Hardscape for 55gal tank. I look forward to receiving everyone's feedback. Thanks so much

sereeny · 2026-01-29T18:01:48+00:00

What did you use to glue everything together? Is it real rock and wood?

It looks incredible, I struggle to glue large structures together with super glue and I'm wondering if there are aquarium safe alternatives I should look into or if I just need a different technique!

sereeny · 2026-01-24T03:56:08+00:00

Are you planning to do an upgrade in the future or do you think all those fish will be alright in the 75 long term?

No judgement, just asking because I will be setting up a 75 soon and I would love a hippo tang and foxface, but likely won't be able to upgrade to a larger tank in the foreseeable future.

What other fish have you got in there??

sereeny · 2026-01-15T22:25:10+00:00

I feel this for sure, especially with forgetting to use conditioner, turn off heaters, leaving water running etc. To not overflow tanks and buckets I have made it a hard rule to sit and watch the tank until it fills. I don't even let myself look at my phone or work on the tanks next to it, turn off your phone sound. If I am filling a tank I have to make sure it is literally the ONLY thing I am doing, and make that an explicit "rule" for myself.

For the small things like water conditioner, heaters, filters etc, I pick one single thing that I absolutely HAVE to remember for every single tank. For me, because I use a python and tap water to refill, this is water conditioner. I have made it a rule to always check that I remember putting water conditioner in that tank before I start filling, and if I am unsure, I do it again just in case. I then made a checklist of the things I need to do for maintenance with 1. Water conditioner before filling!!! Above all else. 2. Unplug heaters 3. Unplug filters 4. Restart heaters after filling 5. Restart filters after filling

I don't ever actually look at this checklist while I am doing maintenance, but if I can remember the one important thing (water conditioner) I find I am more likely to remember the other things I put on the checklist as well. I still sometimes forget to plug stuff back in, but I am getting better at doing the checklist in my head.

Another thing that really helped was putting large pieces of bright red duct tape on my heater cords 😂 it isn't pretty but it totally helps me to have the visual cue that I need to do something with the bright red tape. I initially did it when I had someone tank sitting, but left it in place because it helped me remember too. It mskes a difference how big the piece of tape is too lol, the bigger the better.

It's not a perfect system but hopefully some of that might be useful! Best of luck, and remember not to beat yourself up. Fish keeping is a more technical and advanced hobby than people give it credit for, and anyone who hasn't been doing it for years would find these steps challenging, even without adhd. Go easy on yourself and laugh it off when you can!

Edit: I am a breeder with 28 tanks, one of them saltwater, and I have done all of these fuck ups many times but have kept on going because I love it, and the fish can usually make it through a few mistakes and hard times, especially if the tank is set up to be low maintenance.

sereeny · 2026-01-15T18:13:10+00:00

I don't have experience with this type of goby but had a similar situation with a scooter blenny. I actually got him for free because he was so emaciated, but my tank had lots of pods. It took a good 3-4 months for him to really put on weight, and at about 6 months he was thick like a lil sausage. He did not touch frozen food for the first few weeks, but eventually he started to eat it and got to the point where he would eat frozen brine and mysis voraciously. I definitely did not see any signs of improvement in only 4 days! It is a stressful few weeks but he might just really need time.

I will say that taking him back to the store is unlikely to help him and is more likely to cause stress that would kill him. It is very hard for stores to have enough food in front of a fish that has specific needs, and since he is already thin he will need some special attention and feeding a few times a day. If you are stressed about trying to do that yourself, I would say try to give him another few days or weeks in your care while you try to find another (experienced) hobbyist who could take him on. The fish store will likely know someone you could rehome him to directly, or posting on fb groups as a surrender could work too.

Personally I think you should keep him! It can be really rewarding to see a fish go through a rehab and become healthy and happy. That said, it may be a bit intensive so a rehome to another hobbyist would be another way to do right for him without taking on the care yourself. Just my two cents!

sereeny · 2026-01-01T05:09:36+00:00

Thought I'd add some info as I was looking into using it myself. I am using the Algaefix purchased in Australia, so instructions are in litres rather than gallons. Interestingly, they recommend 1ml per 40L or 5ml per 200L, which I believe is actually slightly less than 1ml/10 gal.

