Ryan W

It will work in any orientation. It’s just a uv-bulb attached to a power head. As long as the pump functions, it doesn’t matter how it’s placed. You can even position the outflow above the waterline if you want. If you get one, don’t be alarmed by the “weak” pump. UV sterilizers need slower water flow to ensure that the UV is actually doing it’s job. If water flows too quickly over the light, it’s essentially useless. Kind of like how if you move your hand quick enough over a flame you won’t get burned but if you go slow you will get burned. In your tank, things need to travel through the UV chamber slow enough to be burned. Quite literally actually.

Just accepted post of George’s book! Pretty excited about this one. I’m going to give it a good read later on tonight and I’m looking forward to learning something new. Who else has ordered one?

I got some Grub Pie for a group of 6 panda cories and they seem to enjoy it. From the responses given I’m to assume that most, if not all, Repashy can work well for cories.

You say it goes away when you gravel vac but comes back a few weeks later. Are you doing any water changes after the initial gravel vac or are you waiting the few weeks to do the water change with the gravel vac? If you’re waiting, that could be your tanks way of telling you that you need to do a more frequent, a more larger, or more frequent larger water changes in between gravel vacs. It also looks like it could be a dissolved root tab that has settled towards the surface of your substrate. That powdery charcoal description sounds a lot like a dissolved root tab. If that’s the case, it is possible that Cyanobacteria is growing on top of the nutrient dense layer exposed to the water column. When I use root tabs, I make sure to put them touching the bottom glass, all the way under the substrate. If it is a root tab, you could be disturbing it by doing the gravel vacs and therefor shifting the dissolved root tab around enough to come through the substrates surface. You also say it’s an established 60g. How deep is your sand bed? Is it possible it’s gone anaerobic and that’s the black that you see? If it’s an anaerobic layer of substrate, you could also be disturbing it by doing your gravel vacs.

Honestly, the “best” is whatever your fish will eat. I remember Cory’s tour of LRB’s fish room and he was amazed that every tank tank only got Tetra Color Granules but that’s what his fish ate and they thrive on it. I use to be a big NLS fanboy until they switched most of their formulas to “Naturox” probiotic. My fish literally went from pigging out on NLS to straight up refusing it. Then I switched to frozen and Xtreme. For Xtreme, my fish really enjoyed the “Community Craze” flakes but I think my jar went stale (they pack a lot in those little jars) after going through half because my tiger barbs started getting very picky. That’s when I started trying frozen. Frozen brine is accepted about 80% of the time and frozen bloodworms are always a hit. As far as brands go for me, for flake my fish seemed to enjoy Xtreme the best. Early on I had success feeding Omega One and Colbalt flakes. I also liked Omega Ones freeze dried brine. For wafers, I like Xtreme and Hikari. For pellets, I really want to like NLS but their offerings are getting harder to find without the “Naturox” additive. I do have a jar of Thera a+ that my fish like but it’s the .5mm pellets and it’s basically like feeding sand. VERY small for .5mm. I wish Xtreme would come out with a 1mm pellet but Xtremes pellets to tend to expand a lot so I’m thinking if I pre-soak the Nano pellets, they might expand large enough for my fish to care about. I swear I have the pickiest fish lol. Vibrabites are also enjoyed by all of my fish (tiger barbs, black neon tetras, panda cories, and a betta and yes he’s in his own tank). So, good brands in my book; Xtreme, Hikari, NLS (if it’s the the correct version), Omega One (freeze dried), and San Fransisco Bay for frozen brine. Omega One also has some pretty decent frozen offerings. I’m currently using their bloodworms. I remember and old video with Cory and Dean discussing foods and the consensus was pretty much all of the foods we have now as hobbyists are relatively better than what we had available just 10-15 years ago let alone 40-50 years ago. Brand doesn’t really matter now a days. It mostly comes down to what we as fish keepers feel comfortable spending coupled with what our fish will actually eat. If your fish thrive off Wardley’s, keep feeding Wardley’s. If you want to feel like you’re giving your fish “the best”, then buy a higher-end brand but don’t get confused if your fish don’t want “the best”. Sometimes, they just want the “same ol’ same ol’” which there’s nothing wrong with that. I know we always want to give our pets the best but sometimes we just need to give them what they want. Sometimes that’s a “cheap” or “inferior” brand. But if the fish thrive from it, what makes it inferior? Our perception on what makes a “brand” good? The difference between “whole” and “meal”? At the end of the day, does it practically matter? As long as the nutrients are there and the price is right, brand is negligible. Thankfully, there really isn’t that many brands to choose from and the ones that are available are pretty much the same thing to our fish. Decent to good food. As long as they eat it. If not, try another brand. Hard to go wrong now a days.

