Lennie

5g is doable but neocaridinas do populate a lot and fairly easily, so I feel like it will be overstocked after a couple months. What was your experience?

I haven't used either but, as an addition to nabokovfan's suggestion, Sera Black gravel also looks cool and seems suitable for the size you want. Their page says it does not affect water parameters. I couldn't see any experiences because it is super duper expensive here. You can easily buy aquasoil here for that price instead of a gravel here. https://www.sera.de/us/product/marine-aquarium/sera-gravel-black/ Seachem's one seem to be more commonly used tho. What I would advice is, I commonly see some black colored substrates having so much iron in it. So in some forums, I've read some people having hard time keeping snails alive or having iron related algae issues, or even some sort of rust build up over time! So I would make sure to search for experiences and confirm the one you will buy has no issues.

Thanks!!😸 I can't wait ludwigia and rotala to grow and cover the background with some pinkish color! A new tank is always exciting to set up

Thanks for sharing! I watched it now. My concern is beyond potential environment damage, but it is more of a personal thing, about me being a vegan. Otherwise, fishing for food or polluted seas/freshwater is probably a worse topic to consider about environmental damage before it comes to keeping them in hobby level considering the damage level. I worry about more of what the fish go through, what they feel once they are being suddenly caught out of their huge world and ending up small tanks at homes, and how all this journey is shaped until they end up in lots of peoples home. Cory's video let me to see them in first person, that's why I wanted to mention that part. To me, them being collected from wild is bad enough, but opinions may change from one to another ofcourse. But the last time we've talked something similar, someone from this forum said he bred ottos at home. I would love to adopt if I was living nearby and give them a chance. But let's be fair, fish farms do not really make it any better than wild caughts most of the time. Also the demand for species with lots of body dismorphia, health issues, inbreeding, and so on, just for the "cute" and "beautiful" look. Those stuff do happen in tank bred species, which don't directly make them any better for sure. Especially after I've watched this video, I've understood some stuff better. Also I'm not sure to what extend even this sustainable method can cover the demand realistically. Because todays all industrys have started by keeping chicken and a cow in the garden of every house ages ago. Wherever you check algae eaters online, you directly see otocinclus, nerites and amanos top recommended. The demand is huge worldwide. Also I understand why we should not be releasing any plants, fish etc. to nature. But getting fish, snails or shrimp from nature, especially in huge amounts to meet the demand of the world must have a non-negligible effect on nature as well, Imo. Neocaridinas are really hardy. The breeder guy I've talked to once said, he saw them in ice water, and had zero loss. Ofc that's nothing good for them, but they definitely can go both low on high end. I hate summer. Probably so do my fish. Join our club 😄 I have lots of wood! And my lfs always have clowns. I will check them next time I'm there 🙂 planetcatfish says "Plants are not vital and will be nibbled or destroyed" for clown pleco. What- I was gonna text on that clown pleco topic back in the day. I must have forgotten to do so. I directly searched for my comment about wanting them, obviously I haven't posted it.😎

It is my first time using aquasoil. I've tried everything before, gravel, sand, clay based, dirted bottom, but not aquasoil. I knew of their buffering affect, changing from a brand to another, but I've read so many conflictive opinions everywhere tbh even for each brand really. I just got it for plants as it can only tickle my ph and kh I assumed. I was right 😄 Tropica says the following: "Aquarium Soil is further an active bottom layer that lowers the pH value and slightly affects the water chemistry. We recommend that you change 25-50% of the water min. twice a week during the first 4 weeks after establishing the aquarium." I have been doing water changes up to %50-60 every 2-3days. It has a guide for 90 days to tell you to do whatever you need to do. Like lighting period adjustments, fertilizer amounts, water changes, stocking, etc. I've been taking the recommendations into consideration, but mainly acting in accordance with my previous experiences. Equilibrium is normally supposed to buff your gh based on the dose, and you gotta use it with every water change, not while topping. It basically has potash, iron, calcium, magnesium and manganese. It works perfectly fine for my other tanks. But maybe aquasoil is sucking the gh stats as @Remi de Groot mentioned. It must be the aquasoil then. I really don't know, it does not say anything related about sucking nutritions. I've just noticed it has a claim to make the water "soft" on the package tho. Idk how it has a capability to destroy all gh but let kh and ph stable, when it is normally supposed to decrease ph 😄

