Saly

Yeah I've been reading up on the buffers and you're right, I think I actually need the alkaline buffer, the carbonate based one. Since I'm trying to raise my KH to stabilize my pH a bit, I was actually thinking of using some crushed coral in my filter. Id go slowly because I'm only trying to raise it a little bit. I figured I'd try to go the natural route. Thoughts? Id still be using equilibrium for the gh. As far as bba goes,I don't think it's bba as it doesn't look anything like the video posted in earlier comment. In a reply to Lennie, I posted photos of what came off the leaves when I rubbed them. I just did a 50% water change. You mentioned I could do a 30-50% water change everyday or every other day. A 50% water change EVERYDAY wouldnt stress the livestock out? It's not too much too often? And should I be doing water changes AND using the phosphguard?

Hi Lennie, I forgot to mention in my original post that my tank is 6 months old so I would expect the leaving to stabilize by now. I went ahead and did a 50% water change and while at it, I scrubbed the leaves. It comes off pretty easily like diatoms. It looks like it's the same things on the rocks. It doesn't look at anything like the video so I don't think it's bba. Ive attached a photo of what came off when scrubbed.

Hi everyone, Im hoping to get some help diagnosing what may be adding with my plants as well as seeking advice on what I should do. This so be long so thank you in advance for reading. So my plants in my tank are turning black. They were gradually turning black and I decided to test my water parameters. Turns out I have really high phosphates. Using the API test kit, it was way past the last color block (10ppm). I did a 50% water change and the phosphates measured 5-10ppm. The color was a bit darker than 5 but not quite 10ppm. I found out a few weeks ago that I had only 5ppm of nitrates and so I dosed it with easy green fertilizer to get it up to 10-20ppm of nitrates. This morning, I go to dose but instead I use seachem flourish nitrogen at 1 cap full. I wanted to be conservative. Seachem web calculator said I should use 5 caps to get up from 5ppm to 15ppm. I also dosed flourish per bottle instructions. I tested my nitrates 30 minutes later and it was 10-20ppm. Well now I come home and my plants seem darker. Like some of the leaves are black. Not sure if it's from the seachem products or of it's because my phosphates are so high. They've been high for a week now. I just got my phosphates test kit (API) so I was just recently able to test it. I went to my lfs and was told to just fix the nutrients and the phosphates should decrease eventually and it won't harm my plants or fish. I didn't need to remove the phosphates chemically (seachem phosguard). I'm also using neutral regulator, which I recently learned had phosphates. I was told to dose it when each time mg ph dropped so ive dosed it 3 times this week. My KH is a bit low (3 deg) and I have aquasoil so it is pulling my ph down. I'm also running CO2 (diy) with a drop checker. Although i don't think I'm injecting enough. It's green not but within the 2 hours. Its so a darker green not a lime green at 2 hours. Thoughts on my plants turning black and what i should do with the whole phosphates situation. My water parameters and supplemental info are below both the tank and my tap: pictures of blackened leaves are attached as well: the last photo where everything seems not a bad was taken yesterday evening.: Tank size : 10 gal , Soil: ada Amazonia, Light: twinstar light II 450c (on for 7 hours total : 3 hours on, off for 7, on for 4.) tank parameters as of tonight (Seattle): Ammonia & nitrates : 0ppm Nitrates: 5ppm Ph : 6.4 Kh: 3 Gh:5 (also using equilibrium) Phos: 5-10ppm (color is somewhere between those 2) Tap water parameters: Ph: 7.2 Kh: 4 Gh: 2 Phos: 0 Livestock : 1 Betta, 3 amano shrimp. They seem fine. Plants: carpeting grass, java Fern, anubias, tiger liies, vals, Amazon swords, and a couple others that Im not too sure of. If you made it this far, thanks again!!

Oh definitely. This is his temp tank since the other planned tank I have is so cycling. I have some sivinias and water lettuce, although I'm going to take out the water lettuce when I put him in there since I read that it's actually a dangerous plant for them. I'm looking into getting some frogbit too though. Oh that's good. I'm new to the hobby and when I heard of fin rot, I started to get paranoid haha. Could the clear tips of the tail also mean that it's growing?

Thank you! I'll sit tight and just monitor him then. I get paranoid haha.

Hello, This is gingerbread. I'm not sure if he's in the early stages of fin rot or not. The tips of his tail have gotten a little clear and jagged and I don't remember it being like that when I got him. Also a coyote if days ago I saw fogg or something like that on one of his eyes. Google said it could be due to a scratch from a tank decoration. You can kind of see it in the picture. Other eye looks normal and black. Any thoughts on the fin and eye? It's not that great of a picture of the tail. He's camera shy. Thanks in advance for the help!

