Tony s

Possibly add in Catapa leaves until the water turns dark tea colored. Tannins should help prevent infection. Possibly a good spot for something like pimafix. Supposed to prevent or treat fungal or bacterial infection. All natural. No real meds in there. Wouldn’t use it except maybe in a preventative measure. Like this.

Let me rephrase that. Sterbais are definitely the hardiest fish. In case the new tank has cycling issues. They'd survive the best. Just making sure you're catching what I'm saying. Then I'd add the cardinals to increase bioload. then the rams. then the discus. Discus are too expensive to start in a new tank. Got to make sure it's rock solid first. And that you're up to so many water changes. You're going to need almost no nitrates and very little to no fish waste on a constant basis.

Sterbai's will be the toughest. Just in case things don't go as planned. But I'd do a group of 6. They feel more comfortable in the larger groups. Then give it a month or so of successful running before adding the others. They tend to be much more finicky and need pristine waters

Sorry to hear about your struggles with guppies. I have the same issue. They should be easy to keep, but something is just not right with them. Very possibly it’s genetics. And even getting them from good stock may not solve the problem. We finally got some fry but have lost 3 of 4 adults. Some of that was my fault. Apparently the sponge filter was clogged solid and was not filtering out the ammonia. The fry are doing fine though. I think that may be the key. Getting enough fry raised in your water to keep a colony going. The place I ordered from is in Ohio. They keep the imports there for several weeks to acclimate them to our water. Sometimes foreign guppies are raised in salty water, which makes getting them started even harder. They even offer tank raised strains, which should be even better. Haven’t tried those yet though.

Trust the api tests. The strips result always seems too vague. It’s very slightly different shades of pink. Too difficult to tell exactly in my opinion. Just make sure you shake the api to death when using it.

Shrimp need a certain amount of funkiness in the tank. They don't do well on a new pristine tank. You, of course, realize that shrimp also limit the type of fish you can have. Mbuna would definitely appreciate the snack. 😁

There is a point where too much ammonia becomes toxic to your cycle. All you really want is to have the ammonia present, so the bacteria can survive and multiply. 2ppm is sufficient

You have the obvious things. Like making accurate methods for cycling known before tank or fish purchase. That info is out there, but you still have places trying to sell tanks and fish the same day. Showing people how to properly clean tanks. unfortunately, things like YouTube are going to be the way that people learn. For better or worse. The problem becomes how to eliminate the garbage. How to eliminate the junk ai generated information. We’re getting to the point people can’t really tell fact from fiction anymore. Even in video. It leaves people doing whatever they want and justifying it. Things like Facebook only make it worse. It groups like minded people together so they only learn from the same people. Differing points of view are not heard. you’re also fighting with human nature. When things get difficult, whether it’s disease, die offs, maintenance. People tend to stop. Especially today, when people spend an incredible time on their screens and everything is easy and on-demand. Finding people who can stick to anything is next to impossible. Finding good workers is almost impossible. The only way to combat this is by making things as easy as possible for them. I cringe whenever I see people talk about chasing their parameters. You just know they won’t be in it for long that way.

Let’s check and see if this is the right meds. @Colu

Yeah, that’s not going to do much for an active bacterial infection. There’s no real antibiotic in it. You’re going to need something like maracyn2 since it’s a planted tank. Kanaplex if it wasn’t. Amazon or a local fish store should have it. There is a high probability that this is columnaris. What they call saddleback disease. It’s also highly contagious. So a whole tank treatment is needed.

You’re always going to see poop on light sand. Nothing unusual about that. The fact that it sits underneath your canister means you have a dead spot there. You can tinker with the inlet and outlet to see about reducing it. Or add things like power heads to direct the flow where you want it and eliminate the dead spots.

No such thing. They’ll help keep your algae down if you keep them healthy. Looks like you’re just waiting for your nitrite bacteria to kick into high gear. Then you’ll be good.

You could setup a great species only breeding tank or get a couple other dwarf Mbuna and make a really colorful tank.

I wouldn’t worry about a ph of 8 much. It just means you have hard water. The majority of people do. More important are your gh and kh numbers. They can determine what you can put in. You have to avoid things like apistos, German blue rams, discus, and most wild caught South American fish. Local raised fish of all sorts are going to be your friend. As well as all livebearers, African species, and Central American fish. but for now the most important numbers are your ammonia and nitrites which need to be zero. the chidongo would be great. As well as any other Africans

I'm thinking you'll want to know what you're gh and kh values are. and target around them. ph is actually the least important of these values. gh is the most important. Hving a high ph usually means your gh value is also high. To get a neutral ph, the gh values are going to need to be 8 dgh or lower. ph of 8.4 is usually a dgh around 12

If you got them from a big box store, probably nothing you did wrong. They have been very difficult to keep alive from there. I usually expect upwards of 60% or more of losses. the genetics from those sources are off. If you want neons, I'd probably get them from a higher end source like Dan's fish.

If nothing happens with the motor by itself. It’s dead. When doing a restriction like that, it’s best to restrict the outlet. Most pumps are designed that way. Like a clog. Restricting the intake can leave the impeller and motor without adequate cooling or lubrication. Which is probably the case here

All depends on the species. Some will do okay and thrive. But more than likely fry won’t survive. Same with corys. Chances are, if it came from petsmart or petco it will survive just fine. Probably if it came from a local source as well. For that matter, the fish from dans fish are grown in hard alkaline water as well

This livestream starting at minute 47

That was one of the things that was cleared up. Used to be a good place to set a bottle of anything. Just to keep lid rattling down

I’ll have to look. May even be buried in a livestream

Yes, but the flow and motor have been tweeked, so it's no longer supposed to be an issue. John Hudson had a review on these. That was the one flaw he found in the new one. But the CEO or regional director addressed it with him. and he did some cold starts with no issues

I think it's just a different name for red shouldered manacapuru. Or at the least a very red form of Koi. I have seen them in a couple of spots

I started with 6 juveniles in my 75. ended up with 2 pairs. one set was mostly peaceful. The other male was just plain mean. His pair is in a breeding tank now. and, unfortunately, the other female passed. so, 3 males in the 75 with no issues. but every tank is different

Betta's are on a case by case basis. some males are ok. some females are nasty. I usually keep my bettas in community tanks with snails in. But Some bettas are just unstable and can't be kept that way