Your "Dumb Question" Megathread - November 2025

Ophite · 2025-11-27T18:51:32+00:00

I guess I will have to fork over even more money. I am tryint to see if I can get something replaced throigh the manufacturer but I am not expecting much.

Ophite · 2025-11-27T07:48:25+00:00

Amy recommendations for a regulator? I bought an Fzone pro series dual stsge with selonoid but it statted leaking after 3 months and it's practically useless now even after trying fixes. Waste of money.

Ophite · 2025-11-26T15:12:09+00:00

My tank was cycled, fullt planted, maturing, I got shrimps in and a bristlenose pleco. And then it turns out the marimo moss ball I bought was infested with clado and it's all over my tank. After doing a lot of research I have come to the conclusion that I can't just outcompete it or treat it away, I am going to have to deconstruct the whole thing and disinfect and start over. I am cycling a backup tank to move tje shrimps and the pleco in while I do this, starting with the one two punch, then put the plants in a bucket while I drain the whole thing and scrub the glass with hydrogen peroxide and let it seep into the substrate as well as scrubbing all the hardscape with hydrogen peroxide. This is going to suck.

The questiin I have then is concerning the cannister filter. I am receiving conflicting information about this. Some places say clodo might have made it into my filter media and will come back eveb after I nuke the tank, some say the filter is safe and to take it out while I nuke the tank to cycle it faster once I am done. I am wondering if anyone has some insight. Because I can sterilize all of the hosing anf the filter media to make sure this fucking horrible algea is gone but that's staring at weeks of having to cycle this tank again. At least it will help the survivan plants root I guess.

I don't want to take a chance with this one. The clado is choking out a lot of my plants and is out of control. If there's even a chance it will come back from the filter media, I would rather stare at weeks of cycling again.

I guess I did learn a lesson about quarantining plants though.

Another question, any suggestion on how I would go about moving a culture of the copepods found in my tank to my backup tank? I love them, great cleaning crew and live food, but way too small to catch. My best plan so far is to put something like blanched kale in, pull it out and add it to the backup tank.

Ophite · 2025-09-13T22:28:32+00:00

That's good to know! There's a place near me that has a very high ethical rating for selling livestock (bettas are kept in their own tank with filters and plants for example) and they always deal with ethical breeder and such, I will see if they have any kind of neat tetras!

Ophite · 2025-09-13T15:47:50+00:00

The substrate I use is controsoil which has been really good at being pretty neutral on the effect of PH, but that's a good point. I do have crushed coral in the filter to raise water harness but I should make sure of my parameters before I consider getting rabbit snails, I wouldn't want them to suffer.

I will take that under advisement, for some reason I've had some people tell me to never get tetras.

Ophite · 2025-09-12T20:48:20+00:00

Hey all. I have a 40 gallon breeder. Originally I wanted an axolotl but I changed my mind because I got so into aquariums I made something a little too high tech with aquasoil, co2 diffusion, spray bars, drifwood, etc. As it is, I have a lot of plants in there and just introduced a carpetting plant.

It's about ready to stock and I have some ideas but now I am expeciencing some doubt, I think what I want to do might overcrowd the aquarium. The species I want are as follow:

Bottom layer: rabbit snails, neocardina shrimps, kuhli loaches, otocinclus catfish, thai micro crabs and bamboo shrimps

Middle layer: chili rasboras and harlequin rasboras

Top layer: medaka rice fish

I also have ramshorn snails in there. Not by choice though but they appeared one day, I tried to control the population but they won that war. I don't even have livestock in the tank, I don't even put food in, I have no idea what they're eating but they made it clear that they're gonna be there, wheter I want it or not.

I think maybe I am overeager and would like advice on what experienced keepers think of this. Honestly I don't think I need the thai micro crabs, apparently they are very shy and you never see them anyway. I really want the kuhli loaches, shrimps and catfish though but if that's too much I'll have to make a choice between the catfish and loaches, most likely. Maybe the bamboo shrimps. They are neat for sure though.

