Beccs410

Thank you for all of the great responses everyone!!! @Guppysnail welp, guess I’ll just have to go back and get a buddy for Cuzco…twist my arm 😆 The funny thing is I used to HATE snails. Then I tried a Nerite for my 10 gallon and thought he was too cute for words. That lead me to get some Malaysian Trumpets to churn my substrate and I love them, too. So, I decided my 14 gallon needed a snail buddy and found out Golden Mystery Snails hail from South America, keeping with my Amazonian theme. So, out I went to get Cuzco and now I’m totally in love with mysteries. 🥰 @GameCzar Fred is adorable! Hi Fred!

Green beans was the next one I was going to try! And I’ll definitely add Crab Cuisine! Once I find a veggie he likes I, too, will make it a treat for the family’s Sunday “Cheat Day”!

@xXInkedPhoenixX Thank you! Yeah, my Nerite in my 10 gallon is an algae eating monster. It’s why I named him Roomba haha. I got Cuzco because I thought he was so pretty and cute. My Amano shrimp are my algae eaters for the 14. I have some Shrimp King 5 leaf shrimp pellets so I will give that a shot! I haven’t seen him go for the Hikari bottom feeder tablets or the Sera Pleco wafers. I love Xtreme’s Betta pellets so I’ll have to give the cat scraper wafers!! My corys will probably love those too. I’ve tried zucchini, was a no go as well. I’ll keep trying other veggies! @RyanUawesome! I’ll have to give that a shot! Thanks!

Ok, so I just adopted my very first Golden Mystery Snail for my 14 gallon tank. His name is Cuzco, and he's a little cutie pie. My question is, what does everyone feed their mystery snails?? I've given him Hikari Algae Wafers, which he seems to really like. I've tried blanched spinach, but he doesn't seem too interested in it. I've tried Super Green, Soilent Green and Bottom Scratcher Repashy...all of which weren't touched. Lots of algae naturally growing on a piece of spider wood and on top of a little ceramic pleco cave. I know I need to get him something rich in calcium, too. He's only been in the tank for about a week, so it may be that he's still shy. My Amano shrimp like to run to anything I drop in the tank, too. So, any suggestions for some noms? What do your mystery snails enjoy? Cuzco on his algae wafer

Ok, so I got the Brightwell Rio Escuro XF substrate from Flip Aquatics. They ended up having it cheaper than Amazon, and supporting our Fish Fam is always a good idea, right? Anyway, I opened the box and pulled out the 5 lb bag and I said to myself, "Self...remember...You're waiting for your husband to come home to help you with this little project." I stood in silence for a few minutes, mulling over the the several hours I would have to wait and then said, "Nahhh, I got this." I so didn't. I so so so so didn't. I had seen a nifty little video on YouTube that made it seem like sucking out the sand would be oh so easy...I attempted to emulate it using my biggest Python. That went horribly. Like, literally, the Python kept clogging up. That video lied! (I refuse to believe it was that easy!) I ended up using a little plastic cup to begin scooping it out and, in doing so, accidentally messed with the Eco-Complete towards the back, which then lead to black water. Literal black water. My guess is it was caused by the half-dissolved Seachem root tabs. I hurriedly netted out Sakura and put him in a cup of clean tank water I had in a bucket with the plants and my snails I had removed (I wanted to keep a good eye on him to make sure no damage was done. I felt awful). That fish looked at me, his RBF even more angry than usual, as if to say, "Are you kidding me, Mom? A CUP? AGAIN?! HOW DARE YOU!" At this point, I said screw it and just ended up getting out as much sand as I could by hand/cup. I then proceeded to empty the water, take out all the Eco-Complete and rinse it to rid myself completely of the sand once and for all, then put everything back together again. At some point during this fiasco, my husband walked in the door, put his things down, stared at me in confusion and just slowly said, "Honey...I thought you were...nevermind. I should know better. What can I help with?" Seconds later, my father calls me on Google Duo wanting to video chat, and I'm surprised he could understand my rattled off, "Sorry, Dad, can't talk! Big mess! Gotta' go! Bye!" Finally, with no more distractions, I capped the Eco-Complete with the Rio Escuro after adding some Easy Root Tabs and threw a plastic bag in there to diffuse the clean, prepped water I began to painstakingly slowly pour in. I re-planted the plants, added my little snails back and then added Sakura back. He refused to acknowledge my presence the rest of the evening. He wouldn't even come play our daily game of tic-tac-toe (Don't judge, he likes it. Especially with the purple marker. Don't tell him, but I let him win). Now, you might ask...Was it really worth all of that, Bec, to not wait? Unequivocally, I say, absolutely. Did I learn a lesson? Sure. But, I'm happy. No more sand; only pretty, dark planted substrate...and a fresh canvas waiting to be given life. Now...to order new/more plants...

