Maeve

@JoeQ thank you. I'll look into getting a tds meter. I do have the api master kit and test my gh/kh with strips. They're always really high though due to our hard water. Thanks. That's good experience to know. Maybe I'll drop the siesta. I am getting good growth right now it seems. Right now I am keeping my tank around 76 to 77°. I know the Ram would like it a little warmer and the Danios would like it a little cooler but they all seem fairly happy at that temp. The Otos I have six because the person at the fish store told me that they are schooling and I would need a minimum of six in my tank for them to be happy I am supplementing them with blanched zucchini and algae wafers. I do two slices of zucchini every other day and one algae wait for a day. They all have nice little fat bellies so they appear to be eating well. I also ordered Repashy Soilent Green but Amazon lost the package so I have to reorder that but I was also going to feed them that a couple times a week.

@ccc24 I think I might be underdosing fert at 3pumps 1x/week. My NO3 are consistent at 5-10. @nabokovfan87 good to know thank you. I had an anubiad nana petite in the top fork of the dark spiderwood and it didn't seem as happy. That would make sense. Ill move them around some. My java fern I could move off to the side and move the scarlet temple but idk if it would appreciate being moved? Though it doesn't seem very happy. It's not very red and not many leaves. But I'd does have new growth. A lot of roots higher up. I just added this one a few weeks ago and I'm totally new to aquatic plants so I am learning as I go.

@JoeQ would you mind to share a couple stem plants that do this?

9.99 a piece in Nashville TN. I wanted to order some from Aqua Huna because I've lost 2 of the 8 I bought. Just never shipped fish before and nervous. Mine are starting to color up and they are just so neat.

@knee It was recommended by some others on here when I initially set the tank up. It allows CO2 to build back up in the tank after it is initially used up in the AM because I'm not injecting it.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea Yes, this is how all of mine are planted. They are super glued or weighted to rocks and wood. The root feeders are planted into the substrate. The bulbs are on top. Thank you.

I'm hoping to get a few pointers for what to titrate next towards balancing my tank. This is my first fish tank in probably 20 years and my first ever planted. I have a 29 gallon tank, currently stocked with 1 scarlet temple, 2 crypt luteas, 1 crypt wendtii, 1 anubias barteri, 1 java Fern, 1 aponogeton crispus, 1 pogostemon stellata octopus, 1 dwarf lotus, 2 anubias nana petite. I had 2 anubias coffeefolia and 1 more anubias nana petite but they succumbed to anubias rot. I will replace eventually. Tank was initially cycled and planted 1/5. 6 otocinclus were added 1/20 after NH4&NO2 we're stable at 0. A week ago I added 8 celestial pearl danios, 6 julii corycats, 1 German blue ram, 5 cherry shrimp. Water parameters have been stable since adding. pH stable at 7.4. Doing 20-30% water changes weekly. Currently, I have my light running 3 hours in AM, siesta x4h, light on for 4 hours. It's the finned light recommended and sold by aquarium co-op. Dosing easy green 3 pumps, 1x/week. I just picked up some seachem iron last night because the scarlet temple has been losing its color. I am having some algae growth, mostly held in check by my eaters but know I am not balanced yet. I am thinking I need to increase light before fertilizer. But wanting more experienced opinions.

Is this anubias rot? This plant has been slowly dying over the last couple weeks The rhizome has turned brown and squishy and the leaves are falling off at the top they slowly turned yellow as they died off. I have had the tank running for about 6 weeks All my plants came from aquarium co-op. And so far my tank has done really well aside from this anubias and another Anubis nana petite that looks like it might not be doing as well.

@CJs Aquatics thanks for the well-thought reply. I'm currently doing 6 hours of light a day. And planning to increase by 30m weekly. The only place I have algae so far is on the dwarf baby tears so I feel like I'm doing pretty good.But I know that can change over the next two weeks or so. I've mostly been concerned about how often to fertilize with my lighting at only 6hours for now and no CO2. I would like to add some Scarlet temple, cryptocoryne wendtii red, and pogostemen stalata octopus to help the plants continue to outcompete.

Hello! I am 8 days in to my first aquarium, as well as my first planted tank. So far everything seems to be going well. NH4 is slowly going down, NO2 has spiked but not started down yet. And I do have (a lot) of NO3. Obviously that's skewed from my fertilizer. 2 questions: I have dwarf baby tears that is either melting hard or (probably) not going to make it. I am not injecting CO2. I didn't realize until after purchase it was really kind of necessary. But if that's my only goof up in my planning so far I'm pretty happy. It also appears to be covered in brown algae or hair algae. But I don't have algae anywhere else (yet.) Right now I'm fertilizing 1-2 times per week. I fertilized on Friday when I planted. (They went into the water Thursday on arrival) And I fertilized 4 days later on the 9th with a 40% water change. My nitrates are pretty (really) high so I was going to change water tonight and fertilize after. This afternoons numbers are: pH 7.4 NH4 0.5 NO2 5.0 NO3 160 (no fish yet) I have one java moss that I think might just be melting? But isn't looking super great while the other is looking pretty good. Additionally my filter is blinking for a change and it's only been 8days since filling. I assume it's wanting change due to all the first, tannins etc from filling and planting. Will I lose too much of my BB changing it this soon? What if anything can I do to help/save the dwarf baby tears or help with the algae. Thanks for any advice.

