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DarthRevan

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Everything posted by DarthRevan

  1. DarthRevan
    Right you want your vision set up before you end up changing your mind 😂 I did take a few off though lol, especially the stems. Those grow like weeds so I can just trim and replant and it’ll be filled in no time. It’s hard to take it slow when you’re new 😂
  2. DarthRevan
    That is some excellent advice, thank you. I was thinking about taking some out because my order is already crazy expensive lol so you just helped me confirm that. I got so many at first because I didn’t want to wait too long for them to start spreading and establishing, but I also don’t want to overplant. I just need to be more patient 😂 I will be keeping the stems trimmed regularly though, I’m not letting this tank get overgrown because I want to keep a fairly neat look to it. I’m still not sure on floating plants, I haven’t found any that I really like yet but I will definitely keep my betta in mind and make sure it has space up top. Do you think in addition to cutting back on plants I should also get an air stone for at night to help keep it oxygenated?
  3. DarthRevan
    Ok perfect, I had some easy green in my cart but I didn’t know if I’d need anything else. I’m definitely doing the MD substrate mix for the root feeders lol I feel like he really nailed that system he has down. Root tabs are a good idea too. Thanks for all the tips I appreciate it 😄
  4. DarthRevan
    Well I guess they’re doing pretty well if their population exploded like that haha! I don’t want my shrimp to get eaten but honestly if a couple end up as a protein supplement for my betta I won’t be too sad as long as they’re breeding regularly lol.
  5. DarthRevan
    Ok so after some quick Google searches, it looks like I should really only have trouble with the Scarlet Temple if at all. I’ve seen other posts where it’s just melted in hard water, however a lot of aquatic plant care sites say it can tolerate a range of paramaters, but generally prefers soft and acidic water. I guess I’ll just try one or two and see how they do, worst case I can find some other red plants that are more tolerable. I was also a little worried about Monte Carlo but my LFS has it growing fine in our tap water. Would you guys recommend getting fertilizer or will hard water and aqua soil help take care of nutrients? For lighting I’m going to be using a Finnex Stingray 2.0.
  6. DarthRevan
    Thank you for the amazing help everyone! I’m going to try and do more research on the plants I want but from what you’ve all said most of what I have should be fine 😁
  7. DarthRevan
    That was gonna be my next question lol, how do plants handle hard water. Do they just grow slowly for you or do they completely die off?
  8. DarthRevan
    That’s a good point I didn’t think about that lol. Do fish eat Nerite snail eggs?
  9. DarthRevan
    Thank you 🙌 I was also thinking about snails, I was just worried about them overtaking the tank. Being new I’m not sure what would constitute “overfeeding” and I know that’s the main reason people have snail explosions lol.
  10. DarthRevan
    That is good to know, thank you. I was worried but you guys are really helping lol. I also saw a couple of videos where cattapa leaves were used and I saw that it’s great for shrimp because they can eat the microorganisms that break down the leaves so I’ll definitely be trying that as well 😄
  11. DarthRevan
    I definitely plan on testing regularly until I figure out what normal water quality is here and then going from there. I wanted to plant the tank first and get them established, then start adding livestock. I didn’t know that you can just have ammonia in the water, I thought that was only once you started adding animals lol, so now I’m definitely going to be testing daily. My LFS guy I talked to did say to try ghost shrimp because they’re cheap, I just didn’t know if it would be exactly the same with cherries since they’re more brightly colored and could be more attractive to the betta where ghost shrimp might not because they’re clear. I could also be overthinking that though 😂 For the plants that is great advice that I had not heard before, so thank you! I plan on keeping the fast growing plants trimmed regularly as this will be an aquascape so I’m trying to keep a certain look to it. Roughly how many plants would you say could “comfortably” go in a 40 gallon breeder? It’s a combo of stem plants, root plants, and slow growers that I have in my cart so far I’ll post screenshots.
  12. DarthRevan
    That’s what I’m hoping lol. Plus I love plants so we’ll see how it turns out. Phoenix, AZ has a reallyyyy limited selection of fish stores. But I called one and he said we have super hard, highly chlorinated water so he recommended cutting it and using double the dechlorinator. I’m going to check it out in person this week so I’ll see how he keeps his water. I know he mainly does African cichlids because they do well in our water.
  13. DarthRevan
    Thank you, that gives me peace of mind for when I finally get my tank set up lol. If I didn’t have to go through figuring out tap to RO ratios every water change I definitely didn’t want to 😂 As for the betta murdering shrimp, I know it’s really gonna be a 50/50 chance I can actually do that. I’m hoping the heavy plant cover plus the larger tank size, plus keeping it well fed with good food will save them. But if my test shrimp get killed then I’ll probably go with snails instead and have a separate 5 gallon just for shrimp.
