Lauren A

So funny! I can’t see Jasper half the time I look in, which I’m happy about, but he’s being a bit of a trouble maker. He someone managed to wiggle himself and get stuck in the between the corner of the corner filter and glass. I had foam sponges cut blocking both ends but he still figured out a way to shimmy himself in. He gave me a big panic. I’ve got it lined in foam now so I’m hoping this does the trick. Anyway, my point being that I’m relieved when I see him in the coconut! At least I know he’s safe. I hope this is the end of the antics. I know it gave him a little scare. And me a huge one. 😱 😥

I LOVE this tank! It is gorgeous! The Bucephalandra in the center with the bud is amazing. I’m a huge buce fan. I’d do an entire tank with them. Do you happen to know if that is a crypt in the right corner. It looks similar to Crypt Willisi. I have some plantlets I saved when I took down my last tank. This plants looks more robust and I really love it - curious what it is. I just received a Crypt Jacobsenii I ordered. It’s in emersed form so it’ll have to go through it’s transition. I’m really hoping it does well. Im thinking lots of crypts and buce in this tank. I do need to figure out tall easy/moderate care plants that I’d like to use. I need lots of height. I also need to decide on hardscape. I’d like to do a large center stone that’s betta safe. I have a tank with all pagoda so I don’t want to use them, although beautiful. And I don’t want to use river rocks either. I’m open to suggestions! On anything! Thank you for sending this! I’m super inspired!

Thank you! The crypt Retrospiralis is a little iffy. I planted them more recently and I wasn’t crazy about the quality of them when my order came in, but we’ll see. The regular Spiralis looks good. So, there’s room for some failure. I figure the more plants the merrier! I have a bit of an obsession. 😆 ! I’m starting another betta tank soon - a 7 gallon cube for my little female runt. That will be fun and different. I need to start looking around for some inspirational photos of other tanks. I’m always open for ideas and suggestions! Thank you so much for checking it out!

Haha! Thank you! I have had bad luck with them in the past so I know what you mean. We’ll see! For now it looks good, thanks for checking my tank out! Oh and I got the coconut on Etsy. It’s really nice quality. The tank you have pictured here is beautiful! 😍

Thank you very much! He seems to be enjoying it. Hopefully I can keep my plants happy too. 😊

For fertilizing I use Easy Green, Seachem Iron and Potassium (as needed). Seachem Root Tabs. For substrate I used Fluval Stratum and Fluval Bio Stratum. And a coarse sand.

This is a newly set up - 6 weeks running. I did a fishless cycle with plants using media from a mature tank as well as various hardscape from a previous tank. I ran two filters, an old HOB with a new corner filter for about a month and it was safe to remove the HOB about two weeks ago. All my parameters are in check. No more concerns about Ecoli (a previous post of mine) or wacky Gh fluctuations (another previous post) I just added my Galaxy Koi Betta, Jasper aka Jazzy, two days ago and he is having so much fun exploring his new territory. His only tank mates are 3 horned nerite snails. They were added about 3 weeks ago. And some limpets and springtails. I can not avoid them in any of my tanks. It’s all good, Jasper pulls the limpets off the glass and rocks for a nice snack! I’m very happy with my plants response. Some of the newer plants, especially Crypts, went through an transitional process from emersed to submerged form. They did great! I have Crypy Spiralis, Val’s and Crypt Retrospiralis with a couple stems in the back left side. They are slowly making their way up and will really fill in that back corner. The plants I chose to use are: Red Flame Sword Hygro Polysperma Crinum Calistrinum Crypt Wendtii, Spiralis, Retrospiralis, Maybe a lonely Balansae, Red Tiger Lotus (floating) Anacharis (floating and planted) Banana Plant (has a mind of its own) 🤷‍♀️ Vallisneria Water Sprite (floating) Guppy Grass (floating) Anubias Bucephalandra Sagittaria Subulata Pennywort Salvinia, Frogbit, Dwarf Water Lettuce (almost forgot these I think that’s about it! I didn’t go all crazy with fancy aquascaping techniques with the path. I like the messy look leading to his coconut. I also don’t have the patience! You can’t really see the mopani wood in the back right and center (there’s a little bridge over the path toward the back). Bettas love dark hideaways . A friend and betta keeper/breeder once told me that if you can always see your betta you need more plants! I also use Indian Almond Leaves. Thanks for checking this out! I plan to update pics as time goes on. A few more cute pics of Jasper in his coconut and taking a bubble bath - besides surfing the filter he also loves a nice bubble bath. So cute!

