Brandy

I needed this bright spot today. Thanks. Please don't suddenly stop posting, I will assume I have jinxed you.

Not even passive yet. No CO2 at all.

I gotta say the fact that it is a few at a time makes me think it is some illness rather than water quality. I have seen this before, but I had no idea what caused it then, and I ended up with every water testing method known to man because I was so sure I was killing them somehow. All of them agree that the water quality is fine. I have proven the tests work so I trust them more now.

Ok, maybe I am just not destined to keep tetras of any kind. I am baffled. I picked up 15 rummy-nose tetras 4 days ago. I was worried, because I have had terrible luck in the past with neons and I think I am cursed now...but not worried enough to put them all in a brand new 10g QT tank, because I am an idiot. I took HOURS to acclimate them slowly and carefully before releasing them in the tank, they were casually swimming around relaxed in a more than 25:75 old:new water mix before I transferred them. They are in a planted new 29g that has never held fish before. I have 0 ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates other than the Easy Green I try to put in for the plants. I have a lot of plants, both floating and rooted, and a bit of algae, I can't keep nitrogen in the tank. Yesterday I noticed one not eating. This morning I found one dead. Now 2 more are not eating. Everyone else darts around in a feeding frenzy, these two huddle low in a corner breathing hard. I did a 30% water change, started dosing with Maracyn and ParaCleanse this morning, but I am preparing myself for a total loss. I see no other obvious symptoms. I don't have a clue what it could be. 7.4pH/30gh/40kh matches the water they came in pretty closely, tank is at 80 degrees, high-ish maybe but in range. I wanted to eventually keep Rams, so I was going to ratchet it up a little after they settled. There is an airstone in the tank and a spray bar, the canister filter has bio and mechanical filtration but not chemical. I would love any advice or commiseration you care to offer. Rough day. 😔

I was originally so determined to have only nerites. Now thanks to volunteers I have both bladder snails and the mini/dwarf rams horn, in addition to the nerites. I kinda learned to love them all. I think the terror is that you will be overwhelmed. We have all seen that one tank that is just as consumed with snails as it once was by algae.

Sorry, you are right and I am wrong. % to mg/ml is just the definition of a weight by volume solution--1g/100ml=1% solution, because 1ml of water = 1g. So a 2.66% solution would be 2.66g/100ml, or 2660mg/100ml, or 26.6mg/ml. My mistake was trusting google/my bleary eyes before coffee. I swear I read 1mg/ml=1ppm, which is, of course, wrong. 1mg/L=1ppm, which means yeah, 26600ppm. So I have proven that I have no idea how to convert that apparently, and spent an ungodly amount of time reminding myself of how math works. In any case, that seems LOW to me, as you would be diluting that in 37.85L of water. Your ppm would then be 26.6mg/37.851L, or 0.7mg/L, which is then 0.7ppm in ten gallons. That seems pretty wrong also, so I suspect either my math is still suspect (likely) or we have more chemistry to think about (also likely). I suspect the "2.66% nitrogen" is not actually the same as Nitrate, and some other chemistry voodoo is happening, that I could likely figure out if I wanted to work on this for another hour or 20, but I'm sorry, I can't, sooo.... I can say that when API's master test detects 0ppm Nitrate before ferts, and I put 1 squirt in a 10g tank that has at least some amount of water displacement by gavel and decor and stock, my test then reads about 5-10ppm. So this is something I have been also trying to figure out, and would like a real answer to. I swear I can't get my nitrates up to 20ppm to save my soul. I should have stuck to just measuring I guess, because all I have done is confuse myself and everyone else. Apologies. But I am making API rich trying to figure it out!

I think, for future reference, the way a % solution works is generally weight by volume, so a 2.66% solution would be 26.6 mg/ml. Once you have mg/ml, that is a straight conversion to ppm, in other words, 26.6ppm. I think your math might have crossed some units, easy to do even when you do this stuff all the time. I use this type of calculator a lot at work, it might help. It also includes a good explanation of the math. https://www.physiologyweb.com/calculators/percent_solutions_calculator.html What I can't really explain is @Bob's numbers? So I think he means that is what you will have once 1ml of Easy Green is diluted in 10 gallons? Or?

The exception would maybe be fish that are cold hardy enough to basically hibernate of course.

I think @TheDojoMojo is correct that lower temps would lower fish metabolism, but I think the bioload would be hard to empirically measure using a water test because presumably lower temperature also affects the rate at which your BB are metabolizing thru the N cycle. Probably the lower metabolism would not dramatically change your water change schedule, but a lower metabolism can reportedly increase fish lifespan as long as it isn't cold enough to add stress.

