Tony s

They will eat slices of zucchini. Just microwave in water to soften. Stab with a fork so it doesn’t float. And drop in

Yes they do. Possibly not as many as in sand. Mine have a few. . And mulm is usually enough nitrogen. Wondering if you’re missing a trace element.

Kh and gh are the two common values of water hardness. Gh is your general hardness, the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium. Kh is your carbonic hardness. It measures the level of carbonate in the water. Kh is related to your gh because a lot of the value of the gh is calcium carbonate. Not all. So gh is always higher. Kh is a buffering solution for the water. It prevents large swings in your water ph. Which is bad for your fish. Neither of those numbers are lethal nor do they cause diseases. So you have something else going on. the real question is what levels of ammonia and nitrites are you testing at because those are very toxic. Or are you testing for them at all. Your symptoms sound a lot like ammonia poisoning. 0 ammonia, 0nitrite 0 nitrates would be what my local fish store calls sterile water. From the looks of the brown algae on that tank, this is a fairly new tank? Are you sure it’s cycled. If so, you should be seeing some nitrate values other than 0. Nitrates are the end product of a cycled tank. With fish in, they should be higher than 0. the brown algae in the corner is perfectly normal for a new tank. It’s not good or bad, just a bit unsightly. Green algae is actually good for your fish. It helps oxygenate the water. It helps lower your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. And it serves as food for some fish. The only problem it causes is it tends to form on the glass constantly, making it harder to see the fish. That said, some forms of algae are harder to remove than others. Depending on how they grow (the physical appearance). I actually like to see algae on some of the hardscape. It tells you that you have a functioning ecosystem. my thoughts are that the tank is not really cycled yet. Or you’ve had enough meds through the tank, it’s killed off your benificial bacteria. You may need to restart your cycle. I would be curious what your test readings are on a new batch of tests. ich-x and levimasole are both anti parasitic meds. Fin rot needs an anti bacterial med. erythromycin from one of the big box stores could work, following the directions very carefully. Better would be Maracyn 2 from a local fish store. I’m curious as to what brand of bacteria you added when you first started your tank. And how soon after you started did you add your fish. Also curious as to what type of water tests you’re using.

Chili rasboras, almost all rasboras, will do just fine in this water. really, with the exception of very sensitive species, hard water is a non-issue. Most species have (borrowing a horticulture term) a great degree of plasticity. they will adapt with no issue. Even discus can adapt. Don't think for a second that because you have hard water, you're very limited to what you can raise. you're really not. I've seen almost everything in our water. fish like rams, which are very sensitive and finicky anyway are just harder. I am breeding angelfish here and raising rainbowfish. all kinds of tetras and corys. I've seen geophagus of all types here, Severums. Most south american cichlids will be good here. and the african species love our water. Everybody seems to be scared of hard water. mostly, i find it's not an issue

I do all RO because of my high iron content. I can control the water, mostly, but every gallon requires addition of buffers. I use Seachem equilibrium, alkalinity buffer, and acid buffer. It's not horrible producing water this way, but it can be hard to be consistent. A better solution for you would be to use the RO water in a solution with your tap. That would eliminate all the buffers. Say 50% RO added to 50% tap. you'd have to play around and see what % of tap and RO gives you the water that you're after. and when you've got it, try to be very consistent. varying ph causes serious issues in your fish. and I really wouldn't worry about most plant species. they may prefer neutral ph, but the higher gh and kh add more calcium and magnesium, which are great for plant health

For Ideas you can do, there is a guy named Jason Adams that runs the youtube channel Primetime Aquatics. He puts out species profiles on the fish he keeps, and only the fish that he personally has kept successfully. Same water as you and I. So, if it's in that playlist, we can raise them successfully.

you have my exact water. it's going to be your baseline. works really good for almost everything. I'd be cautious with german rams, discus, apistogramma. even discus could work if you could get the ones raised in hard water from Germany.

