Tony s

You could run this through aqadvisor.com to see how full it says your tank would be. And sometimes more is better. I had 6 skunk corys that were always hiding. I added 6 more. Now they’re literally everywhere. They reclaimed the tank back from the angels.

Yeah, I think I’ve caulked everything but a tank. Sometimes it’s not easy. In a normal job, you probably wouldn’t notice. But since it’s a glass box. It’s very easy to see. I might have actually added more just to be safe. Not that it works that way. Of course

It’s probably fine. Done by an inexperienced caulker for sure. But the right spots were covered. More than likely. With way extra. But if it’s going to make you feel more confident in the tank. Now’s the time.

If you’re worried about the excess nitrogen at the moment. You could do another 20% change. Then add some bacteria back in to bolster your cycle. I’d still test your tap though. Just to see

Doing something for Higher ph, no, it should settle to normal. Just keep an eye on it. The last thing you want to do is make rapid changes to your tank. Maybe the city changed something temporarily. You could take a test at the tap and see. It’s actually not a bad idea anyway. Just to know what your water normally is. I’d just watch it for now

Yeah, no problems. wish I could be more help. I have had problems like that before. you start losing fish for no apparent reason. It's completely maddening. Took me ages to figure it out. turns out I cross contaminated a couple of tanks with a red thick form of blue green algae. The only way I stopped it was by treating everything with erythromycin. But the questioning and hair pulling of not knowing is insane

So sorry to hear that. hopefully your adults stabilize and the colony is able to recover.

Are you having any luck. appears i may be wrong on the pothos. hopefully. was just wondering how things were going.

Have I had this happen, no, thankfully. But Luke from Luke’s Goldie’s lost a tank full of fancy goldfish. The only explanation for it, was he runs open top tanks, and the vines were left trailing in the water. question away. I am more than capable of being wrong. I am trying to learn, same as everyone else here. going to ask some experts though @dasaltemelosguy. Could we pick your brain on this? Can be a bit confusing for some of us trying to learn. I have heard roots are safe, but the stem and vine can leach toxins?

I think the general consensus is that, yes, you probably need to use it. just to be on the safe side. you could possibly be okay with not. but you're also possibly risking the health of your fish.

could be, but it could be a general bacterial bloom. possibly blue green algae. pictures would be useful at this point. as well as parameters

Honestly, it’s the smell that has me concerned the most. Shouldn’t be anything like that Are you currently running the sponge. The tank should smell like clean water. Or slightly fishy water. Wondering if it wouldn’t be easier to treat the tank with a round of erythromycin

Oh good lord. Ya know there’s people going to believe this. And holey moley, the hardness. Guessing even that’s fake 🤪

It can sit at any angle. That’s not going to affect performance. It just cuts the effectiveness of the glass cleaning benefits.

YouTube here. Then started looking for plants and equipment.

Just highlight and it usually just asks if you want to quote something from someone. I, for the longest time had no idea how to @. Someone. Then I tried it. And…. Boy that was just…. You have to be kidding me…. I think I felt about 3inches tall 🤣

If you do have algae, it’s important to know what kind. Snails work best on surface algae. They won’t do anything to hair algae. Shrimp are great on hair algae but not so good for algae on the glass. and of course if you just want either snails or shrimp you could do that too. Both are great pets for a 10g. You could even do a small group of otocinclus catfish. Those will need some fresh veggies as well. They clean surface algae too well, and you’ll probably run out. another thing I like about snails, they eat anything organic. So food that gets past your fish doesn’t stay around. Or, sometimes you lose a tiny fish, they’ll clean that up to some extent as well.

A bit high on the nitrates, but the rest of the parameters look good. The hardness is not an issue. Dropsy or bloat in fish is a hard issue. Honestly, most of the time it doesn’t end well. I believe it’s usually an internal bacterial infection or in some cases it’s a problem with the kidneys. Either way, fluid is building up internally. I don’t think maracyn is going to do a lot. You need maracyn 2 or kanaplex. Kanaplex externally. Maracyn2 soaked into their food. Both should be available at your lfs. There are epsom salt baths that can be used to relieve pressure. Make sure the epsom salt doesn’t have any additives, like scents or other chemicals. I’m actually hesitant to give advice at this point, I’d hate to give it wrong. But @Colu has all the answers. Probably has it memorized by heart now. 😂. The 5 gallon tank would work, but I don’t think you can have snails in it during treatment. A shallow breeder box could also work. Better to keep them higher in the tank. Less pressure on the fish.