Thanks Colu. Yea I think so, I looked at the chart as well. I wanted to share test strip too, as it says PH of 8.5. Bu tbf I still think it is lower than 8.5 in person, but still sits around 8.2. Normaly, I was reading 8.0-8.2 with JBL. The ammonia amount is probably low, but due to high ph can be a lil toxic I bet. I think it mostly came from decaying plants or possibly from the Tropica aquasoil. The tank is has no stocking anyway. I haven't been cleaning decaying plant matter to let it have some ammonia for bacteria, and potential snack for future shrimps. I've added handful established matrix into the new HOB this morning after the testing. Let's see how it rolls. I believe it would handle the ammonia and nitrite pretty fast as the media is coming from a well seasoned overstocked tank. Any Idea why am I having this low gh readings after dosing lots of equilibrium for the past two weeks? It is confusing.

Hey guys, I got my new test kits delivered as I ran out of the ones I have last week. I got me a Sera Ammonia/ammonium Test kit and Tetra 6in1 as they were the only ones I could find and trust. Will we ever have Aquarium Coop products in Turkey?😶‍ I'm not familiar with test kits, and I have never used tetra test strips but some other ones before. Would love to hear about your opinions about readings below as they kinda got me confused. Tank info: *The tank has been running around 2 weeks by now, started dosing stability in a quite low dosage 3 days ago just in case, but I already have established media on hand. I just wanted to see the situation of the tank with plant growth and 3 days of very low stability dosing. After all the testing done today, I've transferred lots of established media from 1 y.o HOB to this one. I will keep testing to see how everything will be with the established media. So all test have been done without 0 established media added. *All plants have been dipped to Alum for 4 hours, as I couldn't find any seltzer water for RR. I'm not sure any bb lives with 4 hour 1tablespoon to 1g water dip. * There is a lot of Tropica Aquasoil on bottom, which has conflicting opinions on whether it leeches any Ammonia. 😼Ammonia/Ammonium test kit readings: I feel like it has been sitting more on yellowish side, but has some sort of green involved. So def close to 0.0 rather than 0.5. what do you think? Idk if it is the decaying plant matter or potentially the soil. Info chart and stats: Tetra Test strips: Here the issue is, the app seem to read different than what I personally read. It says 0 nitrate, but I can personally clearly see the nitrate. I'm even dosing lots of Equilibrium and enough flourish. Idk how my hardness can be so low after all the Equilibrium from days ago with every water change in 2-3days? Also it shows nitrite, which I assume can be only coming from a cycle beginned itself. But alum dipped plants, and only 3 days of stability? Interesting. Where does all this Equilibrium go? JBL strips also showed less than 3 gh. so it has been checked by 2 strips. It is interesting really. Thanks for sharing your opinion.

I already feed those to my Rabbit snails! It is def not an extra work to me. Thanks for the response, I will keep that in mind:)

Because sadly I can't find tank bred ones in where I live, and I personally really dislike the stuff they are exposed to until they end up in the tanks. Especially after watching Cory's video. 😢 Never seen what nerites go through, but probably not getting them either for that reason I guess. That's what I thought. Maybe I should move my pygmy cory school from 29g and increase their group size gradually! I love them. Having no anubias leaf to sleep on here tho. Smh 😄Or a new group of hastatus, if I can find any. Rachel O'Leary also says either one or at least a small group of 3-4. I've seen online that 2-3 not recommended, so either 1 or 4+. So one sounds like a safe bet as they love to graze as you said, also for the territorial behavior. Good to hear about rock being okay! I've never had ph issue before, as I always get my fishies etc locally. They are all used to our tap water. I always have a chance to drip acclimate in this way too which is nice just in case! but thanks for the warning & suggestions! White clouds would hate me cause my temp increases to 30+ whatever I do, I can't stop it cause outside reaches almost 50C during summer. That's why I usually go for tropical fish and sterbais on corys, so they can take it okay, even shrimps. 0 loss from my experience even when it reached 32-33s. Not ideal but they tolerate. I've been considering clowns for so long! But my L199 is even worse than sterbais for moving the substrate. What's yours behavior on that one? Also how good are they at grazing algae, or do they stop just like bristlenoses after they grow up like some people say? Would having no cave would be okay? I think he would use the behind the big wood on left corner as a natural cave tho, there is a big gap behind. ---------------------------------------------- That explains a lot to me! I usually get my snails in low numbers for my tank size and introduce them after months of setup so there is always food! maybe that is why I've never seen any escaping before. Thanks for the suggestions. I was thinking of the same! Leaving a bit of gap on top sounds like a good idea. I also let my floating plants cover on top gradually, so it creates some sort of a natural lid on top. I believe it has an affect on escaping behavior personally. Marvin sounds to be lucky as hell that you were there. I've never heard bristlenoses escaping!!! He seems to have a character 😄 I don't mind having a pleco that does not graze on algae or stuff, as I already have an L199 which is on carnivore side. But I would love to hear about whether your BN stopped eating algae after they grow up, or keep doing the job? That helps to count one on clean up crew side. ------------------------------------ Thank you all for sharing you opinions and experiences with me!

