Aldyrin

I've actually just scaled back the feeding a bit (from once a day to once every other day) to try to control the nitrate levels a bit. Also about to put some more plants in the tank for similar reasons.

Temp is about 77F. I've never really gotten it to eat something I put in the tank on purpose. He's always on the glass pretty much. I have algae wafers. Should I put one in and then put him right on it or something? My livebearers seem to go after the algae wafers pretty quickly. I could get some zucchini I guess but I read somewhere that it wasn't really nutritious. There's lots of algae for him to eat on the glass at the moment.

My Mystery snail has been kind of lethargic lately. Some floating at the top, He was on a mission to eat all the algae ever since I got him, but now I don't really see him move. I just notice he is in a different spot every once in a while. Not sure if he is repositioning on his own or not. I poked his shell a bit earlier today (when he was at the bottom of the tank) and it seemed like he retracted a bit. He is floating now this evening (when I took the pictures). I'm a little worried he may have "Mantle Collapse" from some reading online, but I was hoping someone else could take a look at the pictures and let me know what they think. Sorry, I'm not sure why one of them is upside down. I can't fix it for some reason. The snail is floating with the shell pointing up. I'm pretty new to the hobby... My 20g high tank is around 3 months old now, I think. It is planted and everyone is pretty healthy except for the snail. I have a Nerite snail in the same tank which has always been pretty lazy seemingly, but he is still kicking, seems like. He also I tested the water and the only thing that some could consider to be out of range would be the nitrates, which were at 20ppm. I've done a couple 30% water changes since then over a few days, and got the nitrates down to 10ppm. Somewhat of an aside: I'm hesitant to do big water changes since it can cause big pH swings for me. Out of the tap, my water is close to 7, but if I let it sit in a bowl for a few days it climbs to 8-8.2, which is where my tank sits most of the time. Here's the parameters I have on hand. I haven't tested my KH/GH in a while, but last time I did they came up very hard. pH: 8.2 Nitrates: 10ppm Hardness: Very hard Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 KH/Buffer: Very hard Water Temperature: 76F I've never tested for copper. I have some shrimp in this same tank that seem fine. Suggestions? Is this just normal and I should leave the poor snail alone?

So I measured my tap water parameters last night and they are going to change my stocking options since I don't want to have to deal with RO/DI water or chemically assisted water changes for our first tank. I got the following: pH: 6.8 to 6.9 dKH: ~12.5 dGH: ~16.5 Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite: 0 ppm Nitrate: ~2.5ppm So most of the tetras, etc are out since they aren't meant for water this hard. I did a little research and I'm thinking about something along these lines due to the harder water: 6 x cherry barbs (1:2 male to female ratio) 1 x platy (male) 3 x endlers or fancy guppies (male) 4 x panda corydoras (since they stick to the bottom unlike the pygmys) 4 x cherry shrimp or 2 x amano shrimp And a few snails maybe... I went with males for the platys and endlers/guppies since I don't want to have to deal with a bunch of fry. I'm a little worried about shrimp fry too, so I'm leaning more towards the amanos since they can't reproduce in fresh water. The cherry barbs are supposed to be good for hard water. I've seen some posts saying they don't get along with guppies, but a lot of other posts saying they are fine... Some of these fish are a little outside the preferred parameters for my water, but anecdotal forum posts I've seen seem to indicate it would be OK. Thoughts on this alternate hard water setup would be appreciated. Any obvious issues or beginner unfriendly? Thanks in advance!

So is the gravel easier to grow plants in than sand? Is it just a weight/root retention thing? I'm good with the idea (need to make sure to use non-sharp gravel, I guess). I was kind of on the fence about the zebra danios... I've seen them on "tank mates" lists for the other fish I have in the plan, but like you say, they are more active. I thought a little excitement would be good for a kid tank... I first looked at them since they are so hardy they are supposed to be good for beginners (like livebearers). One of my co-workers said neon tetras just kind of hang around and can be kind of boring, so that was why I though the danios would be nice. Is there a more middle-active option that you wouldn't be as concerned about outcompeting? I had looked at the endler's livebearers as another potential stocking option, but they seem to need way harder water (10-30 KH) than all the other fish on my list. Maybe I'm putting too much stock in the numbers in these online care guides... Would going with panda corys be better than pygmy corys considering compatibility with zebra danios? If the pygmy corys are overly timid even in a group of 5, I might want to go with a different option...

Thanks for all the feedback. My plan was to put the zebra danios in after cycling first. Regarding the nerite snails... I was leaning towards nerites since I read somewhere they are supposed to be better at removing algae than the other snails, and don't breed in freshwater. I guess if when I get to the step where I plan to add the snails/shrimp (just before the gourami), I don't have a lot of algae, I can re-evaluate. Based on what I'm reading, Mystery snails need water hardness (12-18) and pH (7.6-8.4) that are higher than my range above, which seems like it could be an issue. I'm an engineer, so I tend to pay attention to the numbers... Do the other fish eat the nerite snail eggs, or does everyone just clean them off the glass themselves? Edit: Our water is pretty hard here, although I have a weird citrus based water softener that I'm not sure how it will affect things. I may end up having to use a different water source (or heavily condition the tap water) for my tank, which would be a pain. Will see once I get those test strips.

Hello all, My son (6yo) has become really interested in keeping fish, so I've been researching a lot/watching youtube videos, etc. I'm new to the hobby too, aside from the research I've done. I've purchased a 20 gallon high tank to go in his bedroom, and was hoping I could get some feedback on what I've tentatively come up with. Already got a sponge filter and air pump. I'm planning on having a co-worker run it in their tank for a few weeks to get some bacteria started in it so I can hopefully jump start my tank cycling. First of all, this does not conform to the 1 inch per gallon rule... It is more congested than that, which has me a bit worried about it possibly requiring more periodic maintenance than desired. I'm hoping to get away with water changes/etc once weekly or less once the tank is fully established. I wanted the tank to be kind of exciting/interesting for my son, so I'm thinking a community fish tank with a "centerpiece" fish. 6 x neon tetra 6 x zebra danio 1 x honey gourami (male) 5 x pygmy corydora 3 x amano shrimp 2 x nerite snails Does this sound reasonable, or should I take some things out to reduce the bioload? I'm thinking about putting some plants in too, although I don't have those selected yet. When looking at the different inhabitants required water parameters, I came up with using this spreadsheet I threw together. The pH window seems kind of tight. I'm not sure how hard it is to regulate pH. Any insight you could provide on this would be helpful. I haven't tested my tap water yet... I ordered some master test kits for that last week that haven't come in yet. Temp Min (F) Temp Max (F) KH Min KH Max pH Min pH Max Water Parameters 72 77 6 8 7 7.5 Originally, I was thinking about getting silvertip tetras instead of the neon tetras and zebra danios due to their neat behavior where they will kind of swarm to your fingers when you put them on the glass, but I was deterred by what I was reading about possible nipping/aggressiveness. For substrate, I'm thinking about sand due to the corydoras. I guess I would need to supplement that with root tabs when I start planting. Thoughts and opinions are appreciated!