AquaAggie

s this the dreaded black beard algae? Tanks has been up for 4 years and this has come on over the last 4 months maybe. I tried reducing my lights (time and intensity) to shot below on my AquaSky and feel like that made it worse or maybe something else was the problem and that made it worse? I have started dosing easy carbon (1 squirt per 10 gallons daily) and tracking my nitrates better to keep 20-40 with easy green. They had been low (0-10). I will be traveling and thinking of doing a 5 day blackout, is this too much? Anything else I can do? Thanks.

Thanks all for the recs and responses. I’m going to be more consistent with easy green dosing and tracking nitrates. I also dropped the light intensities by 15% across the board. Shortened total light by 45 minutes and shortened the peak light duration by an hour…..I think. Hopefully this helps. old - 101622 new - 012223 light profiles below 👇

@Wes L. thanks for the advice. Often times my nitrates are undetectable so maybe they problem is not enough nutrients? Also here is a better picture of the timing white light starts ramp up at 9 and is off by 10. Still 13 hours of light so I get that this is a problem but I want to be able to see my fish 😂😂😢. And yes there is some BBA that comes and goes from the crinum. I would like to trim ot back a bit which would help with this I think but I hear that if you cut crinum leaves they die?!?! @Rube_Goldfish thanks. There are nerite snails, MTS, and balder snail and a amano shrimp. My super red bristlenose disappeared on me several months ago. I’ve looking for a replacement or a blue eyed lemon but have seen any recently. I have 5 otos in quarantine to go in to help and have been thinking of some more Amanos. Any other suggestions? @Rube_Goldfishand @Mmiller2001 I have turned down the intensity once before and that helped for a while. I guess it is a fluctuating thing with tank load, plant load etc. my concern is getting enough penetration for the crypts (wendetti red and parva) down at the bottom Of the tank. Would your suggestions still provide enough penetration at 24” for these. My parva hasn’t died, but it hasn’t grown in Months which I know can be typical. thanks all for the suggestions.

I know that balancing a tank is a long and tedious process but I have never been able to get my really dialed in. I’m sure part of it is lack of consistency. But I have been having a big problem with a fine green algae lately, I’m guessing Green Hair algae???? I have Val, anubia, Java fern wendelov, crypt wendetii red, a crinum, red tiger lotus, crypt parva, and hornwort. Nitrates practically never get above 20. Try and dose east green once a week ish. Light is an AquaSky 2.0 with the settings shown, Tank is 60g and 24” high, and just turned 3 years old. Any ideas on what my biggest problem might be and where to start? Thanks

UPDATE. Died overnight 😢

Thanks @Colu All I have on hand is paracleanse and aquarium salt. I will see if I can find the expel-p and prazipro. Given dosing it certainly seems the former are less work but would the paracleanse still work or is the combination other two superior? do you see anything obvious in the pictures? My understanding is the white rings are bite marks from other puffers?

I picked up this wild caught Amazon puffer 1 week ago. The tank as a whole at the store was not looking good, but I hoped that I could treat one of the better looking ones in a quarantine tank. Plus I have been looking for a while and these were only $10! He has gone through 5 days of Maracyn and Ich-X and is only looking worse. Previously he was swimming around, now he is floating at the top mostly vertical. 😥 tank is an established 5g quarantine tank. Temp 78 ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrate trace pH 7.8 there are 5 otos in quarantine with him and they seem fine so don’t think it is a water issue? I know they need to be dewormed but given the state of others in the store tank I thought bacterial/fungal treatment was maybe more important first. Am I missing something? Suggestions? on a another note if he gets better do the teeth need to be trimmed?

I mean i figured but sometimes things do work out the other way. Figure I would check.

Maybe this is a silly question, but are microfish (pygmy cories, phoenix/mosquito/chili rasboras, etc) still at risk of having worms. I mean I guess anything can happen but is it typical in these small species, or is it typically only in larger (meaning not these microfish)? I hope that makes sense? Is there a general size cutoff under which we don't really see fish get worm infections? Wondering if I need to prophylactically deworm them like I have taken to doing in my other fish!

I had two madagascar lace bulbs from the Co-Op in two separate tanks. They both did great initially although were very different from each other. Once had fairly slender and narrow leaves and the other was gigantic. Both would have leaves periodically rot away to be replaced with new growth. Over the last several months they have both kind of petered out. The narrower one now has no growth and the previously robust one has only a few small leaves. While trying to investigate them, it does not appear that either spouted any appreciable roots. The bulbs look a little eaten away on the bottoms but are not squishy or smelly. Do bulb plants need to go through periodic dry phases? How does one do this? Do I just leave them alone and they will come back at random in the future? Thanks for the help.

@KAYLON.NICHOLS and @Beardedbillygoat1975 what do you run your light at for your tanks. I just started mine with some crypts, Java, and anubia how long? do you add any of the RGB settings in with the white light? Thanks

I had done two round already before this happened. I guess another shouldn’t hurt though?

Well it’s been 10 days and the other cories are still alive. Never treated with anything. They are still happily sniffing around the quarantine tank and eating. Was this a one off for one Cory? How much longer should I watch? Should I treat with something?

Certainly nothing I’m aware of 😳

I have had 5 corydoras in Quarantine for a month now. They have been treated with 2 rounds of paracleanse. They have been growing well and no longer have swollen stomachs. Went to go get them to move to my main tank and found one looking like the picture below taking its final breaths. obviously transfer is on hold. Remaining 4 look fine swimming around. There are bladder snails, MTS, and mystery snails in the tank with Java fern and hornwort. Nitrate is 20-30 temp 78 kH ~3 ammonia and nitrite 0 gH 7 pH 7.8 What could cause this? What do I need treat with again to clear the remainder in quarantine? thanks