MrWestCoast

Maybe I missed this info, but when are you treating your water? Are you treating while filling the tank or do you treat after filling the tank? Any chance your city started treating water with Chloramines?

I have Current USA Plus on my 100 gal and love them. You should probably get the 36-48" model. You want the actual light to be 36" so you don't get shadowed corners. The 24-36" model is only 18 watts.

I had the same problem in my 20g tall tank. what helped me is time and red cherry shrimps. I noticed that once the red cherry shrimp population exploded, the mulm was gone in a matter of a week.

I started having this issue with USPS since the pandemic. The carrier will mark the package as delivered but it's nowhere to be found. For the most part the package will get delivered the next day, or not. I've had packages delivered across the street and to my surrounding neighbors. It became a real PIA.

I have never been able to keep otos alive for more than a year. I've noticed that they do not like algae wafers and instead feed on biofilm that naturally develops in established tanks. I have tried 3 different brands of algae wafers, zucchini, cucumbers, spirulina and they have ignored it all. They just graze on biofilm on the wood and rocks. I think eventually they run out of food and starve. I can't figure them out. 🤷‍♂️

either the airstone is clogged, air pump is failing or your airline is kinked.

I was in the same boat as OP. My 20 gal planted tank has been running for about 5 months now and I tried just about everything. Tried smaller water changes since my tap water is high in silicates. Tried using GFO to get rid of silicates. Got rid of silicates but not the diatoms. Tried different ferts. Tried playing around with my light settings and schedule. Nothing helped! This aquarium initially had just nerite snails and they didn't really help with the diatoms. Recently I added Platies and things have improved tremendously. They cleaned up the diatoms off my plants within a couple of days. They love this stuff! I also added red cherry shrimp and I'm sure they are doing their part as i always see them on my plants scraping off algae. I'm happy with the results from this clean-up crew.

What does your city water get treated with? Chloramines can easily kill fish within 30 min if left untreated. My water is treated with chloramines and I forgot to treat my water with prime for 45 min. I lost a couple of fish and the rest recovered. Treat the tank before you fill it and after. At least that's how I do it now. Chlorine takes a bit longer to harm your fish. Chloramines will prevent red blood cells from carrying oxygen throughout the body once it enters the blood stream.

Just a quick update. It's been a bit over a week since I strained the liquid fertilizer and put it in the fridge. I am not seeing anymore fluff in the bottle. Hopefully it stays that way.

I strained mine through a sterile piece of bandage wrap and washed the bottle out real good with a mix of water and some peroxide. poured the fertilizer back into the bottle and stuck the bottle into my small fridge with the temp at 50-55. I'll check in a few days to see if the mold comes back.

So the seller never got back to me. Do I throw this full bottle in the trash or can I strain it and continue using it?

Sent them an email. Hopefully I'll get an answer.

Here are some pics. I was able to get some of that fluff into the dispenser tube to get a decent shot.

This is not salt build up. This is soft tissue like material, basically like algae but white in color. It forms into lumps inside the bottle and is heavy enough to settle at the bottom of the bottle.

Bought a bottle of Marcus Fish Tanks fertilizer. It comes as dry mix in a squirt bottle, and you simply add water and shake it up. After about a month I noticed large amount of fluff floating in the bottle. When I squirt the fertilizer into the tank, I'll get bits of this white fluff in the tank. Anyone had this issue? bacterial growth? Is the fertilizer useless now? The bottle is stored in complete darkness.

You can buy a gravel vacuum that filters your aquarium water through a mesh bag

It's a mystery how and why my nerite snails chose specific piece of wood to attach eggs to. I have 3 pieces of wood in the aquarium. One (mopani wood) is riddled with eggs, the other two (unknown type of wood) are completely bare.

I let some water run through a bag full of it for about 2 minutes and then dipped the bag into some de-chlorinated water for a minute. I live in California so I know nothing of winters lol. sorry.

Just buy these for your rimless tank. https://www.amazon.com/Aquarium-Acrylic-Universal-Rimless-Aquariums/dp/B07X912DS6

Just wanted to say make sure to shake the seachem stability bottle before using it. Makes a big difference. Also, Prime is known to show false positive ammonia readings. Testing right after dosing with prime or few hours later can show false positive, but not as high as 1ppm, more like 0.25.

Does it wipe off easily? If so, most likely Diatoms.

Get some GFO (granular ferric oxide) which is what's phosguard made out of. you can get 1lb of it for $20 on ebay. I believe ClearMax uses ferric oxide as well.

For all we know his water might be treated with Chloramines. If that's the case, chloramines will not evaporate like chlorine and will kill your fish within hours.

Those looks like nerite snail egg pods. they look like tiny sesame seeds. they usually lay them on wood/rock/plant stems and sometimes side on glass.

I have a Hygger LED light. I lowered the blue to 5% and the rest is at 80%. The tank is planted. I have a couple of anubias, a lot of rotala plants, a few java fern plants and some random plants here and there. I do wonder why the tank water tests higher in silicates than the tap water. Does anyone know if petrified wood leaches silica into the water? I could not find any info on this. I also forget to mention I'm running lava rock in my internal filter. I think lava rock too has silica in it.