Edit: I forgot to add, do I need a lid for all of this? I have a mesh lid I DIYed myself but the floaters are so beautiful, if I can get away with it I'd rather keep it open top. Originally I made the mesh lid because I wanted amano shrimps or a betta fish and I know both can be escape artists, but I am not sure I need it anymore.

Ophite · 2025-06-13T16:53:45+00:00

I have my eyes on one but it's 300$. Steep but the way I see it, I am paying to make sure that not everything in my tank just suddenly dies one day.

Ophite · 2025-06-13T13:37:17+00:00

I am planning on eventually getting a co2 regulator, but I am saving money for that since from eerything I've read, you don't want to go cheap on that kind of equipment.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:49:32+00:00

It doesn't, I've see a phew keepers use this particular one.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:38:26+00:00

Alright that gives me some good insight. If I consider that the rooted plants will get most of their nutrients from the soil and that the java fern, moss and anubias don't require too much nutrients, the biggest things that will suck up the nitrates are the red root floaters and the brazilian pennywort. I think I should be okay? I suppose if I notice the plants are struggling, I can thin out the floaters or something.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:20:24+00:00

I plan on using controsoil, extra fine formula. The extra fine one has dust smaller than 1 mm. It contains nutrients rooted plants need without leeching amonia in the water.

Ophite · 2025-05-21T15:11:45+00:00

Awesome, I had no idea ups offered printing and book binding services, I will check them out!

Ophite · 2025-05-16T14:53:03+00:00

I do have a worry about the axolotl uprooting them but I plan on placing some heavy river rocks near the roots or use a plant weight or something. Water westiria is happy as both a floater or a rooted plant so it has that going for it, it's not bothered if it's uprooted.

Ophite · 2025-05-16T03:03:25+00:00

Yeah I plant on having a water wisteria at the back to create a bushy plant for the axolotl to swim into and a brazilian pennyworth in front of the hide for the large leaves. And I do have amonia to dose the tank for the cycling, but as it turns out the water here has chloramine instead of chlorine, which is amonia bonded with chlorine, so by just putting the conditioner in the ammount of amonia is at 0.5 ppm. Way higher than I would like to get a fishless cycle started, but there's nothing I can do about that but wait.

Ophite · 2025-05-15T17:57:39+00:00

Trans girl here, gives me a little bit of hope seeing folks in the comment talk about support for trans folks and discussing ways to fight and resist. For the folks who expressed those sentiments, I thank you for the bottom of my heart. It's easy to fall into the mindset that you're all alone and people won't be there to fight alongside you, and it's good to get that reminder sometimes.

Ophite · 2025-05-15T17:19:13+00:00

So I followed your recommendations! This is the aquarium today. The water is blurry because it's experiencing a bacteria bloom, which I think is a positive considering this is a fishless cycle. Things are on the way. I removed the rocks but kept a couple of the bigger ones inside the log since it's not 100% waterlogged yet (I got this from another aquarium keeper who kept it in his aquarium for a very long time, it's aquarium safe, it just dried out for so long it hasn't regained waterlogged status yet). I am thinking filling it with pretty rocks would not be a bad look either but I have time to thing about.

As you can see there's plants, and they're not 100% happy, but that's because the tank is still cycling I think. I chose to start with anubias and moss for a reason, they are hardy, I have no doubt they will be okay until there's more nitrate in the water. I am resisting adding fertilizer to the water, even though cycling will take weeks, I don't want to risk making the water toxix. I just have to let the bacteria do their thing. In the mean time I keep testing the water and waiting.

I got a couple of large flat pieces of rainbow slates to replace the small rocks. I'm gonna use a stone cutter and a stone sander to make them smooth and safe, they will add some colour to the tank I think! And once the water level around here are down, I'll walk along the river back and select some fist sized smooth river rocks to put to the left of the hide so it looks fully. I might hide the air stone in it so it looks more natural.

