Torrey

For you @FlyingFishKeeper! https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=weldcmw I'll come back in a minute with my own results from yours. I got over 8 hours of sleep last night, and it shows!!! Wordle guessed in 4/6! Can you do better? Try this wordle: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=yfpse ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟨 🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #mywordle

Barley straw tends to be a nice "organic matter" as well as plants that melt back

Looking gorgeous! I am not sure why the reds change. There doesn't actually seem to be adequate research (that I have found) to clearly identify what triggers the red chromatographs (wrong word, but my brain is struggling for the red equivalent of chlorophyll in plants) to outcompete the chlorophyll production. In some plants it is clearly increase in sugars due to light intensity. In others, lower light gives better pinks and more light gives more chlorophyll. Still others are iron dependent, or nitrate dependent. And others seem to be a magical combination..... Your tank is delightful to look at, even though it's still not what you envisioned.

I grew up with a Maine Coon cross: 27 lbs of muscle that would push or pull my diapered butt across the kitchen floor, because my opposable thumbs could get him food. I remember the day he decided that I was too big to keep pulling his tail, and said "no" in no uncertain terms😳 Like Nic, he was raised by dogs instead of his mom, so he was positive he was a German shepherd... who could climb trees. This was back before leash laws, and he made it very clear to the dogs in our neighborhood that he did not tolerate interlopers on *his* property. He was a hoot!

A friend ships CPD with a plant, inside the breathable bags. He said the only time any of his shipments didn't arrive at their destination happy, was when they got too warm. He had to experiment with wrapping the heat pack, and finally determined double boxing was better. He doesn't ship CPD from the first 80° day until temps are consistently back down to the 80's, and only ships the smalls (<half adult size) because the littles are more resilient to shipping and water parameter changes, like shrimp (he claims). They need to be offered food 6 hours after being acclimated, and he requires time stamped pictures proving the process was followed if a fish dies. He said so far, he has only needed to replace fish that get lost in shipping. (Thought sharing his process and logic might help folx in here)

I now have to research Singapura, as this is a breed I had never heard of! We sadly lost our cats in the housefire, originally Nic and Maggie were both service cats, and were trained to retrieve keys, pick up anything I dropped on the floor, open doors, and "soothe" when they smelled a panic attack coming on. They would knead without using their claws, at all. They were some of the biggest tuxedos I ever had, with Nic weighing in at 25 lbs. He thought he was a Rottweiler 😆

I took a workshop on identifying quality pet foods from one of the Tufts Veterinary school professors back in 2001. I learned that prepared pet foods (class was specifically for dog foods, and professor said applies to all foods) list ingredients by weight, and the difference between "salmon" and "salmon meal" in the list of ingredients is whether the company is using the weight of raw salmon ("salmon") or is weighing after it is cooked (salmon meal). An ingredients list with salmon at the top of the list, may not actually have a quality food, because salmon is almost 80% water. If they listed salmon meal, there's a good chance the salmon would be listed after the preservatives. Contrary to a lot of hype, prepared foods *do* need preservatives. If the company lists "protein meal" near the top (for omnivorous fish) and /or spirulina and other oxidative risk vegetative ingredients are included, then preservatives make the difference between a few days shelf life after opening, and 3 to 4 weeks shelf life after opening. Fish are only as healthy as the quality of food, the chemistry of their water, and the compatibility of their tank mates. Cories include another parameter: health is determined by the absence of stress. Corydoras release a toxin when they are stressed or feel threatened. This toxin will impact water quality, and it is not detected by our at home water tests. Fish, like people, have different thresholds for stress, and different triggers that can initiate a toxin release. (For more information, look at the members only video on Corydora Venom). As Guppysnail said, until the internet, about the only way to gain much of the knowledge shared in here was trial and error. Many of us learned by failure. Luckily for the hobby (and for discoveries like electricity, the telephone, airplanes, and space travel), failure was simply a part of the learning process. Failing big used to be encouraged and celebrated, because it meant the individual was willing to take risks and push boundaries in the pursuit of knowledge. So try to give yourself at least as much compassion as you give your fish. I recommend starting a photo or video journal, so you have hard data to look at, instead of "I added wood and think it might have stressed them", if you write down all the information including pH, GH, KH, ammonia/nitrites/nitrates, and have photographs/video when behavior changes, it will make it easier to identify "I added piece of wood, and none of my water chemistry tested different, but look at the difference in air bubbles, and foam at the surface" See how more information can help identify potential correlations to be tested to determine if they are causation? Thank you for trusting us with your concerns, and your desire to be a better aquarist. Try to be patient with your self.