Hi! Thank you for your replies. Sorry, I was using the term “pregnant” loosely. I actually had a female betta become egg bound so I’m definitely familiar with the term. Her eggs went stale and became infected and she passed away very quickly and tragically. So yes, eggy is definitely what I was thinking for photos - an eggy female Kubotai. i’ve done lots of online searches for photos, but they are surprisingly difficult to find, so I figure if anyone has experience with Kubotai or breeding them, they might have a pic. I really appreciate your help! Have a great day!

Hi, just curious what type of critters enjoy the BBA? Thanks!

Hi, I’m just curious if anyone has any photos of a pregnant Green Neon Rasbora/Microdevario Kubotai. I have a school of 10 and I know most likely the eggs and fry will be eaten by them if they aren’t bred in a separate container. I don’t plan to breed them but I’m still curious what the females look like when they are pregnant. My water and the tank are within the parameters they thrive in and the tank has lots of plants and botanicals - Indian almond leaves. This is purely out of curiosity! Thank you!

Hi, thank you very much. I will definitely take that dose if I do pre-treat. It may be good to go ahead and do this with a big water change and thorough vacuum. I have soil and sand - I’m not sure if that makes a difference. I don’t want to add it directly to the tank and take that risk. Hydroviv, the filtration company, did say it would probably take care of removing it, but I’m sure they just can’t say for certain in case someone did get sick and without studies to back it up. So, I’m hoping that at least provides some protection. Does using pre-treated water with hydrogen peroxide do the same as would boiling it before using? I could use Poland Spring, but it has no Kh and I’m also trying to push that up before I add my betta. I’m using crushed coral to see what happens. I really appreciate your help. I use gloves in the tank so I should be fine but just in case. Thank you!

Awesome, thank you so much. I didn’t realize this, but It makes sense that even the smallest amount warrants a warning, Thank you for sharing your experience too. I will do what you suggest. I’m hoping it clears quickly. A town nearby just experienced an outbreak and it was back to normal in 3 days. In the meantime, I stocked up on Poland Spring right away since I know it’s in high demand. The town provided us with some R/O DI water too. Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much! Ha! I love it - bad gremlins. 😂 I’ve actually been working at removing BBA from one of my tanks. Not fun! I wish so bad the snails liked it. Good to know though. I appreciate your help!

Thank you so much for reaching out to @modified lung i’m so curious to hear what they say.

I just heard from a fishkeeper friend and betta breeder and she said Ecoli won’t affect fish. I’m still nervous and will wait on using tap until it’s taken care of by the town. Such a shame to have to take the tank apart. I will check out the video and will come up with a plan with your advice. This really is so stressful. Thank you for all your help. I really appreciate it. 🙏

Hi, I received an alert from my town today that our water is contaminated by E-Coli. Moving forward I have a plan in place using bottled and/or boiled water on my tanks until this is resolved. I do have a couple questions. This has to do with a new planted tank that is a month in cycling. There are no fish yet, but I planned to add a betta very soon. There are snails in there currently. I did a large water change on Tuesday and this is the day the water sample was tested positive by my town. I’m not really sure what to do, besides big water changes. I do use a filtration system by Hydroviv on our tap. I reached out to the company and they said they can’t make claims that they remove the bacteria but they said there’s a chance that it may have been filtered out due to the micron size of the filters, but said still follow boil order notice. I just want to see if my tank is now completely unsafe and for how long. I started the cycle with Stability for 7 days and used seeded media from a mature tank but I’m worried about the tank and more worried about adding my betta. He’s perfectly comfortable in his temporary tank so I am in no rush to move him but I want to double check this should be taken care of with large daily water changes making it safe for him? Thanks so much! I appreciate your help!

How interesting. I’ve never heard of this. I used to bleach disinfect but I always had trouble with Val’s melting almost immediately. I’m just glad I did not add these. Thank you very much! Oh good, they looked like it to me but it was a little hard to tell. I had red spider like looking ones come in plants before so they looked different. I know my betta would love them as a tasty snack, but he would definitely eat way too many and get sick. Thank you for your help!

Hi, I bought some Val’s a couple weeks ago but left them in a bin alone to see if any pond snails hatched. I woke up to this infestation a couple days ago. I have since gotten rid of them all with the plants. It creeped me out. Just confirming they are aphids and not a more dangerous type of pest. they were no where near tanks, but I do have house plants in this room so I’m checking those too. Thanks!

It has stayed consistent at 8dgh for two days so I’m happy. Will keep up with big water changes. Hoping things stay steady.

