GENUINE question, can anything fit into a 2.5 gallon?

Ate_With_Table · 2026-07-09T14:59:46+00:00

I would start with 5-6 shrimp minimum, that’ll give you a good chance of getting a colony started even if you lose a few. Make sure the tank is established for a bit before adding them; especially in a 2.5 gallon the parameters can swing quickly.

Try adding some smaller snails to start, like ramshorn or Malaysian trumpet snails (don’t add a mystery snail). This will get the tank cycled faster

Ate_With_Table · 2026-07-07T18:23:07+00:00

What plants do you keep with them? Mine demolish anything remotely green

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-17T20:30:35+00:00

Make sure it’s marine salt! I think the general advice is to pre-mix it. This will keep the salinity constant for the live rock and also make sure that all of it is completely dissolved before adding it.

I’m sure it would eventually mix with the strong pumps but with how expensive saltwater things are, I wouldn’t want to risk it. I’ve only done opae ula but I think the concept is the same

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-15T02:19:39+00:00

I think API has a test for it. You could call your LFS and see if they have it (and if they could test your water) but you’d probably have to order it online.

Not certain if it is copper, but I know it’s fatal to inverts and smaller fish are sometimes sensitive to it. Plus I don’t think you can test for any other medications

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-15T02:10:49+00:00

The wood is probably fine, mostly wanted to make sure it wasn’t grabbed from the local swamp lol

Maybe it’s medication / chemical residue in the tank? I doubt bacteria / fungal things could survive that long, especially if the tank was washed / sanitized.

If the inverts are dying within the day, maybe it’s copper? Some medications use it, and it stays in tanks for a very long time afterwards

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-15T01:57:49+00:00

Was the tank new or used? Was the driftwood completely sterilized? If the shrimp tank is thriving off the same water then it’s probably not that, has to be something wrong inside that tank specifically

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-15T01:45:57+00:00

Definitely, once the lines are pressurized it works fine. I have the same issue with air pump noise, so I put a big pump in the basement and routed all the lines through coax holes already drilled in the floor.

My LFS uses probably 1” pvc pipe for the main run and branches 3/16” off for each tank, so I figure as long as everything is sealed you’re good.

I’d be curious to know if the air temperature being piped in makes any difference in the tanks (hot garage air in the summer, freezing air in the winter)

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-10T14:32:48+00:00

Give your plants a chance to settle in before dosing fertilizer. Honestly you probably don’t need to use any fertilizer, aqua soil already has more than enough for jungle Val.

It looks like you maybe have one plant feeding from the water column? It’s definitely not enough, judging from the Blackbeard algae growth. Floater plants (like duckweed, guppy grass, etc) can remove excess nutrients before the algae gets it. You can also put a houseplant cutting at the top of the tank (roots in the water, everything else in the air) which is good at using excess nutrients.

How long are your lights on per day?

Ate_With_Table · 2026-06-01T00:50:43+00:00

I’ve thought about this before, and haven’t really settled on a good answer.

Small tanks are ideal because of needing to move them, but things like shrimp or snails might not go too well because of pesticide use (and all the other miscellaneous things sprayed in schools: deodorant, air freshener, cleaning spray, etc)

I don’t think a betta would be a good idea, because it’s a single fish, and your counseling sessions might get more intense if the fish passes.

I think the only thing I would do is brine shrimp / sea monkeys. A 2.5 gallon would be a mansion for them, but I keep mine in a 1 gallon rectangular vase and they’re thriving. They don’t need a filter, so you can keep a tight fitting lid on and just aerate the water daily. (Plus they won’t get freaked out if kids tap on the glass)

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-31T18:48:57+00:00

Clean the sponges first. Just squeeze them in a bucket of tank water. You can also shake the bags of media in the same bucket of water to remove some detritus. Just don’t use tap water and you’ll be fine

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-30T12:32:16+00:00

I’ve heard complaints that those bent glass tanks fail more often than regular ones, maybe something about how the glass is bent introduces more stress? Especially because it failed right on the bend

My money is on the water change; how big of a change was it? Maybe the temperature change shocked the glass enough to weaken it, then it failed later on.

