Isaac M

You could try finding a planter that is not very wide as lucky bamboo roots stay really small. This should allow the ludwigia to get light. And you could plant ludwigia trimmings in the planter to grow it emersed. The steel wire will only work if you can brace it in thirds in all 4 directions. But yes the foam should help. Depending on how tall it is/ gets, it can start to lean though over time.

I will add something that I think does not get much love, the coarse sponge pad. It can be used in a variety of ways but the most common way I have been using it as of recently is as a scrubber. I cut it into small squares and use it to scrub away hard water deposits left behind from evaporation at the water line and even algae (especially in corners). My aquariums are glass however, I do not know if it will scratch acrylic.

@Irene That is a lucky find! My school of pygmy corydoras recently spawned for me and I agree with you about the bloodworms being too big. I usually will feed mine frozen tubifex worms though which they can easily eat. Also, I was able to fatten mine up with Xtreme sinking wafers. It worked really well as they are very stable in water which allowed the pygmy corys to graze on them all day every day. I do minimal tank maintenance as well but I have pH on the higher side (between 7-8.2 usually) and harder water. I also do not have a heater on my aquarium so my pygmys spawned in 68-70 degree water.

@Guppysnail I keep mine straight by resting it against other things at the top and the bottom is in the gravel. If you want to keep it floating in the egg crate like you have it, I would cut up some aquarium coop coarse foam and stuff it into the egg crate holes sort of how @bettta999 said. In other words, you will pretty much need to brace it in all directions to keep it standing straight up. Other than that, I would recommend using a method with planters that hang around the rim sort of how I have some of my riparian plants. That will allow you to plant it in a substrate where it can stand straight and out of the water. This method will also free up a lot of space for maintenance, feeding, etc.

Most of the videos I have seen of corydoras in the wild have minimal plants so unless you are going for a specific biotope aquarium, I would just go with an aquascape that you and the corydoras would enjoy. I love my corydoras aquarium (3 species of corydoras and red cherry shrimp colony) and what I have learned from it is this: -They love being able to rest in areas of low flow and being able to play in areas of high flow -They love if the aquarium is shaded in some areas with plants -They love being able to graze on food all day without any competition -They will spawn everywhere, plants, plant roots, flat surfaces no matter how much you have of each I hope that helps!

My recommendation would be to feed the bettas first (or any other fish for other members experiencing this issue) and then feed a food that is long lasting in the aquarium such as repashy or xtreme sinking wafers. What I have found is that if I feed enough, the other more aggressively feeding fish will eat until they are full and then leave the cory food alone. They may pick at it for the first hour or so but after that, the corys will be able to eat it the rest of the day/ night.

Welcome to the forum! Cannot wait to see your future fish room expansion! Marine Biologist was a career I was interested in too haha

I see, but I guess what I am referring to is that if you are using some sort of ammonia in a bottle, it is different than ammonia you are getting naturally from your established aquariums. I am just throwing that out there as sometimes people will get a 0.5ppm ammonia reading after dosing their water conditioner. Especially within the first 48-24 hours. And yeah its understandable, I would be frustrated too because it should be happening so I dont think that is a totally unrealistic mindset 😂

I see, I would still give his method a chance for longer than 3 weeks as this process can easily take 4 weeks or more. He does say though that higher ph water with more minerals is beneficial for the bacteria. Do you think that this could be a test kit issue? I know sometimes there can be issues with test kits and water conditioners or ammonia solutions.

Hello @Preyhunter, I just posted about this topic in this thread: I am referencing it as I think the information I posted is relevant to your post but I do not want to type all of that out again 😂

Hi @laritheloud, have you heard of Dr. Tim Hovanec? I would suggest reading some of his stuff or listening to him talk about a fishless cycle. He created Dr. Tims aquatics which is known for their bacteria in a bottle and ammonium chloride solution. I used his method and products to successfully fishless cycle my reef tank quickly. From what I learned from him and my own fishless cycle, you typically do not want to go to high with the initial ammonia concentration. I used 2ppm. The purpose for this is that you want to keep the concentration of ammonia and nitrite below 5ppm or else you will stall your cycle which may be happening to you. The bacteria that converts nitrite to nitrate typically takes the longest to establish so if you constantly add more ammonia or start off with a lot of ammonia, you will end up with a nitrite concentration over 5ppm causing the cycle to stall. It is not necessary to have a constant source of ammonia either. I imagine your kh dropped because the high concentrations of ammonia and nitrite and ultimately nitrates are causing your water to acidify due to the nitrogen cycle. The issue with that as well is that once the ph drops below 7 as it will with your kh dropping, your bacteria will have a harder time establishing. There is a lot to unpack here but ultimately I would recommend doing a 50% water change daily until you get your ammonia and nitrite concentrations somewhere in the 1-3ppm range, or even just to get your nitrate in a fish safe zone. Then you can begin again adding minimal ammonia (1-2ppm) and letting that convert to nitrite, then waiting for that nitrite to convert to nitrate. After that you can add another 1ppm of ammonia just to check if the cycle is working properly, if it is, you are cycled! Anyways, this can get somewhat complex so I just stick to using seeded media and plants in my own tanks 😂 Good luck and let us know if you need any additional help! You can do this!

I do something similar with plastic canvas as a means to reduce algae. Most of my aquariums do not use a cover though and even on some of the ones that do, I try to conceal it by taping it to the light itself. Here is one example for my 5 gallon: I left the middle open as that light grows the moss on my “bonsai” tree in there but I would grow a lot of algae on the glass. Thats why I covered the sides only. Now the algae on the glass grows at a small fraction of the speed.

