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Most likely tubifex. I tore apart the rock piles in my hillstream loach tank last month to vacuum the sand and had an impressive colony going. I threw an Apisto spawn in there to clean them up. They wiped the tubifex out in short order and the Apisto babies grew like crazy.

Fish poo is a great source for seeding beneficial bacteria. I believe a fish in cycle progresses much faster than a fishless cycle with bacteria in a bottle products… The concern is of course the exposure to Ammonia and nitrites the fish are eposed to in the process. Frequent water changes can mitigate that risk.

You should target feed them with blanched veggies and snellos and algaewafers etc. They are bad at finding food. Dont consider them like mystery snails which can legit smell the food from miles away and go there very fast. Rabbits are easily outcompeted by any other fish/snails in the tank. Usually they are wildcaught and might not be great at accepting normal fish food/wafers. My tip for snails in general is, try blanched veggies at first and once you have a chance to observe what they like eating after many tries of different stuff, start making snellos with those by adding calcium/protein to it so you can easily cover their nutritional needs and no need to deal with blanching veggies everytime. they also love leaf litter. Would be great if you can put lots of leaf litter for them to snack on. Mines fav are banana and catappas.

Who has the cutest butterfly of them all? 🙂

He may chase, but fry will not come from them. She may be fertilized by a prior Platy tank-mate (females can carry milt a long while) and could drop fry delayed by months. But, Poecilia and Xiphophorus do not cross. Bear in mind that Mollies are in the same family and _can_ cross with Guppies. “Muppies” or “Gollies” the sterile hybrids are sometimes called.

Thanks to all for the ideas! If I went just a bit more high tech (e.g. Canister filter) these ideas all become possible. But then… in a perfect world, all NANF tanks would run on a dedicated chiller. Until I do a serious overhaul (or make bank on selling some fish), I probably will continue to tinker with the cheapo approach. I was able to see temperature dip to 58°-F. I made a video update…

My water is pretty consistently sitting at 65-67 degrees in the winter I do water changes with unheated water, and the water comes out of the tap at 55 degrees. This is enough cold water in a 20% water change to get my temps down to 60-62 for a couple days but it snaps back to 65-67 pretty quick. I am still unsure if cold water triggers my fish seeing as the minnows breed constantly year round and the trout im not even sure of their sex let alone their breeding behavior. I think @dasaltemelosguy suggestions might prove to be useful.

I’ve decided to consolidate both of my journals into one thread to make it easier on updating. I’ll also be adding more tanks eventually 🙌🏻 Not much has changed on the 40 breeder tank. None of the fry survived because the dad is a playa 😓 I did take some new photos and a video 20 long Please ignore the background on the 40B video. I forgot to takeout the audio when editing. Will be adding a shrimp tank soon so I can save my nerite snails 🦐🐚 The videos might play in lower quality please choose 1080p60 for better quality video 😁 If you're interested to see how these tanks started checkout the journals in my sig ⬇️

