gardenman

I've currently got duckweed, red root floaters, salvia minima, frogbit, and water sprite spread out in my tanks. The red root floaters won't be red under less intense light, but should still grow well under less light. The water sprite would likely overwhelm a five gallon tank pretty quickly. The duckweed/glitter comparison is very apt. You can't go too far wrong with any of them. The salvia minima in one of my tanks is growing much like duckweed and taking over that tank but behaving itself elsewhere. I've grown azolla in my water garden in the past, but never in an aquarium, but I may look to pick some up to try inside.

It's a fish eat fish world out there.

Not that I know of. It just goes away on its own.

In theory, if you create a proper anaerobic region with the right bacteria, the bacteria will convert nitrates into oxygen and nitrogen gas that emerges in the form of gas bubbles. That's the theory behind products like "Miracle Mud" and the large ceramic bio bricks/blocks. Does it work? I don't know. I've used the Seachem Matrix which claims to do the same, but never really saw a difference.

I've never found mollies to be aggressive. I think they'd be fine.

I just got my first crypts this past week, so I don't have much experience with them yet. I like the sound of that though. They aren't sold in my local fish stores, so I finally broke down and ordered some.

Most stem plants can be easily propagated in that manner. Floating plants tend to self-propagate with no help at all. Mosses also self-propagate. Water Sprite (when it's happy) is one of the easiest plants to propagate as you can simply tear off a leaf, float it in your tank and it'll send out baby plants from the edges. Anubias and Java fern are typically propagated by dividing the rhizome. Java fern will also often send out little plantlets on the leaves that can be removed and planted. Plants like vallisneria and sagittaria propagate by runners. If you get some plants that like your conditions you'll end up wondering why people charge so much for them when they're so easy to propagate and you're throwing away lots of them each week.

Give it time and it should clear up on its own. It looks like the start of an algae bloom to me due to the greenish tint. The water will likely turn even greener over the next few days but ultimately clear up. Four root tabs in a 7.5 gallon tank with relatively little in the way of actively growing plants was probably too many. There aren't enough plants, or big enough plants, to use all of the nutrients available so algae is taking over. Algae blooms in an aquarium are not uncommon. As anyone who's tried to maintain a green water tank intentionally will tell you, it's not easy to keep the water green, so given time it should clear on its own. A big water change will bring down the nutrient level and start to help sort out the problem faster. Using a UV sterilizer will sort things out even more quickly. Using fewer root tabs in the future is wiser, at least until your plants are really established and growing like mad. Using fertilizer with less phosphorous can help also. Phosphorus tends to bring on algae blooms. When you buy fertilizer you'll typically see three numbers like 10-11-12. The first number is the nitrogen, the second the phosphorus, and the third is the potassium (NPK.) For most aquarium plants the first and third numbers are the most important. Nitrogen encourages green leafy growth. Potassium encourages good root development. The phosphorus is more for flower development which isn't terribly important in an aquarium and can lead to an algae bloom. Picking an aquarium fertilizer with larger nitrogen and potassium numbers and very low phosphorous is best for the aquarium plant grower. Fertilizer for flowering plants in a garden will typically be something like a 15-30-15, while lawn fertilizer will be more like 32-0-04. The needs of aquarium plants are more in line with lawn fertilizer. I don't worry too much about over-fertilizing my tanks as they're jungles and it's hard to even see the substrate in some of them. If I were to get an algae bloom I'd just ignore it and it would go away on it's own over time. If you can find a local source of live daphnia they'll take great joy in eating all the algae your water can hold. Reducing the lighting level for a bit can help get the algae under control also, but in all likelihood it'll go away on its on given time. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If it bothers you, keep doing water changes, add no more fertilizer to the water, reduce the lighting and it should go away pretty quickly.

I had this a few weeks ago. It's a slime mold feeding on the biofilm on your glass. It'll move around the glass, then eventually just go away on its own. It's pretty neat stuff to watch. I posted about it on this forum a couple of weeks ago. Mine's now gone. I think mine came in on some cholla wood I'd added.