I have nothing to add, information wise. I just wanted to reiterate how grateful I am to this forum for elevating the level of care in the hobby due to so many people being willing to freely share information and knowledge. Respectfully. Thanks for such a supportive post to wake up to. 🌿💜🌿

It's the one plant I killed without trying to 🤪 Mine was a brilliant red... until it wasn't

I have noticed I can tell when my brain is either needing more sleep... or I need to test O2 sat levels, based on how well I am able to figure out the wordle... or not🤷🏼‍♂️

I use my API liquid reagents and shake the bottles and the test tubes vigorously when I have anyone sick. Especially when meds are involved, as antibiotics can wipe out the beneficial bacteria colony, and I notice [predictable] fluctuations in ammonia and nitrites after feedings (part of the reason most meds encourage fasting during treatment). How do you have the filtration set up in the marina slim? If you are using the marina filtration pads, they have carbon, which would explain why the meds didn't do anything. Carbon removes medications (as well as ferts and tannins from the IAL) from the water. However, if you took out the included filter pads with carbon, and replaced with sponge as Cory demonstrates in this video, sponge filtration is more effective and longer lasting to keep a healthy tank (and less expensive in the long run). https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-filter-upgrade (If you prefer to read the directions)

Slow and steady is infinitely preferable to fast and redo. Can't wait to drive up and see everything once it's finished!

How easy/hard is it to ship a clutch of eggs?🐌

@Zac Cory posted the link to the video faster than I did..

How many cories? You can always break a single wafer into a smaller piece, and frequently fish aren't all that hungry with the stress of the meds. Be sure to stay on top of testing your water parameters. If you see ammonia or nitrites, and it's not time for a water change yet with the meds, this is the ideal situation to use Prime to give your fish a buffer. Just be sure to increase aeration. Not seeing the thumbnail @Cory

That's frustrating. Do you have any pearlweed for similar texture and presentation? For your limnophila aromatica. it looks gorgeous. I wonder if you can take a few cuttings and put in a tank and try utilizing the CO2 you are already running, and combine with a light siesta (I don't know if this is even an option) so the plant is growing w/ CO2 on a 4 hour on/4 hour off schedule around the clock? I am wondering if part of the growth success I am seeing isn't necessarily due to the CO2 being passively repleted during the "lights out", but is in fact due to the balance of light/dark times in shorter periods? Only way to know is for enough people to use CO2 in both setups (standard photoperiod used with CO2 and a siesta period)... of course that also requires sufficient resources🤷🏼‍♂️

@FlyingFishKeeper here's one for you: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=wafhme And my score for Friday: Wordle guessed in 5/6! Can you do better? Try this wordle: https://mywordle.strivemath.com/?word=yoispx 🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ 🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟨🟩🟩🟨⬜🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 #mywordle

I'm listening to all the music on this page tonight, and interacting with the forum on a separate tab🤣 @Guppysnail & @Bev C I was told out TV was broken and only got one channel when I was growing up, so PBS was the only channel that worked. Wasn't until I went away to college that I found out Walter Cronkite & Dan Rather (my dad's 2 shows) weren't on PBS🙄, so I watched 30 minutes of TV (if I wanted any) and got to pick between Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Zoom (once it debuted) or Electric Company. Generally, I preferred to play at the creek down the road😁 Music then was the NCSU radio station until I could buy my own vinyls. I tried to give my kids similar opportunities by raising them on the Canadian border in WA, so they could safely play outside from when the sun came up until the sun went down....

Is that azolla with your elodea? Gorgeous flower!

There were several batches of spiderwood during the pandemic that people had similar complaints. It wasn't limited to a single country, either, and some of these were experienced aquarists who had never experienced it before. Guppysnail is correct, the H2O2 is the most effective, and least risky, to eliminate the rotting smell by eliminating the bacteria, and then the H2O2 breaks down into water and oxygen.

What kind of filtration did you say you had on this tank? And are you testing water parameters daily? If yes, are you testing at the same time or at different times, and finding any variations in water quality over the course of the day?

I used it with my old colony, to promote biofilm growth on bamboo skewers. Basically, I set up a less stinky repashy style production, and changed skewers out each day. I have seen way more microfauna in the tank this time, and the shrimp seem quite happy with overnight green bean and occasionally carrot offerings every other day (with no change in water parameters), so I probably won't invest in another AE for a tank over 2 years old.

I thought I had already posted the video in here...🤦🏼‍♂️

These photos are great!!!! I wonder if we'll ever get to the point we can just order some daphnia magna or moina to tackle cyanobacteria in the tank?