DaniV

FRY HAVE BEEN SPOTTED! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Last night, Mom, Dad, and I were just checking out and talking about this tank and dad makes a comment on how the female swordtail looks pregnant. As we continued talking, we spotted a baby against the black gravel and cheered! At first I was panicking because I am quarantining Neon Tetras at the moment, so that was out of the question. But fortunately the shrimp tank I made (and have yet to start a journal for) had finished cycling literally a day ago. I took the chance and placed the baby in the tank. Dad said to take a look in the filter for any stragglers, and sure enough, roughly 6 more that were still alive! I placed them all in the tank, and just now I found another one that was in the tank, and moved them just to be safe. All of the fry are swimming around, hiding amongst the java moss I've got in there. I've been grinding up some flake food, gonna go to the good LFS for more fry-appropriate food. I'm so excited! I have no idea which fish these babies are, as I have both Dalmatian Mollies and Sword Tails in the tank, so it's one or the other. The babies are pale, and I assume the color develops as they grow. Here's hoping these babies live and grow up strong!

Been a few months, but update time! Some of the plants ultimately crapped out on me: Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Tiger Lotus Bulb, and the Rosette Sword. Planted a Brazilian Pennywort for the back and ordered 2 new Tiger bulbs. I'm not sure if it's because of the dark water from the tannins, but I have lost more plants in this tank than in my 20 gallon. For comparison, I've started another 10 gallon tank (that will soon be a shrimp tank) with no almond leaves in it, had some of those plants melt, but they seem to be on the road to recovery now. In the meantime, I've got 10 more Neon Tetras in quarantine, and I added 3 Otocinclus in the display tank. There's tons of diatoms in there, so hopefully they'll be happy. Once the Neons are done with QT, then I should be good on fish stocking in this tank for some time. Here's hoping!

My 20 gallon is a tall hex tank, so I tried to play a little with height. I've got Amazon Swords to fill in the back, and they come close to halfway up the tank. Then I have smaller plants like Anubias, Crypts, Pogo Octopus, a Marimo Moss Ball, and Rosette Swords to fill out some of the empty space around the rocks and big piece of driftwood I have in there. Later I added some Water Sprite to help with algae, and it's been doing pretty well. Lastly, a Dwarf Aquarium Lily that shoots up little pads, probably the most unique plant I have in the tank. Granted, I've had to cut some pads in order to keep it from covering the light too much, but new pads grow within a week, so as long as I stay on top of it, it should be good. Can't wait to see how it all comes together!

I used to have Scarlet Temple in my 20 gallon hex tank, and it was BEAUTIFUL for a while, but after a few months the red colors started to fade and it eventually came out of the ground so I decided to say goodbye to it. Granted, I don't use Co2 in my tanks, so maybe that caused its downfall? Meanwhile, I've got a Dwarf Aquarium Lilly in there now that WILL NOT QUIT! Seriously, every time I trim back some of the pads, new ones shoot up within days. Despite that, I adore it to pieces. The bottoms of the pads are red, while the tops are green with red spots.

If it works, it works! And the map and figures look great! Glad to hear you're enjoying the game! It's very easy to get lost in a story or a battle and not realize that hours have gone by.

I tried weighing my banana plant down with a rock, but it would eventually wiggle its way out. I eventually said "Enough of this!" and ordered some plant weights. They're relatively cheap, and they work! Only thing I've used super glue for was Anubias and Java Fern.

This was a lot of fun! Hope to see this come back next year!

I've seen tufts of black hair algae in some tanks at a LFS (growing off of sponge filters), and not gonna lie, it looks kinda cool. Unfortunately the kind of algae I was getting before I got timers set up was stuff like staghorn. That was more than enough to deter me from trying to harbor some of the cool algae.

I test my water every week, and I do about 25% every 2 weeks, if not every week. My nitrates are usually low, I've never seen them go above .5, but better to be safe than sorry!

Thank you @Colu! I ordered some Kanaplex, but in the meantime I dosed with regular Maracyn since I have that for the Med Trio. Gonna be keeping my eye on the rest of the tank to make sure it hasn't passed on to the community.

Came home from work, went to feed the fish, and I see one of my mollies has white flakes all over his face. These are Dalmatian Mollies, and they've been going from white with black speckles to nearly completely black over the months. None of the other fish have this, and this looks different from common Ich. He swims around without issue, ate normally, but just to be safe I put his butt in quarantine. Anyone have any idea what it could be and how to treat it? I tried getting pics, but as usual he didn't wanna cooperate. Here are the water parameters: pH: 7.5 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5 Temp: 79

I actually tried growing Water Sprite in the substrate when I was starting my Betta tank, and it just melted and died on me. I figured "what a waste!" and didn't bother getting a new one. But when I had algae issues in my 20 gallon, several others here recommended using it as a floating plant and I decided to give it another shot. Best decision! I've noticed root growth, the plant isn't dying at all, and between that and the Dwarf Aquarium Lily leaves, I've got some good coverage and haven't had nearly as much algae show up! I also see whenever my Corys swim up for air, they love playing or relaxing in it.

I would choose: Hikari Vibra Bites: I use these to target my bottom dwellers, but all of my fish really seem to love them. Topfin Tropical Flakes: I noticed that these didn't cloud my water nearly as much if I accidentally sprinkled in too much compared to other flakes. Hikari Micro Pellets: These would be for my Betta tank, since it has 5 Neon Tetras and a Betta. The Neons can't eat the big boy pellets, so I'd have to use these to keep them fed and happy.

When I first got mine, I would see them all over the place. One hour they'd be on the rocks, next they're on the glass, then they're on the driftwood. Nowadays, I occasionally see them, and they're usually on the driftwood. I have to actively look for them and make sure they're OK. I have a few white dots sprinkled on the driftwood now, but that's about it.

