DebSills

So, its been a while since I posted about my 29 gallon...just looking at the picture above really puts it in perspective for me! My tank is now a complete jungle, the chain sword has since wrapped several times around the tank, killed both of my crypts by just overtaking them and am now fighting BBA - I had gotten control of all of the above algae and it was going really strong, but then one or two tufts of BBA became a lot of BBA and I can't keep up with it...I initially was just going to let it be and let everyone do their thing, but the more BBA started to take over, the more I started to hate looking at the tank and just don't want to deal with it anymore...well...my current plan: I have a few ideas, but my first thought is this... I have one 10g which has been running for about 4 months currently housing a female betta and a nerite snail and another that I am working on a full tear down and rescape, currently housing 2 thorned nerites and one racer nerite - the new 10g tank will obviously need to settle in and cycled, so this is not going to be a quick process, but, my thought is that I will split my CPDs into two groups of about 6 - 8 in each of the two 10g with the Betta in one and my Honey gourami from the 29 in the other...I will then set up my hospital 10g for the embers and the shrimp who will go back to the 29... the 29 I am just going to completely tear down and start over (keeping filter, some of the plants and substrate)...there will be crypts and stems and NO chain sword...I want something that will give more swimming space for the fish and plants that aren't going to completely overrun my tank...I'm hoping to have a heavily planted, but less "jungly" tank with my school of embers and something new in there once I get it back together...not sure what I want yet, other than getting something a little bigger than the embers/CPDs...maybe some platys or something of similar size...I still want a lot of color in here, but the embers have rally colored up, so maybe even something like a red eye tetra, I'm open to a lot of things, and since this is going to take a while, I think it will be fun to look at different things while I'm getting the tank set up and pretty again 🙂 So...the picture is a little worse than I would normally have it...one, I just got back from vacation, and two, my brother in law is rescaping his 55 gallon and wanted me to grow a bunch of stems for him, so the rotala is a bit worse than I would normally have it, I need to trim and bunch some for him soon 🙂

is there a neighborhood kid that can feed your tank and bring in your mail? You could use one of those weekly pill dispensers to put only enough flakes so the tank didn't get overfed? you could get a couple of them for pretty cheap?

I would maybe suggest getting 4 more Harlequins (I like odd numbers, that's just me though) - if you want Kuhlis, I would second @Zac and reduce to 4 and totally agree with the amanos, I have 8 in my 29 and it works great - I also only have 1 Honey gourami as my "centerpiece" fish and he definitely stands out I can always find him even though my tank is a complete jungle now 🙂 I think whatever you do will look amazing and it all sounds good!!

I have a small Nicrew internal filter (Magi200) in my 10g - it has a small sponge and a little compartment where I shove a bunch of filter floss into it and then I use a small sponge on the other end to kind of get the best of both worlds - the flow isn't too strong (I have it on a shrimp tank and they don't have an issue with the flow), but it does give a gentle flow to the plants and circulates the water pretty well, I still have some detritus, but not too bad

I feed mine frozen baby brine, frozen cyclops (only once or twice a week), X-treme community flakes and pellets that I crush in a pepper grinder, I've had mine for about a year and are pretty brave now, when I first got them, they were pretty shy, but after a couple of months they figured out they were safe...

I had two horned and one racing nerite in my Betta tank and the Betta never bothered any of them (he passed away and now the nerites all live in my shrimp tank), I also have a pretty big zebra nerite in my niece's Betta tank and is doing an amazing job with the algae

I have 3 small nerites in my shrimp tank and a pretty big one in my Betta tank and the glass is always spotless, they never stop moving and working to find any spec of algae in the tank - I must admit though, hillstream loaches are SO cool!

