Torrey

@Guppysnailis that an aquarium plant hanging like a long rope on the right side??? 😲

Good call @gardenman. I bought the Osmocote Plus, based on research of what our water supply is low on, and the success of a few fellow NMAS members had with the slow release granules, even in their shrimp tanks.

Sounds like Sir Gary isn't getting enough of his plant/cellulose dietary needs met. Does he have any wood in the tank to chew on? Does he get green beans regularly like @Guppysnail makes for her longfin plecos? What about any other veggies (ours loved carrots cut in half, lengthwise). That would be a lot easier on Sir Gary, and easier on your plants!

you are welcome! No need for anyone else to learn by firsthand experience, lol

ORD😍

ORD 😍

Your rock wall is gorgeous, and where did you source your barley straw from? We learned from our feed store in Ferndale that straw is sometimes treated to inhibit mold, and there aren't a lot of restrictions since straw is not a feed source. That might be your culprit.

Everyone has read about my Walstad inspired tank(1), and my errors (dirt too deep in one area, MTS doing their excavation thing, not having adequate light for the plant growth), and everyone has read that is one of a handful of tanks I have ever had without a UGF.... what I haven't spoken much about was my experimental stage with sand and UGF. I was told I could use sand on a UGF(2), as long as I used course sand and covered the UGF in pantyhose.... it was an abject disaster. I also tried dirt in another tank(3), with a landscape fabric to keep the dirt out of the UGF, and that experiment faired slightly better. Finally, after the UGF/sand disaster (and before YouTube and all the how-to videos of how to use an airlift to create the illusion of a waterfall in the tank) I attempted to create the illusion by hiding an airlift tube behind some rocks(4), for the fine, white pool filter sand to "fall" down the rocks out of the carefully hidden airlift tube, down into the white UGF, to be lifted up again and repeat the process. 1. The Walstad tank is getting rescaped, I am adding a couple of bags of soil to add lift in the back and defeat the MTS bulldozing tendencies. I am also inserting some black plastic craft canvas to act as a retaining wall. 2. I removed *everything* from the tank, scratching up the glass a bit in the process. Still had sand left in the tank which only marginally impeded the flow under the UGF when I set the tank back up. 3. I got tired of the dirt film on everything, so I removed the dirt and put in shallow planters with some gravel on top, put the planters on the UGF in the back of the tank and put gravel along the front of the tank. Great compromise, inspired by Dr Diana Walstad. 4. I ended up with sand dust ***everywhere*** in the tank! It was a disaster! Luckily, I run tanks empty for a while, so no livestock were harmed by tiny silica particulate in the water column. This video would have been *really* helpful, as I didn't have sufficient control of the sand at the top outlet which created the particulate issue that didn't resolve even after a month. I'm considering trying it again...😁

I will have a dedicated specimen container for each tank by the end of this year (13 tanks) and dedicated sponges. Even with dedicated equipment, aerosol spread can happen *especially* with tanks in close proximity/ any openings in tanks. Luckily, there aren't a whole lot of pathogens that are likely to do that, just be aware it's a possibility. Back to my dedicated specimen container: After my cyanobacteria outbreak last year, I got religious with cleaning items between tanks. I use a specimen container to pour a couple of inches of H2O2 into, and dip nets/sponges/tweezers/scissors into the H2O2 as I work in a tank, to build a muscle memory to always clean the equipment between uses. Due to my fibro, I rarely clean more than one tank a day now, and if I need to use the hose to siphon, I will pour a little H2O2 in the hose and make sure the entire hose comes in contact with the H2O2. It kept the cyano from spreading to more than the initial 3 tanks (out of 13). So that's my suggestion. I have used isopropyl rubbing alcohol to sterilize in a pinch. Leave it for 24 hours after it has completely dried, to ensure the solvent has completely evaporated. This has been the only way to prevent duckweed from spreading from one tank to another, that has been completely effective, as long as I wipe & wash my hands completely between tanks.😅 I absolutely do not allow any item that I have gotten wet with isopropyl to come in contact with my tanks before the alcohol has completely evaporated (if my nose, or my dog's nose can register it, it's not safe).