@Tressie well it depends as I am not sure how much you know. But in general, it is usually cheaper and a better experience overall if you do the proper research and planning before setting up an aquarium. The friendly helpful people of this forum will definitely help you do that. So yeah, do not be afraid to ask any questions, we are here to help you succeed.

@mbwells no problem, glad you will be able to use it! Haha And yes! Baby brine shrimp is very easy to hatch as well, I just add a liter of water with 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt, add some brine shrimp eggs (whatever you may need for your aquariums), add an airstone (not a lot of air, just enough to circulate the water a bit) and you are set to harvest them in 24-36 hours or so. I have yet to keep the asian stone catfish so I would recommend doing some more research on their diet. But given that they are catfish, I would imagine they would love frozen worms such as frozen bloodworms and frozen tubifex worms. Tubifex are smaller so if they are really small, this may be easier for them to consume. There is also frozen baby brine shrimp available with and without spirulina enrichment. Initially you can always look for one of those packs that have multiple types of different frozen foods in them just to see if they have a preference or just to give variety as they are great foods nonetheless for all your fish. I hope that helps!

I would also recommend the krill flakes as well as the nano pellets (am actually feeding this as I type this) like @Guppysnail mentioned. If your danios and/ or white clouds are still small, the aquarium co-op small fish and fry food is also great to have! Especially if you are thinking of breeding these fish. If your asian stone catfish eat dry food, I really like the xtreme sinking wafers as they retain their shape for a long time. Really helpful for fish that graze or are nocturnal. If you really want to splurge, live baby brine shrimp is always a great option.

Hello @Tressie, welcome to the forum and to the hobby! We are glad to have you!

@Fish Folk I am just thinking out loud here but I suspect it has something to do with the decomposition of driftwood as I do not really have this issue in aquariums without driftwood. However, in my 40 gallon the driftwood does not have that issue and it came from the same place as the driftwood in the 55 gallon. Two things that come to mind is that it has red cherry shrimp that spend their time eating biofilm and it also has better water flow. So my thoughts are either: -No driftwood -Add plecos or red cherry or any organism that will clean/ eat the driftwood -Increase water flow so mulm does not settle and accumulate on the driftwood These thoughts however do not really explain the issue or attempt to truly understand the problem like what @OnlyGenusCaps proposed. @Randall from Texas, I had some black beard algae but it was not a crazy amount. But mine was not as high energy as yours as I imagine you have co2 and I did not. I had a decently bright light and organic soil under the bdbs. Here are 3 pictures of it taken from January 5, 2020 to November 6, 2020, it was rescaped once in that time frame: I have always had issues with bba though, I just let it be at this point, the only thing I would try now are siamese algae eaters haha

@WhitecloudDynasty I see, thank you for that information, I had no idea. I guess I will just wait and see what happens.

@Fish Folk I had a old 55 gallon set up for 2 years with black diamond blasting sand and I did not have much issue with diatoms, more with black beard algae. What is kind of ironic is that I have 2 aquariums with pool filter sand yet the aquarium that grows the most diatom/ brown algae is my 10 gallon with just normal gravel and dragon stone. From looking at the pictures, it looks more like mulm/ debris caught in some sort of biofilm like what I have in my current 55 gallon but I have no idea to be honest. Just throwing what I have experienced out there.

@WhitecloudDynasty what do you mean the red line? And yeah I would have thought that they should be showing some color, its a school of 15+ so I hope there would be at least one male in there haha I got mine from dansfish

@eatyourpeas thank you! And yes, as you know, there is enough drama in saltwater tanks to rival soap operas! and I am not trying to get wrapped up in it haha

@Guppysnail thank you! I have only been feeding the sinking wafers as of recently (maybe a month) so I was able to get the pygmy corys to spawn pretty much only using that food. The shrimp I have in there have been eating that as well. It usually takes them 2 days minimum to consume the wafers though, all the corys and shrimp will graze on it throughout the day as they like.

It really depends how high your nitrates are but I would not be too worried about the nitrates coming from easy green. If you follow easy greens instructions, 1 pump per 10 gallons, it will only add 3ppm of Nitrate. Given that your plants will also get more of the other nutrients, your plants will likely grow a little faster and end up eating up the nitrate anyways to grow. Not knowing anything else about your aquarium or water parameters, I would not change anything about your water change schedule. Just keep up what you are doing and see what changes easy green causes in your aquarium. Here are some articles about algae, balancing an aquarium and water changes. These may be helpful as your aquarium matures. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-algae https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/water-changes

Hello @Linda4fish, nitrite is typically something you do not want building up in your tank if you want to have fish or other animals in it as it is highly toxic. Ideally it should be zero. As far as nitrates go, plants require more than just nitrates or nitrogen to grow. As far as nutrients go, plants will require the big 3 of nitrogen (provided by ammonia and nitrates usually), phosphorous and potassium along with micronutrients such as iron, magnesium, and more to grow and be healthy. If there is an abundance of certain nutrients but others are missing, your plant will develop symptoms of a deficiency related to that nutrient. You can use the following link to read about and diagnose deficiencies: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies I hope that helps!

Adding on to what @lefty o said, you can look for the runners or smaller plants next to the larger mother plants, pull those up and cut the runners. If you want to transfer the big plants, then just pull them up and cut the roots to a few inches or else you may end up disturbing more gravel than you wanted.