odd reasons to have an aquarium

[Marjie]

I've had my 12 gallon aquarium up for 25 years. Sometimes as a terrarium, but mostly as a fish tank. It serves to help put moisture in the air, water my plants, and occasional cats, but mostly as a way to store my antique glass battery case that was my grandfathers. I currently have way too many fish, Mollies. They just keep breeding. I also have 2 shrimp (they've been in for 4 years) My main problem is lime buildup on the glass. What if anything can I do to prevent this? I don't use a light, and have fake plants. I just removed all the plants for cleaning, that's why it looks so bare.

 

[Aspen35]

Those look like platies? I'm not sure why you would need to remove the plants, you're simply removing the beneficial bacteria that are living on them. I know that had nothing to do with your question, just putting it out there. Honestly, I've never had a problem with lime buildup, so I can't help you with that.

I've had my 12 gallon aquarium up for 25 years. Sometimes as a terrarium, but mostly as a fish tank. It serves to help put moisture in the air, water my plants, and occasional cats, but mostly as a way to store my antique glass battery case that was my grandfathers. I currently have way too many fish, Mollies. They just keep breeding. I also have 2 shrimp (they've been in for 4 years) My main problem is lime buildup on the glass. What if anything can I do to prevent this? I don't use a light, and have fake plants. I just removed all the plants for cleaning, that's why it looks so bare.

 

[HoldenOn]

Lime buildup means you have VERY hard water. Which is good, because that's what fish like mollies and platies need. You should look into getting a bigger tank because mollies need a lot of space, as do platies. You can get a old credit card and scratch the lime off.

 

[Colin_T]

odd reasons to have an aquarium. . .

somewhere to keep the kids when you have visitors or go on holiday.

you can put cats in them and fill the tank with water to make a catfish. when the cat drowns you can cook it.

put your preserved mother in it.

 

[Marjie]

Those look like paties? I'm not sure why you would need to remove the plants, you're simply removing the beneficial bacteria that are living on them. I know that had nothing to do with your question, just putting it out there. Honestly, I've never had a problem with lime buildup, so I can't help you with that.

What's a patie? I take the plants out when I'm vacuuming the tank.

 

[Fishmanic]

Odd reasons to have an aquarium....

I wanted the soothing sound of a waterfall. I feel that the sound of running water is relaxing . I actually considered getting an indoor waterfall setup when I remembered I had the old 35 gallon tall hex fish tank that was in storage for 12 years after a move. What better way to get the soothing sound of running water...reset up the fish tank! 8 years later, I now have 3 tanks, downsizing from 4. So my hobby of fishkeeping was restarted and "that's the rest of the story."

 

[Marjie]

Lime buildup means you have VERY hard water. Which is good, because that's what fish like mollies and platies need. You should look into getting a bigger tank because mollies need a lot of space, as do platies. You can get a old credit card and scratch the lime off.

I'm not getting a larger tank. You saw the point of the battery case, antique, grandfather, etc. I just want to get the lime off. Credit card doesn't work. I either use a pumice stone or boiling vinegar, but that's a real pain. I want to prevent the buildup.

 

[Essjay]

What's a patie?

Platies are another fish which look similar to mollies and they sometimes get confused for each other.

If you have very hard water I'm afraid there's no way to stop limescale. When the water evaporates, the minerals in the water are left behind as limescale.
Do you know if you have hard water? If your kettle or shower head also get limescale, that's a good indicator that it's hard.

 

[Marjie]

Platies are another fish which look similar to mollies and they sometimes get confused for each other.

If you have very hard water I'm afraid there's no way to stop limescale. When the water evaporates, the minerals in the water are left behind as limescale.
Do you know if you have hard water? If your kettle or shower head also get limescale, that's a good indicator that it's hard.

Thank you for a great reply. I have one Platie, I guess. What if I use distilled water? I do know I have hard water, I was hoping to get a solution for my problem.

 

[Essjay]

Even soft water fish do better with a few minerals in their water. With distilled or reverse osmosis water, the usual way is to mix it with hard tap water so there are still some minerals in the water, just a lot less than in hard tap water. The other way is to use all distilled/RO and add some minerals back in from a pack.
The fish you have are hard water fish. They need all those minerals in hard water. If you wanted to use distilled or reverse osmosis water to stop limescale you would need to rehome the fish you have and replace them with soft water fish.


I should explain what I mean.
Fish have evolved over many thousands of years in the water where they are found naturally. If that water has a lot of minerals - hard water - their bodies have evolved to remove most of those minerals. Put hard water fish in soft water and their bodies continue to remove minerals, but there are few minerals in soft water to replace them so the fish suffer mineral depletion and get sick more easily.
Soft water fish have evolved in water with few minerals; their bodies are adapted to hang on to the minerals they can get from the water. Put them in hard water and they continue hanging on to minerals, but there are now so many minerals that they get calcium deposits in their kidneys and don't live as long as they should.


