Tony s

What’s the last time you’ve done a water change. I know it can be scary thinking about sucking up baby snails. It sounds like your water has exhausted its kh. Best way to fix that is a good change. My 75g allowed me to skip for a bit. But possibly not a 20g. Possibly put a mesh bag over the end of your vac to keep the snails in. let me clarify. I was Skipping changes when hatching snails. I’m not sure you can do that.

I haven’t used that brand. But would definitely add the air stone.

If it is something like substrate or decor you could take a small sample or piece out of the tank rinse it and let it dry. That wouldn’t require major movements. Then place in a clean glass bowl and add white vinegar. If it bubbles it has carbonate in it and is likely the source Even if your gh is 11 dgH 220ppm million. It shouldn’t affect your plant growth by a horrible amount. Plants usually do well with calcium or magnesium easily available. Some species won’t of course.

I’ve ordered from Florida twice now to good results and once from Ohio. Angelfish from Florida and guppies from Ohio. Arrived in great shape..couldn’t keep guppies alive until now.

Right all you hear is the guys won’t ship to Canada. Seems like there should be an opportunity there.

Add it to the tank water. It doesn’t absorb in the gut well. Maracyn2 is the better one for food. sorry about your guy. Hopefully he can pull through. I get used to losing them, but I keep giving other ones opportunities to get out of the cups. they just appear fragile from box stores. Lots of weird tumors and things There are places to order online for high end bettas. Those should still last like they’re supposed to.

Yeah. On the middle back. Right before it color transitions. I figured it was normal. But questions never hurt

@Katherine Ha. And here I am floating a Java fern and anubias. Because I wasn’t sure how to get it stuck on when both the plants and targets are wet

Yeah. But oh so many variables. Fish in. Fish out. Ghost feeding. With meat or fish food. Adding ammonia. Adding plants. Adding bacteria or not. It can go on and on. Sometimes it’s easier to talk through it. It seems everybody’s situation is slightly different. @TinaPax-Peeks never apologize for asking questions. We like to help. Almost as much as we like fish in some cases. 😂

You’re right, but boy do we spend a lot of time on the forum🤣

Usually I’d link to Jason Adam’s video, but Bob’s shows the schooling

@TinaPax-Peeks yes, agree completely with @doktor zhivago. But didn’t want to muddy the water, again. Nitrates for fish aren’t really directly poisonous either. Think of it as being in a smoke filled room. You can survive in it, bit gets more difficult as levels get higher. Causes long term damage, not direct poisoning. Which is why we try to keep it down African cichlid keepers that can’t keep plants often get to the lower hundreds without ill effect. And plants need at least 20ppm to survive well. Also depends on the species. Discus and rams like very low levels. Almost 0 for a good discus tank

For very tight schooling fish how about brilliant green rasboras. Kind of common, mostly silver. With green and black in the tail. But, so tight schooling, my daughter was playing with them at our lfs. They were following her hand around the tank in formation.

It actually could be. Your bacteria live on the surfaces of your tank. Not in the water. If you remove a lot of your substrate, you will be removing bacteria. If you keep the sides of your tank wet and the filter running, bacteria will survive there. As well as on the plants. but, now is the time to fix it to your liking. It’s either going to be okay, or if you don’t like it now, it could gnaw at you for a long time. You could end up kicking yourself for not doing it now. Fish can wait until you’re satisfied.

@Seqkat if you go to Seachem’s site they have listed the plant safe product’s under the plant drop down.

I still use the cheap kit heaters. When upgrading, usually switch to fluval. Have only replaced half so far.

Spare sponge filters or air stones. In case you need to quarantine one. Or just isolate for a bit. Don’t need a spare aquarium with that. A clean plastic tub works. I used my wife’s cake box top for that. Aquarium salt for illness. Meds on hand. Maracyn2 or kanaplex. And the know how to use them. water testing kit. Decent gravel vac. Bigger tank. We started with 2 3g plastic tanks, upgraded to 2 10g. If we’d have known what we were doing, we’d have started with 20g’s

If you can get beside it, they should do nicely. Depends how much room. And I’m assuming you’ll need a breaker bar type wrench. Like a socket wrench without the movement. Socket wrench will work with it. But can be a pain when it ratchets and you don’t want it to. Great choice. I had completely forgotten about them we have a set. We have a farm shop. We have a set of everything 🤣. Very valuable in spots. But honestly, one of my least favorite tools 🤣 Also depends on the size needed. Kind of hard to tell when it’s that cramped. And if you have my luck. You’ll be one size off

Two things. First, the importance of the cycle. I learned everything from scratch. Didn’t know anything or anyone that could help. second. Patience. You can really screw things up by over reacting. Lots of things are fixed by natural causes.

And , unfortunately, bacteria in the water supply as well. One of the reasons I use ro. Had hoped the ro would clear them, but possibly not. The rest of the house uses a hydrogen peroxide injector and water softener to clean the water. Not sure which is better. Had problems starting cycles when beginning. Still not sure if the peroxide was killing the bb. Or just my inexperience at that time. We used to bleach our well to pass foster care requirements. Really nervous of doing that with fish in house now. The first time I tried I overdid it enough I forced my wife out of her shower when it came through 🤣🤣

He’s handsome. What’s that white spot on his back?

Yeah, that’s what I use to fill my trash can. Before I use my water I usually run its pump for 5-10 minutes while adding buffers. So stagnating is not an issue. Freshly oxygenated. But could be very useful for 5 gallon jugs

Would that actually work though, or would it increase the growth rate of whatever nuisance bacteria is growing?

Equilibrium is for planted tanks. Adjusts your gh only. That’s what I use to remineralize my ro. They have another line of products called regulators. Acid, alkaline and neutral regulator. Neutral regulator is the one that adjusts ph to neutral. Those all have salt in them and are not recommended for planted tanks. Equilibrium, acid buffer and alkaline buffer have little salt in them and are designed for planted tanks. I use all of these. They do a good job for the most part. But there may be better options. Always willing to learn new things.😀 Takes a bit of getting used to when starting adjusting. I have a whole bottle of neutral regulator. Then figured out it’s the wrong one🤣

Unfortunately, so do the glass ones. I figured out 6 months after finding a nitrate test again.