AllFishNoBrakes

@Gannon have you ever had your RRF flower? I can get the tops of mine super red, directly under the light, but I’ve never seen them flower. Again, I apologize from detracting from your initial post, lol. My bad. Feeling kind of bad at this point.

Heard on the light sand. Definitely wasn’t thinking of that. I guess it makes sense if it’s covered with botanicals, but I definitely wasn’t thinking of a light colored sand. The tank currently has black sand. I was for sure planning on replacing that, but I wasn’t thinking of anything light colored

@Gannon Dope. A 125 would be super fun and has so many possibilities. I’m kinda surprised it’s red root floaters! They only do well for me in one of my tanks I’ve tried them in. They’re just super finicky for me and only do well with like no flow.

@Gannon Rad! My only real “jumping” fish are my hatchetfish. When I feed that tank in the morning before work I’m always super paranoid about them jumping out. These guys, and my female betta that jumped out the tiniest hole of the lid on Thanksgiving 2021… Jumping fish, man… What size tank do you keep them in if you don’t mind me asking? Also, what floating plants do you use with them?

@Scapexghost Nice! What are you using to tint the water? From the pics it looks like you don’t have a ton of leaf litter/other botanicals but your water is super dark. Also, what are the plants growing emersed from the top of the tank?

@Gannon Chalk that one up to “fish are gonna fish sometimes”. Do you keep your water level low for them? Do you have a lot of floating plants as cover or anything? Have you ever seen/trained them to spit water at things to knock down and eat?! Archers have always piqued my interest but I don’t believe I have a tank big enough for them. Sorry to derail this post from the current issue you have with them; simply super curious as to what you’ve seen/observed with them.

@Gannon Heard that. I’ve never kept either the Archers or the Barbs, but it seems to be just “what fish do sometimes”. When I’m pulling out Angels from my grow out tank to trade/sell (that also has Platy’s that colony breed in there) some Angels almost willingly go in the net while the last couple seem to be super spooked and I have to chase them around to get them. Even fish raised from the same spawn seem to react differently to “scary” things.

@Gannon I wish I was more help! Hopefully those IAL’s/Maracyn are all you need to ensure nothing gets infected and creates a bigger problem. If I was in your situation that’s what I’d be doing, too.

@Gannon Any chance they’ve scraped/injured themselves on the wood in the most recent picture? Don’t get me wrong, I love the hard scape in my tanks but from the pictures you’ve provided that’s the only thing I currently see. If the stone is all low in the tank, then maybe it’s the wood? Quarantine tanks for bigger fish can definitely be an issue. Any chance of moving your plants and everything that could be harmed by salt into a quarantine tank instead of the fish? Simply trying to think of anything possible to help the fish. It’s entirely possible everything will heal up on its own without any intervention; just trying to think outside the box in case things get any worse.

What up fish fam?! So, recently my girlfriend has decided she wants her own tank to play with. We’ve agreed that she will have her own 10 gallon tank with blue neo shrimp. We’ve come to the decision that she will be 100% responsible for her tank, the plants, the livestock, etc as I already have 13-15 tanks to take care of. I’m happy to provide her something to play with and I’m super stoked that 3 years later she wants her own tank! Considering she will now have her own shrimp tank, I’m HEAVILY considering turning my 20 long invertebrate tank into a blackwater/botanical style aquarium. I’m fascinated with the blackwater ecosystem in general, and playing with something new is always exciting. Currently the tank has a small ACO sponge filter and plants. I’m happy to add a heater, but don’t really want to change the filtration and for a botanical style aquarium what that tank currently has seems to fit the bill. I imagine a ton of leaf litter, pods, cholla wood, and other tannin-rich hard scape. I have some Spider Wood that I already love, and have store credit at a LFS to continue to pack the tank full. I imagine maybe some new lighting (maybe 2 pendant lights/gooseneck lights, one for each side?!) and some low light plants like some Anubius that would do well in a blackwater set up (low light) and typically do well in my water. I already have low pH/soft water here in CO so I’m not worried about taking things further with botanicals. While this addition of a tank for her and a “new” tank for me is months away, one of my favorite parts of this hobby is planning a tank. I’m currently thinking of a handful of Sparkling Gourami’s, maybe 15-20 Chili Rasboras, shrimp, and snails for my blackwater tank. Sounds super fun, accomplishes keeping a couple new species, and has the potential to breed some new species which is always exciting for me. I’d love to see your blackwater tanks and hear your experiences/trials/tribulations/tips/tricks with this style of aquarium! Show me what you got!

