Ali

I just returned from a trip, so the aquarium was definitely neglected for 3 weeks. All of my fish are constantly snacking on algae, so there is a ton of green platy poop. Parameters: ammonia 0 ppm nitrite 0 ppm nitrate 30 ppm pH 7.0 KH 80 ppm GH 300 ppm phosphate 0 ppm Some pics of the current state of the aquarium: Black-red algae carpeting the hardscape and swallowing my plants Same algae on hardscape, swallowing my little anubias, covering my pothos roots in top left. Algae on hardscape. Appears red on my medium Aquarium Co-op intake sponge and green on the HOB intake and black background. Another shot of how it covers my plants. These leaves were clean 3 weeks ago. Also appears black-red at different angles. Microscopy (40x): Microscopy (100x):

Hi guys! I started exploring my aquariums using my microscope, and it just so happens that over the past few months I have been struggling to balance my 20 gallon aquarium. I have had a series of different algae blooms, including some I have never observed before. I aim to use this thread to document algae that I see in my aquarium, including photos and microscopy photos. Any help IDing is appreciated! My background is in medicine and chemistry, so I am in no way an expert on algae, and I am hoping to learn more about identification and classification.

Lovely! I was needing some aquascape inspo. What is the short plant on the far right? mini pearl weed?

Dude, I grew up in Thomasville! Nice to meet you!

@Ohad What about rotala rotundifolia blood red for the spot on the right? I picked some up recently from my LFS. I'm obviously trying to get it to grow out for me since it is now fully submerged. It is just starting to turn red and is so satisfying. Love the idea of adding reds! I also love ammania gracilis, but that may be too grass-like for you. I'm a sucker for the green to red transitions.

I have a similar problem. My little pea puffer will only eat live BBS. Not frozen. It must be swimming. She will not eat live daphnia or live snails. So I’m working out how to have live BBS practically every day for her without too much leftover. I’m continuing to try to wean her on to other foods, but she has to eat. I’m experimenting. I found that with my setup my hatch occurred in about 24 hrs. I harvested what I needed for my tanks and kept the heater and air circulating my Ziss blender and was able to harvest more the next day. I turned off my air and on the third day the rest of my BBS were dead. I’m not sure if I can get them to live longer by keeping the air going or if their life is just limited in the blender. This time I’m just hatching a much smaller batch! Same amount of water and salt but fewer eggs. I’m doing 1/2 teaspoon eggs and expecting leftovers that I’ll again try to keep alive to last a couple days.

I live in Philadelphia. I have 2 LFS. Both are 30-50 minutes of driving on either direction of the city. One is in New Jersey. They are very successful with such gorgeous displays, everything you would want in a LFS. The other one is in PA and has a fine selection but has serious cleanliness and management issues. It blows my mind that in a major city like Philly there aren’t more accessible, successful LFS.

I just got this hatchery, so not a veteran here, but here is what I learned on my first go. 1. I would put a check valve somewhere in the line just in case. For me, my hatchery stands taller than my air pump, so it's essential to protect my pump with the check valve. I also moved my hatchery quite a bit in the setup, monitoring, and harvesting process, so I was happy to have it. 2. I liked the airstone! I have extra Ziss never clog airstones. I found that the course bubbles were causing so much movement in my blender. I get it, that's the point. However, I gave it a go with an airstone loosely tightened so the stone gives medium-sized bubbles, and I was satisfied with that. Still plenty of surface agitation in the hatchery. My spouse actually asked me, "I know they call it a brine shrimp blender, but is it actually blending?!" after noticing how much motion the air gave in the blender. My first hatch was stellar. I have more brine shrimp than I know what to do with. I'm currently googling how long these BBS will stay alive because I have such a huge yield. Super psyched about the Ziss hatchery so far!

They have this on the switch as well. I like it! You can work through a career path of curating/owning an aquarium as well. I'll have to check out other versions!

Update: I found my puffer hiding, which as you guys have commented is very unlike him. That thing I found was definitely a worm of sorts, so thanks for tolerating my panicky dumb mistake. That's what this forum is for, right?! My puff puff perked up once I got his attention and got some food out, but he didn't seem himself and was maybe a little skinny. I tried feeding him extra over the next couple days. After an initial improvement, he declined again. I found the poor thing looking really skinny and paralyzed on the substrate today. I thought he was dead, but when I moved him, his eyes made eye contact with me 😢 The poor thing couldn't swim anymore and could only move his eyes. I had to put him down 😢 My assumption with finding the worm was that he had some sort of parasite that eventually led to his demise. I have no idea if that was a land or aquatic worm. I do know puffers tend to get internal parasites, and he became very skinny despite eating. I have had him for a couple years. I'm not sure what triggered this, but he did live a good life. Water test revealed trace ammonia- less than 0.25 ppm, mayyybe 0.1 if I could guess based on color. Very low nitrates, which is usual for this tank. It's heavily planted but also tends to grow algae, so I have always had to play a balance game with the lighting and adding water to replace what has evaporate.

