Jack.of.all.aquariums

My zebra ottos have been doing great in my unheated tank for a couple years now. I keep my house around 68F in the winter and 72F in the summer. Laser thermometer shows the water temp is 70F right now.

I'm around but have been somewhat idle in the hobby. Happy to answer any questions and clarify my method though. I'll try to check the forum a bit more frequently. I always hatched my babies in a jar with methylene blue. Fungus was regularly an issue but I didn't have the nice newer hatching rings. Once the babies were born I didn't have any issue with snails. I don't think shrimp would be of concern but I would still wait on adding them. I thought about moving the babies to a shrimp tank but they are so tiny I didn't want to lose track of them. Collecting eggs was always a struggle for me. The easiest way I found was to gravel vac, then suck up the mulm from the bottom of the bucket and then squeeze that into a baby brine sieve. It would catch the eggs. I never managed to collect the numbers Preston did though.

You might lose a little efficiency but you can run CO2 with a HOB no problem. I always shoot to maximize how long the bubbles stay in the water. If there is flow going in downward anywhere that would be the most ideal spot for co2. I have also ran the CO2 so it bubbled into the flow coming from the filter so it mixes a bit more rather than just bubbling straight to the top.

With larger tanks (40 gal+) C02 reactors become more and more useful. Cerges reactors are my preferred. I struggled for a long time to get co2 levels up in my 125 gallon. I was running multiple diffusers and wasn't get anywhere close to the levels I wanted. Built a cerges reactor and got to turn my co2 way down and while also getting higher co2 levels since no co2 was able to escape.

The brown you are getting is diatoms. There is a dusty kind and a filamentous kind. I tend to get the filamentous types in my fresh setups. In my experience, it does fade away after some time. Snails love it so I usually just toss in a bunch of 'pest' snails into my new tanks to speed up the process but they are not required to make it go away.

My first thought is something is wrong with your RO system. Have you tired replacing the cartridges/membranes in it?

@Minanora Thanks! The light is a 36" Beamswork DA Fspec I've got too many tanks for fancy lights with dimmers and have ended up not liking them every time I've bought one. Blyxa is an interesting plant. Once it's happy it really takes off. I have a bunch of it that sort of just came out of no where after a long time of not having it, it just started growing in my shrimp tank. 🤷‍♂️

@Guppysnail Samolus parviflorus 'red'

Not too much to report. Basically it's working. Only 2 plants seems to be having issues so far but have not out right died yet just seem to be taking a while to get established. Only having minor algae showing up but it seems to mostly just be on exposed roots and dying leaves. The meta grows so crazy fast I've trimmed and planted the tops twice now and haven't had to trim any of the other plants really.

Maybe is the only fair answer. I'm not sure there is any way to actually answer these questions definitively. So you kept nitrates at 10 but what other things were you also removing that could have had an impact? Hormones, phosphates, tons of various micro nutrients, etc. There are just too many variables, especially in a home aquarium to be able to say it was specifically organic or inorganic nitrate that was affecting fish health or longevity.

If those are the only 2 options I'm going seiryu. But my honest opinion as a semi experience aquascaper is neither. Unless you are getting it for really cheap and get to pick through a mountain of the stuff it's just not worth the money. I bought something like $450 in bulk seiryu stone that I got a great deal on because it was tacked onto an international order. I ended up not using it in any serious aquascapes after practicing with it. The problem is you need to be able to pick through tons and tons of stone if you really want your rock work to look incredible like competitive scapes do and it can get frustrating when you have a couple of good piece but not enough to complete your design. It's to hard to get enough pieces that match well with the right shapes, then after your plants grow in it's like 50%+ covered up anyway. Home depot sells black lava rock online for pretty dang cheap. I bought a whole bunch of it and I was super happy with everything I got. I got a bunch of the bigger stuff and then they have smaller and smaller sizes. I wish I would have bought more because I wanted to rescape all of my tanks with it. https://www.homedepot.com/p/American-Fire-Glass-XXL-Black-Lava-Rock-4-in-6-in-20-lbs-Bag-LAVA-XXL-20/304078212 The photos are of my 95 gallon that is about 48x24x20. 4 boxes of the 4-6 inch lava rock and 1 of the 1-3 inch. About $150 and I had some left over. So much more bang for the buck. I also bought a couple bags of the smaller sizes to fill in behind my rock work so I didn't need as much substrate those were another $20ish

Feel free to tag me. I don't mind helping 😁 @Mmiller2001 has got you covered with dosing. I'll add a few things outside of dosing strategies because my methods are quite a bit different and I don't want to make it more confusing haha More plants! In my opinion your tank is still pretty lightly planted. Start propagating what you can. If you have questions about propagating any species I'm happy to help. Don't fear trimming. The plant leaves that are fully covered in algae are a lost cause. Just trim them off. Ignoring the algae most of your plants look very healthy. You're on a great path!

The dwarf umbrella palm in my puffer tank has been extremely prolific grown under some hardware store led shop lights. I haven't done a great job monitoring nitrates though. It's pretty easy to find too. Might be another species for you to look into.