What camera did you go with and where did you get it? I've been wanting to add one for my 14 gallon! I have a fancy pleco who only likes to come out at night...so...I am not ashamed to ask this...does that live camera also have night vision? 😂🤪 Nooooo, I don't have a fishy obsession at allllllll....Seriously, though...what camera?

I agree, looks like planaria from what I can tell. A good way that I've found to tell the difference aside from shape is how they move on your glass. Detritus worms inch along the glass like earthworms or inch worms. I've found that Planaria usually glide across the glass with ease in one seamless motion.

One of my Amano shrimp grabbed a Pleco wafer I dropped in the tank for my little L129. It's twice the size of his little shrimp body. I immediately was like, "No bud, that isn't for you...You have your own food over there..." and grabbed my tweezers to get it from him and place it under the log for Pancake (my pleco). This little wise-guy proceeded to pull the wafer away from my tweezers and run backwards with it, shuffling it from side to side, playing keep-away with me for at least 5 minutes. How could I take it from him after that? I just dropped another wafer in for Pancake and walked away laughing. Bravo, little shrimp. Bravo!

<<Looks around at everyone sheepishly>>Hello, I'm Beccs410...and I have MTS...I live in an 1100 sq ft apartment and I have 4 tanks plus a QT...a tank for almost every room of the house...I dream of one day moving to a home with a garage that I can convert into a fish room...or even just a bigger apartment...maybe with a little alcove for a rack or two of more tanks. I frequently find myself in my bedroom, watching TV with my husband when, out of the corner of my eye, I see my betta swimming around in his tank across from me, so I start to watch him. Suddenly, I realize I've been watching the tank for an hour, and I've missed the entire movie. I have to walk into the kitchen for something and I stop at my coffee bar to check in on my little Amazonian buddies in their tank, only to stand up ten minutes later and realize that I've forgotten what the hell I needed in the kitchen in the first place. I slip into my guest room and peek in on my snail grow out tank...every...single...time I walk past the guest room, which is every day...on purpose. I have an Excel Spreadsheet with tabs for every tank to keep track of water testing, always looking for consistency and patterns for a better balance. I have two bags of frozen fish food that take up half of my tiny little freezer. My Etsy account is nothing but 3D printed aquarium tools and modifications, aquatic plants, and driftwood sellers. My YouTube is nothing but Fish Fam subscriptions...My husband would say I seriously need help. I say I just need more tanks...just one more tank...or two...or five...