Honesty, I don’t see much a problem here especially for only 4 months. You’re mature leaves still look rather green and lush to me. Here is what I would do; Carefully remove all of those small plantlets growing from the mature leaves and re-attach them at the base of already mature plants. The little plantlets will eventually grow and be should reach the size of the already mature leaves. Then, just keep repeating the process. When you see a plantlet starting to grow from a mature leaf, wait for 1-2 leaves to sprout about an inch and make sure they also have developed roots. Java fern roots will resemble brown threads. Try not to completely damage the mature leaf when removing the plantlets because we still want those to stay healthy for as long as possible. In my experience, I believe when Java fern starts to grow the plantlets from mature leaves, it’s the mature plants way of converting between different water conditions. It doesn’t mean anything is necessarily wrong with your tank, just that the Java fern is in different water than it’s been used to. So, it alters its genetics (before it thinks it’s going to die) in the form of developing offspring that were created by that different water. Why? Well, to preserve its genetics. Plants can do all sorts of wacky things (especially when they think they are going to die) and I believe this to be one of Java ferns wacky things it does. Do I have an education in plant science to back me up? Not at all. But that’s what I’ve come up with after trying to keep it several times and giving up because it just takes sooooooooo long to grow. Anubias nana petite is a “fast-growing” plant in comparison. Ok, maybe not so much a fast-growing plant but it sure seems like it lol.

@Dean’s Fishroom Just make sure you implement a check valve between the diffuser and the bubble counter. Those inline diffusers WILL fill with water once your Co2 shuts off for the night. Although I’ve used inline atomizers off and on for about 5 years, I’ve never used one that wasn’t vertical. Again, as long as you use a check valve before the atomizer, you really should be ok granted everything else is sealed up correctly.

When are you feeding them and when are you trying to observe their eating behavior? Also, how long did you give each individual offering before deeming it a “no”? Meaning, did you try every day for a week or just once or twice? I’m brand new to Cory cats and about a month ago I got 6 pandas for my tiger barb/black neon tank. They tend to spend most of their time grazing on biofilm it seems. Mine seem to be doing great and they are nice and active. Mostly at night, I’m convinced they are mostly nocturnal. Lately, I haven’t even worried about feeding them until after lights out. I’ve been having relative success by offering them Repashy Grub Pie, Xtreme catfish wafers, frozen bloodworms, and Vibrabites (pre-soaked for softening). The first time I tried target feeding them was with the Xtreme wafers and they wanted nothing to do with them. I went out and bought some frozen bloodworms and gave a heavy feeding so the bloodworms would settle and collect for them to forage for. That worked pretty well but I didn’t want to keep doing that daily because I didn’t want to feed the entire tank bloodworms for every feeding (tiger barbs are pigs and I usually feed Xtreme flakes). I then got the Repashy Grub Pie and made a small batch and although the cories “ate” it, they still seemed hesitant but willing. After the cories didn’t seem to really want that either I thought to myself “great, almost $30 in food for nothing”. Then I started watching their feeding behavior. Sporadic and almost uncontrollable is how I would describe it. I also realized that they did a majority of their foraging after lights out. So, I started trying the wafers and Repashy about 30-60 minutes after lights. Then I noticed that by morning the gel/wafers were about half gone. I know they didn’t dissolve because both are very stable in water for at least 24 hours (in my experience). Considering the barbs and tetras sleep at night, my only conclusion was that the pandas had taken to them. Lo and behold, after a few weeks of observation, they had! It wasn’t until I started feeding them at night that they really started taking to the Xtreme wafers. Now, about 5 weeks after purchase, they seem to enjoy the wafers and the gel significantly more than when I got them. Considering you said you’ve had them for several months and they appear to be healthy, your tank has something they want whether you’re giving to them or not! Honestly, at this point, I’d just continue doing what you’re doing. They are proving to be eating something enough to sustain them so why fix what isn’t broken? Having said that, I completely understand picky fish and wanting to give them a varied diet. My barbs I’ve had for about 6-8 months and they eat like toddlers. Sometimes all they will eat is flakes, sometimes it’s pellets, and sometimes it’s frozen and you never know when their appetite will sway or what they will want lol.

