Tony s

Yeah, you’ll need some wat to test for ammonia. Weather strips or drops. Drops are more accurate depending on your ph. Especially on a new tank. That’s something you’ll need to watch constantly at first. Ammonia being the most poisonous. When it’s at a confirmed zero and nitrites are zero you’re ready for fish. For the stem plants, the rootlets should not get very long looking more like hairs. It helps them grow new plants. So perfectly normal

Well that’s interesting. Although you can see a bit of the coloration underneath the white starting to show through. I didn’t think that the breeding stars would be visible in a male unless he was ready to go. I guess we learn a little every day. Yeah, he said that they change, but yeah, that’s a lot we actually met Luke at Chicago aquashella. And his fiancée, and possibly her sister? Seems very nice, my wife and daughter got autographed shirts from him. 😀

Not sure you need all of this at this point. Prime to remove chlorine and chloramine from your tap water after a water change. QuickStart is your source for beneficial bacteria. It only needs to be added a couple of times in the beginning. Clarity is just a water clarifier. This is the one you really don’t need currently. It just precipitates out cloudiness. Since you don’t have any fish, not really needed. gohst feeding can be as much an art as a science.the goal is to get your ammonia up high enough to grow your bacteria into a strong colony. The desired result is ammonia at around a 2ppm level. Once you’re there, you can really stop the ghost feeding. The you just wait around until your ammonia goes to zero, and your nitrites comes up, then more waiting for your nitrites to go to zero and your nitrates rise. since you’re seeing nitrates, your cycle should be complete. I’d do some testing and if no ammonia or nitrites, you’re cycled. Possibly a small bacteria colony so go slow adding fish. Gives it a chance to keep up. For your plants. Stem plants will grow roots up and down the stem. Perfectly normal. Makes them easier to propagate.

Okay. Um, how do you tell. Never sexed goldfish before

@Stinson Beach Aquatics Agree with this completely. If you're going to feed pellets soak them first and make sure they don't gulp air. Feed lots of fresh food should help. Especially veggies, and duckweed @Lennie You have stunning fish. Especially your black and white.😍

Absolutely correct. As will things like balloon mollies and rams. The main idea was how to help mitigate such problems before they happen. Steady, warmer temperatures seem to help. Also true. But comets need a 6’ tank as they get up to 14”. I think if I had one of those, a goldfish might be the last thing in the tank 😂

Actually, I’m thinking that’s over the range for Bolivian rams. They’re live in a much colder range than German rams. From 74 to 78. But I’d ask @Guppysnail I believe she’s trying to get some to breed for her.

Hygger’s Oranda care guide says to keep them at a relatively stable temperature. As does Luke. His recommendation is room temperature or slightly warmer.

I’ve been looking at getting a trio of orandas and doing a bit of research. Apparently fancies like orandas and ranchus have a bit of a weak digestive system. They actually do better digesting their food and have fewer problems when kept in warmer temperatures. Apparently, who knew. You always hear about them being cold water fish and all that.

If it was all of a sudden, yeah, could be the reason. But you would have to have had a sterilizer pump and not just an algae control one. Not sure a green killing machine would do much to blue green algae. Could be wrong though. Have actually been thinking of getting the sterilizer that hooks inline to the fx-series filters

Welcome, ask lots of questions, we like to help. And for the no fish thing, that’s actually great. Take your time, figure out what gets you excited first. Tanks sizes and plants are all second to the fish you really want. 😀

Just bumping it back up top for fresh eyes

Yeah, i think that's right. clean your glass and then substrate, water change, then when the water clears, do the sponge. That way it can get everything leftover from the water change. Or, if you're doing a very deep water change. You can do it before the change. But I'm talking like a 75% change. not sure you do any of those

Yeah, but if you can tell who made it, I'm sure they have a customer or product help line. After all, it's their name on it. You could even add some of the thick insulation board on top of the plywood. Was reading some of the makers recommend that. Some don't, however. But, anyway, Being third on something like that's just a great find!

You may be right. That's one of the reasons I'd check with the manufacturer, Or the dealer. Honestly have no experience with something that large. But, yeah, if it has to be supported every square inch, where are the center supports at. acrylic is going to naturally bow where it's not supported.

