Brenden Mitchell

Thanks, it's a 10 gallon shrimp tank/quarantine tank. I just let it grow wild for the shrimp. The kuhli's seem to enjoy it, but I'll move them to a bigger tank after a while. They seem healthy, no illness I can detect.

They are awesome.

Thanks a lot. I have never shown this tank to anyone except some family and friends and none of them are hobbyists. It's nice to hear that other people enjoy it. I have a sponge filter in the back left corner. It's hidden behind the roots of some water lettuce, elodea, and the wood. But if you could look from above there is actually a lot of room back there. The pothos that's on top of the tank has grown its roots into the sponge filter, which I thought was pretty neat.

It could be the wood. I have been assuming it must be a bacterial bloom of some kind.

August 1, 2022 I had no idea what I wanted to do with this tank in the beginning, I placed fluval stratum underneath fluorite gravel and threw some plants in. September 22, 2022 The plants didn't grow very much in the first two months, I bought lots more and added a tree root that I found in a lake. I ended up hating the look of the fluorite gravel and I poured more fluval stratum on top. I'm more of a dirty mulm kind of guy, I don't like the clean look that much. Expensive mistake buying fancy gravel... March 22, 2023 After I added the top layer of fluval stratum the plants started to grow much better, the dwarf hair grass eventually took off. I added in some crypts, the foremost is doing well. The other two in the middle and on the right side are slowly growing. Java fern and Pogostemon stellatus did not do well, I have finally removed the Pogostemon because it refused to grow, replacing it with Elodea, which I don't necessarily like but it grows super fast and generally looks decent. It fills in empty space well. I added pearl weed in the middle, which has just been trimmed. It was reaching the top of the tank before the trim. Anubias nana petite is attached to the wood, and it has been growing very, very slowly. There is also some type of grass that is doing excellent, dwarf chain sword? I bought it at a LFS and it was unlabeled. There is a slight cloudiness to the tank that has persisted, coming and going, for a couple months now. I change 1/3 of the water every two weeks or so. I fertilize with two pumps of Easy Green and one capful of API leaf zone every Sunday. I test water before water changes and I never have Ammonia, Nitrites, or Nitrates. I don't vacuum the substrate, but sometimes I stir it up when I'm changing water to suck up a little of the algae growing between the grass. My PH is something like 7.8-8.2 usually. The tank is unheated and usually fluctuates from 68-72° F. That's about all the details I've got. I have 10 white cloud minnows and a handful of wild type cherry shrimp which I culled from my 10 gallon cherry shrimp tank. I want to keep the good colors in the 10 gallon and put the rest in here. I'm feeling good about this tank, it's had a lot of ups and downs but I think it's finally getting pretty solid. I will probably not use aquarium substrate again. I think that fluval stratum is not really worth the money, nor are the gravels - at least not for my uses. They do look very nice, and for certain styles they can work well. However, I prefer organic potting soil and gravel/sand from creeks. I have noticed a distinct difference in this tank and my other two tanks which had soil. This tank took much longer to show plant growth, the growth is less intense, and it has had many ups and downs in health, whereas my dirted tanks have always remained stable. Anyway, thanks for checking out my tank. If you have any thoughts or questions let me know.

I have only found one seller that is as good as the co-op, it's the same exact price but the selections differ at times, I've never had issues with them or the co-op. So there are others out there, they are just hard to find. I like to buy from smaller sellers a lot, just because I like to support the smallest businesses that I can.

I am by no means experienced or very knowledgeable, but the two times I have moved my white clouds from their tanks I have immediately had large spawns of fry within 2-3 days. I believe that they eat their eggs/fry, and once you move all the parents away the fry grow and become visible. Last time I had fry I tested this assumption and recombined the adults and the fry and they were immediately eaten. I had heard that white clouds would not eat their fry, but in this case they did - very quickly.

I don't think its philosophically wrong to say that an animal who has expressed its full potential is happy. That's their entire life's goal after all: survive and reproduce. I doubt it feels like happiness, but I'm sure it's not a feeling of suffering.

If you are undecided on a major, I am always trying to recruit people into Biology. I'm currently in a Conservation Ecology program and it's very, very cool. I never hated college but I went through a few different major and I never felt like I was in the right place. When I switched to Biology it immediately felt right. At my school, most of the upper level Biology classes are in the field, so I actually spend most of my classroom time outside learning things at national/state forests, conservation sites, etc. I am learning a lot and it's just made me love plants, animals, and nature even more.