Instead of putting the tissue paper on the tank lid, attach it directly to the Stingray. It WILL NOT get hot enough to cause concerns. I’d just scotch tape the tissue paper directly over the Stingrays splash shield. You could even just cover a few sections of the splash shield to cut down a little less light if full coverage proves to diminish too much light. You could also use wax paper to diffuse some light or some window screen. You could also use in an inline dimmer from Amazon for like $5-$15. You’d have to cut your cord to splice on the dimmer but people have been doing dimmer mods to Stingray lights since they came out. It’s very simple to do but I understand not wanting to hack apart your cord but a dimmer wood be your best solution. Another thing you could do is (if you can) physically raise the entire fixture farther away from the waters surface. My favorite part about Stingrays is the flush-mount they include (or use to, I haven’t bought a stingray in years). Another thing you could try if you really wanted to would be to take out the splash guard and clear coat it with a matte clear coat. The matte finish will diffuse the light. I don’t suggest that unless you’re really ambitious because it’s a permanent mod that if you screw up you need to replace the splash guard. If that happens, the splash guard seems to only be either 1/32 or 1/16 plexiglass/lexan (I’m not 100% sure on the thickness). Most home improvement stores (Lowe’s, Home Depot, Menards, etc,.) should carry plexiglass in several thicknesses. Use the old splash guard as a template, trace it on the new sheet, use a razor knife to cut out new splash guard. Plexiglass comes with a protective film over both sides, it usually comes in blue or a foggy matte clear. If it’s foggy matte clear, remove it from one side only. THAT will be your light diffusion. If it’s another color, remove both sides and take a very fine grit sandpaper (1000+) and evenly scuff the entirety of one side. The scuffs will diffuse the light. Although the Stingray isn’t a very powerful light, it does produce good lighting for what it is. In my experience, over time your fish should become accustomed to the brighter light. Some species do tend to be a little “gun-shy” when the tank goes from dark to high-noon bright in a split second but in my experience, most species get use to it. It’s like someone coming up from behind and scaring you. The first handful of times they get you every time but after a week or so, you start to anticipate it so when it happens it’s not such a sudden shock anymore. Again, that depends on species and what’s in the tank that provides natural shadows and hiding spots (overhangs, caves, dense plants, etc,.). In all honesty, I’d be more concerned with new algae growth due to the brighter light. If you can’t get the light “dimmed” within a reasonable time, I’d consider reducing your photoperiod (how long the light is on) by a few hours for a few weeks and slowly lengthen the photoperiod over those few weeks until your tank is back up to the brightness you want. TL;DR........ So, there are several different methods of diffusing excess light. The method you choose is up to your abilities, confidence, motivation, and the tools at your disposal. It can be an easy task or an involved project. Personally, I’d just tape the tissue paper to the fixture and add/takeaway layers until the brightness level is where I want it. If I wanted a permanent solution, I’d just make a new matte splash guard. In my experience, the Stingray shouldn’t really need diffusion unless it’s on a very shallow tank and as long as your fish have a spot to hide for a second or two they should get use to the difference in brightness in a few weeks. I also experience fish becoming startled when lights suddenly turn off too so this may be something we think is “bad” but it really isn’t. That’s why I prefer to use controllable LED’s and ramp up/down the lighting so it’s not such sudden a shock.

