MichelleN

I see the exact same behavior with my Bronze and 3-stripes. The 3-strips are all about the plants. Especially under the Tiger Lilly leaves. Darn Bronze are all over the glass. They even covered my drop checkers with eggs! And those Bronze lay a crazy amount of eggs, daily. I'm glad they get picked off as snacks or we'd have Bronze corydoras in the thousands.

@John Henrythanks so much for your kind response. I'm definitely going to increase the fertilizer. I've been manually adding after water testing the past two weeks so I'm ready to bump up the auto dosing now. Then maybe bump up the CO2 a touch while holding the light steady. We moved the diffuser into the sump right below the pump shortly after my post and we're getting a better distribution of bubbles throughout the tank this way, seem closer to 10ppm than 15pm. It's hard but I'm trying to stick to a two weeks observation between alterations rule. 🙂 I do have Nerites (4) and Amono (5) plus a small heard of ramshorn. I'm going to get more Amono when I see them in stock. I haven't the heart right now for adding Ottos. I love them, and currently have 4 in my 29 in the living room, which are entering year 3. But those 4 are the survivors of two batches of 6 purchased. Poor little wild caught critters. I was forewarned losses are heavy the first month, but that was painful😢. I'm not even brave enough to move the 4 I have. My plan someday is to start a tank outside to get tons of algae going to quarantine my next batch of Ottos in. That will be a project for warmer weather. Lol

Oh no! Cliffhanger. I'm late to this thread but what happened?

2 Fluval 3.0 48" on a 120 g high, 48×24x24 tank. I think it's an Aqueon, bought it used. Short question is how close to 100% should I go with the two lamps on this tank for a medium light level. Longer version below with pics. We have a DIY weir box (the original two overflow boxes removed by prior owner) with a full siphon, open chanel and emergency standpipe and a DIY 40g breeder sump. The tank is planted with a mix of low to medium light plants, three rather large pieces of Manzanita, basalt rocks for support, shaping and rounded beach gravel. Stocked primarily with Tetras and Corydoras. Most of the plants were originally from Co-op and had been growing in our other tanks, these include Annubias, crypts, Val, Java fern, PogoO. Along with frogbit and hornwort as floaters. I picked up hopefully medium light tolerant from LFS: Cabomba, g loydellia, filigree Myro, trident java and Bolbitis H, a banana plant and a tiger lily just for this setup. We'll see what makes it. And pathos growing from the weir. They are rather big because they were in our 75 g for nearly 2 years before it split a seam. The really big new thing for us is that we have the co-op C02 regulator set with a 10lb tank, we started ar 1 bps and increased a bit each week so we now set to 4bps. I have my drop checkers filled with 2dk water with aim to hit light green at 15ppm. Last water tests suggest I'm hitting near that goal with kh at 5 and ph at 7. We have the Neo diffuser on the side of the tank with higher inflow. The opposite lower flow side is where the Annubias are clustered under a protective floating ring of frogbit. Tank is now at 2 month (post cycle) stage. So it's new, some algae is expected over the the next year, especially has some was already present on the plants. But I'd like to keep it reasonable. BBA that was on Annubias is reducing nicely. But we're getting some string now and a bit of stag. So my current goal now is to hold the C02 at 15ppm and balance out the lights and nutrients. Since it's a new tank I only started dosing last 2 weeks ago at 1ml Easy Green per day. Will probably increase this next week if water tests continue to come up under 20ppm nitrates. We started the lights at about 50% with longish ramp up and ramp down periods. I've increased intensity twice now 2 weeks apart to 60% in the back and 55% in the front. Would really like to hear suggestions /recommendations on the dual lights and this size tank for medium light goal.

Thank you @Odd Duck, @TheSwissAquaristand @TOtrees. Very helpful and encouraging responses. I'll leave them floating for now. About ready to lay the new floor and we're going to look at a 120 tomorrow so if all goes well those Crypts won't be unbound for too long. 😀

Our corner tank had a seam split. We've torn it down and placed everything: filters, rocks, Gravel (in bags and fry boxes) plants, and fish) in a big tank in the garage while we first replace our flooring and then replace the display tank. Question on the cryptocorynes, should we leave them floating until we have the new tank setup (maybe a month, my husband will do all the work himself) or is it important to get the roots back into a substrate right away? I'm thinking of getting small hydroponic pots for the Crypts if they need to be planted asap. I hate to plant them now after just ripping them up only to replant again shortly if they can take floating. I've read a few comments on random threads (not here) that suggest the roots can fail quickly left floating. I trust this forum more.

Thank you. I've been lucky with this tank. It holds its balance pretty well. The LED light that comes on this cube is bright. To keep the Annubias from getting algae on the leaves I taped a piece of white translucent paper/velyum to the light. It softened it nicely. I run the light 8 hours with a Siesta. C.T. is my office buddy.

"C.T." and his plants have been in this 6.8 cube for a year now. His Crypts are happy and crowded now. I removed one plant several months ago. Debating is it possible, or more importantly advisable to trim his Crypts (two large, taller variety in back) back or best just to pull more out again. We'd have to hold them outside or in a spare 10 gallon for several more months until we set up our next tank. But C.T. needs a bit more open swim space I'd think.