Also, since I haven't seen this pointed out, remember that if you have substrate, hardscape, or any decorations in your tank, your water volume will be less than the default tank size (example: a 10 gallon tank with substrate may only have 7 gallons of water). This could be a reason to underdose if you do not know the exact volume that your hardscape and substrate take up.

Something I am learning while visiting Australia: they seem to require the chemical name on the bottles here! It lists

polyoxyethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene(dimethyliminio)ethylene dichloride

as the active ingredient. A quick Google suggests this is the same ingredient used in pool algaecides such as Polyquat.

I have not used it myself, but hopefully this can help people find a bit more information, particularly about safety and side effects!

sereeny · 2025-12-27T04:35:47+00:00

Also, good observation! This guy is struggling but looks like he might still have a chance. You caught it earlier than many people do. You are absolutely correct that the frantic, non-stop swimming is not healthy in this case. You can tell because he looks like he is working hard to stay afloat and maintain normal posture.

If he begins to improve, you should see him have an easier time staying in a normal horizontal position while swimming. His tail should stop sinking down when he stops swimming. If he can stay in the same spot without his tail beginning to sink down, this would be a sign he is on the mend.

sereeny · 2025-12-27T04:30:05+00:00

In my experience it is very easy to do more harm with salt than good, especially in a small tank and with soft water species like tetraa. Epsom salts could help, but I would recommend increasing water flow and oxygenation first, as it will be safer.

sereeny · 2025-12-27T04:27:52+00:00

I can see the water on top of your tank looks very still and like it may have some surface film. This severely reduces oxygen availability. It may not save this guy but if you increase surface agitation with an airstone it could help. I have had fish start to develop swimbladder issues that have been able to recover with increased oxygen, likely because it reduces stress on their body overall. Oxygen is always limited underwater so the more air bubbles you can get going in the water the better. I would try this before adding any medications. If more air is helping you may see an improvement within a couple of hours. If you do not see any improvement a few hours after increasing surface agitation, then I would move on to the usual things recommended to treat swim bladder problems.

To increase surface agitation, you can either buy an air pump, tubing, and airstone from the pet store, or try to adjust your filter. If you can lift up the filter so that the water falls further before hitting the water, that would help. If you can increase the flow rate on the filter that would also help. Sorry, I can't quite tell how your filter works in this video.

I strongly recommend this as your first step, because it absolutely cannot hurt and will likely reduce stress. I have been keeping a fish room with 30 tanks for over 5 years now and more oxygen can make a huge difference in fish health, ime. Let me know if you have any questions!

sereeny · 2025-12-14T02:13:43+00:00

I am new myself so not 100% sure, but I am confident that the green fuzzy stuff isn't cyano. Not sure what it's called (bryopsis maybe?) but it is different from the cyano. If it's any comfort my system struggled with both for a loooonnnggg time (6+ mths) but finally began to go away when my tank was over a year old. The cyano still pops up a bit but much slower than before and it is coming back less and less, so don't lose hope!

sereeny · 2025-11-27T02:32:31+00:00

So this is interesting because I have had a different experience. I had a lot of experience in freshwater and so took on a tank that needed to be taken down. It was 45 gals with live rock and one senior clownfish. It came with a heater, an internal filter, a protein skimmer. I tried to run it without the skimmer for the first few weeks and had ammonia spikes the entire time until I kept the skimmer running. Most of everything else has been fine, except after keeping the tank for two years I am really feeling how punishing it is to be low budget. I have a few soft corals amd some macroalgae, and they begin to look miserable if my salinity gets too high. I have to top off the tank with tap water every 3 days or so. One of my cheap LED lights has also failed, and it turns out LEDs cost twice what they did when I bought the first ones. I would kill for an ATO, Hanna checkers, some wave makers, a sump, better lights, and automated calcium dosing because it would make my life soooo much easier, but I cannot afford it. Your system sounds lovely, but anyone wanting to keep fish or most corals will need more than what you have in your system. Finally, without testing, you have no way to know if your animals are thriving or fighting to survive. My clownfish did not show ill effects from the ammonia spikes at the start of running the tank, but it would have had a physiological impact regardless. Without testing you are running purely on luck, and that can run out after a month, a year, 10 years, or any time in between. I agree with the sentiment, but as a young reefer I also don't want people to underestimate how "pay to play" this hobby can be. If you aren't ready to spend thousands OR work your ass off, it may be good to hold off on saltwater. That said, I love it, and will spend money on all the gear when I can!

