Tony s

Do you have a vet you could run her to? It really could be an emergency. Would hate to lose her.

That sounds like a really cool combination. I have a couple of empty tanks, I may borrow your idea 😀

And now we owe a huge apology to JS FISH. Absolutely sorry for letting this get out of hand. I have removed everything I said that was off topic and causing issues. I’ll remove this later.. sorry JS Fish. Please have fun with your new tank. I’m actually really jealous. I’d love to start another, but I can’t seem to stop😅

Okay. Great! Guessing they’re showing coloration irl that the picture can’t show. Looking closer, I’m seeing the blue back in the middle picture that I wasn’t before. Taking tank pictures can be a such a hit or miss thing. Unless you want to shell out large amounts of money for a high end camera. I’m hoping they hang in there for you. They’re such a beautiful fish.

Looking at them, they may actually be bolivian rams. Their central spot is not as prominent as normal. But that wouldn’t be a bad thing, they’d be more resilient than gbr’s. Big boxes get the names screwed up all the time. Our’s currently list a mixed tank of rasboras as trigonostigma rasboras. Hopefully it’s just the picture and they do wonderfully for you

Try taking them out in a small cup and spraying with hydrogen peroxide. Not sure it'll work, just an idea

Chili's are really tiny. to even see them it's going to take what seems like an absurd amount. s0, in your 29g, maybe 30

Dont have to be that precise. this is not rocket science. 40 is close enough

If you’re under 50,add. For plants, they’re not really an upper limit. Within reason

Nitrates are not an issue. It’s still plant food. Not their favorite form , but it works. And water changes will lower it immediately. Even for fish, nitrates are really not an issue short term. Keeping nitrates under 50 is for their long term health. It’s not uncommon for nitrates in a large, unplanted cichlid tank to reach 300ppm. Nitrates are more like being in a room full of smoke. 50ppm is manageable, 300ppm becomes hard to breathe. So watch the nitrates, keep them under 50 for plants. Don’t stress about nitrates. That being said, there are fish that can’t handle even less than 20 ppm. Thinking rams, discus, hillstream loaches.

Yeah, the stiff, green, common garden hose, probably not what you want. My food safe one is supple, easily bendable. It does kink, not an issue for the 50 foot length. I use stock tank and submersible pump as a water source, so python is not an option. Also a valve at the end for control. And I do use the python hook at the end, just because it holds itself in the tank

Not going to be an issue. Acclimation is for temperature swings.

I use a standard one purchased through Amazon. Searched for food safe garden hose. Didn’t want any chemical residue and wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to degrade over time. Ran water through it first before adding water to my tanks.

Actually the plants do care. They LOVE the ammonia, it’s their preferred source of nitrogen. Farmers inject anhydrous ammonia directly in it the soil for fertilizer. It quickly is absorbed by the soil’s moisture so it doesn’t release into the air. Then breaks down into nitrites and nitrates. You’re still good, it’s just going to take a bit. No harm to the plants from the ammonia. Or to the bacteria colony. But next time you’re back to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites, trust the process. You’re cycled enough for a small amount of fish

ya know, I would have never thought of that. But just something to break the surface tension. And my problems are with canister filters

Protein film. Possibly from over feeding. No worries. I get this also. Use a paper towel laying on surface flat. Comes right off. You can also get a skimmer to keep it out. Not harmful but it can reduce oxygen exchange at the surface

From the look of it. The top gray rock is actually the real rock. The brown looks like an oxidative coating. Probably high in iron. That’s just dissolved over time. If you have a smaller brown one that you don’t mind sacrificing I’d take a hammer and split it to see what’s inside.

Sounds great!

Yeah. It should be great. That one betta was just a bit aggressive or curious. I put him into a tank full of platys, after a while he thought he was a platy. He’d never seen any other fish. 😀

Yeah, I have mystery snails In every tank, and 6 bettas in community tanks. Only had one ever go after a snail. It was in a 5 gallon. They were alone together. Bigger tank, more tank mates, I think it would have been no problem

For the price you could do a 20-30g aquarium. I own the 2 15’s. I honestly wouldn’t repurchase them. They look great, but…

Honestly I wouldn’t worry about your ph. As long as your water supply is stable and consistent, your fish will adapt. Especially if you’re getting fish from a local source. Ph is highly variable in the US. With over half the country having ph of around 8. And gh of at least 10. Kh usually around 7. Most aquarium fish as well as plants will do just fine in this water. The places with the low ph and soft gh, kh are basically on the east coast, south east and Pacific Northwest. Mountain west, Midwest, and south west all have hard to very hard water. And the fish are fine. Best way is to use your tap water and keep it consistent. that being said, some fish will have problems breeding successfully in hard water, but live just fine in it. Thinking of sensitive species like discus and rams. As for plants, plants love hard water. The boost in calcium and magnesium is great for them.

bettas can go after antennae. only had one do it though. just have to keep an eye on him

Right. completely normal. Although, I did get overwhelmed with it before. Used a black sand from a big box, must have had extra silicates. it covered everything in a 1/4 inch layer. had to clean my anubias off for a month. thought they might die from shading. And had a dark glow fish tank with lots of glow fish decorations. that was a complete pain to clean and some of the decorations never returned. brown algae and blue lights do not mix 🙂 best remedy are snails and otocinclis

I might also be cautious with the honey gourami and shrimp. they for sure will eat shrimplets. How about a large school; of chili rasboras, maybe 30+. with some green neons, possibly. play off the red and green contrast.