What this comes down to is a choice.
Use all tap water and keep your hard water fish, but have to put up with limescale.
Or use pure water of some sort which will solve the limescale problem, but either have sick hard water fish or replace them with soft water fish.

 

[ClownLurch]

Even soft water fish do better with a few minerals in their water. With distilled or reverse osmosis water, the usual way is to mix it with hard tap water so there are still some minerals in the water, just a lot less than in hard tap water. The other way is to use all distilled/RO and add some minerals back in from a pack.
The fish you have are hard water fish. They need all those minerals in hard water. If you wanted to use distilled or reverse osmosis water to stop limescale you would need to rehome the fish you have and replace them with soft water fish.


I should explain what I mean.
Fish have evolved over many thousands of years in the water where they are found naturally. If that water has a lot of minerals - hard water - their bodies have evolved to remove most of those minerals. Put hard water fish in soft water and their bodies continue to remove minerals, but there are few minerals in soft water to replace them so the fish suffer mineral depletion and get sick more easily.
Soft water fish have evolved in water with few minerals; their bodies are adapted to hang on to the minerals they can get from the water. Put them in hard water and they continue hanging on to minerals, but there are now so many minerals that they get calcium deposits in their kidneys and don't live as long as they should.


What this comes down to is a choice.
Use all tap water and keep your hard water fish, but have to put up with limescale.
Or use pure water of some sort which will solve the limescale problem, but either have sick hard water fish or replace them with soft water fish.

Nail firmly hit on the head there.
It’s a decision we’ve all to make if we really care for their welfare. Guilt from my unknowingly badly lfs advised 90s tank means I’m determined to do the right thing.
So here I am six months or so after finally doing something about getting back into fishkeeping and I’m still waiting for my “ideal hard water compromise fish” to arrive. Its happening.

 

[Herpin Man]

odd reasons to have an aquarium. . .

somewhere to keep the kids when you have visitors or go on holiday.

you can put cats in them and fill the tank with water to make a catfish. when the cat drowns you can cook it.

put your preserved mother in it.

I would say that those reasons qualify as odd.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Odd reasons to have an aquarium....

I wanted the soothing sound of a waterfall. I feel that the sound of running water is relaxing . I actually considered getting an indoor waterfall setup when I remembered I had the old 35 gallon tall hex fish tank that was in storage for 12 years after a move. What better way to get the soothing sound of running water...reset up the fish tank! 8 years later, I now have 3 tanks, downsizing from 4. So my hobby of fishkeeping was restarted and "that's the rest of the story."

The water flow in all my tanks actually serves as a relaxing white noise!

What if anything can I do to prevent this?

There is really nothing you can do to prevent this... this happens in my tanks all the time, usually when I have low water levels. A lid will help wit the majority of the evaporation.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I have hard water (253ppm) and I just use some filter sponge to wipe the waterline at every weekly water change. That seems to stop it building up. If it's hardened, a clean unused stanley knife blade is enough to scrape it after dampening the waterlines, then simply wipe it off with a damp paper towel.

Can't prevent them entirely, but just keeping on top of it means I don't have permanent waterlines.

 

[Koglin]

I've had my 12 gallon aquarium up for 25 years. Sometimes as a terrarium, but mostly as a fish tank. It serves to help put moisture in the air, water my plants, and occasional cats, but mostly as a way to store my antique glass battery case that was my grandfathers. I currently have way too many fish, Mollies. They just keep breeding. I also have 2 shrimp (they've been in for 4 years) My main problem is lime buildup on the glass. What if anything can I do to prevent this? I don't use a light, and have fake plants. I just removed all the plants for cleaning, that's why it looks so bare.

Hmm.. we have hard water here too. When it builds up on our pots badly we use a sponge and distilled white vinegar to remove it.

Now, I have also seen ppl use tiny amounts of distilled white vinegar to safely and slightly lower their ph.

Makes me wonder if you diluted some of the distilled white vinegar with water, and added a few mL to your tank.. maybe it would help prevent build up?

If you were to try this, definitely read up on how to lower ph with distilled white vinegar first. Then use maybe 1/4th to 1/3rd of the amount they say (don't want to lower your pH) and dilute with water. Then add a few mL of the diluted solution to the tank.

I dunno if this works or would help.. just a thought because I've used distilled white vinegar to remove hard water buildup on my dishes, and I've used it to slightly lower my ph in my old tank while it was cycling. I've also seen a couple ppl use to slightly lower their ph while they had fish in the tank.

Might be worth looking into, dunno though - never heard of it or tried myself. Proceed with caution if you try. >.>