Daniel

I think I have a piece of oak in one of my aquariums that came out my woods, (but I am not completely sure). I have seen mini ponds in half 'white oak wine barrels' without a liner, with the water in contact with the used oak wine barrel staves and the fish were doing just fine. Different kinds of oak have different characteristics. Fresh cut white oak smells like, oak. Fresh cut red oak smells skunky. I have always thought that was because red oak had different phenols and tannins than white oak. I think one purpose of the phenols and tannins is antibacterial and antifungal. @Brandy may have insight on this.

In my experience planaria just can't muster the agility to 'attack' anything anymore than garden slugs could pose a threat to me in my garden.

If he is not in any distress I would not euthanize him. I have had fish with various deformities who found ways to overcome their challenges and they led normal lives with the other fishes.

Since the Daphnia are live you can put quite a bit in. They will be there later when he is hungry again. I would give him as much as he wants. It is good to give your Betta a varied diet. Here are my baby angelfish eating Daphnia a few minutes ago:

Also, @Liliana AraozNice first post clearly written, with tags, and good quality pictures. I look forward to many future posts from you, welcome.

They are looking at me!

I like that sort of stuff in my aquariums, as it provides food to fishes and is otherwise harmless. Other people find it unattractive. So in the end it is a personal decision.

Plant nutrition is a black mysterious art, who knows what too much Calcium is. In general to grow plants you need light, nitrogen and carbon. Phosphorus and Potassium play an important role also. If you have good light and sufficient nitrates there is a really good chance that none of the other elements will be limiting. There is usually an adequate amount of in CO2 dissolved in the aquarium water to provide for the plant's carbon needs. Your hard water must certainly be a significant source of Calcium Carbonate and Magnesium Carbonate providing a steady supply Ca2+ and Mg2+. But all that aside, from your description your water probably has as about as much Calcium as can possibly stay in solution without precipitating out, so you are probably maxed on Calcium. The reason our generous host sells so much Easy Green is because it has, in general, everything the average tank needs for plant growth. But you might not want to dose with Easy Green until your nitrates are a bit lower than they currently are. Irene did a series of blog post (which you may have already read) that talk about Calcium deficiency symptoms, none of which you seem to have. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/which-aquatic-fertilizer-is-right-for-you https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-get-started-with-aquarium-plants So what would I do? Great light seems to make difference for you - so more of that And what wouldn't I do? Add more Calcium Change too many things at once

I do both. If they are the first only fish in the tank, my thinking is that there is nothing in the water that isn't in the fish also. If I suspect more than just a little ammonia in the bag I will net them and not include the polluted water. Netting carries its own risk however, so I only net the fish if I have to.

This may sound drastic but I usually cut open the bag with the fish and dump fish and water directly into their new home. There is a tiny amount of stress with an abrupt transition, but it is generally less stress than the alternatives because the are going from fouled water in the bag to clean water in the tank in as short of time as possible results in the greatest benefit for the health of the fish.

We had a Honda Fit once and were able to determine that for some reason its inside dimensions were actually larger than its outside dimensions

No worries, you are honest and enthusiastic and that what counts the most! Keep on truckin' @Wisnasky-tank !

Wow you sure catch on quickly, nice tanks!

No worries! Dosing 25% more is very unlikely to cause any harm. Continue with the correct dosage tomorrow.

None of my 10 gallon tanks have a filter in them. I do keep a lot of plants in my tanks to care of any fish waste. I am a big fan of sponge filters. It’s the only kind I have. But if there’s not a lot of fish in the tank, I don’t run any filter at all.

I can't believe I am saying this, but it has to be a 10 gallon aquarium. Cheap, lightweight, just barely big enough. Sure 20 longs, 40 breeders all have their appeal, but in the cost, volume, size triangle you really cannot beat the old trusty 10 gallon aquarium. @fishnerd illustrates the beauty of a 10 gallon. He has 11 in a bedroom and is running a breeding program out of his 10 gallons tanks.

