Seisage

Thank you both for responding. I guess I was stressing over nothing because the anubias plants have already started growing new leaves! It's slow, of course, but there is new growth. I guess it was just the stress of moving them, but they didn't melt like this the last time I had to move them, so I was worried. I did end up pulling off the yellow leaves, just so they don't foul the water too much.

I recently repurposed a tank for ADFs. To do so, I had to remove the gravel in the tank and replace it with sand, which required me to uproot the anubias (the rhizomes weren't buried, only the roots). They were doing alright before, but now a bunch of leaves are melting and things are turning yellow. Some leaves are still alright. I didn't want to plant them again, but I didn't have any rocks or pieces of wood to glue them on, so I've just left them floating for now. Could it be that they're melting because they don't have something to hold onto? Or would it just be the stress of being uprooted? How should I keep the plants from melting more? I do have wood and rocks now, so I plan on gluing the plants down within the next week or so. Should I just trim away the melted leaves/stems and glue down what's left?

Thanks. I'll keep those pieces of wood out of the tank for a while, but I think I'll hold off on treating and cleaning the whole tank for now unless I see it start to show up elsewhere. Because the tank and its sponge filter is still so new, I'd rather not wipe out all my BB and biofilm progress by using peroxide on the whole tank and cleaning the sponge filter which is only a couple weeks old. But I'll keep this video in mind if I start seeing the BBA growing elsewhere in the tank. Although, honestly, if it ends up being a recurring issue, I'm not extremely fussed about it? I plan on getting some otocinclus eventually, when the tank is much more mature, and I hear they (or other algae eaters) will eat BBA once it's been killed by spot treatment.

All wood will get a little soft after being in water for a long time. It's porous and will absorb water over time. When I say soft wood, I mean certain species that are inherently softer, not necessarily wood that has become soft over time, although you shouldn't use spongy, half-rotted wood of course. Pine, especially, is notably quite soft compared to hard woods like oak or cherry. Soft woods aren't unsafe to use (unless they still have the aforementioned resins), they just break down faster and can end up fouling your water, so you have to replace them more frequently. Just be careful because not all hardwoods actually have hard wood. "Hardwood" as a term refers to flowering trees (as opposed to conifers, which don't flower). Balsa wood is technically a hardwood, but you wouldn't want to use it in an aquarium lol.

Anything like pine, cedar, or other conifers is generally the type of scent to look out for. That smell comes from resins that the trees produce. But if it smelled like nothing, then you're good to go 👍 Same on the hardness front. It's a really cool piece of wood!

It's too weathered to identify the type of tree, I think. But one thing to keep in mind is hard vs soft wood. Soft wood will break down in an aquarium much faster than hardwood will. Pressing a fingernail into the wood is an okay test. If it gouges the wood easily, it's a softer wood. If it takes a lot of effort, or doesn't gouge the wood at all, then it's probably hardwood. Also, do a smell test. If it smells resinous, like pine, cedar, or any other sap/resin-heavy tree, then you don't want to use it since those compounds can potentially be toxic to aquatic life in aquaria. As far as prep, if it fits in a tote, you could soak it to get it waterlogged and leach out any tannins. Otherwise, straight in the tank with a rock should be fine. You might want to pour some boiling water and/or peroxide on it to kill any microorganisms or algae beforehand though.

It's hard to know how much coffee would actually end up in the water, but caffeine and other compounds found in coffee beans can be nasty chemicals, especially to organisms with mucous membrane interfaces and exposed tissues like gills because the uptake into the body is much more rapid than it is in us mammals. Plus, fish and invertebrates are tiny, so it takes lower concentrations to affect them than it does for us. Bottom line: I wouldn't want to risk getting any caffeine or other coffee compounds in my aquarium. Go out and buy an electric kettle. The cheapest one you can find. They're usually in the realm of $10-15 USD. It'll be much better for mixing up repashy. Plus, you can use it for all sorts of other things. Aside from heating up water for tea and other drinks, I use mine to pre-boil water for pasta and such. It's a lot faster than the stove. If you don't want to buy an appliance (understandable), you'll probably just want to heat up water on the stove or in the microwave.

