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you are not heavily stocked, you have tons of plants, substrate etc. swapping out the filter will not harm your beneficial bacteria colony.

I'm being called a way for 7-9 days, The fish will need to fend for themselves. The unplanned trip is already proving to be expensive so, even if I can find 4 auto feeders in 3 days I'd rather not spend >$130. for a 1 time use. The SAEs can take care of themselves, The TFBs and SDs might be okay They graze on algae now. The plan for the moment is to add broccoli to their tanks. I'm not sure what the various tetras or angels will do. While I think of it, do the auto feeders work well with flake food, or do I need to buy something else?

this is my 55 community tank. A few months ago I repainted the back and when I set up the tank again I used topsoil caped with pool filter sand. The topsoil contains a lot of wood and I was wondering if there is a way to remove some tannins without using chemicals or buying a filter being that I only plan on using sponge filters. If not how long until the tannins do not darken the water this much? Would it be better if I just redid the tank again? Thanks.

When I go away for a week I do nothing. I feed them like normal and do normal maintenance up until I’m gone, and then I resume when I get back. Never had an issue. If someone is at the house watching it while we’re away I might have them severely underfeed a couple of times. I’m talking like 20% of what I would normally feed. Just a couple snacks while I’m gone, but it’s not necessary at all. Also have to really trust that person to follow whatever instructions you might leave them. I keep it simple and took the tiny scoop from the Xtreme Betta food and put it in a small jar of Xtreme Nano. Then I just label each tank with number of scoops. Typically I’ll text them and just say hey bro, can you feed my fish today? To avoid any additional confusion. If nobody is watching the house, though, the fish are fine for 7 days.

It should be. Those Marinelands have the biowheel correct? If so I’d take the media place in the Tidal and the biowheels place them in the tank. If you wanted to double up you could dump some Fritzyme 7 or equivalent in. You might get a little bloom hazy water but it’s temporary. Beautiful tank! I love a good Nature style aquarium!

I'm starting to believe I will be doing a 75 gallon Nano tank as well. It is becoming VERY expensive chatting you all of you!!! 😄

Thats an expectations vs reality situation. Half the time you end up begging for help for so long that you get mad and do it yourself. The other half of the time they want a big favor in return and you can sense the 'big ask' coming by their willingness to 'help'....

This is where I began. I had to strip carpet insulate foundation stone, pain, redo the hvac etc etc etc. Prior to starting it seemed insurmountable. Once started it seemed it would be overwhelming and never finished. After the demolition stage was over and the first step toward the future was made the weight of the world lifted from my shoulders and it felt as though it was possible. Mostly but not entirely. I need to build an egg hatch shelf. I’m working on killifish to complete that BAP category. I’ve completed catfish and inverts. Only 2 away from completing new world cichlids. I still need to build in my brine shrimp hatching shelf and move all my wall mount storage down as well as my 6 door hang storage units which desperately need cleaned out first. The rest is the organization and finding homes for the 10 tons of “needful things” equipment and “stuff” I’ve collected over the years. 🙄 Most if that goes along the dedicated fish wall in the garage but first I have to clean and organize that wall before I can even consider taking more STUFF down. 🤣 This is the first time in my life I wish I had had free labor…I mean children to help 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Initial layout of Apistogramma caves after totally gutting the tank. Mid April 24. Current state with more plants/wood & larger cave in back right. Finally getting some decent fill on the back wall.

Hello everyone! I unfortunately lost a Molly fish today. He was about 4 years old and lived in a previous tank. I am looking for ideas for a new fish as I currently have a 20 gallon high tank with 2 mollies, 6 Pygmy cories, and two nerite snails. Could I possibly get one platy fish and would it get along with the mollies? Could I get a honey gourami and just keep the mollies as a pair? Any other ideas? WATER PARAMETERS: CURRENT TANK IS A YEAR OLD!! pH: 6.4? My test strip isn’t horribly accurate with that but I know it’s slightly acidic gH: 250 kH: 0 Cl: 0 NO3: 0 NO2: 0 Temperature: 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit

@Tony s, good to know, and I understand the Terror's will destroy the Aquascape. Revised plan. . . get rid of the wife, and all of the furniture - fill house with Aquariums. 😄 Or. . . 1 24+ school of Rainbows (5") 8x Banded 8x Boseman 8x Lake Kutubu 1 24+ school of Barbs (2.5 - 3") 8x Black Ruby 8x Gold 8x Rhombo 10x Cory's 10x Loaches 1x Rainbow Shark

I would do 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that level of salt safe for your Cory's and most plants will tolerate that level of salt fine you could quarantine this fish and treat on its own with a higher level of salt

I'm not sure I would put Seachem Purigen in the chemical category. It's a nitrate-selective ion-exchange resin. Imagine that it acts like fly paper for nitrogen wastes and other organics (like tannins). It does not release anything into the water; it only removes things until it reaches capacity at which point it needs to be recharged (cleaned) with a weak bleach solution.