The German blue Rams would like 82°F okay, but they would like 84°F even better. For some reason German blue rams do a lot better when the temperatures just a little warmer. Many people say rams are tricky fish to keep but with lot of that is probably because they're trying to maintain them at cooler temperatures. I think with the Rams in their natural habitat they get cut off in these oxbow lakes where the water recedes and the temperatures rise. This is where they thrive and breed. @Dean’s Fishroom might know, he has been down there and would have first hand knowledge Same with discus. People say discus are tricky. They are a little tricky. But keep them at 84° in clean water with lots of high calorie food and suddenly they're just like any other fish. I'm not sure what explanation is with the discus on why they prefer warmer water other than their metabolism runs more quickly.

I think we will have fix by tomorrow. It is frustrating when things don't work sometimes but it the price we pay for the new features that are constantly being added. We are the beta testers who are making this the best fish forum ever.

//content.invisioncic.com/b300999/monthly_2020_09/DiscusTank.jpg.cd664a6034738896caa35f2d497a1c9b.jpg I kept this tank between 82°F and 84°F and the Amazon sword grew like a weed. So did seemingly anything that propagated by runners. I think that grassy stuff in the foreground was supposed be pygmy chain sword but it clearly wasn't. This seemed to be near the high end of tolerable for the plants, but it was tolerated as you can see. German blue rams did great in this tank. Most of my tanks are 'attrition tanks'. They start a wider variety of plants and fish than they eventually stabilize into. There is usually no exact formula for what works and what doesn't. The only way to really know is throw it all in there and see what thrives and what disappears. In end you end up with a lot of stuff that likes your water and your style of fish keeping and none of what doesn't.

To other forum members, personally I hope we keep the 'Files' section of the forum as an area for uploading books and research papers that would not otherwise have a home on the Forum. I would prefer it not become a place to upload movies and photos as has begun to happen recently. I fear if we keep doing this the files area may get closed down. There other ways to share videos on the internet, but not so many for safely sharing old fish books and such. Just my 2 cents.

We've had some fugitive forum funkiness today.

The paper is fairly dense, but it was about my beloved little Pygmy Sunfishes so I slogged on through and here is my summary. In a nutshell as the glaciers grew they destroyed upper drainage aquatic habitats. But at the same time all that ice locked up a lot of water so river drainages advanced outward towards the receding seas (actually creating new distant river drainages). Sea levels dropped 375 feet lower than average. Refugias were created in the non glaciated areas in form of large alluvial tributaries with almost no drainage coming into these areas from the glaciated highlands. Imagine the coastal area of the eastern US extending out the continental shelf with marshy slow moving rivers interbraiding with each other. Genes and the fishes that carried the genes began the cross the now non existent river boundaries. Ranges expansion went wild. Dogs were getting married to cats. Okay, maybe not the last sentence. Species that had been separate before the ice age now came in contact with each other again. Eventually though the warm times would return. The ice caps would melt. The river and estuaries and bays became separate again as they reversed course and retreated in to the interior of the warming continent. New species would begin to develop now that they were isolated once more. And then after 80 or 100 thousand years it would all repeat again. Play that movie over and over again and you end up with a global hotspot of fish genetic diversity all right in our own backyards!

Here is the link to the file:

I have no experience with Bacter AE. I am skeptical of most bacteria related products. But my skepticism is based on no data at all. I am just kinda skeptical that way. It is an uninformed skepticism. Bacteria are a force of nature. They are unstoppable and ubiquitous. My assumption is they will show up now matter what I do. My best shrimp tanks have hornwort in the water column and decaying leaves laying on the bottom. The shrimp spend all day going between the hornwort and picking at it, and the bottom and picking at the decaying leaves. There are also dozens of other kinds of little worms, seed shrimp, Daphnia, planaria, and Lord know what else down in the leaves. These tanks are as entertaining as aquariums with actual fish in them. If you take a magnifying glass and look at the lower side of the glass in one of your shrimp tanks and you see little tiny things moving everywhere, you are probably good as far as biofilm goes.