Cyndi

Thanks for sharing this BTW- There is a very interesting post that talks about cories' special body armor that helps them withstand Piranha bites. @Connor Elliott Though your water parameters seem "good", it seems you have a lot going on in your tank right now. Parasites, aggression, and strange bacterial lesions, to name a few. So, without seeming to know all the answers, here is something else to consider: I think that even though overall water quality can be good, water quality down near the substrate can be "bad". So while it may be great advice to feed the Cory's more per @James Black, it also seems advisable to do more WC being sure to gravel vac to get rid of extra detritus and uneaten food. Also, make sure the corys and other fish have plenty of hiding places away from the betta, and make sure the tank is big enough to house a betta with companions. Cory just did a video about this and his advice is about 20 gallons for a betta with tankmates. Perhaps this is the issue causing everything? One angry betta terrorizing everyone. For what it's worth, my betta didn't like friends even in 20 gallons.

HI All, I am gifting a friend a complete 30 gallon set-up - homebred guppies included! This tank has plants so has never been exposed to salt. I put the guppies I am going to keep in a QT tank with 1 TBSP salt per 4 gallons (needed to treat other fish I'm keeping, so all keepers went into QT). I've noticed that the guppies in the salt are MUCH more active and happy than they were previously - almost immediately. So I'm wondering if a planted tank with cabomba, ludwigia, and pogostemon 'Octopus' could handle a very low dose of salt. Conversely, my friend is a good fishie friend and suggested that she could give them a salt swim occasionally. Just wondering what you all think? Should we salt the tank, or give them occasional spa days in a low salt solution, or should we just leave the salt thing alone?

Hi all! Following as I am having a similar problem, except for I'M the genius who scratched the glass with a cheap blade from Amazon. I've read about buffing, and I think I like Brian's idea the best - just turn the durn thing around. I'll have to take off the background - but that is easily done compared to buffing! Good luck JulieandAaron! It's fun to have a project to work on together!

Oh! You have lots of plants! I thought it was just the fake and the bulbs. I’m sure your plants will recover soon- I’m sorry about the BBA - how annoying.

Hi Maggie! It's so exciting to see your bulb growing! From my experience, the leaves growing to the surface look different than the leaves growing around the base. That's why it's so easy to remove them as they grow if you don't want them. I always cut mine off because I believe the tall ones take away energy from the base ones. If it were me, and I wanted lily pads on the surface, I would wait until the bulb filled out lower leaves first and then let some shoot up. I also use root tabs and a haphazard application of Easy Green. I'm so glad you are making the foray into planted tanks - I think they are easier than non-planted (when using easy plants) because the plants absorb excess nutrients which can result from occasional neglect. Good Luck!

Hi Maggie, Well, I've figured out how to almost kill them - they hated being held in a bucket in the outdoor heat of a Georgia summer for months. A melted stinky soup that was! Thank goodness many rhizomes recovered! Truthfully, I was heartbroken as they're some of my favorite plants too (and not inexpensive either)

I love figuring it out, only lace plant is more expensive. I didn’t complain though, because I believe Cory did a video a while back (livestream?) where he said a typhoon took out the aponogeton farms and all that’s left are slim pickins’

Looks like a pretty intense set-up - so cool! Is that pipe an outlet? I'm gonna guess this is fairly new since your plants haven't filled the jar yet. I'm also curious what that Plant is in the back - mangrove???

Had to look this one up - we used to call this anacharis! I've had very good luck with this plant in a snail jar. It sort of became a self sustaining ecosystem (of course I fed the snails too).

I love this plant too! I ordered what I thought was Madagascar lace plant, but turned out to be a giant Aponogeton (Not from the Co-Op). The only problem is that it quickly outgrew my 30 G! I've had to re-home it and I hope it lives a very good life! I definitely have a soft spot for plants that grow big and lush with no effort from me!

I really like Ludwigia! It grows bronze/red for me even without CO2. Granted it would be much redder with it. I fertilize somewhat haphazardly with Easy Green, Easy Carbon (sometimes), and root tabs. In lower light, it is a beautiful green!

I actually really like the green “red” tiger lotus! Vigorous plants have a special place in my heart, I guess! Oh, you’ll grow for me? I think I love you! 😊

I should have clarified that I have other crypts that are bronze but not AS bronze as this one! It’s really special as it’s ruffly and shiny and a saturated bronze color. As point of reference, here is my other bronze crypt. Sort of blah- ish in comparison. I think the original is Tropica too!

Brandy, your lilies are gorgeous! Wow! Is this the regular dwarf bulb? It wasn’t clear in the post. At any rate, that is a plant I would be pleased to have! Im growing mine in a deep 90 gallon with Fluval 3.0 lights at 70% intensity for 8 hours (with a siesta in the middle of the day.) Maybe I need to up some of these values

Hi! I have no idea about CO2 - you might want to start another thread. I’m not sure about the Lily’s on the coop site, but I’m my experience red tiger lotus is that it is redder with a wider leaf shape. Regular red lily have narrower leaves and a more muddy color. I purchased (not from Coop) several red tiger lotus bulbs. 1 turned out to be green with red spots and is huge. 3 are red tiger lotus but they’re not very vigorous. Maybe I need to add more light. I’ve also added root tabs to try to beef them up. I’ve included a pic of my strongest red. It’s several months old and I believe should be bigger. I don’t use CO2. if you want red tiger lotus be sure they give this Latin Name: Nymphaea Zenkeri In my town, Ted tiger lotus are twice as expensive as dwarf aquarium lily. Hope this helps!

