1moretank

I use Vigoro pea pebbles from Home Depot, very small pebbles look like the bottom of many little creeks and a big bag for under $5. I grow crypts, swords, jungle val and they all seem to like it. It's still a fairly light color. If you don't want cloudy water, it takes a lot of rinsing.

I am not an expert, but it looks a lot more like my crypts than any of my swords. It sure looks healthy.

I am not new to the hobby. I keep 10-12 tanks plus 2 quarantine tanks. All but one have been running with few changes for over a year. They are all average to heavily planted. Some are heated, others are simply at room temperature. 1 or 2 could be considered over stocked a bit, but none are heavily stocked. All tanks have 1 or more air stones. None have any filtration except plants. I have ran a HOB on 2 of the tanks when I felt the mulm was excessive (about 2-3 weeks on each tank one time). Most of my experience with planted tanks was in the soft water similar to what Cory has. All of these tanks are using very hard water. Until recently everything was doing so well that other than checking to see how my new water tested, I didn't bother testing. Using Tetra easy strips, I tested my water by filing a 5 gallon bucket, adding Prime then waiting 2 days. Results: Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, GH 150-300, Chlorine 0, KH 120-300, pH 7.2 - 7.8. Tested 3 buckets on different dates, that's why there is a range. I then used the last couple strips from that bottle and my tank results were about the same - except the Nitrates ranged from 40 ppm up to 200 ppm. That scared me, so I ordered a new bottle of test strips. Received them today. Results are the same. Some tanks are higher, some are lower, but they all test 80 ppm or higher for Nitrates. My fish appear healthy, the guppies, platies, mollies, plecos and white clouds are all breeding, the fry are growing normally. Only one tank has significant algae problem (hair algae). I stopped the Easy Green once I saw the high nitrates, prior to that I was dosing weekly but not super consistently. My questions: Should I be worried since the only problem appears on the test strip and tanks don't seem to be struggling? Should I continue dosing Easy Green, I think plant growth has slowed a bit since I stopped dosing?

Every tank I have an auto feeder on will self-sustain for 2 weeks to a month after the feeder runs out. The only real issue is that water evaporates rather quickly, even with well fitting lids. I use no filters, all community tanks with fish, plants, snails, and most have shrimp. I have pretty regular guppy, platy, endler, and bristlenose fry and productive cherry shrimp. Most have been established for over a year. Would that meet your question's criteria?

If your pleco goes into a cave, you can simply pick up the cave and set it in the bucket of old tank water - much easier than trying to catch the pleco with a net. If there is no cave, try placing a plastic cup or a jar in the original tank for the pleco to swim into, then pick it all up. Then, like everyone else said, move stuff, add back fish & old tank water from the bucket.