So, thanks to @Bentley Pascoe's latest videos on the Fluval Aquasky 2.0, I decided to move my Fluval Plant 3.0 Nano to Sakura's tank. (My husband blames Mr. Pascoe for this unexpected expense 😂 I'm afraid he's going to ban me from FishTube, especially after seeing me scouring Dan's Fish website for pygmy corydoras, and the last order from the Coop I just recieved 😬).The Plant Nano was just throwing down so much light for my plants in my 14 gallon that it just wasn't what I wanted--an algae factory. I've got java fern, jungle vallisneria and some green cabomba in that tank--none of which needs that much light. I had it dimmed down to 35% MAX and it was still just too much. Amano clean up crew...still too much for them to handle. Of course I needed to change the light... Mmhmm...That's my story and I'm stickin' to it, hubs. Enter the Fluval Aquasky 2.0...According to Bentley, it's the perfect amount of light for low to mid light plants. Out to Petsmart I ran on Tuesday (because Amazon wanted me to wait until freakin' September 30th for no good reason, and I have NO patience) and I nabbed the last one. Bentley, buddy, I am anxiously awaiting the Pro Mode video for the Aquasky 2.0 Ultimate Guide series....and that Flourish smack down you've been teasing us all with 😉 If you're saying it's gonna' be more epic than the SunSun review...I'm there for it. I come for the rants, I stay for the info. Annnnnnnyyyywho, an hour later and POOF...my 10 gallon column tank is now being graced by the Plant Nano. I feel professional (I'm not). Sakura feels fancy (He is). Roomba isn't quite sure what to make of all this light, but eating is more important than worrying about the bright rays shining down from the heavens, so onward he trudges...or scoots, I guess. Unless he's recharging, of course. Needless to say, my rotala rotundafolia is absolutely loving the amount of light the Day Sim settings are giving it. Hopefully my mini christmas moss towards the bottom of the tank will respond in kind. It's looking very sad-more Halloween-ish than Christmas-y. I don't think the Stingray 2.0 I originally had on there was getting it enough light...19" tall is quite a bit of water to penetrate through. Not to mention the polycarbonate DIY top. Naturally, with my little CO2 unit I'm running and with the new, high-speed hoo-yah hoo-yah light, I'm already looking for more awesome plants to get my hands on. Ludwigia Natans Super Red? Alternanthera Reineckii Mini? Staurogyne Repens? Pink Flamingo Crypt? Oh, all the plants...All the pretty, pretty plants...They're mine...My own...My precious... My husband is going to kill me...but...YOLO. Bonus: Sakura is now modeling for me under the new spotlight. He's feeling very couture...Someone call Chanel or Dior...He's willing to be the face of the Spring/Summer 2022 line...maybe for New York Fashion Week?

Thanks for all of the great comments everyone! Apologies for not being super active lately, sometimes life just has a habit of getting in the way! A not-so-quick update: I took out the dragon stone. I noticed Sakura's tail continually a little frayed and ever since I removed it, his tail has been healing beautifully! I also moved the Amano shrimp gang into my larger 14 gallon community tank. They were being terrorized by Sakura and refused to come out hardly at all, but now they're out 24/7 and enjoying life with my corydoras. Sakura has made it perfectly clear he will not accept any roommates, which effectively kills my ideas to add a few Kuhli loaches, because who doesn't love a few little, wiggly danger noodles. Alas, not to be. However, I did add a zebra nerite snail, aptly named Roomba, to his tank and Sakura tolerates him just fine. Perhaps it's because he doesn't view him as food like he did the shrimp. He's inquisitive for sure, constantly hovering around Roomba as he slowly makes his way in circles around the tank walls and over the plants, but Roomba takes it all in stride and steamrolls through. Maybe Sakura is just simply inspecting the cleaning services Roomba is providing and not so politely letting him know he missed a spot. Sakura even shares his coconut with Roomba at times...how very gentlemanly of him. My crypts propagated like mad, so I moved the runners and now I have little crypts all over the bottom of the tank, which forced me to do some rearranging. I also added a few of them to my new rimless 3 gallon in my kitchen. I'm taking this opportunity to paint the back of the tank (safely) so I can rid myself of the horrid "transflex-style" squeegeed on background. I'm also coming to the realization that I am not a fan of the sand...it never looks clean. I have OCD. It isn't a good mix. I was binging some @Bentley Pascoe videos this weekend and I want to try replacing it with the Brightwell Rio Escuro XF substrate and mix it with the Eco Complete that is currently in the back half of the tank. I do love a black substrate so very much. The season is a-changing and so is my betta tank!! Roomba roomba-ing Om-noming King of the tank, Sakura, looking good

