AllFishNoBrakes

Agreed that it looks like green water. I’ve had green water in my cube a couple of times. That tank is sensitive, and any little change causes green water. Every time I’ve had it, I’ve water changed my way through it. Keep in mind that if you kill off all the algae, it will create ammonia, and your tank might not be able to process that all at once resulting in an ammonia spike. If this was my tank, I would do a couple of things: -Cut down the lighting period -Move the shop light up higher, if you can. Light becomes less intense the further away it is, so that could also really help -Consider a new light if it’s in your budget. A 2’ shop light with a grow light (currently growing algae, or free-floating algae in the water column) seems really intense for a 5 gallon tank. Lighting doesn’t have to be expensive. I have Aquaneat lights on the majority of my tank and have jungles of plants. -Water change your way through it. 50% water changes, once per day, multiple days in a row, will physically remove and reduce the algae without the worry to kill it and cause an ammonia spike. -Do your water changes into a white bucket, if you can. With a white bucket you can really see the color of your water and can physically/visually see progress. -Remember that you didn’t get here overnight, so it will take some time to work your way through it. Gradual is good, and green water is actually super healthy for fish.

Like @TOtrees said, I’m not sure what you mean by cycling a tank for a day. A cycle starting from 0, with no already established media, can take anywhere from like 30-45 days. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

It really comes down to, in my opinion, do you wanna do a bunch of testing and water changes (fish in)? Or do you wanna just be patient and wait, and not do a bunch of water changes (fishless)? Sounds like you’ve already ordered the fish and have them on the way? If thats the case, and your tank isn’t cycled, sounds like you’re in for a fish in cycle.

@nabokovfan87 is usually pretty helpful when it comes to canisters/impellers/parts/etc.

What up what up? Kept it pretty simple this week. Just water changed everything and added a bit of Indian Almond Leaves here and there. Black Neons have made it through their final round of dewormer. 2 weeks and they’ll be added to the display tank. I’ve been adding some IAL’s to their QT tank to get them ready for the display. Stoked to have them in there soon! Really not a whole lot to report. Tomorrow I need to swap the CO2 tank so that’s ready when the final create-your-own tank is empty. Once that’s set up we should be on auto pilot for a hot minute. Here’s some pictures I took today: Bristlenose kicked a clutch of eggs I didn’t even know they had. I’m thankful they kicked it as I don’t need any more Pleco’s. Boiled up 8 large IAL’s. Lotus Pods finally sank after a boil and like 2 weeks in the tank. Moved those bad boys front and center as I love the way they look. 29 Blackwater tank cruising right along. Stoked for the Black Neons to get in here. I’m going to take another picture tomorrow after the tannins from the leaves leech into the water more. It’s usually a pretty drastic transformation, to the eye at least. We’ll see how it shows up in the pics. Got my 2 year coin that now rides around in my pocket on the daily. Fun to have a new one! Cheers!

@Mmiller2001 putting us all to shame with his award winning aquascapes, lolol

I have some generic Marbled Angels, an all black female, and I’ve raised 100’s of Panda Angels. For me, they’re pretty chill when they’re not breeding. If a pair breeds in the display tank it becomes the thunderdome until I pull the spawn. Outside of that they’re pretty chill, but will definitely chase others away if they feel like it. Cichlids gonna cichlid!

I have (1) 36" light across (3) 10 gallon tanks, 2 of which are QT or grow out tanks depending on my needs. This light is on for 10 hours per day just like all my other lights. I do keep a gang of moss in those tanks.

Yup. The pump is either on, power save mode (on for 15 second, off for 15 seconds, on for 15 seconds, off for 15 seconds), or off. Battery will charge whenever plugged in. So, if it’s plugged in and off, it’s essentially “charge mode”.

Buy it and tell us what you think. It has become pretty obvious that nobody on the forum has experience with that specific tank. Everyone has shared their experiences and their thoughts, but that hasn’t seemed to satisfy what you were looking to gain. Pull the trigger and keep us in the loop!

It’s likely that you have way more beneficial bacteria in the actual tank, than in the inside of the filter. You can most likely just swap it out, feed lightly, and test often, and not have any issues at all.

I keep mine cycled in between new fish or hatching/raising up fry by leaving the tank running, leaving some ramshorn snails in there, and then feeding the ramshorn snails a couple of times per week.

The cost of the aquarium is nothing compared to the cost in damages, time, and materials to replace things when 124 gallons of water are on your floor. I would never buy that tank, and I have plenty of secondhand tanks bought used lol.

If they’re the Coop root tabs you should be fine. They’re just a capsule with dirt and other minerals. Shouldn’t be an issue whatsoever.

My advice would be to simply have a plan for what you do IF it becomes a problem. No need to worry about things that may, or may not, be a problem in the future. Be aware and have a plan that you can enact, of course, but don’t let the fear of the future hold you back from enjoying what’s happening in the present. It may never be a problem. If it becomes one, like @Tony s said, take the offender back to the LFS and trade it for a female.

Pictures of the tank could definitely help. I’ve always heard Cory say “1 or 3 or more”. You’re definitely in the more category where the aggression should be spread out throughout the group. Is your concern the male to female ratio? Too many fish for the tank in general? Is there aggression that is concerning you aside from the one chasing fish away from his nest? Are you having trouble keeping up with maintenance? I guess I’m trying to understand what is concerning you at the current moment.

Thanks, man. Birthday was back on Wednesday, but got the floating holiday from work today. Appreciate you! Again, appreciate it. I currently have 6 Kasa timers installed at home for the tanks. 3 on lights for multiple tanks (2 for the lights on the rack, and one for the bedroom tanks), 2 for CO2, and now the one for the filtration. I use a ton of them at work, too. For our open signs, neon signs, keg batch cocktail mixing pumps, etc. Started using them at home and then brought them to our restaurants for certain things. Such a good product.

