Jungle Fan

If you want something easy to care for that will do well , here is what I would do: Red Flame sword to the left of the wood, behind the wood Baby Tears, to the right of it some Bacopa caroliniana, 3 or 4 Cryotocoryne wendtii right by the wood off set so you can see some of it still, on the wood on the bottom Anubias nana petite, on the wood above on the left side Anubias nana, and on the right side Java fern, and a carpet in front of either Dwarf Baby Tears, or Staurogyne repens.. Just one possibility of an easy to take care of, easy to grow aquascape, you could also place a smaller piece of wood on the left in the foreground planted with Anubias, to create more depth, and make the area to be carpeted smaller.

I hope you get some of the Rio Nanai angelfish while you're there they are absolutely stunning!

Here's what the Easy root tabs contain: Easy Root Tabs Contain: Mineralized Top Soil Red Clay Magnesium Nitrate Phosphate Potassium Manganese Zinc Molybdenum Iron No ammonia spikes out of those. For those who might not have access to Easy root tabs. Seachem Flourish root tabs: Amounts per 1 g Total Nitrogen (N) 0.8% 0.8 % Water Soluble Nitrogen Available Phosphate (P2O5) 0.11% Soluble Potash (K2O) 0.28% Calcium (Ca) 23.3% Magnesium (Mg) 0.29% 0.06% Water Soluble Magnesium Sulfur (S) 16.5% Boron (B) 0.003% Cobalt (Co) 0.002% Copper (Cu) 0.006% 0.001% Water Soluble Copper (Cu) Iron (Fe) 3.07% 3.07% Water Soluble Iron (Fe) Manganese (Mn) 0.16% 0.16% Water Soluble Manganese (Mn) Molybdenum (Mo) 0.0005% Zinc (Zn) 0.003% 0.003% Water Soluble Zinc (Zn) Derived from: Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Magnesium Chloride, Ferrous Gluconate, Cobalt Sulfate, Magnesium Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Boric Acid, Sodium Molybdate, Zinc Sulfate, Hydrolyzed Yeast. No ammonia spikes out of those either.

Which river is that? The Madre de Dios?

If it's just for two months I would not add substrate. As @KBOzzie59 said the plant weights might be a good idea for the stem plants; light and some ferts are a need for that time period too. CO2 always helps, but if you are running it I would only run it during the active photoperiod with the lights on and turn it off when the lights go off and the airstone comes on. Plants only use CO2 during the day when they actually produce oxygen, at night when no photosynthesis is happening, they actually consume oxygen and CO2 is not needed.

That depends on how long you will take to rescape it? I've helped some folks here rescape their tank, took one day. We kept the plants, fish, and filter media in a few buckets with old tank water that day, then reassembled the filter and the tank never missed a beat. If you're going to dry out the media and take a week, or two you'll be faced with cycling again and with it assorted algae phases. Unless you have high light, and CO2 demand plants, you won't see any issues moving them to a non-CO2 tank with the exception of crypts that don't like to be moved period; they might experience a melt but generally will recover.

Even if you use substrate and plants from another tank it will take time to cycle. The one thing that helps is if you are using old filter material that did not get to dry out in between the old tank and the new, and even then we can be talking weeks, or months before the tank is fully cycled and stabilized. I would not stress after three days, the bacteria are in the process of colonizing the new tank. You can possibly speed it up a bit by adding bacteria with concoctions like Seachem Stability, or others but that is being debated just like everything else in our hobby. Also generally if I set up a tank and plant it right away I usually wait a week before I start dosing ferts, regardless of how many plants there are because plants do tend to get a bit shocked when they are transferred, some more, some less, and while they are still in that state they don't use ferts all that much, algae however does not experience that issue. So I now hold back with ferts for that one week because algae spores are endemic in the air and ready to go from day one. Give it some time, your tank will be cycled before you know it with the substrate and plants. You can add inverts like snails, or shrimp as soon as your parameters seem to be stable because even should a nitrite spike occur it won't harm them because their blood is not hemoglobin based and the nitrite will not work as a blood toxin on them, and their waste products will help the cycling.