Hi everyone! Happy holidays! Here's the new stock for this upcoming week after they are cleared from quarantine. Most fish are ready to go by Sunday/Monday (depending on how quarantine goes). All fish are sold on a first-come first-served basis. If you have any questions on these fish or other questions related to the store, please email us at: store@aquariumcoop.com ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Frogs, Shrimp, and Snails African Dwarf Frogs Leucistic African Dwarf Frogs Cherry Neo. Shrimp Orange Neo. Shrimp Red Rili Neo. Shrimp Blue Velvet Neo. Shrimp Medium Amano Shrimp Asst. Nerite Snails Assassin Snails Asst. Mystery Snails Blue Wood Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp Bettas Asst. Halfmoon Males Asst. Crowntail Males Asst. Plakat Males Cichlids Assorted Small Angelfish (Locally Bred) Apistogramma cacatuoides "Super Red" Apistogramma nijsseni "Panda Apisto" Small Pigeon Checkerboard Discuses Medium Pigeon Checkerboard Discuses German Blue Rams Bolivian Rams Corydoras and Other Catfish Panda Cories Albino Cories Sterbai Cories Reticulated/False Julii Cories Pygmy Cories Habrosus Cories Bronze Cories Paleatus Cories Dwarf Anchor Catfish Plecos Common Otocinclus Assorted Small Bristlenose Plecos (Locally Bred) Medium Super Red Bristlenose Plecos (Locally Bred by Christine) Loaches Kuhli Loaches Reticulated Hillstream Loaches Tetras Neon Tetras Green Neon Tetras Cardinal Tetras Rummynose Tetras Ember Tetras Black Emperor Tetras Red Phantom Tetras Serpae Tetras Glowlight Tetras Diamond Tetras Costae Tetras (Locally Bred by Phil and Kelly) Barbs Danios Leopard Danios Celestial Pearl Danios Rasboras Emerald Eye Rasboras Exclamation Point Rasboras Rasbora Het/Harlequin Rasboras Other Cyprinids Siamese Algae Eaters Gold White Clouds Badis Burmese Red Neon Badis Gouramis Sunset Honey Gouramis Chocolate Gouramis Powder Blue Dwarf Female Gouramis Sparkling Gouramis Livebearers Asst. Fancy Guppies (Locally Bred) Asst. Endlers (Locally Bred) Asst. Mollies Asst. Platies Asst. Swordtails Rainbowfish Thread Fin Rainbows Dwarf Neon Praecox Rainbows Killifish Clown Killifish Florida Flag Fish Six-Barred Panchex Goldfish/Koi Ricefish Assorted Medaka Oddballs Peacock Eels Black Ghost Knife Pea Puffers Red-Brown Congo Puffer Sales (While Supplies Last): -40% OFF All Non-Aquarium Co-Op Branded Rimless Tanks Photos 1. Burmese Red Neon Badis 2. Panda Apisto. 3. Koi Swordtails 4. Costae Tetras

I am a video editor, not much to do with fishes. I just happened to create a really cool video using fish stock footage and classical Music (Stravinsky). The result is mind blowing. I think every fish-lover should watch this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_bJGMu6raY

Hygro and the ammania are going to be your medium light plants. Everything else is either very low or low light. The swords can handle medium light, but too much on their leaves and you're looking at a ton of algae. So your plants centered under the light should be those two, the swords can be towards the back but not necessarily right under the light. The swords that are labeled as medium would be closer towards the middle of the tank than the big Amazon swords. Secondarily, let's consider something like tank height as well. If you have a 12" tall tank compared to an 18" tall tank then your swords are growing tall and taking in a ton of light. Something like 20"+ compared to 18" is going to give the swords a little bit more room, but it's depending as well on where the flow is pushing those big leaves. Quick flow right on the ends of the leaves gives you BBA in some cases. Awesome news. Good to hear. That type of algae is awesome food for algae eaters and omnivores. That's what I've seen as the start of BBA too. It's similar to green spot algae which grows strands and turns into green string algae. I've got some photos of my tank before we moved that had BBA on surfaces and it just looked like a discoloration, once things progressed I understand what I was in for. 😞 I would argue against this. I have the same plant under lower light duration and it's doing well for me. I don't think any plant requires a minimum of 10 hours. I'm not sure where that information came from, but I would just suggest further research on that. I can send a DM on this as it's something I am exploring on my own for my own tanks when I get deeper into advanced stems. The suggestion just being to make sure you're using root tabs every 3-4 months (9-12x a year basically) for those plants that really need it. Something like was mentioned earlier, there are companies that sell iron tabs and that might be a great way to supplement those plants as well if you're not looking towards dosing easy iron. I very much understand. It's always tough when you just aren't sure what is the best method and the best routine. There's a lot of great resources out there and there's some great books on aquarium plants. Also, some very skilled and highly practiced plant experts (I don't use that term lightly) here on the forums. There's some beautiful tanks and hopefully one of them can chime in and better guide us for the schedule or care of the swords. @AllFishNoBrakes sent me some swords and we've been watching them grow. What is your lighting setup for them?

