Tony s

Yeah. Mine actually do okay. Do they make the glass clean? no, that's my job. And they really do a good job on eating leftover organic matter. especially leftover food and sometimes including dead fish. Sometimes nano fish pass, and you see nothing. I usually won't feed mine more than a couple of algae wafers a week. I have 35 home grown ones in my 75g angel tank (with the rest scattered everywhere else). no water quality issues at all. but they're constantly foraging for food

I like that idea, or florida flag fish @fishdogs It also depends on the type of algae. snails are great for surface algae, not good on hair algae. amano shrimp and these fish are good on hair type algae. so are your mollies btw. most people don't think of them as algae eaters, but they do okay. and I catch my platys grazing off of glass algae all the time

Mine are constantly grazing on algae. And everything else for that matter. All forms of organic matter

How old is your tank. I prefer mystery snails but they may not be best in new tanks. As long as you keep the water high and pull random clutches. They’re great. And really goofy.

so, really not much in the way of flames here🤣 most of us understand sometimes you want what you want, and try to offer the best ways for you to get it

Well you can go either way. If you really want the flowerhorn. Step up to the 40g short term. Preferably moving to a 55g as it gets bigger. With the understanding that you may have to rehome it if necessary. People do this with dogs all the time. Unfortunately. Life changes fast. You may not even need or want to rent in a couple of years. Or if you can show your new landlord what a 55g and flowerhorn look like. You may get approved. Or just rent from someone who is not worried about it in the first place. A couple of years away can be a very long time for a fish and keeper. or pick a fish that will fit in the 29 gallon. Could do a blood parrot for a cichlid. Or polar blue blood parrot for that matter. Not the same I know. But still personable. We had someone rehome a parrot at our lfs a couple months ago. Due to age. It was huge and beautiful. And looked very well kept for a long time. Named Fat Albert. I would have loved to have helped but didn’t have the space. So really there are options. You could even wait until you’re really ready for your flowerhorn. I just think long term you’ll be happier knowing you did right by your pet. And it will be happier as well.

Sorry. I’m a bit slow Yeah. Me too. Land plants I can do. Still learning aquatic plants

https://reverserespiration.com/

Possibly using the reverse respiration method that many here like? Which involves soaking in seltzer water instead of bleach. @mynameisnobody you know how to do this I believe?

@Vonz1 so…. What’d you buy?

Thank you for that. Am new to guppies since we've only bought from PET.... and couldn't keep them alive for more than a month at a time. That's the only tank I have with no snails, so now I won't bother. And I wouldn't say they're mean exactly. Honestly, they remind me of pigs or puppies. They have to keep getting their noses into everything. especially pigs. they are smart enough to be bored. and then chew on everything, constantly.

Since you're going to collect them from the beach, I'd also give them a smell test. If they stink inside, the old animal is probably still there. I wouldn't use those

All I can say (because you passed my level of knowledge a long time ago in fishkeeping 🤣) is just WOW. you must be having a great time with all this. I always liked putting together big projects.

yeah, i never buy into that, unless it's a nanotank <20g. you get so much more interesting behavior when you at least do 12 (or bigger) That's true but they're also not trying to do long term homes for those animals. The thing that I worry about the 29g, it's only 12 inches wide. not a lot of turn around room. I'm almost always willing to push the smaller dimensions. especially with a schooling fish. not necessarily with a pet. just for comparison. In the meat industry you use 7 sq foot for a 250 lb animal. you stock them in groups, so there's plenty of space to move around and get food and water. a 75g tank is 6 sq feet

@s_in_houston have you always had this issue, or have you added something recently? you're looking for something limestone based, or magnesium based. the carbonates are the easiest way to tell. An old junior high science project was to drip acid on a rock and determine its composition. for an acid you can use white vinegar. or concentrated lemon juice. then if the rock bubbles around the acid edges, there's your culprit.

I hatched a clutch of mystery snails in my 75. I still have about 30 in there. Yours must be better cleaners than mine. But honestly, I like having them in there, they're so fun to watch in that large a group 😁

That's a lot of cleaning power 🤣

yes, they will affect it as they break down. but given what you want to keep it's not a big deal. and your ph is slightly basic already, so they'll break down slowly. I'd be careful of the type of tetra you want; some can be more sensitive to ph than others. If you stay with the more common ones, you should be good for cleaning, a good rinse in the sink should be fine.

You could do 1 honey gourami. And then you’d be full. Normally you would do these in groups. But a single would be okay

I think it is due to activity levels. Fancy goldfish and blood parrots are kinda derpy swimmers. Not graceful at all. If you go to regular goldfish. The tank requirement gets much higher. I have thought about getting a flowerhorn. They are very active and can get bored in a small tank. Becoming destructive. The other thing to think about. When buying a flowerhorn. You’re getting a pet. Kinda like getting a dog. Not a small schooling fish. They will interact with you constantly. Would you keep a dog in a small pen? A large of tank as you can get would be better.

Possibility that this is the wrong medication for an internal parasite. Supposed to treat parasites on the body of the fish. Polygard might be better. @Colu

yeah, that's above my paygrade. I'm still learning aquatic plants🤣 If you wanted help with garden plants or crops I could do that better. or even water chemistry in general. ph gh kh, those I can do. But I could more easily tell you what to do for your tomatoes and corn than your Buce

i agree with that. but helpful to that is to get the plants up and growing faster Yes. In the soil profile it may move only a couple of inches a year. even under excess conditions. If it doesn't move. it doesn't run off into streams and it doesn't enter the water table. soil is negatively charged; potassium is positively charged. so they bind yeah. on aquatic plants and algae, me neither. but understand relatively well nutrient deficiencies

the other thing about using the equilibrium. your calcium and magnesium don't evaporate. so, if you're adding it to every water top off, you're actually increasing your gh constantly. for my ro, I add only enough equilibrium to increase the water I'm changing to the desired level. ie... if I make a 30g tote of ro water I add enough to change the tote to the desired gh. if my gh is too high already, sometimes I don't add it at all. and I never add it to top offs If you really want to know what you have and don't have, they make water drop test of almost every mineral you could have. a couple time use those and you could really dial in what you actually need

that is a symptom. but almost all aquatic systems are deficient in potassium to some degree. If it binds to the soil, it can't get in the water. where we have to worry about excess ammonia and phosphate getting from the crops to the water table. we don't worry about potassium. it doesn't move