If you're from the east or west coast, then, yeah, they'd be high. Midwest, southwest, plains, or mountains, they'd be normal. Gh, ph, and kh are geographically linked to the type of stone and soil where the majority of the water comes from. Hydrology maps show that 85% of US has slightly to very hard water. While this does limit you from keeping some sensitive species, most fish will adapt to your local conditions. You may have trouble breeding some species though. It's actually better to understand your local conditions. Then adapt your fish species to what works for you. otherwise, you could be trying to adjust your water to meet your ideal ph by constantly add ph buffers, gh buffers, kh buffers. This is what's called chasing ph. it's a serious pain and for most people it's not worth doing. I should know, my well water has way too much iron in it, I have to "manufacture " every gallon of water i use.

Can't really tell what the values should be. could you get a picture besides the chart? And depending on where you are, these may be perfectly normal for you,

If it's coming from the driftwood. There may not be a final solution for a while. It's probably going to keep returning until it exhausts the food source it's using. JW would know much more than me, but it just looks like some weird bacterial bloom. It almost looks like roots coming out of the driftwood

Yeah, females can get almost as aggressive as males. Sororities are always iffy. You're going to need to watch them constantly. I tried and failed one sorority. a dominant female always seems to emerge. Luckily, I had spare community tanks to put some in. They way i have seen it works is by overcrowding, like african cichlid tanks. It needs a larger tank 55 gall +, then adding 40+ bettas. what that does, it spreads the aggression out. it also inhibits the formation of a dominant females. but it still requires constant observation. In your size tank size, I may overstock it with peaceful dither fish. possibly harlequin rasboras, or other rasboras. something to distract them. and provide lots of plants for cover and line of sight breaks. she is probably female, just aggressive.

Okay, very cool. Just take you're time then. Losing wet pets is on a whole other level

And me as well. and this is also how most of us learn about ich, bloat and dropsy. mostly stress diseases from bad water conditions.

Yeah, i honestly wouldn't chase any of ph gh or kh. fish will adapt to those numbers just fine. even most sensitive species. Some people forget that 85% of the US has slightly hard to very hard water. using what's available is the best policy. now ph gh kh will factor in what will actually breed for you, if you're interested in that. Kh is, as you said, the buffering agent that reduces violent swings in ph and helps to stabilize the ph of your tank. There is a thing called old tank syndrome, where the ph and kh gradually lowers over time. this is usually due to break down of organic matter. usually from an tank that needs serious amount of cleaning. sounds like you're on top of things though. possibly increase to bigger changes until it matches your tap again my plants dont usually affect kh, but my lack of time really does

Yeah, I Know. And I've done it before. But, anymore, I think it's just simpler to do another change. Especially for someone with limited experience. It helps get them into good habits. Ammonia = water change

safestart can work. It's not as good as Fritzzyme 7 or turbostart. there is also Seachem Stabilty. You can actually use them every other day or so, they are completely fish safe and just add to your beneficial bacteria count.

Actually, I'd be very cautious about that. better just to use a regular dose of prime (label directions), after doing the water changes. Primarily for dechlorination, but it can have the side effect of neutralizing the ammonia, and nitrite. Best practice is, if you see ammonia, change water and prime to dechlorinate. Then, if prime does its job, you're good. I used to do the heavier dose of prime, but it can be rough on your fish. I've had a betta go down to the bottom of the tank and just hide and shake. I won't do that again. I think normal dose is okay. You're still going to test positive for ammonia even when it's been neutralized. it only changes into a much less toxic form. Another thing I'd do is cut the amount you're feeding by about 80%. Fish don't have stomachs like we do. It would be better feeding a very tiny amount for now. The more food in, the higher the ammonia is going to be. Most fish can easily go a week with no food, so cutting way back isn't going to hurt them. Testing for ph gh and kh is not going to do much for you. Those are not lethal issues. your fish will be fine in most of those values. best to use what comes out of your tap and not really worry about those for now. you do need to be testing for ammonia and nitrites daily at this point as those are the lethal ones. you can test for nitrates as well, but it's nowhere near a problem as ammonia. when you see ammonia at all you need to do a water change and adding prime for dechlorination. if ammonia remains high after 4 hours you can do another one. until it comes down. then just constantly test and watch to make sure it stays there. when you have several days of reading zero ammonia, you can resume testing for nitrates. nitrates are the end product of the cycle. so, nitrate readings at this point are a good thing. Supermassive's turbo start is a very good product, it has the same bacteria as fritzzyme7, but in a concentrated form