I counted 14 in the video, so you look to be at least meeting your "I'll be satisfied" amount.

I have typically found that the H2O2 method doesn't trigger the algae stages of new tank syndrome. Probably would salvage your Flourite substrate, as well. You would still need to reintroduce BB from an established filter in a different tank, but if you are willing to run it empty for a month after pouring in the H2O2, it should be clean, safe for new inhabitants, and able to bypass the awkward teen stage of diatom==> dust==> hair algae.😁

Accessibility is only "a small thing" for people who don't need the accommodation. A lot of the workshops I facilitate center around de-centering "status quo norms" to be more inclusive, as inclusion (as opposed to tolerance) leads to better ideas. Differences make us stronger, not assimilation of everyone into the same mold. I'm glad it works for you, nothing like being able to gain a little bit of independence a lot of other people take for granted. I'm willing to bet this would also help folx like @Dean’s Fishroom who have commented on struggling to determine the slight variation in color on the pH and nitrites/nitrates, and not just people with mono- or dichromatic color blindness @clovenpine

How do you test your nitrates? Rarely are nitrates zero, except in heavily planted tanks. His fins look a little rough, like possibly tears from a strong current he has to fight against, or fin-nipping. I enlarged the picture, and don't see any of the "fuzz" you see with fungal fin rot although I do see the black of new growth around the torn edges. Personally, knowing what I know regarding betta immune systems and stress, I would keep indian almond leaves (IAL) in the tank and look at adding some broadleaved plants for him to rest on. Are the other plants in the tank plastic? If yes, that's probably the culprit for the rayed look of the longer, bottom and tail fins. Bettas with those glorious full finnage are susceptible to tears, rips, and damage from any hardscape in the tank that is not silicone soft. That's why so many people aim for nice planted tanks for their bettas, and use lots of IAL in the tanks. In their native habitat, they evolved to live in heavy tannin waters with lots of roots, fresh and clean but gently moving water, and no direct sunlight... all light is dappled through heavy canopies overhead and/or lots of plant matter in the water. They evolved the labyrinth organ to breathe when hot, dry season days reduced flow and oxygen saturation levels, but it's stressful if they don't have enough humidty in the air they breathe, or if they are under too bright lights.

If I am adding shrimp to an established colony, I will prep beforehand by running a second sponge filter for a month and not trimming plants until the new shrimp come in. Then I can move plant trimmings and the seasoned sponge filter to a sterilite tub or a QT tank. I just got new shrimp, to start a new colony. I observed them safely molt in the drip acclimation container, watched them eat biofilm off the plants I provided, and used the macro capability on the camera to look for any indications of injuries or disease. Since they were going into a tank with only snails and microfauna as inhabitants --and there are no indicators of any issues in their carapace or newly revealed shells after successful molts-- I made the decision to put them into their new home. When the rest of the shrimp come in, they will be going into a QT tank for observation for 30 days, so I don't risk the ones I already got... especially as I am expecting/hoping for shrimplettes in 30 days based on observed behaviors.

Welcome back to the hobby, northern neighbor! As a member, check out the Corydora video and the Tom Barr presentation on plants if you enjoy deep dives into information. You can start a journal in here to document your journey back into fishkeeping, and to make it easier to ask questions and keep the answers easy to find. Community aquariums are a lot of fun, I think you will be pleasantly surprised how easy it is to get attached to livebearers (especially as a former cichlid keeper, these were "feeder fish" lol).

