PonyPlantedTanks

I know this is terrible to post on this thread after a YEAR, but I just had to say @kneeyour tanks are absolutely stunning. Tell me your secrets to such incredible plants!!😂 And your Rams are also the most colorful and amazing I’ve ever seen. Whenever I think of Rams I just think of Germans but the Bolivians are for sure a new bucket list fish for me. If I ever get a bigger tank, that’s for sure the first cichlid I’m going to try! Hoping to set up a 20L before too long, but I assume with other community fish that would be too cramped for even a pair of them? 🙂

Yeah root tabs shouldn’t contribute to ammonia/nitrite spike. Before I poked holes and squeezed air out of em they would occasionally pop up and leave the white gel looking stuff on the substrate. But I never had them affect water quality, maybe a tad nitrate but never anything else 🙂 I wouldn’t dig them up because it’ll make a huge mess that I promise you don’t want😂

That is awesome! I’m going to suggest a tank raffle for my local club lolz

I’m not pro at this kind of stuff, but it looks like possibly green water. How long do you have your lights on for?

Set up my first tank (10g) in December of 2022 for a betta and a nerite. One year and many plant casualties later… let’s just say it’s getting there. The betta and nerite are still doing great. Lots has changed, I’ve learned a lot… and I want more plants.😂 And I’m ready for my next tank! Dreaming of 20 longs!!

The one that looks kind of like guppy grass?😂

@Fish Folkwhat is the plant in the third picture that’s taken over your tank? It’s stunning! The tank with the coconut huts and Anubias.

Cory seems to usually recommend crushed coral to raise pH. I think it will also raise KH and GH so just be aware of that.

You should be fine without a heater. I kept a bunch of different plants (including Java fern) in an unheated tank where water temp was around 65F and they all did fine!

I have a 10g with one betta and a nerite. At the moment I have anubias, Val, hydrocotyle tripartita, crypt lucens, crypt wendtii, Amazon sword, and Pogostemon stellatus narrow-leaf (which I’m not sure is the same or different than PSO?). Theres also a few floaters that I got in a pack from Etsy. I have the 20” Easy LED at 30% and on for 7hrs a day. I dose Easy Green once a week per the regular does and nitrate usually sits around 20-30ppm. None of the plants are really thriving per se, but the Pogo and Hydrocotyle are not doing so well compared to the rest. They’re new(ish) to me, along with the Val. I suspect they want more light but I have already been getting a little hair algae. I’m not sure which factor to change. Up the light/more fertilizer/shorter light period/etc. Any thoughts are much appreciated 🙂

1. Keep and breed Chili Rasboras!😍 2. Balance my dang 10g with a Betta and have a jungle of plants in there🐠🌱✨ 3. Set up a 20 long with a sort of “corner” scape where the plants are most heavy in one corner and fade off toward the next corner 4. Set up an outdoor mini pond and breed medaka rice fish, WCMM or something else in it! 5. Figure out how to grow PSO. I love it so much but I struggle terribly to keep it alive 😞 6. Have a 5g desk tank with high light plants, a cool scape and maybe some shrimps. 7. Maybe someday keep some sort of puffer. I feel like they’re aquatic dogs lol this thread is great! It’s so fun to see what others in the hobby are dreaming of!😂

Honestly, I think every betta is completely different. They seem to chill out with age, but holy smokes some of them are insaneo when they’re young!😂 I don’t think Kings are necessarily more aggressive than other bettas, but you never know. I really would like to try tank mates for my half moon but I’m afraid to test the waters lol

Plants seem to be doing alright. If anyone has any tips on how to balance a tank, bring them on😂I think that’s going to be my first priority for the time being. I’m still getting hair algae and a tiny bit of diatom, the Val and pogo aren’t doing as well as I’d like. The Easy LED is at 20% for about 6hrs a day. I’ve been following @Tanked suggestions and dosing five drops a day (except on weekends) with my small bottle of easy green. I picked up the liquid test kit but it’s my first time using it so I’d like verification haha. From what I can tell, is pH 7.4ish or closer to 8? I can try the high range pH kit too. And Nitrate looks to be about 40ppm (third from bottom). Thoughts? Am I reading these totally wrong? Thanks for everyone’s help 🙂 Ok, looks like I have pretty high pH. Dang it!😂looks like I’ll have to go to plan B if I ever want to keep chili Rasboras haha. Someday! test looks to be between 8.2-8.4.