Great, thanks for the confirmation. Do I need to treat all of the other wood as well? The BBA is only affecting one piece of wood. If I do need to treat all of the wood, I could dose the entire tank as there aren’t any fish yet. However, I do have floating plants and I’m currently trying to mature the sponge filter in the tank. Would the peroxide harm the plants or any beneficial bacteria I have? If I need to dose the whole tank and it’s safe to do so, what dosage of peroxide per gallon would you recommend? I have the typical over the counter 3% hydrogen peroxide. Edit: I've removed the affected stick as well as one immediately adjacent to it and have started a peroxide treatment on both. So, just need feedback now on whether to dose the whole tank or not.

It definitely kind of looks like it, but I’ve never encountered it in person before, so I figured I’d ask for confirmation. This is new wood in a new tank (which is also why there’s the white stuff on the wood in the foreground. I’m not really worried about that). If it is BBA, should I just remove the stick? It doesn’t seem to have spread anywhere else. It’s only on this one branch.

The black plastic rims are just there to support the tank. They're not part of the actual tank construction itself and so are not involved at all in the watertight seals of the tank. They're usually glued in place, not siliconed. I actually recently picked up an old used tank that has solid silicone seals, but the glue on the plastic rims was gross and brittle and not holding anymore, so I just removed the rims, scraped out the old glue, and put them back on. Your tank will be fine

Yeah, I know a lot of floors are inherently unlevel! My issue here is that the surface the tank will be resting on is uneven, hence just the one floating corner. Otherwise, the tank is level. But it's true, the weight of the filled tank may even things out. That said, I feel like 1/16" is just enough of a gap to where I feel that may be unlikely. We'll see! I'll wait to do any shimming until after the tank is on the stand and filled, but if there's still a gap afterwards, what would you recommend shimming with?

I'm almost done making a DIY tank rack for two tanks. Despite my best efforts, I think tightening the screws caused slight shifts in the positioning of the 2x4s and so the top "shelf" is slightly uneven. I tested it with an empty tank and there's just one corner that doesn't quite touch the frame. This continues for most of the way along the front edge of the tank, but the opposite corner is fine. I tried sanding down a couple spots that seemed to be the issue, to no avail. I've looked around on some other forums and from what I can tell, the most important thing is that the corners are supported and that the edges aren't as important. The gap itself is 1/16" (~1.5mm). I figure I can just shim that corner underneath the tank, but does anyone have any suggestions for materials? I could get wood or composite shims, but I'm wondering if I might even be able to get away with some of those felt pads that are meant to go underneath furniture. Edit: I guess I could also just get a piece of plywood to go on top. It might look nicer than shims, but it would definitely be pricier. If it matters, the tank that'll be going on the top here is a rimmed 25gal.

Personally, I keep my 5gal unheated. I've tried a 50W heater and it was just too much. It wasn't even a crappy heater, it's one of the Eheim Jagers. But with it on, the water temp shoots up to like 82°F, even when the heater's set to around 74 (and yes, the heater was "calibrated" in the way that you do with Eheims). The LED light for the tank is enough to keep the water right around 74-75°F and it only drops to ~73 at night when the light's off. My room temp sits around 69°F So consider going heaterless if your light already does the work for you. Only go this route if you have a reliable thermometer that you can use to check the water temp throughout the day though. Could just be that the heater I used was faulty, but they can also be bulky and take up valuable real-estate in an already small tank, so my personal choice is to let my light heat my tank. If you really want a dead-on consistent temperature (which most species don't absolutely require for general care), seek out a new device from a respected brand. Do your research in terms of reviews and ratings.

Echoing everyone else here in saying it was probably chlorine in the water, but I will add this: You mention you've never run into this issue before. Well, you've probably just been getting lucky with the chlorine levels present in the tap being low enough to not cause harm. Some municipal water systems are being required to increase their chlorine concentrations to improve drinking water safety. Other systems will do occasional temporary "flushes" of chlorine for a variety of reasons. It sounds to me that for some reason, the chlorine concentration increased sometime between your last water change and this most recent one. I'm sorry for your loss, and let this be a good lesson for the future.

Yeah, apistos and neons should be fine together. Like Lennie said, neons are a common dither fish for apistos and many people keep them together. The one thing you'll want to look out for is aggression from the apisto pair when they spawn. The females can be incredibly protective of eggs and fry and will chase and nip other fish in the tank, including the male apisto. That's why it's recommended to have a separate tank to put the apistos in for spawning. It'll help if your tank is heavily planted and/or scaped in a way that breaks up lines of sight.