MWilk

Plants do just fine in hard water. Your pH will drop after being in the aquarium for a little while. I have this same problem with one of my tanks, it’s at my parents farm in the kids’ play room and I just keep mixed neocaridina shrimp, white cloud minnows, a hillstream loach, and snails. My live bearer tank is at my house and I have to add gh and kh back to it. So, it’s a good thing to have. if you have an RO unit, you can mix the water to achieve exact results you like.

There are some alder cones there at the bottom too.

Why not use seachem's pH neutral regulator or alkaline buffer? To sharply raise hardness, try equilibrium.

I have had this paradise fish for a few months now, he is a total jerk, but very pretty, lively, and eats well. His gill plates have always been flared out, and his fins are fairly clamped. The fins seems to be a paradise fish normal thing, but it's hard to find good info on these guys. Seems like most people don't like them at all. Is there anything to be concerned about here? I treated him for gill flukes when I got him, in quarantine for 2 weeks just in case. None of the other fish have any issues. Is he just deformed? Normal?

If it reaches the surface it can produce those leaves lower down the plant. They’re less efficient at gas and nutrient exchange in water.

Absolutely, and it stays in that broad leafed form you have a bunch of there. When allowed to grow entirely underwater, it converts to lacy branching leaves. It can become quite bushy and take over a tank easily. It’s my favorite plant. I propagate mine wherever it decides to grow roots mid stem. It has turned into a large fry protecting bush.

It’s strange, it’s all emersed growth type.

Is all of that water wisteria new?

That’s one of the longest rhizomes I think I’ve ever seen. Very nice.

Why not pull the wood out and look at it closely? It doesn’t appear to be structural.

If you really like the smooth stone appearance, just add enough sand to fill the crevices. The Cory cats will make sure it all ends up in the right spots. I stand by my list, anubias and java ferns look great in a 10 gallon. Some windelov Java ferns looking crazy in the mid ground, anbuias Barteri in the back.

Can you get a clearer picture?

Agreed on more Potassium. Any anubias in the tank? on second look, that seems more like algae growth than pinholes and browning. Anubias is right there in the background looking beautiful, probably not a potassium issue.

I’ve found a few plants to be that way. I’m not sure what nutrient AR is really looking for yet, I’ve been just going broad spectrum in this tank and it’s doing what you see here.

This tank stays at 69-70 degrees and really isn’t optimized for Otocinclus, unfortunately. I tried Amano shrimps and they were either all picked off by the paradise fish or disappeared into the shrimp dimension. I have killed plenty of scarlet temple in the past. In this tank, I haven’t lost a single stem but it’s all covered in algae.

I have been hesitant to clear the floaters for fear of excessive light causing more algae buildup, but I might be exactly backwards in this thinking. I’ll give it a shot, and keep the floaters on the moss side only for a while. I can tell you the scarlet temple will grow up and out of the water about every 2 weeks and has to be trimmed back, the leaves that grow out of the water are a vibrant purple and pink underneath. Very pretty. When I replant them, they stay pink underneath but green algae builds up on top.

Yea, the LFS doesn’t either lol, I just hate to see anything go to waste. I spread them to my other tanks as well, but the filters and fish in the other tanks beat them up well enough that they don’t spread. You think the low nitrates is causing more algae buildup? don’t mind that chain sword in the foreground by the way. It showed up in that condition, I’m not expecting it to live.

Any of the marineland penguin pro series.

If you’re looking for a small cartridge system, Fluval sells one. They end up being quite expensive per gram. The best setup for your dollar is a bicarbonate soda home brew.

How big are we talking? Rhizome plants and moss are all that would be naturally present on large (greater than 1”) river rock. Anubias, Java ferns, bucephalandra. if you’re talking normal aquarium gravel, 1/4” or so, bunch up the stem plants with a loose weight wrapped up on them until they solidly root. What type of plant are you trying to keep?

Some of you guys around here are absolute wizards when it comes to plants and tank parameters and I’d love some critique. I have been having an issue with this tank, it is unheated, limiting my fish options, and is primarily a mystery snail breeding tank and living room decoration. I don’t mind the light green algae growing on the rear glass, though I’m not sure the mystery snails actually ever touch it. The surface of the water is completely covered with red root floaters, minus two loops of airline tubing in the center front and rear to give the paradise fish room to breathe. I tossed in an assortment of plants when I set this tank up around 3-4 months ago, to see what would grow. 4 pots of Pearlweed was consumed overnight by the Flagfish trio. The hairgrass lasted long enough to be planted, but I believe it was snuffed out by the floaters stealing the light. my problem now is algae growth on the nessaea pedicellata and scarlet temple plants. They are growing very well, all things considered, but they look rough. From the couch everything looks great but up close, it looks like dirt everywhere. I’m afraid to gravel vac because of the baby mystery snails mixed in with the fine gravel. Should I separate some of these plants? I normally take handfuls of floaters to the LFS every week but the past 2 I have been unable. my water is extremely hard, with a low pH6-6.4, near zero KH. Dosing heavily to keep nitrates present and still barely detectable.

If a female platy even looks at a male, she’s probably pregnant. You can pretty much assume that they’re always pregnant. The question to ask is just how long until babies drop.

I moved a square of Java moss that had been in my livebearer tank at 78-80F for several months with about 4 inches of total vertical growth to a new unheated tank in the living room. It took off. It’s been about 2 months now and I’ve tried many plants in this tank to get the best residents for it, but the Flagfish keep eating everything I try that looks nice. It seems like a combination of the heavy ceiling of floaters combined with lower temp is ideal for the moss. Don’t mind my poor housekeeping, I plan to clean up the soil when I’m settled on plant selection.

I’ve often kept bluegill, green sunfish, and yellow bullhead in small tanks, caught with a minnow trap in our farm ponds and creek. They do well and after they grow out for a while I release them back to the pond. I’ve been curious about some of the local creek minnows, you can see in the schools of fish that some of the individuals are rosy red to gold in color compared to the mass of brown/bronze fish. I’m afraid they would need more current than a stagnant tank could produce.

I keep a mixed tank of livebearers, the big 4. Guppy/Molly/Platy/Swordtail. The guppies get picked off very quickly. I have only had 2 fish grow to size. I have a large group of medium sized platy babies, 10-20 swordtails that have just started developing their sword tails, zero mollies (no males) and guppies don’t live long enough to see them grow, generally. I recommend the swordtails. They don’t pick on plants like the mollies do. Their mouths are very small, so long as the amano shrimp are big enough, they’ll be fine.