RadMax8

@Mmiller2001, The substrate is Brightwell Aquatics Flourin Volcanit Rio Escuro F, and it’s been in the tank for probably 4-5 years now. Water change is usually every week or two weeks. This last time has been longer as I was sick and unable to muster the strength. My dosing is as follows: 2ppm NO3 0.2ppm PO4 2.66ppm K 0.2ppm Mg 0.05ppm Trace Elements This is following the PPS-Pro method for the most part, although I doubled my dose of macros when it was clear my PO4 was low. My lights are the original Planted+ 24/7 that came out in 2015.

I’ve been keeping this tank for five years now and I’ve never really been able to successfully dial in my plant growth. It’s getting a little disheartening when the only thing I can seem to grow is algae, with the occasional corkscrew Val or Amazon sword having success. I just took some measures of parameters in my tank, and I will share them as well as some photos and some hypothesis. Parameters: Photos of my plants: Here we have Rotala indica (aka Amania Bonsai), dwarf hair grass, and Hygrophila pinnatifida. This is green cambomba and Ludwigia natans ‘Super Red’ This is my Althernanthera variegatus, which has not really done anything. No growth, no roots. And finally, here is my Staur repens and my AR, which started off as a tissue culture and has slowly disintegrated. I don’t feel like I’m trying to grow expert-level plants here. What’s going on? I use an automatic dosing system to put PPS-Pro ferts in my tank daily, 8mL macros, 3mL micros. I also use root tabs for my root feeders. I’ve got a CO2 controller and it’s set to drop the pH a full point. My lighting consists of two Planted Plus 24/7 lights set at about 70% with no blue light and a photoperiod of 6 hours. The tank is a 40b so it’s not too tall. On of the big things I’ve noticed is I have a hard time keeping any Phosphate in the tank. Another issue is I’ve got hair algae (my iron is pretty high), but I’m getting BBA as well, which is usually due to insufficient CO2. Of course, my Nitrates need to come down pretty far (been sick and out of commission for almost 2 weeks now…). Does anyone have any thoughts on what I can do to help balance this tank? I’m looking to learn and improve, so thanks in advance!

@Colu Would it be worth it to put some Prazipro in, as I have that on-hand, or should I go straight for the Expel-P?

Alright, so I’ve put the 3rd treatment of Kanaplex in and started the medicated flake food yesterday. On my observations, I’m not really seeing much in the way of improvement. The fish with clamped fins are still clamped. I lost one fish who wasted away, and I’m close to having another. I’m unsure if that is a symptom of the infection or something different all together. First pic below is the expired fish, the next pics are one that is slowly wasting away. I’m beginning to wonder if I have something else going on with the fish as well.

Well, I spent the majority of my evening fishing out the 20 CPDs in the tank, which was an exercise in patience. It’s amazing I didn’t destroy any of my plants, although I did have to pull out most of my pieces of Anubis’s-covered driftwood in the process. Hopefully they stayed moist enough… The CPDs were transferred to an old 10 gal tank I had, which was their original home years ago. Tank was filled, mature sponge filter added, fish in, and kanaplex dumped in. I called 4 different fish stores, no one has any furan2 or bifuran. So I ordered some of the food, hopefully it’ll arrive early next week. Fingers crossed.

@ColuI was able to catch the worst-off fish this morning… Now that I see it it really looks like columnaris. Do you concur?

I’ll try to catch a photo tomorrow. They are tricky to catch the open and can be quite shy, especially now. Thanks for your expertise.

Alright, update time. Still no apparent losses, which means I’ve not seen a pile of snails and shrimp anywhere. It doesn’t appear that any more fish have caught the illness, however one of the first to catch it seems to be struggling. It’s not eating and seems to be losing weight. It appears that it cannot open its mouth to eat, even though I’m using Xtreme flakes which I grind up finely in my fingers. That fish also has discoloration on its body in a couple places, almost like the color is draining away. Not sure if I should try a second round of treatment or if I should try something else. Open to advice! Thanks, all!

@Allan B. Well, no apparent losses yet, although the shrimp and snails make pretty quick work of any carcasses. I was able to get the Maracyn 2 (and some Kanaplex just in case) and I started treatment after a large water change. I’ll work to keep notes here so you can follow along.

More fish with clamped fins today. Need to call the LFS in the morning to see if they have Maracyn 2. Kanaplex is easier to get (Amazon) but it seems to be hard on shrimp, of which there’s probably 45 RCS in the tank. Wish me luck.

I was recently reading The Optimum Aquarium and on the topic of heaters the authors very much recommended using under-gravel heating cable, not unlike what you have shown. The theory being that warm water rises, so you create a current from bottom to top and back again, thus taking nutrients to the roots of plants easier. I would imagine that the heat cord you have shown would be waterproof, otherwise it would trip the breakers all the time. The key would be getting it in the proper length and pairing it with something like an Inkbird heater controller.

