Tony s

Take and seal it with a coat of polyurethane. should solve that issue. fine sand and finish with a natural oil to protect it make sure the oil is safe for fish though. not sure how you'd find that out though

@lefty o I have smoky mountain rain mentally linked to Eddie Rabbit's Driving My Life Away. One almost always bring up memories of the other. believe they were released within a year or so of each other?

I did hookup a hygger to a downstairs faucet at one point. It works great, but I find I like to do it slower than that. I missed being up to my shoulder in the water and puttering around. apparently, that's my therapy. that's one of the reasons I don't mind algae on glass. I kind of find it soothing in some way. so went back to buckets on emptying.

Very close to mine. i went with food safe garden hose with that so i could stick a garden hose valve on the python end. the first one i had had a 14' lift. the tank was 15' to the top. omg, do you have any idea how annoying that was. was glad my daughter was nowhere close.

I understand that completely. I have one that has developed an abscess/tumor on his back. been treated with maracyn 2 already. not sure there's much more to be done for him. I'll probably just let him rest 😔 and have a 2year old cory laying on its side this morning as well😔

Honestly, I dont like to see any ammonia. but the test kits say .25 is fine. I would add more bacteria after a water change. with a small amount of white clouds, the bacteria should be able to keep up. but if their not, add more

For that small of a tank. Check your water parameters daily. Possibly multiple times a day. The crowding is okay temporarily. But the water parameters can swing drastically. If the ammonia has gotten off that could easily lead to clamped fins. Better would have been to get a storage tote from a home store or Walmart and set up a temporary aquarium in that to avoid serious overcrowding. More water equals more stability

Python systems work great. Unfortunately they don’t always connect to some of the sink or tub faucets. Especially unique ones from Koehler. I still use the bucket method for outbound. for inbound- For tanks that need RO water, I use a gray plastic trash can with attached wheeled dolly, A small sump pump, and a food safe garden hose ending in a python hook. Really easy to use and you can install a valve at the end to reduce water pressure. Stopped the water from blowing everything around in your tank. Spent around 120 initially. Then figured out that the pump didn’t have enough lift to get up to the second floor (by inches😕). So upgraded the pump. If you’re not going up. Should work great. The wheels are great as you can move the can into an out of the way space.

@lefty o smoky mountain rain is one of my all time favorites. I believe I can still sing it. I’ll just spare everyone that experience though

Took my wife and daughter to see Mama Mia musical. So the rest of the week it’ll be ABBA. 🤣

I absolutely love the look of algae on rocks, and, yes, it means you have a healthy tank. Now, there is a blue-green algae that creates a coating of slime and smells like muck. Not an algae at all, but a bacteria (Cyanobacteria) that can cause health issues in your fish. It is going to need treated with erythromycin. Regular algae kind of smells sea-weedy. Since your rocks have been brought in,keep an eye out for blue green algae just in case.

Hornwort is phenomenal for removing nitrates and other ammonia compounds from the tank. Grows incredibly fast. It actually can suffer and die back when there’s not enough. Which is bad for the tank. Its leaves kind of shed like Christmas tree needles and gets everywhere. Only had that happen once though. And that was when I consolidated tanks and it was in an empty tank

Talking strictly fish health of course. You forget, I don’t have any issues with having algae in a tank. To me that’s a sign of a healthy environment for the fish

Keep an eye on your dkh and ph values. When they start to drop you’ll know for sure it’s time for a change. And I mostly agree. Do water changes when you need to do water changes. Me, it’s mostly a lack of time thing.

@mynameisnobody I have to watch him later. My favorite channel streams at the same time. 😕

Higher light anyways. Keep checking your nitrate levels. If they stay between 20 to 50 for planted tanks, you’re probably good with once. For the plants, as long as they’re healthy you’re also good. Sometimes more light equals more algae

Local is all relative. My lfs’s are an hour to 2 1/2 hours away. Even big box pet is an hour

Plecos -just kinda meh on them Platys- my favorite tank is a balanced platy tank. All age ranges. With one betta. discus. I am actually intimidated by these. Going to try in a while, though Discus. Geo altifrons, Severums. Sorry, tried narrowing it down. Then started involuntarily twitching angelfish. My favorite fish of all time is a small koi male with broken dorsal fin rays. carnivores. Not feeding fish to other fish

Love the rainbows. Have even started to bring in some Boesemani. Lake aytinjo. I could do a whole tank on rainbows. Just so colorful and active. And tons to try.

Really, you already have good ph. Dan from dans fish was just saying on his livestream Wednesday, that’s not a parameter he even worries about. But the shrimp probably would like more of the calcium and magnesium for their shells

I did not realize that. Learn something new everyday. Which is the point of everything

Not really small. Probably 2 inches, but deeper bodies. Haven’t done congos yet so don’t have a size comparison on their mouth size. But lemons are between harlequin rasboras and skirt tetras Or for really tight schools, how about something like glass catfish.

From big box. Harlequin rasboras, lambchop rasboras. Black skirts, and white skirts. Their Cory’s are fine. Cherry barbs should be good. Haven’t done them yet. with shrimp, probably the lambchop rasboras are small enough. Different from the harlequin in that the front of the black patch angles slightly backwards towards the tail. Harlequin’s black spot is straight down to slightly forward towards the head. My petsmart has them together in the same thank. Calling them trigonostigma rasboras. Which is basically calling them rasbora rasboras Mostly it’s the guppies and neons which have been the hardest to keep growing. And the bettas have also become brittle. But I keep buying them when I can just to get them out of the jars.

I can’t keep neons alive for anything. Usually lose half or more. If you can get them past the first month or two, they’re usually pretty good. Jason has recommended buying double or more to start with and then expecting losses. They’re mostly farm raised and have become a bit brittle. Maybe some place like dans fish have better strains. I keep trying them, and guppies from big box pet. And usually fail after a while. Think about the numbers of neons you would need in a week, has to be in the millions. so, yeah, this is not on you.

I almost guessed neons. Not sure it’s anything you’re doing at all