Nanci B

I hope this is where questions go. As some you might know, my tank is completely overwhelmed by different types of algae. I want to try the RR process to kill the staghorn. Any others will be a bonus. Lol I would like to remove all the plants and do them all at one time, so then it will be as if I am re-aquascaping the tank. Currently there isn’t any hardscape in the tank. Just some nano fish. Will it affect the tank or the fish in a negative way to remove all the plants at once? I have about 15 crypts, some anubias, and just a few stem plants. I also have about 20 new plants to plant that are floating. I am going to examine them for any algae, but suspect they are fine. TIA

I agree with @anitstuk My 75 was overrun with ramshorn snails and it appeared they were eating healthy plant parts and I declared war. I got several assassin snails and it took a few months, but the ramshorns are finally gone. Now I need to find a home for the assassins. However I will say, that I am going to get a male nerite snail and some mystery snails because my algae started getting out of control after the snails were killed. But those look like bladder snails (ick) and they are awful. They eat healthy plants. Whereas, ramshorn snails are not supposed to. Just my opinion. If I didn’t get the ID right—please someone chime in. Let’s see some pictures of your 20long. I love that tank size, but my absolute favorite is a 40 breeder. Talk about great for aquascaping!

I am so sorry for your guppy experiment went bad. You probably already thought of this, but do you have a local aquarium club? Maybe the other members could help you out with your guppy problem. If not, I would place a free ad on the classified pages. Sometimes if people read: FREE, they will come get every last one.

@Streetwise Ok I found your post and I have questions about your setting for the 15-20g. The name of tank is bowfront long 3.0.4 Is this your largest tank? so I see your sunrise from 7-9a Then 9a I guess start of daylight( 9-11?) then from 11-14:00 0% —- is this your 1st siesta? at 14:00 lights on until 16:00-19:00 0% Second Siesta? 19:00-21:00 lights on at 21:00 basically off at 22:00-7:00a night Question—I see your lights are at 50% do you think that is a good idea for my plants with a tank depth of 21” ? Question—I am curious about your lights being on for only 6 hours?? Why such a short period and what type of plants do you have? Thanks!

@Streetwise @JoeQ I will dig in this thread for your schedule. I know it’s in the early part of the thread. My tank is a 75g.

@Streetwise @joeQ what I meant to say is any thoughts on what times I should use to continue to let plants grow, decrease algae (I am going to remove all plants to put through RR) and have lights on from 5-11p? Is it better to have lights reduced for a longer period of time or have lights at full intensity for shorter amount of time? I am going to rewatch Benson’s YouTube videos again. (I hope that’s his correct name) ideas? I really appreciate everyone’s help 😊

@Streetwise , @JoeQ: Any thoughts on how I should set up the actual time periods?

@Mmiller2001 you will my hero award for today! 🪷🪷🪷

@Mmiller2001 thanks so much! That sounds like a much better option for me and my fish. I just need to get a syringe now.

I am so sorry this post is very, very long—but lots of problems and backstory. Have had the Fluval Planted 3.0 on my 75 gallon for approximately 2-3 months and at first the auto setting was weird. I am using my poor memory so if this sounds weird I am probably not remembering correctly. so at first auto setting ( don’t remember sunrise) daylight came on around 7-8. Stayed on till around 4-5 and then went into sunset and then night. That’s 9 hours, but my plants were doing poorly and I am a night person, so this was totally unworkable. I fiddled around with the app and frankly did something funky. I was trying to adjust the lighting schedule. then I found this thread and did watch Benson’s YouTube videos, but I was not understanding completely. I couldn’t figure out how to adjust the lighting. And then I came across I think @Streetwise mention of a siesta and wanted to do that since it sounded like it would be better for my life. And the double siesta sounded perfect. In the meantime, I somehow adjusted the lights in the auto setting to a very long light period. It’s been this way for probably 2-3 weeks. And that was the beginning of my huge algae issue. I already had a problem, but the bga went insane and the staghorn became twice as bad. And the crazy thing is I have so many plants to plant. They are floating in my tank right now. I knew I had a big problem, but I have several different health issues to the point that I am on disability and there are many days I don’t leave my bed except for the bare necessaries. I only mention this because it definitely interferes with maintenance of my tank. It also interferes with checking email, fb, and this forum. So even though I need to post, I usually don’t feel well enough to do so. (I wish I could just beam my thoughts up to the forum and you guys would know what I was dealing with. 😂) I do check water parameters and feed the fish, vacuum occasionally and usually only top off water due to water parameters remaining stable. Plants growing well, I use easy green. But of course after this crazy light change, the tank went nuts. Plants growing well but algae was getting worse. so back to changing the lights. what I am thinking is setting up a schedule (still need directions on how to) I still think the plants need 8 hours of light: not sure how to set up because the only important part is that I need to have the tank on from 5-11. That’s 6 hours. how the heck can I set up 2 siestas, in addition to sunrise and sunset? I don’t mean to come across as a dunce, but I am clueless. To make things extra tricky, is that the tank is located in a room with natural light (only place for tank) and that was the beginning of the bga in my substrate to the south. I finally blocked that off with a black poster board. So I’m not sure if the natural light will affect the siestas? So anyone want to chime in on what my light schedule should or could look like with the only parameter of tank light on from 5-11pm and needs to be on long enough to so my plants continue to grow. (I also just read the post about RR and think I need to help my plants with that technique) please help before my tank disappears under the algae and my fish and plants are smothered to death. 😱 Many thanks 🙏🏻 🪷

Need pictures!! 😂 please

I read Aquarium Co-Op article on using Maracyn to treat bga. However since this is an antibiotic and I will need to use a huge amount every time to treat 7.5 packets (should I just use 8 and call it good?) and I will undoubtedly need to apply several treatments, I am concerned about how such a massive amount of an antibiotic will effect the fish. I have nano fish so tiny bodies being exposed to all those antibiotics over and over again. Will this kill my fish? I don’t have another tank running.