So I always wanted guppies as a kid and never got them. Now as an adult, I sort of felt silly for getting them, but I grabbed a few petsmart guppies a month or so ago on an impulse just for fun. It feels really good to realize 10 year old me was absolutely right. They are amazing. For such a small underrated fish, they have big personalities, they are hardy, pretty, they make more of themselves effortlessly, and they are their own clean up crew. What I seriously underestimated was how true that last thing was. I have a planted tank with snails and red cherry shrimp and it is mostly clean of algae. I have a tank with Pseudomugil and snails and it was being consumed by algae. I added a few shrimp and they didn't really dent it. But then I realized the guppy tank is spotless. I moved one juvenile and 2 adult females in there this morning. I should have taken a before and after picture. It is UNREAL. They have ripped out all the trailing brown threads that were infesting the dwarf hair grass I was trying to get established, cleaned every leaf, and all the moss. All that is left is some green on a sandy bit, and healthy plants. I can't believe it. When people go looking for "cleaner" fish, someone should point them at female guppies.

I dream of a distributed, invisible, water change system. One that I can turn a valve and change the water in a given tank, while I am doing something else. Of course, could be done in a rack system, but not throughout my apartment...I have considered options but all of them involve snaking plumbing through walls, and somehow housing an aged water tank, in a closet? Ah, the pitfalls of renting.

I have a decent monte carlo carpet on ada soil with "low" quality Nicrew lights and no CO2. It took a while, but it is rocking along now. I wonder if a light topdress (like 1/4") of fine ADA or Fluval soil near where you want your carpet to grow might not help? It seems like the root system is pretty weak on carpeting plants and they feed right on the surface? Maybe someone has tried that?

Fat brine bellies! (1 week old guppy fry)

I particularly like the combination of a really natural jungle scape with one unexpected figurine or a "ruin" half hidden in it. That is what I like about Endor and Dagoba--you could just see a nicely scaped tank, and then there is a little Easter egg in there....and suddenly everything has more depth.

Cool, that is one of my favorite things too. Maybe focus on a certain biotope then, or create a miniature version out of something else? I remember seeing a "desert" scene using things like khuli loaches for snakes and black shrimp for scorpions--amusing but not very "natural". But the concept is fun if you tried to make a miniature version of a favorite scene with mini fish and mini rocks and twigs and plants to maintain scale. It could be a little jewel box. Things like killi fish or ember tetras or dwarf rainbows. Alternatively you could go with a pair/few of some super charismatic small fish and make their perfect world. Small fish I like are guppies and Dwarf cichlids, because they notice you when you approach the tank. Of course, there are always betta and pea puffers that like their own domain too, and then no worries about breeding. I have been waffling about the puffers myself. they are sooo cute, and yet they belong on a desk, where you have to be close to see them.

What is your favorite part of having 11 tanks? Collecting? Breeding? Feeding? World building? Bonding with the fish? If you have one tank, you will want to feed your biggest driver, and that is probably important to identify.

I love this. It is packed but still balanced.

I have not. I would consider a marine grade (non ablative) paint instead, scuff sand and clean really well for adhesion, and be sure it is fully cured before putting it in water. I sail, paint and water are a hard mix. But for fish safety I think the main thing is having it be dead cured before it touches water. Let me know how it goes if you do it!

I have smaller tanks too, and I don't have one single "aquarium" stand. I use furniture and counter tops. That said, the pine Ikea dresser holding a combined 31 gallons of small tanks needed beefed up center supports to prevent middle sag. A few little 2x4 blocks did the job. One day I might need to worry about floor support if I ever go big, but I think I like my "distributed" fish room better for now. Every room has at least one tank.

Should work, I did that with Christmas moss. I learned the hard way though that you should check that your mesh doesn't float first! The guy I bought the christmas moss from actually grew it on the mesh emersed, and didn't use thread. I think it holds on by itself then.

Guppies are just so happy. And they eat everything, and they are sort of amazing really. I think they are highly underrated. The puppies of the fish world. I have a small sandy corner in my guppy tank that I recently disturbed slightly when I was cleaning that they have largely ignored. Something delicious must have been stirred up because they are pecking the sand and it is covered with little pock marks. It is pretty cool to watch them peck and spit out the sand. @Guppy Guru the 2nd to the last pic is one of my favorites, Blue mosaics? I don't actually know anything about strains, I just have some pet store goofballs. They look like maybe turquoise neon culls. I just love when the pectoral fins are colored. 🙂 Makes them so expressive.

My GH/KH is about a third of yours at 30GH/40KH. However, I think GH/KH can be deceptive because it doesn't specify which minerals it is measuring, just that there are some. Maybe the magic shell helped balance them out for you? Because I have softer water, I tend to offer shrimp pellets that have minerals. At first they didn't seem interested, but now they swarm them.

Also, @Daniel is a very nice guy.

At the university surplus store, where all the good used stuff goes to die. There is a brief open to the public period, if you like old equipment you should check it out. I suspect most universities have them in some capacity, try searching "(university name) surplus store" for your local institution. I have scored some amazing cool stuff, both for our lab and for me personally.

Hi everyone, I inherited an aquascaped tank recently. I don't have a lot of information about it, other than that it has a really simple set up, with anubias nana petite on a bonsai, and a Monte Carlo carpet with some dragon stone and amazonia ADA soil. To my knowledge it was not designed to have moss anywhere and so I am wondering where this is coming from? I thought it was some kind of hair algae at first, but seems to definitely be some kind of moss though?