  14. DarthRevan
    So I’m finally getting a tank started for the first time, I was originally going to do a 20 long but since I want a decent variety of fish I decided to go for a 40 breeder instead. I’ve also been researching on YouTube for over a year now (mainly getting info from Aquarium Co-op, Primetime Aquatics, Girl Talks Fish, and MD Fish Tanks). I’m wanting to keep a betta as the centerpiece, rummynose tetras, some kind of live bearer (I’m leaning heavily towards Endlers), either ottos or plecos, and cherry shrimp. I know bettas can sometimes eat shrimp so I’m going to test it’s temperament with a couple of cherries first before getting a bunch for a colony. Also this will be a heavily planted tank (got about $200 worth of plants in my cart on Aquarium Co-op’s website 😅) and I plan on feeding high quality food. In Arizona we have really, really hard water and high PH. I’ve seen it range from 7.6 to 8.2 depending on the city (I don’t know numbers for hardness, I haven’t gotten my test kit in yet). I know I can cut the tap water with RO/distilled water to lower PH/hardness, but I recently saw a video from Prime Time Aquatics where Jason said he’s successfully kept bettas and shrimp in his tap water, which is pretty close to what I have here. In the video he says that keeping stable parameters is a little more important than matching the exact parameters of the fish you’re keeping. So, finally to my question lol. Has anyone here kept bettas or shrimp successfully in harder water with a high PH? If so, did you end up cutting your water, or did you leave it just as it comes out of the tap, and did you notice any issues with the health of the fish or shrimp?
  15. DarthRevan
    I also have extremely high PH and GH in Arizona, I was just talking to a local fish store owner and he said pretty much the same thing as ArmyVet, use RO or distilled water and mix tap water into it. He also said to use double the dechlorinator but that might just be for our water in the Phoenix area lol. As for proportions and ratios he said to just keep testing different mixes till you have it where you want it.
  16. DarthRevan
    That seems to be the general consensus, it depends on the tank and the betta lol. I was also looking into Amanos because even though I like the red pop the cherry shrimp bring, at the end of the day they’re a cleanup crew for me and I guess they’re known for doing better than cherries at eating algae and stuff. But I guess Amanos would follow the same rules pretty much.
  17. DarthRevan
    That sounds like pure chaos 😂😂 hopefully the dither fish help. I actually just saw a video from the Aquarium Co-Op channel on that yesterday too lol. I guess that just highlights the fact that even if the fish species are considered peaceful, every tank is different!
  18. DarthRevan
    Thank you both for the info! I’ll still need to test my water first to see where it’s at, but I think that’s definitely worth an added expense. And thank you Maggie for the info on the rasboras! So you’re saying they keep fighting each other? I didn’t know they did that lol, let me know how it goes after you add the others! If I need to add more I definitely will, they seem like awesome fish.
  19. DarthRevan
    Thank you! I did find a report on my city’s water quality but it was kind of hard to read, maybe I’ll have to search more for a layman’s report haha. That is something I didn’t consider though, I thought matching the water parameters for the fish would just be a matter of conditioning the water first with some chemicals lol. I will definitely keep that in mind, thanks for your input!!
  20. DarthRevan
    @ChefConfitThat is awesome to hear and super helpful, I will definitely look into sponge filters. Plus I know those are good for the shrimp since they can’t get sucked up lol. Ah ok, I thought they wouldn’t go after them if they’re too big. Someone else suggested Amanos, I wonder if they would have the same issue. And I definitely want to give them time to get established. My plan was plant the tank, let it cycle and get good growth, then add shrimp and wait like 2-3 months before adding the smaller fish. The betta is definitely going in last once everything else is established.
