apleiadean42

Thank you so much 💕

What do you give them to eat? I put in a carrot and I saw them on it some, then I put in 2 slices of blanched zucchini. The next day is when my cloudy water and hair algae problem started. A few days ago I did a water change, replaced most of the water. I’m starting to see a little of that same clear algae form in the tank again. It doesn’t seem this was part of my cycling process before…

How much algae wafer should I give my 2 nerite snails? Do they cloud the water? I have been recovering from surgery so my husband has been taking care of my 6 gallon betta tank. He was giving a wafer a day and I think it may be too much. It looks like there’s leftover wafer so I’ll need to do a water clean and get the excess out. Otherwise, I don’t know what’s clouding the water. I did just redo the entire tank the day before my surgery because there was what looked like hair algae in it. I’m disappointed that I had to start a new cycle. I don’t know what else to do and felt rushed. I was going to put in a bio soil substrate but didn’t want to rush it plus I hadn’t learned enough about it yet, so I put in gravel. I’ll probably want to do a do over again after my 2nd surgery recovery. Or u may just leave as is. The surgeries were unexpected.

i'm needing to put my betta and snails back in the new tank tonight as i'm having surgery tomorrow and will be out of commission for at least a few days. The cloudy water issue with the hair like algae just popped up. very bad timing. perhaps i should just wait and do the new substrate next week. just do a majority water change for now. What do y'all think?

Having the active beneficial microbials incorporated into the bio-stratum (fluval - which is what i bought) may help prevent that from happening? could i also add a water conditioner that eliminates ammonia, like API quick start? would those solve the ammonia release problem?

Is aquasoil the same thing as Fluval's Bio-Stratum?

gorgeous tank! I aspire to grow one this beautiful some day! Thanks for the recommendation. guys, i don't know how to use this comment section well yet. The quote options confuse me. How do i simply reply?

2 days ago i put a piece of zucchini in the tank for my snails. I read you can give them certain vegetables. I tried a carrot before that, they ate on it and the water remained clear. the morning after the zucchini, the tank was cloudy and had those slimy strands everywhere. I tried to clean them out with a net, and washed the tubing to the filter off as it was all over that. I am planning on starting my tan over today and changing the substrate. (see my other post) The tank has been cycling. I got snails for the algae. I decided to do that instead of letting it go. So if this algae bloom or hair algae is part of the cycle, I'm about to start it over again, I suppose.

Is it true that plants grow/establish roots better in courser sand than finer sand? Does it matter? Also, if I have sand from another aquarium I acquired and am not using, can I rinse the sand clean with tap water and use it in a tank if I dechlorinate the water I put in it or do I need to use de chlorinated water to rinse it? I have a small planted tank with a betta and 2 snails that I am starting over with a different substrate than just the larger pebbles I’ve had. I’m going to use a bio soil -fluval bio stratum. Is that made for a substrate alone or to add some of that sand in, too. I won’t if it’s too fine and compact for plant growth, though. Thank y’all!

I've read that the plants I have, Anubius, Java Fern, and Banana plant, are low-med light plants. I had my LED on too high most of the time, i think. So I'm going to go lower with that and see if it helps. We also have a very bright kitchen light, where the tank is. At night, when i'm wanting to go lower with the sun, I installed a bit of white LED light strip underneath the cabinet opposite the tank that's motion activated, so we aren't turning on the kitchen light every time we go into the kitchen when it gets dark.

Hey! So, I got a new filter, a mini sponge air filter, as the one i had burned out while we were out of town for 4 days. (a neighbor came and took care of Blub). Night before last, somehow the new filter's strength adjusted overnight and lot of brown algae formed. I have white gravel (I don't like it), and the algae did not come off w the gravel vac. With my water change, i took out the plants and used a toothbrush to get the algae off, but this isn't so easy with the gravel. i took a slited metal spoon and took up the top layer of gravel with the brown on it and have it set aside to deal with when i get the time. it won't even all come off when i run water over it and rub the gravel through my hands. The same thing happened with the gravel i had in there before i changed it to the white. that's why i put the white in there. I thought it would be ok to just change the substrates as it's just gravel. Nothing elaborate with soil and sand and such, which i want to do eventually. I love the idea of experimenting with different substrates and plants. I don't want to stress out Blub, either, but I want to do another 100% change soon and put the natural looking gravel back in. I can't stand the white gravel! What say you? What do I do if the brown algae comes back and it won't come off with gravel vac? Thank you so much for your help.

Last night I cleaned out the entire tank. I was overwhelmed with the brown algae and didn’t think my siphon was doing a good job getting it off my substrate or rocks. It seems like the only way it would come off, really, was to rub it or get a toothbrush on it. I cut a few leaves off my plants. I usually leave Blub in the tank when I do changes but I changed it all out so put him in a little container temporarily. He did not like that. So I tried to be as fast as I could, being a newbie. I was glad I had another bag of gravel I had used previously, because I wanted to wash the gravel I had taken out really well and didn’t have time. I don’t like the white as much but it’ll do until I change it again. I don’t want to change everything up frequently, but I’ll probably change everything out again in a month, and add a new plant or 2. When the outside temps dip I’ll order some floaters like red root. It looks like ordering through the mail when it’s so hot will about kill any right now. I filled it back up with tap and conditioned it with API stress coat +, then put .5 ml of Seachem Flourish for my 6 gallon tank. After an hour or so I tested it with strips. these measures aren’t exact: KH 180 GH -30 PH 7.5-8.0 He seemed happy when I put him back in his newly furnished home. Not sure if those little spikes in the “fort” are too sharp? They’re plastic. im going on vacation w my family tomorrow through Tuesday and having my neighbors come take care of Blub 2x a day. I’m feeding 1x a day - Micro pellets. A bloodworm every now and again… feedback is welcome! I’m grateful for you guys!!

Jovius, please see my last messages with pictures. I apologize - I have not yet learned how to make simpler replies. it looks like I can reply without quoting someone's entire message but i haven't figured that out yet. I wanted to try to tag those in this thread somehow. If there's a way to do that please let me know. Rube, please see my last messages with pictures. I apologize - I have not yet learned how to make simpler replies. it looks like I can reply without quoting someone's entire message but i haven't figured that out yet. I wanted to try to tag those in this thread somehow. If there's a way to do that please let me know.

don't worry, that cat is not at all interested in the fish. (My daughter named our Betta "Blub" 🤷‍♀️