NewerFishPerson

After a very busy day we got up and going and it's coming along great. Gravel Laid & Hardscape Complete... *excuse the reflections lol Got some plants going.. Will be working on adding some other plants. The plan is to get more moss on the top of the rocks. Very sad scarlett in the front, will hopefully fill out. Plan to get more. We are debating putting some dwarf grass around the front part of the rocks? Plan is to add more plants. There is Fluval stratum under the gravel. The gravel is Pure Water Pebbles Bio-Activ Live African Cichlid Aquarium Substrate.

The aquarium obsession has become a thing. We started our first 10 gallon in April and after a lot of learn as you go , we finally got it settled and stable. Today we will be starting to put together a 36 gallon bowfront tank. We decided to go full on rock featured aqua scape with this one. We have been searching for the perfect rocks to build a unique rock centerpiece and I finally found them several days ago. As much as I wanted to just get something together and going and get the tank built, ugghh.. LOL Nope, learn from your mistakes the first time, get this one going right from the beginning. We got the right silicone and took the time to get a nice base built and now 48 hours later we are ready to build the tank today. Rocks are solid and silicone is cured. So excited. 🙂 It's gonna be a busy tank day, as we are changing up our 10 gallon a bit to. We have also been preparing some nice driftwood pieces and will be transitioning the 10 gallon to a more all driftwood/ planted setup. Photos to come along...

Just a celebration!!!! We were getting so frustrated with our 10 Gallon Tall Corner tank, we got the ammonia down, but seemed like forever and our nitrites would not drop for anything!! We did a few 25% changes to help the fish, and then out of frustration of no changes, we decided to just leave everything alone. Dosed with prime every 48 hours as needed after testing. Then one morning we did a test and the nitrites were pure blue as they should be, and nitrates were 5ppm. That was on June 28. We added more fish and they are all doing well. 1 day after adding a few new fish, all of sudden we see babies. LOL And now the obsession has begun! We are now in the process of getting a new 36 gallon tank set up. We are going all out, currently building our own hardscape and using all live plants in that one. It's been a process but will be so worth it. Our rock scape is really coming together. Will be doing a more fishless type cycle with established tank items. And will be basing our fish decisions around the finished scape. Have a few ideas for a cool community tank. We currently have 3 platies (1 male, 2 female) , 5 mollies (1 male, 2 females) (2 are tiny babies) , albino bristlenose pleco, and 3 blue velvet shrimp ( I think, we had 9, but we only ever see 3 around the tank, others may not have made it). **The fish are still on the smaller end, so they are all doing well in the current home, Also have a java fern attached to driftwood that is sprouting from leaves like crazy, an amazon sword that has become fuller looking, scarlett temple and a little frogbit on the top as well. The mollies and the pleco will get moved to the 36 gallon once it's ready. That one will go a bit faster as we now have some established tank items to use. Our local fish store will also be giving us some items for filter to help get a cycle building quicker. YAY For Victories!!

Hello. I currently have 3 plants in my 10 gallon. I've noticed what appears to be growth and just curious if that's what I am seeing as I'm new to all this. The concern I have is with my amazon sword, not sure if it just still adjusting or melting or what. Some of the leaves are just seeming more transparent. There is is Fluval Stratum substrate under the rocks. And there is a Flourish root tab under the rock and root tabs that were placed with the Scarlett temple as well. The scarlet was all together in the black pot (sword and temple both came from aquariumcoop website) , but I separated and planted them into the fluval substrate. I have been dosing with Seachum flourish once weekly, Thanks for any input. 🙂 Java Fern: Scarlet Temple: (white strands coming from it.. Amazon Sword:

Hello. We are currently transitioning our tank into a planted tank. Our tank is a Top Fin Corner tank. We are looking for a top floating type of plant that will do well with hard water , low to medium lighting and no co2. We also don't see the very top of the tank, so we want something that would have longer cool looking roots that would hang down into the tank. I was thinking about Red Root Floater possibly, thinking it might add some depth of color to tank , to go along with the scarlet temple in the tank. Photo for reference. Excuse the cloudiness, we completely redid our tank yesterday so everything was clearing. Under the rock is a layer of Fluval Stratum. Plans are to eventually remove the octopus in the back and move the sword in the planter to that location. and then add another piece of driftwood and attach some anubias or more java fern. Also we will be adding in more Scarlett temple plants as well. https://photos.app.goo.gl/QVZrLZvnFtsHgoDZA Here's a before the transition just for fun: 🙂 https://photos.app.goo.gl/tVw8NPvjr4znrgei6

