TheBlueBeetle

You’re getting some great advice. I second Java fern and Anubias as they are super easy to grow and can be maintained with just a liquid fertilizer as opposed to root tabs monthly, substrate doesn’t matter to them, just glue them to rock or wood and go! I love crypts as well, they do usually melt back at first as mentioned, but once established, they do great. For the rooted plants I suggest a good substrate. I use caribsea eco complete. It doesn’t contain a lot of nutrients initially but absorbs them from root tabs and liquid ferts to release as needed, and it doesn’t break down. As far as the fish with shrimp, I would get the shrimp colony really established before adding fish so that the shrimp breeding will outpace the babies being eaten, because almost every fish will eat shrimplets! I’ve had the best luck with pigmy Cory’s and chili rasboras as their mouths are so small. Good luck and keep us posted!

I would also suggest synodontis cats. They are really active and nice to look at. I would suggest petricola if you wanted to get several as they don’t get big. A decent school of them really liven up the bottom of a tank. I’ve kept them with mbuna for years, they deal with aggression just fine and are not aggressive themselves. Also they are great at cleaning up uneaten food, so anti nitrate bonus!

Yes! I run sponges in addition to canisters in all but one of my thanks. Besides the added filtration, it’s an inexpensive cure for dead spots, flow wise. I used an aco powerhead on top of them in my 75 and 125 (2 sponges stacked in the 125), and the easy flow kit in my 20 long. It’s a great, inexpensive way to add filtration and control flow compared to a second hob or canister. Plus as stated earlier, if you’re running on a battery backup air pump, you still have filtration and oxygenation during a power outage. Cheers!

I cut up a foam filter pad and use the pieces to plug the openings around cords, pipes, and tubes. It’s black so it doesn’t stand out and is easy to cut to to size. It’ll squeeze in and fill the gap nicely.

I get to travel to Africa for my job occasionally and I’m an animal nerd. This has resulted in a lot of pics. Here are a few.

I bought this on Etsy:. It pours towards the wall and you can angle it all kinds of ways. I have a flex 15 with shrimp and fish that need low flow.

I keep otos, hillstreams, and panda garras in my 125g community. (temp 77) I really enjoy all three. The ottos are the most consistent algae eaters as far as all over the tank. The hillstreams seem to prefer mostly the glass for algae snackage and the panda garras will eat any food so algae is not their primary focus. I keep the lights just bright enough to keep the algae steady but not intrusive and supplement with repashy soilent green (which it took the otos a while to warm up to). Cheers!

I agree. I use bio media for two main reasons: 1) I can rinse my sponges under high pressure tap water, cleaning them thoroughly, without caring about the bacteria in them. 2) Over time the sponges break down from either me wringing them out when cleaning or, In some cases just getting compressed in my canister filter. I can just chunk the old ones willy nilly and replace them with fresh, effective ones again with complete disregard for the bacteria I'm murdering. As always, you do you.

Well, this one has been awesome. I've had him over a year and he's by far the largest fish in the tank.. Tankmates include otos and harlequin rasboras and tetras. (so, tiny in comparison). This guy has never even chased a another fish with the exception of a keyhole cichlid he apparently just didn't like.

It's a Rainbow cichlid.

The wire java moss mats from aquarium co-op are great for adding greenery. you can bend them around driftwood branches for a great look(example below), plus java moss is super easy to grow. .

Cool wood pieces! I would echo what was said about the groups, Particularly the serpaes, they tend to be a little nippy with other species unless kept in a group of five or more (in which case they keep their nippiness more within their group.) Also The tank may be a bit small for the Denison barbs, They grow to 4-6 inches and are a shoaling fish as well, meaning they prefer a large group. Generally, a 55G or larger is recommended for them. Best of luck!

I love these fish. I have had up to 4 in my 125g community. I'm down to one now. (old age has whittled them down and I don't want to buy any smaller that my remaining one as they only ever bothered their on species. I have Bolivian rams and several apistos that occupy the same lower tank areas and the dwarf flags never clashed with them. I have much bigger an much smaller fish, never a squabble with the flags. As I said they only ever had squabbles with each other, but due to the tank size and how heavily it's planted ,nothing serious. I will get more eventually .

As others have said, you don't really have to rinse. The stuff is just really dusty typically. Rinsing prevents the initial clouding and also removes any other potential loose contaminates. You're not really wasting anything by doing it, the primary benefit of crushed coral is realized by its slowly dissolving over time to safely reach the parameters you're trying to achieve. The big cloud of dust just gets sucked into your filter to possibly clog biological media and get into your impeller. All that being said, do what ya like!

Oh they're gonna do it with or without permission. Mine like to bury all the cool rocks and every java fern rhizome each night when I sleep, no matter how high I place them! I'm pretty sure, If one of my other tanks was close enough, they would spit sand into it!

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

This may not be an option as it looks like the Flex 15 is your largest tank, But I use my Flex 15 shrimp tank as a grow out tank for fish that are too small to put in my 125 initially. Currently I have 7 harlequin rasboras that are to small to pose any danger to my shrimp. They mow down any tiny unwanted guest and will be moved out when they've grown a bit. If you don't have another tank for the grown fish, maybe you have a friend with a larger tank? This all assumes you want to keep a shrimp only tank, otherwise, you could pick up some nano fish that will eat the occasional shrimplet, but will take care of other critters.

I'm running 2 36" co-op lights on my 125, works great!. Sitting on the glass is fine, since they are close to the middle strut. And, they aren't over the top heavy. No noticeable slant with one end on the lip and the other on the glass. ( i was worried about this too since I had to modify my old finnex lights to avoid this.) The "legs" are very short, which also keeps the light shining into the tank and not blinding me on the outside of it!

Well I hope it’s dying! It looks more black in person though.

Just throwing this out there to see if anyone else has seen it, my two sunset thick lipped gouramis appear to be snacking on BBA. I don’t have anything in my tank that is supposed to eat it. I’ve had small patches on top of this stump ( I assume it’s because it’s close to the light) and on the edges of a few plants. I got the two gouramis about a month ago and it has significantly thinned out. They are constantly picking at it as in the pic. Who knew?

If you want tight schooling, I recommend rummynose tetras, cant comment on the fry predation, though.

I third Severum. Awesome fish, but avoid if you have a planted tank, in my experience. They think all plants should fly free, if you get my drift. (wood) sorry.

Looks great! A 20 long is one of my favorite tanks. Nice use of the space.

I would second/third Celestial Pearl Danio/Galaxy Rasboras (although a fish with an alias is a bit sketchy) and Chilli Rasboras. You can have decent size schools in a tank that size, and they are the opposite of fin nippers, plus great color. I'm considering setting up a a nano just for these two species.