Keeping a molly for 4 years in 6.4 pH is crazy impressive if that strip is accurate. Both your ideas are good imo.

You have room for several more fish. Platies get along with everybody, so you're good there. I'd get 3 honey gourami, they're peaceful and they like to be in groups

That's a lot of fish! Could you do it? Yes, but maintenance is going to be a full-time job. One of the first things we learn is even large tanks are not large enough to hold everything😔. That's the number one thing driving multiple tank syndrome. So many fish, so little space. I'd probably cut back by at least 25%, or more. One of the other things I noticed. Odessa barbs temps don't align well with the others. Odessa's are a colder water fish

Lol goofy me. I was trying to reply to the part about Irene mentioning Hillstreams. . I need to not do this on a tablet where I get lost on the screen!

Seachem Purigen. Water changes. Or both!

That is pretty much what I thought. Trip details are still indeterminate😬, so I thought I'd ask anyway. They have always done well with long weekends.

Im not sure if it is only tannins in your case. The water looks a bit green and blurry. It can also be a beginning of the green water maybe? Also do you test your ammonia nitrite and nitrate?

you could replace the odessa with snakeskin barbs for a different Look. You could try discus or red terror instead of false green terror

So here is a follow up to the initial posting, let's see how this looks: 1 pair of False Green Terror (12") 1 30+ school of Rainbows (5") 10x Banded 10x Boseman 10x Lake Kutubu 1 50+ school of Barbs (2.5 - 3") Black Ruby Clown Gold Rhombo Odessa 10x Cory's 10x Loaches 1x Rainbow Shark Thoughts?

Thank you guys for the feedback!!

Starting to see tiny bits of growth since I snipped the bare bits of rhizome to trigger new growing points. Rhizome snipping was done July 22, new pics taken yesterday, July 31. When Java fern decides it likes a tank, it will definitely show off for you. I’m betting this tiny tank will look completely different in another 5-6 weeks.

Truth! I’m so glad you’ve made so much progress. Hopefully you’re down to the tidying up stages only? There’s always that last bit of organizing after a huge project like yours. At least you might have light at the end of your tunnel, it seems. I just need to start digging deeper. I know the toll it’s going to take on me and my body already aches in anticipation of the pain. 😝 😆 😂 I wish I had at least one space that was ready, but I have to redo this room so I can redo the other room, then I can finally redo the next room so I can finish redoing the first room. 🤦🏻‍♀️ My mountain is not improving and I ain’t no spring chicken anymore!

Like other floaters it is pretty good at removing Nitrates from your water. Might want to leave it be if you haven't already destroyed it. I don't feel bad having to compost up a bunch of this every month, (don't flush, don't dump, compost or immersion blend the excess into shrimp food). If I needed to cull it, then it's doing its job. If I don't need to cull it, then it's probably time to check if my tank's ammonia is rising. The long feathery roots are really good for culturing infusoria for fish with tiny fry, (I breed Tiger Teddies and Pygmy Swordtails). Probably good for Neon Tetras too, I'd imagine. I suppose if I ever get mine to lay when I'm actually ready for it....

Water lettuce. leave it alone and if you have decent fertilizer in the tank it will be covered in short order… But it sure is easier to clear out than duckweed… And fish seem to enjoy swimming under. And about the roots…

In my opinion, plants actually grow better in gravel. There's more space for the roots to occupy. Sand tends to be very dense. It's the bottom dwelling fish that have more problems with gravel. My crypts do really well in gravel.

Yes, they are beautiful, good choice

The cories and pleco seem to like the repashy more than anyone else in this tank. The swords just pick at it a little, the barbs and gourami ignore it, and the shark just likes to chase other fish off but never eats. Especially interesting with the swordtails - the guppies and platies love it. Kinda weird that these guys don't.

