NOLANANO

you could probably keep the majority of your list in a single tank if you wanted to. My list is an Alien Betta, Pea Puffers, Amazon Puffers, shell dwellers, and possibly one day being bold enough to try my hand at saltwater. My issue with my list is that the puffers can't be in a community and the shellies can't have plants. Maybe one day I will give them a chance.

I have BD sand and I also have a majority of the plants you have and mine grow great. The trick is to layer. You put gravel or aquasoil or a combo of both beneath the sand. This helps the sand not compact as much and gives the roots an easier place to grow once they break through the sand layer. Hope this help!

My kids LOVE Endler Livebearers. They are tiny and colorful and super entertaining to watch if you have multiple. Pygmy Cories are another good option for the bottom dwellers. Any color of Cheery Shrimp (NeoCardina) would work too and the fact that they have babies is a huge fan favorite in my house.

Neons in my experience don't hide as much as Cardinals. Cardinals always seem to hide when I approach the tank.

OH NO! ZOMBIE BLOOD WORMS!!!

I edited my post because I didn't realize it was only a 20L. I would go with a pair or maybe 2 pair if you don't mind the jostling for position that will happen in teh beginning. Whatever you do, do it all at once. If you put a pair in and then try to add another pair later, the original pair will feel like the entire tank is theirs and won't want to give up any territory to the new comers. If they are introduced all at once, they will figure out the spacing. If you do go for 2 pairs though, watch the tank at the store for a while and see if you can identify M/F pairs that are already pairing up. It'll help. I once had a male that was super pretty but for whatever reason could never get a female to pair with him.

I think your tank looks perfect for rams. I have mine on black sand but I don't think they do anything that they wouldn't be able to do on gravel. Its not like they dig a ton or sift through the sand super aggressively. They just kinda pick at the surface looking for morsels of food. I don't see why they wouldn't be able to do that on gravel. A pair should do great in a 20L. IMO though getting a group of 6 or so in a larger tank brings out their best behavior which is defending their territories. You could maybe get away with 2 pairs since it looks like you have 2 distinct territories but they may also feel over crowded.

I use black Diamond Blasting Sand with Root tabs. I made a video on Youtube (not very good production) of me building the tank if you'd like me to link it I will.

75G and it has a Sun Sun cannister filter that is rated for a 90G. It has a spray bar that creates surface movement and there are no floaters. I'm going to leave the airstone in at this point and hopeully my issues will be a thing of the past.

Well I usually add the conditioner as I start to fill up but the last water change yesterday I waited until it was full and put the dechlorinator in as I turned off the faucet. As for chloromines, I believe they do use it because the tap shows small amounts of ammonia. Thanks for all the replies. My conclusion prior to this thread is that there is some sort of gas exchange issue and the airstone clears it up. I will test the tap water's PH and test my tanks PH and see if it is different. I also do think there are chloromines because the tap water has always shown small amounts of ammonia but this dates back to before my issues. I am also going to retest that and see if its more ammonia than I remember from before.

