Terry M

I started a 29-gallon tank back in early December and have Cardinal Tetras and Harlequin Rasboras at the moment. I plan on adding some Otocinclus and/or a M/F pair of Dwarf Gouramis. Best of luck!

That's what I did for my lid. 2 pieces glass, with about 3/8" gap in the middle. Taped both sides. I added craft mesh to go around the filter, etc. to keep my(future) Nerite snails in. Oh, and I added a ring pull to pull it open.

Hi folks, I have a new tank, my first planted one. I have only been running it for 2 weeks. My water parameters are a very steady 7.4 pH, 4-5 KH, 8-9 GH. Ammonia and nitrate are 0, nitrate goes from about 5-10 to 40+. I wish I'd had time to do a water change today, but it's Christmas Eve and I have no time due to the holiday. I'll do that first thing Monday morning. Again, it's a new tank, so I expect that to stabilize in the (hopefully) near future. As you can see by the pics, I'm starting to develop what I believe to be green spot algae, brown diatoms and I believe I see some hair algae in there as well. I'm using a 24/7 programmable light and can't adjust the intensity on that one, so I'm going to switch to one with more customizable programs and decrease the time/intensity. There's no livestock in the tank at this point, but I would also like to get some algae eaters once it cycles. Any advice on what to get that would be suited to my water parameters? Thanks!

Thank you! It's not black diamond, just black sand from Petco (Imagitarium, I think) with a bottom layer of Eco-complete in the "terrace" behind the rocks. This is the first planted tank I've ever done and the first one since around 1989! Now that I'm retired, I can devote more time to it. Still learning a lot about water chemistry. I enjoy it.

These pics are of a Red Dwarf Aquarium Lily bulb that I got and placed in the tank last Friday (6 days ago). It's a brand new planted tank, still cycling, no fish. Just starting to see a bit of brown diatoms—other than that, no algae. The bulb still won't sink, so I figured I'd let it float until I could see any growth. So far however, all I see are these spots on the bottom that appear to be a milky type of slimy substance. Can anyone identify it and, if so, advise me on it? Is it algae, bacteria, fungus? Good, bad, indifferent? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, greetings from Connecticut. I just signed up for this forum. I've been following Cory on YouTube for quite a while now and feel that Aquarium Co-op is one of the most informative sites in the hobby that I've found so far—certainly for planted tanks This is actually my first attempt at a planted tank (29 gallon), done only a week ago. My goal is to have a community tank with small tetras, rasboras, otocinclus and perhaps a dwarf gourami or angelfish. I'm looking forward to seeing it progress and I'm sure I'll have many questions along the way.