CoryWithAKatana

Oh my bad, I was kinda referring to Distilled water being added back. Therefore adding back no nutrients... I research this stuff before responding so I must have missed that, sorry for the misinformation.

from your pic it kinda does look wrong side up.... I would flip it because what is th worst that can happen?? It not grow? lol

@Ryan1988Does the water kinda look like this? If so then you are experiencing a Bacterial Bloom. Bacterial Bloom is a rapid increase in bacteria and is completely harmless. It can be caused by overfeeding or adding too many fish at once. It can also be caused by not cleaning your filter media reguarly. Some negative things that could happen is a lack of Oxygen which could irritate fish if it gets to low. My advise is do some water changes to get that excess bacteria out if it is indeed a Bacterial Bloom.

maybe send a picture so we can help identify.

The only concerning thing to me is the nitrites which would ideally be at 0ppm. Usually it takes time for the cycle to start (Ammonia-->Nitrites-->Nitrates) it seem s you are at the second phase where the ammonia (fish poop) has been turned into Nitrites, after a week or so it should start turning into nitrates which can be removed by plants and water changes. Hope this helps, your tank is beautiful! EDIT; I second what Chris said, maybe hold back on feeding them as much.

A LFS is a Local Fish Store, LFS seem to usually have better quality fish and advice than your average petsmart

Your tank looks healthy and the plants seem to be thriving except the Bulb... I wouldn't reccoment having a betta and shrimp in a 5 gallon. they can be territorial and in such a small space... I live in Florida and my water is very hard as well but that doesn't seem to be a problem for me. The plants that you have dont require carbon from my understanding but I believe that the Val is gonna need some root tabs for nutrients since it isn't a stem plant that feeds from the water column like the anubias. I would say its ready for a new betta friend. Hope this helps

Based on the updated picture of my tank, would you say I have the Valisernaria is a good growing condition? Do I need to get root tabs for it? ...I realized when I got back from the store that I should've bough stem plants cuz I mainly have sand as substrate.

It is a 20 gallon but idk about A top fin starter... (I bought it from FB marketplace)

UPDATE: Funnily enough I went out today and bought two Valisernaria and got them planted. here is an updated picture

You're gonna have to humor me cuz im not accustomed to all the abbreviations. Im not "hip" or "swag" as the youngsters say (for legal reasons this is a joke I'm 15 XD)

You dont want huge bubbles making the water move around so much but dont have the flow too little so that the water doesn't circulate and become stagnant

Thats how I do it except I remove the little plastic cylinder so the bubbles flow more freely.

That makes sense, I will follow this then. Thanks Cory

So, I have. 20 gallon aquarium as seen in the picture. I would like some advice on A: Starting the Fish-In cycling process and B: Scaping Ideas, I wanted to put some rooted plant into the little bowl filled with gravel on the left as a foreground plant and maybe some ideas for background plants. My substrate is sand so..... ye. Any advice would be appreciated!

I Have a 5.5 Gallon in my room right now and I dont mind at all, ive got the lights on timers so I dont have to worry about it waking me up in the morning or keeping me up at night. 🙂

No I've never seen those brown seed pods around them... But my main question is would they be safe to transplant into a pot and partially submerge them into a tank to help filtration

So the pond behind my house has these plants that to me look like amazon swords that were grown out of the water (they look different when grown submerged I believe) is my guess correct or no? I live on the West coast of Florida

Honestly...it could be sleeping, Ive seen mystery snails just chill for a few days. Also my research also says that they sleep for days sometimes. If you checked and it moved when you picked it up then its probs a sleepy boi. It could also be lack of food or bad water quality but it doesn't seem like those two. hope this helps.

This is Anubis, my Black Labrador, the brown one is Hazle, and the white rat dog is lelah

I just poured Vinegar on it and the rocks did not fizz.

So I went to my backyard pond and found 2 cool rocks. I live in Florida and we dont get many rocks so this is kinda strange. 1) Can any fellow Floridians identify what kind of rock this is and is it safe for Aquariums 2) If this rock is safe how do I clean it so its safe for my tank.

Ok So another question, I went to my pond behind my house and I found a cool rock. It was half submerged in the dirt and the other half was in the water, how do I clean to rock so its fine for my tank. Bleach? Alcohol? Good Scrubbing?

Is there really any special way of doing it? or just go behind my house grab a handful and put in in my tank? Should I get some pond water as well?

So I just came up with a revolutionary idea that has definitely never been thought of by anyone. Can I take aquatic plants (i.e. floaters, or whatever) from outside and put them into a tank? I live in Florida and there are retention ponds everywhere. Can I just pick em' up and put em' in my tank? Thx in advance.