asondhi

Glad you're here and having fun! Skittle shrimp are fun (mixing neocaridina colors in one tank) but just know that if they crossbreed the offspring will eventually turn out brown. I think it's still awesome though!

I remember hearing Cory saying in a video that there's a reasonable chance of dud bulbs that never sprout so it isn't uncommon for companies to include an extra or to send a replacement if you email them about it. Granted, ACO customer support is exceptional and other companies may have their own policies around it.

My go to is a coarse sponge pad. I'll set it on top. The material absorbs a lot of the vibration and the number of air pockets helps to dampen the sound a lot. Also less risk of overheating/restricted airflow than with cloths

Thanks! I'll dose salt, that aquarium is already pretty tannin-heavy with IAL and other botanicals.

pH: 6.5 Nitrates: 10-15ppm Hardness: 25 or lesz Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 KH/Buffer: 40-80 Water Temperature: 76°F As the title states my betta's eyes appear to be turning white. I'd guess she's about a year old. I got her from a well-reviewed breeder online (can't seem to find email or remember the name now). I wasn't able to capture any better photos as she's very active. It appears that the center of the cap over her eye is starting to become opaque - the effect appears similar to how some plastic turns white when bent. So far, her behavior doesn't seem to have had changed at all, she doesn't seem to have any issues seeing or getting food. If I had to guess, I'd say I first noticed her eyes looking a little more opaque than usual about a week ago but assumed it was just a trick of the light as I've been messing with my fluval 3.0. My first thought was that she was rubbing her face against the glass and the repeated contact caused it but that doesn't seem to be it, she seems to get on fine with her tank mates so I don't think they're injuries or nips. Thanks in advance!

Yup, it was RBA. Thanks for the recommendations! I can't believe I didn't think to check the coop site for affiliate stores! Buffalo isn't terribly far, especially not for some good fish! Just didn't want to drive all the way out and be disappointed

Not that I know of or was able to find but honestly a lot of in person clubs don't have the best online presence.

So as the title says, my locally owned LFS is shutting down. Wandering into the store on a whim is what got me into the hobby and unfortunately, shortly after moving to a brand new location they just announced they are closing their doors for good. My big concern is that they were the only fish store in the area (aside from the petcos/petsmarts). While I preferred to get most of my supplies from the LFS, ACO has a lot of it covered so I'm all good there, but what are your recommendations for where I can get fish now? I live in the Rochester (NY) area- anyone from nearby know of any fish stores worth traveling for?

I've got 3 bushes of crypt lutea - definite root feeder that benefited from the aquasoil and later root tabs. There was a dense carpet of dwarf baby tears but a lot of it melted back d/t the algae- I've noticed those benefit more from column feeding than root feeding, I'm assuming it's because their roots are very superficial and don't seem to reach the depth of root tabs. Lastly, there was some ludwigia natans and a few rotala varieties along the back that I had pulled out of the tank to thoroughly rinse algae off them and trim dead/dying leaves. They are temporarily in another tank to strengthen before going back in here.

Good to know- something to keep in my back pocket. Financial situation isn't the best at the moment so I'd like to dial back on spending on my aquariums for now but if all else fails it'll be a good option! So you both bring up a great point. I was initially only dosing 2x a week but was unable to get nitrates to detectable levels whatsoever. Even now, if I drop off on dosing for 2-3 days the nitrates drop right back down to 0. I was under the impression that ferts should be dosed to 20-40ppm nitrate (depending on fish sensitivity and plant-load). Thinking about it now, however, I am realizing that easy green definitely includes more than just nitrogenous chemicals and while nitrate levels may be sufficient, I may be overdosing other compounds. I'll try dialing back and see how things go and update. Thank you for the advice!

As shown in the photo below I've been struggling with this persistent hair algae for almost the lifetime of this tank. Pardon the cloudy water as removing algae from the substrate disturbed a good bit of detritus It had started to starve out a lot of my plants which prompted me to do a heavy trim back and dose some topical H2O2. The photos show what is left after heavy mechanical removal. Unfortunately, it is impossible to remove it any further without uprooting my carpet Tank info: ~ 10g water volume w/o decor/substrate Low bioload w/ just a betta, some amano shrimp and 6 pygmy corys 20ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0 ammonia. Daily dosing of easy green and easy carbon- 1 pump of each per day 6.5pH with lower KH and GH 74°-76° F 6hr lighting period from a medium intensity light No CO2 injection- I had used it previously but it just made it harder to balance the tank.

A few months ago my mental health tanked and this is the result. I stopped dosing ferts or easy carbon, stopped carefully tuning the lighting and CO2 with plant growth, stopped doing water changes... pretty much only fed the fish and dipped a test strip in once in a while to make sure no one was going to die. Luckily my other 2 tanks were established/balanced enough to continue thriving and experience no negative effects... probably because they're low-tech. I need some advice on saving this tank, it's a UNS 45U (~10g) with a betta, buttload of cherry shrimp, snails, and some chili rasboras. Medium/high tech setup with CO2 injection and a twinstar light. Coarse hair algae has taken hold and really bloomed in the tank (not to mention little bits of staghorn) Under all that algae is some UNS controsoil with a Monte Carlo carpet that's melted back a good bit (but seems to still have a strong root system). There's the obvious pearl weed and a dwarf crypt whose name escapes me. Aside from manual removal and a series of large water changes (working up the energy to do so now), what can I do? How can I prevent this in the future? I plan to massively reduce (or just stop) CO2 injection and light duration to slow down growth and resource consumption but do I have any other options? My other two tanks are newer, yet I have managed to balance them much better (I'm assuming because of water volume) Thanks in advance!

A few months ago my mental health tanked and this is the result. I stopped dosing ferts or easy carbon, stopped carefully tuning the lighting and CO2 with plant growth, stopped doing water changes... pretty much only fed the fish and dipped a test strip in once in a while to make sure no one was going to die. Luckily my other 2 tanks were established/balanced enough to continue thriving and experience no negative effects... probably because they're low-tech. I need some advice on saving this tank, it's a UNS 45U (~10g) with a betta, buttload of cherry shrimp, snails, and some chili rasboras. Medium/high tech setup with CO2 injection and a twinstar light. Under all that algae is some UNS controsoil with a Monte Carlo carpet that's melted back a good bit (but seems to still have a strong root system). There's the obvious pearl weed and a dwarf crypt whose name escapes me. Aside from manual removal and a series of large water changes (working up the energy to do so now), what can I do? How can I prevent this in the future? I plan to massively reduce (or just stop) CO2 injection and light duration to slow down growth and resource consumption but do I have any other options? My other two tanks are newer, yet I have managed to balance them much better (I'm assuming because of water volume) Thanks in advance!

So shocked, the MTS are so much smaller than the nerites, how even!

Noticed my MTS have these little sesame seed eggs coating their shells... I've never seen anything like this before? There's a nerite in the tank and these look a lot like its eggs. Just confused lol