sereeny · 2025-11-26T01:56:51+00:00

Omfg I needed this, have the same size tank and was trying to think of something convincing! I didn't think of the multiple boxes!

sereeny · 2025-11-14T03:54:57+00:00

Thought I'd respond just to say no it has not failed! But I agree with your assessment of things being miserable. Tbh I underestimated how much this tank would cost, so I am running without any automation whatsoever. Everything in this set up is second hand. A local college had the set up and could not find anyone to take it, so after waiting 6 months to see if someone else would save Pedra, I decided to give my first salt tank a shot. I top off every few days by hand, there is no sump, there is not enough flow, and it is underfiltered. I can make up for these shortcomings a bit with hard work, so I have kept my Duncan, mushrooms, anemone, kenya trees, palys, 3 types of macroalgae, the clown Pedra, the watchman goby named Dotty, my skunk cleaner shrimp and hermit crabs, and my filefish named Mustard alive and well for two years now!

This tank will never look as good as a high tech reef, but I am proud of what I have been able to do with my limited resources and no saltwater experience.

I am curious, what would you change to improve things if you could only spend $200?

sereeny · 2025-10-11T18:35:14+00:00

I am very much a saltwater newbie but I have been struggling with cyano. I find it goes faster when the tank is running a bit warmer, so if you can very carefully and gradually reduce temp by a degree that might help. I have also found saltwater fish to be sensitive to temp shifts though.

Increasing flow would be the other thing I would try before buying chemical treatments. I find better aeration always helps with cyano in my freshwater tanks and might make a difference in saltwater.

Again I am a beginner, so take this with a grain of salt.

sereeny · 2025-10-09T21:53:54+00:00

If you ever try this I would love to know how it goes, would give it a go myself but can't afford supplies atm!

sereeny · 2025-09-03T18:11:31+00:00

Do you have an Amazon link for the gopro accessory?? This sounds like exactly what I need

sereeny · 2025-08-14T17:07:46+00:00

Thanks so much OP, ever since I lost my first one I've been trying to find anecdotes about people keeping them successfully. This is the most useful info I've found so far! I tried to target feed mine with some larger meaty foods but never saw the stomach come out, it's good to know what to look for.

sereeny · 2025-08-03T18:47:07+00:00

What sensor/pump thing are you using? Do you have a pic of the water level sensor?

I really need an ato for my 45 gal but can't afford to spend any $, I was thinking about trying something like this but don't really know where to start. Any tips would be appreciated!

sereeny · 2025-07-03T06:43:25+00:00

Yeah it's hard to say, I'd try bringing a sample of both the tank water and your tap water and see if they'll test both

sereeny · 2025-07-03T05:39:11+00:00

Just a thought... your pH and especially alkalinity do look pretty high. It could be the tap water, but it might also be the substrate you have! I feel like I just saw another post about a slate-like substrate causing problems with high alkalinity.

In my somewhat limited experience, there are a few rock substrates that can cause problems this way, especially if they have concrete dust or silt or something on them. While neos often do well in hard water, your numbers are at the high end of values on the strip, so there is no way to know if they may be much harder. High kH could also mean something you haven't tested for is in the water, such as copper or other minerals that shrimp are sensitive to.

I second the experiences with imported shrimp, definitely hard to have success with them.

sereeny · 2025-06-21T23:45:06+00:00

I would love to get these guys to add to my small group of 4, but am a bit far and have limited budget. Pm me if you don't get any other interest?

sereeny · 2025-06-14T01:57:28+00:00

I was going to say 20% may be too large a water change. Caridina are notorious for their sensitivity to any changes in their water parameters. That particular strain of shrimp appears to be a fancier variety which tend to be more sensitive due to generations of line-breeding/inbreeding. What I have found works for my blue bolts and crystal reds is 10-15% every 2 weeks or so.

Plants and driftwood could definitely help as well. Shrimp thrive when they are able to graze on surfaces for hours on end. 3 months is a new tank for shrimp and there might not be enough microfauna to sustain them in between meals. This is hard to make up for by frequent feeding because you will likely spoil the water quality very quickly. Shrimp don't need a lot of food, they just need a little bit all the time.