Update: The worm thing looks like it has the two nerve cords seen on planaria.

Not that I know of. No signs of infestation. No new plants.

That's what I was expecting! I have no idea what kind of worm this is if it's a worm. It definitely has worm-like texture. He's alone in his tank.

@James Black Am I crazy for thinking this? Or is this.. evidence of his death?

I can't find my pea puffer. He was last seen 24 hr ago. He usually comes when I call him (approach the tank). I've checked behind all leaves. Then I found this funky gummy string. Is this him? Is this part of him? Did he die and decompose to this in a day?

I had success with fighting BBA with H2O2 dips, and I'm now keeping a bottle in my fish cabinet. I found it to be much gentler on my plants than bleach. My anubias nana & coffeefolia did fine. It worked wonders on my rocks. I did trim back all the plants that were really badly affected rather than trying to salvage those. I have also tried to do the spot treating to keep tiny outbreaks from taking over. I have had mixed results. It hasn't caused any harm. I'm just not sure it has been effective on BBA for me. I love keeping H2O2 around in case I feel like I need to disinfect anything going from one aquarium to another. I like that it decomposes to water under light, so I feel like it does its job killing microbes without adding anything else to my aquarium.

Easy Green All-in-One Fertilizer WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM Contains All Essential Nutrients Plant Need Easy Dosing, 1 Pump Per 10 Gallons Snail, Fish, and Shrimp Safe Fertilizer dosing is a complex topic within the aquarium hobby, but Easy Green was created to make it... Easy Green has 0.00% copper and doesn't list aloe or glutaraldehyde. Have you tried it?

I live in Philly, and I've ordered fish and snails from them before. I had absolutely no problems. I ordered during the summer, so I didn't need heat packs or anything like that. I remember lots of styrofoam and my bags being secure inside the box. I just placed an order last week. They are delaying shipping until next week since the postal system is backed up. I really appreciate that they were able to take my order and ship when it's best for the creatures. I know they also don't ship toward the end of the week to make sure there is as little travel time as possible. Like the co-op, the fast shipping surprised me, though I don't remember exactly how long it took. If you haven't ordered yet, I can update you when I get my shipment so you can see!

I'm sorry about your betta 😞 I noticed the same thing with multiples species including my betta when it was his time. I also noticed more dull colors. I currently have a few generations of platies, and the grandfather of the bunch just looks...older. He's lazier, not as vibrant, and his scales seem to have more of a texture to them. He still goes after the ladies though 😉

Current goal: German blue ram, or maybe a black variation. One day it'll happen. Saltwater goal (hopefully no one gives me crap for this lol I'm still freshwater at heart): Dogface puffer. I am obsessed with how it looks like a dalmatian. The. cutest.

10/10 would recommend Also, I've found mine to be MUCH easier to keep than their reputation suggests.

Sounds fun. I'm looking forward to seeing your setup, especially with the pothos. I have platies, and I would suggest starting with 3. For me, 3 quickly turned into 20. Especially for a smaller tank, I would start small and leave room for babies. I see people talking about heating. I keep mine at 76. I think they can tolerate colder, but I wouldn't push it in the winter. When the summer comes, you can unplug the heater.

I have my pea puffer with 3 otos in a 5.5. I'm blessed with a puffer that has a more docile personality. That being said, he is a predator! My otos are actually doing great with him. He doesn't care about them at all. He's really odd about what he attacks and what he ignores. He LOVES to eat snails BUT apparently doesn't care for assassin snails. When my algae got bad in the tank, I introduced two nerites from another tank. He has nipped at them a couple times, but he mostly does not care about them anymore. I really can't speak to shrimps or to your situation in particular. I can just give you one more pea puff experience to reference. Overall, expect the worst at first, and cater to your lil puff's personality.

I agree, lol! I never thought I'd get so attached to my lil snail. I recently found my dear little girl nerite passed away on my carpet. It seems like she crawled out of the tank's top filter hole and couldn't find her way back. I had no idea she had escaped. I was so bummed, dude! Sad for a couple days lol and it's a snail!

@JaredL Awesome chart! Thank you! That actually helps me out a lot because one nano tank I have is starting to show blue-green algae. Its ratio is definitely lower. This makes me so happy to have this forum. I wouldn't have learned this if it weren't for our conversation, so thank you!