Torrey

I had the best luck with using an extenal heater (designed for reptiles) which is how I knew about the pymeter to control the temperature🥰 Mine lasted 3 years on the bottom of the aquarium (under the aquarium) and improved the function of my UGF (whick i didn't know was possible). It was a big aquarium... and when the heater pad died I replaced with a regular submersible that lasted 2 years. When we drained the tank and moved, I was going to get another stick on the bottom reptile pad but the tank was broken in the move, so....

For your tank of discus: NC has always had problems with power outages during hurricanes. We added a foil like window/insulated shade to our emergency supplies when we were breeding (battery operated air pumps were not a thing yet, so I would pour in water to add surface agitation and increase oxygen saturation). Discus are a bit more sensitive, so yes, I would add sponge filters now and if there is a risk of a temp drop, invest in a couple of the mylar emergency "space blankets" to help keep the heat in your tank stable. I would probably drop an air stone in the canister filter for the Discus as well, just to make sure you don't end up with a dead spot. Most fish don't notice a 9 hour outage. Sturdy discus won't notice, either. But you won't know if you have sturdy discus, or sensitive discus until you see them reacting, so better to prepare as if you have sensitive ones.

My Whale skips the tail nipping... She says "No', then she says "NO!" and then she says "I told you no" with a nip of the gonopodium. @yassy I agree it lloks like nipping and not an infection of some kind. You can add up to one tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons/ aquarium water to make sure the nips don't get infected if they don't look like they are healing quickly.

A lot of people consider a tank as a luxury. I consider having nature inside as a mental health need for people who are unable to spend /get to nature preserves. I help people build aquariums that meet their budget needs as a type of mental health therapy. Just my 2 cents.

I lost my colony in my Back2the Roots tank when I got covid and couldn't maintain the water changes. the lesson i learned is to do the drip method, like drip acclimation. Neos like a pH closer to 7.2 - 7.4, but were breeding and shedding great in my pH 8.2 water, because all the minerals were in correct proportions. No water changes when I was sick, and only top offs, meant some minerals got out of proportion. My water change (found several who died from shed problems) finished off the colony because I slowly poured in the new water instead of setting up a drip method. As long as the shrimplettes have plenty of plants to hide in and graze, you should start seeing your colony grow.

None of my current tanks... but my ex had a tank of highly aggressive cichlids, followed by a tank of piranha While we swam with piranha when we lived south of the border, piranha in the wild are not as aggressive as ones stuck in a glass box against their will. I would rather swim with sharks....

I agree with Guppysnail, too much light. I would try breaking it into two 4 hour photo periods, and see what happens over the next 2-3 weeks. I would keep photographs in the spreadsheet where you document water parapmeters, dosing of ferts, and water changes, so it's easy to see what changes in the new growth... and I would only change one thing at a time.

What a morning!!! Mr Peas is definitely a keeper. My Patient Spouse™ has progressed to the point of not being upset about accidents, and doesn't use accidents that happen as justification for needing to get rid of tanks, so huge progress from 2014 when we first started living together. I'm not sure if we are at the point where there would have been zero convo before the drive to get the replacement UPS, and I *know* there would not be hauling of water for me... although they did haul out the 5 gallon bucket to get dumped on the bushes outside when I finally started doing water changes after my surgery.

That top picture could be such an inspiration for an aquascape, hopefully I can eventually make the trip. It's on my bucket list! I had a trip planned for 2020.... I was supposed to meet one of my high school buddies who ended up an English teacher in Wuhan in March as a combined "between" birthday for the both of us (he's April, and I am February)... we'd had it planned for a while... sadly, it didn't happen. Maybe we'll be able to pull it off for our 60th birthdays, lol

Next time I come out to Suffolk, I'll try to coordinate with a PVAS Meeting so we can meet!

