PatO

They do indeed but I'm not sure I want anything smaller than a neon. I was actually thinking I might want to add cardinals to the tank. The cycle is nearing completion. I have cycled media (about 10 bio balls)from my 180 gallon tank in the tank and they are making short work of ammonia. The second stage of the cycle is not yet completed but I think we will get there in the next 2-3 days.

Thank you. its my first planted tank ever so I am learning a lot. One good thing about me with this process is that I am not a knee jerk reaction guy so I am ok with things taking week or even months to change over time.

Hi Everyone. Thanks for the earlier feedback on this one. I think I am ready to order fish for the tank. Here is what I was thinking for stocking. I will probably get all of the fish from Aqua Huna as my LFS somehow is at least 2-3X more expensive. Again the tank is a 20L. 20 neons, 6 pygmy cories, 2 nerites and 10 cherry shrimp. My quantities are based on the packs Aqua Huna sells the fish in. I'd ideally like more cories but I think that might be overdoing it. Plus I would like a small chance that the cherry shrimp can have some babies survive to keep their numbers going. I doubt that would be possible with more cories. I am not interested in selling shrimp. I just want the shrimp is repopulate over time if possible. Thoughts? Tank seems to be doing fine. Really not much has changed over the last 2 weeks. My tiger lotus bulb has not sprouted which I was concerned about, but its not mushy so i think it's ok, and I think I see something beginning to pop out of it just barely. The other one I am worried about is the pearl weed in the back. Its not completely rotted but it does not look great. Still some green though. I'm hoping the shrimp can help clean up some of the dead plant material to help the tank out.

Here is a picture of the tank. I figured out the haze is from the plants already beginning to melt. So, there is a question...how often should I change water at this stage. I don't want to too often as I think its going to be hard to keep nitrates up without fish in there. I do have some established media from another tank I can add to get the cycle going so no issues there. Alot of the plants are beginning to melt / turn transparent. I'm 99% sure this is normal but if you guys can confirm I will feel alot better about it. Also I know the plants are not positioned that great. There are 20 plants in that little 20L tank and I had 45 minutes to plants them between my daughter's lacrosse game and then a soccer match right after. I just have a single medium sponger powered by a nano usb filter. That should be enough filtration right. I think I am just going to add neons and a few small cories to the tank with a nerite snail and maybe a few ottos to follow later.

Hi everyone, I just setup a brand new 20 long with plants, lights, sponge filer, a Finnex Stingray light and the whole 9 yrds. from Aquarium Coop. Everything is planted, turned on, and so far so. I am using ActivFlora substrate (I think that's it) It's black with small particles and very gritty. Anyway, I was planning to let the tank go for a few months to let plants establish, get some algae growth and generally just mature a bit before I add fish, and a clean up crew. STT you know? Anyway I checked my water parameters because there is a light haze in the water which I assumed was an ammonia bloom from the substrate beginning to leach. Ammonia is 0 and there are no nitrates (thank you Aquarium Co-op test strips) My question is should I add a few pumps of easy green or anything else, maybe even a few mL of ammonia to get things rolling in that tank. I'm guessing I might be getting ahead of myself here as I this is my first plated tank, but I just want to confirm my new plants don't need any supplements nutrients at this point being there are no fish in the tank. Thanks.

Thanks everyone. The hybridization scenario seems like a likely one in this case. I appreciate the replies and the information.

It seems to me the easiest solution might just to net them from the tank and cull them yourself. Any fish will generally eat the fry at that size but again, unless you want to add another fish to this tank I wouldn't add one for just this purpose.

I have had this guy(girl) in my tank for 2.5 years. I think I am ready to move on from him/her and see if I can find him a new home. He's about 7-8" long and was sold to me as a Vieja synspila but he does not strike me as that. I will not take him to my LFS and thought my local fish club might be a better option but I would like to describe him in the new letter as accurate as possible as they do not include pictures. Thank you.

Thank you both for your replies. I’m trying to locate an arborist but most listed on their site are tree service companies who aren’t calling me back to come look at the tree. I’m still trying though. Thanks again.

