Ken

I wouldn't change a thing and put in whatever plants you want. The stories of Corys not doing well on other than sand substrates are just that... stories. And in my experience rooted plants like sand just fine too. You'll have to run root tabs with rooted plants in sand. You can make it as hard as you would like, but you don't have to.

Four at once! Sorry I keep posting when I get some but it tickles me every time.

Not really. When I got back into aquariums I read all I could about pH and hardness (one of the first things I bought was an API Master Test Kit) what I found is that people that raise fish for a living don't even react until their pH is below 6.5 or above 9, assuming adequate hardness to buffer. I figured I was fine and proceeded to ignore it. I think stability and clean water (changes) are what matters. I do test weekly and change water whenever it needs it (based on Nitrates with the CoOp test strips now), or every two weeks whichever comes first. I do drip acclimate fish that I buy mail order because big fast changes are harmful. Local buys are temperature acclimated in the bag then plop and drop.

Sorry for the poor picture, I was attempting to show the water parameters in my tank with the Cardinals in the background. What I am attempting to show is Hardness is off the chart, buffer is high, Ph is well into the 8's. Cardinals are healthy and happy ( bought them tiny they are downright big now). There are Panda Corys in there, Lemon Tetras, and Hengeli Rasboras, plus a billion Cherry Shrimp and two billion snails. Hard water is easy, I don't envy the folks with water with nothing in it.

That.

In my opinion, either of those numbers are fine. I don't think I would try to mess with the water parameters until they got more than .5 either way of them (who am I kidding, I wouldn't then). Your hardness and buffer look like you are good to go at that Ph to me. Like always if someone knows better I hope they chime in.

I agree with @lefty o. I wouldn't go nuclear over some fish dying, if it was ich it's easily treated. I'm guessing they had a bad time through the supply chain and just ran out of stamina.

Tell me about these little guys. I'm about to order some for my recently set up 10 gallon. They'll be living with some Pygmy Corys.

What two numbers do you see and how much of an impact would the difference make to the fish?

Yes. Use a brand new blade. A nice metal straight edge makes it easy.

I think you're good to go if your plants are doing well. As always... there's a video for that. 😁

This is what I did before I got rid of glass lids.

To get the sheeting to make my lids I bought this stuff from Home Depot. PALRAM Sunlite 24 in. x 48 in. x 5/16 in. Polycarbonate Clear Twinwall Sheet They don't stock it in stores here either so I bought it on the website and had it delivered to the local store (free). I made the lid on my 40 breeder in three sections to make it even more convenient. The back piece only comes off to service the HOB and has the cutouts for the HOB and airlines. The center section comes off if I need to get in for plant trimming etc. The front piece is only 3" wide for feeding, fertilizing or topoffs. There was enough material left over to make lids for my two 10 gallon tanks.

Plants and water in. Anubias Frazeri, Petite and Gold Coin. Banana Plant, Tiger Lotus bulb and some really sad Crypts that the store had neglected label so didn't have a clue what they are (cheap though).

When I added Hornwort to my 40 gallon community tank within a couple of weeks it became "balanced" and the algae pretty much vanished. Months later my then new 20 long wouldn't stop growing algae so looking back at how well the Hornwort had worked in the other tank I grabbed a big handful from the 40 and put it in the 20. Within weeks the algae had was all but gone. The interesting part is later when I thought I wanted some algae in the 20 for the Borneo Loaches, shrimp and snails I took the Hornwort out and put in Amazon Frogbit. The algae came back after about a month. No changes to lighting, stocking, water change schedule or fertilizing. Can my results be explained otherwise? Probably. But if ever have a stubborn algae problem again in goes the Hornwort.