No, I haven't seen that behavior in freshwater fish, I would love to see it! To be able to share the video with us, upload the video to YouTube, and then share the YouTube link with us.😁

I stopped by my LFS to see how things were doing, and to pick up some halfbeaks and shrimp for breeding for the store. I discovered why I hadn't heard back regarding readiness, they had experienced an early ACO type mishap, where a tank developed a crack and it took out 3 other tanks... obviously dealing with that took priority over a call. I came home w/o the halfbeaks, and with only half the expected number of shrimp... and no plant matter in the bag for the shrimp to hang onto (poor things), which necessitated a quick exodus from the bag, adding plant material, and setting up the slow drip method for acclimation. As well as a strong reminder that I need more ACO USB air pumps, lol! So spouse helped out with pictures while I took care of setting up. Once everyone was stable, I set up the GoPro... and forgot that the battery only allows for 1 hour of filming.😏 Which meant I needed more help from Patient Spouse™ in the filming/photography department (meaning I asked if I could please borrow the phone to grab stills and some more video while GoPro was charging. I *really* need extra batteries and the external charger, lol) Here is a sneak peak at some of the stills, showing the process yesterday. Gorgeous blue dreams. I was a little alarmed at the instant molt of one shrimp in the bag, and with nothing for them to grab hold of I didn't want to risk leaving them in the bag for the acclimation process, so they went in a Tupperware well rinsed in ZeroWater and I added some hornwort for them to grab hold of (and graze) during the drip acclimation process. Since both the store and I use the city's tap water, pH between the store's tank and my Scapes from Scraps tank were almost identical. The biggest differences in water quality were GH & kH, as I mix ZeroWater with well filtered tap water to (now) keep my tanks closer to 75 GH (ppm), between 80 & 120 kH (ppm), and my TDS are 180 instead of the store's 350. So I threw in some plants, and started a drip line. Premixed plant fertilizer bottle did double duty as a GoPro mount, lol. When the tank water container and the shrimp container are at the same level, I use the giant clips to control flow (works for as long as the water line in the tank water container is a couple inches above the water line in the shrimp container). The shrimp look really healthy, and a second shrimp shed (I suspect a female) shed during the drip acclimation process. I dripped in water until double the amount, then remove half the water while more drips in, until the parameters in the shrimp container and the new tank match completely (in the parameters I can test for). That process was started at 5 pm when we got home from the LFS, and was completed by 8:20 pm. Halfway through, I had to elevate the tank water container and create a makeshift drip regulator (dry erase marker from the fridge, with a rubber band) to keep a slow and steady drip pattern. Chia seeds were the perfect height and stability in the kitchen. This is a *huge* indicator of how far Patient Spouse™ has come, that fishy things were not only allowed in the kitchen, but I actually received some tech support in the process! However, having to explain shrimp procreation activities (I did say I thought the one who molted in the drip acclimation process was female, right?) in the kitchen may have been a bit more than PS™ was expecting when they asked if the smaller shrimp was hurting the larger shrimp right after we watched the larger shrimp "jackknife" out of its shell. Sadly, the molt was when I realized the GoPro battery died, so I didn't capture it on film.😭 I did get a video of the purported "after" action on spouse's camera (hence the mind-blowing explanation in the kitchen, lol). Everyone seems to be thrilled in their new environs, and they checked out the very top of the tank and the "interesting light" after the lights went out last night. Today, they are exploring independently, and no longer staying within 3" of each other all over the tank. The smallest of the three is the bravest, and was intrigued by the light last night literally touching every square millimeter in exploration. The larger two are happier today in the plants, and cleaning biofilm off the branches. Will see what they think of green beans tonight after dinner. Hopefully, I have set up more stable tanks now, that will withstand anything the coming years throw at us. Can't wait until the third, when I get to place my next ACO order! The two bigger shrimp are still staying in close proximity! (These are the two from yesterday who were "getting busy" in the drip acclimation container). So, this is what I have been working on for the past two days, because they are so cute I keep sitting down to take pictures or film them! I also did my weekly 5 gallon bucket removal of plants from my spouse's tank, and tomorrow I will be rescaping the Walstad inspired tank with waht I trimmed.... and hopefully less duckweed that I will more easily keep under control?🤞🏼

I am liking these Pagoda snails! As a recent convert (past 5 years) to the reasons to appreciate snails, this is a species I had never seen before a few weeks ago, and now I have seen pictures in a dozen different places. I think I need to ask my LFS about sourcing some. I learned in here, in the Forum, that about half the Malaysian Trumpet snails I got... actually aren't.👀 So I now have 2 types of Lymnaea; silver, bronze and spotted bladder snails; a breeding assassin snail (guessing she came already impregnated from the store... I haven't seen her in a few weeks, but I found 2 babies last week during the water change); red, gold, burgundy and "wild phenotype" ramshorns; MTS; and Brotia herculea. Adding Brotia pagadula to one of the tanks would be gorgeous, I wonder if they would cross-breed with the herculea? The new set-up is stunning, the artist in me really appreciates the clean lines and crisp colors.