It's my understanding that DOCs are microscopic, like the size of molecules. They are the basic compounds that organic materials break down into: "proteins, organic phosphates, and simple sugars" is what I just read. Specks of debris would be particulate organic carbon (POCs). Either way the bacterial bloom does look a lot like milk to me, and it has a sort of structure to it, like a web.

If you're only growing crypts then a stingray II would be too much light. You'd probably be fine with almost any cheap LED, and that would let you keep the lights on for a long time without the intensity growing lots of algae. The original Stingray has half the PAR of the Stingray II. But you could probably use something a little weaker than that as well. What keeps my tanks from growing a lot of algae is very fast growing stem plants, I use a lot of Elodea. It soaks up excess nutrients and you can see its growth day by day.

I used a Fluval 3.0 nano on a 10 gallon tank for a single month. It is pretty bright, so there is enough light to grow plants very well. The issue is that the footprint of the light is very small. I was only covering 1/3 of the 10 gallon tank with the Fluval nano. So only plants that were directly under the light were growing well. I eventually switched to a Finnex Stingray II, which has been doing great on my 10 gallon. I think the Fluval 3.0 nano is better suited for cube tanks, due to the footprint of the light. I previously used that light on a 4 gallon cube, and it worked very well.

@TheSwissAquarist Those are the gold variety of White Cloud Mountain Minnows. I think they're very beautiful. They are very fun to watch. The males are always chasing each other and flaring their fins. The females mostly just eat and stay really plump with eggs. I have one who is the definite "alpha" male, and he has gotten very deeply red around his fins and face.

7/9/2022 10/9/2022 I got inspired to go back and find the first picture I had taken of my tank. I forgot how it started! It's been more and more of a jungle ever since. I actually did a trim last night, and planted pieces of the Pogostemon stellatus floating in front. You can barely see it, but there's a Bacopa caroliniana in the back which I'm trying to let grow out. It has never been trimmed, but everything else around it is constantly being trimmed.

@PineSong They seem to be doing well, they've visibly grown in a short amount of time. I lost 1 of the 5. I watched it start flipping upside down then back upright. It did that for a while and then it stopped moving and sank to the bottom of the tank. It was a little traumatic to watch. They are very attracted to the light, which I figured out is the best way to feed them! I just turn off the lights and use a flashlight and they will come to it and I can drop the Hikari First Bites right on top of them.

I don't know if this counts as a disease but it sure feels like one. Does anyone know what this is? I have a video of it, these are screenshots from the video. It's very fast, and seems to stay on the substrate. I spooked it and it hid underneath the nearest object.

I didn't realize the balance of Ammonium vs. Ammonia aspect. That makes sense. I was under the impression that the plants themselves were converting the Ammonia to Ammonium inside their tissues. So as the plants take up Ammonium, this leaves more room for Ammonia to be converted to Ammonium in the environment? I found the section where she explains this in the book just now, I must have missed it on my first read through. Do you happen to know how deep of a substrate is suggested before anaerobic conditions start to occur? I have seen some tanks that have tons of gravel or sand. I saw a video just yesterday from Father Fish on YouTube, he had a tank which had at least 6" of sand with no soil at the bottom which had been undisturbed for 10 years. So I would assume you'd need more than that, or perhaps a soil with lots of mud or clay so that there was little to no circulation.

I've been keeping planted aquariums for about a year now. I initially got into the hobby because I love plants, and not until very recently have I started keeping fish. I am a biology student and have almost finished my bachelor's, so this is a huge interest in my life. The first tank I ever did was a dirt substrate tank, capped with gravel. This made inherent sense to me, because I was trying to grow aquatic plants exactly as they are in the wild. I had great success with the dirt tank, and eventually just let it grow wild and continued making newer tanks, with the idea of keeping fish in mind. Anyway, I currently have a 10 gallon tank with a dirt substrate, and it was an experiment. I was told that you can't use soils that are rich in organic fertilizers, because they are too "hot" and will never settle into a safe environment. I have found that to be false. Within a month the tank was completely stable and had no fluctuations in Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate. I had to purposeful dose fertilizer to get a Nitrate reading. I now have fish in there and even though I am feeding them plenty, my Nitrates are actually staying less than 20 ppm for the last two weeks and seem to be fairly stable at that point. I may end up having to do a water change every few weeks or so at this rate. All this to say, in Walstad's book Ecology of the Planted Aquarium she describes a unique relationship that is counter to what I see promoted by most people. Plants prefer Ammonia and Nitrite much more than Nitrate, because they must metabolize Nitrate back into Nitrite or Ammonia to use them. However, our nitrifying bacteria that we try to cultivate with our filters actively produce Nitrates as a waste product, due to them receiving energy from the conversion of Ammonia > Nitrites > Nitrates. This seem to mean that we have two forces which are counterproductive in our planted aquariums. We have plants and large colonies of nitrifying bacteria in a struggle for resources. This would then cause a build up of Nitrate, which we remove with water changes because the plants do not prefer it and are slow to consume it. Walstad also explains the process of how anaerobic bacteria can turn Nitrate back into Nitrite. Unless I'm missing something, this means that an excess of nitrates, produced by filters, unwanted by plants, is in danger of being converted back into nitrite, which would then be taken up by plants, converted by bacteria back into nitrate, or removed by water changes. This seems like a counterproductive loop. It actually seems like removing the filter would be better for the ecosystem. Is anyone else more knowledgeable about this? I find this incredibly fascinating.

