Torrey

@Josh congratulations on the anniversary and the growing family! Having a kid on the way is a great reason to keep at least one tank going. Lots of research showing links between kids growing up with tanks in the home and the kids growing up into more responsible adults with better grasps of science and ecology. Fish are great for teaching science (especially genetics) too. I am going to throw a little bit of a monkey wrench in to some of the suggestions. I don't think nitrates of 80 ppm are too high for the tank you have right now. In fact, with an 11 hour, uninterrupted photo period, I am willing to bet that the extended photo period is the only reason you have 80 ppm nitrates. I second the recommendation for a thicker, deeper substrate. Your khuli loaches will thank you just like your plants will. You can utilize your khuli loaches to help spread out the new substrate, if you want. I have added well rinsed substrate two different ways to an established tank: 1. Catch fish and move to a bucket with a sponge filter, drain majority of tank water, add substrate, adjust the scape, refill tank with dechlorinated water and half the old tank water, run filter to clear the tank. This is the "work hard" option. 2. Drain about 50% of the aquarium water, place the plastic craft canvas in the tank to section off the area I am going to add substrate to (keeps fish out of the area), and carefully add well rinsed new substrate. Slowly ease the canvas mesh out, and allow the sunstrate to "pile". This is especially helpful if trying to add slope to the back of the tank. (This would be the "work smart" method) I would switch the photo period to 5 hours on, 4 hours off, and 5 hours on, and take pictures in 2 weeks to see if there's a difference in plants. I suspect that those may be the only changes you need to make to make a difference. I have a journal on plants that I need to update, as well. I have some new plants that are thriving in higher pH: The milfoil is averaging 1.5" a day😳

I was wondering if I was imagining that. I have 3 tanks that I swear I only put females in..... Yet all 3 have now had immaculate conception births. I seem to be having slightly better luck with putting obvious male endlers in with my zebra danio F4 grow out tank. However, the danios are **not** a fan of the gonopodiums😅

@Odd Duck Thank you! The extent of fertilization was occasional aquarium water mixed with filtered water. Humidity is what the aquariums provide, and we don't get any sunlight via any of our windows but the shoplights for my fishrack seem to be keeping the orchid happy. I'll take pictures of the flowering stem tomorrow. The flowers lasted from May until now... last flower dropped tonight. I have been giving the orchid 1 oz of water at a time, as soon as the orchid bark feels dry. I suspect that I allowed it to get 2 dry a couple of times, because 2 flowers never fully opened before dropping off. Considering that we live in the desert, I think the orchid and I are doing quite well! Your advice will probably make the orchid much happier and healthier, lol

I'll be starting the dining room tank soon. I filled up two 5 gallon buckets with the MG organic soil today, and started soaking the soil in preparation. I'll start a new journal this week, so you can follow along and make a fully informed choice. Due to the combination of disabilities and life **waves hands at pandemic** I go pretty slow these days🤷‍♂️ I'm enjoying watching your progress, and glad it appears that you have a male and a female rummy left!

I feed newly hatched fry every 2 to 3 hours once they are free swimming, for the first week. Each week or two, I stretch the feedings out a little further. This only works to increase growth if water changes keep the nitrate levels below 40 ppm. If unable to stay on top of water changes, don't feed as often. (I feed until the little tummies start to round). @CalmedByFish if you have plants that have been in an established aquarium, and a piece of cholla with algae growth, my live bearer fry have survived 48 hours without a feeding. The fry are excellent foragers. The bigger issue is not having the adults predate upon the fry.

Heilung is my heartchild's favorite music to listen to, as well as La Llorona. We encourage a wide range of music exposure (I love Heilung concerts, I love most of their music)

You are sounding as enthralled as I have been with my first 'bells and whistles' true aquarium light. Most of my tanks are lit by shoplights, 5k to 7.5k does an excellent job growing food plants, succulents... and aquarium plants. Why spend >$100 when $39 does the job? But my Walstad is on my dresser, and is only a 10 gallon.... so aquasky seemed like a good idea to try. My favorite is the lighting option for special effects. Also, I wake up in the morning to a proper sunrise, and go to bed at night with a proper sunset, even though my room gets zero natural sunlight. So win/win. I am looking forward to an update, and seeing how the rocks are coming along, as well as your zen snails💜 I have liquid rock water, too, and it takes a lot of adjustment to get the light settings just right to maximize plant growth without letting algae (or blue-green cyanobacteria) take over🤷‍♂️

@Atitagain I agree, it's almost impossible to show the tannins. Colors are sharper in your after image.

