[Temp in Coldwater Tank]

On 2/14/2023 at 10:06 AM, Biotope Biologist said:

I have a 50 gallon “cold water” tank in my living room. Have had temps dip to 63 once or twice but mostly the temperature stays at 65-68 degrees. Interestingly ambient temperature at my house is also in that range. 
 

I keep white clouds, gobies, and a cyprinid called orange fin hill trout. Similar to a danio in nature. They all enjoy that range quite well. I also have shrimp in the 10 gallon sump below. They also are doing well. They have doubled and tripled in size since I got them. A couple females are carrying eggs. 
 

These are the temps that these fish are most likely to see in the wild. I understand basements stay quite a bit cooler than the rest of the house. If you don’t have ways of insulating the basement I’m sure a small water heater could bump the temperature a few degrees.

I have similar temps for my 55 in my main living area too. We like a cool house 😁 I have swordtails, platys, mystery snails, and albino corys in there they all do just fine. 

[Water sprite seems to be in trouble!]

On 6/11/2022 at 9:50 AM, JoeQ said:

As per your ph being diffrent I would first consider your tank decor. The rocks may be buffering up while wood (or lack of rocks) could buffering the ph down. Or the heavy bio load from 6 Anglefish could be buffering down as well. This might also be a nutritional problem in your plants, the lack of (or extreamly low) nitrogen source. Do you have any test strips to compare the two tanks? 

 

On 6/11/2022 at 12:07 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @AngieVaughn

I agree with @JoeQ, I would first suspect a lack of nitrogen which can cause the overall chlorosis (yellowing) we see in the plants in question.  Check the nitrate ppm in that tank and see what level you get. -Roy

Thanks everyone for the very helpful comments. I agree about the nutrient deficiencies are causing the plants to die which in turn I suspect is lowering the pH. I’m so surprised how different the tanks are😁 I’m not sure why the deficiencies are happening since I’m using the same fertilizer as before even with less plants. Dosing more for the 55 even. Again thanks for the advice. 

[Water sprite seems to be in trouble!]

Hey guys! Just joined this forum this morning because I just found it lol. Been wearing out the you tube videos from Cory the last couple of years. Question for the aquarium gardeners here😀 Check the pics below. The first of the water sprite in my 36 gallon. All plants look like that and growing and flourish and water parameters consistently perfect. That tank has 6 rosey red minnows, 2 guppies, and 3 snails. Tank is well established and cycled and I rarely do much to it. Looks amazing. Like most of you I now have multi tank syndrome. Got a 55 gallon that has pretty much the same set up as the 36. Transplanted several plants from the 36 to the 55. It has 6 baby silver angelfish that are growing and seem fine. pH tends to be 6 which is too low I feel. Same water and in both so not sure why the difference. Both tanks have gravel substrate. The 55 has cool rocks that I feel may be doing something to the water.  I tested them with the acid drip and no reaction. The 36 doesn’t have any rocks. Anyway the plants aren’t doing well in the 55. You can see the difference. I use the root tabs and easy green in both tanks according to directions. I expected the 55 to do as well as the 36 but it’s obviously not and seems to be suffering. Any ideas greatly appreciated and thank you in advance. 😁