Upload them to YouTube then copy the link and post that here.

I've always done fish in cycle. My opinion is that it gets a bad rap because of too many fish in the uncycled tank. When I plan on buying from a big box store, I make several visits. I watch for dead fish, and how many fish, dead and alive, are in the all of the tanks. Multiple dead fish means they are not being properly cared for.

Yes to both questions. BB is everywhere Vacuuming alone won't reduce it enough to matter. The garbage (detritus) is part of the nitrogen cycle that your plants and the BB rely on. In a non planted tank or an overstocked tank you can get too much of a good thing.

This conversation is never dead. Somebody, myself included always has these issues in one form or another. I would not reduce the EG. Your plants are starving. I would add some root tabs. There is a nutrient deficiency chart above that will help explain some of what you are seeing. Light duration might be an issue causing the algae issues. How long are they on?

@Lucasjj Unfortunately our website is not set up to utilize multiple forms of payment, so you won't be able to use a Visa gift card unless you are using one that has enough money to cover the full amount. The way Visa gift cards are used is exactly like a credit or debit card, so if a system is not set up to take multiple payment methods, they cannot be used for that purchase.

Bolivian rams would be a great addition to this tank. I keep mine with nano fish and Pygmy corys and they don’t bother them. The only aggression they show is when they chase them away from their eggs. They don’t even try to bite unless the other fish are actually going for the eggs. Some good food and patience, and they will color up nicely for you 😁 Here’s a photo to help change your decision 🙏🏻

How’s everyone doing? So I’ve been gone for awhile. Some family issues back in the Philippines happened and I had to go back home to take care of them. Tanks were neglected and the most I could have my roommate do is feed the fish three times a week and change the water every other week. Lost a bunch of fish and plants but some are still alive and thriving. Current state of the tanks as of today: Lost most of the fish in this tank and the hydrophila took over, blocking most of the light for the other plants but the anubias and Java fern were thriving. The only survivors were a pair of fork tail rainbows, the OG female peacock gudgeon, ember tetras, Pygmy and habrosus cory, the male swordtail that was hiding very well when I sold all of the swords, 4 Bolivian rams. Lost most of the fish in this tank too. Survivors were panda cory, some emerald eye rasboras, two pencil fish, espei rasbora, and sparkling gouramis. Only the corydoras from both tanks were able to hold on and keep their numbers. I’ve returned to their old water change and feeding schedule for a few weeks now and the fish are looking better already. I also bought some new additions to the tank because it really felt empty. Will be rescaping both tanks soon and I’ll be posting the progress. I’m slowly gathering all the things I need. Just need a few more rocks and driftwood and I’ll be ready to rescape. Happy New Year everyone! @nabokovfan87 the panda with the white dot in their eye is still alive and got a bit bigger 😂

LOL one of the fun/frustrating things about aquariums, not always a clear yes or no. Thanks for the reply.

It appears your tank stocking level is similar to what I was thinking. Please continue to share your thoughts. I watched couple YouTube videos comparing tank size, footage of school sizes, and behavior for Blue Emperors. In a community tank, they look good both in 8 and 16. As was stated on an earlier post (ColBud) better to plan for a few losses which is leaning me towards 16. Yet I don't want the tank to be too busy. Too bad there isn't a virtual tank App where you can stock your fish and see virtually! Online ordering becomes my real issue. Unlike a local fish store there isn't the option of picking your own quantities and spreading out orders without paying all that extra shipping. Multiple forum comments got me thinking about temporarily setting up an idle 20 long I have with the extra filter which is generating bacteria, stealing one of the three heaters from the 40 and using the 20 as a quarantine tank. I'll figure a relocation plan for the GBR, but I will likely just keep only 2 Bolivian not to change dynamics since they seem to be getting along well. Thank you and everyone else for feedback. It has been helpful in steering me on a righteous path and creating confidence in my planning. Time to get my morning coffee!