Hey everyone! Wishing you a great week. I would like to hear some opinions/experiences about clean up crew for the new tank of mine. The tank size and water parameters: -33g/125Liters, 50cm cube -No lid on top, Aquaclear 50 HOB, with a heater -Around 8.2ph, 20kh, 7 gh(tho my tap water dropped to less than 3 lately, I'm dosing equilibrium) Lots of plants, water lettuce and frogbit recently added as floaters. As some of you have already seen, the pic of the tank from last week: I'm trying to find a good clean-up crew for this new tank. I'm definitely keeping neocaridina shrimp. I personally had success with orange sakuras in my other tank with gourami, corys, L199 and rummynoses. So I've decided to go with bloodymarys this time, and let them settle for a while before fish go in. I don't want any digging action that may push all aquasoil to the front side of the tank where there is a sand or uproot the plants, and any jumpers/escape artists as there is no lid. I know some people find nerites to be escape artists, but I've never seen them escaping in my tanks before, I've been keeping 6 in different no lid tanks without any problems. I may decide to be safe and maybe don't go for them this time . My lfs keeps them without lid as well actually. The list my LFS has for potential clean-up crew members for this tank size are as follows: They have pgymys, orange venezuelas, albinos, bronze, paleatus, juliis, napoensis and pandas from corys. Other than corys: ottos, kuhlis, snails, SAE, panda garras, borneos, Hara jerdoni, clown pleco and bristlenose! GREEN: Sounds like a good idea to me!🙂 ORANGE: I'm not sure if it is a good idea😶 RED: That's a no for me.😐 There is already lots of decaying plant matter but also good growth from last week since the pic has been taken. *10 Bloodymary colony is definitely going in! Waiting for more biofilm and decaying catappa leaf. Maybe something like 1 panda garra+ 1 borneo, 10 shrimp+ 1-2 snails+ pygmy corys. Q's: 1- Would panda corys/kuhlis disturb the substrate a lot while sifting? My sterbais does a lot while my pygmys are super gentle. 2-Would panda garra enjoy frodo stone, or can it cause any damage as it is not really a smooth rock? I know they love rocks. Also are they safe with adult shrimp? 3- What would you combine based on your experience? P.S: not planning to add any agressive centerpiece fish or the ones that may potentially try to hurt the adult shrimps. Gonna be a peaceful community tank! Would love to hear your opinions. Many thanks in advance! @nabokovfan87 here is the tag I've talked about. Would love to hear at least about panda corys whenever you have some time!🙃

To me, and some of my friends' experience, we have noticed that some corydoras are much shyer than others. So if you really want active ones, I would highly suggest to read of specific breed experiences. Like pandas, pygmys, juliis, or albinos(probably due to bad sight?) are generally more active and playful compared to some like sterbais. I went with sterbais because of their look and temperature likings, but never knew they are on the shy side really. Thought more or less all corys were acting the same before keeping them.

I feel you. That's why It believe only pygmys in my new tank if I decide to go with corydoras. They are super gentle. I feel like other corys will be disturbing the scape I'm trying to keep a lot :') my sterbais literally dive into the substrate sometimes in 1/3 size of theirs 🥲 They sometimes shook me. They are always well fed, and they act to be super hungry lol. Either eating, sleeping or breeding. What a life Planning to create a topic regarding my new crew for this myself. I will tag you when I do, so I can hear about your opinion on pandas too! I don't wanna spam this topic :') Yeah maybe! I haven't looked from this perspective 🙂

This may help

I would keep it at least 2 weeks in a cycled tank, and keep parameters in check in the qt tank for sure. Better safe than sorry. Med applications tire fish anyway, and there is also the stress of changing place. You would not want it to deal with extra potential ammonia/nitrite damage., especially considering 2.5 is really small, anything may spike suddenly and may become harmful enough.

