BMBLSAD

Hey all First a hearty thanks to you all - I learn so much browsing the forum. But, I haven't found an answer to this question. I had issues in the past with BBA growing on my decor and plants. I tried to get rid of it but finally gave up and took everything out. That was over 15 months ago. The plants of course are long gone. The decor - some natural wood, some rocks, some store-bought decorations - have been stored in my garage for well over a year, going through a really cold minnesota winter in 2023. Is there any chance the BBA can survive outside of water that long and in those types of conditions? GhatGPT tells me no but I'd like to hear from real people 🙂 I want to redo my 75 gallon and use the wood and decor again but not if it means reintroducing the BBA which I've had none of since. I've attached a couple of pics of the wood and decoration. You can still see sort of a purplish hue where the BBA was (amybe still is?). What do you think? A quick scrub and they're good to go? Or should I put them through more intensive treatment like hydrogen peroxide, boiling, etc.?

Thanks everyone for weighing in. I just had a crazy thought. My anubias bloomed recently. I can't recall if it had bloomed the previous time this happened but the chances are good because it's been blooming frequently. Could these possibly be the "flower petals" breaking away and floating up to the surface? (BTW - I know I need some ferts for my anubias...need to do some research on that yet).

This is the second time this has happened in the last 3-4 months. There is some weird eggs (I think...?) that have suddenly appeared on the surface of the water in my 40g. The stock in the tank include 1 female BN pleco, a couple of amano shrimp, 2 pygmy cories, 2 mystery snails, and bunch of bladder snails that road in on a plant and started a new colony. Anyway, O know what eggs from mysteries and bladder snails look like and this isn't it. Could it be some terrestrial insect that had laid eggs on the surface of the aquarium? For example, we have a ton of boxelder bugs that are trying to take over ownership of the house. But if on the off chance this is coming from one of my tank critters, I don't want to fish them out this time. What do you think?

Okay - I have him in a 6g quarantine by himself. I did a Level 2 aquarium salt mix on him to start. He's pretty banged up and a bit sedate, but he is eating. We'll see how it goes. Because the tank isn't cycled, I'll watch the ammonia levels and do regular water changes, replacing the appropriate amount of salt each time. On a related note, one day before the injury I noticed a small bump rising on his scales (see blue arrow). It was still orange then. Now it's bigger and has turned white, almost like a pimple preparing to pop. I'm guessing that whatever it is will be helped by the salt, too, but wondering if anyone knows what it might be. Thanks again for the help on this. Crossing my fingers it all turns out well.

I have my cory in my 10g quarantine tank currently, so will fire up another spare 10g for the GF. While I have aquarium salt on hand, I've never actually used it to treat anything before. Figuring out the concentration has always confused me (math, 'ya know). I've never found much consistency online in how to do it - the salt to water ratio that people quote seem to vary widely, and how to refigure after a water change can tax my little pea brain. Any tips on how to do it safely? Or a post you trust?

I was doing a routine water change on my 75 gallon and made a couple of stupid mistakes that compounded to what I fear is a very bad outcome. Here's what happened. I run 2 filters on my 75 because I have 4 orandas, 1 SAE and 2 mystery snails in it. Prior to my water change, I turned off the Fluval Fx4 but forgot to turn off the SunSun 704B. I have one of the aquarium coop sponges over the intake tube on my sunsun. I removed it to clean but didn't realize the bottom piece of the sunsun came with it - leaving a wide open intake tube along with a running filter (refer to point 1) About 30 seconds later I glance into the tank and realize one of my orandas was stuck in the intake tube head first. I realize my stupidity, turn off the sunsun and gently pull the oranda from the tube. He's stunned (no surprise) and slowly floats to the bottom, and hangs there for the next 3-5 minutes or so while I think about what to do. I happen to have a 50ppm methylene blue mix sitting on my counter (I've been dipping a sick fish from another tank) so decide to dip him, too. I was able to just pick him up in my hand and transfer him to the dipping container - no net needed - and transfer him back again. Not normal. I have no idea if dipping him was a good idea or bad. Anyway...I have him in a breeder box in the 75g so I can watch him. What I see about 45-minutes post injury are some red spots around his head and what would be shoulders if he were human, a circular indentation and missing scales (I think?) around the back end of his body (anal fin) where he got stopped in the intake tube, and some frayed caudal fins (they weren't frayed before). So, what to do. Was the MB dip a good idea? do I keep doing it daily? Should I quarantine and start him on meds? Or take some deep breaths and just watch him? Note that he did eat some freeze dried blood worms but what GF wouldn't? I think they eat even while in the throws of death. Multiple.Face.Palms. Thoughts? Beth