The only thing that can be a problem with keeping Neon Tetras with German Blue Rams that I've seen is the temperature range. Neons tend to like 72-78 degrees Fahrenheit, GBRs 78 - 85 degrees Fahrenheit, not saying I haven't seen them being kept together but in my experience GBRs really don't like the lower range too much, and the Neons their upper. I tried it twice and the results were discouraging. However when I kept them in my 83F discus tank GBRs were doing fine. Bolivian rams are better suited for the Neon temp range in my opinion but my guess would be it's the colors that attract you to the GBRs, so the Bolivians probably won't be any consolation.

Where to best get/buy driftwood all depends on where you are located. If you are located by the ocean, as one would assume from one of your posts, I would consider that a lucky plus, not a detriment. As @Biotope Biologist mentioned you can soak the pieces repeatedly in freshwater to draw out the salt and then do an air dry in the sun. I tend to not use bleach on any of my wood, regardless of how diluted it might be for sterilization but prefer to use hydrogen peroxide added to the water which over a period of 48 hours turns itself into harmless water, I then rinse the pieces of and let them air dry in the sun. If you want to buy driftwood, rather than collect it yourself keep in mind that an attractive piece can most of the time be assembled by combining several smaller pieces, because big pieces tend to cost "big" money. I have been in the hobby since 1968 and whenever I travel I usually try to visit a LFS and pick up an attractive piece of wood, or two in the price range from $20 - $30 depending on what's available. Also different types of wood release different amounts of tannin, If you don't want your tank so dark you might have a hard time seeing your discus, and even in general, a pre-soak is a good idea as it will show you how much tannin the wood releases, and because some woods like spiderwood can take a really long time to sink unless you want to use slate. Some of the Mopani pieces (which will sink right away) in my tank were releasing heavy amounts of tannin for about four months. My first pre-soak usually is the one with hydrogen peroxide, after that I change water every couple of days until the pieces sink, or the tannin level now released is acceptable to me, depending on if I intend a blackwater tank, or not. I usually advocate against the very common practice of boiling driftwood to sterilize it because it damages the wood's surface structure and the pieces will rot much sooner that way. In my current tank I have a piece of driftwood that has been in many of my other tanks previously, and is going on three decades now. PS: It also helps to visualize first how many pieces of driftwood you want for your tank, whether you want just one centerpiece stump, or two or three branches, or two stump "islands", or a big branch of Manzanita with many twigs, ... There are sites on the internet as well but they tend to be very pricey, and you have to calculate shipping into the deal on top.

To address your questions: 1) On my 75 gallon a 5lb. cylinder usually lasts me anywhere from 4.5 to 6 months, depending on who fills it. I have two cylinders, one in use, and one in reserve, so I can take my sweet time getting one refilled when it runs out. 2) Where you currently have your diffuser located is generally the place where you want it. If your bubbles are too big then you should look at the large Aquario Neo diffuser Aquarium Co-Op sells, it produces the finest mist of micro bubbles I have ever seen, and I have a very long history with adding CO2 to my tanks, and boxes full of CO2 diffusers, atomizers, and reactors of all varieties that are sitting in my garage while the Aquario is bubbling along in my tank. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/type_co2/products/aquario-neo-co2-diffuser If you don't want micro bubbles in your tank period, then a CO2 reactor inline is your best option but there are studies that actually claim that the contact of CO2 micro bubbles with leaves has in itself a growth stimulating effect on plants.

Use whatever driftwood you like, you can even mix them because over time they all will look a deep dark brown, although the Malaysian driftwood can look almost black. in my current tank I'm using spiderwood, Pacific driftwood, and Mopani, and regardless of what some believe they have blended very harmoniously. By the way you'll often hear "Biotope purists" sermonize about everything in their tank being "biotope correct" down to the botanics like seed pods, or leaves they use to release tannin in their tanks, when you inquire where the substrate, or their wood came from they get strangely quiet. I wouldn't worry too much about what type of wood you use as long as you like the looks your fish will love it. PS: Also if a particular type of wood might be too small, many times a larger piece can be created by combining several smaller pieces, even sometimes different types of wood, it is a practice that is much more common, especially in aquascaping, than many of its practitioners would like you to believe, or are sometimes willing to let on, and especially the aforementioned purists.

