I am facing a bit of a dilemna. My system right now is running fine without a sump but I am hearing that a sump is the way to go. Furthermore, I have a hang-on protein skimmer that looks somewhat unsightly hanging on to the side of my tank. I would like to hide it in my cabinet in the sump. When I bought my tank, I did not want a sump setup because I was afraid of it overflowing if ever the electricity cut out. This has happened to me in the past in my freshwater tank. I find the the whole sump system can be fairly finicky trying to adjust the water line.

Putting in a sump now is going to be time consuming as I will have to do some major work to have a small sump aquarium fit into my cabinet stand. My question is, do I really need one? I suppose I can live with a proetein skimmer hanging off the side.

Right now for filtration all I am running is a protein skimmer and about 120lb of live rock. This seems to be working fine. I also have a fluval 305 that is just circulating water. I've taken out the media. Should I get a bigger filter (my tank is about 135 gallon) to increase circulation?

On the first day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
a fish tank and a really great stand.
On the 2nd day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
two wooden air stones and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 3rd day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 4th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 5th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me....FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 6th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 7th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 8th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
eight wands a bubbling, seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 9th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
nine knife fish cutting, eight wands a bubbling, seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 10th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
ten leaf fish leaping, nine knife fish cutting, eight wands a bubbling, seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 11th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
eleven pounds of gravel, ten leaf fish leaping, nine knife fish cutting, eight wands a bubbling, seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, and a fish tank with a really great stand.
On the 12th day of Christmas my fish store gave to me...
a bill for 1200 dollars, eleven pounds of gravel, ten leaf fish leaping, nine knife fish cutting, eight wands a bubbling, seven sword tails swimming, six live plants, FIVE NEON RAINBOWS, four floating thermometers, three trapdoor snails, two wooden air stones, AND A FISH TANK WITH A REALLY GREAT STAND.


SO, what kind of fishy stuff did you get for Christmas??

Stocking Schemes
The following suggested stocking schemes which I found most informative, reliable and accurate came from an excellent book written by David E. Boruchowitz, entitled "The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums."

Your tank is set up. Everything's working. It's almost cycled. Now what?

In an attempt to address the commonly asked question of 'What kind of fish should I get?" I am offering some suggestions simply as
"food for thought" type of ideas for stocking your aquariums.

When I first pursued this hobby I was warned, repeatedly over and over that it would become addictive.

Although I immediately dismissed this idea, as each day passes I find circumstances occur which bring truth to that warning.

I strongly urge you to examine your own lifestyle to see if any of the following apply in order that you too might need to seek therapy before it's too late.

You Know You Are Addicted When:

1 - You rearrange the furniture in a way that that the TV faces the tank so the fish can watch Animal Planet.

2 - You give names to all the fish and in your own mind honestly feel they individually respond when you call out "Tad, Biff, Buffy or Rocco".

3 - You enter the house with a water-filled plastic bag and sheepishly ask your spouse or parent "Can We Keep Him?"

4 - You mistakenly interpret fin movements as a "wave" or "high-five"

5 - When introducing a larger fish to your tank do you mimic in your best Al Pacino impression "Say Hello to My Little Friend?"

6 - When you call the dog over to play do you ask him to give you his fin?

7 - As Christmas draws near do you think about what kind of "toys" you can buy your fish? And how will you wrap them?

8 - When scolding your fish do you often use the old and tired out phrase "Why, when I was your age..."?

9 - Upon the demise of a fish do you find yourself prevailing with a eulogy which starts with "He was a good fish"?

10 - And finally, when driving down the road does your car suddenly veer to the right when you pass a LFS?

So tell me, do you need therapy? What are your symptoms?

Thanks,
Bob

A gallery of amazing Cichlid pictures from the members of Fish Tank Forums!

I am writing this to give insight, information and hope to any who have a favorite fish. I have such a fish and if there was only one lesson to be learned (which of course there were more) it was to not give up hope (which I did). Not even sure where to begin with this fish so I will try and make this article as brief as possible and perhaps not bore those who can gain some help with a variety of illnesses and

I know what nutrients, and what levels to target when setting up a reef aquarium since finding information online regarding that topic is not hard at all. However, learning the proper way to set up and maintain a freshwater tank is less widely available.

My brother has a 75 gallon freshwater planted system and he has recently tapped my shoulder for advice and help in making it more stable and healthy. Being more of an expert in saltwater systems I am not sure where to start. I did some research and learned a little of the basics that I passed along to him as a start, but I fear that he is more lost in this than I am. So I was wondering if you could help me out a little here.

I have a 70 gallon freshwater tank. It was great the first 5 months with just fish, no plants in it. Somehow I got an algae bloom in my tank and now my tank has been green ever since. The fish have all been fine, but its just hard to see them. Here's what I have done to it and my tank parameters:

Water quality: Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, PH, Alkalinity, Hardness, Chlorine, all zero or in normal zone
Tested for Phosphates: 10.0+ obviously it was off the scale
My tap water had 1.0 phosphates in it already
Added a few plants to help with the phosphates - no change
Aeration: 2 bubblers which I turned up to increase air in the tank - no change
Filters: 2 Outside filters and one Under gravel filter tube with power head
Temp: 80
Water changes: 50%-66% weekly! but the green comes back
I have two 20 gallon tanks using the same water and they are not green at all

my tank is a well established 40g. last night I noticed a few white spots on my tetras that looked like sand. then i saw my catfish has a few more as well. Ich is what I assume so I went and got treatment today it turned the water blue. I turned the light out removed the carbon filter raised the temp 2deg added 1/2 tbl spoon salt and 4 caps of stress coat. all my fish are acting 100% different... my eel is swimming around alot...1 of my pictus catfish is just chillin on the bottom panting and looks like hell... my swordtail was biting his back fin... the cat is twice his size. the other catfish is swimming around at the top. neither one would eat the last 2 nights (tried bloodworms, shrimp pellets, flakes, alge, and a cucumber) all of which they normally Go CRAZY for. I had my leporinus in there but i accused home of eating half my femaly swordtail so i took him back. I had my water tested a few times and both petco and petsmart and they said it was all great! If anyone knows whats going on please help. Im pretty worried about my fish!

thanks
william

Hi Folks, please keep in mind that some of this is my opinion and what I have observed. Quite frankly I have a tendency to be very skeptical but will give things a try that do not seen too far out there. This is the case with a product put out by Red Sea called Aiptasia X, the Eliminator Kit.
I would first like to point out something that I am certain will be met with strong arguments, but that is the nature of our hobby. I have had a huge Aiptasia for almost a year. He had given me no problems and had not spread at all. A YEAR!! Keep this in mind. I then got a little worried over the horror stories of Aiptasia taking over and spreading like crazy so I decided it was time for him to go..did not need any more battles. I purchased Joe's Juice. I used Joe's Juice, and within three weeks had every size Aiptasia known to mankind. I have since read that when attacked they produce this "slime" which is actually Planual, or spawn if you prefer. So, as a result of using Joe's Juice and really making him mad I now had dozens of these little devils EVERYWHERE.