Poor Murph. What a good boy he’s been! He will be missed💗

I’m always team Betta but if you’re looking for just a schooling fish, I think a school of CPDs is always a stunner. Just make sure to have a plant jungle because from what I’ve heard they can be pretty shy😂 Or Chili Rasboras! They’re one of my dream fish to own, someday, someday…

I think I have a black thumb. The plants can not seem to thrive in my tank. The new Val and Hydrocotyle Tripartita is already slowly melting away. Even my anubias is starting to get tiny holes! I feel like there is a simple issue/deficiency going on that I can't see! Nitrate is at around 40ppm, Nitrite 0. I think my GH is pretty high, around 100ppm. KH is about 80. As @nabokovfan87mentioned, maybe my GH is just way too low if it needs to be double my KH. I'm now wondering if my lack of Wonder Shells has been causing my GH to go down? Even though it doesn't seem low? Does anybody find they like Equilibrium better than Wonder Shell? It seems more boujee but I don't know if that makes it any better😂 I feel like such a newb haha. I've had this tank a little over a year and the plants decided they hate me.🤪

Yes, however these plants are not new to me. They should all be converted by now.

The test strips can definitely be a pain to read. I’ve been meaning to try the test kits to see if it’s any easier to tell what’s going on. I’ve been dosing Easy Green the regular dose, one pump once a week. Sometimes a little extra depending on if I test the water and nitrate is lower than 20ppm. Seems to be keeping the tank around 30ish ppm Nitrate. For filtration I’ve got a sponge filter. If the GH is low, is that the problem? I’m just confused as to how the plants could die so fast just from that. I don’t think my GH drastically changed recently? Do you think this just some sort of nutrient deficiency and the low GH is only part of it?

Oh sorry, I’ll try them again. That’s good to know about the ratio between GH and KH. I thought the floating plants were taking all the ferts from the water column but my test strip isn’t showing that. Also, I’m terrible at reading test strips but it seems my GH is either pretty high or pretty low? But KH has always been around 80ppm. Do you think my water parameters could be causing all this plant melt? thank you so much for your help!

I tested my water yesterday and the results are below. These are the parameters I've had for a while. My plants have done well, but none have necessarily thrived. I think the tank is not yet fully balanced, but I'm not sure how to proceed there since the algae is much better than it ever has been. By the way, it's a 10g with one betta and a nerite snail. The tank has an Easy Plant LED at 20% (seems so low to me, too, but there are pretty much only low light plants at the moment and I'm afraid the algae will kick in if I turn it up😅). Even the floating plants have started melting back a bit. @nabokovfan87thanks for the video. I only watched a tiny part of it but I gathered that KH should be lower than GH? Does that sound right? I don't run co2 so that shouldn't be a problem. IMG_0389.jpg 2.5 MB IMG_0387.jpg 2.3 MB

Hi all, I’m still fairly new to the hobby so any advice is appreciated. This past week a ton of my plants mysteriously kicked the bucket. I seriously don’t know what happened! One day they were looking wonderful and literally two days later my bolbitis, a ton of my crypts and my tiny pogo octopus (which weirdly has never done well for me) all melted away. My dwarf lily and Amazon sword are just fine. The only thing I changed last week was adding a bunch of floating plants. I thought that surely the floating plants had just sucked up all the nutrients and the crypts freaked out, but I tested my water and nitrate was still at 20ppm. Low, but not that low! Anybody have any clue what happened? Some kind of crazy fast hitting deficiency? My favorite bolbitis is completely gone😭 Thank you!

I saw a video that explained that and I’ve since been poking holes in them :) though sometimes I just can’t get them down far enough. My tweezers aren’t curved which makes it challenging. How exciting! I’m sure your shrimp will be living their best lives, whether you see them or not😂

I'm late to this, but I've had Easy Root Tabs pop up on me during several occassions (I blame it on my terrible tweezers) and they've never caused any problems. Water parameters are not affected. My betta even decided to eat a few chunks and he was just fine🤨😂

Yes, substrate is eco complete. That’s very good to know! It’s mostly just the crypts, so it could just be them doing some weird adjustment things. I’m going to dose extra root tabs this week (realized I’m almost out.. shoot!) and see how it goes. It’s a fairly minimally planted tank, I’d like to add some more stem plants in the back. I usually just add root tabs every 2-3ish months. I’ll add some extra root tabs because it also could be my Amazon sword getting huge and eating up all the nutrients!🤦🏼‍♀️

Hi all, I’ve recently noticed a bunch of holes start to show up on some crypts in my 10 gallon. They’re fairly new (been in my tank for about a month now) but they adjusted quickly and have been growing new leaves. I noticed one tiny hole starting on one of my Anubis’s leaves today too… noooo!!🥲That’s why I was wondering if this was a nutrient deficiency? I use Easy Root tabs and dose Easy Green every week. It almost looks like something has been eating them but I don’t know what that could be! The only inhabitants in the tank are one betta and a Nerite. Thank you in advance🐠🩵