Chlo

I do have some small rocks and some superglue gel, maybe I'll glue it to that. Also I don't have much substrate so it gets uprooted a lot when I'm doing water changes. Also some random pictures of Blueberry 😁

I heard anubias needs to have the rhizome above the substrate, but some of the roots of mine are also above the gravel. I've tried adding root tabs for the anacharis, but it kind of made a mess and disintegrated in the water. But maybe I'll try the easy green root tabs!

Thanks! Yeah the frogbit has been growing pretty fast! I'm still not the best at taking care of plants, but at least they are still alive! 😅 A few days ago I got a yellow mystery snail who I named Mr. Eggy (lol) to clean the algae, but unfortunately Blueberry was nipping him, so I moved him to my 20 gallon.

Hi, I just wanted to share Captain Blueberry's finished tank. I got him shortly after getting my first ever pet fish (also a betta), and I've had him for a little over a month. At first he was really shy but now he is always exploring his tank! I think he has even grown a little since we got him! He has a Fluval Spec V 5 gallon and a fluval m heater. He originally had fake plants in his tank, but now he has anacharis, a floating moss ball (from Aquarium co-op), anubias, and frogbit. Blueberry's favorite hobbies are eating, attacking frozen bloodworms (even though they arent alive!! 😂), laying on whatever he can in the tank, and exploring his little cave. Me (and my parents) can't watch him without laughing, he is always doing super funny things!

I have an Aquaclear 30, and I am also doing live plants (but for now only anubias and java fern).

I'm still setting up my 20 gallon tank, and I just bought three platies (2 females and one male). Right now they are in quarantine. I'm planning on getting 6 panda cories later, and I was wondering if I could fit more platies? I got the orange and yellow ones with black speckles (calico maybe?) and I would like to get a couple of the bluish variation, either only 2 females or 2 females and a male. I probably wouldn't keep many of the fry if they have babies. There would be no other fish (besides the corydoras). Alsooo....My platies seem to always be pooping (even though I haven't fed them yet). I've also seen them eat their poop.....Is that normal??

Hi, I'm thinking about getting indian almond leaves for my betta tanks, but I'm wondering how exactly you use them and how you would keep the pH stable. My pH is 8.0, and I have really hard water, so indian almond leaves would help lower the pH for my bettas. I also heard they can help reduce stress and risk of infections. The only thing is that if the leaves lower the pH, and I do a water change every week, wouldn't that result in a lot of pH swings? So I was wondering how you can use the leaves but keep the pH stable.

Yeah, that sounds good! The only thing I'm worried about is that platies are supposed to breed every month! I was thinking about getting a bigger group of them, but then I wouldn't be able to tell them apart and name them... LOL😂

I WAS going to have a school of neon tetras, but now I am probably going to do 2-3 mickey mouse platies. I just think they have more personality, are hardier, and I like that they can live in hard water. If I can do two platies I would do two females but I might do three and have two females and one male. If I can't fit two schools of corys, that would be okay. It would be cool to have two schools but then I probably wouldn't be able to add other fish besides the platies.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to be getting some! How many do you think I can fit in my tank? I'm planning on getting 6 panda corys, and if it is possible, I also want to get a school of julii or three stripe corydoras (Aqadvisor says I could, but I'm not sure).

Oh that's good to know that other people have had success keeping fish in hard water and high pH. Right now I have anubias in my betta tanks and java fern in my 20 gallon. I'm not sure about the java fern because when it came it was already pretty brown and dying, but we'll see how it does. Yeah, I really love corydoras! I'm obsessed with them even though I haven't had any yet... Yeah I've heard other people say that trying to change your water parameters could do more harm than good, and that most fish can adapt to your water.

Thanks for the suggestions! Right now my tank has black sand, driftwood, and rocks (that won't raise the pH). I was thinking about getting swords, but I heard they need a LOT of root tabs. Yeah I'm not sure what it is from. She had the rips even when we bought her from the pet store. She also has always had one spot where her scale(s) are white, but it's not ich.

Haha that's good, I'll have to find sometime to convince my parents to bring me to Petco and our local fish store, lol. My mom is always saying, "Geez we are going to Petco every week!" 🤣 Oh ok, I'll definitely check them out! Any recommendations for easy ones that are hard to kill?? 😛

I guess that makes sense. Hopefully my local Petco uses tap water for their tanks so that I can get fish there. I'm not sure if I will get stem plants, I was only going to get java fern and anubias nana petite (to glue onto my driftwood). I'm not the best at keeping plants and I think stem plants need root tabs and seem harder to keep. But maybe I will get some floating plants. Ahhhh doesn't sound impossible? I'm still a newbie so that sounds a little iffy 😂😅

Well, I'm not sure how the hard water is affecting my bettas. My female betta has always been kind of a nervous fish and a crazy swimmer, but her ripped pectoral fins and her scales haven't really healed (she is a dumbo betta), and I'm wondering if that is related to how hard the water is?? I'm not exactly sure how water hardness affects bettas, but because it is so high I guess I just freaked out. I guess if I get fish used to my tap water, it shouldn't be a problem, but I'm worried that the water hardness will rise really high in the tank like my betta's.