Thanks. It’s a 55 gallon. Currently has 6 Angels (2 of which are some of the first fish I ever got about 4 years ago), 3 Dwarf Neon Rainbows, a handful of remaining Cardinal Tetras, and 15-18 Albino Cory’s that I hatched and raised up. Tank is about 4 years old, and the monster Sword on the left is the first aquatic plant I ever bought. All the other swords in that tank and all the other tanks came from that monster sword. I’ve even sent some to other people on the forum and now they’re raising up their own. Here’s the oldest picture I have of that tank:

I recently made some small upgrades to my tanks, and I’m super stoked with where they’re at. Literally just a couple stainless steel check valves and I’ll have everything where I want it. I’ve spent the last 4 years getting to this point, and it feels good. When I think about the future and things I want to do, it would require buying a home. When that happens I want: -Fish room in the basement for breeding. Breeding is super fun and I like the challenge, but I just don’t have the space to breed more than I already do. An unfinished basement could solve all of that, though! -Auto water change on that fish room would be incredible. In a perfect world, I would be able to collect some of that discard water for house plants and other plants. -I also want several larger display tanks around the house. I imagine a couple 75’s, and a couple 125’s. All with CO2 and more scaped than what I currently have. I enjoy my tanks, but I envision some more elaborate setups. Right now I have 14 tanks all on manual everything, so toning 14 tanks down to 4 or 5 would allow me to spend more time with each one. Auto water change on the fish room would help provide more time with these true display tanks, too. One day it’ll happen! Don’t forget to enjoy the things and tanks you have now while you pursue the tanks of your dreams!

Had a day off work for my birthday. Ran a couple of errands, did a couple of things, and tinkered with the tanks a bit. The airline connectors showed up so I got those installed. Now when I have to replace air lines it’s a small run instead of the whole line. I also changed the CO2 line in the Pea Puffer tank so it comes in, goes down the back corner, 90° towards the front, 90° a couple inches down, and then the diffuser. Now the airline doesn’t run diagonally across the side of the tank and is more hidden, as well as it’s all the way to the bottom of the tank for maximum amount of time in suspension before hitting the internal filter and being pushed down and across the tank. I also installed a Kasa timer that has the internal filter for the 20 long, the 107, and the internal pump in the Angel tank. So now when I feed I can turn them off all at once instead of unplugging them individually, and when it’s time to turn them back on I can do them all at once regardless of where I’m at in the house. Pretty cool. 5 lb CO2 tank showed up so I’ll get that swapped when the last of the citric acid CO2 is close to running out. Regulator is here too. So close to being fully upgraded. ACO package might come today, or it might not, lol. It says it’s out for delivery on the ACO site, but ups shows it’s delayed. All good. It’s just foods and dry goods. I just want my 2 year coin! A couple of pics of the Chili Rasboras looking rad: Caught a couple Green Neons, too. Looking forward to upping their numbers when I move either the Rice Fish or the Black Neons out of quarantine.

For sure. The flash makes it a little difficult. To me it looks more like 2ppm. I could totally be wrong, too. I always put the test tube on a paper towel to have a complete white background to try and see the color the best I can. And ya, no worries with the Sword! Give it a couple of years and they’ll be monsters and you’ll have more Swords than you know what to do with like this

Are you using the api master test kit? The difference between 2ppm and 5ppm is usually pretty distinct. I remove the leaves right at the base of the plant, close to the substrate. Those tall stems will just disintegrate into the water as well, so best to remove it as close to the substrate as you can. I marked up your picture to try to help and clarify: I’ve circled some of the emersed grown leaves. Those tall, round leaves. The sharp/pointy/narrow leaves growing out of the center are the underwater version. Then, there’s a mark on the right where I could cut it off. Obviously you want to be careful to not cut other healthy stems, but cut them down by the substrate.

What’s your nitrite at right now? Still playing the waiting game obviously, but remind us where you’re at? I would personally start to remove the dead and emersed leaves from your swords. The new leaves grow from the center, and look obviously different than the emersed grown leaves. They’re the taller, way more round, and dying leaves in the pictures. The smaller, pointy, and narrow leaves are the submerged ones. Getting rid of those emersed leaves at this point could help manually remove some algae and removing those decaying leaves will leave less organic compounds in the water which should help stave off current future algae. Cycling is a waiting game, and then balancing your tank after that is a continued tweak and wait game. It takes a long time, but man is it worth it when your tank is balanced and in a great spot.

-A 5 gallon shrimp tank could be rad. That small of a tank could probably support 100+ shrimp easily. If you have a LFS you could trade them back for store credit. I would start with 10. Shrimp also need an established tank to thrive, so keep that in mind -3 male endlers could work. With shrimp, too. They’d probably eat some of the shrimplets, so if you’re not really looking to have more shrimp some of the babies would be good live foods for the endlers. -Snails are beneficial, in my opinion. Nerites can’t breed in freshwater, so no risk of getting more. Could definitely plop a Nerite in there. The only downside is females will lay eggs (they can’t hatch in freshwater, but they can lay them). They look like sesame seeds and are super hard to remove. -Betta, as many others have said. When it comes to shrimp and Bettas it’s a gamble. Some destroy shrimp as snacks, others do not care. Every fish is different. Bettas and shrimp can get weird as shrimp will do better in an established tank that has algae for them to graze on all day long, and people say to add Bettas to a community tank last so they can’t establish territories as their own and harass others. So, you kind of need the Betta to establish and season the tank, but you kind of want your shrimp breeding and established in case the Betta sees them as expensive snacks. A bit of a catch-22.

Looks like a ramshorn snail to me.