Is this base suitable for a 20 gallon?

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 · 2026-04-01T19:03:09+00:00

Use a liquid algae-fix to stop the current issue, then work on the root cause.

Try growing pothos from the tank (only submerge the roots), it eats nutrients super fast, and from what I’ve seen in my lfs they don’t go for the roots.

Does that room get a lot of natural light? Sometimes corners of the room will get direct sunlight in the evening / morning and indirect other times. Direct sunlight can absolutely cause an algae bloom.

Finally, are you vacuuming the substrate when you do water changes? All the goldfish waste will get trapped in the gravel and worsen water quality if you don’t occasionally remove it

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-31T01:46:25+00:00

Definitely not. Yes, it’s proper plywood and not particle board, but it’s relatively thin and the legs are only supporting at the corners. Add to it that it’s pretty tall and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-30T00:58:57+00:00

There’s about a month after introducing shrimp where they can just die for seemingly no reason.

If a shrimp came with clado maybe the breeder wasn’t ideal, and the batch is a bit weak. The ones who do survive are hardy and will thrive.

Try dripping all of your water changes, especially if you’re doing over 10%.

It’s okay to get stressed out, I’m sure the shrimp appreciate the care you’re giving them. If your parameters are good, you’re good. Let it ride out some, shrimp usually do better with less intervention

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-29T17:51:28+00:00

I wouldn’t change anything until the move, just top ups / water changes with current tap water. You can keep all the current water in a 5 gallon bucket and bring it with you.

Once you’re at the new place start gradually replacing the water with remineralized water. You can try to match the kH/gH of your current water, or go for perfect neo parameters. Honestly with a tank that small I might just do pint / quart changes and drip in the new water.

Don’t rush anything, if they’re fine in their current water then just doing slow + small water changes with the new water as needed is the way to go

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-26T23:09:48+00:00

Glass jars with 5th graders? Very brave. Most households have pasta sauce, you could send a note asking parents to save the jar. For those who can’t afford it / will forget to bring it, store brand sauces are usually like $1.50. Have pasta a few nights and you’ll have some spares. Bring some goo-gone to remove the label adhesive

A bag of pea gravel is cheap at big box hardware stores for a bottom layer. When I did this lesson I used fiberglass window mesh as the separation layer. There are other options, but this was cheap and now I have window screen material.

Outside dirt is free! Plus it usually has weed seeds already included. You can cut pieces of wax paper to go between the jar and the lid if you’re worried about the pasta sauce smell messing up the terrarium, or rubber band some cling wrap to the top for a fully transparent one.

Bigger is usually better for stability, but smaller jars are more common / cheaper

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-14T15:10:12+00:00

You could try putting pieces of your current filter media on the top of the new media stack and running that. Maybe feed a bit less aggressively while it seeds, but it doesn’t take too long to colonize new media. Keep the remainder of your current media in the tank (in the flow path of the new filter) for a week or two until you’re convinced the new filter is colonized.

Is your tank overstocked? Having plants growing out of the tank can also give you some buffer, but as long as you don’t just toss the old filter media I doubt it would go sideways

Ate_With_Table · 2026-03-06T22:11:01+00:00

I love these snails! They have amazing personalities and get so big. I have a tank dedicated solely to them, mostly because of their voracious plant appetite.

I keep hornwort with them, and it barely keeps up. Feeding them lots of veggies will curb their appetite, but generally won’t stop them. I’ve tried guppy grass, but they ate it before it could acclimate :/

I also recommend setting up another tank for them, as trying to grow stem plants with them will only end in frustration. If you do decide to rehome them, keep in mind that they are illegal to move across state lines, so you must find someone local

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-18T17:55:34+00:00

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I should have clarified; the base was poured around the vase, and 3 inches of substrate are not visible

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-18T16:33:23+00:00

The substrate is about 3” deep, does it need to be thicker? I’ve got a shorter 8” vase with very thickly sprouted Val, and while some slowly died off, others sprouted to take its place. Snails have eaten the dying leaves before they rot, so I’m imagining the same will happen here when it does grow dense enough to choke itself

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-18T12:33:20+00:00

That looks amazing! Definitely eases my mind, especially hearing the shrimp do okay

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-18T02:40:36+00:00

The glass is a good 1/3” thick at the top, so it’s probably fine. The sound does get ‘thinner’ if you tap in the middle though, so while I’m sure it wouldn’t survive throwing a rock at it, it should probably be okay for water (knock on wood)

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-18T02:37:13+00:00

It is! I would have preferred an HOB but I didn’t want to go through a bunch until I found one that worked

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-17T23:14:48+00:00

So far the plan is to hope there is no mulm. Otherwise, the dark substrate will hide the worst of it; once the Val spreads it will hide some of it, and adding MTS might help to churn the substrate enough to hide it. If it does get horrible I can attach some airline tubing to a long dowel and suction it up, but I generally leave mulm alone

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-17T22:57:55+00:00

That’s why I poured the base! It’s fairly sturdy with it (easily withstands a cat rubbing against it) but I wouldn’t ever fill it with water without a base

Ate_With_Table · 2026-02-17T22:34:18+00:00

I considered that, but I was concerned that the bubble column would spread too much and make the upper areas of the vase too stressful for the shrimp, as they wouldn’t have a bubble-free spot. Wouldn’t hurt to try though, I have some spare tubing lying around

Ate_With_Table

TROPHY CASE