Mike

I’m also in Seattle, I can attest this is true. I tested my tap recently and it was 37 TDS. Dosing calcium and magnesium sounds complicated but it’s really not hard once you do it a couple times. Reef aquarists do it regularly since corals consume it in high quantities compared to plants. You’ll feel a lot more confident once you do it.

I initially planted it into a mixed substrate of random aqua soils, eco complete and seachem flourite (all leftover stuff). I don’t think much of it is rooted in the substrate anymore though since I have nearly 100% surface coverage with other plants and sunlight doesn’t reach most of the bottom

Kanaplex should work since it’s a broad spectrum antibiotic. You don’t need repashy specifically, it’s just what I use because I find it easy to mix in. You may just need to make due with what you have for now. The goal is to make a paste like food that can easily hold the medication. I like to feed mine to the fish using a small one mil dropper (pipette).

Sorry about your betta! Having a sick pet can be emotionally taxing. FWIW I highly doubt letting the tank drop to 72 degrees had anything to do with their poor health. So I wouldn't let that thought run rampant. As for treatment, I recently treated a betta of mine for fin rot by making medicated food and feeding it to him directly via a small dropper. I find this to be far more effective than just dumping the antibiotics into the tank. As for making the medicated food, I use a Repashy gel to make up a couple tablespoons worth of food or so (it's a very small amount). I let it cool slightly, mix in a few pinches of erythromycin, and then set it in my fridge. I feed this to the fish daily for the next two weeks. This is how I deliver all internal fish medications, and my success rates for treatment have skyrocketed ever since starting to do it this way. Best of luck to you and your betta, I hope it works out!

Not sure since I’ve never kept koi. But any fish store that sells plants usually sells some variety of Ludwigia. Yep, this is the emersed form.

Ah, then your EI dosing is probably too heavy for the biomass in your tank. The 50% weekly change isn’t removing enough excess nutrients and the plants aren’t grown in enough to take up most of what you’re adding. If this was my tank, I’d probably try cutting my EI dosing by a third or half for a couple weeks and dose a bit of glutaraldehyde (liquid carbon) on water change days to see if that has any affect on the algae growth. In the meantime you’ll need to maintain some manual removal of it to keep it in check.

That’s a powerful light, are you injecting co2? If not, you may need to lower the light’s power. I run a Twinstar 450e at 20% power for 10 hours on an ADA 45p with passive co2. Anything beyond that and I start getting excessive algae issues. Also, summer temperatures tend to bring me more algae issues as well. In the summer, I schedule a couple hours of lights out during the peak time of the day just to reduce the energy going into the system. It seems to help with algae control.

Anyone else grow it in their ponds? This stuff grows like a weed in my 40 gallon patio pond. What surprised me the most was that it survived our winter (I’m in Seattle). I’m curious if anyone else is growing it this way.

Good tips and beautiful tanks. Although, you'll never get me to do regular water changes 😉

It's a bummer, but sometimes our pets just don't get along. As pet-keepers it's on us to work these situations out. I have a cherry barb that was a bully in a smaller tank. As a last ditch effort, I moved it to a 29 gallon with some gold white clouds and a black moor goldfish of all things. She's doing great in there. She shoals with the white clouds and eats when they eat. The black moor is so derpy and blind, I've never lost a fish to it. I practically have to hand-feed it for it to find the food. Plus there is plenty of vegetation and cover in the tank for the minnows. It's a weird setup, but it seems to be working. Every situation is going to be a bit unique in some way. It could be that the best choice is to take the minnow to a LFS.

I have a flex 15 and the curve is actually quite fun for what I have stocked in it (nano stuff). I have ember tetras, pigmy corys, otocinclus, and cherry shrimp. They're all quite small, but the curve has a magnification effect on them when they swim through at the right viewing angle. Kind of fun. If you're into photography, the curve can make reflections particularly difficult, though.

The smell could be the Ammo Lock. It's an amino-sulfinate, which has a very distinct fish + rotten egg smell.

@Daniel That thing is incredible. Its profile looks similar to the "walking sticks" I used to catch as a kid. No idea what it is, though.

Agreed. I have a tank sitting in an east facing window and gets a couple hours of morning light every day. I love waking up in the morning to sit in front of it with my coffee for a bit. It gets some algae here and there, but nothing I'm uncomfortable with. And the vallisneria in the back grows like a weed with that sun every day.

Maybe a science experiment is in order? The claims are quite testable with an at home experiment involving a couple buckets, some ammonia drops, and an ammonia test kit.

Yeah, after looking up photos, I think you're right @Aubrey

Found it on my bolbitis I recently picked up. Not sure if it came in on that or another plant since it’s been in my tank potted for a couple weeks since I got it. Anyone know what this is?

My moneywort just started flowering after a couple months in a filterless bowl. Cute little thing. Maybe I can make a tiny bouquet for my daughter’s American girl dolls 😛

Good to know, thanks. I've never owned cherry barbs. I'll monitor it for the next couple weeks and if it looks stressed I'll probably just bring it back to the shop.

I was at a LFS last night and had them bag up as many embers they could net. When I got home I noticed this one looked different. I don’t know what fish this is. Some other kind of tetra? A rasbora?

Having aquariums indoors is fun and all, but I really enjoy being outside in my gardens. I want to have fish there too when I'm pruning, weeding, and planting. I have some spawn-happy white clouds and trapdoor snails that I eventually want to move to an outdoor tub. I'm thinking something like this Tuff Stuff 110 gallon for the tub: I already have a bunch of water lettuce, water hyacinth, and western waterweed I can toss in there. I'll also add some aeration with a sponge filter + airstone hooked up to a co-op USB pump powered by a solar cell + battery. I'll have it in a location where it will receive 3 hours or less of direct sunlight and I'll probably partially bury it or mound up some dirt on the sides to insulate it a bit and plant around it. Given all that, I have some questions: How do I prepare the tub for winter? (I live in Seattle. We have mild winters but do occasionally drop below freezing. Hardiness zone 8b) Are my light levels going to be an issue in the summer for heat? What are some good resources (YouTube, blogs, forums, books) for beginners on this topic? What have I not thought about?

All this discussion seems very academic 😛 What are some good options for those of us running hang-on-back filters? I suppose I could get a powerhead and an inline UV unit and add it that way, but I already dislike the amount of gear hanging inside, off-of, and around my aquarium. I'd prefer to keep things more hidden and tidy if reasonably (read: affordably) possible.

"Two common plecos should keep the glass clean your 29 gallon." To be fair, they certainly kept the glass clean lol

Yeah I have another one that seems to have a stem that’s slightly curled up like new growth on most terrestrial ferns.

Fantastic photo!