  21. DarthRevan
    Ok so a sponge for bio filtration and a hang on back for water flow? That sounds like a good combo. I was hoping not to have to get a canister filter because they’re expensive lol. I know some things with this, especially starting out are going to be expensive but I’m trying to reduce costs where I can without sacrificing the quality of life for the fish and plants. Thank you for the video that helps a lot! I was trying to avoid a really strong filter for that reason, because from what I read bettas like to sit near the surface and they can’t do that if they’re getting shoved around by a current. And the lighting was another dilemma since the fish I was looking at don’t like bright light especially bettas. I was thinking do a bright light anyway for the plants but then put a bunch of caves and shady spots for the betta to hang out, and maybe a group of small floating plants. That’s good to hear, I wasn’t 100% sure that would be a good tank but I love the length of it because it gives you more room to create a scene in the tank rather than just like a rock and a piece of wood lol. Plus the fish have more room to swim back and forth. I might start out with just one since I’m so new at this and then go from there. I want a lot of variety to keep things interesting but if two schooling fish are too much I don’t want to make them miserable just for my enjoyment lol. I went with a 20L so I could have a good variety and then move up to that plus a betta as the centerpiece. As far as the rummy’s, KGTropicals has a video of their 10 favorite betta tank mates and they were #1 lol so I think they’d get along fine, but if the general consensus is having two schools of fish would stress out the betta or themselves then I’ll just stick to one. My main concern is how many fish can I feasibly have in a 20L, I don’t want to overstock. I was thinking about Amanos since they’re bigger but I like the red pop of the cherry shrimp. I’m starting with just shrimp anyway so if they can get established in there and then be ok with the schooling fish then I think it’ll work. As long as they have hiding spots. And if the betta ends up eating them then I guess I’ll just go with only plecos instead. Not that I want to feed cherry shrimp to my betta but if thats what happens then I’ll know lol. I looked up a lot of articles and YouTube videos and the general rule seems to be they have a good chance to live together if the betta was raised in a community tank, the shrimp were already there and are already established when you add the betta, and if they have plenty of things like Java moss to hide in. But you never know with a living ecosystem lol. With the two sponge filter set up is there enough water flow to keep it from stagnating too much? I’m trying to go heavily planted, low maintenance with this setup. That was my plan, let the shrimp establish and the smaller schooling fish as well, then think about adding a betta. Also that gives enough time for the plants to grow in nicely. I was going to start out with a school of like 7 rasboras and the shrimp, then see about adding the tetras. And then depending on how that goes maybe the betta. But other people have been saying a 20L might not be big enough for two schools of fish. The good thing is I haven’t bought anything yet I’m just trying to see what would work best for what I want so I can always change something up.
  22. DarthRevan
    That was my plan so I can get the hang of things with some easily replaceable shrimp first, then start adding fish when I feel ready. Also so the shrimp can get big enough that a fish wouldn’t mess with them much. With the sponge filters, are they fairly easy to hide with plants and how involved is cleaning them? Lol thank you, one of my favorite Sith Lords! So in your case you ended up over-filtering and had trouble keeping nutrients in the water for the plants? That was one of my main concerns. Oh yeah I definitely agree. I for sure am not doing a non filtered tank it seems like you have to get a LOT right to balance the ecosystem out. I want to take it slow and do it right, so I definitely don’t plan on putting all of that stuff in the tank right away, just starting with some shrimp and lots of plants. Then moving up to tetras/rasboras, then the betta. If I even get the betta, I probably will just stick with the small guys for a while. So even with lots of plants you still recommend heavily over filtering? Or is it more to get good water flow?
  23. DarthRevan
    @PaulI’ve been watching all of them actually lol! I started a couple months ago and started going a lot deeper into it in the last month. I’ve found myself watching Aquarium Co-op (how I found this forum!) and KG Tropicals the most. My issue being new is there’s so many differing opinions out there. Some people say you don’t need to filter a heavily planted tank at all, some say you need a light filter, some say you need a filter equivalent to a non-planted tank... it makes it a little hard lol. I plan to absolutely pack my tank with plants so I’m not sure how much filtration I need.
  24. DarthRevan
    Thank you! That is a good question haha, I haven’t even gotten a tank yet I’ve just been planning things out. Do you mean for my tap water? I’d have to test it, I know water in Arizona can be hard but I’m not sure of pH. For the filter I haven’t decided yet either but I definitely want a little overkill, I think the general rule is the filter should be able to process at least 3x the quantity of the tank per hour right? So maybe like a 70-80 gallon per hour filter to be safe? Or would one rated for a 20 be good in combination with lots and lots of plants? That was my original plan. Haha I did a lotttt of research because of the reputation of bettas. I’m glad someone as experienced as you thinks my choices are a good idea, it gives me more confidence to get started! That is a great idea for the extra cleanup crew, I was actually thinking of that, but I wasn’t sure if I got some bristlenose plecos or something similar if they would out-compete the shrimp and then all my cleanup crew is starving lol. I guess I could always pop in an algae tab or something for them if they do their job too well 😂
  25. DarthRevan
    Hey everyone, I found out about this hobby from a random YouTube video and since then I’ve gotten really interested. I’ve been doing research for like 2 months now and as soon as my lease is up (don’t want to get a tank going then have to move immediately lol) I’m planning on starting a planted tank. Based on what I’ve seen I would really like a 20 gallon long tank to scape. I’d love a betta and some smaller tank mates with it like rummy nose tetras and harlequin rasboras and cherry shrimp (for cleanup). I’m just not sure how many I can do of each. Now I know the betta might eat some of the shrimp but after looking into it, it seems like the shrimp should be ok if they’re the first in the tank, are allowed to grow, the betta was in a community tank already at the pet store, the other fish are fed enough and the shrimp have hiding places. So that aside, would 6-7 shrimp, 7-10 tetras, 7-10 rasboras, and a betta be ok in a tank like that? I want a lot of fish and variety but I don’t want to overstock it and make them miserable. Also I know this is a lot for a new person, it’s not going to all be at once but it is my end goal for my first tank. Any thoughts/constructive criticism are welcome and appreciated 🙂
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