Talk About Aquariums as a Hobby and/or Small Business Venture

Defenestrar said:

(Is that a marine biology degree, a business degree, some sort of apprenticeship program, or just a way to starve as an adult?)

Click to expand...

I may digress a bit into my particular obsession, but!

Beyond fish husbandry, there's a whole world of gill-ty pleasures awaiting.
Hook her up with your jurisdiction's Department of Natural Resources or Fish & Game equivalent. See if someone can mentor her. Also try and hook her up with the closest college that has a biology department.
The North American Native Fishes Association also has a lot of helpful regional representatives in the US.*

All of these are ways to get great introductions to fish biology and ecology, especially field and lab work. Labs and conservation societies will have lots of info on general fish care at all kinds of scales.

There are also clubs and associations for specific kinds of fish, like killifishes or rare livebearers.

For custom tanks, it depends. Are you having someone else do it? If so, expect to pay a premium. If you're willing to get and work the necessary materials you can often come out ahead. Just be careful and know what you're doing (don't try to cut tempered glass, for example).

I'm starting to lean towards a group of fishkeepers and shops called Aquarium Co-op. They generally have good advice and there's now a line of products sold through them.

I have a word of advice: don't go all-in on exotic filter media. Sintered glass, expanded clay balls, plastic bioballs, resin whatsits, and especially carbon-filtration cartridges are a rip-off. They don't work as advertised. Same with starter cultures of nitrifyhing bacteria: in independent testing they make zero difference when cycling a tank. And lots of planted tank substrates are likewise ineffective but make impressive-sounding claims.

There is a huge industry behind these things and their interest is in selling things, not reliable and simple fishkeeping. They want to sell you either razor blades (disposable media) or snake oil (stuff that doesn't work).

Usually a large sponge filter is sufficient: for a bigger tank, two sponge filters. Upgrade them with powerheads that can sit on top of the lift tubes. The vast majority of filtration can be done with simple sponges, even in powered filters. And don't clean them unless they're actually starting to clog, and only squeeze out as much as you have to. The brown gunk that grows on them is a biofilm that contains all the nitrifying bacteria.

Also, airstones (lke the kind that power sponge filters) don't aerate the water directly. It's the surface agitation and flow they create that does the actual work. You can get as much if not more aeration by using wavemakers pointed upwards at about a 30 degree angle near the surface.

*Bonus: a lot of native fishes are easy to keep in home aquariums, especially sunfishes and minnows. There are zillions of species and lots of them are stupendously colorful for at least the breeding season. The usually don't require heated tanks, either.
I have a copy of this book and it's a great resource, covering not just native species but fishkeeping in general:
View: https://www.amazon.com/American-Aquarium-Fishes-Natural-History/dp/0890968802/

I also have this one, but it's currently running about five times what I paid when I got my used copy:
View: https://www.amazon.com/North-American-Native-Fishes-Aquarium/dp/0764103679/

There are also excellent field guides for most regions. NANFA keeps a book list but it's not quite up to date: https://www.nanfa.org/books.shtml it doesn't mention my latest acquired excellent reference
View: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570036802/

Here's a dirty little secret: silicone doesn't stick to acrylic.
Here's a dirty little nuance: it actually kinda does, just not securely. Not nearly securely enough to gloop a tank together with, BUT probably good enough to stay in place while it cures and give you a conformal grip.

You can exploit the nuance to put cut acrylic in a glass-walled tank by sandwiching the acrylic between two big beads of silicone, which at that point are just acting to keep it in place rather than adhere to it. In fact, you can even use the silicone to stick BRACKETS to the glass, and have the brackets hold the acrylic. A little bypass around the edges isn't going to be a big deal.
Big box retailers and ACE both sell acrylic sheet, you probably don't need anything too beefy for the dividers in a sump. A single 18x36 inch sheet of moderate (like, 3/16" or 1/4") thickness would probably cover your sump needs.


Tanks usually aren't made of tempered glass, except maybe the bottom plate. (You could not drill into and plumb a tank if it was tempered). I've seen one YouTuber source his tempered glass panels from Ikea (sold for their shelves) and build around their dimensions.

Wheels Of Confusion said:

Usually a large sponge filter is sufficient: for a bigger tank, two sponge filters. Upgrade them with powerheads that can sit on top of the lift tubes. The vast majority of filtration can be done with simple sponges, even in powered filters. And don't clean them unless they're actually starting to clog, and only squeeze out as much as you have to. The brown gunk that grows on them is a biofilm that contains all the nitrifying bacteria.

Click to expand...

Since you seem to have opinions / experience, where do you come down on undergravel filters?

AmigaPhreak said:

Since you seem to have opinions / experience, where do you come down on undergravel filters?

Click to expand...

I'm not an expert.

But the experts I read say they're maligned for no good reason. They work well, they don't stunt plants, and if you do 'em right they don't need to be cleaned for years. Add a powerhead to make them even better than with an airstone.

Defenestrar said:

Our next step is probably a 100+ gallon tank for her three pet goldfish and their shared supporting ecology (130 gal seems to be about right for the location we're thinking). The breeding will still be in small tanks for all sorts of reasons - including easy control. The hobby portion seems like it will easily outstrip whatever she makes in the short term on breeding and there seems to be a jump in tank prices at certain volumes that isn't consistent with what I know of raw material pricing (or labor).

Click to expand...

I am curious what "shared supporing ecology" means. Are you trying to make a situation where you don't need to provide any food and it is sort of a closed system where you just add water and light?

100+ gallon tank for three gold fish seems ridiculous to me. Especially for a fish that is pretty tolerant of cramped conditions. But I do like larger tanks for fish to replicate a more natural habitat...don't get me wrong.

As far as hobby breeding...seems like the answer is having a handful of small(er) tanks instead of going with large ones. Breeding pairs of almost any fish suitable for aquariums don't need anything very large and they likely won't be there long unless you raise the fry in yet another tank.

Back in my day, you could buy a tank for a dollar a gallon! </caneshake>

Guess I'll move the stuff about my aquarium side-project here.

Fish tanks aren't really that heavy, structurally speaking. My concern is more that foot traffic causes the floor to bounce, but if you put it near a load bearing wall, there will be very little of that.

Also, consider a long garden hose to siphon water out (or to fill...there are sink faucet-to-hose adapters). Buckets are for chumps.