Hmm ok. I'm on the right track. I have a sponge filter with an air stone and my temp is about 79degf. I'll probably end up doing a water change just to raise my ph a bit. That's reassuring. I'll probably brush the diatomes off of the leaves and end up doing a partial water change to up my ph back to at least 6.5.

Oh ok. So I need to do anything to help it along? I'm guessing I should brush it off of my plant leaves though right? So that it doesn't suffocate it? And with my ph at 6.0, is that a problem for the cycling process? Will that stall it?

Hi again! Is this algae in my tank? My tank is 15 days old. A planted tank using ada Amazonia aquasoil. Parameters are 4ppm ammonia, 0.5 ppm nitrite, and 40-80ppm nitrate. This fuzz is all over my decorations, some plants, and part of my filter. My ph dropped from 6.6 to 6.0. I tested my tap water and it was 7.2. I'm guessing it's the soil and ammonia that dropped my ph? Will the cycling process stall at a pH of 6? I've seen online yes and no. Also, should I be removing the "algae?" Ive also been told to just let the tank cycle and don't touch it. Meaning no water changes or anything. I have a bunch of mulm (?) In my plants ans in my tank too. I've been brushing them off. Thoughts?

The tank is 10 gallons. I was planning on adding some khuli loaches. Would that work?

It shouldn't be rotting fish food because there's no fish in it. I'm going to add my betta in there when the tank is cycled. Should I clean the filter? Shouldn't the filter suck all that up?

Hello, I have a planted tank (my first ever tank) that's currently cycling. The tank is just shy of 2 weeks old. I'm seeing this brown debris on my plants. Its more visible on some plants more than others but it's on all my plants. When disturbed, it ends up floating all around my tank. I have a sponge filter. Could it be clogged? There also seems to be little spider web/fuzz like things on my plants. What is it and what do I do? Any help is definitely appreciated.

Hahah, yeah that octopus decoration belongs to my oldest and he loves it. So the anubias is glued onto the rock and not planted. I accidentally opened my java Fern and it wasn't doing so hot but I pulled it out and just let it float. Hopefully it'll heal itself. I think in starting to see new growth from my melting Vals. The leaves there are starting to look more green! Thank you all for your help! My tank is cycling and now it's a waiting game. I moved my beta to another tank while this main one is cycling. I'm starting to see what I believe is new growth. There are val blades that are super green so I'm pretty sure that's new growth! Super excited to see something happening!

Hello everyone! Y'all are so awesome. So Im doing my water changes. My nitrites showed up so keeping an eye on that and water changing. I do notice that my vallisnerias are not doing so well. They look like they're dying. And they have this fuzz on them. Only the vallisnerias though. Any thoughts? Im about ready to take the fish out and just let the tank cycle and stop messing with it.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for the help! Sorry for the delayed reply. A lot has happened since I posted. Welp, I put him into my 10 gallon tank because my heater was failing and it heated up my water to 91degrees by the time I noticed! My poor fish. He's seems fine now. Much happier in the 10 gallon. I'm checking my water parameters everyday. The day after I set up my tank, so Monday, my parameters were 3-4 ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5ppm nitrates. Tested my tap and 0 nitrates. Before putting my betta in, I dosed the tank with 4x prime to detoxify the 4ppm ammonia. I continued with the seachem stability per the bottle instructions. Today I checked the parameters and the ammonia is still still the same (3-4 ppm), 0 nitrites, and 10 nitrates. I contacted an aquarium store and they said the 4ppm ammonia is from the substrate. As of now, my fish looks happy. He likes the plants. So now I have another issue. Trying to figure out if it's my heater or the placement. I have a sponge filter right in the middle of my tank. When initially setting up my tank, we forgot about the filter so we placed it were it would fit, which was the center of the towards the background. Well, the heater, an Oase 50w adjustable heater, was set to 79.5 deg f. Well, after we hours, it only got my tank up to 77.5. degrees. Im using a digital thermometer. I put a meat thermometer next to the digital and it reads pretty close to it to. The placement of the heater is behind the sponge filter laying horizontally on the soil. I turned the heater up to 80.5 but it only heated my water to 77.7 deg. It's current set to 82 and I have my thermometer right next to it to measure the temp of the surrounding water (77.9 degf). Does my heater need to be off the soil or is it ok laying directly on the soil? Is it my water flow? Is it just terribly calibrated? Is it going bad? I've attached some pictures for reference.