Hello, Yesterday when I was feeding my fish in my planted 20L, I noticed two of my CPDs had clamped caudal fins. One is a younger fish purchased in August and still juvenile, the other is full grown and a couple years old. Nothing has changed in the tank recently, with the exception being I started adding Aquarium Co-Op Easy Green two weeks ago, and about three weeks ago I increased the temperature from 71-72 degrees F to 74. I’ve been trying to inspect the fish, but they seem to be normal other than the clamped fins. Behavior is normal, and they’re both eating. I’ve included my full water parameters from my Co-Op test strips. I’m not so sure on the pH and kH numbers, I can confirm them with liquid tests tomorrow. Any advice? Thanks!

Took a quick look around, looks like it’s frowned upon in a lot of warm-weather states. Nothing about Ohio, so we may have a contender… if I can find it anywhere! Thanks for the suggestion, that’s a good one to think about as well! Now to check the co-op!

Hello all, I've got a nicely stocked, medium planted tank with a Finnex Stingray where I keep mostly lower light plants. I've recently done some rescaping in there, and I want to have the left-hand corner where shrimp (and maybe even CPD) fry can hide and survive without the plants getting out of control. I'd like to have something with fine leaves that I can plant in the substrate. Is something like Green Cabomba a good option for this? I've tried Hornwort, but I don't care for it's affinity for floating and taking over the tank. Let me know what you all think! Thanks!

Is the water just getting there when you do water changes in the tanks? I use an elderly towel that got retired as a sort of "mat" when I do my water changes. When I'm done, I fold it up and put it back in my tool bucket. It occasionally needs washed, but it's done the job pretty well for me. If you've got water problems other than that, I'd recommend a rug with a rubber backing and a thick pile, it should catch most of the water and prevent it from getting stuck underneath. Then evaporation should do the trick.

I remember there being a salt water shop over that way, but I only ever went in there once. I mostly have anubias nana in my stockpile. I can check later to see exactly what I have. Care on those is pretty basic... attach it to some hardscape with either thread, a zip tie (my personal favorite), or some superglue (for when a zip tie is not practical). Then after some time, the roots will anchor to the hardscape and new leaves will form. Slow growth, but looks nice in the tank.

Super, super cool idea. I've got almost 20 of those things living in my garage. Maybe I can make a hatchery as well!

How long do the brine shrimp last in the aquarium? Wouldn't they die immediately of osmotic shock? Or do they swim around until the fish eat them? Never done this before, so I don't mean to ask dumb questions.

Agreed. Beyond the obvious cruelty to the animal, you'd probably have to really know what you're doing to remove the right part, and even then trying to do it on an upset critter could be a disaster. Plus then you run the risk of infection and death of the animal. I would love to have a crayfish but right now I'm limited to two tanks... If I could set up a 3rd I'd set it up with some fast fish and a crayfish at the bottom.

@Blaha I've got some good news for you, I stopped in at Jurassic Aquatics yesterday and the place was a little out of sorts and empty. Many of the tanks were either empty or dry, the store was in a greater amount of disarray than usual. So on my way out I asked the guy if they were moving, and he said they've secured a store in Willoughby, OH and will be opening up there at the end of October. So that should cut your travel time in half! I'm hoping they're able to keep that store in a tidier condition, the other location really didn't have any storage and I think it was always going to be a stop-gap. I'm looking forward to seeing how things end up, it will be really nice to have a LFS out this way!

I would recommend going with frozen food. Hatching your own brine shrimp is great, however you either feed baby brine (which is tiny) or you have to grow them out, which takes time, space, and as you put it... lots of faff! The downside is I'm sure there's a small nutrition drop-off and you don't exactly get the natural predator vibes you would from live food, but it works really well for me. I put my frozen food in a feeder cone in my filter flow, and the stuff blows out in the current and the fish go nuts. I feed brine shrimp, daphnia, and blood worms. Should be available at any decent pet/fish shop.

I wish that I had that level of activity! Mine are pretty subdued, even though the tank is in a relatively low traffic area (my bedroom!). Lucky you!

Celestial Pearl Danios are one of my favorite fish of all time. Hard to believe such beauty can come in such a small package. I've got around 25 of them in a 20 gallon with a lot of plants. They do really well in there, but just a few notes: They really don't like a lot of flow. My HOB sent them hiding in the plants. Now I have sponge filters on during the day and the HOB on at night and they are much happier and visible during the day. Make sure your food is high quality. That will help keep the mess down and give them the nutrients they need to get full sized and coloration. I think you'll be ok with your tank size, just remember to keep the water clean!

Ah you must be far east Lake County, I'm in western Lake County. The two you're thinking of is Jurassic Aquatics over by the Costco and Blue Fish Aquariums a little bit further down the street. Two other really good ones I've seen are Something Fishy in Parma and Aquatica Aquarium Gallery WAY over in Valley View. That's like an hour for me so if you want to head over there you'd better make a day of it! If you'd be interested, I have a ton of Jungle Val and some anubias that I don't need any more that I could let you have. Let me know, maybe we could meet up or something.

Hi @Blaha, nice to see a fellow NEOhioan here! I'm in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. Your water seems to be a bit cloudy, is it always like that? As far as the plants go, what do you do for fertilization? Root tabs will help your plants, with the val and crypt enjoying light of a lower intensity. The Scarlett Temple (also called AR, Alternanthera Reineckii) will need some higher intensity light to thrive. Just some helpful tips! I'd be interested to hear which aquarium stores you like to go to! Welcome to the forum.