I hadn't seen you in the Forum before, this makes me miss living on the East Coast. Almost.....😅

Images like this make me miss my discus breeding days..... You have a gorgeous collection here, may they bring you years of enjoyment and entertainment with their antics!

Here is the research and to reach those levels it requires a minimum of 3 leaves / 10 gallon of potent (strong) IAL and as many as 8 leaves/gallon of weaker IAL... since none of the IAL is sold with any testing showing the various phyto-chemical levels, it's a standard practice to start with 3 leaves/ 10 gallons, observe for a few days, and keep adding leaves until a therapeutic response is observed. My experience has been the IAL from the Co-op has been stronger than the IAL from a couple of other countries, but not as strong as the IAL from my neighbor's tree.😅

How recent is this picture? I'm looking at a beautiful, almost show quality betta that is making the full circle IBC judges like Gianne Souza look for (you need to be a member of the ACO YouTube channel to watch both of Gianne's videos). I'm also looking at (as Cory pointed out above) a significant drop from the HOB filter to the water surface, which is kind of like expecting a Lady in full Victorian garb to swim through a riptide.... not exactly fair or practical (or healthy) for the betta. While I have had a couple of Halfmoon bettas who were addicted to the adrenaline of riding water currents, the majority of bettas find it very stressful to have to work that hard against the current. I'm not sure if you have had the opportunity to see any video of bettas in the wild, (fast forward to the 25 second mark in this video if you get motion sickness from video movement) but as this video shows they are used to a *lot* of foliage and roots, and not a lot of sunlight in the water. So the bright light and the white gravel reflecting the light is going to be stressful all by itself. More than 5 hours of light at a stretch? That's enough stress to make bettas nip their own fins. Obviously, looking at the cleanliness of this tank, you are wanting to do the very best by your betta. Adding some floating plants with longer root systems (frogbit, redroot floaters, etc) and providing some more broad-leafed plants for your betta to rest on, as well as getting the light onto a timer so it comes on after some ambient light in the room (reduce light shock to the betta from all dark to bright lights), plus adding even something as simple as wax paper or black plastic trash bag to the back/sides as Cory suggested, will greatly reduce the betta's stress level... which will also improve immune function. Finally, bettas depend on the tannins from Indian almond leaves (IAL) to help their immune system operate optimally. They are used to IAL littering the bottom of their water ways, and permeating everything they swim in. If you are able to purchase some IAL, and add 2-3 large leaves per 10 gallons of water, you will also see a difference in the quality of finnage, in the betta's health, and in a reduction of your betta's stress level. It is wonderful to see someone trying so hard to take good care of their betta, thank you for asking for some help.

I did a clean up, trim, and water change on the #ScapesFromScraps take and the endler bachelor tank. And I did a thing. A. THING. I'll post an update tomorrow.

My Scapes from Scraps is just under 3 gallons. In the before covid times, I had a thriving carbon rili colony in it. As long as you can stay on top of small water changes, almost daily, 3 gallons saves money. That being said, when I got covid and couldn't stay on top of the water changes, the shrimp died. A larger tank would have been more forgiving.

That's brilliant! I have found the 3M hooks (double sided tape) are fabulous for training pothos and philodendron up the wall. Here, I get 8 hooks & 12 sticky tapes rated up to ½ pound for ~ $6, so cost effective for what I need. Just be sure to wipe the wall with rubbing alcohol and let it dry thoroughly, or the 3M hooks may pop off as the willows grow. If the decision is made for hospice, I hope you get a team as awesome as we found for my MIL last year. Support during this time is so undervalued, and makes such a huge difference in quality of life.