Ok, so Sakura made it through a case of Velvet and fin rot (popped up during quarantine and caught early, thank goodness). After nearly 2 months in quarantine, he is finally in his home with his tank mates--5 Amano shrimp. For those who have seen my prior posts in general discussion, I decided to go with a nice piece of dragon stone that I sanded down and cleaned out really well and I'm so glad I did!! My Amanos love to hide in the holes when they aren't eating or swimming around. I also made my own polycarbonate top with acrylic hinges after watching @Cory's video on DIY tops. So glad I found that. I absolutely hated the light this particular kit came with and not having to mess with glass was a godsend. So, thanks, Cory! Sakura is very, very happy in his new home. It took me the 2+ months he was in the QT getting treatment to get it together and "seasoning" with pre-seeded media and plants. The shrimp are doing well too; I made sure they had lots of algae to come in and eat. They've all molted within a week of settling in with no issues. I'm very pleased as this is my first foray into shrimp keeping as well. Sakura tried to chase them at first, but after realizing he can't catch them, he's since given up and just ignores them. So, plants are growing in nicely and I'll keep updating pics as the mini Christmas moss grows in. Here's what I have: manzanita wood water wisteria rotala indica dwarf lily crypt undulata anubias barteri anubias nana petite mini Christmas moss anacharis Without further ado, may I present: Sakura & Shrimp Co.'s 10 gallon column planted tank 🙂 He loves hanging out in his coconut! DIY polycarbonate top! For those looking to do this who live in apartments with no big power tools available (my situation), it IS possible to hand-cut it with a sharp box cutter (and if you're like me--accident prone--a pair of cut-resistant, protective kitchen gloves). It takes A LOT of effort and care (and strings of cathartic four-letter words and sweat and, man, was I sore for a day or two afterward), but after carefully cutting it and then sanding the cut edges with basic sand paper--course followed by extra fine-- it turned out far better than I thought it would having not used a power saw. It just takes patience (and if you have youngins', I highly recommend you wait until they're out of the house to cut it so you can unashamedly use your full vocabulary 🤣)!!!! Also, if you don't need the big 8 foot piece, Home Depot sells a 4 foot by 2 foot piece online for around $35ish. One of the Shrimp Co. munching on Repashy! And as a final side note: I'm currently using a Top Fin Silenstream 10 that came with the tank kit for filtration, but I'm replacing it with an Aquaclear 20 from another tank that's also getting an upgrade (to an Aquaclear 30). It's not that the Top Fin filter is necessarily bad, but I just don't care for how it works. Whereas the ACs pull the water up through media, the Top Fin just pushes from one side to another, making hot-rodding it a pain. Not a whole lot of room for media either. I like the convenience of pulling the media basket out of the ACs for maintenance, as well as the ability to get to the impeller for cleaning. This is my first time using fine sand substrate, too. It doesn't stay clean for long, but Sakura likes to swim along the bottom a lot and I don't worry about his fins as much as I would with gravel. Always try everything once! I'm looking to add a Malaysian Trumpet snail or two to keep it churned up and help with spot algae on the glass. I also ordered my plants from several different online sources. I wanted to see who had the best products, prices, availabilities, shipping and longevity. It's been an interesting experiment so far for sure! I finally completed my first planted tank, guys! Yay! Let's see if I can keep it thriving!!!

Water wisteria is super fast for sure. I have a bunch planted in my 10 gallon running medium to high light and a little CO2. I TRIPLE dosed Easy Green yesterday and this morning I’m sitting at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 5 nitrate. Currently seasoning this tank so no fin babies in there yet. I’ve also got quite a bit of Anacharis in there with crypts and Anubias Barteri and Nana Petite, but I credit the nitrate disposal to the wisteria! I also have used frogbit and water lettuce in another tank and as others have attested to, they’re nitrate eating monsters! 😄

I use their copper one when I need to dose Coppersafe! All of my current basic parameter tests are the liquid API kits, but I find some of the color charts a little difficult to discern which makes me want to look elsewhere for Iron and Potassium testing. I like to branch out too, though, just in case there is something better and/or more accurate that I don’t know about, so I figured ask the experts what you guys use! I’m new to higher-tech planted tanks so thinking about providing and balancing micro and macro nutrient levels feels like rocket science to me right now 😆

I use that test as well in my weekly water parameter checks. I add Seachem Equilibrium at water changes to add minerals because my tap water is so soft (GH of barely 3 and KH of barely 2) as well as Alkaline Buffer (I know I could use Wondershell or crushed coral but I’m a control freak and add the Seachem products to reach specifically desired GH and KH of 7 and 4 respectively, based on my fin babies’ preferences). But, I am more looking to get into the weeds (pun intended) beyond just general hardness and carbonate hardness, especially since I am running a higher tech set up in one tank with known pickier plants for the first time. Particularly with the Iron; definitely don’t want to accidentally overdose my way into a BBA outbreak. 😁