There are a few things. All tanks go through fairly predictable patterns of aging and development, and algae is part of the "awkward teenage stage". Typically brwon diatom, followed by green dust or green spot, followed by hair algae, and then depending on what's balanced and what's not, staghorn or blackbeard algae. Ideally, keep a photo journal in with your water change data and test data. That way, you can change one thing, then monitor new growth for 2 weeks to see if that 1. corrected the problem, 2. made no difference, or 3. made the problem worse. Then it's easier to identify the next thing that needs to change. I personally like Dr Diana Walstad's approach: plant a whole lot of different plants, and see what likes your water best. Yes, it means I had a LOT of plants die last year, it also means I learned a lot and I am now able to keep red plants alive for the first time in my life. I am very low tech, don't use CO2, and didn't buy my first "aquarium light" until last year... even though I've had tanks for 5 decades and plants of some kind in tanks for decades. I generally just use shoplights. My aquarium plant keeping has improved over the past 2 decades because I keep a lot of notes, and I "listen" to my plants. Different deficiencies cause different growth patterns. Old leaves will only show what was wrong in the past as the old leaves can't heal themselves, so look at the newest growth to determine if the water is still imbalanced or not. Algae is generally a light spectrum imbalance, as Guppysnail pointed out regarding blue lights, or a nutrient imbalnce... or combo of both. But if you try to fix both at the same time, you have no way of knowing if it actually was both. So only change one thing at a time, observe for 2-4 weeks, and then determine best next action. My plant keeping game stepped up over the past year, by reading everyting Seattle Aquarist and Mmiller share regarding plant nutrition. There are lots of great people sharing information inhere on how to improve plant success, but Seattle Aquarist and Mmiller explain it in a way that makes sense to my brain. Seattle Aquarist explained Mulder's chart so that I can now see nutrients as medications that are used to treat the disease of a plant that is not optimally healthy. So now, in addition to listening to my plants, I can actually understand what a curled leaf means, or new growth that is pale/white, or why I am supplementing iron to address pale leaves with bright green veins, but not seeing improvement (my high pH water makes the iron unavailable except in Fe-EDDHA form). It's like Cory said in one of his videos: We aren't keeping fish (or plants), we are keeping water (chemistry) and when we get the chemistry right, the fish and plants will thrive. So you can check out my "Name That Plant" journal, as well as the Co-op Blogs on plant keeping which are very helpful and informative. I would add follow people like Seattle Aquarist and Mmiller, to read various explanations on plant nutrition, until an explanation they give generates an "aha" moment for you. If they don't type the way your brain processes information, check out gjcarew, or read through some of the topics posted under "Plants" until you find someone who explains things in a way that resonates for you. Here's two of the resources I keep in my Water Data sheets (yes, I am *that* nerm, who uses a spreadsheet for water cahnges and to monitor trends in wateer quality). From Seattle Aquarist: https://www.nutriag.com/mulderschart/ From I no longer remember where: Unless someone is running CO2, I have noticed that Dr Diana Walstad seems to be correct that a siesta photoperiod schedule does appear to reduce algae growth. The explanation that in passive gaseous exchange systems, CO2 buildup hits maximum saturation 4 hours after the lights go out, and the plants use the same amount in the first 4 hours the lights are on, resonates. Once I put my lights on timers so they weren't on longer than 4 hours, and so the tanks had at least one siesta of 4 hours, I noticed a significant reduction in algae in my tanks. Coincidentally, this change in lighting also correlated to when I stopped killing red plants. So whether it's correlational or causational, I don't particualrly care at the moment. It works in my tanks, and my Scapes from Scraps entry demonstrates how well it works.

Oh wow!!! @Its Hutch I love the pictures of the eggs on the plants. I agree, I always preferred when my discus would lay on the swords instead of choosing the PVC or clay pot. The eggs did better, too.

Before I learned how to succeed with aquarium plants, I used terrestrial plants in tanks. Spider plants, pothos, philodendron, peace lilies, and dracaena. I was pretty bad, as I rarely put them in other water first, unless I bought them at a place known to use pesticides. Then I would put them in water for a month before moving into the tank. Peace lilies are why I'm now successful with anubias and other rhizome aquarium plants: My peace lilies were great as long as I didn't allow the "crown" of the roots to stay submerged. We used peace lilies in the top of the cichlid tanks, simplest method is to wrap a wire loosely around the crown and then create a "hook" to hang over the edge of the tank. I iamgine using the egg crate like you do for your pothos will also work well. If the part where the roots meet the plants stayed submerged, it would rot after a couple of months. if the water level was variable (ie: I was slow to top off) the peace lily was more likely to bloom and thrive. How are your submerged pothos leaves growing? Because I am thinking those of us with pothos growing leaves, and even new plantlets under the water, may have a new version of pothos that wasn't available 3 or 4 decades ago. I have heard of several other people discovering pothos growing submerged. Cory, you could have a whole new aquarium opportunity!

Unless your temps are dropping into the 50's, no you don't need a heater. When the tank drops into the 60's, the olive nerite will slow down significantly (can disappear into the plants for a couple of months in a semblance of a food coma as the cooler temps slow digestion) and the zebra nerite slows down, but doesn't hit the food coma for weeks until the temps drop below 62 F. The endlers *barely* slow down their breeding at these temps. This is absolutely gorgeous, and none of my pond snails need heaters, either. I'm simplifying, lol

You are in Beijing? All through high school, our Mandarin teacher was preparing us for a trip our senior year and the Summer Palace was on our itinerary. My greatest disappointment was not being able to go. Thank you for the beautiful pictures!

Thank you for all of this!

