Dave G

I’ve started to grow a pothos out of the aquarium, bought from my lfs. I would like to add a monstera or other ones not at my lfs. Obviously plenty of greenhouses to go out and grab plants but what specific risks could I be introducing? I am concerned about pesticides and other unknowns that could harm my tanks out of ignorance. Thanks

See if it attached this time

I would enjoy plant ideas. On the attached picture I have 6 planting zones. This will be a discus community tank with CO2. Currently I have dwarf hair grass as a carpet and Monte Carlo as the tree tops. Section 1 for back ground was thinking of Rotala macranda section 3 Indian Red devil sword section 4 alternathera reineckii pink. A primary goal is to get plants that like the same amount of light intensity.

I dry started this tank 9 days ago. It has dwarf hair grass and Monte Carlo. The Monte Carlo was planted on a bonsai tree branch. In the photos below show just a bit of standing water in the sand portion of the scape. Will that standing water cause issues over the next few weeks while the tank grows in? I could place a bit more sand down to level it off. Curious if the water level is optimal

Thanks, i am finding the science of this process to be a fun puzzle. The art of working with patience and accepting that it takes time and has beed a good lesson. I looked at my settings and was running 10 hours of light so i scaled that back to 8 hours and knockdown the brightness a bit as well using the Fluvalsmart app.

I will get the names of the plants to help, getting an actual water test tonight. Of the 4 plants in the front of the tank 1st on left was added just yesterday. The 2nd and 4th are approx 3 weeks in tank. The 3rd one was cut from the 2 i bought together about 5/6 weeks ago. (that is the tall red stemmed plant) I cut tone of the red stemmed plants in half to see if i could get new plant about a week ago. This tank has a fluvel plant and grow light . I just did a test strip. No Nitrate or Nitrite (do water changes evey week), GH is at the top of the range (at least 300) KH is medium (below 120) and the PH is 7.8 or so. The GH just seems really high but i have limited context to what the figures actually mean. Fertizlizer is from Aquarium Co OP

Hi. This 10 gallon tank is my first and is about 3 months old. I am brand new to the hobby. The plants in the photos show leaf damage and I wanted to learn if it is a result of too much light, not enough nutrients or something else. I am not using co2. Thanks

Thanks for the ideas. For the bottom/algae crew i am familiar with corys, gobys, amano shrimp (large one) and some snails. I dont want to miss out on some other fun fish as the more variety the better and as my skills improve i welcome the challenges. My daughter wants to get younger angel fish so we can watch them grow and allow for other tank mates to grow to be large enough to avoid becoming food. All 3 kids want to pick 2 of them for a total of 6 is the intiial plan but stocking appropriately for a healthy tank is more important. Weve learned some valuable lessons about tank management from getting the one betta in a 5 gallon tank to the 10 gallon and now the just dry launched 75 gallon. The one that is the best for my logic is to move slowly and think it out before as managing a tank is a hell of a lot more involved than i assumed 3 months ago 🙂 Thankfully my gear acquistion syndrome from other hobbies has prepared me for this... I do have the co2 ready to go when the tank gets flooded

I am a day into a dry start on a 75 gallon tank with Dwarf Grass mini and monte carlo. Would it be beneficial on the days of water changes to use some of that "dirty" water vs tap? I typically put the water on the yard/plants outside but wasnt sure if this helps, makes no difference or is a detriment. thanks

Hi All. I am happy to join this community. We have 2 established tanks. A 5 gallon beta tank a 10 gallon community tank and we just started our new 75 gallon dry start planted tank that the kids picked Angel Fish as the showcase. We are curious for tank mates suggestions as we want a diverse tank to build a healthy tank.

The store i am working with strongly recommended the very high level of co2 process as well for the same reasons, thanks for adding the comment. He also recommeded to slowly introduce fish to make sure it is fish ready after things settle down.

Thank you very much for the repsonse, this really helped me. I will look at your posts on the topic. I am planting tomorrow night so i am in the hurry up and wait phase.

I am new and have fallen into the deep end :). I am just about to proceed with a dry start on my 75 gallon tank eventually using CO2. I am starting with Dwarf Grass as a carpet and Monte Carlo on the bonsai trees. Now that i know its going to be 4-7 weeks of time before water/fish i was wondering what other plants I could plant to get them established. The kids choose Angel Fish as the showcase and community fish for the others. I was wondering if Amazon Swords can be dry started? The other area are the red plants i was looking at Rotala Vietnam, Ludwidia Palustris Super Red and Alternanthera Reinecki but would love some ideas. thanks and look forward to the discussion. Dave