It is difficult to tell if that is indeed Velvet from the pictures, but I just recently fought off Velvet from my betta over the last several weeks. Mine developed that rusty look along the top of him and started flashing. Is your betta rubbing itself against things? Like it's trying to scratch an itch? That might be something to look for in your hunt to diagnose. I will say that once I did verify it was velvet on mine, I used Fritz Coppersafe. I've heard (just through my own research upon freaking out) that with Velvet, copper is the strongest and most effective treatment so I decided to hit it with everything I had. Granted, he was still in quarantine so that made using a copper-based treatment easier. I slowly ramped up the dose so I didn't shock him and tested how much of the med was in the water as too much can cause problems. Blacking out my tank completely was another thing I did. Velvet is caused by a type of photosynthesizing parasite so that will help keep it under control during treatment. That is what worked for me, but my situation with him still being in quarantine makes it a little bit different since yours is in a community tank. I have my fingers crossed that it isn't Velvet for you and good luck!!

Hello all! I just bought my first few red plants and I know they like a little extra iron (usually a little more than what is in Easy Green from what I understand). Anyway, I also know that water differs in the amount of minerals it contains, and too much iron=BBA. Yuck! So, I'm on the hunt for some accurate tests for Iron, Potassium and Calcium. I don't want to overdose my iron and I'm looking at adding some Amano Shrimp to one of my tanks (want to make sure I have enough calcium) and bunch of java fern to my other tank (which, I understand, loves A LOT of potassium). I've seen that Sera's are pretty highly rated...I'm a Seachem junkie so I've looked at theirs too...but I want to know what our community trusts and uses!! So I'd love everyone's two cents on which brand of tests are your go to for these nutrients!! 😃

Water Wisteria is one of those plants that will basically grow anywhere in nearly any condition haha. I have some planted in my high-tech, high light 10 gallon betta tank. I ended up buying too many and ended up floating the rest of the bunch in my 14 gallon cube that's slightly blackwater with dim lighting and it's growing like a weed! Tons of roots and super happy.

Oh that is a gorgeous tank! I'm planning a pea puffer tank myself. My husband has been dying to get one after he saw them in our LFS. I want to have it heavily planted and this has given me some great ideas! Is that driftwood there in the center? What kind is it? It's so interesting and eye-catching! Beautifully done! 👍 😍

@James Black Hugo had a beautiful home for those two months he lived there! That's good to know! I, too, got Sakura from a Big Box Store...I saw him in that cup and I just couldn't leave without him...he looked so pitiful in that dirty water. That's a good idea about the stones being spaced apart...mine would be smaller and spaced, as well as covered by plants and a large Anubias Barteri anchored on a medium sized stone. I'll keep that in mind for sure when I go looking to get the rest of my hardscape this week!

Oh man, I've had a L129 Columbian Zebra Pleco since February. I'm working on planting the tank up nice and heavily to see him more often, granted he is extremely nocturnal. Feeding has been trial and error with him, and always at night when the lights are off. He's nice and fat so I know he is eating, but that breed is notorious for being omnivores leaning more towards carnivorous. I feed my Corydoras bottom feeder wafers, sometimes I'll throw in carnivore pellets as well. I also feed frozen brine shrimp, frozen tubifex worms, frozen blood worms and frozen daphnia. I'm guessing he is mooching some of those noms. Specifically for my Columbian Zebra (Or "Fake Zebra" or "Scribble Pleco" as I've also seen them called) I was advised by the LFS I bought him from to feed Sera's Pleco wafers for Ancistrus and Hypancistrus. They've got a ton of good stuff like alder cone and spirulina as well as green lipped mussel. He seems to like those a lot. But the one time I've seen him really get excited was when I fed the daphnia. The Corys made the mistake of coming into his territory while he was apparently gorging himself and he made it known they needed to clear out 😄

@sudofishI was thinking about sanding anything I need to down if I do go with dragon stone. I'm leaning towards playing it safe and doing Seiryu stone instead and save the dragon stone for my bigger community tank where I won't have to worry about long fins!

