Plutoids Mom

I guess I should have said that I'm trying to figure out how to replicate the outdoor conditions indoors without knowing what the nutrient levels were or other unknowns that were making it so happy outside. I also am not sure how much lighting I would need to make the tank "full sun". I should preface all of this with: I'm doing a horrible job balancing my current planted tank, so I won't be actually trying to change anything unless I ever get a handle on things. Just looking for info for future goals 😄

My Vallisneria americana was turning my tank into a thick jungle this summer so I thinned it out. Of course, the gardener in me couldn't just throw away good plants, so I planted a few in my water lily pot outside. The val loved it! Ended up with a gorgeous red tint. I just discovered a flower bud coming up today after I pulled them out of the pot which has been moved to the garage for winter. Has anyone had val turn red and bloom in their aquarium? I was wondering what it might take to replicate the outdoor conditions in the tank. I did nothing special to it regarding fertilizer, but it was in full sun and had natural temp fluctuations.

Thanks! I feel bad for them because they appear to do everything right: guard the eggs (without being too much of a pain to everyone else), fan the eggs, and remove the ones that go bad. I don't have any setup to take care of fry if they make it past the egg stage.

My angelfish pair have tried to spawn for the second time in my community tank. None of the eggs were viable, thinking it could be due to my high pH and hard water. The male has now started harassing the female horribly this morning after this second batch went completely bad. They've always got along, so will he eventually accept her again? I'm not actually trying to breed them, but should I try to change the tank conditions so the eggs have a better chance and they get to be parents?

Bettas actually do need a heater, filter, and more than a few cups of water. Also, tanks take longer than 24 hours to cycle.

My kids (2 and 4) love my angelfish, so I second or third that motion. The fish come to the front of the tank and will follow the kids' fingers.

An aquarium themed quilt would be so much fun! If I ever get quilting time again (ha!), that would be something for the next project.

@ColuGiven the other problems (lost all of my barbs a few months ago) I've had with this tank, would you possibly suspect mycobacterium as an underlying cause? I had to pull out my female gourami last week to treat fin rot, which she's healing. Just wondering if I should get a UV sterilizer in the near future. All test readings are still 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10 nitrate, with 25% weekly water changes.

I just spotted divots today on my angelfish. They are only on one side of it's head, right behind it's eye. Is this Hole in the Head disease? It is eating and behaving normally.

She looks pregnant to me. Here is a couple of shots of my platy that is currently pregnant. You can see the dark spot of fry towards the back of her abdomen.

@Jungle Fan I used to work for a garden center and landscaping company and love having the hummingbirds come to the yard. I manage to get one or two to hang out starting in spring, but I end up with a few more in August when they start thinking about going south. To add to the hummingbird list, in my sandy Indiana yard, I've actually had really good luck with Windwalker Royal Red salvia, probably the only red salvia that will handle my wet winters. My biggest surprise this year has been that I accidentally got Black and Blue salvia to overwinter, even though I'm Zone 5 and it needs Zone 7. The miracles of oak leaves in garbage bags! Those two plants are heavily guarded by my resident hummer.

I was waiting to reply to see if I was making any progress with all your suggestions. So far, it hasn't gotten better, BUT it isn't getting worse. @Fish Folk I have left the light level alone, but I did go back to my original fertilizing schedule and made sure to have the right amount of Nitrate. This is my first time really having to work at balancing a planted tank, so I was just trying out the most common solutions lol. I didn't block off the blue lights because they aren't in a nice row that would be easy to do. I did stumble on another post you replied to that had a link to some info on algae. It mentioned too much iron as one possible cause. I haven't gotten an iron test kit yet, but my well water is very high in iron. I've changed my ratio of well water to RO water when I do water changes to see if that helps. Went from 66/33 to 50/50. @Koi I had never thought of poor water circulation as causing algae. I added an air stone to the other corner last week, and my cypts are loving it! They grew overnight the first day I put it in, I swear. I'm also suspecting my overpopulation of platy babies is contributing to my problems, so I'm trying to patiently wait it out until they are big enough to either take to the LFS or put in the 75 gallon.

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I do! It goes on all the flowers, and I almost wish I had more fish water for the plants lol.

I like groups of tetras in my 75 gallon. Lemon and black skirts are my go-to fish. I also have hard water and a pH of 8.2.