Ok. So. Wow. Brain exploding. 🤯 I have been stressing over my nitrates since I started keeping aquariums about 4 years ago. I have used the API test kit religiously nearly every week to test all parameters in my 6 tanks. My nitrates were almost always in the 40-80 range (although the color is really hard to tell). No matter how many water changes or how much water I changed or how well I gravel vac'd or how much I cut back the fish feedings, I could not get my nitrates to hang in the happy range. To get free shipping from AC, I tossed in a bottle of the test strips on a whim. Each time I tested my water with the strips, the nitrates were in the 10-25 range while API was giving me the usual 40-80. I thought, huh how could Cory's strips be so far off the mark? (dumb me, I know 🥴). Seeing the video he posted above with the tests solution? - well, that's what blew my mind. The API test kit is going to the back of my fishkeeping cabinet and the test strips are moving to the counter. Thanks Cory.

Thanks Colu for the input. I got interested in the congos after watching one of Corey's videos on fish for hard water (mine is insanely hard). Most of the follow up info I've read on Congos suggests that they do okay in a tank at 75-76 degrees, so was really hoping this might be an okay match. I was just worried about the derpy orandas looking at the congos as lunch. I'll keep researching and thinking before I make a move. Oh - and I feed my orandas by hand with gel food 🙂

Hi all I have 6 tanks of varying sizes. In my 29g, I have 6 pristella tetras and 2 very sad congo tetras. Why only 2 congos? My LFS only had 2. I've been waiting for them to get more so I can get 4 more to keep the original two happy. Anyway, the pristellas are lovely and active but I think their busyness is scaring my congos. The congos spend most of the time hiding at the back of the tank or behind the plants/decor. I also have a 75g with 4 oranda goldfish, 1 SAE, and 3 mystery snails. The tank is running an FX4 and a SunSun 704b so gets about 1200gph turnover. The GF are about 5-6 inches (including tails). The tank has javas, anubias, swords and a good sized water lily, rocks, driftwood, a big piece of mopani wood and a large decoration. So, some hiding places. . So my questions: Can I shift the congos to the 75g, and add 4 more once my LFS gets them in? The congos are about 2.5 - 3 inches. Will the derpy GF try to eat the congos? I'm assuming the congos are fast enough to ourrun the GF but 'a know. The congos seem to be very peaceful so I'm not expecting them to terrorize the resident derps. Do I wait to move the congos until I can have a group of 6? Both the 29 and the 75 run at about 75F, with an 8.2ish pH and high (8-10) GH, so parms are similar and within range for the fish. Thoughts on this combo? Crazy? Worth a try? Thanks, Beth

Thank you both for your replies/concern. I've moved the snails to my quarantine tank. I watched a video from Lav's Snails on how to give air baths, so started doing that last night. 2 are looking a little perkier this morning, but 3 of them still look very sad. I dunno. I have snails from the same clutch in other tanks, same water parms and fert schedule, and they seem to be doing okay. I'm starting to wonder about a rock I put in the 14g tank that I found along Lake Michigan. It's the one they're crawling over in the first pic. Maybe it's leeching something. This isn't the mystery in mystery snails that I want.