What's Up Fish Fam! I have recently started to have issues just after water changes and I wanted to see if anyone with more experience than myself had any insight. Keep in mind that all of my parameters were consistent throughout this whole ordeal, no swings or spikes in PH, Water Temp, Nitrates, Nitrites, or Ammonia. So, let's start from the beginning: About 2 weeks ago I did a 20% water change and immediately something seemed off in the tank, but it wasn't anything alarming right away. By that night, every fish in my tank was at the surface gasping hard for air. I went to the disease board and @Colu asked a bunch of diagnostic questions, one of which was whether or not my water company did any maintenance recently. I then remembered that they did shut off my water a few nights before to do maintenance and testing. He mentioned that sometimes they increase the chlorine content in the water supply after maintenance to flush the system. Believing that my water supply is tainted, I just added more water conditioner to the tank and hoped for the best. Cut to the next morning and while none of the fish look great, they are still alive. Even though I think it's a long shot because the water in my tap is clearly poison, I decide that I have no other alternatives, so I go ahead and do a 60% water change and use double the conditioner dose. After this water change, I notice that the fish are looking a little better. They are still breathing hard, but they are back at their normal swimming depths and not at the surface. At this point @Colu and I rule out disease and are sure that it's an issue with the water. He says to do another water change and says I should get an airstone because its beneficial in general and it definitely couldn't hurt my current situation. I go get the air pump and the airstone, return home and do a 40% water change with double conditioner just like before and I set up the air stone. By that night, all my fish were back to normal and I was dancing in my living room because not 12 hours earlier I was sure they were goners. Fast forward to 2 days ago. It had been 2 weeks of healthy fish and it was time for another water change. I did about a 30% water change (with double conditioner) and by the next morning every fish was at the surface gasping for air. Following the gameplan from before, I did a second water change around 50% and again the fish looked better but not great. A couple hours later they were at the surface again so I did ANOTHER 50 % water change. At this point I am defeated, annoyed, and confused. Then my wife who can sense my frustration (and who also never even glances at my tank btw) says "you had bubbles last time." Annoyed I replied with a sharp "WHAT?!" Because no way she spotted something that my big bad fish keeping brain missed. I read blogs and watch Youtube while she can't even pick a neon tetra out of a lineup, what are the odds? She calmy replies "last time you almost killed your fish you had bubbles." EUREKA THE BUBBLES! I removed the airstone about 2 days after the last water change issue because it was too loud. I grabbed the airstone, put it in the tank, and plugged in the air pump. Now my fish are doing wonderful again. The lesson I learned is that sometimes I can get to hyper focused on something and miss the answer that's slapping me in the face. The fact that my lovely wife only saw the big picture and not the details allowed her to see the missing piece. So this woman who couldn't care less about my fish but DOES care about her dopey fish keeping husband saved my tank but I digress. Which leads to my questions: 1) Is it an oxygen issue? If it is an oxygen issue, why did I never have this problem before? And why wouldn't the water be oxygenated during the water change? I would think there would be enough surface agitation during the water change to properly oxygenate the water. And why were my fish fine for 10 days without the airstone if it is oxygen? I just find it hard to believe that this is the problem but its also clear that the airstone is the solution. 2) Is it a chlorine problem like I previously thought? The Issue I have with it being chlorine is that I am using a lot of dechlorniator as I am double dosing both NovAqua and AmQuel which both detoxify chlorine. I did read somewhere, however, that chlorine wants to be in a gaseous state so maybe the added surface agitation of the airstone allows the chlorine to dissipate quicker? 3) Is it something else I am not thinking of? Or possibly a combination of the two? If anyone has any insight, I would truly appreciate it. I am super happy to have found what looks to be the solution but its driving me crazy that I don't really know the cause. TL:DR: All my started fish breath heavy and staying at the surface after my last 2 water changes and they were saved by an airstone. What is the cause?

I didn't realize he did another one at Matt's shop. This one looks better executed than his first try.

MD fish tanks did a tanganyika tank a year or two ago with pretty much that same mix of fish. His tank was larger(I think) but you could use that to get some ideas. In a later video he talks about what worked and what didn’t for that tank.

I am by no means a professional fish keeper or professional youtuber but I did make a video on setting up my 75G planted tank and starting at about the 2:53 mark on this link I cover layering my substrate. I didn't use any aqua soil but you could easily substitute aqua soil for the gravel I used as my base layer. I copied this technique from MD fish tanks and the bags help make sure that the gravel don't come to the surface during cleaning.

I could be off base here but it seems to me like you might be biting off more than you can chew if you try to put the bettas in the 56g. The dividers could work but it seems like a huge hassle for not a lot of gain when the bettas all already have tanks. If you wanted to put 1 male betta in a community tank in the 56g that could definitely work with the right tank mates. Or you could go a completely different direction. @Cinnebunshas made a some very good points about where your starting place should be, I would just like to add a question to think about before you start buying stuff for your new tank. What part of the hobby brings you the most joy? Find your spark of joy and aim to create that because if your tanks don't bring you joy, you won't be inclined to look at and maintain them. So Is it the fish themselves, the plants, the ambiance of a slice of nature? What's important to you? Maybe you just love your 8 Bettas and putting dividers in a 56g so they all have a little more space is what would bring you the most joy. And even though that's not what I would do or what @Cinnebuns would do, it could still be perfect for you. Thats what makes this hobby so enjoyable to such a wide variety of people, there is a million ways to do things you just need to find what works for you and what brings you happiness. Some people love BIG fish and they have huge tanks with almost nothing in them but one (or a few) 12 inch+ fish. The tank is bear because those fish could injure themselves on hardscape and eat plants. Some people love COLORFUL fish (I feel like you might fit this category given your choice of male bettas) these people keep things like bettas in nano tanks or they keep African cichlids in larger tanks (like your 56g). These tanks will have lots of hardscape but no plants. The hardscape gives the cichlids places to hide from aggressors and there are no plants because these will also eat them. And some people don't care much about the fish at all and love the plants. These are true aquascapers. Most of the time they do have fish in their tanks but the fish are more decorations similar to the plants to them. The type of tank you set up should be what is best for your fish so that's why it's important to keep in mind what brings you joy. If you love plants, then you will not have feel happiness when your African cichlids or goldfish eat them all. On the flip side, if you don't care much for plants, you won't want to make time to trim and fertilize them so better not have them. I personally love planted community tanks. Right now I have a 75g low tech community tank based around my German Blue Rams. I get joy out of creating a little fish paradise and watching a slice of nature exist in my living room. In conclusion, I also urge you to research the nitrogen cycle and air stones and heaters and all the other questions you might have a lot more before you go forward with anything. You can definitely use this board as a resource for specific questions like you have with this thread but when I started, I found Youtube videos (specifically Aquarium Co-Op videos) to be the best source of information for the general information. Getting into this hobby can feel like an information overload (and it is at times) but learning about the Nitrogen cycle is definitely step 1. There is only one way to eat and elephant and that's one bite at a time.