Thank you so much for replying! I figure over the next week I will do the big water changes and see what happens. I’ve done one since posting and immediately saw a drop in Gh. I’m a little hesitant on adding more easy green since that has the calcium and magnesium as well, but my water sprite , which I have floating has started melting a bit, so I’m going to dose it tonight and hopefully peek them back up. They were doing so well after having already gone through melting after I first got them. So I don’t know. I will play around. I wonT add him until I’m absolutely sure it’s safe. I have a big Calistrinum Crinum, the sword, Val’s and crypts with my stems so I do think they need the roots tabs. If you have any feedback I’d love to hear. Thanks!

It makes sense. Okay sounds good. Thank you very much for your help, again! Btw, all the help you gave me last year (or beginning of this year) really really helped my plants tremendously so thank you. 🙏

I also have a big red flame sword. Lots of the roots disintegrated or melted because I had it in a bin for about a month. It is forming new roots - it flies up on me still from time to time and it just did again, but I do see some fresh new roots. It looks great, but is just taking awhile to take hold. it looks great too and already formed a new leaf

Hi again, Do you think this will level off in time. My plants have really taken hold and trying to find the root tabs without pulling the plants and roots out is tough. Just curious. I’d rather hold off putting my betta and snails in and patiently wait rather than make a mess and take the tank apart, but it is what it is and obviously I want to stabilize things. thank again! They do, they are the Flourish tabs. Mg .29% 0.06 water soluble and calcium 23.3%. I could also add more plants? Thanks for your help I have some huge Val’s in a tub with huge roots. Maybe if I plant those?

Hi, Okay, maybe I put too many in to start out with. I will see if I can remove a couple and see what happens. I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the media in my filter. That makes sense though. Thank you for your help. Have a good night

Hi, I’m hoping some one could help me figure this out. I have a new 10 gallon tank set up for a little over 3 weeks. I’m doing a fishless cycle with lots of plants. I also added Stability the first week and add more with water changes. The tank has nitrates especially post fertilization about 40ppm and no nitrites or ammonia. I am using an old HOB filter and biomedia that were both previously on a tank for about a little more than a year. I added more bio media and that’s been in this filter for 2 months, along with the rest. Yesterday, I transferred most of the media, except for one of the old bio sponges and some of the matrix I couldn’t fit into a corner internal filter. I still tan the filter continuously on a temporary set up for my plants and snails: I’m running 2 filters now and will continue until I’m comfortable removing the HOB. So, In the corner filter I have 2 bio sponges and a bag of Sera Mini biostones with some of the old Matrix. The HOB has a real old bio sponge and Matrix. I have a little filter floss in each one too. I use conditioned tap. My tap is filtered through a Hydroviv system to remove PFAS toxins along with chlorine, chloramines, nitrites and nitrates and other harmful pollutants. This water has Kh 40, Ph of 7.2 and Gh of 150. I have a betta patiently waiting for his new tank. He has been with me for about 3 months in a 2.5 gallon, with the tap and steady parameters . This new tank, for some reason that I don’t understand ,has a Gh that goes up and down consistently. It goes from 75 to 150 in a matter of days. The Kh is always 0. And the Ph is 6.8. I know there are ways to safely lower and raise Gh but I’m concerned about moving him? I’m not sure if this up and down with the Gh will harm him? I just did a water change, about 40% on the new tank yesterday so I’m just not sure where this high Gh is coming from today. I’d like to have at least a small amount of Kh, but I know bettas do fine without, but just for the sake of keeping my Ph steady, I know it’s good to have some Kh. I’m using Fluval Stratum aquasoil for the most part with just a little sand path. I’m using big and small river rocks and mopani wood from my old tank. I know typically aquasoils will soften water, I think anyway, and I have read river rocks won’t alter parameters. Like I mentioned before, I have lots of plants, rooted, stems and rhizome. Curious, does anyone have any thoughts on what may be going on with my Gh? Or other helpful thoughts in general. I believe the tank is safe to add him in about a week, but won’t feel completely comfortable until I know what’s up. I’d like to add my snails first and asap. I am seeing some brown diatoms showing up on my hardscape and plants. Not much, but some. I have been conservative with ferts, only doing half dose the first two week. I have root tabs under my roofed plants. This past week I started dosing Easy Green once a week as instructed with some Seachem Potassium the next day (not much just a bit) and for the first time a couple days ago, I added a tiny amount of Seachem Iron, half of the recommended dose, I think even less than that. Thanks for your help in advance!! I’d love to hear what you think may be going on. Edit: forgot to add that I also have lots of floating plants.