To me, pygmy cories are not only the cutest cory, but probably the cutest fish I've ever kept. They are so cute and unique in my eyes. When I see them sleeping on Anubias leaves all together, my heart melts. I love Hastatus and normal pygmys look the most personally.

I use my HOB with a similar design with, Coarse sponge on bottom, Filter floss on top, and biorings and probably purigen on top. (never used purigen myself, but assuming) I also use prefilter sponge on the in take. Never had any issues really, cleaning the filter once every month or so. I would try to aim the most mechanically cleaned water to reach biomedia at last. I'm not sure if the position of coarse sponge inside is good for the flow or how the hob works. Intake sponge should do the job for big particules at the start on the tube anyway I would try to use my hob as much efficiently as I can, but also avoid fully filling it to not cause any changes in the water movement and how the flow should normally find its way through.

Checkerboards are generally my fav, they are adorable as hell. I wasn't expecting blues to look this cool, even on a blue background!😍

The only reason why I don't keep livebearers. Their population go out of control so easily and it makes me super anxious as well. I also really don't have any option to home fish easily, and I don't wanna give them to lfs not because they don't take care of them well, but because people who buy fish are generally don't always have a clue about how to take care of them well. Finding people to take care of them well is hard. I love the look of some guppys and platys. But not planning to keep them whatsoever. I don't understand how so many people hate "pest" snails but livebearers are super popular at the same time. Is it just the look they have? Cause generally people complain about the breeding rate when it comes to snails and scared of taking over. Well, thats what livebearers do. You cannot really limit livebearers number by correcting something that is going on. Btw, I feel like you may find lots of people that are willing to take guppys. People find homes to their common plecos. I would probably seperate males and females as the last option I guess.

We don't have fluval stuff here. Only neosoil, tropica aquasoil, jbl shrimp soil, etc. I know ADA, Tropica and many others may affect the water parameters, for example I have Tropica rn and they advice to make min 2 water changes in the first month up to %50. Just in case it causes any affect, I wanted to make a warning! Cause some even leach ammonia to the water if I'm not wrong. Again, Idk about fluval one tho. Maybe using it on the bottom+ sand on the top might be a good idea. As long as she can successfully gravel vac the top of the sand. You may check on MD Fish Tank videos, he always do that. I've never used them in this way tho, but I did dirted bottom tank with JBL Aquabasis in my 29g. It has been working well for a year by now. sounds great, also will help to more beneficial bacteria and have a fast grower! I successfully killed my first Java fern btw. Don't blame her if stuff goes wrong. You never know what plants will do in someone elses' tank and water😄 As long as you cycle the filter in one of your seasoned tanks and she keeps up with declorinated water changes later on, it is likely to go okay. I feel like the "cycling" is the hardest part to understand and set up for most new people to the hobby. A betta she falls in love with sounds like a great idea. You may need to teach her about how to feed and not overfeeding for sure 😄 If I were to keep a betta, I would drop a small catappa leaf there too tbf. But that sounds like an extra ofc. Just in case you have some in hand, you may gift her one! Natural way to support health of the fishy.

What I don't understand is, do they say they turn ammonia into ammonium? I couldn't see it. I just see that they saying it binding and making it non-toxic somehow. Otherwise how is nitrite becoming "detoxified" if it is all about ammonium. A lot of people may likely to have ammonium anyway due to their water parameters/temp, no? It is confusing to me too. I don't know about how chemistry works really. But maybe this detailed topic may help:

They don't remove it. They bind it for some time so meanwhile your tank and bb can deal with it while it is not toxic to fish. It is still there, so you will have readings in your test kit. Or that's what they say. https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000122593-FAQ-I-tested-my-tap-water-after-using-Seachem-Prime-and-came-up-with-an-ammonia-reading-Is-this-because-of-chloramine-Could-you-explain-how-this-works-in-removing-chloramine- Also they have a limit for max dose, and it won't be dealing with so much ammonia and nitrite anyway from what I understand. I remember reading normal dosage "detoxifying" 1ppm ammonia+nitrite combined for 24-48 hours. But I'm not sure where