Oh, and algae can be a bit weird. I have 2 15g tanks I break the rules on. One was exposed to direct sunlight (I recently took it down and moved it, its location was annoying my wife). The others light has never been turned off. It works as my daughter’s night light. I have never seen algae in either of those tanks. They won’t even grow algae on the glass. So sometimes, what we think we know, the algae doesn’t pay any attention to 🤣

Manual removal is step one, an old, clean toothbrush can help. It’s easier to grab it with that than it is by hand. Second step is knowing your parameters, especially your nitrates. You don’t want to be unintentionally feeding the algae. Around 20 is best for control. If you’re not watching the levels,it’s easy for them to creep up on you. Third, your light levels are on a bit long, if you could squeeze it down to less than 8 hours (6 would be preferred) that could help. This is total preference by you. Make the hours the tank is on the same as you’re around to enjoy your tank. The fish don’t actually need the light. Just you and the plants. If you have anything but built in kit lights you could lower the intensity also. If you have built in lights, you can’t, of course. I only have hair algae in 2 of the 12 tanks currently running, sometimes I have found it easier to eliminate the source of the algae. I had 1 tank that had it embedded in java fern, I chucked it. Hasn’t been back in that tank since. Another tank it likes to grow in hornwort. It’s so fast growing, I remove it, tear off a clean branch and put it back. That one does actually come back, but no big deal. I think most of the problems with this algae is caused by over feeding the fish, causing excess nitrogen levels. Of course, that’s one of main reasons we get into keeping glass boxes of water. We enjoy our animals. But if you cut back feeding you’ll have less maintenance issues. Rule of thumb, there shouldn’t be any food left after a couple of minutes and they should still act a bit hungry. Harder to do with bottom dwellers. But the sinking food should be gone before an hour is up. As long as they get something to eat, you’re not going to starve your fish. Fish don’t need anywhere as much food as people think, just a tiny amount is enough. the constant monitoring of the nitrate levels will help immensely. The coop test strips are great for nitrates. Very easy to do. Easy things are always easier to be consistent with. You say you haven’t kept up with testing. Coop strips take around a minute to do. Dunk for 3 seconds, wait for one minute. And all your answers are there. the last thing you could do is to add some amano shrimp or cherry shrimp to your tank. That gives you an added little friend and helps to control the hair algae. Win win doing that. last thing to think about, algae is not at all harmful to your fish. It adds oxygen to your tank, it gives fry a place to hide, it provides a source of food for some fish. But it’s a very fast growing plant and can take over everything quickly. sorry for the book. There’s a lot to say about algae. Hopefully this helps 😀

The disadvantages of nerite snails, they still lay eggs. The eggs look like white dots and can be laid all over the place. They won’t hatch but some people don’t like the look. I don’t mind it personally. I like mystery snails. They do lay egg clusters, but those are easily controlled. If they get wet they don’t hatch. So if you keep the tank filled, there’s no problems.

For first time large tank buyers, it can be a huuuge shock to the system Bigger lights. More substrate. More plants. Bigger filters More fish. Let alone more expensive fish

Sideways is great in some ways. Stays out of the way when cleaning glass for starters. Then the heated water doesn’t come anywhere near the sensor. And you can get the heating element nearer the filter intake. Which helps distribute heat faster

Yeah, that’s exactly what I did last year. Then I got my wife and daughter flex15’s for valentines. And then the bills started coming 🤣. It seemed they were never going to stop 🤣. But they’ve been a lot of fun.

@FLFishChik you’re going to have so much fun with this one. Although it can be a bit intimidating at first 😂 So big impressive fish or tons of little ones?