Jungle Fan

The Fluval manual specifies a password retrieval procedure, however that really should not apply if you purchased from Aquarium Co-Op and this is the first time it is being used. I'm sure you've looked at this, and the retrieval requires interaction with Fluval and they probably don't work Sundays. I wish I'd have a better answer but it seems like you're stuck at least until tomorrow. I don't see any other option in the manual but maybe in case I've overlooked something here's the link if anyone else on the forum is more savvy in that regard: https://www.fluvalaquatics.com/manuals/FluvalSmart_App_Manual_EN_Jul2_19_SP.pdf

When it comes to plants that can be grown in and outside the fish tank, in temperate climate try Cardinal Flower Lobelia cardinalis, it is a plant that is native to the Eastern and Central U.S. growing in, and along creeks and ditches hardy in zone 3-9, underwater it has beautiful light green rounded leaves, grown emersed the leaves have red undersides and produce red flowers. Now I don't know if that's what you're looking for because it is quite a bit different from Pothos, also a word of caution it is toxic to pets like cats and dogs, but then again so is Pothos. Here are some links that show both emersed and submersed form: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=d940 http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/details.php?id=108

Welcome Dave!

@Martinare you using any root tabs, or adding liquid iron? If not you might want to give that a try. Crypts just like sword plants are heavy root feeders and crave iron and potassium. Liquid iron can help some but for crypts and swords it's all about root tabs since the roots are there primary uptake for both, not the water column.

I've actually used some leftover Seachem Flourish root tabs in my 75 gallon heavily planted tank with lots of Neocaridina and Amano shrimp besides my fish and they are perfectly safe. Nothing to worry about, and don't tear up the tank, your shrimp will be safe, and your crypts are getting the boost you intended.

It's just like @Danielsaid, it's all about the roots. Get them out of the pots, remove the rock wool, rinse them off, trim the ends of the roots some, remove the yellow, or damaged leaves and plant them. If the roots are o.k. you'll see new growth before long; if the roots look like mush you don't even need to plant them anymore because there is nothing left to recover.

Depends, I used to plant right away, however the current tank I'm running I did a dark start after I heard from a friend in Germany about it, I placed the substrate and hardscape, kept adding Seachem Stability on a regular basis, left the lights off but ran the heater, canister filter, and surface skimmer for four weeks without water changes. After four weeks I turned the light on drained the tank, planted and refilled the tank with fresh water. After a week following I added invertebrates, after another week fish. No algae phases with diatoms, or green algae until the tank was balanced, no fluctuations in ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels, the only adjustments were to figure out my light settings in regards to intensity, and how much amber, or yellow I wanted to add. From now on if I'm going to cycle another tank I'll do another dark start. However, what my preference is doesn't mean you have to do it that way. I did plenty of tanks planting right away, some without diatom and green algae phases, some with depending on how the local water was but always with frequent water changes every few days, I just never experienced as easy a cycling period as I did with the dark start method now, and I also want to mention that I still did run my water tests, especially since this was my first time giving my friend's method a try..

Looks like Fontinalis antipyretica a.k.a. willow moss, a.k.a. common water moss, or a.k.a. greater water moss to me.

Echinodorus Red Flame not just because of the red color but the great pattern, and also because of how easy they are to grow and propagate.

@darkGI saw that you had wedged the houseplant root into a crevice of your background, how is it coming along? A friend here uses gear ties, which are basically thick wire completely encased in a solid layer of silicone, and are available in multiple colors including some natural looking, to fashion the wire into a spiral type basket and then fashions the ends into hooks that hang over the back of the tank to use to hold either pothos, or varieties of lilies, like peace lily, or even Lobelia cardinalis to decorate the top of his tank with plants that have their roots inside the tanks. Lobelia cardinalis when grown emersed looks quite different, not light green but dark and it has very nice red flowers. He usually still hides the contraptions behind driftwood, or long stem plants. I told him he should consider applying moss to the wire basket.

@MJV AquaticsI completely agree most of the bio-filtration happens in my tank's substrate as well. One big bag of crushed lava rock 1/2" size from the local nursery for gardening purposes and it has many times the volume of my whole canister filter with just one layer of it. The bacteria colonize every bit of surface in the tank and by adding porous rock you add multiple times the surface of gravel, or simple soil, or sand which can compact and create anaerobic conditions which can lead to rot. It also helps to get better circulation of nutrients around the roots of heavy root feeders like swords and crypts; and it is the reason why the inside of my canister filter is more sponge and just one compartment of Siporax.

Cool!

I agre with @lefty oand @Steph’s Fish and Plantsin regards to the disposable cartridges being a scam, and also that the sponges, and ceramic media aren't scams. However you can also use other very effective bio-media to get colonized that have even more surface area than the ceramic such as crushed lava rock, and sintered glass (a.k.a. Siporax). I tend to use the sintered glass in my canister filter, preceded by fine, and coarse sponge, while I also use another pre-filter with sponge. The lava rock does not necessarily be located in the filter, I've got a layer of crushed lava rock under my substrate which I seeded with beneficial bacteria when I installed the hardscape. The charcoal loaded cartridges are not just a scheme to keep you buying more each month, they are also detrimental if you use fertilizer, as the charcoal will filter out many of the nutrients you are adding. So generally I would advise using either an air driven sponge filter, or a canister filter which you can load as you see fit over a cartridge filter.

I've got a 75 gallon and as heavy and heavily planted and scaped it is moving it would be a major undertaking. I told my wife if she wants new carpet we're cutting around the stand. Short of the Yellowstone Caldera erupting with 100% certainty and being about to take out the states around it I don't see what could get me to be moving it.

