Context and History

So how did I get into the world of aquariums.

Undiagnosed autism?? I don't think so. I have always thought that the ocean was pretty sick, specifically tropical ocean. I also enjoy growing stuff and making things. At first, I tried to do a little terrarium in a jar, but it was too small and I couldn't find any springtails for it. My little terrarium slowly died. Plus, there were no cool creatures I could put in it, so it was hard to be motivated to keep it going.

I took a break and got stuck on a few other random hobbies, like I usually do. But eventually, after a couple months and a whole lotta YouTube, I decided I wanted to do a Walstad type tank with no filter. I figured this method would cost me the least amount of money. I was wrong. it was pretty expensive to get plants, fish, snails, shrimp, and a filter (the fish store staff convinced me to get one). I was able to find a tank on marketplace for free though, and I used a clip-on book light as my light. I got it all set up, and it was pretty cool.

After a week or so, I added 6 neon tetras, 2 mystery snails, and 7 red cherry shrimp. This was also very expensive for a college student, but it was my hobby, so I went for it. It was awesome watching my fish and shrimp every night while I was falling asleep.

I found out that keeping an aquarium is not the simplest task. I had plants melting, pest snails, and a light that was definitely not helping. You can see the plants look way less dense and not super healthy. The top water plants also do not look great. My booklight that I was using also was not on a timer so there were times where I would forget to turn it on or off. Basically, my setup was not amazing, and I was kinda killing my tank.

A month later I was down to 2 neon tetras and a couple of shrimps. I felt like the pest snails were just annihilating my plants. I decided to pick up some oto's to do some of the snails work in cleaning the algae. I was hoping that would help with my plants that were just being destroyed. I also picked up a heater to make sure my tank was warm enough for the fish.

Fast forward a few more months, and the tank was basically 1 tap (completely dead). The plants were dying, the oto's were dead, there were like 2 shrimps left. The snails were taking over. I had to do something. So I took a trip to the local fish store to give my tank new life.

I got a bunch of stem plants, some leafy plants, and some java moss that I tied to my rocks. I also got 2 more oto's and 2 assassin snails which would eat my pest snails and stop them from killing any more plants. I did grab some ramshorn snails as well, but they started eating the plants, so I moved them to a small 2-gallon tank where I was trying to propagate a few plants. I finally broke down and bought myself a cheap aquarium light from amazon. This light might not be the best, but it definitely was a huge improvement.

I got some melting at first, but after a few weeks, we got a tank that was starting to look like a real ecosystem...

I've added guppies to the mix. I got 6 at first, but when I visited this tank yesterday, I only counted 5 and didn't see any floating bodies or something so not sure what happened there. Maybe it was just hiding or something. Anyway, my hope is that they start breeding and the baby guppies will be able to hide in the java moss that has been growing super well so they do not get munched by their parents or the two neon tetras that have miraculously survived since I started the tank.

You can see how much thicker the plants are since I bought them. I've done a lot of trimming and replanting, which is what I have been excited about and waiting for since the tank's inception. I have free plants! and now I'm running out of room so I may start figuring out the best way to store new cuttings until I can take a good amount to the pet store for a trade-in type thing.

So that's pretty much it. You now know the history of my tank and the posts going forward may make more sense. Realistically you didn't need to read all of this, cuz I'm not writing about anything that important, but if you did, you are now up to date!