I’ve kept oto’s off and on for several years and they have always been the most fragile fish I’ve kept. They either make it or they don’t. I seem to have a 33%-50% survival rate from my local shops (a decent Petsmart and a small shop). During those years I’ve actually never directly fed them instead relying on algae development on spider wood. Offering them a dedicated outside food source, regardless of what it was, never worked for me. For me, it was wood and algae. The ones that made it remained fat and healthy for the entirety of their life. They also came in fat and active so that’s always a plus. The ones that didn’t make it almost always came in more sluggish and not as fat to just plain skinny. Trying to directly feed those ones also resulted in lackluster results. I honestly don’t see how people get their oto’s to eat from being target fed. My experience isn’t from anything remotely considered “scientific” and all of my tanks have been community tanks except for bettas. I believe algae and wood to be the best foods for them and agree with Jeremy B’s advice to culture algae in a separate vessel and give them some of that. Keep in mind though that a well fed oto can be a poop machine let alone a group of them. So, just keep bioload in check with filtration and water changes and everything should be good once they start eating. I have also always assumed they kind of constantly grazed whenever they were attached to a surface. If you’ve ever had a bunch of green spot algae, you can see their little graze trails even if you don’t “see” them eat. You can even see the tiny individual “teeth” marks. It’s pretty neat. I’m my experience, if they have a fat stomach and are active at least half of the time, I don’t really concern myself with their feeding habits considering I know there’s algae always growing and the wood doesn’t help either. Having said that!............ I have lost every single oto I’ve purchased in the last 2 months (or whenever my state allowed fish store sales to resume) dealing with the covid stuff. That’s 5 oto’s. 2 separate occasions. Even ones that seem to appear healthy and active. The ones I’ve seen have also been very small. Much smaller than I’ve seen them before. The market may be a little better now granted that that was a few months ago. I’m in Michigan but all of our fish don’t really come from very many sources especially if bought from a chain store. I’m assuming that the last 10 months has had its toll on the supply chain and the global suppliers have been pumping out as much fish as they can the last few months to recuperate sales.

I’ve ran rimless tanks without tops for the last 7 years. Nothing bigger than a 25g cube but all have never had a top on them. My main reason is because I don’t want my cats to lay on the glass top under my hanging lights and put 14 pounds of unnecessary stress on the tanks glass (and that’s just one cat, I have two). In all that time I can count on one hand how many fish that have actually jumped out (and ultimately died). It just really hasn’t been an issue for me. I’ve kept tiger barbs, several tetra species, oto cats, cory cats, clownfish (when I had my saltwater tank set up), kribs, dwarf cichlids, angelfish, etc,. I keep the water about .75” from the top. I’ve honestly not lost a fish due to jumping in years and I think it was an oto cat. My first tank I had when I got into the hobby about 8 years ago had a top. I couldn’t imagine having a top on a tank now. I suppose if I didn’t have cats I would have glass tops but it wouldn’t be for fish jumping. I’d use it for heat and evaporation control. Evaporation is the biggest setback for me and I feel lucky that I have an auto-top-off unit from my salty endeavors. My 25 gallon cube goes through 1-2 gallons of top-off a week depending on the humidity of the season. I also have super hard water so if I don’t top-off with distilled water I have terrible calcium buildup around the water line. Being auto-topped-off with distilled helps with that issue tremendously. It also helps with controlling nutrient concentration by not being topped off with my terrible tap water considering when water evaporates, salts and minerals stay behind. My tanks tds can rise pretty quickly if I topping with distilled. In many of Cory’s livestreams he mentions that rimless tanks are pretty much for aesthetics only. And he’s spot on. There certainly are trade offs to a rimless/topples tank and fish jumping is one of the biggest concerns. I just don’t seem to be one that has that problem and honestly I view “fish jumping and lids” as one of those things that hobbyists tend to go overboard about. Kind of like building a stand for a 40 gallon tank that can end up holding a Suburban. Perhaps I haven’t kept the right species in the right tanks but almost a decade into fish keeping I just don’t see the need to worry about fish jumping. Having said that though, if your fish are continuously trying to jump out of the tank to the point where you actually need a lid (depending on species, I know some are just prone to jumping. For those species, know what you’re getting into before deciding on tank style) I’d start with trying to think of why they don’t want to be in your tank to start with. Is it bad water chemistry? Other fish stressing them out? Are they sick? In my experience, healthy fish in a healthy environment don’t really tend to jump all that much if at all. And that includes fish in nature. Not much really makes a fish want to surface especially to the point of exiting the water. Food does it mostly. Or aggression. Or ultimately, stress or disease.

Seems like a backwards process to me. I suppose you'd have to consider the reason why you got the RO/DI unit to begin with and that if reintroducing those filtered compounds back into your tank (at a much more highly concentrated level) is really the best thing to do. What you could do is use regular tap water to cut your RO/DI water with so you aren't creating as much waste water to begin with. If you can afford to cut it with 50% tap, you just cut your waste water in half too.

