[What did you get done today?]

@Cory  I made this video, based on some things I learned from you and @Dean’s Fishroom

 

[Conundrum - let's have some ideas on my tanks]

I will likely make multiple posts to cover my questions as I have 3 main tanks I'm working with.

First up, I have a 29 gallon.  It's lightly planted and I'm adding more, but slowly.  It has aged driftwood with well rooted moss.  The tank is what I would consider well seasoned.  Water changes are kept to a minimum, and I rely on ACO test strips, a professional Ph meter, and the general appearance of the tank/behavior of the fish.

1 BN Pleco (a rescue from the cleaning cart at petco)

5 Serbia Cory's (Hi Cory)

10-15 Cardinal Tetras

10 Fork Tail Rainbow

3 Black Kuli's

This past week I added a Beta.  The first one I've had in close to 20 years.  It's a Galaxy Koi Candy Cane.  I named him Orion the Nebulous.

I want to add shrimp.  Is that a mistake?  Should I move the Beta out until the shrimp are established?  Can I do Cherry's or should I go with Bamboo?

[Water temperature for plants]

I guess my question, without starting another thread with the same title, would be:

How important is temperature for plants?  Can I grow Scarlet Temple in 83-84 degrees?

I'm asking because I keep failing.  I've tried Scarlet Temple 3 times now.  I am looking at another site that actually has recommended temperatures, and wondering why they're not listed on ACO's web site.

Why am I failing?  I am using easy green 1 pump per 10 gallon on a very sparsely planted tank.  My nitrates, depending on tank, range from 50-150 (Co-Op strips), the hardness is 75 or greater.

They are dying within a few weeks.  The bottom of the stems just melt along with the rest of the leaves.

Is temperature a factor?

Is the fact that ACO grows with CO2 and I am not (is it withdraw)?

Frustrated and feeling like a failure.

[Scarlet temple not doing so well]

I totally get HH's point, and I would like that as well.  That being said, I am hoping to use my quarantine tank to give the AR time to fully convert, which seems to be my issue.  This is my 3rd attempt at this plant, but I was doing the opposite of NV's suggestion to lower nitrates.  I thought putting it in where my nitrates are highest would give it the best opportunity.

There's not much left on this one, delivered last week, but reading these tips gives me insight on how to make it work.  I now, after reading this, have it in nitrates of about 5, and also increased light level at 6 hours.

I don't expect this one to survive, but it's worth another go.  I think once it's converted, it'll be a lot easier to play with it.

[New aquarium plants quest]

Expanding on the original question; Do you acclimate the plats to your water?  I meant to ask this before, but must have failed to do so.  My plants just arrived today and are still soaking in the bag.  I'm going to ad some tank water, but am curious what everyone else does for success.

This will be my second attempt with Scarlet Temple.  Hoping that the Easy Green that comes so highly recommended actually works.  I started using it about a month ago, and I have an Annubius at work that looks like it wants to make a baby.  It shot one tall stem up, and grew a tiny leaf that has a whitish thing sticking of that leaf.

Sorry about the picture quality.

[upside down catfish and neon tetras, yay or neigh? and more...]

1) Can I keep upside down catfish and neon tetras?

2) I am looking for a center piece for my 125 gallon, red gravel (a planted Martian scape is my vision).  I have Long Fin Tetra's, Serpae Tetra's, and Silvertip Tetra's.  Plus two small (for now) Albino High Fin Redeye Plecos, and two Red Rainbow's.

I was going to look in to keeping Discus with the smaller fish, but temperament alone may prevent that.  Haven't even looked at parameter differences yet.  I thought I'd check the success/fail rate first.

So, what (preferably larger) centerpiece would you add?

 

Thanks for reading

[edit] I am placing my plant order this week.  I am looking at Anubius Petite, Monte Carlo, Valisneria (possibly), and I would like to try the Scarlet Temple again, but failed last time in getting it to live.

[ACO Online Store Wish List]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:12 PM, Cory said:

I'm currently testing the new website that will launch soon.  If it still doesn't work after the new launch. I'll get the dev team to look into it. It's likely we are changing software to run the wishlist as the original company has changed the support functionality of what we need to keep it fast loading.

