Jennifer V

Some awesome ideas above that I'll just piggyback off of. If you're looking to keep shrimp, maybe the supplies to create a kit for a shrimp paradise? - Coconut caves - Like @Fish Folk said, fun foods like GlasGarten shrimp lollies, bacterAE and shrimp baby as well as hikari shrimp cuisine and fluval bug bites. Or even some catappa leaves. - Like @nabokovfan87 said, Some plants may travel well like Christmas moss to cover the caves. This is where super glue would be necessary and a great stocking stuffer. As @TheSwissAquarist said, a tiger lotus or dwarf lily bulb would be cool. - Like @xXInkedPhoenixX said, Cool hardscape like driftwood or interesting rocks to attach other plants to. This is where Etsy can be a great resource. - A cool box or crate to keep your brand new supplies in. If you're just setting up the tank or adding shrimp for the first time maybe a gh/kh test kit if you don't already have one, a binder or notebook to track your progress. You can decorate it with ACO stickers! And as others said, I'd be over the moon for an ACO gift card to add to the kit so you can get whatever else you need for your shrimpy Shangri-la.

I'm no expert, but I find this article very helpful when figuring out nutrient deficiencies with my plants. Hope that helps! https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies

I love Blue Dream but they disappear in darkly colored substrate. I started my next try with a few skittle shrimp -- red, blue, yellow and orange. As @Guppysnailmentioned, after a round or two of some clear or brownish, I'm now getting some really cool dark blue and black, as well as some brilliantly colored orange and yellow. It's really fun to see what pops up.

Do I just not worry about the ammonia and nitrite right now and just keep testing? This tank has been set up for nearly two years and has never had problems until now. Old Tank Syndrome? I do regular WCs but I haven't vac'ed r sand in awhile which is why my lovely wife tackled it.

@modified lung @nabokovfan87 I added more crushed coral and the kh and the pH went up so that's good news but then my loving wife decided to do a major sand cleaning. She's so caring! But I think she kicked the tank out of whack again. I tested the tank: Ph: 7.0 Ammonia: .5 Nitrite: .5 Nitrates: 80 Kh: 3 Then I did a ~50 percent WC yesterday because of the ammonia and nitrite. I checked today: Ph: 6.8 Ammonia: .25 Nitrite: .25 Nitrates: 40 Kh: 2 Do I keep doing WCs? The baking soda I had was old so heading to the store to pick up some fresh. I'm ready to tear this tank down and get a larger one. I never would've gotten a 5g if I knew it would be this much work. There are only shrimp and snails in there and it's *very* heavily planted. Pics included. The water is still cloudy as well. Also reduced feeding by half.

Finally read through all of this and it is *awesome*! I immediately told my wife about it and she reminded me that in the restaurant industry, they use seltzer water to clean beer taps and soda gun nozzles. This is all clicking for me in the best way. Cannot wait to try it!

Pearl Weed has been on my list for quite awhile. Is it as easy and removing it from the pot and plopping it in? Does it tend to melt a lot?

The price you pay for finding some amazing looking hardscape!

Looking forward to seeing what you've found. Post pics when they're in!

Love reading about your journey! I'm dreaming up my next tank -- a 20 long as well. My main goal is to have a group of cories. Did you settle in on which you'd like to add to yours? I thought I'd do pygmies and pandas but I didn't realize the pygmies wouldn't fit. I have been doing a ton of cory research and joined a group dedicated to taking care of them. I get pretty obsessed when I set my mind on something. Ha! Looking forward to following along!

Yes! I have one in my ACO cart now so I'm going to finally pull the trigger. 🌱

I can't speak about gh as my water has extremely high gh coming from the tap but I am having an issue with low pH and kh in one tank. What I have learned is any modifications take time so you may want to monitor your parameters for a few days before making any other changes.

Beautiful! I tried one but it didn't work out. I've been thinking of trying again and you just convinced me. Thank you!

Let me know when you decide and how it goes. I have a shrimp tank with black sand and thought I couldn't do stems because of the substrate so I'm interested to see what works well for you.

Oh that's a bummer! I suppose I'll look for something that has a similar effect but doesn't routinely "die." Any suggestions?

This post should have a "scratch and sniff" option!

Do they die back entirely or do they just stop growing? I love the look of them and don't really know anything about them.

I only have my lights on for six hours a day with a midday siesta because of algae issues. Do you think that's why I can't grow any floaters?

I think they'll be fine for five days. If you're really worried about it, you could try banquet blocks. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/nano-banquet-food-blocks

Wow! Ok I'll try again. Someone local has some unique kind I forgot the name of that she's willing to give me. But I might just have a black thumb when it comes to floating plants. Ha!

I cannot keep DW alive and well in either of my tanks. I've tried three times now. At first I had a lot of success in my 5g and then it all disappeared. I'm baffled! I've also tried water lettuce, hornwort, elodea and salvinia. Am I missing something? @Guppysnail how to you take care of your salvinia? I'm thinking of trying again.

I was just thinking about this very thing. The big reason why I decided to lid my upcoming tank is because as water evaporates in the tank, which happens much faster without a lid, the water get harder so I'd have to do WCs with something like RO water, which I'm not entirely interested in doing.

Hi All! I feel silly even asking this question but I can't find direct advice about how to safely change out heaters. I'm changing to an ACO heater from one of the Tetra cheapies and want to make sure I do it right. I had a nightmare that I did it incorrectly and the fish died!

Might be detritus worms or rhabdocoela too so don't panic just yet. Maybe look up all three kinds and see if you find a match. Or try to send a photo again.

Personally, I think the kind of green algae you have is pretty -- shout out to @JoeQ. I know, wild idea, but I don't think the perfect, pristine tank is possible to achieve in real life, contrary to what Google tells us. I would continue to remove as much as you can manually -- you've done an excellent job so far -- and add some more plants to the left side of the tank where it's bare as well as some floating plants. Cram as many plants as you can in the tank and feed them with Easy Green and Easy Root Tabs to keep them healthy and growing. I used to have a pretty substantial algae problem -- not the pretty kind -- and even though I reduced the lighting schedule I still had issues because my pea puffers are messy little buggers who keep the nitrates high. Eventually, the plants took off and the algae disappeared from most places.