xXInkedPhoenixX

Hi there, likelyhood is it's just biofilm/mold/fungus and not harmful just the nature of wood. It eventually goes away on its own.

I'll 🤞

So many great fish!! That's gonna be a super fun tank!!!

@Patrick_G whoops, now saw that he mentioned that the hummingbirds and pollinators love them. But I can vouch for that. My hotlips tho are in a pot so they are a bit starved for water at the end of the day!

Oh and to quote Buzz Lightyear, "do it with style"

My car could not only tow everything that has been mentioned so far, I could probably put at least a couple of them in my trunk. 😂

Awww @Guppysnailbaby snails are especially beautiful little gems.

They're so shiny when they're new....

@Guppysnail you don't have to fill that part in, I stopped a long time ago 😂

I love my Aquarium Note, it's free, you can log parameters, pictures, daily maintenance notes or feedings, track spending, livestock (tells you how old everything is including plants/fish/snails if you put them in, including tanks), and you can have multiple pages, one for each tank. 🙂

That was adorable. Just trying to keep their friend company.

Hi @Brian m, sorry about your platy girl, how distressing. It seems to me to you may be doing the right thing with the small water changes- because she has improved. The Nitrates may have effected her negatively- because those were crazy high. Honestly it appears the rest of your fish seem to be functiong ok from what I can see in your film- if I were in your shoes I would just keep monitoring water quality and observing her for other signs. I might even add some aquarium salt to the tank as a precaution as well. Make sure she poops if you can and that it looks normal. Could be some sort of swim bladder problem if I were to guess it were something else. I wonder why your kh is so high??? I can't get mine above 35. 🙄

Nerite snails are GREAT at algae eating if you're not ready for fish. I started with Otocinclus and I love them. I wouldn't be without either now. But of course once the algae is destroyed you'll have to make sure they have other food. 🙃

@mountaintoppufferkeeper wow, haven't seen those before I wonder if I'm able to get them in my area (I don't want to mail order if I can avoid that- esp since it was 106 today). I love the Rasbora family and they seem to be very similar in size and requirements as the Ember and/or my Betta. On that note, YES, I will absolutely be considering this my BETTA'S tank so if someone isn't going with the program I've come up with alternate plans plans for them- thanks to my currently understocked 20 gallon. I plan on putting quite a few plants for the little ones to hide in and bought a handmade pottery center piece that is perfect for them to also dodge and feel safe (attached pic) @Kilrkitty08 you'll have to let me know how your set up goes too and send pics!

Thanks to work (hehe) took me from the time you posted until now to finish that video but well worth it, thanks for sharing. I think I'm in love with your hairy puffers. Not that they aren't all cool. What a set up you have! You won't have a problem separating them at all!!

So theoretically you're going to have issues if you have all or mostly males. Set up for that?

I'm tall and even I sometimes have issues with my 20 gallon tall tanks so I can see where someone who doesn't have super long arms like me would run into issues. I concur with both @Guppysnail and @Daniel aquascaping tools are super, super handy and an absolute must to have. I didn't realize they came so long though Daniel! That's awesome!!

OR! It's an excuse to add algae eaters!!!!

You're in pioneer territory aren't you? Are they going to get territorial this early in the game? I liked having my billion Otos in the floating breeder in the parent tank as long as I could as they were much easier to keep track of and I felt like keeping them in the environment they were born into was best for them for as long as I was able. I moved them to a bigger breeder when I found more fry, then when they started to get too big for that- this is when I graduated them to the 10 gallon they are all in now. I think if I were in your shoes I'd be more comfortable waiting until they were bigger OR until/unless I found more fry and had to make a move...and unless of course they do show signs of aggression towards each other. How big are they now?

...it does never get old.....BABBBBIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!😍

Oh and beyond all my yammering, @Karen B. that really is a gorgeous tank.

@laritheloud I think co2 is super cool but just not for me- too fiddly, tech, science, failsafes, what if blah blah blah and my mind goes off the path and chases other shiny objects. So I like to admire tanks where other people do it. I don't know about you but I enjoy watching my tanks mature and the plants that grow sloooowwwwlllyyyy so slow I actually don't notice until their HUGE and think "when did that happen?" I enjoy solving the little problems that pop up (as long as nobody dies!!!) like hair algae or water parameter changes- it feels like when you run low tech things don't go south quite as quickly and you have buffer time to react to things. This is of course NOT always true, but I am thinking of things like overdosing ferts, heaters breaking, canisters doing wonky things (yay sponge!), co2 doing whatever it is that can do....

I'm only quoting you because *I'm* not saying it. But this tells me- no- don't do it! Like @laritheloud said, it's not necessarily the solution to the issue. And if I remember correctly @Irene in her video said she was really doing it because she was dissatisfied with the rate of growth in her tank. I run low tech- this means to me, no ferts, no heaters, just lights, fish and plants then whatever they do together produces what I have. Like you I have 2 tanks that run, side by side- used the same stuff to set them up- totally different behaviors. I run my lights from 0845 to 1830 with a moonlight on until 1930 (both tanks) so what, 10 and a half hours on (including the blue light which doesn't really have to be on but, meh). When I let them go full blast THAT'S when I had an algae issue. So I got a dimmer switch (or others say they can program their lights, no sir, not me.) and that helped- now hair algae is rare but I still have algae- thank goodness for Nerites, Otos and a little manual labor. Just a day ago on this forum were discussing a "siesta" (break in the day where the lights go off for a couple hours). So that's one way to battle it (lights). I've also seen where people keep the lights up and dose MORE fertilizer getting their plants to grow and outcompete the algae. Since I don't fert that's not anything I can speak to. How long has your tank been up and running in this case? It seems to me a lot of us go through a period of time where hair algae rears it's head within the first year- people get it dialed in, then usually don't have a problem.

@Patrick_G they ARE both beautiful boys and good pictures!