This works now, and all of my earlier stuff is still there.

Stay safe

[ACO Online Store Wish List]

On 5/17/2021 at 7:12 PM, Cory said:

I'm currently testing the new website that will launch soon.  If it still doesn't work after the new launch. I'll get the dev team to look into it. It's likely we are changing software to run the wishlist as the original company has changed the support functionality of what we need to keep it fast loading.

Cory, thanks for the update.  I heard you mention the new website on Sunday's stream, and thought this might be a glitch from it.  I'm sure I'll be checking it from time to time.  Love me some wish lists.

[ACO Online Store Wish List]

Huh.  Must be something on my end.  Thank you.

edit - If I go to an item that I had previously marked, or if I mark one that was not, still nothing in my wish list 😞

Also, when I try to share it, Chrome opens a blank tab.

[ACO Online Store Wish List]

@Cory  Not sure who to tag, so I picked you.

I'm logged in to the store and have tagged things for my wish list, but when I click on the wish list, none of the items show up.  Thought you'd like to know that.

[Blue Ram Eggs]

Okay, thank you Brandi.  Yes, there should be plenty of flow in there.  Leaving them self parent is the goal.  This is there second attempt.  First was in my 55g with more fish, so that's why I opted for the 20 in a quieter room.

 

Thanks again for the advice,

Patrick

[San Francisco Bay Brand Hatchery]

I've seen several comments about creating a tight seal with this hatchery.  Is there a trick, or are they just flukes?  I currently have no need for the space consumption of a Ziss.

Thank you,

Patrick

[Blue Ram Eggs]

So I have a batch of Ram eggs.  The parents remain with the eggs in a secluded 20g.

Question; I can see several eggs that don't look fertile.  How on earth do I remove the unfertilized eggs without disturbing the parenthood now taking place?  Those things are tiny!  She laid them on a small piece of slate.

  It's mostly the male guarding the eggs, but they do seem to take turns.

[Cheap Aquarium Rocks]

@Cory  I hope it's okay to share this.

Lowes sells rocks.  You have to search for Garden Rocks.

 

[Switching from Seachem to Easy Green?]

Wow, thanks guys.  It's in my cart now.

Is there anything not in the EG that I should watch for or supplement?  I'm just learning the chemistry but already have some plants.  The water is really hard (like as much as 25 drops of API and light purple on the strips). and nitrates are no lower than 30 in any of my tanks.

 

Oh, and minimal algae.

[Switching from Seachem to Easy Green?]

Is there information somewhere on making the switch?

I'm using Seachem's Flourish and Trace.  I'm using a lot of product.  In total, I'm treating 235 gallons of water.

Is Easy Green a better move financially?  I would need to buy the Easy Iron too.

Do I just switch, or should I stop with one for a few days before beginning the EG?

Thanks,

Patrick

[Just sharing some recent plant additions. Waiting for them to take hold.]

Hi,

I don't know if others on here just share stuff, but I thought I'd give it a go.

Here's some Scarlet Temple and Anubias Barteri I added almost 2 weeks ago.  I think they're coming along.  I had both Anubias in the pots at first, but one died back pretty hard so I super-glued it to a piece of slate.  The rhizome seems (to me) to be in good shape.  Then, I have the two Scarlet's.  One melted back about the way I expected it to from watching the videos.  The other one I'm not so sure what to make of.

I have a BeamsWork, but it's an EA, not a DA like I should have gotten.  The tank right now is 83 degrees, with a hardness that baffles me (28), pH of 7.8, and 40/ppm of nitrate.  I'm hoping adding more plants will help some of those numbers.  I also plan on running CO2.  I already have a pressurized bottle, solenoid/regulator, etc, but I tore that setup down when I moved my living room (fish room) around.  I am using Trace and Flourish in small amounts  (half of recommended doses) just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

The last picture is my new to me 125.  I ordered the wrong size sponge for my FX4 and so decided to wedge it in to the driftwood.  I'm not sure what plant to put on it yet, but the tank is only 7 days new, so I have time.  I am putting in some of the muck when I wring out my other tanks filters.