Unfortunately not, these shrimp have the same type of reproduction needs as Amano shrimp, so no colony for me unless I buy more.

All went well. They are doing just fine. On a side note, some of these shrimp are eating black beard algae, but not touching the blue green algae. But I just looked at the notes on the algae identification page and evidently I can use a medication to assist with that. I should have gotten more shrimp. Now I wish I had gotten 20, instead of 10.

Thanks @nabokovfan87 @lefty o @mountaintoppufferkeeper (live link didn’t work?) After about 30 minutes just in the bag they warmed up pretty quickly. I finally just dumped them into a container and netted them out and put them in the tank from algae hell. we shall see what happens.

Thank you. I did watch this video, but although there is a breather bag pictured next to the regular plastic one, he actually doesn’t go through the steps for the breather bag specifically. I did see a different video that directed you to pour the whole breather bag into a separate container and then float that container in the tank itself. So I am off to look for some type of container that I can do this with. I really appreciate your help!

Hi everyone! hope you and your fish are keeping cool these days. I just got an order of shrimp (safe and sound), but I don’t know how to get the breather bag to somewhat match the tank temp. Currently, the breather bag is 4 degrees cooler than the tank. I have always used the plop and drop method of putting fish/shrimp in my tank, but these are short nose shrimp and this company is the only place I could find them. So how do I do this? Thanks in advance! Nanci and the shortys

Hi everyone! I have been working on my new 75g since February. I used media and my sponge filter from my 20 long. At first, I didn’t really have any algae except some green hair algae on my sponge filter which was from my old tank. This is my only tank and it is in my living room where it receives a lot of natural sunlight. This is the only place it could go, so I have to find a work around. The tank is along an outside wall, on the east side of the house. The only side of the tank that is getting direct sunlight is on a short end facing south. The rest of the room is pretty sunny, so lots of indirect light on the front of the tank. From the beginning all my plants didn’t have any problems with the move and just kept on growing. Due to this, I felt that the tank was doing well and out competing the algae. But I only had one sponge filter (I took down a large HOB due to spouse complaints) so there were dead spots with no water movement. I rearranged some wood and plants and have been adding more plants, but there is a long way to go. I changed the location of my sponge filter to the center back of the tank and placed my aquarium co-op powerhead at the far left on the front of the tank. It does create a nice circular water flow, so that is much better. I still have a lot of algae, mulm, and detritus at the base of most of my plants, and sediment on my plant leaves. I put assassin snails in my tank because I had so many snails and they were eating my water lilies that were not planted yet. Now only a few snails left. I am planning on buying some shrimp to help with clean up, but I need to know what to do now. I did the wait and see approach and that didn’t seem to work. I did finally get a black board to block the direct south sunlight. Last but not least I noticed I have some blue-green algae deep in my substrate that is up against the glass. I haven’t disturbed it. I know I need more plants, and most likely stem plants. My favorites are my crypts and I am building my anubias collection. (I do realize that these grow slowly). I also just got my Fluval 3.0 light set up, but that needs fine tuning. I need to re-read the informational long thread about setting up 2 siestas for my tank. The tank is very lightly stocked, but I will be adding more of the same fish to have large schools of nano fish. Currently there are 6 chili rasboras, 6 green neon tetras, and 6 Pygmy corys. I definitely overfeed the fish, because it is hard to know when everyone has eaten. I also tend to use more than one type of food each time because of the different areas they each eat. There are days I don’t feed them at all. I like to leave some algae on the walls to give these guys something to nibble on. I think that covers my algae issues. Any ideas on how to slowly mitigate these issues? I am uploading a video that shows the current state of the tank. I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my long post, and suggest possibly fixes

🤩 Thanks Zenzo, I am trying to remember to search the forum before asking a question that might have already been discussed, but I really appreciate the reminder about searching the blog! Nanci ”Seek Beauty Every Day” @Anon This is a great idea! Not sure if the blog articles already have tags like we can add on our posts on the forum, (out and about so not easy to check right now), but maybe members who read articles can suggest tags that make sense to them and admin fold can review to make sure they would be helpful to other forum members. That way both members and administrators would share the work and not put the burden all on them. And future blog posts can have searchable tags set up as the blog is written and posted. Awesome concept! Thanks! Nanci ”Seek Beauty Every Day”

Umm folks, I just found the answer to my own question. 🙄 So, for anyone else wondering how to link your account, log in to your Aquarium Co-Op online store account and under your account, click on account details and scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Sync with YouTube. That’s all! 🙃 Have fun shopping!

Hello folks, Its been a busy time lately with a new puppy, so less time for my aquarium. I missed some membership only live streams, and did a search here with no answers. So, before I make a decent online order, does anyone know how to link your membership to your account? Thanks, Nanci

I am sorry about your fish. That's really sad. I hope your survivors continue to do well. Not that you could have predicted this, but I heard somewhere that if it's a big tank 55 and up to put in two heaters. Any opinions?

I have never wanted live bearers. Guppies, the females are ugly IMO, but I have heard there are some that are pretty. I am not interested in breeding at this point, but we'll see. And I have not seen the appeal of mollies, platies, and goldfish. Although the wild type swordtail looks amazing! So live bearers in general do not have much appeal due to the looks, and dealing with all the babies. But you never know.

Thanks!

@Patrick_G what are the names of the plants growing out of your 11 cube tank on the right side? I love your tanks!