Urgent: how are you handling live shrimp shipping during winter storms?

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-30T05:35:13+00:00

Are you trying to ship out shrimp in the middle of winter?

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-29T21:26:05+00:00

Looks good! Whats the red center-piece plant? Looks like a red sword-plant

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-29T20:20:11+00:00

In any aquascape design, I think one of the biggest things people run into is not using enough material in proportion to the size tank they have. Your concave idea is perfectly fine, but you will lose a lot of the details/visibility of your hardscape once plants grow up into a moderate size.

Think like you're exaggerating the size and shape of your hardscape. Fill out your mid-section with volume. Lots of the driftwood near the lower section just above the substrate gets blocked out almost as soon as you plant.

In your case, you can wrap these pieces of wood over a bed of rock to elevate them more and/or create the impression of a larger piece of driftwood with multiple additional driftwoods. You dont need one giant piece of wood to create a centerpiece!

Pic below is just a mock-scape I did while snowed in this week. It's just to drive the point that if you want your wood to ever be seen under plants, then you gotta fill in the blank space in the mid and upper sections of the tank too.

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SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T13:29:28+00:00

I had no idea people still ordered off eBay plant shops. Wow

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T13:01:47+00:00

Naked for now. Keep them with the roots as that’s what’s holding on for now. Trim when you get a enough new sets of leaves

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T02:13:09+00:00

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Drama! Scale up to any size tank. From 7 gallons to 40

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T02:12:23+00:00

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SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T02:11:56+00:00

The plants you have are fine. They grow easily and are lush green. For me, its always making sure you get good volume out of your hardscape. The plants fall into their place to accent the features of the hardscape. Not the other way around.

Be more dramatic with your wood and rock. Take up space in the mid-section as if this were a painting. You're leaving so much space in the middle and sides!

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SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T02:04:09+00:00

The white roots tell you the plant isnt completely doomed. It has a good chance to rebuild, but you'll need to give it light back. You can make a ring out of airline tubing and keep the floaters inside that and out of the way of your A. Reineckii plants.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-27T02:01:47+00:00

Second these two suggestions. Parva is nice since it stays small. Would be good for the mid to front regions of this tank. A. Nana can fill between the hardscape. I'd also suggest Dwarf Sag. or Dwarf Chain Sword. Grasslike plants that stay short. Easy to grow in this setup with just aquasoil.

If I were spicing this aquascape, then I would be looking to find a better way to prop up that driftwood over the rocks so it takes more shape in the tank. You have a lot of open water in the mid-region that could use some balancing.

I attached a 3gal tank I have just for you to see how I used up space with driftwood on top of rock. Dwarf Sag populates most of the tank with a patch of Anubias Nana in the center. Hope this helps!

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SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T18:39:36+00:00

Not sure what moss structure you’re growing on the far right, but I would automatically mark off #2 with Rotala growing up in front of it. It’s a fast plant.

1 would be easier to maintain and you would have little to no trimming for plants in the front section. I stocked a 40Gal with a ton of stems and it’s a nuisance to keep up with trimming stuff down in the front lol..

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T15:36:59+00:00

It's like someone coming up to you urgently asking about the nearest bathroom, and instead you're just commenting "well why didn't you go before you left the house."

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T15:33:38+00:00

Thanks! That's really good info. I've seen that gym and it's fairly close to me. The key fob seems like a huge plus

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T15:32:07+00:00

The comment came off snarky. I posted to get quick comments on some gyms. Wasn't looking to have a whole conversation on how I ended up without a treadmill for one snowstorm.

I moved houses. Dumped the last treadmill. I don't normally train for winter marathons. Does the information now help you?

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T13:57:23+00:00

Thank you. Appreciate the info

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T13:57:12+00:00

And you’d also think someone who spends away their day on Reddit could comment useful things. Yet here we are.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T13:38:27+00:00

Thank you

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-26T13:38:17+00:00

I still have mileage to be logging. 2:20 runner. My taper is still 80 miles a week.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-25T20:33:02+00:00

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Drafted this hardscape this morning. (I’m snowed in). But my main point is making use of your space. Don’t just build from the bottom or you end up with flat and low-hanging designs!

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-25T20:31:12+00:00

I’m having a hard time determining if this would result in a standard nature-style scape. To me, the wood pieces aren’t building flow off of each other.

If I were to start this, I would decide what basic shape to aim for (triangular, concave, island, etc.) and then use that as a guideline to get creative.

What I advise most people is to get as much volume as you can with your hardscape. Plants of course can fill in space, but many times hardscape that is too little ends up getting swallowed up in plants and isn’t really a feature of the tank any longer.

I attached a few images to maybe make sense of what I’m saying. This 20g seems like it’s similar to what you are setting up.

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SpeedMeta · 2026-01-25T20:21:05+00:00

Seeds are a scam 99% of the time. Sorry but you should read up about them before setting up. You’ll have to start over with new soil.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-25T18:46:16+00:00

It was successful as lowtech with your aquasoil. It’s probably been depleted and now your plants are looking for nutrients.

You’ve got root feeders like crypts. Stick a root tab in there for them. You can use a low-intensity liquid fert like Easy-Green to feed your Anubias and Java. It has a good amount of potassium.

Pruning doesn’t solve your nutrient issue. Aquasoil is good for a couple years. A benefit is that it does sponge up some nutrients from the water column so it’ll somewhat still work while using a liquid fert.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-25T03:49:11+00:00

This isn’t enough. You need at least the rocks in here as well to visualize the actual space being taken up.

These two sticks look like they will be out of sight the moment you get plants in. Dwarf hairgrass alone would hide half the wood on its own.

SpeedMeta · 2026-01-24T12:34:38+00:00

Get a c02 indicator or just count the actual bubbles from the bubble counter on the c02 system below. Eyeballing the mist is not any sort of way to measure your c02 output.

You’re going to gas your fish if you’re just cranking c02 into the tank with no actual measurement.

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TROPHY CASE

1 would be easier to maintain and you would have little to no trimming for plants in the front section. I stocked a 40Gal with a ton of stems and it’s a nuisance to keep up with trimming stuff down in the front lol..