"C.T." and his plants have been in this 6.8 cube for a year now. His Crypts are happy and crowded now. I removed one plant several months ago. Debating is it possible, or more importantly advisable to trim his Crypts back or best just to pull more out again. We'd have to hold them outside or in a spare 10 gallon for several more months until we set up our next tank. But C.T. needs a bit more open swim space I'd think.

@Torrey, and no, he's always eaten what I give him right off, unless he doesn't see it right off. And then I can usually point at it till he gets the point. And he visibley appears to be chomping it right down. I give him betta pellets during the work week, and a treat of frozen Daphne/brine shrimp on a weekend day. Took him a bit to understand they were food, so kept it light, but he seems to understand it now. Hiding food, huh? What a ton of personality these little guys can have. 😀

Oh wow! Last night I did three things. 1. Hand picked out some of the algae. 2. Added a dose of easy green. 3. (And I suspect this was the kicker) I removed the pre-filter I had off of the water return, increasing the water movement. I was a bit worried as I had read several reviews that the movement in this tank setup could be too much for a betta. So I followed a tip adding that pre-filter on the outflow. But, with it gone, the tank looks so much better this morning and in just one night, most of that ugly white mess on the drift wood is gone! @Torrey I didn't notice a smell, and it looked fluffy but felt slimy. My betta has only 5 blue velvet neocardinia (experiment, I've tried to make sure they have several hiding options) and a few common pond snails. He seems ok with them, but I tried baby rice fish once, admittedly in his prior smaller tank, and removed them quickly as he wasn't even going to let them try to hide from him, He was incensed! I haven't yet come to a feeling if the increased flow is bothering him, but it sure seems to have quickly improved the looks of his home. I'll keep an eye on his feeding, responsiveness to me and those fins.

Your chickens eat it? Cool. Mine won't touch the water lettuce or frogbit we have to toss out. We run regular "free" ands sometimes locals come get it for tortoises or Koi ponds. I'd love to try red root but haven't seen them locally.

6.7 Betta cube, completed fishless cycle June 13th. The driftwood in question went through the cycling and came from another tank, where it did not have this growth. About 10 days ago I pulled it out, scrubbed off the white stuff with a toothbrush and peroxide, avoiding my plants and roots, a couple good rinses and short soak and placed it back. The white stuff came right back. It doesn't seem to bother my betta, but its a small world he's in so I'm concerned. I haven't seen this in my other tanks. The oldest of which is just approaching the one year mark, so I'm not that experienced. The tank is otherwise in a that "hey let's try out some hair and staghorn algae" stage I think is to be expected for its youth. LED that came with the tank runs 8-11am , then 1-5pm. The betta is my home office buddy, and I've had him a bit longer than his new home, about 8 months now. Parameters today: ph (7.2 by strips, I guess. 7.5 by drops? 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 1 nitrates (will be adding some easy green) Hardness I get 7 drops or 300 on strips, kh I get 6 drops or 150 on strips. Phosphate 1 (picture of tests is after the 3 minute mark so it looks darker). Both the nitrates and phosphate are now lower than my tap water so plants are taking hold I think. This scary looking white dotted webby stuff? Thoughts, advice?

Excellent topic for me. I have a 6.7 gallon with a single betta, a few cherry shrimp and a couple pond snails. Cycle completed June 13. (no fish, seed gravel and media plus some Fritz starter). My nitrates had been running between 5 and 10 and in the last couple weeks also dropped to zero. Which is odd as right now nitrates are high from my tap. I guess the plants just took hold and I'd best start dosing too.

They're a type of Impatien (sp) called "Sunpations" that I saw on someone's blog they used in floating pond islands. There was some debate about their tolerance for bog life in the comments, but they were $3 a small pot so we gave it a go. What we found is the white is still fine & growing. Both the colored ones seemed OK for several weeks but then slowly passed away. We noticed the leaves are smoother on the whites, so even though they were sold as just a color variation we suspect there's differences in white vs colored. We'll keep that white as long as it lives, but not buy more. Kinda like your Lilly experiment 😉

Thanks for the reply, your Temperatures sound similar to ours. I was about to try to remove my question and pictures from your post because I saw the term hijacking on a chicken forum and worried I had gotten carried away posting too much of my own on your journal and so been rude. If so I'm sorry. I do get carried away.

How is your water temperature doing? We recently (December?) Moved our 3 goldfish from the 35 gallon blue half-barrel covered with wood siding tub they had been in for years and had outgrown into the same 100 gallon tub you have. Our back patio is covered with a cream translucent ribbed sheeting, so the tub doesn't get full light, which really keeps the algae down but as our temperature warms up we notice the black tub seems to really gather heat and transfer it to the water even without full sun, much more than we anticipated. Since we live in Fresno we are concerned 😟, its been an unusually cool spring - that won't last. We have a plan b as we are setting up new tubs made of big white industrial type cubes cut in half and again wrapped in wood siding. One currently has rice fish and the other is not yet ready for fish. The new tubs are shallower but hold maybe 150 gallons and even though they currently get a couple hours a day sun so far seem to run a bit cooler..so the goldfish may move again once we get a shade barrier up. Anyway just wondering what your experience with temperature is where you are.

