Jungle Fan

Back then this was just a sideshow to the big Angelfish and Discus tank, but it had CO2 and T5 lighting. The size was 29 gallons and I had gotten the back panel from a friend in Germany.

Let the planting begin! Excited to see it all come together! Nice socks! ORD but Yeah!!!😍

@RaeburnVery nice tank, very relaxing. Angelfish and Neon Tetras always a winning combination. I'm once again ORD would click like otherwise.

I would place some Scarlet Temple Alternanthera reineckii behind the rock in the very back on the left, some Brazilian Pennywort Hydrocotyle leucocephala behind the tall rock on the right in the back, some Cryptocoryne parva on the left behind the rock behind the lantern, and some also in front of it. behind the front rock on the right I would plant a Cryptocoryne wendtii, on top of the rocks I would glue a mix of Anubias nana petite, and Anubias nana Golden Coin, and I would also plant some Cryptocoryne parva in front and to the right of the front rock on the right so that it is sort of a half moon shape around it. All of these are available here: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/live-plants For a carpet plant I would use Staurogyne repens, but I would leave the dark path and the front and a bit on the side of the substrate clean and would probably use some accent pebbles as well as a mix of the same shade of the substrate and just slightly darker. Takes me back to my days when I used to do strict Japanese style aquascapes. I hope this can serve as an inspiration to come up with your own design, of course you can use any and all I typed if you like it,

In my experience there is no one solution that serves all. I would look at your current levels and use increments of 3 - 5 percent, You'll notice the changes, if it is too much then you can change it back. It always takes a while to see results and to finally hit just the right balance between lights and fertilizer. Any leaves that are not doing well, are dying, or already dead, by all means remove. Just trim them off and the plant will no longer waste nutrients and energy into mending what can't be saved and focus on building new leaves.

Anubias are nice and easy plants to keep.

Malaysian Trumpet snails.

Try #2 turn the sound off though because the air purifier is loud, and at the angle that I recorded it's better in high resolution.

I had bookmarked these articles about three years ago when a friend had asked me about it: https://blog.aquariuminfo.org/best-ways-to-get-rid-of-red-algae/ https://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/red-algae.html Hope they might provide some answers.

@ApplejaksTo my knowledge the liquid iron chelation is the only thing the UV sterilizer affects. It doesn't introduce anything. Shrimp are sensitive to copper but the UV sterilizer has nothing to do with that. I've ran my UV sterilizer with no negative effect on my Amano shrimp, Blue Belvet shrimp, Zebra Nerite snails, Red Nerite snails, Black Military Helmet snails, and Bladder snails.

To kill inverts they would have to be directly exposed to the UV light which in most set ups I've seen would be if not impossible, next to impossible because generally the water is drawn into the enclosure by a pump and then streamed past a UV light designed to kill germs and algae spores. I never had an issue with it killing any of my shrimp, or their babies whenever I've used mine. When I ran it it was because I suspected a newly introduced fish that turned sick could spread something to the rest. If you are concerned about shrimp being sucked into the enclosure I'd recommend to place some fine nylon mesh over the intake and hold it in place with rubber bands. The reason that I don't use a UV sterilizert constantly is a. that it changes the chelation of my liquid iron fertilizer to where it becomes unusable to my plants, b. the one I currently have is very large, bulky, and unsightly and an internal UV "filter", and c. the bulbs tend to burn out within a few months when in constant use and are kind of on the expensive side for consumables, and not easy to uninstall, and install. If you are planning on constantly running a UV sterilizer and have a larger tank the ones I'd recommend are the larger kind you set up in your stand and plumb into the canister filter if you use one, however the high price of initial equipment, spare bulbs, and complicated process of exchanging bulbs remains. If you have a smaller tank I can recommend my method of only running a UV sterilizer when you need it, it saves UV bulb life cycle hours, you're not wasting money if you use liquid iron fertilizer with it, and your tank looks better without the contraption when you don't need it. PS: Also forgot to mention the used UV bulbs are hazardous waste and where I live I have to make an appointment to turn them in so they can be disposed off properly, all adding to the hassle, so if I can I don't use it.

@Brandy So your comment had me double check on our "Dwarf" Sagittaria Sagittaria subulata in Christel Kasselmann's book again, and lo and behold the submerse leaves can reach a length of about 24 inches (60 cm) and a width of 1/4 inch (6 mm). So much for dwarf. Another type of Sagittaria Sagittaria platyphylla can reach leaves of up to 8-10 inches (20-25 cm) in length and 1/2" (1.5 cm) - 3/4" (2 cm) in width. I don't think I'd recommend Sagittaria for carpeting from now on. Seems like Helanthium quadricostatus would be a better choice with leaves of 2-6 inches in length. Just goes to show that common English names applied to aquatic plant species can be very misleading. I'm sort of glad I didn't consider Sagittaria for carpeting in my 75 gallon tank now, the crypts I ended up choosing are taller than the original carpet of just Staurogyne repens I used to plant, and just slightly taller than the Helanthium quadricostatus I had also considered.