We all gotta start somewhere, be it a DM or a player, so if you wanna play a character while DMing, I don't see the harm in it since you're starting out. Just bear in mind, when you are the DM, you don't just get to play 1 character. The random townspeople, shopkeepers, enemies, that's all you baby! You get to be ALL the characters! I've never tried a single player game, but there's gotta be some you can find online. The beautiful thing about D&D is that people can play around with the rules and come up with all kinds of crazy stuff to make fun games! People have made campaigns and one-shots (where you do the entire adventure in 1 sitting rather than dragging it out over several games) and shared them online for people to try. There's a bunch of Youtubers that make D&D content just focusing on understanding the rules, classes, etc. XP to Level 3, Dungeon Dudes, DnD Shorts, Davvy Chappy, the list goes on!

Quarantine time is up for the Neon Tetras and I've just added them to the tank! They're all sticking close to each other, and Marth seems to be scoping them out. He'd give a little chase, then swim around to another area of the tank. I'm not seeing any nipping or flaring going on, so I hope it's just everyone adjusting. Marth has had this tank to himself for a while and I hope he's OK with having some friends. If not, I'll have to fish the Tetras out and put them in the 20 gallon where I know they'll be fine case everyone there is pretty chill. The Tetras were a pain to chase down in the tub, so I hope I don't have to chase them down in a planted tank. I also decided to just get rid of the dwarf hair grass cause it was not staying in the gravel, and replaced it with some Dwarf Chain Swords. One of the plants completely melted, and the other isn't looking too good. I am just not having any luck with any kind of carpeting plants. So I just bought a few more Marimo Moss Balls and plopped them across the gravel.

Ultimately I think it depends on the size of the tank. You can easily run off of nothing but sponge filters, but I've seen vids of people running multiple sponge filters to cover a larger tank. I bought starter kits for my first tanks and those came with HOB filters, but when I started quarantining I bought a sponge filter and let it sit in my 20 gallon to get some of that good beneficial bacteria before I put it in the quarantine tub.

I initially bought 1 a few months ago, ended up being a dud, replaced it with a new one that already had the plant pushing through and it's thrived since! It slowly started growing base leaves and just kinda sat there for a little bit, probably adjusting or something. Been giving steady doses of Easy Green and started planting root tabs last week. Since then, it shot up a lily that's now hit the surface of my tank with another one coming up behind it. It's a trip watching this bloom and come into its own! The bulb back when I got it a few months ago... ...compared to now!

Hope these make you feel better! 20 gallon, full of Mollies, Swordtails, Harlequin Rasboras, Nerite Snails, Bristlenose Plecos, and Peppered Corydoras. First tank, had it for a few months, and man have I made some mistakes, mostly concerning algae control. But it's come a long way! 10 gallon, right now just housing a betta but I'm hoping to give him a community. Fortunately I haven't had too many issues other than trying to keep plants in the substrate. I recently removed dwarf hair grass cause it wasn't doing anything (and kept floating up), and replaced it with dwarf chain sword. The banana plant has taken off, but it doesn't wanna stay put so I've got a rock holding it down.

If you're going for a fishless cycle, get Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride Solution. It's liquid ammonia, which is what you need to kickstart the cycle. Without the ammonia, the beneficial bacteria will have nothing to feed off of. When I set up my 10 gallon tank, I gave the fishless cycle a try, and it's pretty straight forward. I ordered it off Amazon, then followed this step-by-step guide, and the tank was cycled in roughly 3-4 weeks! Just be very mindful, it is pure ammonia, so wear gloves when using it! EDIT - I think you can also achieve this by adding fish food and just letting it rot in the tank. Never tried that method though, but maybe someone here has?

Pretty much the same for me. But that's OK! The way I see it, we have years of fishkeeping ahead of us to try out all different kinds for the next Marimo Madness.

Good news! The swelling has gone done tremendously! It's still slightly raised, but you couldn't tell from a distance that something was wrong. And he's swimming around with the rest of the crew again! Hallelujah aquarium salt!

I typically do my tank maintenance on Saturdays, though I'm usually changing about 25%, so I can take a little more out this weekend. I added a little bit of Aquarium Salt to the tank before I went out today. I only added about 2 tsp cause I have Nerite Snails and I don't wanna end up killing them. Already I can see some of the puffiness has started to go down, very slightly but I'll take it!

As I was dosing my 20 gallon tank with Easy Green today, I happened to notice that one of my Swordtails' eyes has bulged out. The scales around it are pale in color, but they're still swimming around OK. I've only got 1 quarantine tub and it's currently housing 5 Neon Tetras going through the Med Trio process. I'm not sure if it's indeed Popeye, or the result of some kind of injury that took place, and how to properly treat the poor thing. Would it be possible to put the Swordtail with the Tetras to treat since they'd all be exposed to the same medicine, or will that screw up the quarantining process for the Tetras? Here are the tank specs: pH: 7.5 Nitrates: 5 Hardness: 214 (12 drops) Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 KH/Buffer: 107 (6 drops) Water Temperature: 79 And here are pics for reference:

OK, so good news and bad news. Good news is, the Staghorn on the Anubias is damn near completely gone! I've also seen some of the fish pecking around in the Water Sprite, even the Corys I've caught just swimming around in it. The bad news is that it looks like it may have spread to other plants. I guess to tackle this, I'll have to pump the Easy Carbon directly into the water itself. I also went and got a timer to control the lighting. Normally I turn on the lights before I go to work and turn them off once I'm home and have had dinner, which is often 12 hours. A lot, I know. I've set the timer to turn on at 8am, off at noon, back on at 3pm, back off at 8pm for the night, so about 9 hours. Here's hoping all these extra steps help out!