For me...I have a heavily planted 29g with ~15 embers and ~15 CPDs - when I eventually get another tank, or update this one, I think I'm going to go for something a little bigger (Serpaes are definitely on the list), the embers are super cute, but they do tend to just roam around the tank and don't really school anymore since they are only in there with other little fish and one honey gourami who I think is more scared of them 😄 I guess it also depends on whether you want to order them online, or get them at your LFS - that could limit/expand your choices they're all really cute and fun to watch, but my $.02 would be to get something a little bigger than a neon or ember

So, I recently lost Hiu, my blue/green alien betta. He started losing his appetite (his name literally means "hungry" in Thai, so big clue) and then noticed he was pineconing - it seemed to come on all of a sudden and I'm not sure why...all water parameters are spot on and the tank has been running for months. Now that he has passed, I'm not sure what I should do about his tank...it is moderately to heavily planted and now just has the three nerites in the tank...I have done two ~80% water changes, but I'm not sure if it would be safe to convert this tank to a shrimp tank, or if I should move my nerites and just scrap the whole thing and start over any advice would be greatly appreciated - I am gutted after losing Hiu and don't want to risk any other inhabitants

how are things going with your tank? any improvement with the crushed coral? how is your pleco? I hope things are going ok with your 29g and that your 10g has made it through their treatment as well. best of luck!

what are the settings in your 10g? you said you weren't really having any issues in that tank, so, other than water volume, what are the differences between the tanks? just trying to narrow down the possible "culprit(s)" for the 29g issues

Not sure why your ph is so low - have you tested the ph straight out of the tap? I assume it will be similar, but just to have a baseline. Also, you might want to get either an all in one test strip, or a Gh/Kh liquid test kit, you may just have really soft water? I'm not the best with that stuff - I believe Irene did a video on Gh/Kh and I'm sure others have as well, might want to look that up just to see. As for the cloudiness - may still be a bacterial bloom...is that real driftwood? If the water is "tinted" vs. "cloudy" it may be the wood releasing tannins (makes the water brownish/orangey) not harmful...may do a big water change and see what happens - do you have filter floss in your HOB? can you post an updated picture? may help figure out what the cloudiness is.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned - if you do get more plants, I would suggest some floating plants and/or some faster growing stem plants...they really helped my tank(s) and will feed directly from the water column. If you don't mind the risk of some "pest" (not everyone likes these) snails, I would get a couple of pots (black plastic with rock wool, not the cute ceramic like you have) of stems and leave the pots for a while in your tank...the plants and the pots (with rock wool) will have at least a bit of beneficial bacteria and may help...a little...to jump start your cycle...water sprite is usually pretty easy to find and works really well as a floating plant or you can plant it...once your cycle is stabilized, just remove one pot each week and your filter will grow enough to make up whatever you are removing...your tank will only "grow" enough BB to handle what is in the tank, so if you remove from somewhere...or add fish...the filter, plants, decorations, gravel, will grow enough over a few days/week to make up for whatever you take out...or if adding...enough to handle additional bio load...if that makes sense 🙂 sorry for the ramble 🙂 You're in the right place and asking the right questions - try to be patient (I totally understand, I am the same way) - you'll be sitting pretty soon enough and will have a great tank to show for it 🙂 my first tank coming back to the hobby was a 29 as well...its a great tank and a great size!

So, its been a minute since I have posted an update on Hiu's tank...well let's just say that my love of Fluval Stratum is basically over...I think it is just too much nutrients for my ability with plants - so I have completely re-scaped his tank...I was able to take my time because sadly my rescue guppies passed away a few weeks ago and I was able to tear down, clean and re-set up their tank as Hiu's new tank...so, as an avid MD Fish Tanks fan, I tried his method of aquasoil/gravel in zip bags under my substrate...I guess I will see if it helps, I figured it was worth a shot at least...I have some new wood and tried a new gravel as my substrate (Aqua Naturals Black Pearl...really love the color!) So, here's the stock of plants: Rotala, Wisteria, Micro Sword, Hydrocotyle Japan, Anubias Nana, Anubias Nana petite, Java Fern, and Java Fern Windelov, I also have a small Buce, but not sure if its going to remain where it is or not... Residents are still the same, Hiu and his three nerite friends 🙂 Let me know what you think of the re-scape...Hiu seems to like it a lot more than his other setup (he seems more active so far)...it also has a slight tinge of tannins, which I kind of enjoy, so I'm definitely going to leave it as is...not going to go full blackwater, but Hiu likes it, so he can keep it 😉

I have an Aquasky on my 10g (50% off on Black Friday...couldn't resist)...it gets decent coverage in the tank, but if I put stems on the ends of the tank they definitely tend to bend towards the middle looking for the higher light - I try to just put lower light plants (anubias/java fern/crypt) on the sides and put anything that may want med/higher light towards the middle. I would definitely check out the Fluval 3.0 thread (I think there's an aquasky one as well) to see how the lights are set up on different size tanks. hope that helps!

