MattyM

I do something similar - but I up the crazy factor and vac seal half of it and put in the freezer (I already had the vac seal so why not!). For the food I don't freeze, I do as you do and put some in a pill bottle so I'm not opening the main container much, and keep it all in the fridge. I would also contact the company - can't hurt.

Maybe try getting a small clay flower pot, and putting a deeper substrate in along with some root tabs and see if that does it. I agree that vals have pretty big root systems that need space. You can also try just floating the val or gently putting a plant weight on it and putting it on top of the substrate - I do this in my hospital tank and they still grow.

I've had mixed results with stem plants and eventually just stopped doing them. The ones that worked were a pain to upkeep - trimming and replanting the healthy tops and all that. I still have -a lot- of plants, just no stems and life is good - don't miss them at all.

In my experience, the bacteria that process nitrites take the longest to build up in a planted tank. So if something happened to cause a spike, it may take a week or two to build that up again. I add some Fritzyme or API Quickstart to help out.

Is it soft, like it's melting, or it firm like the rest of the leaf? How's the rest of the plant doing?

In my experience, fish that are used to swimming a lot will sometimes jump in a smaller tank - my research pulled up some articles that thought they hope to land in a larger body of water. Or if the water isn't to their liking, they may also do this. Spawning female fish may also jump when there are floating plants, with the hope of landing their eggs on/around the plants for a higher survival rate.

If you have a hospital tank, I would pull the guy and treat with a 2-3 tablespoons of salt per 10 gallons - maybe he's just a bit bloated/backed up.

I think your PH is your PH - I don't use that kit so not sure what your results are. I always add Fritz with fish, and keep an eye on the nitrites - ammonia has never been a problem for my planted tanks. If the nitrates get above .25 (light purple) I'll do a water change. A couple days later, after the Prime/dechlorinator wears off, I might add more bacteria. It looks like all your plants might be slow growers, so I would consider adding a fast growing plant to help out.

Once I moved mine to a 100g with good flow, heavily planted, all I have to do it feed frozen bloodworms right before lights out, and/or do a water change but use water that is a few degrees cooler - I think this is supposed to simulate rain fall, which triggers them. I'll wake up to a bunch of eggs on the glass.

NP - great seller. If you have a lid, you might need to let him know so that the baffle fits under it.

Get all snooty about food - "Oh, these uber fresh flakes just aren't what I'm in the mood for this morning, bleh (spits out)"

Sorry to take this slightly off topic, but as a new canister user I am just curious what you use for this 🙂

Hmmm... Googling I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Aquariums/comments/qdca2y/getting_really_low_flow_rate_on_my_oase_biomaster/ If that doesn't help, the only things I can think of to try are: Gently shake it to see if there's any trapped air Take all the trays out and run it completely bare. Make sure the distance from the tank and filter are within the filter's limits, so you're not trying to push higher than the pump is rated for. Remove the output hose from the connector that hangs over the tank, and see if you get full flow. And lastly, contacting the manufacturer. Good luck - I have the 600 version of this filter and would love to know if you figure it out!

Bloodfins are a fun, hardy, underrated fish in my experience. Almost like a danio - constant movement, lots of personality. And a giant appetite!

What if you leave the sponges off of the prefilter?

I have them in a sanded tank - don't overfeed and you'll be OK. I have other snails, corie cats, amanos - they all get the vast majority of food before the MTSs emerge. If I'm siphoning the tank and see some, I just suck them up for further population control.

Check out the 3d printed baffles from GalaxyGlowStudio on Etsy, they can direct your HOBs flow so you get better circulation in the tank. On my 20L I had an AC30 mounted in the back right, with the baffle directing left across the tank.

I believe live bearers enjoy the harder water. Your numbers are in my ballpark and my platies bred like crazy.

That doesn't look too bad to me. If you're getting fry that might cause some more bacteria to grow. What does your filtration look like? Do you use anything like a polishing pad and/or Purigen? You may just have some fine particulate matter that needs to get filtered out, which is common in new planted tanks.

Pinholes relate to Potassium deficiency - you could try dosing extra Potassium, I have to. Some kinds of plants are Potassium hogs. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies I also use root tabs here and there, mostly for heavy root feeders like Crypts, and if any rooted plant looks like it could use some extra juice.

If you have a pot you don't care much about, you can boil as much of the driftwood as you can. I have a cheap enamel pot for this, it's like 3 or 4 gallons. Just be warned any pot you use will have a tannin ring around it. Snails, shrimp and other critters will keep the film in check once you have them. If you added bottled bacteria, it won't really do anything w/o an ammonia source, or "food" for the bacteria. Part of the cloudiness you see could be bacteria die off. If possible I would get a bunch more plants in there (sounds like you got that covered), and start working on supporting life: I might also do a water change if the conditions look really bad, hard to tell w/o a pic. But the bacteria you want lives on surfaces not in the water column. OR, get your plants in, wait a few days, and then introduce a light bioload of hardy fish along with your bottled bacteria. I've had good luck with Fritz and API's Quick Start. You got this 👍

That could be staghorn, which I've had many battles with. In my experience it is very fast to uptake excess nutrients - new plants need to establish themselves before they really start uptaking nutrients so maybe you OD'd. Staghorn also loves lots of light. I don't have the coop light, but I would dial the brightness down quite a bit. Carbon-based algicides like Easy Carbon and Excel make pretty quick work of staghorn until you get the tank dialed in, especially if you spot treat. Once it's dead your cleanup crew might eat it.

Hi all - I have a 3 week old 100 gallon tank, heavily planted but lightly stocked for it's size (the fish came out of my 10g, and a couple 20s). It has a canister on each end, and very good flow that generates a circular pattern. I have a spray bar on one end, pointed length-wise down the tank, dialed down quite a bit but there's still plenty of surface agitation. The filter on the other end flows out along the back wall, and also provides a bit of surface agitation. I am liking this so far. The larger plants have a very gentle wave to them. My smallest fish are ember tetras, and they are out and about and not getting blown around. The tank has been fruitful - my cory cats laid a ton of eggs, and now my male/female gouramis are trying to build a bubble nest. There's some deader spots along the surface where there's some val leaves floating and blocking a lot of flow, but they don't seem to be having much luck. I also have some biofilm on the surface, likely b/c of all the new wood (no visible film on the wood), as well as bacteria and plants growing/dying/melting etc. I wonder if this is further hindering the bubble nests (and maybe a water change is in order). I don't think it's from overfeeding, and the water is clear. But, I've never had a planted tank this large, so any advise on the film would be appreciated. I do have a 10 gallon hospital tank that I always keep setup with barely any flow, and a bunch of leftover val providing plenty of cover. Should I try moving them in there? Having just moved them into the 100g tank, I don't want to stress them more - but are the failed bubble nests just stressing them?

Algae is mostly your aquarium trying to balance itself - there are nutrients in the water, and I don't see many plants - so the algae is taking care of the excess nutrients. What does a test strip show? Adding a bunch of plants, especially fast growers, can help - as will water changes to remove the nutrients the algae are feeding on. I'm not great at identifying algae, but maybe this will help: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/algae-identification-guide-1

Yup - this is why I toss some crab cuisine in my tank, and add some cuttlefish bone.