Isaac M

@H.K.Luterman those look like sprouts for the leaves so I would leave it the way it is. The roots are usually more of a white color. And normally the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrite become established first so it is likely that all the ammonia is being consumed and converted to nitrite, hence the 0 ammonia reading. The bacteria converting nitrite to nitrate take longer since there has to be enough nitrite in the water for them to consume. Thats why the nitrite level is high. The lilly is going to look great in that tank though! Cannot wait to see it!

I have some dr tims ammonium chloride arriving tomorrow and have an unopened bottle of aquarium co-op ammonia strips. I will run this test as well using the dipping method and also the swirling method on the packaging while comparing it to my api test kit. I am extremely curious to see what the result is!

It looks like green spot algae to me. I would reduce the lighting if possible. I use a similar floodlight(15W LED) to that in a 29 gallon and have no algae. I also use 2 of them in a 40 gallon and only get a little green spot algae. So if that floodlight is anything like mine, it is likely very bright.

@HisMineandOurs the way to feed the fish more without letting a lot of the food go to the snails is to feed more often and less in each feeding. Also to feed slowly like @Guppysnail recommended. This will allow for more happiness while minimizing snail population haha

Hello @PaigeGlamelin, would you happen to have a picture of the aquarium? How long has it been set up? Just wondering given that you have a nitrite reading with no nitrates. But @Remlicht89 gave some good advice, it takes time and patience to balance an aquarium after a major change.

Any of dwarf sag, ludwigia, rotala, pogostemon stellata octopus, pearlweed, hydrocotyle tripartita would all look great in there in my opinion. Nice white clouds and aquarium by the way!

It depends on what you have currently stocked but dwarf chain loaches may work. Assassin snails as mentioned by others work as well. If you do not mind having some snails, then making sure not to overfeed generally works well. I have pond snails in a 55 gallon that do not overpopulate just by simply not overfeeding. My amano shrimp also help to eat any leftovers before the snails do. Assassin snails have also gotten rid of ramshorn snails in my 29 gallon before.

Hi @Jeff, I agree with @CosmicAshhole, it all depends on the bioload. Given that this is just a quarantine tank (btw, very impressed that you are using a 55 gallon as a quarantine tank haha), I imagine the stocking will not be too heavy. A single large or even two medium sponge filters on each side for better flow should be good. I would only do two large if you will have a heavy bioload.

Oh I see haha what I do is only add a little bit of brine shrimp eggs into the Ziss one. I only fill it halfway with water and use enough eggs to feed 3 aquariums which is not much. A 29 gallon, 55 gallon and a 10 gallon. You can make as much as you need. But honestly, you can make brine shrimp in any container really as long as you have some air in it (not too much though as you can make the baby brine shrimp crash into each other and die or get hurt). I personally got the Ziss one because of how convenient it is. I would recommend finding something that has a little spout at the bottom so you can let the hatched eggs float to the top while pouring the brine shrimp out of the bottom. That and the sieve makes it very easy and clean to feed.

Here is the temperature of the 10 gallon quarantine tank next to the hatcher right now, it is 72.2 degrees Fahrenheit. I would say 70 degrees would be the lowest I would go. Brine shrimp take longer to hatch in a cooler environment. For instance, in the winter time, it would easily take 36 hours or even more for them to hatch. Right now, all or most would hatch in the 36 hours. I am not sure what you mean about the sieve and being handy. I did not make it, I bought it and the brand is on the box in the picture. The purpose of the sieve is to run the brine shrimp and the salty water through it, the sieve will catch all of the brine shrimp while letting the water go through. That way you do not get all the salt and ammonia into the aquarium. I hope that helps! If I misunderstood I apologize, please let me know if I did!

Here is my setup, I have it underneath my tank stand so like I said, no light directly on it. As far as not getting salt in your aquarium, I use this sieve. But honestly, I have just dumped in the salt before, with plants, snails, and corydoras. Unless you have a really small aquarium, the salt will get diluted and I imagine the plants and fish would actually use some if not all of the minerals it would provide. Regular water changes will also further dilute.

@Leo2o915 Wow I did not know there were this many people from the valley here! Awesome! Haha @CosmicAshhole yeah that is going to be a rough day. Wow no central AC, I am sorry to hear that, I wish you the best! Stay safe! and honestly, I do not even use heaters in any of my aquariums haha

I personally do not use any light and mine hatch just fine in 24-36 hours. I use the aquarium co-op brine shrimp eggs as well. I have fed brine shrimp up to 3 days after they hatched but I did notice that some had died by that point (I accidentally poured too many brine shrimp eggs for my amount of fish).