Of course! Brilliant! That is what I will do. Then, I'll have to figure out what to do with them after, but that's future me's problem. (Future me is not a big fan of past me because of this sort of behavior.) Your future me and my future me have been sharing notes🤣 This looks like a really cool project! I have tried 3x to grow algae, and one tank insists on devolving into cyanobacteria. It's such a gorgeous blue-green, I have intentionally encouraged it to take over a back wall of the tank before.... but that requires increased aeration. BBA and hair algae are the ones I have the most success with, however I finally have some staghorn algae growing in my 4' guppy tank. If the tank is big enough, and you limit the inhabitants to males, you won't get a population explosion.

@Josh you absolutely have something to show for it: You are a nerm. That means that you are not alone. Have you kept a spread sheet, to show what change you made, when, and the results? You actually don't need to have CO2 pumped into the tank, however understanding how plants utilize CO2 will yield better results. The pinholes I see are generally an indicator of a deficiency. Tihshho excels in helping people identify deficiencies. My wheelhouse is low tech. Plants use all the available gas in the first 4 to 5 hours of a photoperiod. That means all the available CO2 is exhausted in the first 4 to 5 hours the lights turn on. After that, the plants can't utilize the lights any longer, and algae starts to grow. So, a simple solution to interrupt algae growth is to limit the lighting to 4, maximum of 5 hours on, then 4 hours off, then another 5 hours on. I maintain a Google spreadsheet, where I add pictures of what each tank looks like, the water parameters I test that week, my lighting schedule, my feeding schedule, filtration/filtration changes, and tank maintenance steps I take. That way I don't have to rely on memory: my spreadsheet shows me before and after. This is how I discern that the 4' tank with guppies needs ferts each time the lights come on for maximum growth, but the 2 gallon pico tank only needs ferts every other day, even though it has more plants (proportionately) because it also has a much higher bioload (proportionately). I've been doing this since the 70's. My most expensive learning curve was to always wash my hands, and always soak my wood, before putting in the tank. I lost 2 tanks of established, F8 breeding discus, and one whole tank of fry. We can all help you with your plants. I have liquid rock that comes out of my tap, with an [un]healthy side of jet fuel, high ammonia (chloramines), and nitrates out of the tap @40 ppm.😬 We'll help, k?

🤣

So does Belize, and Agua Fria🍽

@MadMax1412 I'm just grateful that you can get the meds at all.... last year there was a period of several months where shipping any meds to anyone in AU or NZ was impossible. Because bettas (and gourami, and the rest of the labyrinth fish) have a labyrinth organ and directly breathe oxygen from the atmosphere, **anything** that ends in 'fix' is contraindicated. If you have cats that are scaleless, you either want to separate, or start dosing lightly and be prepared to separate if the scaleless fish show signs of distress with meds. Hoping for the best for you and your fish.

@Atitagain, I missed the post (I think). I wanted to say thank you. If we could normalize learning... not just learning about fish, but also learning how to return to being human (which means we learn best from our mistakes), people would not be paralyzed by the fear of screwing up. Because if we normalize it, screwing up becomes just another opportunity. So thank you for recognizing that the other person was probably doing the best they could with the experience and information they had, and taking response ability for how you chose to respond.

I treat my EasyGreen like I did my Flourish: I keep it refrigerated 😅

I did too, until I developed food allergies 😅 Best breakfast I ever had was in Tulum....

@Atitagain, does this make me a cheerleader, or an MTS enabler🤔 🤣🤣🤣😅

Duckweed and frogbit are both safe food plants that just float. You will need to keep a second pond or aquarium to keep frogbit and duckweed "mother plants" in, because the little pigs will eat it all gone if allowed to. Reeves are **much** easier to protect plants from than many of the land turtles, and definitely easier than snapping turtles. Buy plastic craft canvas, and use nylon fishing line to 'sew' a box to keep the plant's pot in. I chose to 'sew' multiple boxes, and I trade them out. My plant grow out tank grows the plants inside their cages. The pots are dirted, the pot goes inside the canvas 'box', and I cut out enough of the plastic craft canvas for the stems to grow through (but not big enough for turtle noses to get inside). Carefully thread the plant through the designated holes (valisneria typically needs a dozen holes just big enough for leaves to come out, while milfoil might not need me to cut any extra holes), and allow the plants to grow nice, thick foliage in your grow out tank. As the Reeves eat/ break down the stems, they can't kill the plant because it is safe inside it's plastic craft canvas box you made. When there's very little foliage left, put the plant back in the grow out tank, and offer the turtles a new victim... I mean plant. In a 75, you have enough room to put quite a few plants in. The more plants you have in there, the more the destruction gets moved around. The person who taught me this trick would put heavy duty magnets inside the plastic craft canvas 'box' under the plant's pot, and would put another magnet under the tank, so the turtles (RES) couldn't move the boxes. He used large rocks around the planter boxes as well. Turtles, like children, will have particular tastes, and eventually they will select "favorite" plants to eat. The trick, then, is to rotate plants regularly enough that they don't develop vitamin or mineral deficiencies or surpluses. I need to make some more boxes, but it will probably be a few weeks before I get to it. Tag me if you need visuals to follow.