I’d still probably add some fritz or stability, just to get the bacteria into the substrate quickly. But you should be okay with just the filters

It would add air to your water column. Which, if they’re fighting something, is always helpful. No such thing as too much airflow

Squeezing it out in the tank may not do a whole lot. The bacteria don’t inhabit the water column. They would be directly attached to the filter media. You may get some transfer, but not enough to be effective. Transferring water won’t do anything at all. Transferring the decoration would be somewhat effective. Now if you could move the filter cartridge into the new tank’s filter, that would be really effective. Add some of the fritz7 or stability, and you’d be most of the way there. The cartridge is fully cycled, if your other tank is fully cycled. Adding the other bacteria would help to increase the size of your colony and allow it to establish itself into your substrate and other surfaces. You’ll need a source of nitrogen to keep your colony growing until you add fish. You could add fish food daily and let it decompose. That adds nitrogen. Or you could be more direct and use a product called Fritz Fuel. That would actually be ammonia. This feeding would help your colony to grow in size. I’ve seen some people say that moving the old cartridge into the new filter causes you to be instantly cycled. That may technically be true. You could try that, but only add a small number of fish in case it fails. Then constant checking every day to see if it actually works. And if ammonia does start to show up, you’d be doing a fish-in cycle from there. Which can be done, it’s just more of a pain. Every time ammonia shows up you’d need to do a water change and dechlorination. Seachem prime is one of the best products for that. So testing daily would be the best solution. You’d probably want to do that when first adding fish anyway though. If you see any ammonia, just change water. 75 is a lot of water, hopefully it keeps it diluted. When I did my 75, I thought I had fully cycled, but no. I had to quickly remove my fish and put them in other tanks for a few weeks more. Luckily for me, I had a few spare.

anywhere from 4-6 weeks. depending on how you do it. It can be speed up if you have access to used filter material. and one of either Fritzzyme7 or Seachem Stability And, yes, absolutely add plants if you can. They'll help you by reducing the amount of water changes you're going to be doing. but that also depends on the fish you want. a lot of fish are not plant friendly.

Oh, yes they can. I actually tried to separate males from the females when i first started. But that was way too late. they kept having fry anyway. Now I just let them live out their platy lives in peace. They always seem to have fry around, but the numbers never grow anymore. Which is good. Only takes a little more management to keep their water good. With the help of hornwort. That's where you find most of the fry hiding.

Platys will eat platy fry. But in a 40g you'd be looking at a massive heard. I have a 20g, just platys, and it's got probably 35. Anywhere from tiny fry to 2-year-old adults. eventually the population stops increasing. I think it's one of my most interesting tanks

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Our first tank was a betta tank, then we added the harlequins to that. first fish ever. My daughter had won a fish at a county fair in one of the ball toss games. It didn't make it through the night. next morning I had a very upset 6-year-old, so we went and got a couple of cheap tanks. I had never heard of the cycle. didn't know anything. made tons of mistakes. But I tell everyone, we mess it up then fix it. it's how we learn. and that was only a couple of years ago. You are lightyears better than I ever was when starting. But we learn. For the bettas, we usually add them last. simply because they don't live a very long life from the box stores. supposed to live up to 5 years, but usually anywhere from 4 months to 2 years. they simply have a rougher life until someone comes to rescue them. aggression in bettas is more of the individual's personality. some are just more aggressive than others. you'll have to watch that for a while and see how they respond. but I wouldn't hesitate about putting them first, I find them nonaggressive with non bettas. Honey gourami's are not really schooling fish, but they are a bit social and like to be in small groups. but they're okay as single fish as well. and then add guppies when your tank is well cycled. I have never bought from a breeder before. we live in a rural area and there are none. It's an hour drive to one of my local stores and a 2-hour drive to the other in Indianapolis. I have a different definition of local store. 🙂 And I wait for my daughter's gymnastics to go there I have purchased online only once, from a non-coop affiliate. I bought rams which are kind of risky in my water, but oh so pretty. They didn't make it. It was a risk, I thought i had a good setup for them. But I learn. Aquarium coop has affiliation with Dan's fish (I am so tempted there) and aqua huna which are excellent online stores.