@Fish Folk I love your tanks. Did I run overstocked tanks when I was breeding guppies? Is water wet? I also had my tanks chock full of plants, was running multiple airstones, had sponge filters galore, and did multiple water changes per week. Would I recommend it to someone new to the hobby as their first tank experience, in addition to possibly learning about water parameters, tests, ferts, what plants will go with what lights, and how much, and what to feed - no. I think it's nice to get an idea first what it takes to balance all the variables and achieve a stable and sustainable tank before you get down to pushing the envelope with a maintenance intensive tank but then again maybe it's just me.

@Streetwise exactly! As @Patrick_Gsaid the one inch rule is sort of hokey but for beginners it's something they can hang on to until they get more experienced. This might sort of sound hokey as well but with time and experience you get a feel for what sort of bio-load is acceptable for the size and type of tank you have set up. Just like sometimes you look at a tank and although you don't know what it is but you know that there is something wrong even without having investigated it yet. @hopeful1 I would use the rule as a beginner, post what your tank will look like, filtration, aeration, plants and what you would like to stock it with and ask on the forum for help. You will undoubtedly get different recommendations, but there usually will be some sort of consensus and you can go from there, you might get answers that it's understocked, or overstocked but in general opinions are usually not that far apart, we all love fish and plants, and love to help the forum community.

@Scott P. Sorry I couldn't resist. I've always calculated them as less, sort of like the snails. They do figure into the overall picture just not like fish

@Scott P. I never bothered to ask them.

The one inch per gallon rule is sort of hokey because sooner or later you'll end up with half fish and it really doesn't address filtration, aeration, and specific fish needs, or allowances for extra fish because you might have a jungle of plants going on. In any case fractions of a fish reminds me of statistics, and ever since my research, and statistics and probability classes for communication, and later for nursing I only believe in statistics I have forged myself.😉

@Streetwisewhen I used to travel for work with a team and we were in the Lacrosse, Wisconsin area they took me to a joint called "Curdistan", the owners name funny enough was Stan, and the specialty was cheese curds, good stuff.

They could have eaten the "pizza: to get to the cardboard, or maybe they were trying to get the taste out of their mouths.🤣

My uncle in Texas used to play this Marty Robbins song so often, I was surprised he didn't wear the vinyl through with the stylus.

@Streetwisethe tank looks like mine does after I add the Blackwater Clear, then in a few days it gets lighter again. The tannin definitely adds to plant health, and the cardinals and rummynoses do much better with it.

@CT_ on that rotten stem did you try to cut the rotten portion off with a good margin before you replanted it? Sometimes that's all it takes, however if you leave the rotten portion and just stick it back into the substrate the rot is guaranteed to continue.

@Guppysnailhas some great advice there for you, go easy with the fish load if your tank was just recently cycled, or is just about to finish cycling so you are already thinking about adding fish. Snails and shrimp can be safely introduced at that time because nitrite, which is a blood toxin, will not affect most invertebrates because their blood is not based on hemoglobin.

Yes, the old rule as I stated was 1 inch of fish per gallon, however as I and all the others stated, aeration, filtration, water change frequency, amount of live plants, surface water agitation, types of foods the fish are fed, behavior of the different species all play into how densely you can stock your aquarium.

Just recently had that question come up from someone who knew I keep fish, and I'm not the world's greatest texter so I sent this link instead: https://pethelpful.com/fish-aquariums/Can-You-Turn-Off-the-Filter-in-Your-Fish-Tank-at-Night Hope this helps.

Usually at this point someone will cite the one inch of fish per gallon of water rule, however you need to consider if you're using an air pump, if your tank has plants, and how many, if you have surface movement so the water gets aerated, lots of factors can add, or subtract to the amount of fish you can stock. Some species get along well with others, other species are best kept alone.