Great little plant to keep, super easy, separate the stems plant about 1" to 1.5" apart and it will grow without stealing the light from each other. I've kept it in the past and was always happy with it.

@ColuIt's a juvenile Broad-tailed Hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus), about a month old, the green dots on the gorget will eventually fill in and turn dark red, they somewhat resemble the Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the Eastern U.S. but are distinguishable from them not just by geographic location but the gorget which is a much darker red and their wings produce a very distinct sound as well that's known as a "wing-trill". This sound is unique to the male and can be heard by other males up to 50 feet away, and up to 75 feet away by females. They spend the summers here in the mountain region of the Western U.S. and migrate to the Yucatan in Mexico, or Guatemala in the fall. Even though the young were born here in the U.S. they travel alone to their wintering spots. The juveniles can be very entertaining when they put on their aerobatics displays, sparring with each other, fighter pilots and their dogfights have nothing on these guys in maneuverability In that regard the dragonflies are the same way as their wings move in a figure eight pattern and our aerospace industry is up to now still unable to imitate that method of flight. A friend of mine in Germany who works for public television actually filmed a variety of dragonflies where the female lays its eggs under water on plants and stays there for up to two hours with their body covered by a thin layer of air. When she emerges she is helped back into the air by the flying male which all the while has to ward off attempts by other males who are vying for their chance to mate. This type of airborne sea rescue truly looks amazing. My favorite dragonfly is the Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellula pulchella) because of its blueish sheen, and the pattern of spots on its wings.

They've already been sold on an individual print basis so I'm not too worried and I usually send them in to be copyrighted once a month in bulk. However, what I post here I don't mind if you print them for yourself since I enjoy the forum, and thought I'd share a bit to give back. The Colorado Greenback Cutthroat is thankfully making a comeback now, had to hike quite a ways to get that photo at the time. You'd be surprised how many photos one can accumulate over 40 years.

I found something in my duckweed! Not a recent shot but from the last time I went to the Houston area in Texas about two years ago to do a shoot of migrating birds. Since we were talking about duckweed.

Until recently I used to earn my bread as a Nature and Wildlife Photographer. So these are all from my portfolio. The flying Blue Darner I previously posted took almost a year and a half to get the technique right to get the shot.

Lots of plants, maybe a root, or two and you won't have any problems with fish eating your baby shrimp. I've previously kept Guppies, Texas Mosquito Fish, and White Clouds in a deck pond and had no problems with mosquitoes, nor dragonflies. In my 75 gallon tank with roots and heavy plant load the Blue Velvet Neocaridina shrimp are multiplying to the point I might have to give some away and that's with Cardinal Tetras, extremely large Rummynose Tetras, and Bolivian Rams which take no notice of them as they literally swim circles around them.

Welcome to the forum @Biotope Biologist! If you are dealing with dragonflies right now you might like this photo I took of a Blue Darner in flight. Enjoy the forum!

Mondo grass sadly gets sold by some fish stores but you are correct it won't last in the aquarium as it is unable to convert to submersed growth. If you want a plant that looks somewhat similar in appearance but will last in the aquarium I'd recommend Helanthium quadricostatus, which used to be known previously as Echinodorus quadricostatus and was referred to as Broadleaf Microsword. It hails from South America, is a plant that's easy to take care of, needs low to medium light, Its leaves reach 3" to 5", and the plant will do really well if you add some root tabs because just like the sword plants into which family it was once grouped it is a heavy root feeder. CO2 isn't necessary but as always the plants will do better with it. It propagates through runners which you can split off and plant. I hope this helps, and I'm sorry you were sold something that won't last.

@Celly RasboraNo sadly my Mom didn't know much about fishkeeping, my next older brother didn't know much about it either, and my oldest brother who knew a lot was about to be drafted. On top of that Mom needed money to cover some of the medical bills and the funeral cost and so she ended up selling the tank including the fish to a lawyer in town who had several big tanks already and kept Angelfish and Discus, she also sold all of the Canaries, we only kept one male that he had raised by hand because his mother had rejected him. I didn't get a tank until I was six, and the fish were Cardinal Tetras.

My earliest fishkeeping memory is also my earliest memory period and goes back to late 1964 when I was two years old. My Dad had come home from work and fed his Angelfish which he kept in a heavily planted 400 Liter, roughly 106 gallon tank that had a steel frame and which my brother later told me my Dad had built himself. He was barefoot, in jeans and a white t-shirt, sitting in his easy chair and smoking his pipe, relaxing, life was good. He died the following year from shrapnel he had received during WWII when his tank had its turret blown off. A piece of shrapnel had traveled to his brain and blocked blood supply, he died in his sleep, My Mom later often told me that keeping fish and raising them, and also breeding Canary birds was his way of dealing with all the ugliness he had experienced during the war.

I agree with lefty o. My tank's lights don't come on early in the morning but around 1p.m.and then run uninterrupted in their cycle for 8 hours, so I can enjoy my tank later in the evening. The 4 on 4 off method works for some, although I've also read some articles that claimed that a consecutive, uninterrupted photo period would be better for plant growth. I tend to agree with those articles as I don't think an abrupt on and off is beneficial, at least not for the fish (however that is opinion, since I haven't conducted studies to that effect) and if you were to have two sunrises and sunsets in that same 8 hour photo period that would actually shorten the amount of your maximum intensity. So yes, just start the lights later in the day so you'll be able to enjoy your aquarium, and get to spend time watching your fish and being able to observe if things are o.k., or need fixing.