I had a small pond on my deck that I ran with just a regular air pump. Pump was inside in the utility room and I drilled a tiny hole through the wall and ran the airline out to the pond. If I was going to do it without drilling a hole in the house I would probably pick up 2 of the cheaper usb airpumps and then DIY some kind of weather proof box that would allow the power in, air line to go out, and some air to get in that would also block water.

In my experience, it hasn't really made a huge difference in how the tank runs but does affect maintenance. Sand keeps all the mulm on the surface so you can end up with areas full of gunk but its easy to target a siphon to suck it out. Gravel tends to let stuff settle in so gravel vaccing is necessary to get it out. My personal preference is sand. I know Cory prefers small gravel/large sand for plants but I've been able to grow plenty of species in fine sand plus it's easier for me to find it in colors I like.

What are you trying to achieve for water parameters? What is in or is going into the tank? Without more info all I can say is it is more than likely not a good idea.

They will grow pretty fast but it doesn't really matter the plant will be fine. Just shove them far enough into the substrate that they stay in place and you'll be good to go.

In my experience potted stem plants are nearly always just trimmings wrapped in rock wool and stuffed in a pot.

It will be fine if you wait. You might consider a python water changer that hooks up to a sink. No more carrying buckets. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000255NXC/ref=cm_sw_r_awdo_JF7J6JDAMSM048AMZX08?psc=1

So much bloodworms. I wish mine were eating freeze dried. I also just toss in whatever snails from my other tanks.

First picture look likes anchor worm to me. Probably worth waiting for a second opinion as I don't have direct experience with it. Assuming I'm right the coops got you covered. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/cyropro

They are Malaysian trumpet snails. They are veeeery good at hiding. You can have hundreds without knowing it but as far as I'm concerned they are beneficial. Plenty of people have spread the info that they will chip puffer teeth but I feed them to my schoutedeni puffer breeding group and have never had a problem. Mine will only chomp them if they are really hungry otherwise the just suck out the foot and leave the rest to rot. Sometimes they carry them around and it looks like they are stuck but they have always spit them out eventually.

1. Covering up aquasoil is counter productive in my opinion. Part of the benefit of aquasoil is its Cation exchange capacity. That's sciencey terms for how much it can absorb nutrients. When I use pool filter sand it's only in areas where I want it exposed. So when it inevitably gets gross I can easily replace it. Otherwise it's unneeded. I will use crushed lava rock as a filler under aquasoil if I want added height without buying too much aquasoil. 2. I have grown tons of plants in all types of substrates. I don't think the soil being fine and light will prevent you from growing monte carlo but you could have issues long term because the plant wants to float once it becomes a dense mat. 3. I don't have any experience with his products specifically but looks like it's pretty similar to most all-in-one style ferts. Any aquasoil you use will leach some nutrients (often way too much) early on. One week without ferts shouldn't be an issue really. YOu could do a light dose but most scapers, including myself, are doing major water changes early on (multiple in the first week) to try and get as much of the nutrients out of the water as possible. 4. Plants will grow without nitrate so long as there is a source of nitrogen. It is one of the 3 macro elements of fertilizer. Ammonia is a great source of nitrogen and is often used in terrestrial fertilizers but we have a source for that in aquariums usually, fish. I'm not really sure why you are using a denitrification media but I've been keeping planted tanks 8+ years now and have never needed it. My planted tanks go to zero nitrate if I'm not dosing it. The tank is fed heavily but plants are using up all the nitrogen faster than its being introduced so I'm adding more with fertilizer. By using a denitrifying media you can't really be sure where your nitrogen levels are with testing so you'll need to watch for deficiencies. 5. The best fix for diatoms in my experience is snails. I prefer to use pest snails. Nerites are great but I hate the little white eggs they leave all over my hardscape. I'd much rather had some pond, bladder, and ramshorns going to town. The chemical medias work but inevitably I get tired of swapping it or recharging it. Removing phosphate with chemical media might be working against your fertilization. 6. I have no experience with using an auto water change but what I can say is 1 gallon water changes daily will likely be wasted on an aquascape. If you really want a pristine scape you'll be making a mess scrubbing rocks and trimming/moving plants regularly and will need to do large water changes when you do. 7. Your plants need phosphorus. Phosphorus is added using phosphate. It looks like 2hrs aquarist's product has what you need. Best of luck on your aquascaping journey!

Have you been dosing all of this regularly? From the Easy Iron description: "Watch for signs of overdosing such as an increase in filamentous or hair algae. Excessive amounts of iron can be attributed to algae overgrowth in planted tanks." You are super dosing Iron since all 3 products are adding some.

A fine sponge will technically hold more bacteria but they get clogged much quickly which can lead to minimal filtration. When you pulled all your media there was a chance that your sponge had very little beneficial bacteria on it to begin with because of this. Lastly population booms of pest snails are directly related to how much food is in the tank. You can try cutting back on food some but it's extremely unlikely that you will get rid of them 100%. Embrace the snails 🐌 😁 I love them