Ali

@Bob also has good videos on his channel Steenfott Aquatics featuring dollar store & thrift store finds for creative aquarium hacks.

If your water was really dirty, it makes sense that phosphates would be at 2 ppm, which is high. The phosphates fluctuate with the nitrates, so I would imagine your nitrate was also high. However, some people (like me) have high phosphates in their tap water, so I would test against your tap water to so you know where your baseline is. I believe you want phosphate as close to zero as possible as I don't think it offers any benefit, and I know high levels can be very bad for fish. I know Cory talked about how the phosphates correspond to nitrates at some point in a video, possibly during a live stream. I can't find it. Does anyone else know which video it was? Looking forward to hearing your progress @JaredL!

lol I noticed the label on @JimmyGimbal and I was thinking, "Cute, I guess Jimmy is a quiet type. How do I change my little subtitle?" lol the more you know

@Cory Thanks! Hopefully they enjoyed their little gummy snack then 🐟 🍮

@Fishmonger_X They get a variety. I feed almost every day. In this picture, I had just fed them ~30 min prior with a few squirts of Co-ops fry food.

Congrats! I have the same setup. I love my mollies 😄 They're so cool to watch from the very beginning of life! I have been trying to let the tank run on "natural selection" mode. One thing I've found is that, contrary to what most people advise you to do for fry, you don't want to feed a ton. Feeding a ton is a great way to raise lots of healthy babies. If that's not your goal, then don't feed a bunch. Mollies like to pick at algae anyway, so don't worry about starving them. I didn't necessarily want babies either, so I've been trying to just let the tank maintain carrying capacity. It's hard though. It's very easy to be over-run by growing babies. My best advice is to ask your LFS if they can take your babies. There's a TON of info out there about selling your babies and working to make profit. Since that isn't really my goal, I just donate my babies to my LFS.

I'm in Philly! I know this is an old post, but hmu if you ever want to do a joint order or something! I don't know many Philly people who are into fish. I also typically have a running co-op cart going so I can place larger orders at once. If I can get it from co-op, I usually do. I get what you're saying though. What LFS do you support? Aquarium Center in NJ is my heaven.

How did you handle the substrate? I ended up changing mine out of desperation. I'm still deciding if what I did was necessary or not.

I just got over this myself... 😫 It's a nightmare! I had success with H2O2 soaks for my plants. First, I clipped bad leaves that seemed too far gone. I then soaked them individually in a cup of H2O2 for 2 min, submerging the entire plant except the roots. This cured my crinum, amazon sword, ammania gracilis. I ended up fully submerging my bacopa, and its roots survived just fine. All of my plants survived and are absolutely fine, even the crinum! For rocks & decor, I tried spraying with H2O2 and scrubbing with my aquarium-only toothbrush and an algae sponge. It worked. I also submerged some rocks for 2 min just like the plants. The submersion method worked better and was a lot easier. I did this for the heater and affected equipment as well. Unfortunately, I used a lot of peroxide, which is such a precious commodity during the pandemic. I followed up with larger water changes throughout the week until my parameters were back to perfect. This was successful until I got lazy AGAIN as a busy medical student and let my parameters go all out of wack. I noticed though that I had BBA growing in my substrate, which was a mix of black sand & larger gravel. Last week I decided to change my substrate, again a nightmare! Though I'll have to watch closely for new tank syndrome, I think this helped wipe out any dormant BBA colonies I had hiding in the substrate. My parameters have been great for a week with no signs of NTS. Much of my problem in the first place was that I let my tank go way too long without a change. I'll never make that mistake again. I agree that the best way to "treat" BBA is to prevent it. I hope one more perspective helps you @JaredL and anyone else fighting this pain of a problem. ❤️ 🐠

Just to put some feedback out there, I'm looking forward to hearing @Bob on again. That episode was really enjoyable, and it seems like you two can stir up enough conversation for a bunch more episodes. Loved the content, guys!

I love Aquarium Coop's root tabs and have been using them for a while. With my recent plant purchase, I haven't decided where exactly to put them, so I haven't planted them yet. I wanted to give them some nutrients, so I pressed tabs down into their pots as far as I could. I noticed my fish nibbling at what appears to be part of the pill. I know the product is "fish safe," but should they be eating it? Or should I keep careful watch to take out the pieces of the pill that break off? I removed that piece, and I'm hoping more doesn't break off or that it clogs up my little fishies' tummies.

It will eventually shoot little roots down. I just sat mine where I wanted it like you did.

@Penny You're a natural artist! What kind of tanks are those? They look stunning. Thanks for sharing!

@starsman20 I've lost several Julii cories due to what I think is the phosphate in my tap water. I lost one by one until my school was gone. I tried again with fish from a different store, and I again lost them all slowly one by one. I only have one female left, and she's going strong! Phosphate is the only culprit I could figure out. I never thought to test it since people say it corresponds to the nitrogen levels. I bought a phosphate kit and found that my tap water is absolutely fine, except for phosphate! I know some fish are pretty sensitive to it, so now I have to chemically filter out all of the phosphate. All my tanks are doing great now. I haven't had a mass loss since.

Wow, I'm nerding out over your baby dalmatian! My current main setup is a "dalmatian" tank, so I've got only spotted fish. I think my next project is to breed some of my platies to see what colors I get. So cool to see your post before I try it!

I really just want a digital thermometer that is precise AND accurate. Many digitals I've tried are precise, but comparing multiple units of the exact same model set up right next to each other (controlling for location, flow, etc.), I have yet to find some that agree within a couple degrees. Any good ideas? Please share!

I can't give you a robot, but I have a single hillstream loach in my 20g and he is a MACHINE!

Is this top baby a baby of your Mickey Mouse tails? I raise some red tailed Dalmatian platys, and their fry look just like this speckled one! I love the variation. They’re not very popular in my area.

I’ve tried one of these! My water parameters are nice and stable, but I like to get food and poop out to keep my tank looking super good. It’s ~okay~. The biggest problem I have with it is that when siphoning I have to keep the product submerged between a minimum and maximum level or else it doesn’t work. I only have a few centimeters to do my work. It’s more annoying than I thought it would be to try to keep it exactly evenly submerged.

I'm in medical school! Lol, so I just keep borrowing money to fund my hobby. I file it under "mental health" costs as it keeps me sane and happy! I also walk dogs on the side and *try* to limit my spending based on how much side cash I make from that.