Hello everyone, not sure if anyone out there can assist me with a concern I have with a tree in my yard, but I figured since nerms are nature enthusiasts in general, someone might be able to give me their thoughts. I have a mature maple tree in my backyard that we think is about 35 to 40 years old. In recent years, little chunks of bark have begin begun to separate from the trunk. This past year, a large piece of bark separated from the trunk. My concern is that the tree is on a slow path to death. The tree did we leaf out this spring but it does appear that I had more limb die off this winter than previous years. Any one out there with experience with such an issue?

I am one of those fortunate people who have a severe allergy to Blood Worms. Frozen Blood worms if they get in my eyes will swell my eye shuts and make me sneeze my head off. I made the mistake last year of trying freeze dried blood worms as an alternative and breathing in the dust from opening the bottle landed me in the emergency room. Needless to say I will read fish food labels closely when I buy fish foods to stay as far clear of blood worms as I possibly can. That said, I would like to try live and/or freeze dried black worms. Does anyone have experience feeding any kind of black worms after realizing they have a blood worm allergy. No other food I have ever fed, frozen or free dried have ever given me problems to date. Thanks everyone.

That is so cool. That is absolutely him. I never knew his name was Vince. Kmuda is an absolute treasure trove of fish keeping knowledge. He experimented all time with his tanks to further his knowledge of the hobby so he can pass it onto others. He made everyone on that site a better fishkeeper. I really miss that board. So many great people and some real characters as well. If you get a chance to meet/talk to him, maybe get him to create an ID here. He truly was Cory before there was a Cory from aquarium coop.

Wow great suggestions and feedback. I absolutely will be using slot of your suggestions. In case you have any other ideas, I’m including a picture of the spider wood and rocks I was planning to add. I’m not sure if all of the rocks will make it in or not. Second, your tank in that thread is stunning. Absolutely gorgeous and something to aspire to.

Here is what I have. -20 Long -24" Finnex Stingray light - Small sponge and HOB filter - 30 Lb of Activ Flora subrate with regular substrate on top to get to 3" I plan for those to be a neon tank with shrimp, nerites and maybe a few Ottos. The tank will have a few rocks for decoration and a spider wood center pieces. I want the tank to be heavily planted. If you had an unlimited budget for plants on the Co-op site, what would you add? I'm hoping for some inspiration.

If you get one you won’t be disappointed

I believe it’s a Herman Miller Aeron chair. I could be wrong though.

So do you think a pair of 20’s will keep the water crystal clean? No need for HOB to polish water? Could a USB nano power two small sponge filters?

I know I’ve heard Cory mention that you should allow a newly planted tank establish a while before adding fish. In my 20 long I plan to add a school of neons and cherry shrimp eventually. I’ll have a cleanup crew as well with some nerite snails, maybe some ottos, again eventually. Is the general idea to let plants grow on their own, let some algae grow and then in 2-3 months add the livestock?

I’m starting my first planted tank on a 20 long. I was planning on adding a Coop medium sponge filter, but do you generally recommend adding a HoB like an AQ30 to help polish the water as well? Thanks.

Thank you 👏🏼

I was thinking it would be nice to have a sort feature in the live plants section of the site for say root vs. other types of aquarium plants. Background, mid and foreground plants etc. Just a thought.

I’m starting a 20 long with a variety of coop plants. I have Activ-Flora substrate to start. Would root tabs be helpful to add to stem plants or would it be redundant to start until the plants use up the nutrients in the Activ-Flora.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll take a look. They are really cool fish. Very slow growing but I like that about them. Here is a pic of a few of them from a few months back.

Rich at Ohio Fish Rescue often adds bubble walls to his tanks using rigid 3/16th tubing. The effect looks great. Here is a link to page where he overviews the steps.

A message board I belonged to for years and years before it finally met its end was Oscarfish.com . Any members on this forum former members of that board. Id love to reconnect with some of those folks if I could. Lots of great people and some characters to boot. A gentleman that went by Kmuda who hailed from Arkansas is one of the few people I have ever experienced in the fish keeping world whose overall fish knowledge is comparable to Cory.