Gideyon

I appreciate the feedback. And I agree this wasn't well throughout when the previous owners built out the basement. I ordered some crows feet wrenches. Maybe that'll help. Never heard of it until I searched for a solution.

My shutoff valve for my outside faucets is leaking. I likely need to tighten the packing nut. However, the space I have to work with is really small. I can't get a wrench in here. I don't have a basin wrench but I know this is too small a space for that too. The nut is really close to a piece of wood which makes it harder to access. Any ideas on what kind of tool I could use? This is a small panel in a basement wall.

Those brown spots are algae?

Ok. That's a relief. The invincible rotala died in here. Micro sword is struggling. So I went with the anubias. It's been a month

I'm new to plants and I'm terrible at it. Is this anubias dying? What concerns me are the spots on the leaves, and that one leaf in the middle that looks like it's crumpling and turning yellow. Low light. No ferts.

I vacuumed up as much debris from the dead plants as I could. And I caved in an got an anubias. And a betta. I tried gluing the plant to the rock but it didn't hold. So I stuck it between two rocks and stuffed the gap with moss balls. Maybe the microswords will survive. I really wanted root feeders for some reason.

This looks beyond melting.... This means this tank is worse than a toilet bowl.

How long does the melting last? Seems like the swords that were doing really well are now struggling too. I might have to succumb to getting a liquid fertilizer. Rotala was one of those plants one person said you could grow in a toilet. And I can't seem to grow it in a tank.

I saw it from one of my favorite/trusted fish tubers who shall remain nameless. I wanted to try it with my former betta in a 10g, but then my betta became the former. It's on my list of possibilities if I decide to resurrect my 10g.

Not from experience, but I've learned that a ember tetras work well with bettas. Not sure of water parameters.

Well the reason why I did the big water change was because I was getting ready to do a fish-in, but plans changed. So I'm going to try this until we (the kids) are ready to go to the petstore again.

I'm trying again, based on your advice, and just added 4 drops of ammonia and a couple of "shakes" of bug bites. I don't like the idea of using expensive (for me) fish food with no fish, but it's all I had, and I read it may have other things beneficial to bacteria growth. So I just need to remember to feed the tank daily. We'll see what happens.

no diatoms

FYI... I did a near 100% water change (down to the substrate level) followed by a 50% change, and after a day, all diatoms in the gravel are gone.

Am I losing these plants (rotala) or is this normal?