Hello! I have had a three spot gourami for almost 4 - 5 years and I have begun to notice a decline in health in the last two days. She seems to be clutching her fins, swimming only at the top of the tank, and her scales seem more visible (not to the extent of pineconing though). I’m curious if this sounds more like a illness or if she is just old and reaching her full lifespan. I include a video for reference. Thank you! Nitrate: 10 Nitrite: 0 PH: 7.0 KH: 80 GH: 60 Temp: 78 F

Yes improve diet, freeze-dried foods, frozen foods, flakes, pellets, and a good schedule too.

Interesting video. Yes, I also suspect old age, although you might be able to maintain a good quality of life with a good diet.

Showing a male betta a mirror for a few minutes a day is a great idea. It basically simulates life in a pond, where every now and then you have to defend your territory against another male. It’s good for them, it’s not stressful, and you can’t get physically injured like in a real fight. As long as it’s not constant, “fighting” a reflection is a natural and healthy behavior. As for activity, yes, the longer the fins, the harder it is to move. Male bettas naturally have only slightly longer fins than females, so these varieties with very long fins can suffer for that. For stimulation, have you considered adding other creatures to the tank? You could add snails, or certain other community fish that are compatible with bettas, like small tetras or Cory cats (guppies may or may not work, depending on your betta). Don’t introduce gouramis, since they are closely related to bettas and will be the target of territorial aggression. Also, don’t introduce fish from the minnow family (barbs, danios), because they are naturally fin-nippers, and those long fins would be an easy target. I wouldn’t add African dwarf frogs either, because in my experience, bettas can kill them, although some have had success with that combination. But otherwise, having compatible species can be a good way to perk up any aquarium fish.

I use pool filtration sand or playground sand from any store. Just make sure to wash it. Tbh for a while my snails survived in a large ikea box when i was remaking the tanks for some time too.

Any kind of neocardinia (like cherry shrimp) seem to definitely be the hardiest. It’s kind of a gamble bc you never know if your white clouds will gobble them right up. It’s possible they’ll become an expensive snack lol. But if you have enough plant cover and hiding places you should be fine. Plus didn’t you say they mostly stay at the top? Hopefully they wouldn’t bother them. At the end of the day though, Nerites are much better algae eaters than shrimp will ever be (unless you have an absolute ARMY of shrimps!) So if your goal is to have an algae eater, a couple more nerites are probably your best bet.

Huh, sorry the video didn’t work. That’s what I figured. Thank you for the advice!

Sure I'll try that.

This could be old age. 4-5 years, old. Average lifespan is 4-6 years. So, with the clamped fins, and staying at the top, it is old age most likely sadly. But the vid did not show up for me sadly @Stinson Beach Aquatics.

Could it be Snakeskin Barbs Maybe

Agreed on clown barbs.

Yeah those are kinda picture perfect clown barbs. I don’t blame the supplier it can be confusing if they house similar species id return them since your hope was to get some same species

Oh that's sad if he is getting old, especially since I have not even had him for that long. Someone suggested... I don't know the English term for it, but exposing him to a mirror for 10 minutes each day to release testosterone so he could "build muscles" or something of that nature. Is that a good idea?

Age and fin type. The longer and larger the fin, the harder to swim with as they age.

@GPounda 20 is a great size school of rainbows. You can mix it up if you like, however the effect you get if you stick with 1 species is spectacular. The uniformity of it all makes it complete, imo. Also if you ever decide to dip your toes into breeding, you won’t hybridization to worry about. This is highly frowned upon. Boesmani are a great choice. For something stunning but a bit different for roughly same price tag you can check out Melanotaenia Trifasciata ‘Goyder River’, Chilatherina Alleni ‘Wapoga’, or Glossopelis Wanamensis. The Wanam’s are incredible, when fully matured the males sport long, ragged fins, it’s quite the eyeful. If you approach rainbows with patience, you will be rewarded with daily spectacles and breeding rituals. I always feel gratitude when observing them.

Living room tank enjoying the Repashy.

