Tony s

This is a great product. I use it when remineralizing my RO water where I need it. They also make an Alkaline booster that is good if you want to add a touch of kh to your water

Not actually an overflow flow tank. That’s what they call a sump filter. It takes the place of any in tank filter. The sponges, hobs, and canisters. Works really well but you have to have the space for one. Fortunately, this aquarium comes equipped with it

Yes. Both maracyn2 and metroplex are antibiotics. maracyn and em erythromycin are both the same antibiotic. Erythromycin. Those still work to a degree. I haven’t used metroplex yet. But both maracyn2 and kanaplex are my go to treatment for bacterial problems. Kanaplex in a quarantine tank as it damages both plants and snails. Maracyn2 in food is good. Or in planted tanks. Petsmart or petco for em erythromycin. Lfs or Amazon for the rest

How about a really unique looking bristlenose then something like gobies to help fill in the space.

Sounds about right for snails. And no, not really high at all. Mine straight from the tap is around 260. As is my kh. The snails do really well in that water. kh being low is not an issue as long as you stay up on maintenance. Letting organics build up could lead to ph swings as kh acts to stabilize it. Or, you could try something to bump your kh. The cheapest being small amounts of baking soda. But then you have to consistently keep it the same level.

Seems an appropriate choice. But you do realize that there is no real antibiotic in those. More of essential oils. Used for prevention they should work. Kind of like catapa leaves in a bottle. Just keep an eye out for anything that looks suspicious. I’m sure you’re going to do that anyway. Especially after the last one 😢

But very therapeutic 😂

@Whitecloud09 yeah, that’s really soft water. Which is okay. But too soft for snails. But I’m guessing since you haven’t seen her for awhile, she’s probably escaped a while ago. My mystery snails used to do that all the time. You’d find them sort of dried out and think they were dead. I’d throw them back in and they’d be okay. White clouds are very tough and will adapt just fine to snail water. Ideally you’d want around 200ppm gh and at least 100ppm kh. If she would have passed you’d have found her shell at least. But a couple of weeks out of water and she’d be gone anyway. Especially if the dog found her first. for soft water like that you could try a clown Pleco. They get a little bigger at 3 inches, but are not really active swimmers. Or increase the hardness for snails.

For the longest time I had thought my skunk corys had slowly disappeared. Turns out not. After I started moving hardscape, all but 1 was still there.

@Stinson Beach Aquatics good luck with that treatment. She’s beautiful. What kind is she?

Well okay then 👍🤣. Bloat is such a bugger though. It can even come from organ failure and there’s no cure for that.

I just use plain round gravel. Unless I have a bottom feeder. Even corys do fine in small round gravel. And the crypts do great. I have sprouts all over my 75. But, like you I haven’t had success with stems yet

Keep up on the salt baths as well. The pea solution is kind of a hit or miss. If you’re feeding one guppy. Just a partial pea. Softened in the microwave. Skinned is okay. If it doesn’t clear in a couple days, I’d feed him colus recipe for maracyn2 in his feed. It very easily could be from bacterial infection.

4 years with cardinals is pretty good. I have yet to try them. But they have the reputation of being sort of finicky on parameters

@Colu

Really not, if you want your plants to thrive you need the other elements. Otherwise you starve your plants. And then the nitrates allow the algae to grow rapidly. What you want is fast growing plants to remove as much nitrates as they can. To do that they need the other nutrients. It’s probably easier in the long run to do the extra water changes. Either that or you may spend more time fighting the algae. This is very true. The reason being it’s one of the few positively charged nutrients. Most soils are negatively charged. Potash binds very tightly to soil. It’s considered immobile in soil. Therefore no runoff or leaching into the ground water. It’s much harder to get into aquatic systems that way. Where nitrogen has to be reapplied every year and becomes something of a pollutant. Phosphorus is somewhere in the middle. It moves, but not quickly. The problem it has, it doesn’t disappear from the environment as easily. And over accumulates. And for a long time was included in products like laundry soap and went directly into the water supply.

Depends on how fast the nitrates build up. More nitrates there are, the more algae will use them for growth. And more water changes are not a bad idea. It keeps the water fresh and brings in some elements that are not in easy green. But I understand completely. Sometimes there isn’t enough time to do what we need to anyway.

I have praecox rainbows in with mine. They’re small and fast. But I am feeding the angels. They get to fight among themselves for what flows past the angels. 🤣 No, they’re fine. But really, I make sure my angels get fed first and foremost. And they both beg for food on a nonstop basis. I have lemons, but not in there. Lemons concern me with angels. I tried to put a pair of gold rams with them once because lemons are supposed to be peaceful. Mine savaged the pair. I’m just lucky I got them out in time.

Potash is the old name for potassium. Very common in use around here. It’s the K2O Around here being where I’m at, not the forum. It’s at 9.21% by weight. Mostly because it doesn’t move in the soil and doesn’t runoff into the water supply. It can be rare in water systems.

No, you did your test on the tap and it came back slightly positive for nitrates . That’s okay. That’s your nitrogen. We don’t have any way to measure phosphorus or potassium without specialized tests. Which you don’t have, and that’s okay. And we wouldn’t have any test for the rest. Also okay. But for really good growth you need everything in the bottle of seachem flourish as well. here is the breakdown on coops easy green. It has less of the trace elements, but enough to work fine Guaranteed Analysis: — Water Soluble Nitrogen (N) 2.66% — Available Phosphate (P2O5) 0.46% — Soluble Potash (K2O) 9.21% — Water Soluble Magnesium (Mg) 0.7% — Boron (B) 0.015% — Water Soluble Iron (Fe) 0.13% — Water Soluble Manganese (Mn) 0.036% — Molybdenum (Mo) 0.00098% — Water Soluble Zinc (Zn) 0.0072% NPK 2.66 - 0.46 - 9.21

This is the nutrient breakdown of seachem flourish. All of these are important for growth. Nitrates are just the nitrogen Amounts per 1 g of flourish Total Nitrogen (N)0.07% Available Phosphate (P2O5)0.01% Soluble Potash (K2O)0.37% Calcium (Ca)0.14% Magnesium (Mg)0.11% Sulfur (S)0.2773% Boron (B)0.009% Chlorine (Cl)1.15% Cobalt (Co)0.0004% Copper (Cu)0.0001% Iron (Fe)0.32% Manganese (Mn)0.0118% Molybdenum (Mo)0.0009% Sodium (Na)0.13% Zinc (Zn)0.0007%

For nitrogen, no. But yes for everything else. Nitrates only contain 1 element of the many elements that plants need to grow healthy. Phosphorus and potassium being the other most important elements. If you look at a bag of soil fertilizer you’ll find 3 numbers. Often 10-10-10. That’s 10% by weight of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Aquatic plants need the same thing. Nitrates are only the first number of that. Nitrates are your nitrogen source only. It doesn’t have any phosphorus or potassium in it. And that’s not counting all the rest of the trace elements plants need to grow. The key is to balance the nitrogen with everything else your plants need.

Female platys are kinda like guppies. You just assume they’re always pregnant. They can hold onto them for a long time. I even tried sorting them by sex into different tanks. That didn’t work. They kept having them for months with no male around. so until she feels comfortable you may not see anything.

I have this issue as well. I think it’s normal for being in a new tank. But I’m hoping we both find out

It’s supposed to be top rated. There are several other brands. Seachem flourish and flourish trace are good. And there are expensive ones just for aquascapers. and you may need a good root tab as well. Coop root tabs work well. Most fertilizers are designed not to raise either.