PonyPlantedTanks

Hopefully mine will do ok. I have decently soft water but high pH (around 8.2) Hopefully this applies to guppy grass too. I’ll likely get a little hair algae at the beginning and need to discard a few stems. I’m pretty okay with this. I’m in need of some shade for some crypts and Anubias getting more than their fair share of light (and algae). But we’ll see just how big this thing actually gets.😂 Thank you everyone for putting in your two cents! Really helpful to know a little more about the plants before you throw them in a tank.

Long topic -whew! Long story short - I'm dealing with some hair algae issues in my 10g as well as some annoying cyanobacteria. There's an imbalance of nutrients (I suspect light and fertilizer are not matching up). We're working on it and trying new things, but taking it a week at a time to see changes. Anyways, I ordered a bunch of new plants because this tank isn't as heavily planted as I'd necessarily like. On the order list are: Brazilian Pennywort Dwarf Sag Pearlweed (a pot and a portion) Guppy Grass Dwarf Aquarium Lily I know the basics about these plants, but I'd like to hear some personal experiences with them. Do y'all like to float your Pennywort? How about your Pearlweed? (I'll likely float some and pop a root tab in the pot and leave it be for a minute). Dwarf Sag - likes a lot of root tabs? Can it handle lower light? I'm hoping Guppy Grass is as fast growing as Hornwort, just minus the pine needle shedding. We'll see if I'm right. While I manually remove as much algae as possible and await the arrival of plants, tell me your thoughts on any and all of these plants. Thanks!

But only a little bit😂😂💁🏼‍♀️

I have a betta tank in my bedroom and honestly I love it. I think it’s a good, low stress place for the fish too since there’s usually not much action going on in a bedroom. The sponge filter is quiet but it adds a touch of white noise at night, so I honestly find it helps me sleep. When I’m not at home I don’t sleep as good😂😂

Pushing the Anubias between the two rocks will work perfect. That’s what I do with mine. If you haven’t tried using liquid fertilizer you don’t know what you’re missing out on!!😂 And root tabs which I’m not sure if you’re using. I believe micro sword likes to pull nutrients from its roots. Rotala from my experience definitely just wants a lot of nutrients in the water column.

With root tabs, I personally just throw some in whenever my heavy root feeders start to die back or slow down in growth. Not the instructional way but it works for me😂 Especially around things like bulbs, crypts or swords I put three or four around them to target feed.

Agreed with @LennieIt totally is up to preference. For me I love having a centerpiece fish because they’re like having a “wet pet” that you look forward to seeing and give it a name etc. A honey gourami is a solid option for a centerpiece that usually won’t bother adult shrimp. They might snack on the babies but most all fish do. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/top-5-centerpiece-fish-for-your-small-to-medium-sized-community-aquarium Here is an article the Co Op put out about some centerpiece options. Keep in mind many of them will snack on shrimp so just do a little research if one catches your eye. Best of luck 🙂

50 isn’t horribly low but it definitely is on the lower end. Typically you want your KH anywhere from 70-140ppm (4-8dKH). So I would probably add a decent amount of extra crushed coral into your gravel or filter. That will raise the KH and help the pH remain stable. That may not have been the exact cause of death for your poor Honey, but it’s my best guess. Preventing pH swings in the future is a good idea however. Good luck 🙂

I’m thinking that the plants dying and the algae shouldn’t be the cause of your fish death. If your tank is established enough, a few plants dying shouldn’t cause an ammonia spike and kill any fish. Did you make any other changes recently? I’m not sure the Easy Carbon would have done it unless you overdosed like crazy (which I’m quite sure you didn’t!😂). if your KH is really low, that can easily cause a big pH swig which is pretty stressful to fish. That’s the only possibility I can think of at the moment. I would test your KH if possible. Were any of the other fish affected or just the Honey Gourami? And I would definitely keep that hood light on. You may not need it on for such a long period of time, but your plants are probably going to continue to die off if the only light they’re getting is the light through the window 🙂

I think it would be a crime to get rid of that absolutely GLORIOUS hunk of moss!!😂

Lovely tank so far! I’m sure once your plants get rooted deep enough they’re going to take off and fill up that tank🤩 Is that a sparkling gourami I see??! How do you like them? Those are definitely a bucket list fish for me.

I like to use aquadvisor sometimes mostly for the fish compatibility warnings! I find their stocking percentages to be a little on the conservative side since it doesn’t take into account plant load. I totally agree with this though! ^

There’s pretty much always going to be a chance you’ll get a hitchhiker snail on plants you buy. But from my experience the Co-Op works pretty dang hard compared to other companies to keep snails out of their plants they’re shipping out. Apologies that this is a tad off topic.😂 If you’re okay with having snails in your tank, then just let that snail do it’s thing. But if you are trying to avoid them then I would remove that thing ASAP lolz

Water Lettuce, Salvinia, Red Root Floaters and Amazon Frogbit all have much larger leaves than something like duckweed and are much easier to remove when needed. If you're looking for something more similar to Hornwort, I'd recommend Guppy Grass or Water Sprite. I've also seen people throw in a few stems of pearlweed and it becomes a giant mat! Personally I think it looks epic. And it'd be easy to maintain if you don't want a crazy amount. Hope this helps a bit. 🙂

Can’t wait to see all the Chili Rasboras hangin out together! It’s awesome to see a huge school of them.

If you’re looking for something else to add you could also try Vallisneria! It grows really tall for a nice background plant and then when it gets established will start popping out runners. I can’t grow anything and my Val is starting to take off. Different plants do well in different tanks, so the best advice I can give is just to try any of the plants that are available to you and that you can afford 🙂

Not going to lie, when you said MTS my mind went to Multiple Tank Syndrome and I was like… you need help identifying this highly contagious disease?😂😂

yes he mostly just sits on the bottom when the light is on (so midday) but he’ll usually still move around on the bottom. And then in the morning and evening he’s pretty active because he’s waiting to get fed😂 Im no so concerned about his lethargy as I am about his fin rot. I think he really is just getting up there in age and is slowing down a bit. But that’s okay 🙂

Thank you very much @Colu. I’ve got one IAL in there but I’ll drop in a few more and dose Maracyn2 as suggested 🙂

Has dwarf sag been a fairly easy plant in your opinion? I am wanting similar to Cinnebuns in the sense that I want a dense carpet of it. I have low light but I don’t mind if it gets tall, I just want it to GROW😂

Crypt parva! You’ll need a lot but it looks excellent!! and Pearlweed if you’re willing to trim it pretty often 🙂

Good to hear! After seeing the Ocean Blues in Cory’s video I was in love. Currently not in the budget but I’d LOVE to keep and breed them someday.

That’s great to hear! I’ve done a course of Maracyn before and it didn’t seem to do much. Aquarium salt usually does the trick but I don’t think the Val and the Crypts appreciate it 😞😂 I’ll try upping the temp to 80. Thanks!

Fins continue to look crappy. Wondering if I should do a low dose of salt again. Or try kanaplex? I’ve heard good things about it for fin rot but never personally tried it.

That sunlight makes it look awesome, like a freshly mowed Pearlweed lawn😂 I definitely agree about the nerites. The most common cause of death for these guys seems to be starvation. They struggle to find enough food, so unless you’ve got insane amounts of algae I would definitely cap it at two.