Hello Louise, I have so many of these guys, and so many different species of them! How? These guys tend to give birth under stress of transportation if Im not mistaken, and when they arrive to the LFS their tank had many tiny babies around. I asked my LFS to get all these babies, because who will actually take care of such slow growing snail at a store for so long. They were willing to give me, so I had a chance to observe many different colors of them., They want that hot temps. I find 26-28C is a sweet spot. Those ranges brought me the cute little babies. They are clumsy and not great to keep with most tank mates imo. They can get bullied easily and are super slow to outrun anything or any place they feel discomfort. They love fine sand and burying into it. But it is a good idea to provide them objects around to correct themself when needed, again, not the best movers. They climb to glasses and drop themself to the ground randomly. Like mystery snails parasnailing, these have heavy shells and cant parasnail but basically drop themself down. Any tough objects around may damage their shell when they do this. They need a similar diet with mystery snails but they are very slow eaters. They LOVE leaf litter, I always provide mine dry leaves. I would not advice that. I tried that before and it didn't work. Why? Different water temp likings, mystery snails are so fast at moving and eating so they outcompete rabbit snails very much, and male mystery snails want to snex with every big snail bothering rabbit snails like crazy. So I had to move my mystery snails to another tank. Rabbit snails are awesome, AWESOME, but they kinda need that species only tank or very very peaceful tank to live happily. And no, not even guppies were OK to keep them together with. I bet small cories, some shrimp (not a big population because shrimp also constantly pick around and bully &scare snails if they are high in population). Here are some pics from my tank:

Finally a topic for all of my experience 🙂 First of, the rabbit snails do not need as warm water as advertised. Yes they can handle higher temps, but a local breeder and me too for several months/years have kept them at various temperatures from 24-28°C and no issue. They may be less active, sleep more but not way more than usual, not noticeably. Another person keeping them here had them with sulawesi shrimp, as they have the same parameters, and found that overpopulation of shrimp is hurtful to the rabbit snails, as they will simply step on the snails, bother them, they stop going out and moving and eventually starve, as they are too bothered by the shrimp. That is why I never tried them with shrimp. I have however tried them with various fish, in various sized tanks, so here is my epxerience: I got five of middle sized rabbits in 10/21 (around 4cm I would say) and I still have one of those, around 6cm. They grow really slow. I have kept them in a 360liter tank with corydoras, various tetras, and they would roam the whole tank, climb the glass up to the cover (60 cm) and then let go and fall down to the bottom. They do this climb/fall excersise no matter the tank size/height and they always fall and sometimes they crack their shells. They like to burrow in the sand, but wont do it if the substrate is not soft enough. They can spend days burrowed, but never fully, just partially. They also sleep with their snouts hanging out, looking dead, lying on their back, for days at a time when not disturbed. They had no problem being bulldozed by a heard of corydoras and took a food pellet from them. Mine ate some of my plants, so I always kept handfuls of leaves in the tank for them to eat, even so, they would bite of my stemmed plants, cause they were closer. I then got bolivian rams, saw them decimate few ramshorn snails and decided to move my rabbits to a different tank. At that point I only had 4 adults, but had 3 babies, and it was 02/23. Due to lack of other options, I remade a 54 liter for them, put a higher sand level, no planted plants to maximize the floor space, added some wood for snacking, lots of leaf litter and anubias that was hovering above the bottom to provide shaded areas. Since then I started hunting other inhabitants to add to my rabbits. I tried honey gourami, and was not satisfied about how they would intensely watch the smaller snails and their antenaes. Ember tetras were a good match, static, nice colors, didnt bother the snails at all. Rasboras, hengel and espei, were too active and too curious about the antenaes. Endler fish worked, but also a bit too curious about the snails, but the mouth is too small. I used this tank as a breeding setup for whitecloud minnows, so ofcourse their fry didnt poses any problem, and rabbits did a nice cleanup of the leftovers. Since 07/23 I brought a group of 10 pseudomugil luminatus. While they will eat whatever is on the ground, so any attempt at spirulina tablets for snails was met with ultimate failure, they are a super small mouthed fish and while they will look at the snails, they never bothered them. Recently I decided to terminate my rabbit snail project, as I planned to add some bottom dwelling fish and maybe some plants to the 54 liter tank, and I decided to take them out. I had 30 babies and 1 adult left, largest baby was around 4 cm, smallest are 4mm. You always will lose an occasional baby snail, due to feeding I believe, at around 0,5cm size, they do better when not disturbed. The real kicker is, the tank is 25°C, pH is 7, maybe lower, and the water is soft. Only the adults, that spend 4 years in this water, have a shell corrosion, all the babies shells are ok. I had a piece of cuttlebone in the tank with them at all times. This concludes my rabbit story, if you want, I can also add what I used to feed 🙂