Two nights ago these fish were all on the brink of death but thanks to @Colu look at them now:

All the fish are looking so much better. One or two are still breathing a bit heavier than normal but nothing like it was before. Someone get @Coluone of those poster of the month care packages, he saved all my fish!

Ok I added an air stone and did another 40% water change with double the conditioner dose. This feels like my last last stand at the Alamo lol .

Morning update 2: I did a 60% water change and everyone seems significantly improved almost immediately. A few fish are still breathing a little heavier than normal but they are swimming around normally and even foraging for food. I’m a hodgepodge of emotions right now. Obviously I’m absolutely elated that it looks like all my fish are gonna make it. I’m also mad at myself for not doing the water change last night and making my fish suffer longer than they needed to. And I’m confused about what caused the situation. Was it the water testing that was done by the water company a few days ago and I just flushed whatever from my pipes with the last water change? Did I accidentally contaminate my python with laundry detergent or something? my utility sink is in my laundry room but I try to be careful not to pour anything down that drain. edit: I don’t think I’m out of the woods yet. The fish don’t seem as bad as last night but they are all still definitely breathing heavy and I can see red gills on at least one of the rummynose tetra. going to get an air stone when the LFS opens.

morning update: every single fish except my pearl gouramis are breathing heavy and hanging out near the surface. I’m going to try to do a major water change and see if that helps. I really think it’s something to do with the water so I’m not sure if this will help but I’m also fairly certain it’s not parasites or illness because it all happened way too fast. Am I wrong for thinking that or is it possible that every fish started feeling the effects of an illness all at once?

Almost all my fish are at the surface gasping for air. Not just rams but rummynose tetra and endlers too. I’m almost positive they all have chlorine poisoning. It all came on way too quickly to be a parasite or other illness. And Like I said before, the water company cut off our water a couple nights ago to run tests and do maintenance. So I’m fairly certain that the tap water I used to do my water change must have had a higher concentration of chlorine than usual and the standard dose of conditioner wasn’t enough. hopefully I wake up tomorrow to healthy fish but it feels much more likely that I’ll be starting from scratch.

I also just realized that the water company did say they were doing water tests 2 nights ago and shut off our water for a few hours. That definitely could be the culprit. I added a second dose of conditioner to the tank so hopefully it will be enough to get everyone healthy again.

I added the rams about 3 weeks ago. The thing that’s strange to me though is that they all went from fine to breathing heavy within a couple hours directly after the water change. I’d think if it was a parasite it’d hit them one at a time, not all at once. should I grab general cure just in case?

I use amquel and NovAqua as a conditioner and I’ve done water changes before without issue. I don’t have an air stone but why would that all of a sudden become an issue after this water change? In anything shouldn’t a water change add oxygen to the water? I’ll run to the LFS and get an air pump and an air stone when they open in the morning.

My parameters: temp: 82.5 PH: 7.5 ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 10 Everything was fine and then i did a 20% water change and now all 6 are breathing heavy. There was about 20 ppm of nitrate prior to the water change. also weird and unsure if it’s related but I’ve had 4 Pygmy cories die within the last week and all 4 looked to have swim bladder issues as the starter to swim on their sides and be sluggish before dying. No other fish showed any signs of distress until the water change today. should I be concerned or should I just turn the lights off and hope they feel better in the morning?