Well we went allllll out this afternoon, and went for a whole new look. We cleared everything out, got rid of the blue gravel. We were doing a water change and decided to go for it. 🙂 Results look awesome! We removed the scarlet temple from pot and separated it and planted it. Also added an extra java fern to the driftwood to give it a more full look. So future plans, we want to get rid of the octopus cave thing in the background and replace with something more natural, like some kind of driftwood or rock display. This of course after giving the new gravel time to establish a bacteria buildup. Suggestions would be great. * To note while doing all of this we didn't clean anything regarding the filter and when we pulled plants and all we just put everything in a bucket of tank water pulled from the tank. We also didn't really clean the walls of the tank much. We replaced the weird blue gravel with.. bottom is Fluval Stratum topped with aquarium gravel rocks, I mixed in some crushed coral, some of which has been sitting the in tank in a media bag for almost a week. After getting everything set up, we added back in about 75% of the original tank water, and then filled the rest with fresh water dosed with prime. I also added 2 tsp of API safe start just to be safe. We let everything cycle for for about an hour and half before adding the fish back from their temporary fish bowl home. Was a bit scary at first cause water was very cloudy and brown. We even made sure to wash the gravel well. All is starting to clear up now though the longer it filters. 🙂 And fish seem pleased with their upgraded home. Before: After: https://photos.app.goo.gl/vpFsY2MSGyV9yiff9

I have a female gold panda molly that seemingly has mood swings. She will swim around being just fine, seemingly coupling around with my male mickey platy. They even show mating behavior and seem to attempt to mate at times. Then she seems to turn on him as if they have had a quarrel and she chases him and bullies him around the tank until he hides to get away from her. She was pecking at my plecos head this morning, and has never really messed with the pleco before. LOL Rebecca

Looking for some help with our current plants. This is my first planted tank, and we are working on getting things changed up to a more natural environment. The plants in the tank are a java fern attached to a piece of driftwood, a scarlett temple, and an amazon sword. The java fern has been in the tank the longest. I have the sword in one of the planters bought from aquarium co op website, the scarlet temple and the sword were both bought from aquarium co op website as well. Are these plants meant to just be placed in the tank in the black buckets they come in or should I separate them and place them in different areas? I figure the planter was meant to just have the black bucket placed into it. I dose with Seachum Flourish twice a week. When I added the plants I made a hole in the gravel where the plants are going and put fluval stratum around them, I added a bit into the bottom of the planter as well. I heard that Flourish is not the greatest all around. But what should I accommodate with. I chose plants that did not require Co2. I currently have blue gravel, but want to change the substrate to use Fluval Stratum and crushed coral, as I want a more plant friendly and more natural looking environment now. Currently my sword appears to melting. We were going through a cycle when these plants were added , and have done a couple of big water changes when our nitrites were high. Water added to tank is tap water dosed with prime, water from tap is hard water. We added the natural plants to help w/ tank overall, which they did help to get through an initial cycle. Our nitrites broke down and nitrates lowered, and seemed we were finally completely our first cycle. However now this morning, things are back up. We have been feeding minimal food. We also got through an ick infection a couple of weeks ago. Lots of learning has gone one, and now I just want to get these plants going in the right direction, and complete a a seemingly second cycle coming on. No real changes have happened since adding the plants and water changes. I only added a media bag with crushed coral to the back as we were having some issues with no KH and ph drop. Crushed coral bag did fix this to some extent. Here is a photo with the plants. My molly is constantly pecking at them, is she pecking bacteria on them or is she trying to eat them? This girl does nothing but try to eat all day. LOL Tank is a tall 10 gallon w/ a 20 gallon Aqua Clear filtration running. We have 3 fish in it. An albino pleco, male platy and a female gold panda molly. *Yes future bigger tank options are in the plan. 🙂 https://photos.app.goo.gl/C7zcfQkQzakeR3jP8 Current water parameters: Tested w/ API Freshwater Kit (two days ago the nitrites had finally seemed to be breaking and the color in the tube was a very very light purple with more of a blue tinge. Nothing has changed in the tank since then. And fish have only been fed a small amount of flake and a half an algae wafer. Which was all eaten up in less than an hour. PH: 7.0 Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0.50 ppm Nitrates: 5.0 ppm Temp: 74-75