Oh my word that's a gorgeous set up!

I have both blue velvet and golden back shrimp. I love the color of the blue velvet, when I can see them. But that isn't often. I have more of them, but see them less. The golden shrimp on the other hand show up very well in both tanks and on both light and dark substrate. They look awesome either way. The bonus is when the lights are lower in the evening and that reflective stripe on their backs really pops. So even though I don't love the color yellow as I LOVE the color blue, I prefer the gold shrimp. 💛 easier to see = more joy.

@TheAdmiral Yes, I'm thinking more so now also. It's hard to reconstruct the timeline afterwards and trust hindsight, but it fits. I didn't reach into any of the other tanks. Just this one.

@ xXInkedPhoenixX No unusual colors, but the puragen seems much darker than I'd expect at this time since it was recently changed out. Maybe that's another part of the mysteriously normal appearing water test tubes. No recharging this time.

No, and thank you I looked that up and we don't. But we do keep both a bit of Puragen and since our tap contains more phosphates that we'd like, some Phosguard in the HOB. They both also typically turn yellow- brown when ready to be recharged or replaced. Which was fairly recently so we can pull those bags and see if they look different.

Came home late last from an overnight anniversary trip. Noticed on the way to bed my 29 had cloudy water - bit it was so much worse! Little bodies everywhere! Temperature read 76 and heater was plugged in but not running (its set to 74) and does not look cracked or wet inside. No one got shocked pulling out bodies. Surprisingly we realized as we cleaned up the casualties and changed out water that 3 cherry shrimp and 2 Octo cats are still alive. But the other Octocat, "blue" our drawf gourami, 6 red Glow tetras, my darling little pygmy corydoras and the 6 still juvenile honeys my husband placed in here to grow out a bit - all lost. This is an 8.5 month running low tech planted tank. I had given all the tanks repashy in addition to usual morning flakes and nano pellets. I must have messed up and fed this tank twice, and it didn't look like they had chance to eat much, as I could spot the excess food as we cleaned the tank. The ph and ammonia indicator cards we keep in there looked the same, but we don't trust them that much, so I pulled out water to test before we added any new water, just to know, and to punish myself a bit more I guess. I was expecting very high ammonia and drastically changed ph. But the water parameters tested as they normally do for this tank. That surprised me so I tested again, breaking out new unused ammonia test bottles just to be sure. The ammonia read light yellow, maybe a very faint hint of green in the API test but not near the .25 yellow. Nitrites zero blue, not at all purple, nitrates about 20 (harder to read at night). The tank is planted and nitrates used to run between 5-10 in this tank between water changes, but as the honeys have grown it has been between 10 and 20 just in the last month. My ph has always been difficult to call because it reads right at darkest blue (7.6) on low test, but a light orange (7.4) on the high test, so we call it 7.5 to 7.6 and just watch to make sure it's not swinging around. The colors were still in that usual for us in between range. It's just so odd to have the tests look in the ranges normal for this tank while all my lovelies are dead! If I killed my fish because I overfed, which I am sure I've done, I'm not trying to escape that, but shouldn't my ammonia be sky high? Could the ammonia spike, killing so many fish and then bacteria catch up and convert to nitrates before we returned and before the bodies started to depose? Was the cloudiness the bacteria bloom pulling that off? We left Tuesday at 8am, got back Wed night about 9:30 pm. The other suspect is Sunscreen. It's a bit hard to be positive as we were in a hurry and I'm questioning everything now, but I think it was after I applied Sunscreen to my face and legs, then on a subsequent pass by the 29 I decided to remove the shrimp cave because earlier in the week one of the juvenile gourami had managed to trap itself inside. It was an impulse and I didn't think to wash my hands first. I'm not certain of the timing. So I blame myself more for the food, but my husband leans more to the sunscreen. Probably the combination, two stressors, then once anyone fish died, a chain... After some debate we decided it was probably best not to move the poor survivors to one of other tanks, since we don't know exactly what happened. So we stopped short of 50% change last night, then did another change this morning and plan to do additional smaller water changes over the next week and see if they continue to pull through. So far the few survivors seem to be doing fine. But all my other poor fish 😢 im heartbroken and feel so bad.

@Lynze that is a truly gorgeous cory! Ours seems much darker and has stripes and the spot which is the same on both sides. But man, yours is a looker! Just stunning. I think I'm jealous. Does it seem content with the false julii? Ours used to spend much of It's time alone when they were in the 75 tank, but now that they are all in the tiny meds tank "he" seems more part of the herd, and I think better off for it. @Colu I know! Thank you for looking, I found a couple charts and really fun corydoras compilation video (so much variety) but they seemed to have combinations of two or three of his traits, never all. Maybe it's a mutt (haha). I guess all we can do is keep him with this group and keep half an eye out.

Nitrate 2 needs to bullied, I hear you! 😃