anewbie

Did a minor update to the 5. Fixed the banana plant leaf after the picture but since I have some new plants to add to this tank later in the week i'll provide a new picture then for now here is what we have. The dwarf sag actually grows fairly well in this tank and i threw most of it away but kept a little. I've decided I dislike dwarf sag so not sure how long the stuff in there will last. I should move a couple of echinodorus parviflorus over from my 40 and I think i will when the other plants arrive. So this is what we have today (which is an improvement from the picture above) but won't be as nice as the next picture:

For smaller tanks I'm partial to echinodorus parviflorus 'tropica' (a lovely but very small sword plant) as well as pinto and golden nana anubia. For a bit of colour (but hard to grow) there is alternanthera reineckii mini and some of the smaller crypts. I used to like floaters but i've now decided they have no place in a small tank.

I've always been partial to rams - specifically colour morph gold rams. Some of the apisto are nice though I have a dislike for cockatoo but gold rams are my pick. The thing is that there are 100's if not 1000's of dwarf cichlid and my experience is some what limited. So many species i don't really know much about... and some of the less common apisto like woof are well ... eye catching. Another dwarf cichlid i have experience with that i like a lot are nijjensi. Nijjensj are very nice indeed and a loyal pair they make.

Which species is this? It looks like an apisto but i'm lousy at id'ing them...

It is not leaking through a scratch in the bottom. It is most likely leaking where it joins the side and will need new silicon. You can try simply adding more silicon but the proper way is to remove the old silicon and then add new silicon (there are video on the web). It is possible you scrape the silicon on the side or the tank was not properly constructed. I had an aqueon spontaneously spring a leak before (and no i did not scrape the bottom as i had 2 inches of substrate). It was a 29 and rather than mess with redoing the silicon i just grabbed a new one since the dollar sale was on going. The tank was only a year old but aqueon didn't want to bother honoring the warranty.

So my 5 gallon tank needed some tender loving care. The substrate was a bad choice and i realize it would need replacement (and this is why not to use ultra fine substrate or at least this ultra fine substrate); this substrate was extremely toxic killing shrimp, snails and all but one of the neon tetra. The ember seem more hardy. Anyway i tossed most of the floaters including a giant water lettuce and a few of the mystery snails (really hate these things - given away more than a 100 of them the past 6 months but they seem endless and i'm getting tired of mailing them). Anyway with all the headache the boca had an extremely large clean root system (much larger than i expected of a stem plant); sadly the pinto anubia had mostly rotted but a small piece might recover. The golden anubia was dong well and had developed a root system 4 times the size of the plant (most of my anubia don't develop strong root systems). The dwarf sag had actually been growing but i hate that plant still i kept a few pieces. Sadly the 3 sword plants all had black roots and were pretty much rotting so 2 of them got tossed but one might recover. Oh well gotta run can't be late. Here is the before picture Here is the after picture Here are my banana plant roots (they were over 12 inches long but turning black). This new substrate is fairly fine but so far in my 29 has proven to be porous and not develop pockets of anaerobic bacteria that leach back into the tank killing everything. This is mostly a test and we will run this tank for 9 to 11 months and see how it does. Sadly i had a hard stop as i had to meet someone so i will let it sit for a week or so then clean up the landscape.

This tank is 2 years old and I keep it at 78 degree; I get a little algae but nothing too bad: Anyway i think it has been well establish in this thread that the temp bit causing algae is probably not accurate; I probably 'scrape' the glass once every 8 or 10 months. My live bearer tank is bit better since them swordtails and guppies eat algae. It looks a bit bare but there are actually around 14 fishes in there - see how many you can find 😉

I'm curious did you get any females or just males ?

The fluval is substantially stronger (more than double the par); and is water proof (ip67) and has a 3 year warranty. However the finnex is approx 1/3 to 1/5 the price depending on size. A lot depends on your tank depth, high-tech or low-tech and type of plants you wish to grow. Most of the tank you listed are rather shallow (12 inch high) and pretty much any of the cheap lights should be sufficient the taller tank might benefit from the fluval depending on specific plants (nana anubia will not benefit but purple aflame will demand a brighter light) and if you use co2 injection. There is no one size fit all. Btw the fluval requires the usage of an app on a smart phone. On the one hand the app will handle all units on the other if you don't have a smartphone with blue-tooth (can you find a model without bluetooth?) forget the fluval.

The 24-34 model won't fit. I own a 40B. The 24-34 model is good for a 29 gallon tank.

