Hi everyone!
I'm new to this forum (and new to fishkeeping), so i wanted to quickly introduce myself and provide a quick summary of my escapades with aquariums. During this last summer, I decided to purchase a betta fish just as fun little pet (my dad's allergic to anything that sheds). And that's when I dove straight into the aquarium world. Since then, I have been trying to learn as much as I can about aquariums and how they should be maintained as well as the different types of fish, invertebrates, and plants that are used in the hobby.
So, a few months after i purchased my betta fish, i found a five gallon hex-shaped plastic aquarium at a garage sale for $3. As a kept reading about aquariums, I very slowly began building my own. (yes, every bone wanted me to just go out and get everything at once, but given my budget and my lack of experience in the hobby, I decided to slow my roll). A month or so later, and I had a decent tank set up.
I'm still working on my tank, but I'll fill you in with what I've got set up so far. I have a completely floramax substrate which i purchased for $10. A dwarf anubia as well as dwarf hairgrass that I got from my local petsmart for about $8 each. I purchased a Tetra Whisper 3i and a 25W heater I found on ebay for a cheap price. I also found a nice piece of driftwood as well as italian val, christmas moss, and subwassertang that i purchased off of craigslist.
After running the tank for about two weeks, I wanted to place some shrimp in it, so i went to my LFS and purchased two tiger shrimp (an expensive and challenging shrimp for a beginner, but they are only $7 at my LFS and I was up to the challenge. After having my very small tiger shrimp sucked into my filter, I had to purchase a sponge covering it. After an algae outbreak, I decided to purchase some ghost shrimp to see if they would be able to fix the problem. Although most sites said that they wouldnt eat algae, I decided to give it a try (if anything, the carbon dioxide form the shrimp would help a little). My ghost shrimp will eat some algae if i dont feed them after a while, and i am now fixing the kinks in a diy co2 that i had set up. i eventually plan on keeping a blue tiger shrimp species tank in hopes of somehow breeding them but i still have a ways until i get to that point. For now, besides the algae, my tank is looking good. I'll try to attach some pictures so you can get a visual. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for welcoming me into the forum
I'm new to this forum (and new to fishkeeping), so i wanted to quickly introduce myself and provide a quick summary of my escapades with aquariums. During this last summer, I decided to purchase a betta fish just as fun little pet (my dad's allergic to anything that sheds). And that's when I dove straight into the aquarium world. Since then, I have been trying to learn as much as I can about aquariums and how they should be maintained as well as the different types of fish, invertebrates, and plants that are used in the hobby.
So, a few months after i purchased my betta fish, i found a five gallon hex-shaped plastic aquarium at a garage sale for $3. As a kept reading about aquariums, I very slowly began building my own. (yes, every bone wanted me to just go out and get everything at once, but given my budget and my lack of experience in the hobby, I decided to slow my roll). A month or so later, and I had a decent tank set up.
I'm still working on my tank, but I'll fill you in with what I've got set up so far. I have a completely floramax substrate which i purchased for $10. A dwarf anubia as well as dwarf hairgrass that I got from my local petsmart for about $8 each. I purchased a Tetra Whisper 3i and a 25W heater I found on ebay for a cheap price. I also found a nice piece of driftwood as well as italian val, christmas moss, and subwassertang that i purchased off of craigslist.
After running the tank for about two weeks, I wanted to place some shrimp in it, so i went to my LFS and purchased two tiger shrimp (an expensive and challenging shrimp for a beginner, but they are only $7 at my LFS and I was up to the challenge. After having my very small tiger shrimp sucked into my filter, I had to purchase a sponge covering it. After an algae outbreak, I decided to purchase some ghost shrimp to see if they would be able to fix the problem. Although most sites said that they wouldnt eat algae, I decided to give it a try (if anything, the carbon dioxide form the shrimp would help a little). My ghost shrimp will eat some algae if i dont feed them after a while, and i am now fixing the kinks in a diy co2 that i had set up. i eventually plan on keeping a blue tiger shrimp species tank in hopes of somehow breeding them but i still have a ways until i get to that point. For now, besides the algae, my tank is looking good. I'll try to attach some pictures so you can get a visual. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for welcoming me into the forum