Hi friends! I’m always ordering crypts, but I never save the labels. Is the Crypt “Tropica”? I’d like to get another. I’ve enhanced photo so it appears as saturated as it really is. thanks so much!!

Thank you @Coronal Mass Ejection Carl! I was wondering why people have had fish deaths when using Safe and was hoping for this sort of advice. I have a gram scale per @AdamTill, so I'll feel comfortable experimenting with upping the dose. I appreciate the replies! :-)

Hi Everyone, I'm confused about Seachem Safe. The problem is: The dosage seems incredibly small. I've searched this forum and found that you may or may not be able to store Safe in a solution of water and use it like Prime. Some say yes, some say no. I'm worried about massively overdosing since 1/4 tsp treats 300 Gallons. I'd like dosage information on the order of "Sure you could use X amount and it wouldn't harm your fish - in my experience" . So I guess I'm asking for personal experience using Safe. Dosage for a 90 Gallon would be really helpful - or maybe I should just get a gram scale and be done with it. Thanks so much - hope this isn't too rambly!

You're right about the gravel vac. I just vac in the empty spaces but I don't push it all the way to the bottom. I skim it across the top and get any detritus that floats up. This technique may also help with the algae on the gravel. However, I believe the most important thing is to change the water. I like the idea of the water pump- it might even be a better idea than the python!

While not detracting from previous advice, I would like to offer my opinion about water quality and cories. I was having problems with fin-rot and/ or ammonia distress even when my parameters were reading at 0. It is a 90 Gallon planted tank so I could not use salt, and I could not catch them to QT them. Nonetheless, my baby panda cories were showing signs of ammonia distress (shooting in a spiraling fashion to the surface, and subsequently dying) and fungal infections. This problem specifically showed up when I began target feeding the cories to fatten them up. My hypothesis is that ammonia levels at gravel level were higher than baby cories could tolerate. So even though the test kit showed ammonia overall to be 0, I could not accurately measure it at gravel level. In desperation, I tried doing bi-weekly water changes of 50%, being sure to gravel vac. This did the trick. Even though I can't prove it, improving the overall water quality seemed to cure my cories. One of my baby cories is even regrowing his tail, and I've had no deaths since. While my problem is not exactly the same as yours, I believe your cories may benefit if you dramatically increase your frequency and volume of water changes. If you don't have one, a Python will be your best friend! I hope this helps you - good luck!

I love my Candy Canes too! They have such interesting personalities and I love how they display to each other! PS: I am super jealous that you live where you can purchase fish from the Co-op. On the other hand, one of the major limiting factors of my how many tanks I have is the availability of quality fish. So I guess its a good thing I live way far away!

This is so cool and I can't wait to see this tank set up! I can attest - hair algae is a bear to get rid of, so this demonstration is pretty amazing! Are these plants authentic to 1930 also?

HI Rita! Though there are differing opinions out there, I will give my opinion on natural light. I love it! Few things are as beautiful as natural light filtering through the water! If you have enough Healthy stem plants, they will absorb the light while not encouraging algae growth. I've had good success with swords and ludwigia. However, there are many factors that effect algae. Available nutrients and number of hours of artificial light can also encourage algae. In fact, since this will be a new set-up, I believe you can expect algae for a while (hello diatoms 👀). Dense planting and frequent water changes will help alleviate it though. The key is to balance the nutrients so that the plants take up all available nutrients while not leaving any for the algae. This seems to be working for my 20 Gallon that is in front of the window (though I don't get direct light). For your set-up, I would have my lights on a timer and set them to go off when the natural light is hitting it full blast. For the record, I have been only doing planted tanks for about 2 years, so I also wait for more experienced fish keepers to chime in - this is just my experience and two cents!

I am having a similar problem with my staurogynes repens. I don't use CO2 and the fish kept digging it up. I eventually settled on a bit of super glue on some rocks and buried them. They've been this way for about 2 weeks and they seem to be responding well to this treatment. I use nil cog root tabs and easy green & easy carbon - So far so good! Fingers crossed!

Ok, I will bring down the blue. That should help with the algae, at least. I've found it doesn't really add anything to the overall color of the tank. Thanks for the tip about the manual mode. I wasn't sure if plants needed that spectrum or if some of the colors were simply for decoration. About the tinting: I just did a 50% WC and the tinting is a lot less, so I'm sure it has something to do with the newness of the tank. I just need to let things settle out a bit. I know tannins are good for fish, so even if I can never get rid of them, I guess I'll learn to live with it. Thanks for your help!