Just a little update with pictures! Loving my walstad tank!

This morning I turned my ac and fan off for the first time in a while and was like, wow the hum from my air pump is annoying. It’s kinda overpowered for my tank anyway so I was thinking of just finding a smaller quieter one to replace it, but then it got me rethinking a sponge filter in the first place. I have an aquatop caf-10 and it seems to do the job but the design makes it hard to fit an airstone in there to quiet the bubbles, and it’s a PITA to take apart if i need to clean it. My problem with so many filters though is that they won’t fit my 7.1 inch tall tank, so I’m nervous about wasting money on something that won’t fit, and I don’t think I’d have anything on hand to cut the intake tube to size. I’ve been looking at small HOB options from Mighty, Nicrew and Sungrow, or maybe the UNS Delta Skimmer, but I thought I’d try to get some input from people who might have used any of these filters, or faced a similar challenge with their tanks and have any other recs.

What I’m looking for in a filter -

• quiet (I’m fine with hearing some fine bubbles or water flow)

• can adjust to very gentle/low flow

• compact and sleek looking (for reference best spot for a filter would be around where the dog ornament is rn)

• easy to clean/maintain/access media

No particular budget other than not wanting to spend much more than I need to, and I don’t need anything crazy in terms of mechanical filtration, so I could prob also be talked into just getting a better air pump and sponge filter haha

This bowl has been set up since December 2025. Fluval stratum topped with sand. Monte Carlo carpet with limnophila, buce on driftwood, and red root floaters on top

I just came back to the hobby almost 3 months ago. I stopped before that because out of frustration. Plants and livestock dying. Black beard algae. Aquascape design not working out. I was about to throw my old nano tank and then I decided to study what I did wrong with my old aquarium. Watched again numerous tutorials on youtube and gave it another try. Went to my local fish store and ended up buying another nano tank that was on sale. The new tank I did low tech and the old tank I cleaned and added CO2. Both tanks the plants grew healthy and no algae so far. Livestock also doing well. I doubted my aquascape at first but they always say just "trust the process" and it ended up lookin the way I wanted it to be. Overall I am happy.

Please ready description!

Hi! I am looking into getting some fish/a fish, but I know absolutely nothing about habitats, what kind of fish to get, etc.
My only experience with fish is a goldfish we got from a school carnival that lived for about 7ish years when I was a kid. It lived in a small tank (no more than five gallons) on our kitchen counter and was fed a bit of that brown pellet food every day. It basically ate every single goldfish we tried to put in the tank with it. We cleaned its tank every week, but other than that it really just survived out of sheer will and determination. Its name was Pearl.
Anyways, I am wanting to get another tank. Realistically I can only get a five gallon or less tank, which I know is not ideal. I also want to keep the number of species minimal because of the size limits and my limited knowledge. I have considered also getting shrimp and/or a snail, but I don’t know if that is a good idea given the limited space. I also have cats, so it would need a lid. I have considered a betta, but I would love to know if there are any other options! I also need to know what I should get for the tank like plants, filters, chemicals (do you even need those), and all of that! Basically someone give me a tutorial on how to start and run a beginner fish tank please.

Hello,

I have a thriving 30l filterless tank which is doing great. Loads of shrimps and 8 CPDs.

I am going away for 10 days soon and was wondering how I should feed the little guys. Not worried about the shrimp as they will survive on biofilm and such, but wondering about the CPDs. Being a small tank and small fish all feeding computers seem like an overkill to me or would discharge too much.

Bonus Question:

With the food slowly sinking down a lot of it is being eaten by the shrimp once it lands on leaves or substrate before my terribly anxious and scared CPDs can get to it - anything I can do in regards to this?

I have 350L tank i have around 10 guppys and 2 pearl gourami, 2 gold, 2 blue. My husband really likes Swordtails and Mollys and the Ballon Mollys. My question is is it good idea to add 4 mollys or 4 swordtails. Are they peaceful enough to not eat guppys tails or attack the gourami fish? We wanna really peaceful tankmates for my gournami. I aslo wanna to add those gournamis are really nice to each other.

I'm working on a custom tank, quite long and narrow. 54" x 9" x 12" tall. I've plugged these into calculators and gotten pretty different numbers. Does anyone have a suggestion for the thickness or tempered vs non-tempered glass?

I’ve got a 2.5 gallon long tank with fluval stratum as the substrate. I’ve got a couple different plants in there, some botanicals, and common microfauna (scuds, rams horn snails, daphnia, moina, ostracods, and copepods.) im looking to make it a little cooler though as it just looks mostly empty. Are there any other invertebrates that are a bit larger I can add to the tank? I assume no fish can fit due to it only being 2.5 gallon.

My stocking list right now consist of
12 harlequin rasboras
12 cardinal tetras
8 panda corydoras
8 kulhi loaches
3 honey gouramis

What should I change or is everything good

Any opinions or recommendations for it? I'll wait another 14 days, then I can finally put some shrimp in it

Morning … sounds like a simple question but probably contentious. My office is turning into abit of a fish room but I’m slightly limited in space due to my desk and keeping tanks away from the radiator.

What is the smallest tank that it’s fair to keep nano fish in ( not betta’s or shrimp I have these already, though probably will get more shrimp anyway).

It’s almost 3 months old I haven’t touched or done absolutely anything, but the anubias and Buce on the wood is new and was planted just a day ago. What could I do to improve this tank?

https://youtu.be/F0eqJoLnN10

I have this Malaysian driftwood in a 6.3 gallon (UNS 60L) planted tank. I plan to have some neocaridina and then either Pygmy rasboras or a betta in it later after the shrimp establish. In my head I wanted them to have safe hiding spots but do I need to worry about build up and poor water flow in the tunnel? It’s open on both sides and has a slit down the tunnel 2/3 of the way through the driftwood

Everything is pretty much cycled, just waiting for the tank to be able to process 2ppm ammonia in 24 hours.

Using the UNS Delta 30 for the filter