I’ve only been here 14 days. 🙁

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Joined 2 months ago
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Cake day: April 23rd, 2025

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  • It can be an expensive hobby.

    If you’re trying to go cheap, you can save money by buying certain soils and sands from Home Depot (or your local equivalent) instead of substrate. Do your research on that before buying. You might be able to buy plant lights here, too, if you’re okay with how they look or can make them look good.

    Add plants. They look nice, provide hiding spots and naturally filter the water. Shrimp and snails add to the ecosystem. Some people will plant a pothos in the HOB filter for added water filtration and for the aesthetics.

    Most of all, know what you want your tank to be before you get started. “Measure twice, cut once” and all that. I usually ignored the planning part and ended up spending a lot more when I changed from wanting a low-tech tank to wanting a hi-tech tank mid-stream.

    There are games on Steam that help you design an aquarium (or just use paper and pencil). Dedicated fish stores sometimes have plexiglass sandboxes where you can experiment with hardscape placement.

    Edit: I’ve had multiple peaceful gouramis before, but my most recent one (Blue Dwarf) ending up killing everything else in the tank.