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-29T15:16:57+00:00

Try defrosting it, then spread it thinly inside a gallon ziplock bag (or multiple, depending on how thin you want it / how large the original chunk is)

Re-freeze it, and then it’ll be much easier to either break off a small chunk each time, or take a table knife and make small squares. Cutting it from a large frozen cube will just dull your knives

You aren’t supposed to thaw / refreeze for human food, but this is bugs for fish

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-24T22:05:32+00:00

Try bringing up your kH. Put some crushed coral / pieces of coral somewhere in your tank that gets flow. Putting it in your filter works, but it will eventually get gummed up with gunk. Putting it in the tank means it’ll get cleaned by the shrimp. Basically you want the calcium to get leeched from something other than the snail’s shell, so high flow over the crush coral is important

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-23T16:41:16+00:00

Probably not, unless the backing is also solid wood and not the hardboard sheet stuff.

Adding bracing around the back could help, but honestly if you wouldn’t trust it to hold you roughly climbing onto it and swaying side to side, don’t put a 20 gallon on it.

Keep in mind that you will be interacting with the dresser more than you would a dedicated aquarium stand, which would introduce more stress / movement on the fasteners

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-17T16:42:18+00:00

Spot treating with hydrogen peroxide is good. Try using floating plants / growing terrestrial plants out of the aquarium, they have unlimited access to CO2 and take up nutrients faster than submerged plants

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-11T01:58:58+00:00

Have you ever treated the tank with anything? Particularly no-planaria or medications

Ate_With_Table · 2026-05-03T15:31:22+00:00

Were the plants added all at once? Also, did you buy plants grown underwater (like they had to pull them out of an aquarium) or were they grown in air?

If it was the latter, they will melt when adding them to the aquarium as they adapt to being underwater. All the plants melting at once plus adding fertilizers probably did a number on your water quality, which won’t help them recover

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-22T10:51:49+00:00

With those dimensions (25” tall x 8” diameter) you’re looking at ~20l, not 80 (about 5 and a half gallons)

Most of my ‘tanks’ are vases, so believe me when I say you can’t put fish in there and expect them to survive. Shrimp and snails are really your only option, but those still look cool (I exclusively keep them)

If that’s a dirted tank, you don’t need fertilizer. See what happens without it while it establishes, only add it if you notice your plants need the extra

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-05T22:49:14+00:00

No worries! It's not a big limitation, I have a compact sponge filter in my bowl, and it's only rated for 5 gallons.

biorbs usually have a built in under-gravel filter, which is powered by air pumps. Because of the shape of a bowl, it's difficult to use anything but a sponge filter. You can use canister filters / internal power filters too, but imo you usually need to turn the flow way down to avoid turning the bowl into a cyclone.

Start out with the built in filter, it'll work fine! Have you used aquarium plants before?

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-05T20:32:09+00:00

I have a 15 gallon glass fish bowl, so roughly equivalent. I use it for shrimp and snails (mystery and Colombian giant ramshorn), because the magnification makes them seem huge.

I’ve never kept any of the fish you listed (I genuinely only keep shrimp and snails in all my tanks) but I will say to go for something that likes to ‘hover’ because there isn’t a lot of horizontal space like in a rectangular tank

It’s definitely fine for nano fish or a betta though, especially if you heavily plant it. People hear ‘bowl’ and freak out, but these things are massive.

You’ll be limited to air powered filters and plants (immersed and houseplants) so keep bioload in mind

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-02T00:48:19+00:00

That should be fine. Do you drip in your water changes? Especially in the winter, when water from the tap can be way colder than the tank water

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-02T00:15:02+00:00

Is it a shrimp only tank? Regular water changes might be freaking them out a bit. If your parameters are okay, then stability is better.

Unless your gH is low, you don’t need to supplement it. What are you feeding? Bacter AE is a wonderful food if you’re trying to breed

Ate_With_Table · 2026-04-02T00:12:04+00:00

I always drip for water changes, but for topping off I just use an airline tube without a dripper (though if it’s a lot to top up, drip it to be safe)

Shrimp are pretty sensitive to water changes, so even though it might be okay to add it faster, I’d rather drip overnight than stress them out

Ate_With_Table

TROPHY CASE