AquaAggie

Thanks @Wes L. I have watched Irene’s video and forgotten about this chart, I need to watch it again. Is there a potassium test kit? It seems like a fine line as too much of anything and you get algae. Too little you get algae. You have to be freaking Goldilocks. I completely understand the frequent testing and figuring out your tanks groove. There are just a lot of moving parts.

I have taken to feeding for a day or two and the treating with an actual course of paracleanse since you can’t see problems inside your fish. If I see other things I would treat for that. I heard Cory mentioning two rounds may be better. HOWEVER, I think it depends on the state of the fish. The I lost a whole new group of sterbai cories. Partly not my fault for inspecting more at the store but they were super skinny. Now was this disease or stress/feeding I don’t know. I think they may have been better served with being fattened up more before trying to do anything else.

I left mine for 9 days no problem. I would feed heavy for a few days before you go and do water change day of or before and you should be fine.

I think you have already received most of the answers that are going to help. A few other things I know Cory has a video and he talk about the API test strips not being accurate but that tetra is near as good as the master test kit for the convenience. Also it looks like you have a banana plant and it may be too buried down in the substrate. It appears your wood pieces are to big to build but you could consider putting them in a tote and filling with hottest tap water you can get or even boiling water and letting them sit while replacing the water daily. That will leach out mor tannins faster but will still take some time. I had smaller pieces that I boiled for about two days and still ended up leaching some. Lastly you can get stuff to grow in that tank at that depth if you get the water right. I have the same tank and my plants are doing well albeit with different water. Good luck. And your large wood piece looks super cool

@Colu and @Jungle Fan how do you keep algae from growing on your annubias. Mine seem to collect them something terrible. I am working hard to balance my tank and making slow progress

🤣🤣 Will probably test like once a week and redose when it looks like it gets to 0 again. Thanks.

@Mmiller2001 do t get to worried about what? Being high or low? I was worried about low since there were signs of deficiency. With high I can just watch it and wait for to come back down.

@Mmiller2001 strategy may be an overstatement. It’s a 60g tank and I dose 4 doses of easy green twice a week. Went up because of some deficiency seen in plants. Also in another thread we decided my windelov Java fern had phosphate deficiency So I got a phosphate test and it said this. It seemed low so I dosed half a dose of Seachem phosphorus and got this after a couple hours but then a week later I got this. now I must say I also had a big nitrate spike. Not sure what the cause was. I juvenile Cory cat died and I could not fin the body but it seems excessive. I will keep an eye on it. I certainly wanted to take things slow with Phosphate

Thanks @StephenP2003 i had seen that as well and GSA is my problem. was wondering if anyone else has any other suggestions for phosphate levels in a planted tank without CO2

I second @MickS77wosh I had that instead of my 60. It’s like a 75 but you get more front on viewing area

I wouldn’t worry too much about pH and definitely would not try to adjust what comes out of your tap unless it’s extreme. Stability is much more important and you aren’t looking at anything that is terribly delicate. Also know that if you do plants you will get snails. But you should do plants. Nerites may lay little white eggs if you get a female. They won’t hatch but some (including myself) don’t care for their appearance. Have you thought about a mystery snail. They get bigger and are more active. have fun

Are you using the API master test kit or test strips. I have seen some places say that the test kit can some times show a weak positive ammonia. Another possibility is nitrates in your tap water so might test that as well. Something to think about at least

One word of warning, that I didn’t receive in a similar situation. If you end up with a female nerite you will get little white eggs everywhere. They won’t hatch but they hang around for a while. May not bother you but I’m not the biggest fan. Have fun.

Actually super glue isn’t out. I glue most of my plants underwater to larger scape. Not saying it is easy but put some super glue on the plantlet then press where you want it in your tank and hold for 30 seconds ish. I recommend figuring out placement and orientation fist then gluing because you only get one shot. Also make more like little globs of glue as water will cause the outside to set but when you press it the glob will burst and expose more glue to set. Be careful because too much and you end up with unsightly white glue spots. Maybe practice on something easily removed and cleaned if you are worried about that. You could also just let the plant lets float in the tank for a while and grow or naturally attach somewhere on their own. You can always detach and move them if you don’t like where they end up. I just glued this tiny piece of anubia nana petite this weekend. Good luck

If you were to open up a moss ball and tie it around some driftwood or a rock would the marimo moss ever attach to the hardscape? thinking something similar to the Christmas moss bridge but I tried twice and they just withered and died. Moss balls on the other hand seem to enjoy my tanks.

I’m with @Kirsten I would also make sure your attachments are all on tight as suggested by @Koi

But you are simultaneously diluting the ammonia at the same time. Especially if you added extra prime (which I have seen suggested before). So the question really is weather or not you raise pH faster than diluting the ammonia.

I can’t say what the right answer is one way or the other. I definitely would not have added the bag water, but kind of wonder about not drip acclimating them. I understand wanting to get them out of the situation they were in, but worry now about temperature or pH shock. But drip acclimating would have only taken an hour or two and let them adjust to their new water parameters more gradually. I mean we say this all the time about acclimating fish, but can meaningful physiological changes happen that quickly? To some extent yes and to some extent no depending on the situation at least for human physiology. Not judging one way or the other but wondering what others rational would be for the benefit or damage of drip acclimating in this specific situation

@Nana Finopolis I don’t have a solution but I have a python. In there videos I feel like they talked about how there isn’t that much excess water loss when you leave your sink running.l, but have not tested this. Once I get a syphon going I just turn the sink off. I have never gotten much suction either way. I have stopped gravel vacuuming very much at all and use a smaller caliber aqueon gravel vac to do areas I need to. Mostly along the glass where you can see it. I wish python made a smaller diameter end to help with just this problem.

@Koi I wasn’t trying to imply any intentional misrepresentation. It’s just an easy trap to fall into. That picture is very similar, but you are correct, not the same. Your point about the red light is well taken, especially in the setting of other color spectrums. Thanks

Sorry but I’m concerned that your tank may no be fully cycled. How did you cycle it? Just letting water sit in the tank won’t cycle it. A cycled tank should read some nitrates. With them all being zero I worry it isn’t cycled and adding all those fish at once will cause ammonia or nitrite spikes and cause further death. I agree with @Trish. I would recheck your parameters.

@Koi 🤦‍♂️ Yes. That makes complete sense. I should have thought of that. Although in the video he does discuss differences in how photosynthetically available different wavelengths are beyond just their penetration in the water. Reading the actual paper would be helpful and seeing all the different experiments they set up. Being in science I know all to well how selecting bits and pieces of paper and can be presented as a truth and yet be all together wrong or inaccurate. Thanks for pointing this out. all that being said. It could be any number of light conditions that lead to ‘crinuming’ or crinkling of the leaves.

Well the most common forms of phosphate is potassium phosphate or calcium phosphate

@Betsythanks for catching my mistake. Great post.

@Wes L. what do you use to dose phosphate? Mine is also low