Phantom240

The only product I can think of that might provide a watertight seal would be something like 1/8" Neoprene or Nitrile rubber gasket material. It would form a really good seal under the aquarium, but you'd likely end up with a square print on your dresser around the perimeter of the rubber, unless you were super diligent in drying after a spill and using some compressed air to ensure a complete dry. Something like this, this, or this would be my best guess.

Any water absorbed by the towel, if stuck under the weight of the aquarium, will do every bit as much damage.

No fish in the tank currently? If no fish are present, let it ride. The ammonia and nitrites are necessary for your bacteria to grow.

I run this CO2 injection system on my 45 gallon, but I changed out the diffuser to an Aquario Neo "Special" diffuser because it makes MUCH finer bubbles, which means less wasted CO2. Getting the right amount of CO2 is a lot of trial and observation, so it takes time to get it dialed in. However, once it's running, and you have sufficient light and fertilizers, your plants will explode. There's a ton of good info on the net regarding how to operate a CO2 injected tank.

Perfectly fine, as long as the water has been treated already. I ran a convoluted set of fittings and valves on my desktop aquarium to use the canister filter to both drain and refill the tank at water change time. Why? Because I'm the kind of moron that builds a complete stand and canopy for a 5 gallon tank to sit on my computer desk, and it makes life really difficult when it comes time to change water lol.

Ah, yes that does change things. I know I'm not in any way an authority on how oxygen plays a part in the bigger picture of the biome with a sick fish.

The cycle probably wasn't 100% complete yet, but you did give it a good head start putting the media in the new canister. Only thing I'd suggest now is monitoring your water daily and doing at least 25-30% water changes to keep ammonia under .25ppm. There's plenty of debate over how much ammonia is acceptable during the cycling process, but my opinion is to keep it under .25

Is it necessary? Probably not, however as aquarists, we all generally want to give our fish the best possible conditions to live long and healthy lives, so having oxygen rich water is a plus.

And you took the HOB out of the tank when you swapped filters, yeah? If so, then essentially what you did was almost completely restart your cycle, by removing the colonies of beneficial bacteria that had established in your old filter. In the future, if you want to swap filters, the best thing to do would be take media from your old filter and add it to the new one, or leave both filters running simultaneously for a couple months to make sure the bacteria have a chance to establish themselves in the new filter. Sounds like you're on the right track though!

Recipe for snails: - 0ppm Nitrite and Ammonia - Plenty of GH and KH, maybe even crushed coral substrate - Protein rich and calcium rich food Mix well until snail population explodes

Ugh truth. And I have my lone pea puffer in my 5gal desktop setup... It's probably the most high tech, since I decided to do everything in my power to use plants to fight algae. It works, but man, such a small tank is a hassle.

I mean... I'm upgrading from a 45gal bowfront (3ft) to a 55gal (4ft) just so I can have more room for plants

No worries, we're all here to learn and share our experiences, right? Any aquatic Epiphyte plant or moss can be glued to rocks and wood, so you're good with ferns, anubias, bolbitis, bucephalandra, and moss.

Some tanks take longer to cycle than others, as there are a lot of variables, fish load being one of them. Plecos and cichlids tend to have heavier bioloads than other species, so that will require more beneficial bacteria to turn their waste from ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite to nitrate. The way to tell that your bacteria colonies can handle the bioload is by monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in the water column. As bacteria colonize, they'll begin turning ammonia into nitrite, and further from nitrite into nitrate. When you test your water (and I recommend daily at the moment) and have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite, and they're being converted to nitrate, that's when your tank is "cycled". It takes a VERY long time for it to mature and become "seasoned", but cycling is the most important part of a tanks ecosystem. What kind of filter is on your tank?

My amanos used to fight the mollies over food. Everyone's gangsta till the amanos show up.

My tank is full of fatties, but I feed them twice daily to help keep nitrates in the water column.

1) Is your tank cycled? You should have exactly 0 ammonia when testing. Your nitrates are a little low, but I think that's only a minor issue. 2) 54w 48", so I assume T8 bulbs? Get rid of the blue bulb, go with a daylight white instead. Regardless, that's going to be pretty low light at the substrate in a 55gal 3) How long have the plants been in your tank? If they're fairly new, they tend to die back and then regrow as they get acclimated to their new environment. Not trying to be short or rude, just trying to get to the nitty gritty of the situation.

Kinda looks like Echinodorus Cordifolius. I need to get one of those lol.

JEEZ. I wonder what cultivar it is, specifically, because it has a much wider leaf shape than I've seen in any other amazon sword.

What a lovely addition. Also, what's that enormous monster plant in the background?

I love watching detritus worms in the water column, seeing how long it'll last until a fish makes a snack out of it.

Why not submerge a powerhead at the canister filter's inlet and put a prefilter sponge on the powerhead?

I'd cut close to the rhizome, because I'm almost positive that a new leaf won't sprout from the stem the damaged leaf grew on. Perhaps someone who knows a bit more about anubias can chime in, but my experience is as such.

I had a really aggressive female molly, we jokingly called her "tank boss", who would constantly pester every other fish in the tank at feeding time, aside from my male betta who she knew not to mess with. It got to the point where some of the other mollies, even the couple of males, would hide from her as best they could. I put her in another tank for a while, a time-out tank, and did some mild rearranging of the tank. A couple of months later, I reintroduced her. She was still mildly aggressive at times, but not nearly as bad. Perhaps a breeder net box would have the same effect. I think breaking line of sight and preventing setting up of territory for a sufficient amount of time helps with aggression. Mollies are little buttholes.

Perhaps try mixing some crushed coral/oyster shell in with your substrate