Ohad

Hi all! So I ordered some plants from the aquarium co-op. They should be here tomorrow. The problem is I will not have time to play until next weekend. What's the best way to keep the plants alive for a week? I have an extra tab or a bucket but not a different fish tank or light. The plants are all low-light plants like crypts, hair grass, and octopus. Thank you!

Thank you all, love this forum!

Ok, I boiled it now for an hour and got very dark brown water out of it. Will now try to soak it in a tab for a week with daily water change. Let's hope that it will work as I love the shapes I got. Will look amazing with plants

I assume that most of these driftwood are roots. And the idea is to simulate tree roots on a river floor. Of course, most people want just an idea of nature in their home without the mess and the mud, haha. The plants need to be super green and the water transparent like tap water.

Agree

I second the dwarf sag. It took about a year to cover everything in my case in my ten gallons, but it's easy and fun to watch.

Hi there! I pressed buy too fast (damn Amazon ) on the #1 best-seller https://a.co/d/cXiMf8r Driftwood It's not in the tank yet. I understand that I need to boil it for hours and then soak it for about a week if I don't want tanin in the water. Does anyone have experience with this wood? Is it worth it? I 100% don't want any brown water in my tank. It was only $26, so I have no problem giving it to someone on "buy nothing" and learning my lesson What is the least messy wood you guys can recommend for a planted tank? Thank you all,

Cow manure will be super hard for me to find as I live in Brooklyn haha. Rat manure is no problem

Thank you!

Thank you that sounds perfect for me. Can I mix in send and gravel as I like that look? And I assume that I need root tabs as well . Now what is the benefit of lowering the PH? I live in NY and out of the tap my PH is a perfect 7

Thank you, I am not sure what is lfs though?

Ok! I just bought another tank, yay!! 24-inch length 17, gallon rimless. My first tank is a 10-gallon aquaon kit that came with aquaon shrimp substrate (lowering Ph lava rock). It took a long, long time for the plants to take off ( about a year), but now they are great. My pH level on this tank is in the mid-6, and my KH is none, pretty much. For the new tank, I don't want to use CO2, but I want it to be heavily planted, and I am guessing eventually, it will have a group of tetras. What substrate should I choose? MD fish tanks is my inspiration ( like many I am sure) He is now doing the "topsoil" plus root tabs caped with sand and gravel. It looks super pretty, but I am guessing not easy. Any recommendations will help. I want a natural riverbed look; I don't mind using root tabs. I am not crazy about the black Fluval look, but I will consider it as well In my mind the tank will have rocks, driftwood, Anubis petit, mix of stem plants, and some foreground carpeting Thank you!!

Trumpet snails will go into the substrate, mix it up, and deliver air and nutrition to the roots. They transform a planted tank in my experiences. Just be aware even if you only start with two, you will end up with many. They live underground most of the time, so it's not a big deal for me, but some people hate it.

Honestly in my experience 3 months is a very short time. Especially if you have no co2 . It just takes time and patience Meanwhile you can add more plants or get some snails or shrimp . For me adding plants or snails, (trumpet snails are magic) usually balances thing faster than light adjustment or nutrients. Nature does it thing . I am just a hobbyist but this is my experience

I love this! I love that I did not change anything and one day these two exploded. better than algae I guess 🙂

OMG I was just about to ask the same think for my tank , just like you I got two things growing in may tank that I never put in. is this Java moss ? the other thing that I got looks like yours. man nature finds a way

@Patrick_G I live in New York and I get my fish from Pacific aquarium. I got this fish in 2019 and the tank was labeled fancy guppies haha I picked him because he was pretty. He is 3 years old but still happy and playful so I hope he will hang around with us

I love Guppies too , but the ones with the long fins can get some problems as they age 😞 and its verry sad . I lean to not like sadness in my tank 🙂

During this holiday season, thank you to the fantastic Endler's livebearer fish for being so awesome! I live in an apartment, so I only have room for small tanks; I tried all kinds of nano fish and shrimp the anxiety is so high. Will they bully each other? Why is this shrimp dead? I tested the water; this one was swimming up and down against the wall and was stressed. Omg so many problems not with these guys. They are always happy; they love each other; they love other fish; they love me and will greet me in the morning, and let's be honest, they are the prettiest fish around. What is else to ask for from our pets? So thank you, friends, for making this hobby so fantastic and worry-free

Ok so go with the API ?

I can see that some people takes here about ammonia reading between the methods . But for me I get consistent opposite pH results the strips tells me I have very low pH 6.4 the lowest red color in the strip. While the API telling me I have 7.6 the darkest blue in the chart What is going on ? I have male guppies , young neocaridina shrimp and ramshorn snails. So far only the the snails are breeding ( shrimp are too young and guppies all male ) but all of them seams to be active , playful , eating and happy so I am not sure what to think ...

Agree I am not sure what did it but some how I did ... It's a small tank so easy to throw out of balance . The good news the guppies being guppies seams like the don't care one bit. Still playful and active like a group of puppies

a little update , a local store gave me a cycled filter media lets see if that will save the day . example why we need local stores that are not petsmart and petco

yes I have fritz complete from aquarium co op its strong stuff , I am at the moment dossing a tiny bit of it daily to bind the ammonia and adding bacteria from fritz 7 daily I basically need to re do the cycle since in my stupidity I killed my established bacteria but this time I have fish in the tank and plants that I worked hard on and are at risk , plus the algae threatening to destroy everything and my snails will not eat hair algae

So frustrating, I was doing everything right, I cycled my tank for a moth and then for the next two months everything was nice , plants growing , guppies happy .tank looking pretty. About a week ago I did a too big of a water change about 50% I did not have enough dechlorinate water so I topped it with 2 cups of tap water. Dumb dumb The results was a huge bacteria bloom , the bacteria bloom went away but now I have 0.25 ammonia not moving at all . On top of that I see the early signs of hair algae . The guppies seams to be in thier usual happy campers still. I dossed fritz complete and fritz 7 bacteria. But the ammonia still does not change after 4 days. Checking every day with API kit I feed my fish very light so the food is not the problem I only have 4 guppies so they don't poop too much but I do have snails poop . Now it's a race for making sure the guppies don't get sick, the hair algae does not destroy my tank , and the plants don't dye on me if I will change the light . Attached a picture to how much plants I have currently... Where should I start? what should I do first ??