Sorry to revive a dead post but this popped up when I was trying to see pothos vs potato information and I figured I should update this. the monstera definitely won, by a mile, the pothos is growing very strong and is as thick in the stem as my finger, but the monstera is fruiting, has 32 inch leaves (no sunlight) and has roots that span 6 feet by 3 feet, definitely the winner for large tanks but I would not recommend it for anything shy of 200+ gallons just because the roots will take over you tank, I can add way more photos if there is interest, there is very heavy plant load in this tank with the monstera but even when jam packed with goldfish the plants keep nitrates to basically 0, it got so strong I had to add close to 30 pounds of crushed coral just to keep the KH from crashing and it’s really done amazing keeping the water “clean”.

@Beardedbillygoat1975 family snello time

Hi everybody 👋 So while Christmas shopping I could find anything for anybody so I bought a fish tank 😂 29g for my pea puffers. Ordered all my plants of the coop. Showed up Friday. Got some time in today. Still cloudy and might water change again tomorrow, will see. Seeded with an sponge filter I have in another tank. Using the coop sponge filter and I got to say I'm impressed with the flow. Super excited to see how it will grow out. Tiger lotus on the right I hope will give the right a nice pop when it grows in. 😁

Yep. Never went away but I figured it doesn’t really affect him/her. I just did a water change and I counted 13 pandas 🐼 Happy to be back! Thank you @Lennie! Did a water change today and this is what I saw after I filled the tank 😂 Haven’t rescaped yet because I’m still collecting hard scape. Rocks and driftwood are so expensive here in socal 😞

Dear fish folk, thanks for such a great feedback! It's the best comment in terms of technicallity, senselessnes and knoeledwgble (my god, such a difficult words I chose, sorry If I mispelled the word, Im from Argentina, spanish is my natural language). on the matter of mussic, Any suggestion of some music tracks to work on for ocean-related footage (since it's a great niche because there is a lot of stock out there unlike other nature). Thank you so much fot your freedback it's great and I'm glad you have enjoyed it Also, this is a very personal favour I ask, could you please paste exactly the same comment (including the coral suggestion which is true) in my youtube video page? Please, you cannot imagine how great it would be, also, I'd really like to keep your comment at hand for years to come! Thankss

I have 4 pairs in my 40 breeder right now. You can do 1m 3f or two pairs. Honey gouramis and sparkling gouramis would be good tankmates for them. I’m also keeping mine with Pygmy cory and habrosus cory, ember tetra, peacock gudgeon, and some female bettas. They’re all living peacefully.

Well done! I love art music. I thought there were some very effective cuts and transitions that aligned with the music well. The Russian Dance theme (ca. 6 mins) probably could have been cut to a more lively animated sequence than the coral. Keep going!

You've got the rings in there so you should be seeing Ammonia drop. A single 80-95% water change first followed by daily 50% water changes would be the recommendation and do that until ammonia is greatly increased and hopefully below 1.0. If you haven't recently, I would double check the tap. Stuff happens. I have a friend who just found out ammonia in the tap happened and they had some severe issues crop up in the tank as their only indication. A lot of people have been having issues this year, myself included, with tap issues. As long as filtration is setup and everything is good to go whatever is leaching should lessen and that should start to cycle properly into nitrate. Ammonia into nitrite should happen very quickly. It's the second step of nitrite to nitrate that takes a bit. It's a process, but getting KH, PH stable, filtration stable, that is all part of what's going on here. Best of luck, keep us posted.

