Bigmike

I just have one nano tank, and so I run into the problem of food going bad way before I can come close to using it all. For dried food (nano pellets, etc), I was thinking of dividing into ziplocks and putting them in the freezer. For frozen food, one whole cube of blood worms is way too much food for my tank, I was thinking of thawing out the whole pack and refreezing much smaller portions. Anyone think there would be issues with either of these approaches? Other strategies you've used? Thanks!!

I have changed substrates before. A lot of the beneficial bacteria in your tank live in the substrate, and it ended up crashing my cycle. I thought the cycled filter would be enough but it sadly was not. Had to reestablish the cycle with fish in, it was not fun. If you just have 1 fish might not be much of an issue since bioload is so low. Depending on what you're doing, mixing some of the old substrate in with the new helps preserve the beneficial bacteria. But if you want to ditch the sand completely then go for it just keep an eye on water parameters. Thankfully when I did my substrate swap all my plants did just fine. Good luck!

I'm a big fan of CaribSea sand. Never had their gravel but the sand was very natural looking and not too dirty. Would recommend!

Unfortunately I don't have a sink or faucet near my tank

Wanted to see if anyone has experience with or could recommend a submersible pump to help with water changes. Would need one where the inlet and outflow can be fitted with tubing, an internal filter so anything sucked up while siphoning out water won't jam up the pump (or if anyone with experience can say if this is not necessary), and would ideally like to find one with adjustable flow. Thanks! 😄

Looks amazing, great work! Excited to see what it looks like when the plants grow in more.

Test strips are generally less accurate than liquid tests. Biggest upside to test strips is they are quick and easy and unless you're trying to breed fish and need very specific parameters, a close ballpark is good enough to let you know if things are stable or if something is way off.

I have hard water which is why I am considering the endlers and guppies

My gudgeon is a slow eater, can confirm. I've been feeding Xtreme nano pellets and some inevitably lands on the plants and hardscape. My neons don't touch that stuff but the gudgeon will hunt down the fallen pellets, usually when I check about 15 minutes after feeding she has a nice full belly 😆. I also feed freeze dried daphnia as a treat and she does a better job of getting that mid-water. As far as guppy fry, I'm planning to add some floating plants soon, not sure if floater roots are adequate cover for them. I don't have a big enough tank to support a huge guppy population so if nature takes its course and most of the fry get eaten it's not the worst thing I guess. Thanks so much for the input! I really love CPDs but had heard they can be really shy and hide all the time. Glad to hear they're outgoing as long as you give them proper conditions and space.

There are a few fish im considering adding to my tank, and am wanting to hear from anyone who's kept them what their personalities are like. Are they outgoing, playful, curious, timid, shy, etc. Here's the fish in question: Rummynose Tetras Celestial Pearl Danios Guppies Endlers Fish in the tank currently are Neon Tetras and a Peacock Gudgeon. Thanks so much! 😄

I had the same thing happen to me, even with poking holes in the capsules and getting all the air out. I'm just gonna switch to seachem or API since their root tabs aren't capsules.