The bow is from front to back? Or from one end to the other end? If the side supports are straight and the bow is front to back, not sure I'd worry about it. The sides and ends are going to carry the weight. And depending on how old it is, I might contact the manufacturer. Just to be safe

Sorry, but no. I run the fluval 3.0 on the 75g. But I'm not smart enough yet to figure out where all the setting should be. Hoping the slime out works for you. That's the one product I hadn't tried yet. I'd still throw in an extra stone. That's a lot of bacteria dying at one time. I'd kind of think of this as infection. Any little bit left and it's coming back. Good Luck! It's just insidious.

I can see that. At the time i was trying to do 150 gallons of ro and remineralizing everything. Which took days, and I was always 2 weeks behind. In my 75g It covered everything with a gray/brown coating. It even coated the snails. tried everything. Finally hit it with erythromycin and completely crashed the tank. The cycle was/is fine. But the dead bacteria consumed all the oxygen. Lost a few fish. Then got everybody else into a different tank. Too small. Same problems but left it untreated and everybody is fine. Finished the med, removed all the hardscape, plants, added 2 more inches of substrate. Rebuilt with new hardscape and plants. Wasn't going to take the chance of bringing it back. Ditched the ro water, too time consuming. Trying out the softened tap. (well water with too much iron). Hopefully this works. @Adam H I think I would start by removing what's been infected. Plants and hardscape. Maybe you can clean the hardscape, maybe not. I gave up on mine. Plants are even harder to clean. I had huge crypts that I tossed. Really sort of discouraging. I honestly think this stuff feeds more on excess bioload in the tank. Which you really can't measure (well, maybe with a tds meter). I never saw an issue with parameters at all. Although this was the tank I had a large mystery snail population in. Which increased my organic load. Here is coops article about it https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/blue-green-algae

Okay, I'll bite, once you have it how do you eliminate it The only thing I have ever seen is to use erythromycin, or products like slime out Even the LFS says use a medication product

Just to give you an idea of the complexity of iding juveniles. I still have a text book on fly identification. It’s close to 1200 pages. In it you look at things like antennae base formation. You look at what hair is in what place on what plate. Granted, flies are much more complex than dragonflies with many many more species. But juvenile anything makes it much harder

@Adam H that is what it looks like. You’re going to need a source of erythromycin. Maracyn will be the best. But be very careful when treating this. Both the meds and the bacterial die off will seriously reduce the amount of available oxygen. Put at least one extra airstone in. Watch the fish for deprivation. I fight with this stuff. I believe it’s from cross contamination between tanks. I can’t seem to get rid of it. But, I also can’t afford to get new equipment for every tank either. Just be prepared for it. Have a place to put fish in an emergency.

I’m wondering if she hasn’t had some kind of prolapse in her egg tract. @Colu

It shouldn’t have any affect on nitrates. Nitrates being the end product of the nitrification process. The only 2 ways to get rid of nitrates is 1. Plants using them as fertilizer, and 2. Water changes removing them directly. The amount of nitrates comes directly from the amount of nitrite and ammonia in the water. A tiny sponge has the potential to decrease the conversion rate for those to a small extent. as far as the plants go, since the size of the sponge doesn’t do anything to the amount of nitrates, it won’t affect your plant growth either. that said larger sponges are going to be able to do a better job of mechanical filtration. Removing the gunk from the water. Alternatively, larger sponges detract from the appearance of your tank. So it’s kind of a balancing act. Get the mechanical filtration in as small a package that will work and still look good in your tank.

Stunning fish. But I think someone tampered with the color scheme in @PluckyD’s photos. That purple Gertrude would be insane

You can use salt directly into the aquarium at low levels. At the 1tablespoon per 5 gallons. Snails and plants don’t like it. But fish do fine. Only aquarium salt or marine salt. If you’re talking about epsom salt that’s a different thing altogether it can be done in the tank I believe but you’ll need to ask @Colu Instead of salt you could use a number of catapa leave. They have antibacterial and antifungal properties. But that would turn your water a tea color. Called tannins. Can be very beneficial. But depends on your tolerance for the color. Some people can’t stand it. I think it can be beautiful. My wife does not.