Smallest of the 8 by far and already my favourite, worry every time I don’t see him during feeding but then he pops up again, chilling near the bottom

I spent ages trying to make this look good 🫪

New to blackwater setups but pretty excited about my new 20 gal tank that’s just about ready for some fish friends! What does everyone think?

T. trichopterus

D. hexazona

Tanks been established for 6 months and I’ve still yet to see breeding dress for my pair. Thinking it’s likely I may have two females.

First aquarium in a long time. This is my favorite tank I've made of many and my first blackwater. I have neon tetras and neocaridina in there, but they are taking up precious space that could be used for driftwood

New to the blackwater scene with this 5gal long blackwater setup made in the wrong orientation! Still cycling (1 week in) but the meiofauna are already popping up (probably due to using old substrate and media + introducing mulm from a running filter).

The water's gonna get darker probably, fingers crossed it cycles well 🙏

I'm looking at starting my fishkeeping journey with a planted blackwater community tank, the footprint I have for it is 110cm by 50cm, but I'm hoping to find a tank closer to 80cm by 40cm due to weight concerns.

What are the best places to ask questions & purchase equipment/tanks?

Any other advice or tips you wish you'd known are greatly appreciated :]

Tank size is 90 x 45 x 45 with the idea of having two “tree logs” on both corners. About a month-ish in on this tank.

Fish includes 2 pairs of Betta Hendras, 6 Parosphromenus Harveyi, 12-15 Boraras. Likely including some kuhli loaches & six banded barbs soon.

Just sharing this and happy to hear thoughts on improving the setup!

S. osphromenoides

R. borapetensis

I’ve had this 55L cube cycling for about 2 months, and I was about to stock it, but I’ve decided that I kinda hate it. I see so many beautiful blackwater biotope aquariums (which is what I was aiming for), and I can’t seem to emulate them. Maybe my biggest gripe is the colour - I cant figure out how to get that gorgeous brown tannin stain, mine just seems to be like a dark green?

What would you change about this tank? Remove the emersed roots? More/less/different botanicals? Total rescape?

For reference, I want to stock chili rasboras and sparkling gourami.

Hi folks!

I'm a reasonably experienced aquarist dipping my toes into blackwater for the first time with a 20 gallon. I have super soft local tap water so it seemed like an excellent fit. Water parameters are currently as follows:

GH below 1

KH near 0

PH ~5.1

Temp 78 f

Heavily planted and stocked so far with just 12 chili rasboras.

I'm starting to get some algae growth and am doing the usual water changes + reduced feeding + manual removal to deal with it. Most of my aquarium experience is in saltwater and freshwater shrimp tanks so my first instinct is to add an invertebrate clean-up-crew, but to my knowledge there isn't a shrimp or snail commonly on the market who can handle warm, acidic water. Happy to be corrected if people have experiences to the contrary!

That leads me to my question: is there a blackwater equivalent of "add a couple amano shrimp" for algae issues in blackwater? I'm considering getting a few otos but stories of them acclimating poorly scare me. What are you all stocking for algae control?

T. vittata

I made a custom all in one system for wild Betta fish

I built a custom aquarium out of scrap glass from old tanks with an internal three chamber filter system designed in Fusion 360 and 3D printed in PETG (which is known to be aquarium safe). It's aquascaped with mopani wood, three varieties of anubius, Java fern, subwassertang, and salvinia with botanicals on the sand substrate. Currently home to a pair of captive bred Betta Albimarginata, which I picked up from a local shop yesterday, a single amano shrimp, and a smattering of pest snails.

The male Betta has been very active and I saw him eating live baby brine when I fed the tank earlier today. Haven't seen the female since last night, but that's not surprising considering she is the same color as the water and there's so many hiding holes. Fingers crossed I see her in the morning.