@CosmicAshhole 😂 today was decent though, too bad I cannot say the same for the next 6 days though haha

@CosmicAshhole I feel you about Fresno 😂

I should be receiving some ammonium chloride from Dr Tims on Thursday. I will test this as well in an empty 10 gallon and post the results. Just out of curiosity, why are you not a fan of fishless cycling @Cory? I typically use cycled filter media, growing plants and patience to cycle my aquariums as I do not enjoy the fishless cycling process. Unfortunately I do not have these things for my new saltwater tank so I will be using ammonium chloride and bottled denitrifying bacteria to cycle a sponge filter & some dry rock. I will also be getting some aqua-cultured live rock as well to help speed things along.

😂 this was an amazing read, felt like I was living it myself, great to hear what the hobby has done for you, your life and your relationship. The tank is looking great! I cannot wait to see the updates and the future pond!

The materials are starting to come in for all of the aquarium upgrades. I will be adding and eventually painting a wood skin for the metal stands. I will be using magnets to stick them on. Eventually I want to paint some artwork on it but I am still thinking of what to paint exactly! I also got a polycarbonate greenhouse panel to make aquarium lids for 2 quarantine tanks and the new 40 gallon reef tank. I will be doing them similarly to Dean with hinges and the cabinet knob. I bought some PVC fittings and a 10 foot PVC pipe to construct the stand for the floodlights going on the 55 gallon. I also received quite a few packages from the Co-Op. This was mostly filled with sponge filters and the whole air pump setup along with the new auto-feeders. I will be switching the 55 gallon to 2 sponge filters instead of the canister filter it has now. The auto-feeder barely fit on the rim of my 55 gallon and I had to use tape to not overfeed with Xtreme Nano pellets. I only have it set for once a day and one barrel rotation. I will be feeding live baby brine, flakes or frozen food later on in the day. Quick update on the Sterbai fry, this batch is definitely doing a lot better. They are much more brave in leaving the shadows of the Catappa leaf and show no signs of bloat. A very large order from Bulk Reef Supply will be arriving later this week as well. Lots of fun stuff going on, my love for the hobby has not gone away thats for sure! 😂

I agree with @Beardedbillygoat1975, the Eric Bodrock presentation is brilliant. I used it to help me with feeding my sterbai corydoras. I also agree that they enjoy dimmer light. I have a 40 gallon corydora tank and it is shaded by pothos and dwarf aquarium lillies and they are out all day. If you want a cheaper alternative and only want to grow low light plants, I would go with a finnex stingray over a glass top. That will help with the current lid issue and you know the light will be capable of growing plants. You should be able to grow crypts, most epiphytes (moss, anubias, bolbitis, buce, etc), hygrophilas, pennywort, and more. For the 37 Gallon, you can make a diy lid using polycarbonate greenhouse panels. You can do this for the 55 gallon as well if you really dislike the lids that much.

Hello @Mread, please see the following screenshot from the Aquarium Co-Op website regarding Purigen: I highlighted the area that applies to this post. Purigen should not remove Easy Green. However, it is meant to remove ammonia and nitrates which plants do use to grow. Plants will still grow with Purigen in your filter as I have done it many times before but it is something to keep in mind. I hope that helps!

Fluval has an app to control the light from your phone. I think it is called the FluvalSmart App. A common issue with lighting and algae as well is to have the blue light on too high (I would put it in the single digits percentage wise on the app). I would try to reduce the light intensity overall and see if that helps. If you want the greenwater to go away faster, I would reduce the amount of hours the light is on for as well.

It looks like it could be green water to me, a fluval 3.0 can be a very strong light. Do you have it set at 100% intensity?

Hi @Alyssa Holdwick! Corydora tanks are awesome! I am not sure of your lighting, fertilization and other details but bolbitis is a plant I like a lot more than java fern. It grows slowly but will look large in a 50 gallon. Do you have a certain look or maintenance schedule you are going for?

Oooo so smooth!

My last aquarium is my 55 gallon planted aquarium. Here is a picture of the current setup: I will be completely rescaping this aquarium. I will be going with epiphytes only. Mostly just bolbitis and anubias. Above the water I will be growing a lot of plants like peace lilly, pothos and more. My idea for the hardscape is to use 3 manzanita branches as shown in the picture below. I will also be using large river rocks. The substrate will consist of pool filter sand mixed with gravel. The aquarium will eventually be home to rainbow shiners and most likely dwarf chain loaches. I will likely be posting about this build in a week or two when I finish it. I hope some of you will enjoy my journal. If anyone has any recommendations, comments, concerns and/or questions, please comment below! I would love to have you great people be part of my journey!