Fyi: They have a hanging kit if you want to raise it off the tank.

Before you spend your coins you should indicate the depth of your tank as well as if you will be low-tech or hi-tech. I'm not sure you know what the terms mean as you said you would be med-tech. low-tech/hi-tech with regards to a planted tank refers to if you will have co2 injection. If your tank is a 20 long (12 inches high) and you will have anubia and java fern i'd go with the 957 mentioned above and save $150. If you have one of those odd shaped tanks that is 20 inches high and will be growing rotala h'ra and other red plants then i'd consider the wrgb 2. It all comes down to picking the right tool for your needs not picking the tool mentioned most often after all a flat head screw-driver might end up stripping a philip screw.

Depends on a lot of factors. My tanks mostly have fluval 3.0 and wrgb 2. I have one tank with onf flat. So I think you have to answer some questions to judge what works: First how deep is your tank. For example a 20 long, which is 12 inches high, is pretty shallow while a 29 is a bit taller. Second what sort of plants are you going to be planting. For example a nana anubia any light will pretty much work but a purple aflame will definitely want a stronger full spectrum light. Third is your tank low tech or high tech. Fourth just how much are you willing to spend...

Today i did the normal water change on the 120,29,29. Also mucked with the 5 which i mostly leave alone. Last but least I took a picture of the 40b. Why i don't know but well i was getting annoyed. You see the 40B a few pieces of h'ra rotala broke off and has been floating around the tank - and well you know I think it is a bit ill because it turned deep red. Oh well not sure how to treat a sunburn plant. The picture actually shows two red plants - h'ra rotala and Limnophila Hippuroides. The first picture is from the side and the second one is from the top.

pinto is not bad - i have a few of those but i also like (name might be wrong) anubia barteri var. glabra ; it looks a bit like crypt parva but has a rhizome as well as afzelii and for the colour nana golden is quite nice also. There are many many anubia out there and i'm sure there are others with interesting leaves i've yet to discover. I'm not a super big fan of anubia coffeefolia - i have several of them and they get very very large over time...

Normally nothing explicit; they always seem to find enough food. If they don't then they become more assertive in search for food in which case then I drop in a few pellets. I have 7 in one 29 and 8 in another 29 and a dozen or so in my 120. Tidbit there are about 4 species commonly sold as kuhli.

The first plant is a bacopa; if caroliniana it will turn a bit orange/red if expose to high light.

The only time i see an angel aggressive during feeding time is if it is really hungry. Btw hungry clown loaches will also be quite aggressive. Anyway is it possible the fish is under fed ?

Would be a 2000+ mile trip. Since i normally walk to places it would take several months - the sad thing is i'm not sure the fishes would make it home during the return trip.... at least they would be well qt'ed 😉

I doubt it is genetic as suggested above. Have the wrigglers become free swimming or at what point do they die? Also do not feed them until they have been free swimming for about 12 hours. I.e, you say they die but at what point do they die? Also do you have the ziss box hookup to an airtube to keep the water circulating?

It might not be genetic it might be an injury when it was very young....

Actually it is a genus of plants and there are different species in the genus. The different species have different looks (leaves shape; colour; height and 'bushy' ness). There are red flame swords; melon swords; pygmy swords; ..... when you look at them on the web you have to be careful because some are shown in submersed form and other in emersed form so the actual look in your tank will differ. An example is queen marble sword - this plant has a very different look emersed than submersed.

It is common but there are smaller sword plants. A couple that i like are echinodorus parviflorus 'tropica' (1-3 inch) and echinodorus sp. Kleiner prinz (5-8 inch) (not to be confused with kleiner bar a different plant); but there are ton others. Also be aware the swords have a submerged form and emersed form so when they grow out of the water the leaves will look very different. This can at time be confusing as many plants are shipped in emersed form. Many shops grow their plants emersed since they grow faster. It is common to ship them with emersed leaves - when planted underwater the leaves will slowly die off (can take months) as the plant generate submersed leaves.

co2art sells nice regulators and diffusers as well as tubing. I'd buy one of their kits - i prefer the in tank diffusers rather than inline model. I also prefer to use a ph pen from amazon for setting the amount of gas that flows (you want a chnage of less than 1). You will also need a 10lb co2 canister - your local welding shop tends to be the best place for buying those as well as refilling them but a bit depends on your locality.

But I answered that. Are they eating what is available in the wild because it is optimal or because that is the only thing i can find to eat ?