yeah, I'm just over thinking it...I just want to make it as easy as I can for her first set up so I'm getting too much in my head over dumb stuff... I ordered a different heater that I know will work and we'll go from there 🙂 Thanks for indulging my head case questions 😄

I am in the fairly early stages of setting up a 10g tank for my niece (19) who lives with me now. She wants to learn how to take care of the tank and I am excited to have another fish nerd in my house 🙂 anyway, I set up the tank last night and put some plants in there as storage until I have time to scape the whole thing. I have an aquaclear 20 with an ACO pre-filter sponge and an Aqueon preset 100W heater. The tank is set up as more of a peninsula on the end of her desk so she can enjoy while working on school as well as when she is lounging on her bed. So...currently the tank is only ~76.7ish in the back and 75.5ish in the front...the filter and heater are on the back (short end) of the tank with the heater horizontally towards the bottom right near the intake of the filter in hopes of circulating the warmer water. I am pretty sure that the preset is not going to cut it, but if I get a better heater, is there a big issue if the tank is ~1+ degree different from front to back? (long edge of 10g) - or am I just overthinking this? I've never set up a peninsula style tank, so I just hadn't really ever thought of the tank heat not circulating in the whole tank like that... Thanks!

So...no drastic updates on my boy, but I have named him 🙂 His name is Hiu (pronounced like Hugh) which means "hungry" in Thai 😄 I'm glad the Xtreme comes with a cute little spoon...I like to feed him one pellet at a time cause he's so cute and just snatches it off the surface...if he doesn't see it right away, he will follow my finger to find them...love how he interacts...seems pretty chill too - I've tried the floating mirror a couple of times, but he just kind of flares at it for a second and then swims away...he does like to follow your hand/finger around the top and/or front of the tank...super cute My next tank is also going to be another Betta tank, but its for my niece, so she gets to design it however she wants (she'll probably leave him/her with us when she goes to college next year, so I have a vested interest 😉 )...went on a little Black Friday shopping spree for her...got the tank for 50% off and grabbed her an upgraded light...an AquaSky 2.0 for 50% off! Not really necessary, but couldn't pass up getting the light for that price! I'll post pics when its finally set up 🙂

Introducing my new boy! (I haven't named him yet) and his updated tank... I need to put a background on it, but other than that, I'm going to leave it as is for a while and see how things develop...the nerites are doing really well so far helping with the diatoms, so really happy with the setup and enjoying watching my boy exploring the whole tank 😍

I made a couple of changes - nothing major...moved the rotala over to the right with the remaining bacopa...it doesn't seem to work for me, but I do see a little new growth, so maybe it will be ok...then on the left, I moved a large anubias coffefolia from my 29 that was getting swallowed by the pogo, so hoping it will do a bit better in this tank now that it has some room and some light. so...other than those changes, I left everything else alone last week I picked up three nerites (two little horned and one small tiger)...they are doing an awesome job getting the diatoms off of the plants and the plants are perking up and the anubias on the top of the driftwood shot up a new leaf this week 🙂 And - I finally found my new betta!!! I ordered him on Wednesday and he just showed up about an hour ago and is now currently exploring his new tank - once he settles in, I will update with pics (the light is currently off, so I wouldn't be able to do him justice) so far, he looks AMAZING and I am super excited!! he's a blue-green alien, so I am excited to see him once he really colors up and the lights are on 🤩

yes!! read the directions for the test kit carefully - I did the nitrate test two different wrong ways before I was instructed on how to do it correctly (shake bottle 2 for a minimum of 30 sec, then shake the tube for a minute...) I was getting no nitrates showing when in fact I had ~20 😐

First off, I hope you're not going into information overload - take everything in and follow whatever advice you are comfortable with and feel you can be successful...the biggest thing is to keep at it and do the best you can for your fish. I agree with everyone above about the live plants. I would make one suggestion, if you have access to live plants, even if they are only from a big box store, I would suggest that you not try to plant anything right away, leave them in the pots and just drop the whole thing in your tank. There will be at least some beneficial bacteria on the plants and in the pots as well, and the pots will have some fertilizer in the pots, so they will last for a while without you needing to try to figure out that right away. Floating plants are also an idea if you are open to it, and they are easier (sometimes) than other plants and since they are fast growing, they will help to pull toxins out of your water Definitely don't add more fish, and feed sparingly - and leave your current decorations and the driftwood alone, your rubberlip will probably appreciate it anyway 🙂 Keep up your research, but don't try to do too many things all at once, it will be overwhelming...keep testing with your master test kit and do your water changes as needed Good luck!!

