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David W

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  1. You should run the spongefilter in your main tank until you get the fish. Then move it over to the quarantine tank, It will seed with the bacteria and start your cycle off a lot faster than any of the bottles.
  2. First, your tank is beautiful. Fish are like any other animal. They can get sick and die, even if we do everything right. They may not show any of the normal symptoms, and still get a viral infection, Bacterial infection, parasites, old age, or even cancer. It just happens some time. It's part of fish keeping and can be extra hard on new fish keepers. It looks like you have checked all the important stuff. Maybe check your temp and see if it is where it should be for all of you fish. I will often double check my tanks with a different thermometer. If everyone else looks fine, I would just keep enjoying your tank and keep a look out for typical symptoms before getting into making any changes or medicating. The best thing to do is to keep up with your routine feeding and water changes. Keep it simple and don't add extra variables.
  3. Before spending money on the sterilizer, grab a small white container. Scoop out some water and see if it green. You will have a better course of action.
  4. I have a few of these on hand because they are inexpensive and make things pretty easy to seed a new tank. I have one running in a display tank. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XZZ2BXY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 When I set up a new breeding tank or need to QT some thing I will set up one in the new tank. I will pull one cycled sponge out of the established tank and move it to the new tank. I will replace it with one of the new sponges. They slide on and off the filter easily.
  5. A good starting point is really understanding the nitrogen cycle. I read a few articles and thought I understood it well, It took a little longer for it to kick in and really understand how bacteria built up in the tank over time. How much is fed is as important to how many and what size fish. Understanding water changes and how a tanks maintenance routine can change over time is important too. Here is a video that helped out when I got started. Plants also help and have been my favorite part of setting up new tanks. Here is some info on cycling a planted aquarium. If you are interested there are related video's in Cory's Plants 101 series. You tube has made it a lot easier to get into the hobby and can help get through some of the early speed bumps. You can't go wrong with any of the tutorials on the Co-op channel.
  6. Here are a few possibilities for missing fish: I think the flex 15 has a filter compartment, have you checked there? I have had sick fish bury themselves the in the gravel when they were getting close to the end. It doesn't look like you have many if any snails, but snails can make quick work of small dead fish. Have you checked around the tank and on the floor. Jumpers can find the smallest gap in a lid. If it made it out. do you have a cat?
  7. Maybe consider a school of white clouds. Not the glamorous sounding, but the behavior is really fun to watch. They are very hardy and you don't really need a heater. They can be fun and easy breeding project as well.
  8. Amazon has a 3 pack. I bought this in the past and it works well. I used for tannin removal, before knowing anything about tannins. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HMWHWF4/
  9. 3D printing is a fun hobby that can be as much or more time consuming than fish keeping. Entry is still a bit expensive and there's a pretty big learning curve. It's not quire plug and play yet. Look at commonly available printers with big communities. The communities experience can make starting a lot easier just like the Co-op community with fish keeping. Check out Thingiverse.com some other sites and see what's out there for models to print. If you want to make your own models to print, Autodesk Fusion 360 has a free license for hobbyists. There are more than likely some good tutorials on youtube. It's not going to save any money on stuff that is commercially available, but it can be fun and is a way to try out new things. Fish keeping has taken over my hobby time and budget, so my printers have been sitting idle for a few years. I have been considering donating them to one of the local schools.
  10. I spent $50 on a L240 Pleco. I had a nice conversation with the owner while shopping and he rang me up $20 less than the display. I was regretting it for a while when It only hung out on the back of some drift wood. Now it comes out a feeding times to chase the corys. Most other fish I tend to cheap out on a bit. I am still trying to break the habit of spending $1000 on equipment to house $2 fish because $8 is way too much to pay for really cool cory. I am actively trying to budget more on the fish, but I always tend to have the most fun watching the cheap fish. My favorites to watch right now are white clouds.
  11. David W

    Books?

    https://scholar.google.com/ is a good search tool. Some of the articles are free, some are not. You may find a gem in there. You can find published Scientific Journal Articles that will be good references. In engineering school journals were typically the only type of reference allowed by many of my professors.
  12. David W

    Books?

    Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise by Diana Louise Walstad. https://www.amazon.com/Ecology-Planted-Aquarium-Practical-Scientific-ebook/dp/B00DB94K5I/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1632156082&sr=8-3 This is a good planted tank reverence. It is very science focused and more like a college text book than an easy read. If you are near a good sized public library they may have a copy. The kindle copy is affordable, but works better on a PC or tablet, there are a lot of tables and graphs to reference.
  13. I spent $50 on a vampire pleco that mostly hangs out on the back of drift wood. It comes out for 5 min at a time during feedings. I am actively trying to get out of the only cheap fish mindset. I spend hundreds on tanks, filters, lights, substrate, plants, etc… without much thought. Then I have a hard time buying a small school of really cool corys because they are $6.00 each. I have to remind my self the hobby should revolve around enjoying cool fish and they should be a bigger consideration in my budget. That being said my favorite fish to watch lately have been my white clouds.
  14. If your plant is fairly new it may just be trying to adjust to your water chemistry. Java fern didn't do great at first in my tank. The old leaves have been slowly turning brown and dying for the last 8 months. I let it ride out and the new growth is very healthy. It is more than likely some kind of nutrient deficiency. Here is a good starting point to identify what may be off. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies?_pos=1&_psq=Plant De&_ss=e&_v=1.0
  15. The crushed coral in your substrate will add minerals to the water increasing the TDS. That is the purpose of using crushed coral, adding minerals to make hard water fish happy. Please keep in mind TDS just measures how much "stuff" is dissolved in your water, but not what stuff. TDS meters don't distinguish between Iron, Calcium, Arsenic etc... If your PH is stable and you have a regular maintenance routine it should all work out. Stability is usually more important than chasing a number.
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