I second this approach and I use the Easy Root Tabs. I usually use a thumb tack or something similar, poke a little hole in the top and then grab them with angled planting tweezers and shove them all the way down to the bottom of the tank with the tweezers at a 45 degree angle. I'll kind of wiggle the tweezers out and away slowly and that usually works. It took me some practice to get them to stay, but once I got into a groove planting them, it became easier. My corys dig quite a bit, too, so I always shove them as deep as I can get them. Never thought to squeeze some air out under water...I'll have to try that next time!

Good afternoon fellow Nerms! I have a quick question as I begin to set up my 10 gallon tank for my halfmoon Betta, Sakura. I've done some research and keep coming across conflicting answers. I was planning on using some small and medium-sized rocks to anchor some java fern and anubias to, as well as to help create a more natural-looking environment for him along with a tall, smooth piece of manzanita driftwood, and I love the look of dragon stone, especially when used with fine sand substrate. I worry, however, about it possibly ripping his fins. I wasn't sure if it would be ok since I'm only using smaller pieces at the bottom of the tank and not using big ones as center pieces like we see in those cool, fancy aquascapes. I'm also using them as "dividers" between my sand at the front of the tank and the little bit of Ecocomplete I'm using in the back of the tank for the stem plants to root in and enjoy. It's a 10 gallon column tank (don't worry, he has a coconut cave that will be suction-cupped towards the top and I'm using tall stem plants he can rest in and on as well), so I figure he won't be spending a whole lot of time at the bottom, which is going to be heavily planted around the rocks and bottom of the driftwood with different crypts and other smaller plants...Any advice?? Anyone have experience with Bettas living happily with dragon stone in their home? Or am I creating a fin rot disaster waiting to happen? I'm not dead set on dragon stone at all, I know Seiryu stone or large river rock stones would be cool, too. Totally open to suggestions as well. 😊

Hello everyone! My name is Becca and I live in good ole' Colorado with my Air Traffic Controller husband. We don't have kids, but we sure do have fur babies and fin babies! Along with our fishies, we are also proud parents of two beautiful cats. Kenzie is a grey tabby with a diva-tude and Rin is my "cog" chocolate point rescued Balinese. We just love animals. I've grown up around aquariums, mainly back in the early to mid-90's. My mother always kept fish. Her favorite has always been Black Mollies and Angelfish. She keeps begging me to get some mollies, in fact, so she can live vicariously through me! Her largest tank was a 55 gallon and I just remember absolutely loving the fish and spending hours watching them in awe. She had to give up her fish-keeping when she was diagnosed with lupus, but she enjoys my fish whenever she visits! I'm just really getting my aquariums up and running again. A few years ago, I started with a 3.5 gallon tank and a beautiful, red, halfmoon Betta named Katsumoto. I unfortunately lost him a year and a half later to fin rot and it discouraged me from keeping any more fish for a little while. I just felt so unprepared and so irresponsible. Then, I was lucky enough to stumble upon @Cory's Aquarium Co-Op, his videos and this forum, and I decided to dive back in (pun intended), feeling much better prepared for anything and everything. I have a 14 gallon tank that I'm slowly introducing a few fish at a time to. I love heavily planted tanks with nice, natural hardscape, so I'm slowly getting the scape to resemble a jungle tank for my 3 Emerald Corydoras--Winky, Whiskers and Small Fry--and my beautiful L129 Colombian Zebra Pleco, Pancake (he looks like he has syrup drizzled all over him and he's so flat and round and plump and I love his little shy self so much!) My other tank isn't up and running yet, but it's a 10 gallon for my new fin baby, Sakura. He's a halfmoon Betta with A LOT of personality and we instantly bonded. I love that he has a little mustache! I can't wait to get that tank up and running (I have pre-seeded media of course, ready to go!) and see him enjoy his big, new home after being in quarantine for a month. I'm super excited to be a part of this amazing community and everyone has already been so very welcoming! As I continue to learn, I hope I'll be able to help others like everyone here has already helped me so very much! Always willing to show off for the camera! They were taking a nice break from foraging the substrate for noms! Pardon the reflection! Pancake is super shy, and when he isn't in his pleco cave he loves this big chunk of driftwood or the big faux driftwood on the other side of the tank (being replaced with real driftwood and adding WAY more plants). It was evening and the tank lights were off, but the room light was on temporarily to try and catch a glimpse of him for the camera, so he skedaddled under it to hide!