We have "The Whale" and the rest are aspiring whales, lol. My Patient Spouse is now channeling stories for the fish and apparently your fish have great stories. ❤️

Cory, thank you so much for the belly laughs and the example. I was going to explain AI, but this is so much better than my explanation, lol Through all of this, the recurring theme in the back of my head was a total Floyd moment.... I have run into so much frustration since even some so-called peer-reviewed journals have even been permeated with "peer-review" that is questionable in their credentials for their "peers" who are supposedly doing the review. I love having more access to information, I guess with the increased access to information we have even more responsibility to verify accuracy? The most frustrating articles are best explained by Cory's example above: Starts out with accuracy.... and then once trust is established with verifiable information, the AI steps in and illustrates the faults in our logic frames for teaching AI... which is how the AI car ran into a schoolbus that was laying on it's side after being in an accident... because the AI didn't "recognize" the logic frame that explained "schoolbus" (Apparently that particular article is now behind a paywall, from 2015. This one helps explain some of the issues with AI: https://www.thedrive.com/tech/17618/mercedes-will-teach-its-self-driving-cars-to-recognize-school-buses )

Welcome to the forum! Are you on FB at all? Because the New Mexico Aquarium Society is on FB for local peeps in addition to all the support from the forum. I know there are more NMAS members in Cruces than Socorro, as I deliver scuds and plants when I go visit my daughter and my grandboos down there. Be safe with all the fires burning, it's been a crazy week here in The Land of Enchantment. Your tanks are a delight.

The fact that they charged you an extra $200 is a huge warning flag. I am under the assumption you are here in the States? Based on your chronology of events, and due to statutes of limitations on items sold typically being 30 days in most states, at this point (from a legal standpoint) I would call the company if they have a phone number (record your call) and ask them to break down for you each of the charges, and how long it will take for them to reimburse each charge. Document the phone call, obviously. Then, I would reach out to the Attorney General for your state, and find out what they recommend for best practice moving forward. Do not include the part where you considered changing your mind, just stick to the facts and the dates. Do the same for the state where the trucking company is located, as well as the state where the shipper is based (and the package was shipped from). I would also reach out to the maker of the aquarium, and let them know what has happened, as a distributor who is not properly providing good customer service can make their brand look bad. I would reach out to the trucking company, and ask how they intend to make restitution for your yard, and having to pull their truck out with your tractor. Across the board, I think you have done an admirable job of staying calm. It is incredibly hard to maintain a calm affect when looking at the series of events as an outsider, I know it's even harder when I am the one living through it. I am so sorry this has been such a nightmare for you.

Truer words have not been spoken. Sadly, some of the unkind commenting moved on to other videos, as well. The reality is a lot of people are really scared, and scared people struggle with emotional regulation. The "soap opera" action is a cultivated response in USian society, as multiple studies and research has shown that emotionally reactive people tend to buy more... so keeping people emotionally reactive benefits corporations willing to exploit this phenomenon. I'm just grateful that Cory is not of the personality type willing to exploit people, I am incredibly sad that the livestreams need to be scaled back for now (I love being able to interact in the livestreams and chat in real time with Candi, Jimmy, Dean, Zenzo and the rest of the team that shows up) and I am a firm believer that the secret to the ACO success story is Cory's passion and fun. If livestreams are no longer fun, don't do them, period. If that changes in the future, then I will be thrilled to see the live stream format return. As long as Cory, and the entire team are enjoying what *they* are doing, I will enjoy catching the videos that are published.

We didn't get a picture, but the hawk came back and brought us food again. 90% sure it's a Coopers Hawk.

Marimo are your friend!!! I have 3 marimo in my fry grow out tank. Because zebra mussels are tiny, horribly invasive, and can destroy your plumbing (and we don't actually know how far back the potential issue went), I will share with you what my sister (a former Federal Wildlife Fish & Game employee) told me is best practices for all fishkeeping. Don't put aquarium water down the drain. Pour it on inside plants, or outside (including on plants) a minimum of 150 feet from any drains that could possibly carry the aquarium water into contact with waterways. Keep aquarium water at least 300 feet away from open water ways. Use aquarium water and aquarium plants in the compost pile, which should also meet all of the above criteria. I love my giant marimo ball. It happily rolls from one end of the tank to the other during water changes.

I use a plastic vegetable colander bought at the local store. The vegetable colander has larger holes, but not so large the adult males or midsize and larger females would fall back into the tank. I am sorry your mom is not improving. I am glad you are able to be with her, and do things that bring her joy. That's the most valuable gift we can give another human being.

I really like how you have brought the background into the tank! What does it look like under warmer (red) lights? The only thing I would tilt is Buddha's head a tad. Just to give the "rain forest is reclaiming the land" feel. To uphold the theme, and add a little more drama to the scene, do you have any darker small rocks? And maybe add some darker substrate to the right 1/3 of the tank as well as to the back 1/8 corner of the left side, to give the illusion of a creek or a path (lighter that you already have in there) running through the forest, between the trees. If you create a vanishing point of the creek/path to the back right, behind the Buddha and the two trees you have in the tank on the right, and the large trees in your background fabric on the right side, it would appear to an observer as if we had strolled in to the side of a small stream, and would further pull the fabric into a solid visual perspective for massive trees in the distance. This could be reinforced with your wood on the left in the tank connecting more to the tree trunk by removing some of the green growth you have hypothetically placed, and adding some darker substrate around the tree roots. Not tons darker, just dark enough to tie into the dirt in your background. Plants could be used to edge the creek/path (if you like the creek idea, you'll improve the illusion by using some soil bags to elevate the back bank on the left, and the front bank on the right), and a wider variety of sizes and colors of stones/ river pebbles will also give you some more depth regardless of which approach you choose to take with the substrate.