@Gannon FWIW, my female Bristlenose had a weird white cyst on her face. I was definitely planning on treating with Maracyn, but @Colu chimed in and advised a small dose of aquarium salt and Indian Almond Leaves. I decided to give it a try and save Maracyn as a back up, and the salt and IAL’s did the trick. Moved her back to the tank with the male and a week or two later I had a spawn! I’m lucky in that I haven’t dealt with a ton of disease and curing of diseases, but @Colu is all over the disease section of the forum and seems to know what they’re talking about. From my non-expertise view I guess the only thing that I see is that now 2 fish have issues. Is there any hard scape they could be scraping themselves on when spooked? Not trying to frighten you or create a panic, but 2 fish having the same issue leads me to believe there may be either A) 2 separate fish injured themselves on potentially the same object or objects or B) there could be something going on in the ecosystem that has impacted multiple fish. Any thoughts, @Colu?

To me it just looks like a frozen bloodworm Probably just got pulled in by your filter

I would answer your question with a question and that is; is algae a normal occurring thing in nature? Algae is a natural thing that happens. It’s an organism that eats nitrates and helps create food sources. I get it, algae is unsightly and feels like something we should get rid of, but is a great sign your tank/outdoor pond is active and working.

To me, it feels like you’re doing everything to accomplish 1 thing. Slow down, and enjoy the process. You state that the tank has been set up for 2 weeks. That’s a blip on the timeline that I hope is a long-lasting, well-tenured, many-years-to-come tank. I personally haven’t bought into the “your tank should be able to handle X amount of ammonia per day” nonsense. It sounds like you’ve added plenty of ammonia via ghost feeding your tank. Let your tank digest that! Think about it this way: you need bacteria A to covert ammonia to nitrite. Cool, your ammonia now has converted to nitrite. Now, bacteria B must establish to be able to convert nitrite to nitrate. You can’t grow a bacteria colony without providing its food source. These separate bacteria colonies take time to establish. Time is your friend! The “cycling” process takes many weeks if not months to to establish as you need A to covert ammonia to nitrite, and then you need B to convert nitrite to nitrate. Assuming your tank will be set up for many years to come, 8 weeks is a blip on the timeline. Slow down, keep it simple, focus on one step at a time and enjoy the process. Years from now you’ll look back on this time as something you rushed that you should’ve savored. Just like life, tanks are one step at a time; one foot in front of the other. P.S. shout out to Cory for jumping in on this one! Pretty rad that your first post caught the attention of the man himself!