First off, I'm far from an expert and hold no academic degrees. Second, I think you're way over thinking this. Third, I agree with Antichton about it more than likely being proportionate to the surface area of your tank in relation the surface area of the bubbles. Example: An airstone in a 2.5 gallon tank is going to cause much more surface agitation than if that same airstone was in a 250 gallon tank. As far as how detrimental that co2 loss is, well, I suppose that's why most co2 regulators come with needle valves. Use that to compensate for the loss. Should you worry about it? Yes. However, that's what that needle valve is for. Tom Barr injects a lot of co2 (or injected, I haven't heard much about him in a long while) and he usually also implements a sump on his tanks and he is pretty much known as the high-tech planted tank guru. I believe I recall a post very similar to your post on Barrreport a long time ago about co2 loss with the overflow of the sumps and Barr's response was essentially that (and I'm paraphrasing here) "yeah, there is a loss but its nothing that cant be regained by properly adjusting your needle valve". I don't know how big your tank is but another thing to consider about going from a canister to a sponge filter is retaining the amount of current that the filter produced in order to fully saturate the entire water column with co2 and, in conjunction, the efficiency of how you're diffusing the co2 (are you using an inline-atomizer, in-tank ceramic disk, reactor?). Just make sure you aren't creating any dead spots or a lower co2 saturation by only using the sponge filter. Say you're using a ceramic disk diffusor. Those rely heavily on the output of your filter to mix those bubbles within your tank and if you decrease the tank current enough, those co2 bubbles are just going to rise to the surface and pop. You still want all areas of your tank to receive flow and in essence, co2. Considering you won't have a pump to circulate your filtered water, an in-line atomizer or a reactor is out of the question. You can get in-tank atomizers (I think they are called "bazooka" atomizers?) that would create a finer mist of co2 that wouldn't be as prone to just raise and pop. Again, as long as you can ensure co2 dissolution and good tank current, I believe the "math" here to be mostly arbitrary. Take it by ear and adjust accordingly whenever needed. Adjustability is one of the main benefits about using a pressurized co2 system. You are in control. If you need more, add more. if you need less, add less. As the aquarist, we get to dictate how much of what gets introduced into our tanks and its very much ok to take advantage of those options when we need to. This is a great example of knowing when to deploy those advantages by increasing co2 output to compensate for co2 loss from the increased surface agitation. What would all of that look like as an equation? I couldn't even in the least begin to understand any of that but fortunately for us, we don't ever really need to. Lastly, I have to ask, why the need to change your setup? Are you having issues or do you just want to switch things up a bit?

I do the same as Cory. My hot tap comes out at 130F. I spray the the net off good with the hottest water I can then just air dry. Sometimes I don’t even let them dry before using again. I’ve also never had any issues that I can recall from doing this.

My favorite plant is Downoi (Pogostemon helferi). It was one of the only plants that really thrived in the liquid rock that is my tap water. Stunning little plant and fairly low demanding all around. My tank would produce beautiful 2”x2” crowns that stayed crowns that would develop daughter plants and that was just using 2 12” Stingrays for light over a 30cm cube. They used to be a rather available species in the hobby about 5 years ago but man is their structure fragile as can all be. I haven’t been able to find nice specimens in about 4 years though (if I can even find any). I had my best luck with the tissue cultured packs. I wish it would come back but I can only assume it’s a major loss for vendors due to its fragile nature. Shipping it is dreadful in my experience. I miss that plant 😞