A wet/dry filter is typically more efficient than a sump so converting one to a sump will likely lower your efficiency. The air exposure in a wet/dry filter helps to make the aerobic bacteria more efficient. Koi keepers use Bakki Showers as a biofilter, which is essentially a tall wet/dry filter using a special, porous ceramic as the media. The detritus you're seeing on the bioballs may be thriving bacterial colonies instead of anything bad. The filter pads and drip tray typically stops anything large-ish from getting to the bioballs. Higher nitrates and low/no ammonia/nitrites are a sign that the biofilter is doing it's job. If you are concerned about high nitrates and are looking for a solution other than heavy planting or water changes, then adding a dense, less porous, biofiltering material like the 8"x8"x4" ceramic blocks to the filter can help. They're typically large enough, and if placed in a low flow area, dense enough to create anaerobic conditions inside the block where the nitrate consuming bacteria can thrive. There is also a product called "Miracle Mud" that can be used in a freshwater or marine refugium to create the conditions for the nitrate eating anaerobic bacteria. Some who use Miracle Mud insist they never have to do water changes and even grossly overstocked tanks maintain near zero nitrates. (It's a bit pricey though and you need to swap out 50% each year.) The bacteria we need to convert ammonia and nitrites are aerobic, which thrive in a high oxygen, faster moving system like a wet/dry filter. The bacteria that consume nitrates want an anerobic, very slow moving water supply. In nature they thrive in the mud, so Miracle Mud tries to replicate that. Converting a wet/dry filter to a sump will likely lower its efficiency and have no positive impact on the nitrates. There are other ways to tackle the nitrate issue. So, why doesn't everyone use a wet/dry filter if they're so good? The typical answer is expense. They're pricey. They're also more complicated to set up. You've bought yours and have it all plumbed in, so you've already overcome the biggest obstacles.

I'm experimenting with the API Pond Aquatic Plant Food tablets in my 30 high with a 2"-3" gravel bed and so far, so good. They're a lot cheaper than the aquarium ones, so I'm giving them a try. White-ish cloudiness is typically a bacterial bloom, while green water is an algae bloom. I would expect whatever the cloudiness is to resolve on it's own pretty quickly. I don't think you ruined your water.

I use Soilent Green and they eat it, but they prefer things like green beans, shrimp pellets, and freeze-dried tubifex worms. When I open the top of the tank they start to gather where the food lands and when it's Repashy, they'll knock it around for a bit as if they hope to find something better under it, then eventually they accept that's all there is and eat it. They're kind of like a kid with something he/she doesn't like on their plate. They kind of have the "Well, it's better than nothing" approach to Repashy.

Albinism is a trait that's bred into a line. My suspicion is your blue eye guppy is simply a descendant of the original gene line that the albinos emerged from. Guppies tend not to breed true 100% of the time and the traits of older generations re-emerge in some of the kids/grandkids. Whoever created your albino line of guppies likely started with guppies that look like what you've got now and found an albino and then bred for that characteristic, culling out the ones with pigmented eyes. You may just be recreating the original strain that the first albino emerged from. They're still a beautiful fish, but my suspicion is this is just a reversion to an earlier genetic form of the albino guppy before it became an albino line.

You say the other plants have taken off and are growing well, so I suspect they're outcompeting the floating plants for nutrients. Your floaters are likely starving while the other plants feast. People recommend growing plants so the plants will consume nutrients to starve algae. Algae's a plant, so the same thing is likely happening to your floaters. Your established plants are feasting while the floaters starve. You can live with it, harshly prune back/thin out the thriving plants, or add more nutrients to try and help the floaters.

I've always heard to go by smell. When you don't have that vinegar smell, wait another 24 hours and you should be good to go.

If you saw mine with the baby plecos in it you'd know I don't worry about keeping it clean. It's got a lot of mulm in it, algae everywhere, and isn't pretty. But, the baby plecos are happy and thriving. (Five weeks old and between 7/8" and 1" in length and eating like little horses.) I made a DIY algae scraper using a small piece of a Scotchbrite pad hot glued to a small dowel to keep the front wall somewhat clean to make it easier to watch the little guys/gals. I've upped the waterflow to about a tablespoon a second through the box and everyone is doing great. It's not a pretty showtank, but the fish are very happy and that's what matters.

I'm not a co2 expert, but from what I've read, you'll want the diffuser where you have water flow so the co2 gets evenly dispersed. As to the number of bubbles, that's impossible to say. You'll need a co2 checker to learn the optimal level for your tank. The sponge filters with their airflow will contribute to off gassing the co2 in the water, so keep that in mind. Any turbulence in the water tends to help the co2 escape. When you add co2 to water you get carbonic acid. Acids are low ph, so you'll want to keep an eye on your ph to ensure it doesn't crash. Too much co2 can be very destructive.