Hey @SRBetta. Welcome to the forum! I’m not sure I can answer every detail of every question you’ve posed, but I’m happy to share what I do and what works for me. 1. To the best of my knowledge, and with my own “fish room science” nitrates do not revert back to ammonia. The “cycle” goes ammonia (from fish waste), converts to nitrite, then converts to nitrate. Once at the nitrate stage, it doesn’t then convert back to ammonia. Ammonia will continue to be “present” as you feed your fish and they create waste, but once your tank is “cycled” you shouldn’t see ammonia because the BB immediately converts ammonia to nitrite, and then nitrite to nitrate. -Nitrates can be consumed by plants and are also taken out with water changes. 2. The trio is very straightforward in my experience. I buy fish, they go into a 10 gallon quarantine tank, and in goes the qt trio. I don’t feed the fish for 3 or 4 days and then feed very little. After a week, I do a 50% water change and continue to keep the fish in the quarantine tank and observe. I quarantine fish for 4-6 weeks with a week of meds and then 3-5 weeks of continued observation. At this point, I have too much time invested into my 13 tanks to risk a new fish moving too fast to take down an entire ecosystem. 3. I used to use Prime, but then it got too expensive and I switched to Complete. I’ve never had an issue using either of these water conditioners and then the qt trio. -I’ve dealt with ich a couple of times over my few years in the hobby, and my personal experience is that aquarium salt works better than ich-x when it comes to treating an active ich infection. I like ich-x as a prophylactic as part of the trio, but if I actively have ich I’m using aquarium salt and heat to beat those little parasites. 4. In the 3 years I’ve been playing with my 13 tanks I’ve never used Expel-P until last week when one of my breeding angelfish showed that they had Camallanus Red Worms. Expel-P has had some good results, with one more treatment to go this week, but I’ve only used it for this active infection and don’t plan on using it in the future as part of a qt process. I’m more worried about internal parasites and that’s what Paracleanse is for. -Planaria, assuming you actually have it, should really just be fish food and is part of your ecosystem. Do as you wish, but I wouldn’t panic about it. 5. Don’t overthink these things! It’s super easy to get overwhelmed and bogged down with all the information available to us, but try to keep it simple. Make sure your tank can “cycle” ammonia so it’s safe for fish. If you want to use the qt trio I suggest a separate tank. Quarantine your fish in the qt tank, and once you feel comfortable move them to the display tank. Feed lightly at first, and increase slowly over time. Remember that a “cycled” tank is not a “seasoned” tank. If your goal is to create an ecosystem that takes time! Take things one step at a time, forgive yourself for any mistakes you make along the way and see them as learning opportunities, experiment with things until you find what you like and what works for you, and don’t forget to have fun!

Repashy should be fine. Same with fine crushed flake. Baby brine shrimp (frozen is fine if you don’t hatch it yourself). They’ll be able to take the nano pellets in no time.

A couple years back I bought a rack (maybe Husky brand?) from SAMs Club that stated each level could hold 2,500 lbs, with the whole rack being rated for 10,000 lbs. I have a 55 gallon on the top level 😬with a 20 high. 20 long and a 29 on the mid level. (3) 10 gallon quarantine/grow out tanks plus my buckets and Python on the bottom. I think it cost me $120 or $150 and has been worth every penny for me. No issues whatsoever about 2.5 years later.

@TeeJay My personal experience with them is they’ve been pretty easy. I definitely don’t do the most with several different live food cultures and other things people might tell you is absolutely necessary. I was definitely hesitant to try them at first, but they’ve done well for me. Hit me up with a message if you wanna chat further about them!

@NanotankBank It’s one of my favorite tanks. The Pea Puffers are super fun, and I took the knowledge from my previous tanks and put it towards this one. I’m glad I set this one up in my bedroom

My last order had a sticker, too. I racked up quite the collection when it was as numbered system, so this new sticker was a duplicate, but it was a nice little touch to my most recent order.

I keep 6 in my 29 without a single issue. There’s also 2 male Platy’s that were born in that tank and I couldn’t get them out as fry when I was moving in the Pea’s. I for sure thought there would be a Platy fry massacre, but they’ve all just grown up together without a single issue. I’ve often thought about making my group of 6 bigger, but don’t want to invite issues into something that has worked so well for so long.

@Patrick_G Nice. We went by the only LFS in our area that I can find the small Hikari bloodworms at today, and they had some wild Altums that were rad. One day I’ll have a tank big enough for those guys.

@Patrick_G They’re super fun if you ask me! Any idea what kind of Angel you’re thinking about getting?

These Pandas just don’t stop, lol. I had the lights off for 24 hours as the tank was treated with Expel-P, specifically because the female Panda is the fish with Camallanus Red Worm. Turned the lights back on to see this: Didn’t save any of this spawn as the tank is being treated and I’m still growing out the current batch of Panda Angels. Snails are out of control on this side of the tank from feeding up the Pleco’s. All good though, they’re just Pea Puffer food. I’m to the point where I can start regularly harvesting them for Pea Puffer dinner. I just gotta stop being lazy and actually do it, lol.

You can disinfect with hydrogen peroxide or bleach, with hydrogen peroxide being the safer alternative.