I really like the Texas Holeystone I have in my aquarium but my Bristlenose Pleco is driving me a bit bonkers with it.... anytime anything dies in the aquarium and sinks towards the bottom he comes out and pushes the fish into one of the bottom holes that he has claimed for himself... I presume it's so he can eat it later... but it makes it a real pain to dig the fish out from under the rocks in my 75 gallon aquarium. Basically I have to stick my entire arm into the aquarium and then use my planting forceps to try and pinch the fish out of the holes to get it out of the aquarium. Anyone else run into this with their aquariums?

I have noticed a large colony of worms in the sand of my 5gallon tank, they appear reddish and are rather thin, i can see they burrow into the sand. Im trying to start a culture of these as another live food option but have no clue what they are. Any ideas? Picture is worms buried in sand. They stick their heads out and wave them around but i can't get a good picture of that

that would make sense, im going to try and keep them alive and breeding. I think i recall an episode of The Aquarist Podcast where Rosario Lacorte talks about tubifex worms, im going to listen to that and see how my culture attempt is going. A live tubifex culture would be super cool, my fish love the freeze dried, i can only imagine they would love the live stuff too.

This photo is for @Guppysnail: My l. cuvies finally showed a little colour as they face off to determine something or other 😉 (I have 4 total with the other two in the foreground):

The full list of my plants and their recommended light settings I bought them from (Buce Plant, Dustin Fish Tanks, and Aquarium Co-Op): Java Fern (low to medium) Anubias Barteri (low to medium) Amazon Sword Regular (medium to high) Amazon Sword Harbrich (low to medium) Amazon Sword Red Phoenix (Medium) Ammania Senegalesis (medium to high) Banana Plants (low to medium) Bucephalandra Brownie Blue (low to medium) Bucephalandra Catharine Green (low to medium) Hygrophila Corymbosa Compacta (medium to high) To satisfy these plants (In my mind) I have/had them at 50%, and they pretty much thrived, and I tested to see what 60% would do, and they stayed fine. The only issues I had before were my Dwarf Chain Swords never adjusted to the tank, so I got rid of them. My Banana plants had curling leaves, so I got them a calcium supplement in the form of Wonder Shells, which are growing healthy leaves and have melted back the curled spawns. One of my harbirch plants (earlier in this thread) was experiencing intense stress, despite never being moved around and generally having the same water parameters. The other plants in the tank have adjusted well and thrived. To address the concern about sunrise/sunset feature, no, my light doesn’t have that nor can I change the individual LEDs (Aquarium Co-Op lighting 48in). I mainly have the lighting at 10 hours a day (from 12pm-5pm, 9pm-2am), because that’s the bare minimum hours for Amazon Swords. As for the nutrient deficiencies, that could be because I cut back on the Easy Green fertilizer (I went from 10 pumps, twice a week to 8 pumps, which cut out 4 pumps per week 20 to 16), so various deficiencies are rearing their heads at the same time with the Corymbosa plants I’m assuming. Next, the type of algae I currently have are hair/white and some form of black algae on the Amazon Swords (not black beard, but it’s random black spots on their leaves). Additionally, the brown diatoms you have mentioned, which are chilling on the glass around the tank. Finally, my logic to cut back on the algae growth was to use less fertilizer as I thought the water-column feeding plants weren’t consuming all of the nutrients I have been giving and the algae were using such resources to further expand, specifically the brown diatom. I’m afraid to cut back the time because I don’t want the Amazon Swords to suffer any worse than they are already going through. Sidenote: I did dose 7 pumps of Easy Green and turn the light intensity back to 60% before I left for work. Yea, I scrub off the diatom after taking the pictures, but I knew it was going to take some time, so I went ahead and took those pictures.

No 0 coming out of my tap and I’ve been in this house over 15 years have never had any

Fry would struggle to make it with predatory species in the community tank.