A very long time ago... in a country far away!😄 1968 in Germany with a tank of Cardinal Tetras.

@Lynn Btry to get a better picture of it, it looks like you are using a cell phone, sometimes it helps not to try to zoom in too close, and to let the fish swim into the picture, rather than to try and follow it. You will notice an area the fish frequents, just try to focus there , wait, and push the button once the fish appears in the picture. If you can get a better picture I can try search in my assortment of fish health books for you to see what it might be.

@StreetwiseThat adapter is ingenious!🙂

I rarely see my regular Nerites touching string algae, my black military helmet snails (another form of Nerites) will, and my shrimp, both the Amanos, and Blue Velvets are all over it whenever some occurs in the moss I have on my driftwood. PS: Brandy's word of caution in regards to Nerites is well founded, and goes for shrimp as well. Sometimes it looks like I have a miniature woodworking shop in my tank in some areas when I do my weekly gravel vac session on the mulm before I do the water change. But it should still take them umpteen years before they run out of wood to turn into really fine sawdust. 😄

Proximity to the heater has never been an issue in my tanks. In my current tank I have an extremely large Green Ocelot Sword and a Lobelia cardinalis growing right in front of the heater and it has yet to do damage to leaves, some of which are actually touching it.

Looks like string algae, a form of green algae. Unless you can remove it by pulling it off it's best to just dispose of the cuttings. I would likely just dispose of the cuttings because if you miss just one segment of it it's like the Terminator and "...will be back." Reducing the photoperiod to eight hours as you said you will do should take care of it, sometimes, however this form of algae also appears because the plant got to grow too tall and/or close to the light source. Moss glued to driftwood very close to the water surface is very prone to get it, shrimp are a great way to curb that problem as I've learnt

@H.K.Lutermanthe Anubias are usually fairly easy to tell apart by the size, or shape of their leaves, and the leaf veins.

For my 75 Gallon tank I use a Green Leaf Aquariums Pro DS-1 dual stage CO2 regulator with bubble counter and solenoid on a timer, Nylon C02 regulator seals, black CO2 line tubing, a Dennerle CO2 check valve to keep water from infiltrating and ruining your regulator, 5 lb. CO2 cylinder & a second as a reserve so I don't immediately have to make a run to go get the first one refilled once it runs out, as well as a large Aquario Neo CO2 diffuser from Aquarium Co-Op, https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/plant-supplies/products/aquario-neo-co2-diffuser and a glass CO2 drop checker. Make sure to use designated CO2 tubing and CO2 check valve because CO2 will over time degrade air line tubing and the membrane in air line check valves. I have my CO2 regulator on a timer which turns CO2 on one hour before the light comes on, and off an hour before the lights turn off because plants don't use CO2 and produce oxygen in the absence of light and but actually use oxygen. That's also the reason why I have a Tetra 100 Whisper air pump with air line tubing and check valve and an air wand on a timer that turns on when the CO2 turns off, and turns off when the CO2 turns on. If you install the CO2 Check valve on the outside of the tank close to the rim the CO2 takes less time to push back any water that may have infiltrated and decreases the time until your diffuser actually produces bubbles and Co2 becomes available to the plants again. Make sure you also have sufficient lighting, and fertilizer on hand because otherwise each of them could become the limiting factor to your plant growth.

Yup, Vallisneria too tall and too wide for Dwarf Sagittaria.

I recently removed my blue lunar light on my tank, because although it seemed to have a calming effect on my fish it just extended the active photoperiod for another four hours - for algae only. Now the GSA I had started to see on some of my Anubias are slowly disappearing again.

A photo of the Dallas Divide in the Uncompaghre Wilderness in Southwest Colorado I took a few years ago.

ORD otherwise I would have clicked like. I remember driving from Starkville, MS to Tuscaloosa, AL for a football game and seeing two funnel clouds along the way and the accompanying thunder and lightning, and hail were something else. In Texas in Wichita Falls I saw a whole street where the Ranch type houses had disappeared, concrete pads with pipe stubs sticking out of them was all that was left, not even debris, all gone. If I still lived in Tornado Alley no one would have to warn me twice about one of those storms. I;'m glad you have a basement, make sure you keep listening to the weather warnings. I'll be praying for you and your family.

I've experienced a few when I lived in Mississippi and in Northern Texas for a while. I say let them hype and people take it seriously and take precautions and nothing happens to them, better than to be in one. We had a house on stilts in Mississippi and it actually lifted up by a few feet for a few seconds, never will forget that feeling, and never will own another house on stilts, solid foundation only, and wherever there are tornadoes it would have to have a basement. The noise alone could send chills up my spine.