Most anubias can get pretty huge. Bigger than what a 15 gallon should hold. Unless, however, you planned on going all small Anubias. Personally, I’d stick with the smaller Barteri variant such as Nana and Nana’s sub-cultivars like Petite, Bonzai, and Micros. Next, you’re going to have to decide if you’re going to use them as epiphyte plants (attached to hardscape), plant them in a substrate, or both. If you’re going to attach them to hardscape, I’d go with yannachka’s advise of dosing easy green 1x every 1-2 weeks (starting with the latter). You could even start with monthly dosing if you really wanted to or no dosing at all. If you’re actually planting them (don’t bury the rhizome or it will rot) I would go with a high-quality nutrient rich substrate like ADA aquasoil. Fantastic substrate for plants like this. If going this route, you more than likely wouldn’t have to dose any nutrients for months (depending on water-change frequency) unless you actually need supplemental dosing like iron (or calcium/magnesium depending on your water source and hardscape choices). Dosing nutrients also depends on how much light you’re going to use. How much light you’re going to use depends on your plant choices and how fast you want them to grow. For an Anubias only tank, I’d use just as much light as you can get away with without the tank being completely dark. Meaning, DO NOT over do it. It’s really easy to do. If using a name-brand modern LED fixture, its lowest setting will probably be more than enough light down to at least 18”. A window sill or countertop across from an open window would even be enough to keep it slowly thriving for years. Anubias does not grow quick enough to utilize a large amount of light (or nutrients for that matter). Your light intensity dictates your plants (and algae) nutrient uptake (along with plant choices). More light means more nutrients and more Co2 to keep the “balance” assuming that your plants can utilize it all before growing algae. Anubias, doesn’t do that in our tanks. It’s a very slow grower with few demands. If you throw a bunch of lights and nutrients in the water, you are going to grow algae and become frustrated and Anubias isn’t really a cheap plant. However, that’s actually good for us because that means we don’t need to spend a whole lot of money on intense lights, nutrients, and pressurized Co2. Ahhh, Co2....... Do you need it for Anubias? Short answer......No. Long answer...........No, however!........ If my goal was to produce an awesome Anubias only tank that showed off my passion for the hobby, you bet I’d inject pressurized Co2. Only at a very reduced level. Perhaps even down to .25-.5 bubbles per second (going from your 15 gallon example). Why? Because the plants aren’t demanding a lot of nutrients or light to thrive. Add just enough Co2 to create that “balance”. If you want to provide an optimal growing environment AND have control over than environment, you need to be playing with all of the necessary pieces and Co2 is very much one of those pieces. Of course, some may say that for such a low energy tank, one could get enough Co2 from implementing an air stone and utilizing whatever Co2 comes through from the atmospheric air that we breathe. And I would believe them to be correct. Personally, I don’t care for the aesthetics of an air stone and in smaller tanks I find them cumbersome and kind of messy. Your results may vary, but pressurized Co2 is so much easier to control. Having said that (and although I honestly advise against it EXCEPT for the sole purpose of learning about Co2 before investing in a pressurized system), a DIY Co2 setup would be more than enough for a low energy Anubias tank. If you want to go the DIY route there’s 2 ways to do it: 1). Yeast and sugar. 2). Baking soda and citric acid. #1 is easier for the average hobbyist to setup but the stability of the yeast/sugar mixture can be a little tricky to reliably dial in every time and should be remixed every week. The best way to do it is to use a two-bottle setup and rotate out 1 bottle every week so there’s always a fresh bottle going while the other is depleting. It really helps with stability. #2 has a much higher stability tendency but is more difficult to setup. However, the mixture can last much much longer than your average yeast/sugar setup. I went pressurized before getting into the citric acid method but I use to use yeast/sugar for a few years. It’s a hassle but a great way to learn. Adding any Co2 (diy or pressurized) may present the case with Anubias where you may actually need to dose iron especially if you’re using a high-quality light. You would do that by either using root tabs or dosing the water column (depending on of you have them attached to hardscape or planted in substrate). Keep in mind that high-quality lighting doesn’t have to translate into high-intensity lighting. ALSO, plants do require oxygen. They intake Co2 and expel oxygen during the day. Then, intake oxygen and expel Co2 at night). That’s why we don’t inject Co2 24/7. This is where an air stone can really shine. At night! I’d also keep my water temps cooler. Between 70-72 Fahrenheit. Although algae can grow in colder water than we’d ever keep in a tank (it can even grow on and in ice, I’ve personally seen this while ice fishing), cooler water can help deter algae. Keep in mind that water temperature has a big impact on the plants metabolism so a slow growing plant will perhaps grow just a tad bit slower in cooler water. But, cooler water also has its advantages. It holds Co2 and oxygen better than warmer water. TL;DR..... Keep your lighting low, perhaps even almost “too” low. Keep your nutrient dosing also low and at an almost intermittent but consistent routine (1-4x a month). If you add Co2, DIY or pressurized, keep your bubble rate low (<1bps) to not offset the “balance” and also keep your lighting right where it’s at (don’t make it brighter!). That will offset the balance and the goal here isn’t to create a high-energy tank BECAUSE we don’t have any high-energy plants but we still need the 3 essential parts all serious planted tanks need; Light, nutrients, and respiration (Co2/oxygen). Anubias isn’t a demanding plant so don’t try to make it one. Last but not least..........Have fun and learn something!