How many would you recommend out of curiosity…asking for a friend you see lol and do you guys think a group of rams a group of gourami and a school of small Cory’s would all work together? I might just pass on the tetra/rasbora for the time being could always add them later if something catches my eye And also starting to wonder if the ammonia reading is some sort of false positive I’m still not seeing any nitrite it’s been 3 weeks also it seems like whatever it was isn’t persistent the ammonia went to more then 8 in one day I did a water change and it’s just been sitting at 4 ever since if it was something rotting it should go up I would think I might just do a complete water change and add something for ammonia to be safe

Maintenace, did two tanks two days ago, did the rest of the tanks today. Gravel vac at both asian and big tanks, no issues anywhere. I have to offer my rabbit snails for sale, I think I counted 20 snails in my 54 liter tank! Madness. And I cant even put them in other tanks, too cold, too bolivian ram, too planted and wouldnt be able to gravel vac! I must say I am still unsure about my big tank. The embers/rummynose numbers are low and the fish is ok but not o great, the pearl gouramis are so far meh, I wish we have had honey gouramis available instead, because the pearls are just standing around. For once my b-rams are not guarding so they hang out in their foursome all over the tank, which is fun. The plants are not doing that well, I need new fertilizer and to buy that damn rotala. Sterbais are a big let down, they were one of the fish I was most excited when planning, mainly because of the videos of the large schools of just fed corydoras, but overall they just...sit around. And are not even growing as expected or breeding, which should have happened. Maybe I hyped them up too much in my head. Maybe the cherry barbs would be what the tank needs, but I am afraid I a buying more and more without deterining the root cause....

I think this is pretty close to where I'm at. It seems to me that I get more nitrates out of the tank when vacuuming compared to equally big water changes without vac. Also, it seems that I can maintain my water hardness easier with vacuuming. So as long as my nitrates don't get too high or my hardness too low I don't mind keeping the detritus in the substrate. Good or bad? I think it depends.

I've been gravel vacuuming under the probably mistaken idea it it keeps the water parameters in check from ammonia, nitrites. nitrates? When I vac during water changes it looks like I'm pulling out a ton of debris that would cause water spikes as it degrades. I do have planted tanks . I am getting better at not over feeding but probably still need to cut back more. By vacuuming am I reducing BB? Does the garbage in the gravel affect water parameters?

Well, I’m not sure if this conversation is dead now, but I do face a new challenge with my aquarium, but it’s now with my Hyrophila Corymbosa Compacta plants. Several of my Hygrophila Corymbosa Compactas are now displaying a lot of leaf fallout, where some of the stems plants are almost barren. If they are not barren, the leaves are turning a light shade of brown/white or having holes in them. Some of the leaves are healthy, but it’s a far cry from when they first came into my aquarium. The only change I have recently (within the past week and a half) committed was lowering the light intensity from 60% to 50% (Aquarium Co-Op light), and using less Easy Green fertilizer (from 10 to now 8 pumps), because I was starting to get a noticeable amount of algae in my tank, and my Amano shrimp weren’t bothering to eat it. Additionally, I do weekly water changes of 50%, and scrub whatever algae I can. The water parameters as of now are: PH: 7.8 Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 10ppm KH: 4dKH GH: 9dGH Should I just change the light intensity back to 60% and go back to adding the 10 pumps? The leaf fallout and the algae on my Amazon Swords/Anubias Barteri is somewhat bad. I am trying to wait for my LFS store to get Panda Garras to hopefully help deal with the algae problem, but he hasn’t had any luck. This is the current state of my plants (Also, all my images I have took previously are coming in black picture please help):

Unfortunately, the amount of water turn over doesn't affect how much beneficial bacteria that have grown in the filter to handle the bioload. It takes time for the bacteria colonies to grow properly. So I'd definitely give it a couple weeks for the ammonia and nitrite to go to 0, and then pick one of the species to introduce and then monitor the levels with the increased bioload. In the long run, it will be a lot less water changes and stress for both you and the fish.

