[How to make the red in plants come out]

You are dosing with iron and your lighting is nice, so I would wonder if there is maybe something interfering with those plants experiencing enough light? 
 

I’m also reading that high nitrates can sometimes reduce redness. What level are you maintaining at and have you tried lowering it? 
 

[Stocking suggestions and opinions]

Those are absolutely beautiful. 

[Sloppyscaping, an aquarium journal]

Some new friends: 

these guys (kribensis) arrived today and are doing well. 8 total, unsexed and about an inch long. 
 

I also picked up 6 multifasciatus recently in another tank. Both tanks have some guppies for dither. The kribs will be headed to a larger tank once they’re a little bigger and we see what the genders are. 
 

Many of these tanks are in my office; this is my newest setup and I still haven’t decided what to put in it. I picked up this 5g used for $20 and used Marimo moss for most of the plants so far. 

[Cloudy water]

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/cloudy-fish-tank

• Green milky: Algae bloom, and a UV light may be the quickest solution.
• White milky, no chunks: Bacteria bloom, it's possible your water changes are prolonging the issue. This is usually caused when there is a disruption to the bacteria in your tank and they need to produce a lot more of themselves quickly. In my case it was caused by removing one of the filters. No real solution beyond waiting and letting the bacteria do its thing, I try to make sure the fish have plenty of aeration and water quality is monitored.
• Chunky white milk: Filtration issues, your filter floss should help with this.

This is just my off-the-top-of-my-head summary of what Cory's videos and other online sources covered. 

[Local Fish Clubs]

5 hours ago, Taylor Blake said:

The Minnesota aquarium society is doing online meetings with zoom and they are also doing online auctions. We had someone from Hong Kong call in and they were able to talk about what they we're doing with fish over there. We have people from around the country able to participate it's a good time. this is the link to next months meeting about swimming with cichlids in Zambia with speaker Pam Chin
https://aquarium.mn/aqua-news/monthly-meetings/lake-tanganyikans-pam-chin

I just joined in April and the online auctions have been great. Our last meeting was my first and I thought the format and conversation was great - they had Zoom breakout rooms for fish, plants, or the general topic Q&A. 
 

AFAIK there are no fish clubs within my local area and the drive to Minneapolis is kind of a chore so I think online makes it more possible for me to participate. 

[10 Gallon Betta tank mates poll]

The Malaysian trumpet snails are a great choice. If you go with a cheap sand substrate they’ll stir it for you! 

[Snail-Eaters fora 40 Gallon]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

I have always wished I had the guts to do this.

Honestly, I have tried my one pea puffer on his own and in a community tank and he is much better off in the community tank. Might just be my little coward. But he doesn’t pick on adult fish or even every snail. 

[Care Packages for C.A.R.E. Forum Members!]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

Congratulations @RovingGinger, @StephenP2003 and @Streetwise

Funny we all assumed the same thing!

I thought I had been hacked and this is what Candi wrote back:

Somebody needs to let @RovingGinger know before she assumes the worst 🙂

Technically your message came into my inbox before their care package did... but because it was lower down I had already responded letting them know it was a mix-up 😅

Let that be a lesson to trust the co-op. Thank you, this is really awesome!! 

[What did you get done today?]

set up some tanks and cleaned out my much neglected fish room / office. Moved some big molly babies to the big community tank and finally got all the Pygmy corys into their own tank for maximum tiny wiggles. 

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJSEBu12/

 

[How weird is this?]

1 hour ago, Daniel said:

Don't you just love surface tension? 🙂

No, I prefer the deep tension that comes with really knowing someone enough to skirt around mutual areas of disagreement. 
 

But I do love watching my snails creep across the top of a tank upside down. When I was a kid my mom told me horror stories of tanks overcome by snails so I was charmed when I discovered they were not only adorable but useful pets/puffer food. 

[Fun for fish]

I have heard this is a terrible idea. So laser pointers (bad) and live food (usually good) aside, what do you do to help make sure your fish have a mentally simulating tank?