Like you said, the article is driven towards game and commercial fish. Meaning, its fish that will eventually be consumed by humans. So, it's not so much "will this sustain a fish?" as it is "what are the affects on humans that eat these fish?". Not only is soy extremely high in estrogen, its also one of the most traded goods on the planet. if DuPont can sell more soy, they are going to find a way. Selling to fish farms in massive bulk loads can create a lot of revenue for whoever holds significant soy interests, say a company like DuPont. Again, this being based off of commercial fish. Is it a good thing? Well, I don't work for Dow so I cant help there. I do live 25 miles from it though. As far as our aquarium fish go, as a hobbyist, I wonder what the affects of all that estrogen packed soy could do to breeding operations for certain species. Since soy can and does raise estrogen levels in male species, how would estrogen affect hobby fish sustainability? Would feeding soy based fish foods be detrimental to the male/female ratio? Would males even be able to fertilize eggs long term? Here's a quick article I found interesting https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3921986/. Although the article references a synthetic estrogen found in oral contraceptives (birth control), it can still produce the same affects of biological estrogen. Also, Cory is correct about dying farm raised salmon pink. Their flesh just doesn't produce enough enzymes to correlate with wild caught salmon. Why? Because of the food they are fed at the farm. Also like Cory said, in a fish farm where you're maximizing profit, these food studies can make sense. I guess the real question is what are the consequences of consuming commercially raised fish solely based on taste and weight? It's when those practices are prioritized over the welfare of those fish and the people consuming them when it becomes a problem. Circling back to DuPont...

How old is your tank? Looks like filamentous diatoms during a cycle/re-cycle (if not, possibly brown hair algae). If it is, It should eventually go away as your tank matures. In the mean time, I would double check your water parameters and manually remove as much of it as possible then do a water change. Repeat as necessary. My limited knowledge doesn't know of any critters that will eat it. Oto cats will usually eat regular diatoms though (which I can see in your tank) but they will need outside food once its all gone. Also, instead of reducing the hours of light, try reducing the intensity of light by either dimming it, raising it higher, or using something to diffuse the light (window screen). You can also decrease light by increasing tannins. 7 hours should be just fine as long as your light isn't incredibly bright. I run my tanks for 10 hours. Having said that, I don't think reducing your lighting is going to help with your current situation (assuming it's filamentous diatoms). However, it is always best to start your tank with lower light and gradually increase the intensity over a few weeks until you reach your plants and your tanks threshold. That threshold is dependent on your plant choices, fert/co2 dosing, light intensity, light quality, and overall water quality. Hopefully someone will come by and give you some more knowledgeable advice!

I’d also lean towards Bolbitus. Not many plants in our hobby are rhizomes and have that leaf structure. Did the new growth start kind of curled up then fan out?

All of the plants that us hobbyists use for aquariums are sourced from all over the world. Have a blast! Just be sure that they are actual aquatic species. Having said that, some aquatic plants are just temperamental and do better in different types of water. Usually, that comes down to your tanks water hardness. But yes, assuming your “balance” is correct and your plants are aquatic species, you can grow plants from anywhere. Concerning the “balance” and plant choices: Although we can grow plants from all over the world, different plants do require different “balances”. Sure, you can grow low-energy plants in a high-energy tank but the “balance” has to be set for your high-energy plants. Why? Because to keep your high-energy plants thriving you’re going to need to provide them with the correct tools (the “balance”) in order to expel all of that energy created through photosynthesis (growing plants). If your high-energy plants are using most of the tools it leaves just enough tools for your low-energy plants to use. Usually, the low-energy plants will be utilized in shadowy areas so the high-lighting won’t affect them (concerning algae build-up). Now, what about setting the balance for a low-energy setup? Can you still have high energy plants in a low-energy tank? Sure can! This is where plant choices really matters and where those finicky plants I mentioned above come into play. You want a dwarf baby tear carpet in your low-energy tank? I’d probably pick a different plant. Why? DBT needs more photosynthetic energy to thrive than what the average low-energy tank provides, 2 things will most likely happen; The DBT will slowly die off because it isn’t getting enough light OR you’ll have to crank the light up too high for the low-energy plants and assuming the low-energy tank isn’t using Co2, all of that light is just going to create algae and then your just back to square one (reseting the balance to high-energy). This is where choosing a nice stem plant that can handle a range of lighting conditions can be really handy. Wisteria is a great “all-rounder” plant that’s good at consuming energy to help maintain tank balance in all tank-energy levels. A great “all-rounder” carpeting plant one could use in a low-energy setup, in my experience, is Monte Carlo. Like wisteria, it can handle a large range of lighting conditions. Just have fun and do your research. Planted aquariums is one of those things that you don’t really know until you do it yourself. You can watch as many videos as you can but until you do it yourself you don’t really know what to do. Remember, every tanks water chemistry is different. Having said that, most of all the plants on the planet want the same thing and when you can properly provide those things your plants with thrive. The challenge (and fun) comes in finding that “balance”. Full disclaimer that most planted aquarium enthusiasts never tell you: 1) Be prepared to kill some plants and feel like you’re wasting money sometimes. 2) Just because a certain plant works in someone else’s tank doesn’t mean it’s going to thrive in your tank. 3) If your scape looks good to you, it is good!