I have a 14g tank with 5 mystery snails. They all came from the same snail clutch that I overlooked in a different tank, so they're all about 6 months old. Usually, they're busy climbing to the top of the tank and jumping off to do their version of para-snailing. But, about 3-4 days ago I noticed them all huddled up in the back corner. Sometimes they sleep so I didn't worry too much at first. But, they're still doing it so now I'm worried. They aren't closed up completely and have their little siphons out, and their tentacles are all sad and droopy. I don't feed anything with copper. Mostly they get snello, blanched spinach, fresh zuke slices, and algae wafers. I have snails from the same clutch in other tanks and they are doing fine. Water parameters (API test kit): Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 20 pH: 8.2 GH: 161ppm (9 drops) (my water is really, really hard) KH: 15 degrees Temp: 76.5 F Water changes: weekly about 40% (conditioned with prime) Ferts: Weekly doses of Easy Green, Easy iron, & Seachem potassium I did a 40% water change today, and moved them all to the front. They all moved since then but not far from where I had placed them. Attached are 2 pics. The first shows them munching happily on zucchini. I took that Dec 30. The other shows them today looking tired and worn out. I don't know what could be wrong. Why would they hang at the bottom with their siphons sticking out? Besides moving them to quarantine, is there anything I could/should do to help them?

Perhaps a little. I may have it on a little longer than I have in the past but it isn't a dramatic change - or at least I didn't think so. I don't think it's diatoms. I've experienced them before and this isn't like that. It's just fuzzy and green, like the dust balls that form under my bed 🙂 . I do have a nerite in there but I don't know that they eat the fuzzy kind. I'll start by reducing the light in the tank to see if I can get it under control.

Well - I'll be darned. Freshwater limpets. That's a new one for me. I think I'll just let them be and see what happens. As a side note, one of my favorite movies as a kid (and this was a lo-o-o-ng time ago) was the Incredible Mr. Limpet starring Don Knotts. Except, he turned into a fish. Thanks for the help! Beth

Hi all I have a 6g cube with a betta, a nerite and some could-be-healthier plants. The tanks been running for about 18 months, heated and filtered. I do a 25-35% water change every week. About 4 weeks ago, this fuzzy algae started showing up (see pic). It was easy to suck up when I did my water changes. Then about 2 weeks ago these little aquatic critters started appearing on the glass. They look like a tiny grain of rice (see other pic.) What is the algae? What is the critter? And what do I do about it? I just got a 14g cube, new plants, and was planning to move the better, nerite and the plants from teh 6 to the 14 - but don't want to do it if I'm just going to transfer problems from one tank to the next. Not sure if my water parms would help, but here they are just in case. Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5 GH: 7 degrees Phosphate: 0 Chelated Iron: both 0 (ordered me some easy iron today!) Calcium: 40 (Fluval test kit) Magnesium: 6.1 (derived from the aquasabi calculator using GH and Ca values)) Ca:Mg ratio: 6.6:1 Potassium: 15 (seifert test kit) I know just enough to be dangerous and not enough to be effective. Thanks all! Beth

So, I've continued to research. I've come across a couple of articles and forum posts that say corys are sensitive to high nitrates, especially sterbas. My nitrates are high, roughly 30-40, sometimes more. One post said nitrates are heavier than water, so the concentration is higher at the bottom which is where the corys hang out. So, that could be a piece of the puzzle. I've been struggling with high nitrates for a while now. I do weekly water changes 30-50% trying to get them lower. I vac the surface of my substrate with every water change, but because it's sand I don't stick the vac into the sand. I've heard that's bad because it releases sulfur gases, but maybe I should? I also clean my filters regularly, but after watching Cory's vid on how to clean a tank I don't think I'm squeezing out my sponges enough. Anyway, I think I may be on to something here. Curious if anyone else has had experience with corys and high nitrates.