I would personally not advice a kid to get an active substrate in her first aquarium. Im trying my first aquasoil after years. I would say gravel might be the best bet. Active substrates affect ph and water parameters, generally needs lots of water changes in the first weeks, or maybe RO water use, etc. Def no to me. If you want something more friendly than gravel, maybe dirted bottom topped with clay based substrate, but you should help her setting it up. To ease her job, buy her an okay size of hob or sponge filter for her tank size, and run it in your tank for some time, I would probably run it for a month to be safe, but 2-3 weeks+ may work I guess. That would be the biggest favor for her, likely resulting in insta cycle. if she wants a jungle look with plants, my number one is elodea. She cant kill it, great fast grower, can both float or be planted, and can help her with water parameters a lot. and I have never seen it melting in new tanks. Maybe I would add other floating plants to that. Idk about how suitable stem plants can be for a kid, everything can be a hit or miss with water parameters, and fertilizing and stuff will follow. Maybe she may like something online and you guys can turn it into a project how to make that look with the easiest to care for perspective!

I agree with @AllFishNoBrakes You may never need your tank to handle 2ppm of ammonia one day. All your tank and filter needs to deal with is the amount of stocking you have once it is “cycled”. I personally always find myself densely planting, watching them grow, then after some time I introduce established media and bottled bacteria. Which I don’t even need bottled bacteria rn as I have seasoned tanks with lots of filter media. Cycling your first aquarium or having a good plant growth takes a bit of time. This is a hobby of patience. You can watch @Irene’s cycling experience videos and see how she tried everything from 0, with plants, and tried establish 1 year old filtet with Dr.Tims kit. That established filter took so many days to deal with dr.tims ammonia kit expectations meanwhile running perfectly with poop machine mollys or in its own tank. It clearly shows that you need your filter and tank to deal with your stocking and it is a subjective factor, because we all have different tanks, plants, stocking, feeding portions, etc. I’ve cycled my first tank with stability after returning to hobby after ages and I didn’t have any established filter media on my hands. To me, it worked and I always used it together with prime. Prime does not affect the cycle to my experience, because I’ve never had an issue with cycling while using prime combined with stability. Idk about fritz as it is not being sold in my country. I’ve used fishfood in my first time as well. Probably not doing it again, it is a mess, and stats it provide is unbalanced imo. Broken fish food probably provided some stats but maybe but your plants and bacteria potentially used it? But again, I’ve had a densely planted tank. When plants and algae grow, I introduce a few clean up crew members, then some shrimp and fish over the course depending on the situation of the tank. As Cory mentioned, shrimp do well in better after 3 months or so. I’ve added mine to a community tank after 6 months and had success. Meanwhile they had lots of moss and plant growth for them and their babies to have a good life. having an established media that you trust with a densely planted tank which provides a good growth seems to be the best combination to me after all these years in the hobby. But considering I have small tanks, I still dose the 50ml of stability to my new tanks over 10 days just to make sure I introduce some bacteria. I know I don’t need it. But it makes me feel safer :D. I highly recommend watching Irene’s cycling videos and Cory’s seasoned tank one. Please don’t be demotivated! Besides all of that, I think prime is more commonly used because it has a good reputation and very commonly available. At least here. I’ve never seen fritz ever in my country to potentially give it a try. cheers

Indostomus Crocodilus can give you the tiny predetor dragon look you want in a nano tank!

I remember reading either one or atleast 4, and 2-3 may resulting in agression. Have you tried it? I haven't kept them yet, planning to add a single one to my new 33g You may check this one out: "Tip: It is not recommended to buy a small group of Panda Garra. In small numbers, they are more aggressive to each other. Therefore, it should be either one or at least 4 – 6 of them." https://aquariumbreeder.com/panda-garra-detailed-guide-care-diet-and-breeding/ If they do okay, I may consider 2 or 3 too, but 4 is too much to me. I feel like they would lack surface to graze on in 33g as 4. Even though the link recommends for like 80Liters tank Would love to hear if you tried less than 4. I'm considering them as a part of my crew! 🙂