@Wellxam I am out of daily reactions, and you are welcome. You can check out the images from my journal to see what tannins from Miracle Gro organic soil would look like, if you want.

@Odd Duck look at my banner photo, with my signature in the lower right corner. Then scan over to the far left. The white sand side.... with "puddles" of brown. That puddle of brown would be my hornwort. It had a temper tantrum. I can't remember if the temper tantrum in that picture was because the water temperature changed, or if that was the temper tantrum when the kH dropped 10 ppm because hornwort is a ridiculously hungry plant. Regardless, the hornwort dropped every single needle. I was pretty sure it was dead. This time it melted because the floating plants hogged too much light🙄 Please notice that there are now *more* floating plants? And the hornwort is growing back. It's okay to call hornwort names, it earns them. 😅 I have learned to just drop it in, and accept that it is going to be a butthead. If I ignore it long enough, it will magically come back...as long as I leave it alone😅

I'm going to follow this. I have an orchid that has survived longer than any I have had in the past. Flowers started dropping off a couple of weeks ago. I have never kept one alive this long before, and would love to know what to do next (this was a gift from a friend in May when my MiL passed away)

@Wellxam I wouldn't use the herbal sleepy time because aromatic oils left in the spearmint and in the lemongrass can harm your fish. A rule of harvesting plants / woods for tanks that I was taught (back in the 70's when I started this hobby😅) was fish gills are sensitive, and if I can smell it then it's damaging the gills. While a lot of "canon" from when I first started has been disproven, even aquariumscience dot org says when collecting woods for the aquarium, don't use any that still have the smell (yes, even pines and junipers and cedars can be used, as long as they are not rotted and are not sappy). I read an article about not using watermint in tanks with fish, for the same reason as not using sappy wood in tanks: the turpenes, pinenes and other aromatic plant oils can damage the gills. Kind of like putting a q-tip with a minute amount of essential oil on it up your nose: it will burn. Many aquarists will use roobio tea for the color (tea colors are determined by drying process as well as by tannins). Indian Almond Leaves (IAL) have had the most research done on their beneficial effects, Google 'peer-reviewed research indian almond leaves bettas' to find the most articles. Another way to get lots of tannins in your tank is to use Miracle Gro organic potting soil. It has lots of mulch that has been dried, chipped, and added to the soil to slowly decompose. The tannins will turn the water red in the first week, and it slowly gets darker. I like to cap it with blasting sand, and my Malaysian trumpet snails like to mix the sand and the dirt together 🤦‍♂️

Thank you very much, @Candi

I love your sense of humor over this🤣 I frequently plant intentionally into makeshift foam/sponge filters, eventually removing the airstone, and gluing the sponge to a rock once the sponge is fully covered. Good to know that this is a reasonable method of growing the subwaßßertang, lol. Hornwort requires crazy hard water and either a steady supply of calcium via liquid rock water, or it needs a wondershell to rest on. It's also a butthead about changes in light and changes in calcium. Everyone in my local NMAS club complains about it melting, I have it growing ~3" a day in the tanks that have the white rocks leaching calcium into the water, and fish and guppies nibbling on it.🤷‍♂️ Now, if I could get my dwarf hairgrass to grow a little thicker🤔

@Atitagain you are not alone in having to reprioritize and reorganize. Once I finally got well last year, I jumped back into breeding... only to find out I got lucky🙄 and I am a long hauler.... So reorganizing tanks to be lower maintenance for long term, and the ones I can't easily convert to low maintenance I am breaking down. I also have hard water, yet better than 60% of my stem plants are thriving. Heavily planted, dirted tanks do take more energy/ time up front. but get easier with time. Just a heads up for down the road. Plus, I like the tannins in dirted tanks. I also discovered a nifty trick: Roll a plastic canvas to the circumference you want, "stitch" shut with nylon fishing line. I put inside a planter or a food safe plastic tray. Fill with "rinsed dirt" (like prepared dirt for a Walstad) and cap with larger gravel, or smooth river stones. Plant. I discovered stem plants can be planted by pushing the stems through the plastic canvas, and I get less melt😳 Place in aquarium, and cover the base with either gravel, rocks, or other hardscape. Again, this is more labor intensive upfront, but easier long term and gets great tannins. Hope things balance out for you, soon!