TomO

I do have a new medium sponge filter. I can drop in while the other is soaking.

Will that remove the bba? The algae has clogged up the sponge. The sponge is clogged with bba. How do I remove it?

I have 2 large sponge filters in my 75 gallon South American tank that’s been up for 2 years. It was previously an African cichlids tank. I sold them and bought South and Central American cichlids. Then I had of fighting a diatom algae filled by black beard algae. The filters are coated with bba. And there filtering ability is compromised. Should I just replace the filters or is there a way to fix my problem. At this point I only have 2 medium parrotfish, one adult angel, a small pleco and a Raphael catfish. I don’t want to get more fish with all the crap floating in my tank. Ideas please.

The shrimp swim up to the fish and try’s to start eating them.

They aren’t doing it anymore, but in a live bearer tank, there are never any babies.

My Amano shrimp are about 3 years old and are attacking any new fish I put in my tank. I recently put a baby polar parrotfish in my 29 gallon platty tank to help him grow out before going in my angel tank. Every shrimp (5) attacked him. Should I move the shrimp to my 55 gallon angel fish tank?

I have about a dozen variatus platties in a 30 gallon. I also have duckweed that covers the entire surface, so much that it makes feeding difficult. Besides goldfish is there another fish I can put in my tank that will be cool with my beloved platties and will devour the duckweed. My parrotfish will eat it if I net out a bunch from the 30 and drop it in the 75. But in a month I’m back to square one in my duckweed battle.

I keep my house at 65 all winter long. I live as far north and east in Wisconsin as you can get. I will keep the tank at around 70.

I will be buying a 5 pack of high fin blue coral variatus platties. Do I remember correctly, the tank doesn’t need heat? Room temps of 66-72 degrees will be fine.

That sounds like a plan. I’m going to put some plants and a mystery snail from a local lake, to test for toxicity. Keep it in a 5 gallon tank.

Near my home in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, the iron mines dump dark brown stamp sand on the shoreline on Lake Superior. Stamp sand is the by product of take iron from iron ore. It’s the surrounding rock. It’s about 1/16-1/8” in diameter. It doesn’t rust because the iron is removed. Do you think it would be fine as substrate? Below is a picture of the difference in color from normal sand and the stamp sand.

According to Cory, variatus platties don’t need a heater. I have very hard water. My snails love it.

I’m planning on setting up a 20 gallon to intentionally breed variatus platties. How many trios should I get. Will they breed more if I use a heater. Which plants are better for the babies? My water averages a pH of 7.4. Do they prefer hard or soft water? Should I source them from Aquabid? My lfs sells sick fish.

Will a UV unit help? Will a UV unit help?

Currently in my 75 gallon I have a brown film/algae on all my live plants and glass. Is there a good way to get rid of it?

I found something similar but grows better with cO2. Eriocaulon Cinereum

Thanks, I hope it takes off with root tabs. I also found a val that was red, but during the disinfection process turned green. We hats lot of iron mines up here, maybe I should try some easy iron?

I recently collected a few of these from the shoreline of a northern Wisconsin lake. Sandy substrate, full sun, clear water. The “leaves “ are stiff like a toothbrush.

I hope I spelled that right. I live in northern Wisconsin. I recently collected at my local lake a Val that is red. It starts at the bas as green but quickly goes red. I know val Americana that I get in Green Bay is all green and gets about 3 feet long. This is much shorter, only a foot long. Is this a different variety? I'm going to try to propagate it in my 75.

They come out of the sand green but turn bronze. I used the seltzer trick, they’re loving my 55.

I live in northern Wisconsin, I’m surrounded by natural lakes. Today I harvested some hair grass and a short red plant that resembles val. But it’s only 6 “ long at the tallest. It grows in rocky substrate. I would like to know a couple things. Does anyone know what it’s called? I will post a picture. And how do I clean it so I don’t get hitch hikers getting into my tank. There were red worms about 2” long nestled in the root that I tossed. Any guidance would be appreciated.

I started with one crypt in a 55 gallon. I put a couple root tabs down by the roots and in a matter of 9 months one crypt turned into 25 crypts. Each over a foot long. My lfs gave me $5 in trade for each plant. I took one baby to start the process over again. Now my 55 gallon is a grow out tank for my plants. They’re cheaper to feed, take longer to grow out but worth 5 times as much as guppies.

Thanks for the sage advice. A great man is never afraid to be little - Emersen

I have been running a small sponge filter in my 55 along with a large sponge filter to season the small filter for my soon to set up shrimp tank. I’ll be replacing both filters with two medium co-op sponge filters because the large filter is a fine sponge and I have to clean it so often. The 55 gallon tank has been set up for 5 years. It’s planted and only has two angels two tetras and 5 panda corys. So the bio load isn’t that much. Heres my question. Should I put fresh sponge filters both at the same time, or just replace one filter at a time? And when I start my shrimp tank, and use the small filter, should I squeeze out the sponge into the tank to spread out the bacteria?

No Sulawesi either blue dream or orange. I wish I could keep like a skittles variety but then I’d end up with brown shrimp, lol