I have been monitoring my tank the last couple of days for possible ich or other parasite issue. See post below for history on the issue. As suggested in that post we did a big water change this morning , probably like 35% to 40%. I added about 1 tsp of aquarium salt after the change. We also rinsed our media in the aqua clear in aquarium water as well. Just tested the water and it's better than before the change. API Freswater KIt: Ammonia: 0 , Nitrites 2-3 ppm, Nitrates: 10 ppm PH: 7.0-7.2 ppm. Temp 75-77 degrees According to api 5 in 1 test strip: about the same on liquid readings, KH: a bit darker than the 0 reading. TONIGHT: I am checking on the fish cause my pleco is darting and dashing. I think I see a row of 5-6 white dots on it's top fin. Albino Pleco, so not exactly easy to spot. Finally held still long enough for a photo. Later after the photo while he/she was holding still on front of the glass, I think I saw a couple on the side fins as well. I added more salt as I'm really trying to take that route. I do have a bottle of Ich X that I bought today just in case. Just don't want to use if it I don't need to. Before salt I had added around probably a tbsp or maybe slightly over . After water change I added 1 tsp, and after seeing pleco I added 1 Tbsp. But being as I'm pretty sure those are white spots I'm seeing, thinking I should before it gets too bad. So with a ten gallon, how much should I use. Between salt and ich X . This is our first fish tank so inexperienced and don't want to mess up anything with the cycle and all. Pleco Photo: https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipPS9EdaLDIeYv4hbhSgzOywDUmZHn-8DYmGIT4K Little History..

Looked up Dragon Wrasse and yep that's definitely what it was. Awesome Fish!

I went into local fish store today and was browsing checking out some of the new inhabitants. Saw a crazy but awesome looking fish. What in the world is it? :-) The one is question is the brown long one with the makeup looking eyes and what is it doing? I believe it was in a saltwater tank. Video... https://photos.app.goo.gl/6e7x53aL5oDRr1te9 Another picture of different fish: Also what is it? https://photos.app.goo.gl/UiRAfBmbL9PTSjH76

I have a Java Fern that I added to my tank a couple weeks ago. It's attached to a piece of driftwood. I initially attached it with a couple of rubber bands. There is a gap in the driftwood that I put the roots into. First question is how long does take for it to attach? I had it out today during a water change to see it better, and the roots have definitely gotten longer and seem to be growing towards the drift wood , but it doesn't seem attached yet. I removed one of the rubber bands, but I don't want to remove everything too soon, and the java fern ends up floating. The other question is about the brown spots on it. When I initially added it to the tank there were a few of the leaves that got really browned out and I removed those particular leaves. I have been adding Seachum Flourish to the tank once weekly. I have read that some spotting is normal. This is my first plant, so not sure what is bad or good. 🙂 Don't want to go snipping things that are ok. Here a photo of the plant: Can see the one leave with browning on the tip and the other to the left of it with more. https://photos.app.goo.gl/qc22pQ46waECg7TQ6

I have a bottle of API Proper PH 7.0. Would that help? These are the PH needs for the fish & plants in the tank 🤨 Molly seems to need the most.. So where is the balance for them all. Molly: 7.5-8.5 Platy: 6.8-8.0 Bristlenose Pleco 6.5-7.5 Java Fern; 6.0-7.0 Ordered and to be added soon: Amazon Sword: 6.5-7.5 Scarlett Temple: 6.0-7.0

I have API 5 in 1 test strips as well. The water in the tank comes from our tap and it's definitely hard water. So when we were first looking into fish, we looked for ones that would do well with harder water conditions. Our PH was a bit iffy in the beginning, we even added a PH balancer at one point. At this point, it generally is fairly steady at the 7.0 range. Just recently it seemed like it might be dropping a bit. I believe this may be from the fact that we had done a couple of water changes with 3/4 tap water and some reverse osmosis water. We were having a bad time getting ammonia to break. We tested the tap water from the faucet and the ammonia was pretty high, along with chlorine and all, so we though that might be the issue. We didn't do that the last water change. We have a couple of gallon jugs that we keep filled to use when doing water changes. We fill them and treat them with prime. *Edited to add.. the temp we are reading is from a thermometer that we have in the tank as well, not the top fin heater reading. *Here is what the test chart looks like for reference: KH is 0, GH is in the 120 range . PH is 7.0 (Freshwater) Nitrite 5 , Nitrate 40 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5mu6HjKNGnU/U7mp-qnNWrI/AAAAAAAAAOA/-lkLqj6hhVU/s1600/teststrip.jpg

