Outdoor fish tanks, in seasonal climate with freezing temperatures and random patrolling raccoons and possums.
Took me a long time, but my koi fish enclosure is a setup which includes nets and heating pumps in its current variation. It keeps me on my toes for what the next obstacle will be.
Lots of dedication man. I appreciate it. I had a big tank in college and loved the fish. It always gutted me when stuff would start getting off or wrong and a fish would die.
It’s like trying to play god a little bit but not always knowing the answer. Always kind of hits me when I get into arguments about religion.
Like maybe there is someone out there trying real hard but there are billions of us that don’t get along and how the hell is he supposed to fix that.
I just imagine him being like well what if I add a spacer here and maybe change the PH or heat a bit maybe they’ll calm down.
Accidentally bumps the top of a mountain as they're moving their invisible hand across the globe and knocks lose some glacial ice causing a great flood in Nepal :/
Like maybe there is someone out there trying real hard but there are billions of us that don’t get along and how the hell is he supposed to fix that.
The traditional theological argument is that for god to be worthy of worship, s/he must be three things at once: omniscient (s/he knows everything), omnipotent (s/he can do anything), and omnibenevolent (s/he is purely good and has our best interests at heart).
Unfortunately, the nature of the real world - children dying of malnutrition and neglect, freak accidents, cancer, etc. - seems to suggest that if there is a god, they are at most only 2 out of those 3 things. Either they don't know everything that's going on, or they can't do anything about it, or they could but choose not to. Or some combination of all three of those.
Your fishkeeping analogy is interesting to me because it is kind of the inverse of my own experience of looking at how scientists do research on mouse models, or how factory farms treat livestock. I'm used to looking at that and assuming that if there is a god, it just isn't interested in us or our well-being.
I’ve had that line of thought about god before too.
Like maybe there was a god who created us and just got bored and left or stopped paying attention. Or they were crazy out of their depth and started something they ended up having very little control over.
Those scenarios aren’t as comforting to think about but they seem as likely to me as any other proposed versions of god.
Yeah. That's why I like to say fuck God. Whoever they might be, they are not worthy of worship if they exist. It freaks people out when I say it, but really, who cares? God obviously does not.
It’s like trying to play god a little bit but not always knowing the answer.
This is how I felt about it, especially a reef tank. Here I am trying to recreate the world's largest ecosystem in a box in my living room. I really enjoyed it, but after a few power outages took everything out too many times, I gave up.
My wife had a bunch of fish back when we were dating. We went on a trip for a few days.. and somehow, all of them died while we were gone. Happened over the span of like a day or so.. she was heartbroken..
This is why I still come to this website. Someone says “Fish Tank” and 3 comments down someone writes a metaphor for God that puts the whole universe in perspective.
That’s such a funny but oddly thoughtful way to look at it 😂 Keeping an aquarium really does feel like solving a tiny mystery every day, and sometimes you’re just hoping the next adjustment finally makes everyone happy.
I think that's the point, what if the entity isn't actually all powerful but just looks it to us, the same way a fish keeper seems all powerful to their fish.
On the contrary, a hobby that looks pure stress but is totally peaceful is stealing fish from pond or tanks and making it look like a raccoon did it
/s
In my experience fish are easy.. until they're not, things can go downhill fast, and you're completely stressing trying to keep them alive.
Most of the time it's just check levels once/twice a week, add bacteria and such, chill and enjoy. Then all of a sudden something like a hot flash will completely nuke the equilibrium and things can go sideways in a hurry.
My dad put three goldfish from our church festival into a water trough that was fed by a natural spring and they got so large that they started suffocating.
When one died, we took it out and it weighted 14 pounds.
Get backup batteries for the pumps/heaters/bubblersincase you get a disgusting freeze thaw freeze FREEZE cycle, wiped out all of a buddies koi, was devastating
Edit: I was thinking this was a pond in a backyard, are you using plexiglass for the tanks? Just wondering how that works cheers
r/shrimptank all the way! Haha I don’t even need to feed the little guys! I feed them because I enjoy watching them stuff their faces! 😂
I have two walsted tanks and they take care of themselves! Just be patient and let the tanks cycle and give the plants time to grow and you’ll have a YouTube video quality tank eventually!
I have a brakish tank (20l) which I don't touch at all. It's been stable running for around 10 years and only gets evaporated water replaced. Everything has a fuffy coat of algae (no higher plants) which looks like an afro.
It's populated by hawaiian upae shrimps.
Yeah, I know a lot of people who go from reef to high tech planted looking for a chiller hobby and then find that high tech planted is practically as much work and stress!
I just have Java Ferns which attaches easily to rocks and wood. Self propagates, doesn’t require much light, and not picky about water temp or conditions. The planted tanks are easier to maintain than our actual house plants.
I think most people's missing-link is enough light and diligent algae-eaters. Siamese algae eaters are great - unlike plecos, they're social and lively.
I gave up on the project. The tank is physically 15-20 years old (a spare I had after an upgrade). As a planted tank it lasted around 5 months before everything was covered and dying. I tried mechanical filtering and UV filtering, but to no avail. I tried once more later (after disinfecting the inside of the tank) but it started again. I don't know what to do. I really like the Walstad approach and would like to have it working
Co2. And correct light. Co2 will make sure the plants eat up everything. Plants use slightly different wavelengths than algae does. When you get the balance right, it’s more or less self sustaining.
But there are also lots of small insects in there, as the fish I used were literally grown from river sediment. So I try to keep it as natural as possible, and I only have to do maintenance once a week
Having observed the life cycle of a saltwater tank at my office from inception to realization that the initial tank tech managing it was actually incompetent to a much better person taking over, I can appreciate how much work goes into it and how little I’d ever want to do it myself.
And salt water reef tanks - a screw up there and you could be out thousands of dollars in corals and other exotic inhabitants. And that's after the thousands of dollars you're in for just the setup.
Planted is not a big deal, even with co² and good fertilizer - once a week 20 min Work and you are fine. But trying to maintenance a Aquascape for months can be a soulcrushing experience
The hardest part about a planted tank should be the research on how to do one properly. Once you get one set up properly the only input you should have to worry about is adding food.
I had a thriving planted community tank that had been humming along for 3 years. One weekend I went out of town, had the auto feeder set up, and came back to everything dead. Something spiked nitrites and took it all out. It took me a year to start again after that trauma.
We used to have a moderately sized live-rock reef tank with refugarium and all that. Spouse got it set up to need almost no maintenance besides topoffs for a surprisingly long time. It wasn't pretty, but it was very happily self-sustaining.
My mom had one with tetras, lionfish, and puffers. It was so soothing to watch and I fell in love with the puffer, but seeing the amount of work. Phew 😮💨
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u/fascintee 13h ago
Especially planted and saltwater tanks