Water Sprite doesn't mind low temps. I put some excess out in my water garden last summer and it was still alive and growing in October when the water temp had fallen into the low sixties. Water Sprite is a quirky plant. I have some in all four tanks. In two tanks it grows like a weed. In one tank it survives. In the fourth tank it just keeps melting away. Same water, same substrate, similar lighting, but Water Sprite does what it wants to do. If you have any damaged leaves, just cut them off and let them float on the water surface. If the plant is even somewhat happy, that floating stem/leaf should spawn new plants around the edges. It's one of those boom or bust plants for me. In some tanks I have to keep weeding it out or it'll take over, and in a nearby tank it just dies.

It would depend on the internal design of those units. I'd have to see inside one of those modular units to see if it was usable.

New Jersey. We like to think of ourselves as the tax capital of the world. High property taxes, high business taxes, high sales taxes, etc. If it moves or breathes you pretty much need a permit/license for it. African dwarf frogs required a special yearly permit for a while. I think they ended that or the local aquarium stores just decided to ignore it. If it doesn't move or breathe, you've got to pay taxes on it. Oddly enough, NJ is among the leaders in people leaving states for some place saner. Who knew taxing people to death and regulating everything would drive people away?

This is going to sound weird, but have you given any thought to just inverting the four gallon tank over the top of the cave? Make it an aquarium within an aquarium? That would protect them from predation. They'd still have the algae covered tank to nibble on. (Mine aren't big fans of algae though.) If you had some spare largish diameter PVC lying around you could make a feeding/water change tube that would slide under the inverted tank and let you slip some food into the babies. (They love French style green beans.) A straight length from above the water line with a ninety degree elbow and another shorter length going under the inverted tank could let you slide food down the pipe and into the inverted tank and also refresh the water in the inverted tank. Excess water would ooze out around the base of the inverted tank. You could just pump some of the tank water down the tube. The diameter of the PVC would be limited by how much gravel you had in the tank. If you had just an inch of gravel it would be trickier, but a two to three inch gravel bed could work pretty well. It's something to think about.

Prices vary wildly across the country. Aquabid, eBay, and even Craigslist can give you some idea on market value. I watch quite a few fish store tours on YouTube and the prices in some parts of the country are wildly different than they are locally. (Five times different isn't unusual. Sadly they're usually much cheaper elsewhere than here. The real estate sites may have to start including local fish store prices in their listings. Move here and you can buy fish for half the price of where you live now!)

You get nitrates one of two ways typically. As a byproduct of the nitrogen cycle, or by adding it as a fertilizer. If you want higher nitrates the easiest thing is to stop doing water changes, add more bio-load (within reason,) and feed more often. Adding more bio-load is fun as it lets you go fish shopping. Just don't go too nuts as your biofilter still needs to be able to handle the increase in bio-load. As a general rule, fish like being fed more often. More fish, more food, means more waste, which becomes more nitrates. (Eventually.)

It's possible there was fertilizer in the new plants you planted. Some places use little time released balls (like Osmocote if you're also a terrestrial gardener) in their potted plants to help them grow. If there were such pellets on the roots of the new plants and one or more got crushed while being planted, instead of slowly releasing the fertilizer they may have dumped it all at once. Ammonium Nitrate is a very common fertilizer and as you can tell by the name, it has ammonia in it. If a little pellet that was to slowly release ammonia over a three to six month period got crushed and released it all at once, that could account for your issue. (Some people put Osmocote into gel capsules to use as DIY root tabs.) Those little time release fertilizer pellets/bombs are designed to last anywhere from three to sixteen months, so they pack a lot of fertilizer into a tiny little resin coated ball. If that resin shell breaks, then much more comes out at once instead of over months. That would be my best guess as to what happened. Anything decaying in the tank was already decaying in the tank.

No. I just listen for air escaping when I open the valves. If I hear any hissing, I shut the valves, pop the top check the o-ring, maybe lube it with some Vaseline, then put it back together and check again. No air hissing means no leaks. Easy-peasy. If mine are going to leak, it's around the o-ring and air goes out as the water is coming in, so no hissing means no leaks. (At least so far. Fingers crossed it continues.) I always restart with the empty canister (filter material in it, but no water) so lots of water has to go in before it'll leak. If the air goes out into the aquarium and there's no hissing around the pump head, it's a good sign that there won't be a leak.