Thanks for reading.  I welcome your thoughts.

 

[Lighting question]

So I buy what I can from the co-op and really appreciate what I've learned from their videos, but I just can't put Fluval 3.0's in my cart.  They may be amazing lights, but that's more money than I am willing (or can afford) to spend.

I am online looking at BeamsWork.  I already have one on my 55 gallon and I'm just starting to plant it up.  I can't make heads or tails of PAR data (I feel stupid for that).  I see there are a couple of configurations for it (FSPEC, EA, DA, etc).

If anyone has information to share about that light, or an alternative or pointers would, that'd be great.

Final question: Are there any plants that I can carpet without root tabs or treated substrate?

(other info if you're so inclined)

I really like planted tanks but have failed in the past.  In the past month or so I've been adsorbing a lot of info from Cory, and hoping to correct my mistakes.  My plan is to introduce a few plants at a time so I don't crash the system.  I think it'll be easier to go with water column feeders.

Thanks again for all the help I'm getting here,

[Is high GH an issue?]

Just now, Fish Folk said:

As I understand it, KH is a measurement of bicarbonates & carbonates, but GH is a measure of calcium & magnesium.

What is the GH of your tested tap water before adding to tank? Is the high calcium & magnesium from your source, or from your tank? 

4 drops, so I suspect from the tank.

[Is high GH an issue?]

Tank tested is a 55 gallon lightly planted (just added Anubias Barteri and Scarlet Temple a few weeks ago.  The tank has been running for about 2 years with occasional gravel vacuum and top offs (no water changes).  My GH is through the roof.  The GH in my tap water is 4 drops.  My tap water has chloramine.  I don't use prime or other conditioners prior to adding.  I let the water sit for minimum of 24hrs, and have done things this way for years.  I do add Flourish, and recently began adding trace.  The substrate is eco-complete black, about 2-3 inches deep.

So here are parameters.  All tests done with API liquid tests. 

• pH 7.8
• Ammonia 0 ppm
• Nitrite 0 ppm
• Nitrate 40 ppm
• KH 4 to 5 drops (starts to turn color at 4, fully changes at 5)
• GH 28 drops
• phosphate .5 ppm

The article, The Fish Keeper’s Guide to pH, GH, and KH, suggests that reducing water changes would make the tank more acidic and help reduce GH.  Clearly not in my case.

[Recommended RODI filters for freshwater.]

Is the pump a requirement or what would the trade be between "increased efficiency" and power consumption?  I only need RODI for topping off, just to tame the GH.

Thanks,

Patrick

[Brine shrimp hatchery question.]

Thank you for all of the replies.  I like the cone setup too, and I hadn't even thought of a science or medical store until I read that.  I currently have a thing I bought from Amazon, but the bottom, although tapered, is black, so it's tough to get the concentration of BBS to the bottom.  I'm using about 3 cups of water, 3 teaspoons of salt and 1/4 tsp of eggs.

I did buy a really nice light that arrived today, and it helped a lot to get them at least nearer the bottom.  The clamp and light seem very sturdy.

Clamp light

[Gravel question]

4 hours ago, Fishdude said:

Glad to see someone linked the short video of the riverbed with sharp rocks - I've found my cories do fine with just about anything.

Right.  Thanks @ererer for that.  I was worried too about the whole Cory's / Loaches on gravel thing, so I'm really glad I got to see that video.

I usually use eco-complete, but after watching the plant101 videos, I decided I didn't need it, and if I ever do a carpet, I can add some then.

@CoryJust wanted to say thank you for your insight and for sharing your knowledge and thoughts.

[Gravel question]

4 hours ago, Patrick_G said:

I’m not sure. The Lowe’s stuff says .5 and less. 

Here’s the ACE that I have 

 

Cool.  I think I'm going to stop out there this weekend and take a look.   Thanks for the info and picture.

[Gravel question]

Thanks for the help. I'm going to order it up. I'll probably get the plants situated and strong then see how the Cory's respond to it before adding anything else. Then if it doesn't work out it's not too terrible to change out.