Phoenix1391

I have a 125 currently stocked with 6 balas and my gf’s pink gourami and common pleco. I don’t plan on keeping them in this tank as I like to heavily plant and the tank is already getting too crowded with the balas only being a year old. What tank can I somewhat easily acquire here in the Midwest US without completely breaking the bank? I am a pretty competent woodworker and can easily build the stand for it so I know that would cut the cost a bit.

I live in southeast Minnesota, all I have near me is petco and petsmart. I know there’s a lot of local fish stores up in the twin cities and on the way up there, but I couldn’t find any that looked like it focused on aquascaping. Im looking at doing a long weekend trip to go see other states. I’ve only been ordering plants but with just how cold it is here I don’t trust shipping at all and I have an aquarium just waiting to be scaped. I also would like a bunch of driftwood and I would rather see that in person instead of ordering.

It’s a 75 gallon, there already are 5 Sienese algae eater in there and many pond snails and amano shrimp. For some reason they just don’t even touch this black crusty stuff. It may be black but definitely not BBA.

Wondering if I should get some nerites, otos, or should I just do a peroxide dip for my anubias.

Anyone know a vendor that you can get large Java ferns? I just bought 3 “large mats” of Java from buce plants and while it was a decent amount, they were all small clippings tied together. Each rhizome is literally just one leaf. I don’t want to just call out buce though as I have bought from 2 other places that was the same. im going to be re scaping my 125 and I want to incorporate a lot of Java as it is going to be low tech and Java stands up to my large pleco.

He’s already been medicated. He spent a week with paraclense, Maracyn and ich x. He does come to eat a bit of normal food but not algae.

One of the algae eaters I got from my recent order came extremely sickly looking but made it through med trio just fine. All the rest are doing amazing but this one hardly eats and just rests on plants all day. Wondering should I just give him time as it’s only been less than a week since he was medicated? His color is a lot different too so I’m wondering if he was a genetic anomaly

He was quite young actually. Maybe 4-6 months. One of the fry we grew out. He’s the only one that exhibited this out of a group of maybe 50. He died the next day I found him like this. All the rest are doing good though. He’s actually the only one we’ve lost out of all the fry we grew out.

Maybe? I feed a lot because there’s a ton of guppies in that tank. The thing that’s really odd is the stomach is really flat on the bottom. Almost exactly like a food bowl super round with a flat bottom. I suppose if it is too much food that should work itself out by being in the qt tank since I don’t feed that tank.

Is this dropsy? Seemed to happen very quickly, just yesterday he was showing off and going after the females like his life depended on it. Already had a qt tank going for some new fish that has med trio going so I put him in there.

Tank has been set up for 3 months now. Been doing weekly water changes sometimes I waited 2 weeks to see were the nitrates would get to, usually get just above the 25 ppm on the test strip. Small amount of staghorn, mostly on the anubias leaves. Very small amount of bba on some of my dwarf sag. On the glass I’ve been getting lots of green spot algae on the side that’s heavily planted and down low ( my glass Lilly pipes inflow only went down about halfway so I was thinking lack of water flow may have been causing some of the issues so I put a power head with a sponge filter down low.) and the most prolific algae in the tank that the otos don’t go anywhere near is a really fast growing short haired white algae. All over the dwarf sag and 100% of the glass if I don’t clean it for a week. I do have some SEA in another tank, but was unsure about putting them in this tank with the Pygmy cories due to how aggressive they seemed. I had a common pleco in the tank for a bit but took him out after he solved the huge diatom algae problem after the tank finished cycling. He was digging way too much and pulling a lot of the new plants out. Will a bristlenose do the same? The flag fish sounds interesting I’ll look into that.

Trying to keep a good algae clean up crew in my planted 125 bala tank. I currently have 10 otos, and I have 2 hillstream loaches on the way. My main problems are the fact that I have really hard water with lots of phosphates so it’s nearly impossible to keep the algae at bay even with lots of co2. The otos only eat certain algae and the balas eat all the pond snails. If I get big enough snails like mystery snails for instance will the balas try to eat them? Also same question with Amano shrimp, will they get big enough the balas won’t eat them? My balas currently are pretty young, they range in size from 4” to 1.5”

Wouldn’t I need to re dose the meds each water change? Should I just do 50 % changes and do half packets of meds?

At least a few months

Just got some new fish in, put a sponge filter from one of my other tanks into a 10 gallon. Drip acclimated the fish, filled the 10 with some fresh water and added the fish. The next day the tank is as really cloudy so I tested the water. 2ppm ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate. So I’m guessing the sponge filter hardly collected any beneficial bacteria while in the other tank. Maybe the canister filter handles all the bio load so the sponge didn’t have any? Anyways, should I fully cycle and just do water changes every day and then medicate? If I have to do a full cycle in the 10 gallon I’m guessing their all going to spend awhile in that quarantine tank?

Why not get 2 smaller canister filters and put course pre filter sponges on the intakes and use more/better bio media than comes with whatever canisters you get. Then if for some reason that still doesn’t suffice you can add sponge filters, or if flow is not enough add a “wave maker” or power head

Thank you so much! I’ve been wondering for so long

My girlfriend got a bunch of tetras from petsmart and this is the only that survived, what type is he so I can get him a proper school and properly medicate/quarantine them this time.

Here’s a pic of the 30

I know he’s not going to stop, but once the root structures of the sag and rotala are large enough it won’t pull out from him. He was in my 75 for 3 years and the only plants that pull out were newly planted things . Anything with barely any roots I don’t plant because I have really hard water too.

So I over estimated his size. He’s actually 8-9”

My only LFS is petsmart and petco… and the fish is my girlfriend’s who would definitely not allow that.

I just set up a 125 gallon for my bala sharks and common pleco. I heavily planted it, and as common plecos do; he is ripping all the plants out. The main plants I’m having troubles with are the dwarf sag and rotala is constantly being pulled out. He is about a foot long (edit: after measuring he is 9”) and the 75 gallon he came from is currently decommissioned as it is being re scaped. Would he be ok for a few months in my 30 gallon until the root structures of the rotala and sag is mature and enough to not be pulled up by him sucking on them. The 30 gallon is 30” Long x 12” wide.

Temp is 78. 75 gallon. The balas were a few years old but only 6 inches. Ph test strips show 8-8.4 ish. Also I noticed the tank was VERY cloudy white, but cleared up today. Rest of fish are acting perfectly normal today.

So i have a community tank that has 6 balas, a gourami, and a pleco. I just did a large water change, thorough gravel cleaning then put in the med trio. I noticed one of the balas had eroded gills, and the 3 older balas seemed to have stunted growth. So decided it would be a good time to medicate the whole tank; as none of the fish have been medicated/quarantine ever(due to ignorance). The day after adding the meds I got home and all 3 of the older balas had passed and the rest were gasping for air. I tested the water with my easy test strips and it showed nitrates between 20-50, nitrites 0, chlorine 0. I also have an air stone going. All other fish were acting erratic and except the gourami. Can anybody give some insight on to what went wrong? We’re the older balas just too weak and should have been treated much earlier?