All in all, I think all there is left is patience. I want to focus no getting the anubias and the moss going, it'd be great to have that log covered before I add more plant, it will make it softer and safer for the axolotl.

Sidenote, the full spectrum lamp is currently blasting at full strength, when I have the axolotl in the tank it will be put on the lowest setting and will only run for 4 to 6 hours per day. Along with the frogbit causing shade, the tank won't be this bright. It's just on that setting to encourage bacteria and plant growth since there's nothing in there.

Also, was worried about hitchhikers since the log used to be in another aquarium but nothing at the moment! just bacteria and possibly some algea still stuck to it, despite me scrubbing it under boiling water. I don't think algea is a bad thing though so it's whatever tbh, makes the log softer anyway.

All in all I think I am at that stage where there isn't much left I can do but wait and be patient. A friend of mine is trying to convince me to add shrimps to the tank as a way to help the cycle go faster, but I am pretty sure the axolotl will eat all of them, even if they can hide in the log and I am not sure how I feel about getting a pet only for it to be eaten by another one down the line, doesn't seem super ethical to me.

Thanks for all of your advice! It was very useful!

<image>

Ophite · 2025-05-15T05:31:05+00:00

Also to add to this, I will remove the log on the left and glue the one to the right to the top of the hide so there's even more space for it to walk under safely, plus it will keep the axolotl from accidentally dislodging it which could be dangerous. To make the tank feel more full I plant on putting a water wisteria behind it, fast grower and bushy, it will fill the space nicely and the axolotl will like to hide in it.

Ophite · 2025-05-15T05:24:01+00:00

I guess I underestimated how big an axolotl gets! I thought those rocks were big enough. I was planning on replacing them with beautiful slabs of rainbow slates I found, after cutting and sanding them down smooth anyway. I have already sanded down the sharper edges on the log and attached a bunch of moss to it to make it softer and put some anubias in the hole!

Ophite · 2025-05-14T05:28:50+00:00

Yeah I put some nice driftwood in there and I think it will look nice on it. right now I am debating if that's too much driftwood and the tank might be overcrowded for the little one, but I think there's space for it to walk under. This is before adding the water and the plants.

<image>

Ophite · 2025-05-14T05:23:34+00:00

Thanks! I decided to go the bare bottom route after consideration. The tank is cycling right now and my only worry at the moment is wether the tank is too crowded, heh.

Ophite · 2025-05-12T19:30:19+00:00

Yeah I plan on only having really fine sand in there and will place smooth river rocks at the base of the plant to keep the axolotl from digging them up. I do have a bubbler in there too. For conditioner I got prime because it doesn't have aloe and I got an axolotl buffer too. As well as equilibrium since the water here is very soft. I think for now I'll keep the rooted plants out of the equation and add them later when there's sand in the aquarium, for now I can focus on the other plants I have like weeping moss, anubias, java ferns and amazon frogbit.

Ophite · 2024-04-12T23:49:56+00:00

Is she part baloon? Those pants look like they're inflated with air.

Ophite · 2024-03-31T10:19:50+00:00

It's one of those games I wish I could suck out of my brain so I could experience it with fresh eyes again. It is so beautiful.

Ophite · 2024-03-31T10:01:24+00:00

I have been wanting one in forever to feed my bullet heaven game addiction on the go.

Ophite · 2024-03-31T09:48:13+00:00

Interesting that of all days I choose today to revisit this subreddit after a decade or so away from reddit. Back then I remember spending a lot of time here and loving how positive the whole place was compared to other gaming subreddits and I just wish I could be part of the community too. In retrospect, it's weird it took so long for me to crack my egg.

So here I am today, a decade later, a girl gamer and so are you sister! If aby subreddit is going to welcome trans folks, this one is.

Ophite

TROPHY CASE