I was also wondering.... If you do a half and half RO and tap water mix, will the KH be cut in half? I know the pH doesn't work like that but I don't know if KH does.

Yeah, I might just buy RO water from my local fish store. I calculated the price per year, and it will probably be less than 20 dollars. I'll also try to lightly stock my tank.

Yeah, I'm planning on asking for money on my birthday and Christmas to buy lots of fish supplies😅 My family kind of thinks I'm crazy with all this fish stuff haha. When I literally had a meltdown when I found out how high my pH and gH was, my brother was like, "I didn't even know water hardness was a thing!"

My tap water pH is 8.2, and also my KH is 6. My betta tanks usually read 8.0, but during cycling the pH changed a lot, one of my betta tanks went down to 7.4 (or it might have just been because I read the color wrong). Also, I did a water change on my betta's tank, because in the API test kit it says that when water evaporates, the minerals are left behind, increasing the gH. The gH went from 21 dGH down to 19 dGH. Yeah, my tap water is around 300 ppm I think. A couple of my local fish stores use RO water for their tanks, but I'm not sure about my local Petco. I might ask them and if they use the same water, I might buy fish from them because they are used to the water I thought about getting one..... The only thing is that I'm still in middle school so I don't exactly have $150 laying around... But my local fish store sells RO water for 5 cents per gallon. That's pretty cheap but I'd have to buy a lot.

Yeah I was thinking about mixing RO water, but how would you make sure it is the right temperature? Also, my betta looks and has been acting really healthy, but 21 dGH is really high. I'm also not sure what could be making the water harder in his tank. It's also kind of weird because my friend has a betta who she keeps in a tiny, unfiltered fish bowl and she doesn't have a heater or use dechlorinator, but her betta has been alive for 2 years.... She has the same tap water as me so maybe my betta will be fine in it???? But then again it is really really high. Also..... I don't really like african cichlids (unfortunately) but would platies survive in that high gh?

I just got a gh and kh test kit, and when I tested one of my betta tank's water, it read 21 dGH 😰!! I also tested my tap water and it read 17 dGH. I live in California and the water is supposed to be really hard, but that is still super high. When I used the test strips before, the water tested 180 ppm but that was the max reading on the testing. I'm really freaking out right now, and I'm also highly discouraged because I was really excited to get corydoras and other fish for my new 20 gallon but the gh is way too high I think😭😣. Does anyone know what I should do about my betta tanks and also know any fish for really hard water?? If there is a way I still want to get corydoras.

Oh ok, that's good news. It would be a lot of trouble to use RO and tap water for my tank. I'll definitely try testing my tap water! Both of my betta tanks are also at 78 degrees.

Yeah, some reviews said it tested for ammonia because the bacteria died, but so far it seems to be helping my tanks cycle. I heard that plants affect the ph because they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so maybe that is why? I was also thinking of mixing RO water with my tap to get the right ph and everything, and at my lfs you can get a gallon of RO water for 5 cents. I'm not sure if I am going to do this because it sounds complicated with getting the right ratio, doing water changes and getting the water to the right temperature and everything, but if that is the only way I can keep panda corydoras I will do that.

I think my ph is 8.0 which I know is not the best for bettas..... But before when I used the test strips instead of the liquid test kit my tank and tap water ph was 7.5, but now my tap water tests 8.2 and tank water is 7.6-8.0. I can't really tell the exact ph the test kit is showing because the color changes depending on the lighting. I hope it isn't because my ph is changing all the time. I have really high ph and gh (180) but kind of low kh (80-120) The ammonia and nitrite got pretty high for both tanks but now they are both lowering. I also have some live plants, but they may have contributed to the ammonia in the tank because some of them died and there were a lot of dead leaves in the water. Oh and also I'm already seeing nitrate for both tanks, which is kind of weird but maybe it was because I added fertilizer which I heard might have nitrates to the tanks. That was a few weeks ago though. Do you think I should use the fritz zyme for my new tank and quarantine tank? I am planning on getting panda corydoras and I heard they are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite. If fritz zyme really raised the ammonia I don't want to risk it.

I'm not sure, I don't know too much about ammonium. Both of the tanks had the bettas in them already and were not cycled but had around 1 ppm ammonia. I'm new to the hobby so I made the mistake of getting my fish before setting up my tank. The first tank I messed up the cycling a lot and treated my fish with medicine a few times because I thought she was sick, but it only stressed her out more. For my second tank, a couple weeks ago I saw around .25 ammonia, then a little bit of nitrites but no nitrates. I was using prime everyday because it is supposed to detoxify the ammonia.