Is my daughter's Betta just building massive bubble nests or is something up with the water?

Is the Bolivian fairly beginner friendly? My sister-in-law who has a few small aquariums has warned me against cichlids. @Comradovichthat is excellent advice! Thank you so much! I was planning to concentrate the eco-complete where the root feeder plants were but the zippered bags makes much more sense! I do like the look of a carpet, but if it will take away from the rest of my plants then I might rethink that.

@AllFishNoBrakesThank you for such a well thought out reply! I may just switch to gravel and root tabs, I just felt like the eco-complete gave me an extra security blanket to not screw up. I never knew that about seasoned vs cycled tanks but it makes a lot of sense and fits with what I was planning anyway. I wanted to give it 4-6 months before adding fish to not overwhelm myself and to see how the plants were doing and how I was managing with them. Just doubles down that that is the right thing to do. I know that the topic of how many fish you can put in a tank is hotly debated, but if the bioload is being managed well via the plants and water changes and the fish are happy, not aggressive and still have plenty of "space" it seems you could get away with a few more. I plan to add to my community slowly not all at once, and I think I've finally decided to do all male guppies to avoid the baby issue. Even if most of them are eaten thats still A LOT of fish to rehome. But that said if Im doing well down the road I'd really be interested to have the kuhlis. I like the look of the Bolivian Ram or the German Blue and where they would hang out in the tank, that low to medium range, but they don't appear to be as beginner friendly.

I was not planning to use CO2 injection. That just feels a little too jumping into the deep end to start out. I looked into the siesta stuff, appreciate the tip and will try that. Thank you! I will watch these! That seems reasonable. Thanks! I will do that!

TL;dr: please help me not kill my whole tank. Hello! I am hoping to garner a little advice from the collective as it were. My husband bought me a 29g Aqueon tank kit for Christmas. We purchased my daughter her first fish, a betta and a 10g tank in October and since, I have been enamored with watching him and spending far too many hours watching youtube videos about fish. I am wanting to do a planted aquarium, and hoping if people could "weigh in" with gentle advice on if my plan is solid, or what I can do to improve. I am planning to replace the light that came with my kit with the 30" Finnex Stingray LED light on the site. I have purchased some driftwood and dragon stone for aquascaping and am planning for a layer of eco-complete along the bottom and gravel on top. It's a 29gal so I am aiming for approx an inch of eco-complete and an inch of gravel. I was planning to buy 1 20lb bag of the eco-complete which by my research is a little shy of what I would need for a full inch so I was going to spread it thinly where stem plants will be that need less root fertilizer and mound it more heavily where the root plants are. I will buy easy-green fertilizer from Aquarium Co-op. But I have very hard water in my home and am not sure what I need to do to account for that. (We are planning to install a water softener in the near future.) When I do my initial planting, is the eco-complete enough, or will I also want to dose the Easy-Green then. I am assuming yes. And about how long should I wait after planting to begin introducing fish to my tank. In the videos it seems people plant and then fill the tank with water and begin the cycling process. I don't need to have cycled the tank before planting? As for plants, I would like it to be fairly 'lushly' planted. This is what I currently have in my cart: Tiger Lotus Bulb x1 Java Fern x2 Scarlet Temple x2 Java Moss x2 Anubias Coffeefolia x2 Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red x1 Aponogeton Crispus x2 Red Dwarf Lily Bulb x1 Monte Carlo x1 Banana Plant x2 Cryptocoryne Pink Flamingo x1 Dwarf Hairgrass x1 Anubias nana petite x2 I feel with this I might be overplanted, but I just kind of went through and picked things I liked and was going to narrow from there. Im doing a very serene stream like scape for my tone using stone, spiderwood and natural gravel, so I really liked the few plants with bronze and red to kind of pop out and help some of my fish to pop. Speaking of fish, my current plan is to go with a few cory cats, fancy guppies, celestial pearl danios and neon tetras. Im still deciding on my 'centerpiece' fish. Probably just a few honey gouramis, but I have considered a ram to swim in the low to medium area. I also really like otocinclus and kuhli loaches, but know I can only have so many. lol Please help. And please be kind, I am really new at this but am wanting to learn and to do right by my fishes; while also not setting fire to hundreds of dollars of fish and plants. Am I heading in the right direction? Thanks!