rydin4life

Thanks...I actually just learned about reverse respiration and will be doing that as well. These are replacement plants as the ones I currently have didn't work out. I did an aluminum soak on them so I'm not sure if that caused the issues or if there was another cause, but ill be doing RR this time around for sure.

Gotcha - I did plan to remove any pots and just put them in a bucket...no need to weigh them down or anything? Or do you mean simply float them in the tank under the light/lid and skip the bucket all together?

Thanks...I would imagine 2 days so I just wanted to be sure that having them in a dark 5 gallon bucket wouldn't be detrimental.

I have some plants coming from ACO and some from another vendor, but they are arriving on different days. I prefer to just wait to plant them all together and do maintenance at the same time. What's the best way to keep plants from one vendor for a day or two until the others arrive? Can I just put in a 5-gallon bucket with a bit of fertilizer and sit my plant light on top of the bucket for a few hours?

Thanks! My temp is 73.8 - 74.2 daily so I should be in good shape.

Good to know @T. Payne . I read some conflicting info online and also watched a video from Cory where he addressed the issue, but figured it never hurts to ask to see if anyone has any additional info or personal experience.

Any reason not to use the med trio as directed on new kuhli loaches?

No co2 or anything like that. Filtration is a Seachem Tidal 55 with an ACO prefilled sponge. Inside is 2 layers of Seachem course sponge, polishing pad, purigen, and Seachem Matrix. I also have a medium ACO sponge filter on the side opposite the Tidal. My substrate is pea pebbles. I may do valisnaria in there as well but wanted to start small since I never did live plants before. I also like the idea of a gourami...I was looking at some powder blue dwarfs but read the temperature may not be suitable.

I did 3 tbsp per gallon and doaked.for 3 hours. It was to kill and snails or snail eggs before I put in my tank.

I picked up these plants on Saturday and just got them under a light yesterday. I dosed my water with Seachem Flourish as that's what my pet store had. I did a 3 hour soak in alum before putting in the tank. Did I kill these or do they just need time to recover.

@MWilk Tahnk is fairly bare at the moment. I'm only feeing xtreme pellets and the occassional bloodworms to the minnows I have in there now, but would certainly add other foods for the hillstream loaches. I like the idea of 3 hillstreams and a group of kuhli's, but didn't want to add too much to the bottom of the tank either.

Thanks..I know the 12 minnows I have are a light bioload but I don't want to overdo it either

Ao I could do like y kuhlis and 2 hillstream possibly? I only have my 12 white cloud minnows in the 29 currently

I've read that Hillstream loaches should be kept just as a single or in groups of 3. I set-up a 29 gallon and want to add a hillstream and a kuhli loach - how many of each could I add - would it be best to just do one hillstream and 3 kuhlis or 3 hillstreams and no kuhlis? I don't want the hillstreams to be territorial and have issues which is why I'm asking.

Is that rhe same as pea gravel? Also..is it better to get something without any coating at all or does it not matter so much?