My garden is having a bad year. My current highlights are the Lucifer Crocosmia, which is marginally hardy here. Not only is it repeatedly surviving winter, but the clump has also gotten huge. @Daniel That is my only thriving coneflower this year. Extremely jealous of your patch. 😄 Then, the Rudbeckia maxima is another high point, which just keeps getting more impressive every year. It is supposed to be surrounded by tall phlox, so it looks like a bit of a lone soldier. I foresee a garden redo coming next year. Lastly, I can always count on my butterfly weed to look nice. I'm trying Plains Oval sedge around it to fill in some gaps. So far, pleased with it.

My female gets irritated at my congo tetras every once in a while and chases them around. No damage ever occurs, so I'm not worried. I find it amusing since she is still smaller then the tetras but tries to boss them around anyway. Plus it's just the males that bother her, not the females lol.

My planted 20L has been up and running since beginning of March. I've got a trident java fern that melted back end of April, corkscrew val that is going nuts, a crypt wendtii, crypt balansae, and an anubias golden that are growing well, a hygrophila araguaia that has been trying but not thriving, and a dwarf aquarium lily that has been doing great until recently. I'm dosing twice a week with 3 pumps of Easy Green and potassium. Lights are on 4 hours in morning and 4 hours in evening. PH is 8.0, GH and KH are around 200 ppm. I have 2 adult platies and more than I can count platy babies in there at the moment. About 5 weeks ago, I spotted some hair algae growing on the hygrophila. It has been spreading and getting worse ever since, even with manually removing what I can every week. I've reduced the lights about 3 weeks ago by 1/2 hour and am giving an extra pump of Easy Green each feeding since my nitrates were down around 5-10 (assuming val was eating it up). Picture of hair algae in tank isn't the best. My dwarf aquarium lily in the last two weeks has started to fall apart (I guess that is the best way to describe it). Huge chunks of the leaves are breaking off. Today, I found three leaves still on it that were growing crinkled instead of smooth. I'm not sure if the hair algae and the lily collapsing is a deficiency or something else. Does anyone have any ideas?

I use 5 gallon buckets to bring well water in and to take the dirty stuff out to the garden. My thoughtful husband splurged on a bucket lid that screws on, instead of a snap on one. No more splashing buckets!

I'm from NW Indiana. I know of four LFS in a one hour radius of me. They all have a mix of freshwater and saltwater, but lean towards freshwater.

The test strips are pinkish purple (off the chart) for my GH, and the liquid test puts my water at 380 ppm. So they both match up in my experience.

My LFS was out of Paracleanse. They suggested I try Furan-2 and Nox-Ich. The gold barb has now died. I gave the rosy barb the Nox-Ich since he is in the quarantine tank and has symptoms. Going to try another LFS tomorrow for the Paracleanse.

All of the fish have full bellies, and I haven't seen any white stringy poop. The gold barb flashed a couple of times yesterday, but no one else is currently doing it that I've seen. The rosy barb had done that in the past every once in a while.

No, I haven't. Just bacterial meds. Paracleanse is the recommended med? And the whole tank should get it?

When to pull healthy fish from quarantine? - Diseases - C.A.R.E. (aquariumcoop.com) As a depressing continuation from the other thread, something is going through my 75 gallon. Tank's history: Has been setup and running for almost 6 years. Added last fish 3 months ago. In March, swapped out the Fluval 405 for a Seachem 75 because my angle fish liked to sleep under the intake and it was really hard to maintain. I let the new filter run for two weeks in the tank before I turned off the Fluval. First fish, pearl gourami, died on April 4. Had mystery lump on one side for about a month that got bigger or smaller depending on the day. Five fish, gold barbs, became sick, swimming nose down, on April 8 and last of those died off on April 20. Were in a quarantine tank the whole time. Treated with Kanaplex and then Maracyn. Rosy barb started swimming in circles and slightly U shaped spine yesterday, April 22. Moved to quarantine tank and added salt. In really bad shape, so decided to not use existing meds in case I need them for main tank. Added salt to the main tank at 1 tablespoon to 2 gallons last night. One black skirt tetra is having trouble swimming upwards this morning, but still eats with relish. Current occupants as of this morning: 1 pearl gourami 1 gold barb 1 angel fish 6 skirt tetras 6 congo tetras no plants or invertebrates Parameters: Ph 8.2 Ammonia 0 Nitrites 0 Nitrates 10 Temp 76 Do weekly 25% water changes with 3/4 water from residential water softer, 1/4 well water. Since Kanaplex and Maracyn didn't make a dent in the gold barbs that died, should I even treat the whole 75 gallon with meds? Keep pulling the sick fish into the quarantine tank? Wait and watch my invisible train wreck of a tank?