[Newbie looking to understand my water parameters]

I'm sure you will have plenty soon.

[Newbie looking to understand my water parameters]

@PennyThe tanks are really coming along nicely. Atm I think the ammonia test really only tells you what you know. If you are making nitrates and nitrates then ammonia has to be present. Until you have fish/shrimp the levels of ammonia and nitrites is a bit unimportant. I think I'd avoid water changes to keep the food for the bacteria in the water. Once they all the ammonia and nitrites are staying at near 0 then I'd say start keeping the nitrates >40.

 

Also I agree with @Jessica. On the matching of the betta and shrimp colors or at least complimentary.

 

The first step I might start with is bladder snails and maybe one of the more fancy snail types. The longer you wait to add fish and shrimp the easier the process will be. You are totally going at this the right way for minimum stress on you and your fishy friends.

[Glass chip repair?]

I think I'd try getting window repair resin. I also feel it's probably just a cosmetic thing.

[Confessions of a Bad Aquarist]

I'm guilty of 1 and 2. I had never really nwirried about quarantine until I had a massive battle with camallanus worms....... Twice. Now I do most all fish who don't come from very very reputable places. Cycling is something I do with fish not before fish 😉

[Can I?]

I have ran guppies with betta often and guppies with shrimp. I think the shrimp will be fine with the betta. May lose some shrimplets but should still grow in numbers.

[Finding fish/plants without social media.]

How far is tacoma from the coop?

[Adding schooling fish to a new aquarium - a few at a time?]

I would say your tank is cycled now. Can you special order more of the CPD? They will really prefer to have more of their own kind. They won't school with other types to my knowledge. 

[neon tetra bully]

Thats nuts. I do have one neon who chooses not to school with the others. I have 12 or so and 11 school

[YOU GUYS!!!]

I'd love to get Cory's to breed. I want to get some lasers and try 🤔

[Showpiece Fish?]

I've ran nirite snails with shrimp a lot . I ha e read those snails put benifical bacteria for the shrimp in their waste.

[Showpiece Fish?]

I love cpds my fav or the nano fish

[Showpiece Fish?]

Maybe honey gouramis?

[Best way to feed baby brine?]

I don't know much about feeding brine shrimp but I do see you too have a bit of duckweed lol

[YOU GUYS!!!]

Woohoo that's awesome

[HI!]

Welcome. Post us some pictures of your tank when you get it all set up 🙂

[Best food for guppy fry]

Cyclops seems to be a fair alternative to baby brine shrimp.

[My first aquariums. Planted nano tanks photo journal.]

This is an amazing job. I am super impressed and wish I had done more reading on the current state of the aquarium hobby before input together my new aquarium build. Oh we'll just means at some point I'll be able to redo it 🙂

[Bolivian Ram struggling to swim]

Im gonna guess internal parasites.

[Plants that consume heavy amounts of Nitrates?]

Ok ill look into getting some tommorrow

[Clown loaches]

I know loaches are known to eat snails. Does this include mystery snails?

[Plants needed on your site]

I now have a new goal thanks @Lynze

[Do you need fertilizer?]

That's a pretty hard question to answer for every situation. If your local water has all the trace minerals the plants need and your fish are making enough nitrates I'd say no. That being said that's kinda like a bit of a hard mark to hit. I feel without ferts u will always be a building block short. This will give algae an advantage cause it can use a wide variety of things as food. It only needs one nutrient where a full on plant will be waiting on 3-5 to be present at once.

[Plants that consume heavy amounts of Nitrates?]

I currently run several planted tanks and constantly seem to have above the desired Nitrate. I run around 80-120 PPM. I can obviously water change it off and do but I feel I am kinda wasting my ferts by reducing the Nitrates only to redose. I am under the opinion that just because the nitrates is high the other building blocks the plants need can be low. What id love to do is get nitrates consumed so that when I go to add more I dont need to change out 40% of my tank to be able to put a squirt or 2 in. I run mostly Anachris, Swords,Frogbit and Crypts. Does anyone know of some nitrate hogs I could add in?

[You know you're a Fish NERM when...]

HAHAHA thats epic

[Bettas and heaters]

From what I've seen bettas often live in glass bowls with no air or heat. I feel that if your house is kept comfortable for humans the betta would probably be fine.

 

Second thought adding a light and filter would even keep it a degree or two warmer than the room so that might be a factor too