T. Payne

I would definitely start getting the larger aquarium ready for full size discus.

When you say mini discus, I'm assuming that you are referring to the fact that they are just young discus?

Unsure of exact species.

Unfortunately, that is not a praecox.

Definitely an assasin snail. They do hunt and eat other snails. I have not had any issues with them other than they will eats snails. They are a scavenger otherwise and like to burrow in your substrate.

I have a couple of buce, and I have not found them difficult at all. Out of all the plants I have, I do find them to be the slowest growers. Even slower than anubias.

I have kept and bred dwarf neon rainbowfish for years and feed frozen brine shrimp weekly. I have never had a problem with doing so.

I had a piece of driftwood that I put in an outdoor pond to become water logged and it sat there for 2 years just floating away until I finally gave up on the idea.

I would do soilent green, as they are an aufwuchs feeder.

Garden hose with a high pressure nozzle.

An 8 inch goldfish has a large mouth.

An adult Oscar could definitely swallow an adult Congo tetra.

While goldfish certainly are not aggressive fish, they definitely try to fit everything they can into their mouths. More than likely the hillstreams would be alright as they are a fast fish. With that being said, if a goldfish can get ahold of one, it will. I would feel more comfortable adding the hillstreams when they get larger.

Corydoras definitely appreciate each others company and are schooling fish. For a 2p long you could definitely do a school of 6 to 8. Cardinals are more of a shoaling fish and you could put a dozen in your 20 long.

Are you experiencing any places where debris accumulates? If not, I think you will be fine.

Mystery snails nor trap door snails are going to eat hair algae or black beard algae. Both species of snails in a 5 gallon are going to create alot of waste as well. Start by reducing your photo period, a nano light is alot on a 5 gallon aquarium. You could even do a completel blackout for a week.

From the pictures, it appears you have to different types of algae. The greenish stringy kind is hair algae. The black tufts on your java fern are black beard algae. Green hair is easy to remove, I use a toothbrush like a comb and pull it away the plants and moss. This will always take some moss away, but it will grow back. Green hair algae can be caused by too much light. The nano light is fairly strong, what size aquarium is it on?

To me, that looks fairly typical of a new piece of wood and the biofilm that grows on it during the new stages of it being sumersed.

Rosey loaches would be a great choice. Could even go with a small school.

Thats what I would try. Let us know how it goes.

If they are big enough to eat dry food now, you could always get an auto feeder and dial it in now before you leave town.

I agree that Aqueon is the way to go, all of the aquariums in my fishroom are Aqueon.

In my experience variatus will do fine in temperatures from the lower 60s to lower 80s. Keep in mind that if you have mixed sexes in that aquarium you will soon have a colony of fish on your hands.

I agree the community aquarium will be fine. Unfortunately, in my experience fry need food daily to stay alive. Unless they are in a green water aquarium, I doubt any would survive a week without food. How large are the fry and what are you currently feeding them?

I only believe in giving advice on my personal experience, I will say that I soak the wood in a pond because I have 8 above ground ponds that I breed tropical fish in during the summers but I leave the ponds set up year round. So it is easy on me that way. I have heard that boiling wood expedites the process but I do not have experience doing so. I enjoy trying new things in the hobby and if you could boil it, I would encourage you to try it. Then you could always test your water parameters in your container now and test water parameters in the container after you boil and compare. Results could be helpful.