Devinl3

Here is an article I found helpful with my 55! I only does easy green twice a week for 5 pumps and I have mostly anubias and NLJF. I have some decay and deficiency in some of the older leaves from the previous owner I got them from and a lot of the new leaves would yellow quickly so the easy green has helped with that but I'll start dosing iron to help with that and to bring some more pop to my red's. The easy green is helping with some of the yellowing on the older leaves that have no decay since they are getting the nitrates they were deprived of now. So looks like maybe just some more dosing as the members above have said! https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/which-aquatic-fertilizer-is-right-for-you

Did you do any medication as well? How have your levels been? Ok sweet! I'll give it a go and will reach out if any questions come to mind. Thank you! Ok sweet. That was the plan. Dose the meds and don't feed for at least 4-7 days. Then I'll do 50% changes each week to cycle out the meds and keep good levels. Thanks for helping with all of my questions @AllFishNoBrakes

Thanks for the advice! I love oto's too haha they are some of the best fish for sure. Well maybe I'll have to get an emergency QT tank in addition to this one so I can separate if there ends up being some distinctly sick species to avoid the harm of the others. Or would that not be necessary if I am already proactively treating with meds?

Hey Guys! I have some new additions coming to the display tank and I am ending up with more in the QT than I initially expected. I am running the medication trio approach on my new fish in a QT tank that is 20 gallons. I have a sponge filter running and the tank is currently cycled and ready from the previous QT as I never took it down. I have 20 CPD's, an L201 Pleco, and 4 otocinclus that will go in the QT. All of them are juvenile and are not full grown so I was hoping that there would be no issues with quarantining this many fish. Do you guys see any issues with a QT this big? Do I need to set up anything else? I follow the medication trio and QT method for 4-6 weeks and follow the steps and methods outlined in the Aquarium Co-op article published on this. Seemed to work great on my 7 cory's but I'm not sure if it will be as easy with more fish.

Honestly this was everything I needed to know! Thanks for taking the time to put this response together and outline what your process looked like. I'll likely take a similar approach to the co2 and see where things get me. Do you have much pearling with your plants in the 55 at 3 bps? I've heard a lot of people saying they need more like 5-7 for their planted tanks. I am using an external filter with a spin lily pipe and not a spray bar as well. Would you recommend I put the diffuser at the bottom of the tank with it being directly under the lily pipe? I'm assuming that will be the best case when it comes to diffusing the co2 as much as possible. (One day I'd like to get a reactor for full dissolution). I've actually watched this video and lost it so thanks for resending haha. I am planning on using this method to better dial things in as I feel the drop checker isn't very accurate given the time delays and that its better to use this method. @AllFishNoBrakes What kind of ph drop are you experience when running co2? I've heard people say they look for a 1 degree drop from your starting ph. Do you feel that's accurate?

@FlipperYeah agreed with this. I’d be surprised if there were any non-submersible heaters out there rather than external heaters. My adjustable aqueon heater has a minimum fill line of about an inch below the twist knob and I submerge the whole thing on my 20 tall. No issues at all

Dang that sucks 😕 I'll keep that in mind as I move forward and have doubts on the temp. I'm sure things will be fine as it doesnt seem like the temp will be off any or much hopefully. I'll do a little more research and fine tune the temps as I go.

Thanks for the input. I'll have to dig a little further into what might be best for the stocking I plan to have. My goal was to try and keep it more towards the middle of the ideal range as well. Are there are visible signs of the tank being too warm for the fish?

I am currently working on getting everything setup in my 55 gal long planted freshwater tank for CO2 injection. I have a CO2Art Dual Stage Pro Se regulator on a 5lb aluminum tank and one of their ceramic bazooka diffusers. I've read a lot of people trying to fine tune their bubble counts and use drop checkers with CO2 and heard many others stating that bubble count is irrelevant and that you should use the pearling and fish to indicate whether you are at good levels. I'm curious as to what the best indicator would be here. I am also having trouble understanding how I should start off with my CO2 levels. Do I need to start at 1 bps and then bump it up every couple of days? Or do people just jump right into having a higher injection? How soon should I have the CO2 turn on before my lights and when should I turn it off? 2 hours before and 1 hour after they turn off? I've heard a HUGE variety of opinions on this side. Any input is great!!

Bashful looks super cute! Thats cool that he changes color, I didn't know it would be that noticeable tbh. And only once a week to feed him?? Doesn't seem bad at all actually. How big is the tank? Would you think I'd be able to do about the same given my 55 and the driftwood I currently have? I'm sure things might vary a bit as the L201 gets up to 6 inches or so and their diet may vary a bit from the clown.

That's good to know. I'll work on bumping that temp up closer to 78 to keep everything happy in there. Do I need to worry much about the plants with higher temps? I know they are all over the board when it comes to ideal temps but wanted to get a general thought if there were any. Also, how do you like your dwarf clown pleco? Any behaviors or habits that I should be aware of that you have ran into?

Yeah that helps a ton! Makes me feel a lot better about keeping a pleco and not worrying about competition for food/algae with the otos or other algae eaters. now that you’ve cleared my limited thoughts of stocking I have to figure the other nano fish to run with😂 let me know if you have any keen recommendations!

@Lonkley thanks for the input and guidance there. It’s comforting that this seems to be the common consensus amongst fish keepers here. I usually test every Sunday with the API master test kit and all of my levels are great but I only have the Cory’s and shrimp occupying the tank currently. I have heard that it can be difficult for the CPD spawn to mature without extra care or breeding. Maybe I’ll get a bigger school of those guys and breed them at the same time 🤷‍♂️. Also want some rummynose cuz why not haha

Thanks! @AllFishNoBrakes Been working on fine tuning everything and getting all the conditions where I’d like them. Definitely don’t want my plants getting destroyed so I think I’ll stick with one pleco in the tank especially since I’ll have some otos working on the plants and algae too. Hopefully I get lucky with the plant situation!

Thanks for the input! I’ve heard people say that about the CPD’s. How many would you recommend for a decent, and visible, group?