First, are you sure that once you find an adapter that the paintball place will even touch your tank? A lot of gas-fillers don’t like dealing with adapters and non-standard fitting applications (piecing together different fittings to make it work). Why, because usually gas-fillers are dealing with welders and welding is an extremely dangerous process and you don’t want an acetylene leak while you’re cutting metal with fire! Even though Co2 is non flammable, it’s still under an immense amount of pressure and sloppy fittings can still be dangerous, especially running/rolling around the woods with a paintball gun. It’s 100% a liability and they can’t warrant your pieced together regulator. That’s why most don’t touch adapters and diy fittings. Having said that, honestly, since your regulator has CGA320 fittings, I’d find a reputable welding shop (I use Airgas) and get a 5lb cylinder. In my area, that’s going to run about $100 for a full cylinder. However, when it runs dry (I’m going 10 months, 2bps, and my tank hasn’t even dropped in pressure), you exchange for a full cylinder. That runs about $20. Meaning, if you had a proper Co2 cylinder, for the cost of what an adapter (if it even exists) plus shipping would cost, you could have a new 5lb cylinder at the cost of driving to the store. MOST areas have at least one welding supply store. If there are Amish in your area, try getting ahold of them if you can for a refill on your current tank. Amish do a lot of welding. And considering your current tank does in fact have a standard CGA320 fitting, they may already have the means to refill it. Also, if you have any type of micro-brewery or beverage supply shop, they may also be able to help you with refilling a non-standard Co2 tank. Another option would be to use paintball tanks with the appropriate CGA320 fitting that you keep finding. In the long run though, a proper cylinder will be the cheapest option. $20 for a 5lb exchange or $20 for a 20oz disposable tank.

Nice! You’re welcome man. The most important thing is finding a piece of gear that’s easy for you to use. The easier it is, the more fun the learning curve is going to be. The more fun it is, the more pictures you’re going to take! I think you’re going to have a lot of fun.

Looks like how all my wisteria has looked, which is also very easy to grow. I’ve grown full plants from leaf fragments. Whether it’s wisteria or water sprite though, I’d plant it and not let it float. To me, letting it float just looks like you haven’t planted it yet which looks messy. Honestly though, in about a month it will be both! Both species are rather quick growers and should reach the surface in no time. Having said that, letting it float would accelerate areal root growth.

I noticed that you haven’t mentioned your filter at all. What type of filter are you using and did you clean that as well? If you haven’t, your filter is just continuing to dissolve all the food it’s collected and pollute the water column (the grease you mention) and no amount of water changes is going to offer any immediate help. If you haven’t already, I’d give your filter a thorough cleaning including all sponges. If you have healthy and ample biomedia, your tank should be able to handle a full filter cleaning. I use canister filters and I personally use hot tap water to clean all of my sponges. I clean everything except the biomedia tray which usually just gets swished around in old tank water. My 2¢... I think your filter is currently working against you. You can only clean so much from the tank itself before there just isn’t anything left to remove. Filters can be the source of many problems we encounter. After your filter is clean, continue doing your water changes and monitoring the situation. You could use granulated carbon to help remove the dissolved organics but since it’s a planted tank, granulated carbon will certainly work against you. Seachem Purigen is also very effective at removing dissolved organics without affecting nutrient dosing.

In my experience (about 8-9 years), with my tap water, it doesn’t matter when I implement dechlorinator. Sometimes I flat out forget about it all together. However, not all water is the same and some areas of the country you can literally smell the chlorine while the tap is running. In cases like that, I would implement dechlorinator before EVER entering your tank and may even consider adding the routine of leaving my change-water sit overnight with an air stone to help off-gas the chlorine instead of solely relying on a chemical dechlorinator. But, with tap water within “regular” chlorine levels, it hasn’t seemed to matter.