I would move them to a smaller tank if I could, but I don't have any more setup right now. I think they're doing fine eating on their own. That tank is full of microorganisms and algae. Instead of stressing about swapping tanks and all of that, I'll try to feed them in the 20 gallon. If they get bigger, I'll probably switch the adult white clouds into the 20 long, and put the fry into the 10 gallon to raise them up. These are the adults in the 10 gallon:

A week and a half ago I tried to medicate a 20 gallon long tank with gold white clouds and it stressed my fish very badly. I moved them to a different tank for a while until I sorted out the 20 long. I did a nearly 100% water change, then left it alone. I have barely paid attention to it. Today I watched it for a long time and noticed 5 white cloud fry swimming in there. I was super excited and didn't expect that at all. They seem to be eating the tiny organisms, I can see them lunging at things and sucking specks out of the water. I'm going to get them some Hikari First Bites, just so I know they're eating and get a good chance to live. I tried crumbling up some flake food, but they didn't seem to want it. Anyway, even if they don't survive it's awesome to have them. They are super cute! These are my first fish ever, aside from some neon tetras when I was a child, so this is a really cool experience for me. The 20 long:

I have a tetra whisper 20 gallon. It's quiet, but it's not quiet enough for me. I have it stuffed in my closet with some clothes folded up on top of it. It's pretty much silent unless you're next to the closet door. The bubbles don't bother me so much, so I let the bubbles be louder than the air pump. However, I wish I could have it be completely silent, no bubbles or anything.

Wow you guys are really helpful. 😁 Thanks I really appreciate the insight. I will just water change out the medications and leave the tank alone until it returns to normal.

Will aquarium salt damage my plants? Thanks for feedback, I appreciate it. I think I will use the medications only if necessary. They did not show any signs of bacterial or fungal infections that I could recognize, so I felt the medications were purely preventative. If they are this stressful for my fish, I think I will use them slowly over time or only in response to an infection.

I am entirely new to keeping fish, but have been keeping planted tanks for over a year. I have a 20 gallon long which has been running and planted for 2 months and 3 weeks. It has a sponge filter. I bough 7 white cloud minnows and put them in the tank 7 days ago. I have been feeding once a day, a couple times twice a day. They gained some weight. I've monitored my nitrite and nitrates every day, nitrites have been 0 ppm and nitrates have been 10-20 ppm. I decided to give them the med trio as a precaution, since it was recommended. Before I gave the med trio my tank looked and acted perfectly fine. Two days after dosing the meds I have come home from work to a very cloudy tank. The fish were breathing heavily, constantly opening and closing mouths, swimming erratically, and going to the top of the tank and gasping for a bit, then going back down and swimming erratically. I tested for ammonia with a liquid test, which I bought just for this issue today. I have 0 ppm ammonia. I have moved the fish to my second tank, a planted 10 gallon w/ ghost shrimp. They are now acting themselves and seem very happy, hunting whatever microscopic critters are swimming around in there. The shrimp are terrified though. Anyway, I'm not sure what happened. I followed the Aquarium Co-op video for medicating with the trio to a dot. I double checked everything. After quick research, it seems like this same issue has happened to people before, using these same meds. My fish seem fine, but I'm concerned about the med trio and how intense it might be on a tank/fish. It seems to have really rocked my 20 long. Just for extra info, my tanks stay at 7.2ish ph. KH is 80-120. GH is 180ish. The hardness on my test strips always comes out wonky, but I know my water is pretty hard because it leaves calcium on everything. Right now the 20 long has some elevated Nitrite, it's at about 1-5 ppm - this is not normal. And the nitrates in the 20 long are 10-25 ppm. This is normal. Edit: Just in case it's relevant, my tanks are consistenly at 70-72 degrees F, I do not heat them. This is the cloudy 20 long. It was crystal clear just yesterday. ^ My fish are now happily in the 10 gallon, acting normal. 🙂 Anyone have any thoughts or experiences like this?