Longwinded .. Sorry 🙂 Wanted to share enough info. ** So I never actually posted this last night as I meant to. Therefore first part yesterday morning. Today UPDATE BELOW.. **Yesterday Morning /Afternoon : Hello. New to the hobby and this forum has been very helpful, Im in a stuck moment though. We were having issues initially with our tank actually cycling, however it finally started to after adding some other fish. It seems to be doing its thing, ammonia levels finally broke as nitrite levels went up, and then the nitrates started to build. We have been just letting the tank do it's thing, and have been doing water changes once weekly and dosing with prime to keep the levels in check and keep the fish as safe as possible. About a week ago I noticed the platy rubbing on the plants, it was only occasionally and after a water test showed higher nitrite readings we did a 30 -40 percent water change and that seemed to help. Over the last couple of days he seems to have gotten much worse. He goes through spouts of darting around the tank, rubs the gravel, rubs the plants and then holds still for a while, then darts forward. Almost appears to be having a seizure at times. Now he just lays around on top of things and barely moves, fins not moving but he's breathing. The molly in tank who has been very active is now acting the same way. Has been wobbling alot as well. They both go through spouts of seeming very agitated and swim erratically around the tank, and rub on the gravel over and over and the plants. Then they will both barely move, but if I remove the lid or drop any food in they both come right to life and eat everything up as if they are fine. I have only been feeding them small amounts every other day to help keep the ammonia and nitrites in check as much as possible through the cycle. We also have a fake plant that is getting brown algae on it, we attempted to rinse it a bit during the last water change. We rinsed in tank water as to not kill any bacteria on it. I have been checking them several times a day to look for white spots and researching parasites. I don't really want to medicate until I know for sure what they may be having an issue with, and don't want to medicate if they are reacting to the higher nitrite levels due to cycling. Earlier today it seemed the tank had some floating particles in it. I added 1/2 TBSP of aquarium salt in an attempt to do something to make them more comfortable and in case we are dealing with Ick. I know that's not much, but wanted to start small, as I didn't want to cause further irritation to them. The molly just goes vertical by the heater most of the time, have thought she was gone a few times, same with platy cause he wasn't moving. I'll drop a piece of flake into the tank and they both go crazy wanting to eat. Platy had a very long string looking piece of poo hanging on earlier too. Seemed a bit much when I'm not feeding them much. Didn't want to go crazy with the salt either since I've read that plecos can be more sensitive and I have a java fern as well. Have been reducing the lights on as well to help with the stress aspect. **Last Night Update: The tank water seems to have cleared dramatically since this afternoon. Before going to work it appeared to have particles floating through it and was hard to even get clear photos. They both seem to be very stressed still and not moving and gills are tucked in. I added another 1/2 tbsp of aquarium salt. Just laying on top of tank decor. Today UPDATE THIS MORNING: Water is crystal clear for the first time since starting the tank around 4/6. Turned on the lights and platy and molly came right to the top. They are both swimming around the tank just eating off things, and not laying around at all. They are back to chasing each other every so often. Minimal flashing on anything as well. Pleco was dashing around the tank last few days as well, and pleco is even just moving around normally, and acting normal. Fed them just a moment ago and they are very eagerly eating. I also this morning ordered two new plants an amazon sword and a scarlet temple and one planter. I want to get rid of the fake plant with the brown looking algae and add these in. Is removing this plant ok even though we are working through a first cycle. Dont want to disturb bacteria buildup too much. But want live plants. Tank Info.. 10 Gallon Top Fin Corner Tank, upgraded: We are running an Aqua Clear 20 filtration system. Yes we do plan to upgrade to bigger tank in the near future, looking at getting a 39 gallon. Fish are currently on the smaller side. 🙂 A piece of driftwood with attached Java Fern starting to grow on it. Pleco has been loving it, so thanks for that suggestion. 3 Fish: Albino BN Pleco (think a female) has been in tank since very small. Female Gold Panda Molly. Male Marlboro Mickey Platy. While looking at photos.. Java Fern is getting those brown spots on the tips. Should I trim this? It's been in tank for almost 2 weeks now, and roots are growing longer and seem to be on way to attaching to driftwood. I have been adding Seachum Flourish once a week. Water Test Results: **Taken last night. Added photos Ammonia: 0 Nitrites .50 -1.0 ppm Nitrates: 10 - 20 ppm PH: 6.8-7.0 Temp: 74-76 Degrees Photos: Yesterday Afternoon: Hard to take a clear photo: Vertical Molly: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jXHbUhsb2CBCe4nc8 https://photos.app.goo.gl/yxkUpVM3KnDcRWLN9 Platy: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pyL44fThvDEVUriR7 https://photos.app.goo.gl/PWDfb2mGaL71tbGk7 Last Night After Work: Vertical Molly: Brown Algae on heater: https://photos.app.goo.gl/jR5LPyUiSRMwcMA4A Platy: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QxVgV4Gbjr5fq2dW8 Albino Pleco: https://photos.app.goo.gl/tTHEE1xMC4PCc1648 Test Results Last Night: Ammonia, Nitrites, Nitrates https://photos.app.goo.gl/JgSKtAjEtvWTuvHw5 PH: https://photos.app.goo.gl/afTysdpvKKVEQc6t7 Fish This Morning: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PUERebshXsDP3bZMA https://photos.app.goo.gl/Axbn5DAkGx7yL3gi8 Platy seems to have some browning on his head. not sure: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6GwpSGCg4Ly6adke8