So, I am probably one of the few people that didn't have a Betta growing up (not that I remember anyway)...I think we may have had a goldfish at one point, but never had a Betta... Well, now that I have two tanks (my "supposed to be my only tank" 29G community and my "you're not going to throw those in the yard, give them to me" rescue tank) I figured I'll just add a third...hubs didn't mind and is totally on board with me getting a Betta, and isn't even balking at buying one from a breeder vs. the big box store, so we'll see what happens 🙂 I started setting up the tank a few weeks ago to get the plants going and make sure I liked how the tank looked and everything - this way if I wanted to re-scape, I wasn't disturbing anyone's actual home... Here's what I have so far I also have small rock caves that will be going in on the left where the river rock is now - I wanted to add a hiding place other than under the driftwood in case he/she wanted something a little more private. I'm going to move the rotala from the back left over to the right with the bacopa. I am apparently not meant to grow bacopa, no matter what I do it just melts away...what's left there is more than two pots worth of bacopa...I've got maybe three viable stems and the rest just completely disintegrated...I am going through a diatom stage at the moment (the S. Repens isn't actually dying), and I forgot that I had thrown that chain sword from my 29 in the top of the tank...please ignore, that's not staying...I really like how the frogbit is going, but I am not a fan of the long roots...I may see if my brother-in-law will part with some of his salvinia which should have much shorter roots (can't get red root floaters to work either) I'm looking to put one or two thorned nerites and one nerite in the tank this weekend to help with the diatoms and be my algae crew going forward. My thought is that they will be the only ones in the tank with the Betta and since they are pretty small and the Betta will have so much room that there shouldn't be much of an issue. (fingers crossed...but, they can always move to the rescue tank if needed) I am keeping my eyes out for a Betta that I can't live without, but I'm not in a rush, I'm leaning towards blue because I don't have anything blue yet, but I've seen some really pretty red koi that are pretty tempting...definitely looking for a plakat or a female...I'm not trying to figure out those long flowy fins right now 🙂 That's all for now, I wanted to start this journal as a record of my first Betta experience and I hope to have more in the future 🙂

Still fighting some algae issues as you can see below, but I have figured out the issue (high Phosphate, and my light was too high)...I am getting control slowly and the Easy Carbon is helping to kill what is in there enough for the shrimp, otos and nerites to eat it. I'm not too concerned with the stuff on the rocks or driftwood (I actually kind of like it), but trying to get rid of the stuff on the leaves...the new growth is coming in and not getting any algae on it as it grows, so I'm slowly trying to trim off the worst of the algae covered leaves to allow new leaves to come in stronger...it will be a slow process, but I'm up to the challenge...frankly, its not really hurting anything and the tank is running really smoothly, so I'm fine with it for now One thing I have learned with this tank (other than learning about plants) is that I am not a huge fan of having a bigger tank with nano fish...Once these fish have lived their lives, I think my next setup will be fewer fish, but slightly larger (maybe platies, or swordtails...something colorful)...(and I'll definitely lay my heater down in the back instead of upright as it is now 😉) I lost my first CPD the other day, I'm not sure what happened, the parameters haven't changed in weeks...it was on the smaller side, so I'm wondering if it was getting out-competed for food...the CPDs tend to stay towards the bottom of the tank when I'm feeding and the embers are like little lunatics towards the top...there was no visible damage to the CPD, just found him stuck to the intake when I got home from work 😞 I'll keep updating as my algae issues continue to balance out...and I'll try to get a pic of my Honey gourami and some of my more stellar CPDs (some of the bigger males have amazing coloration 😍), but here's a recent pic of my tank as it is for now

My future Betta tank (10g) - making sure I can balance it and get the plants growing before I get my Betta (not sure if I'll add Amanos and/or Nerites yet) My rescue tank - one guppy and one endler have the run of the place (10g) My 29g - battling some algae, but home to ember tetras, CPDs, amanos, nerites and a honey gourami