My guppies and other fish in a 40 breeder seem to love the combo of a bubble wall below the filter output, and the central scaping that leaves the outer 2 inches of the tank basically a clear fish racetrack with current. Am I projecting because I have so much fun watching them? Yes. But still, what have you tried?

[Tank stand - think this’ll work?]

 

Inside wall

Exterior wall

original plan was where the smaller bow front is, but that’s both unsupported down below and the beams run parallel with that wall. 
 

[Tank stand - think this’ll work?]

Dupe

[Tank stand - think this’ll work?]

So at this time the plan is to get or make an alternate stand.

Struts go perpendicular to the outside wall I was thinking it’d be safest against. Would it be too risky to put it against the opposite wall, which is interior and I believe supported with like, big metal poles down in the basement area? My guess is this is the  main load bearing interior wall as it runs the length of the house. Just trying to have different options as I convince the husband to re-orientate all the furniture in the living room including his game systems. 

[They're all gone.]

duplicate pls delete

[They're all gone.]

I am so sorry to hear this. Something similar just happened to one of our LFS and they lost their two rays - it sounded like maybe the city made some changes to the water or something; it wasn’t due afaik to a mistake on their end. 

[1930s historically accurate planted aquarium]

I know you said not sump, general drainage maybe? Air pipe filter insert? 

[Walstad/similar methodologies - your experience]

22 minutes ago, Daniel said:

Today I have been prepping the aquariums for the

• Gravel and crushed coral with root tabs for standard tank number 1 vs
• Eco-complete for standard tank number 2 vs
• Walstad tank 3

experiment.

But, I wasn't planning on catfish though...

My little sweetheart likes to pee into anything remotely resembling a box with gravel/litter/sand. I can’t imagine what that ammonia load would do...
 

Tanks in progress are highly guarded around here. 

[The power of mossballs]

I like them a lot and throw them into new tanks often. Now if they just multiplied like guppy grass does, I'd have a tribbles problem on my hand. 

[Croaking Gourami]

Has anyone found any particular food they go nuts for?

[What is a mature tank?]

It has sounded like shrimp also do better if the tank is a bit “messy” - accurate? 

So basically mature means in most cases “don’t use this as your cycling fish” or potentially “ensure you have cleanup for this guy to cleanup”. 

[What is a mature tank?]

I see people talk a lot about certain species that need to be put into a “mature” tank.  

What does that mean? Just very stable ongoing parameters? Like, you know your water change schedule and it’s a week+ dependably? The fish all stop bickering and learn to settle their disagreements through civil discussion? A special type of algae pops up and then vanishes forever? 

[What is Mulm?]

2 hours ago, Daniel said:

Glad you asked, turns out there are baby cherry shrimp in the mulm (see video that follows).

Well my days of vacuum cleaning are officially over. 

[1930s historically accurate planted aquarium]

 I happened across this and thought of this thread. Very different approach as he uses modern technology throughout the restoration, but the aquarium itself is just plain gorgeous. Why doesn't Aqueon make them like that now? I can only imagine how expensive this kind is, new or used, but man. 

 

 

[Croaking Gourami]

I have 5 or 6 (it’s really, really hard to tell...) in a 6 gallon with some blue velvet shrimp, sponge filtered. I haven’t noticed any aggression, between them or towards the shrimp, but only one is approaching full size so far, most are about half an inch or shorter.  They definitely like the plants. 
 

I have heard they need a decent lid and only a small gap between lid and water to have humid air for the adults to breath. Right now I don’t really see them go to the top to breath but I have it set up like that. 
 

I am moving them to a 20g as soon as it’s a bit more “aged” and planted and a lid is procured. Really charming little vanishing fairy fish that are surprisingly unfussy is my verdict so far. 
 

Floo the Flowerhorn on YouTube has that fairly well known series with them and an unfiltered tank.