to see what you do with it!
It'll be slow going as the tank has to ship. Will soak the wood for a few weeks and get all my ducks in a row!
 
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I decided to do it as fancy as possible for this mini system sans lots of testing as I plan to mostly gauge this one by eye as it's right next to my pc. I'm really enjoying learning about the different ins and outs for water parameters in freshwater. Soft water buffered by driftwood and slightly acidic soil? Cake walk! I'm so excited to put together a "chill" tank. The reef is great, but at such a large size with such active fish it gets so chaotic
 
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any ideas on what you'll stock with?
The plan is a group of 3 otos, a crowntail or half moon betta, and possibly a school of non-aggressive schooling fish under an inch. The fish are the secondary thing in this tank though. The main thing is actually going to be shrimp. I'm thinking Blue Jellys, either Red Crystal or Tiger shrimp, amanos, bamboo, and ghost. A couple mystery snails and nerites maybe a rabbit snail. Likely a few flowering anubias, some Java moss, marimo balls, I'd like a large bushy red plant, and eventually some plants that grow on water surface. Very excited
 

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Right now the list looks like this for fish though:
A betta of some kind
Either 3 otos or 6-8 pygmy Corys
A small school of either neon tetras or chilli rasbora
Why not both the otos and pygmy Corys? ...along with the small school of chilli rasboras?
These fish all occupy different areas of the tank as a generality, so they should all work in your 15g.
Otos: hang out on sides and on rocks/wood/plants
Corys: stay on bottom substrate mostly and help keep it clean
Rasboras: swim in the middle water
Betta: hangs out in the middle to top of water

Neon tetras would be nice instead of the rasboras, but are a bit bigger and might have more likelihood to tip you into an overstock situation.

I have a 40g Breeder with a community of 4-5 zebra danios, 7-8 cherry barbs, 5-6 harlequin rasboras, 5-6 otocinclus catfish, 5-6 common corydoras catfish, and a 4" Chinese algae eater that have been doing great with extremely low maintenance for over a year now.

Your tank is smaller, so I would obviously not recommend as much, but your list seems fine to me to try in your 15g:
1x betta
3x otos
4-6x pygmy Corys
4-5x neon tetras or 6-8 chilli rasboras
 

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Why not both the otos and pygmy Corys? ...along with the small school of chilli rasboras?
These fish all occupy different areas of the tank as a generality, so they should all work in your 15g.
Otos: hang out on sides and on rocks/wood/plants
Corys: stay on bottom substrate mostly and help keep it clean
Rasboras: swim in the middle water
Betta: hangs out in the middle to top of water

Neon tetras would be nice instead of the rasboras, but are a bit bigger and might have more likelihood to tip you into an overstock situation.

I have a 40g Breeder with a community of 4-5 zebra danios, 7-8 cherry barbs, 5-6 harlequin rasboras, 5-6 otocinclus catfish, 5-6 common corydoras catfish, and a 4" Chinese algae eater that have been doing great with extremely low maintenance for over a year now.

Your tank is smaller, so I would obviously not recommend as much, but your list seems fine to me to try in your 15g:
1x betta
3x otos
4-6x pygmy Corys
4-5x neon tetras or 6-8 chilli rasboras
I would not advise neons in a tank that small. They need a bigger tank to school safely and not bug the Betta. Yes funny enough neons are fin nippers. Cories not the best either need a bigger tank or it would be just rasboras and the cories. The cories will always be on the ground where all of your Neocarodina will be. Having tons of the shrimp with the cories will upset the amount of space on the floor, in other words they’ll bump and spook each other too often more so the shrimp. Also the Cories love to dig around the plants and nestle in them so this will upset all your shrimp eggs in this size of a tank.
 

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I would not advise neons in a tank that small. They need a bigger tank to school safely and not bug the Betta. Yes funny enough neons are fin nippers. Cories not the best either need a bigger tank or it would be just rasboras and the cories. The cories will always be on the ground where all of your Neocarodina will be. Having tons of the shrimp with the cories will upset the amount of space on the floor, in other words they’ll bump and spook each other too often more so the shrimp. Also the Cories love to dig around the plants and nestle in them so this will upset all your shrimp eggs in this size of a tank.
If it were my tank, I would certainly get the tiny rasboras instead of the neon tetras for a 15g.
Corydoras aenus would be too big, but a small group of pygmy Cories still seems fine to me... but I'm not experienced with shrimp so I can't answer to that aspect.
 

Petcrazyson

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If it were my tank, I would certainly get the tiny rasboras instead of the neon tetras for a 15g.
Corydoras aenus would be too big, but a small group of pygmy Cories still seems fine to me... but I'm not experienced with shrimp so I can't answer to that aspect.
The rasboras would be much better than the neons as they don’t act produce the same bio-load get nippy or get the size they do. Because he wants shrimp the Cory’s aren’t a good idea. In a larger tank, the shrimp have much more room to go as well as the Cories so the fish won’t bug the shrimp that often. Neocarodina’s and others are pretty fragile to change and very susceptible to death from frequent annoyance of current, fish, and elements IME.
 

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Im not a big fan of bettas with shrimp. Kept many nano planted tanks before and have had bettas mow down colonies of cherry shrimp.



Pygmy corys work great with shrimp, they're so small and peaceful that they won't cause any problems.
 
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I would not advise neons in a tank that small. They need a bigger tank to school safely and not bug the Betta. Yes funny enough neons are fin nippers. Cories not the best either need a bigger tank or it would be just rasboras and the cories. The cories will always be on the ground where all of your Neocarodina will be. Having tons of the shrimp with the cories will upset the amount of space on the floor, in other words they’ll bump and spook each other too often more so the shrimp. Also the Cories love to dig around the plants and nestle in them so this will upset all your shrimp eggs in this size of a tank.
In reading I had planned for maybe just the pygmy cories as they usually stay under an inch, and they're typically hardier than the otos plus my gf was interested in them. I had also read these particular corys more often swim in the middle water column as well. The sensitivity of otos is what scares me. I'm still on team rasbora just spitballing as I go.
 

When to mix up fish meal: When was the last time you tried a different brand of food for your reef?

  • I regularly change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 39 22.8%
  • I occasionally change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 58 33.9%
  • I rarely change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 54 31.6%
  • I never change the food that I feed to the tank.

    Votes: 16 9.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 4 2.3%
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