@sairving idk if you clicked the link I provided but it’s a tiny internal filter with a spray bar. It’s like 9 bucks. I took out the carbon and run poly fil in that chamber instead. Works great on my 20 long with the spray bar pointed across the long side of the tank. I have the spray bar pointed slightly up so as to not disturb the botanicals on the bottom of the tank. 9 bucks well spent for me.

@Fish Folk I may not be fully understanding what you need or what is acceptable but is an immersion cooler acceptable? I put a couple of pictures of a crude employment of such but there's a lot of options that can be had for under $100. It seems that it could work best with canister filters, or any filters coupled to the tank via hosing. In its crudest incarnation, a longer filter output hose used and looped into a bucket of ice can cool with amazing efficiency: For example, a typical 5-gallon bucket filled with ice with about 33% of the output hose length submerged, will reduce the temperature about 2*F/hour. It will last for about 25 hours before replacing the ice. But the longevity and efficacy are based on the GPH and affected by the environment. The ice bucket line is yellow, the cooler option line is green. Please excuse the typo, it should read "25 hours" for the green line. The above mentioned "cooler option" is a more permanent situation that can be had by replacing the ice bucket with a common camping cooler for about $50: The efficacy is relative and not based on the absolute volume. That is, the performance is determined by the GPH, and the percentage of the output hose submerged in the ice water. Without computing the requirements for better accuracy, if about 33% of the output hose of most canister filters was submerged in this device filled with water, the tank temperature would match the temperature in the cooler in about 5 hours. The temperature could be 'regulated' by simply immersing a lesser % of the hose. Alternatively, there's a Peltier device. Strapping a cheap Peltier cooler to the output hose could reduce the temperature more predictably: These run off of common, large, 12VDC 'wall warts'. It works but it's very inefficient and the fans are noisy. They are cheap though, like $20 or so. A more permanent solution could be done with a small, submersible pump in a camping cooler and an immersion cooler coil under the gravel. These tend to look like this as they are for home brewers and are known as Wort Coolers, but they also come in flat & compact shapes: The coiled cooler comes in a variety of flat designs and in stainless steel. Or it's easy to unwind them and reform them into a shape you can use. All of these devices are under $60 and enjoy superb efficacy except for the strap-on Peltier device. I may be way off base with your requirements and the amount of DIY desired, but I thought I'd mention this in case it proves of any value for you.

nothing wrong with doing fish in. fact is, anybody could have lost those 2 fish no matter their approach to getting a tank going. sometimes fish you buy just dont make it.

after seeing adorable pygmy cories at my LFS this option has my vote

Today I added tannins to my tank to make it false bw. I know it'll be golden for my Betta. Looks super cool too. I also added a sheet of paper inside my bracket light to reduce the brightness. My android camera doesn't do justice to the tank. It's not as bright irl and the water looks perfect.

I forgot to show the filter modification I did to reduce flow. My internal filter's air outlet also throws out water at a decent rate and it was good current for my guppies. Had to modify it for the betta though. I took a piece of PVC, used my soldering iron to make a hole and tightly pushed it into the filter output. I also rotated the spray bar so it hits the glass instead of pushing the water around. It's a 1 feet cube so it was causing a slight tornado of sorts. Bonus: Nerite taking a shower 🤣 Here's a random pic of Santa chilling in a pot.

I would start with some root tabs. The swords are heavy root feeders as are the Crypts.

Corydora really need clean substrate. Often digging about in excess detritus opens them to illness. Have you considered trying neocaridina shrimp? They do great for me with my CPD.

Not much to update but was able to trim both tanks today. Also changed my light settings to increase brightness and changed the colors a bit since plants are growing more. Trimmed the ludwigia peruensis, pogo Stellatus, lobelia cardinalis and hygrophila on the 40B to let in more light. The ludwigia and pogo were blocking so much light. Trimmed the rotala wallichii on the 20L and transferred the ludwigia from the 40B to this one. The left back side was looking kinda empty before. Female balloon GBR and male Pseudomugil Luminatus