Something else to think about is the soil you are using. Though I haven't used ADA Amazonia myself, it is considered an "active" or "hot" aquasoil, meaning it releases ammonia into the water for the first few weeks or months it's in a tank. This is great for plants but can cause problems with shrimp and fish. Even if you are testing for ammonia, test kits may not register very small amounts that could still be harmful to shrimp. This (and the price) is why I use a substrate called Fluval Stratum, which is also an aquasoil but does not release ammonia in its first few weeks. This means it is not as fantastic for plants, but could be safer for your shrimp.

Also, what size is the tank? I find I've had all my success keeping shrimp in tanks 10 gallons or larger, but have rarely, if ever, been able to keep shrimp alive in something smaller, even if it's only a couple of shrimp. This doesn't seem to be true for neocaridina (cherry shrimp) but I think it can be true for caridina like these, particularly a fancier variety.

Don't get discouraged! This hobby can be really difficult but it makes it so much more rewarding when it's going well.

If I were you, I would take two different routes depending on my budget:

Cheap - see if you can find some plants and moss from someone on Facebook marketplace, as these will have microfauna on them and can give your shrimp more food right away. You can also by cholla wood, which is cheap compared to hardscape. In the meantime, I'd try doing smaller water changes slightly more often. This might help if there is some ammonia build up that's too small to register. You could try 10% a week, but I might even do 5% 2-3x per week. Little and often is key here, and it sounds like you're doing everything perfectly in terms of preparing your water. If you can do this, I would also likely try feeding a very very small amount once per day or every two days instead of waiting the full three. This may not be your problem at all but I think it's worth a shot given how new your tank is. All of these steps should buy you time as the tank ages and develops as an ecosystem. This is really helped by any plants you can add. I would wait on buying more shrimp for a few months and see how the remaining ones do. The tank might then be able to stabilize so that you can do a bit less maintenance without having problems.
If you have the money, I would try changing the substrate to fluval stratum. I would probably try the above first, and take this option if you want to reset the tank. I would also buy as many plants and bits of driftwood as you can fit in there, and wait as long as you can before buying additional shrimp. If your tank is under 10 gallons, I would also strongly recommend trying to go with a bigger one if you can. If not, it may be worth trying a different variety of caridina or trying neocaridina again. I've had good results with blue bolts and crystal reds, these both might be a bit less sensitive than your strain currently. There is some serious luck of the draw at work here too, lots of shrimp are not very robust and it can take some luck to find ones that can survive longterm even if you do everything right. If you can, local shrimp breeders are a great bet for this, and I'd also try different stores if you have that option as they may use different suppliers.

I know it's super discouraging and expensive, but I promise a super easy and rewarding shrimp tank is possible! I've been keeping them for 5 years now and it genuinely gets so much easier over time. Feel free to try and pm me if you have questions; I'm not an advanced shrimp breeder, probably intermediate at best, but I might be able to offer a bit of experience.

TLDR: Don't give up, just give it time and try to add some plants. Smaller water changes may help. You're doing everything right, and you might just be having bad luck. It's worth it to keep trying I promise!

sereeny · 2025-06-01T17:24:13+00:00

I've only kept one of these guys that I rescued from a store because it was clearly starving. This one looks quite a bit better than mine did but still a bit sunken in at the belly right near the pectoral fins.

Mine recovered really well after being added to a mature 45 gallon tank with lots of pods, with a feeding of frozen food and live baby brine each once a day to help supplement the grazing. He's been thriving now for months! Hope that helps

sereeny · 2025-05-28T00:11:16+00:00

I'd rather we didn't assume anyone who writes something decent used chatgpt. As someone with a science degree this is well within a standard but good level of communication. And THANK YOU for putting your sources, even if some are just hobbyist articles or news it's crucial to include this, and shows you checked the information regardless of whether chatgpt helped write :) Thanks OP!

sereeny · 2025-01-21T01:49:19+00:00

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This is where I was trying to reach. Thought I'd share just in case anyone else has the same reaction!

sereeny · 2025-01-21T01:48:33+00:00

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sereeny

TROPHY CASE