Shane L.

I'll message you when I'm ready to purchase, thanks!

Thanks for steering my question in the right direction! Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I may give Scarlet Badis a try soon!

I’ve wanted to get a Scarlet Badis last year but was told to wait until my tank is seasoned well before buying one. My 24 gallon bookshelf tank is now 1 1/2 years old now, fairly heavily stocked with plants (see photo) and only a few small fish: 4 endler male guppies and a small regular guppy, 2 neon tetras, 1 mystery snail and about 80+ cherry shrimp. All good so far for the most part. I know Scarlet Bais need live food (maybe they can eat some of my smallest cherry shrimp) and my LFS says they feed theirs Freshwater Frenzy frozen cubes with success. My question is how anyone out there handles feeding Scarlet Badis (or other very small live food eaters) when they are on vacation? I have an Aquarium Coop dry food auto feeder for my other fish, but how would I feed a Scarlet Badis while on vacation (I would say max time away would be between 10 and 14 days). Any advice from someone who has dealt with this before will be appreciated. Thanks.

Last night at 9 days after startup it seemed like I got my first hint at possibly being cycled? At day 7 ammonia was down to zero. At day 9 both ammonia and nitrites were at zero and nitrates at 5. I guess I'll monitor it for at least another week for any spikes, but if they stay in this range, I can add the first fish! pH, GH and KH have stayed stable the whole time, with pH fluctuating just a little.

Thanks for the great fertilizer link. I was considering trying the light siesta once the tank gets cycled, but wasn’t aware it was an option during cycling. Maybe I’ll add that in the mix. Thanks

Ammonia, ph, KH and nitrates seem to be in safe ranges per your numbers above. Nitrite is at 1ppm so I’ll keep an eye on that. May be even higher since 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 are all nearly the same color on the chart! Thanks

Thanks for the info!

Staying fishless with the cycle. I know to expect ammonia and nitrite spikes during cycling so no water changes because of that, but what other test parameter would trigger a necessary water change during cycling? Would I need to do a water change with high nitrates, say over 40 or 80? Or is it ok to leave nitrates high during cycling too?

Eco Complete is inert so no leaching from that, but maybe some from the Easy Tabs I buried ( 1 every 4 or 5 inches or so around the tank on sides, middle and back where plants are). I won't waste my time water changing daily and just keep an eye on the water parameters. If anyone reading this feels differently, please let me know so I'll be totally conflicted on what to do, LOL. Thanks for your opinions.

Also @lefty o" - Believe me, I don't want to do water changes every day. I've just seen online where it's often recommended for new heavily planted tanks to do 50% water changes daily for week 1, every other day week 2, every 3 days week 3 and weekly after that. Do you recommend not doing any water changes until it's finished cycling? Less water changes sounds good to me!

Thanks, now your 75 gallon in the photo is what I wanted to start with - it looks amazing! But I'll learn on my 24 gallon first! I do have several small guppies to spare in my 3 gallon. Maybe I'll consider switching over to a fish in cycle. Forgot to mention in my post that I did add a medium piece of spiderwood, a few small dragonstones, java moss and 2 anubias nana petites from my cycled 3 gallon tank to help (I'll edit my post to add it). That coupled with Seachem Prime bacteria and whatever bacteria is in Eco Complete should help jump start the cycling too. Thanks for the input!

Hello All, I’m new to planted tanks and maybe a little too ambitious thanks to YouTube, the internet and forums like this. So I tried to pace myself with a fairly small starter tank as an upgrade to my current 3 gallon. Two days ago I set up and started the fish-less cycling process on a heavily planted 24 gallon long rimless bookshelf tank. I’m trying to get opinions on: 1) whether to fertilize the water column with Easy Green and Easy Iron during the cycling process (already buried Aquarium Coop Easy Root Tabs during setup) - if so, how often, daily or weekly?, and 2) Should I add a flake of food daily during cycling, and 3) Water change frequency (see current schedule below) I know there is no right way or wrong way, things work differently for everyone. So just wanted to get opinions on the 3 questions above. Photos attached and specs below: Tank: 24 gallon, low iron, rimless 39” x 11.75” x 11.75” Seachem Tidal 35 with 2 sponge thicknesses and Seachem Matrix Small airstone for surface agitation. No Co2 Fluval Plant 3.0 light raised about 3” from water surface. Light set for 6 hours per day during cycling with intensity (will raise to 8 hours after cycling) set to about 30% intensity with slight increase every 2 weeks until I reach maximum 65% (since tank is so shallow)-this is following Bentley Pascoe setting from his Youtube videos. Heated with temperature around 76 to 78 degrees, probably will be around 80 degrees during summer. Substrate: Eco Complete with Aquarium Coop Easy Tabs set throughout during setup. Topped with very small Aqua Natural gravel, and sprinkled with larger regular gravel and crushed dragon stone for color accents. Hardscape: spiderwood (boiled so no tanins), petrified wood, small dragon stones Plants: Based on research, all should be good with no Co2 and medium light. Anubias Nana Petite, Java Moss, Super Red Ludwigia, Bacopa, Golden Lloydeilla, Ludwigia perusensis, Ludwigia Ovalis, Rotala, Micro Sword, Giant Baby Tears, Dwarf Hairgrass, Frogbit (may not survive with airstone bubbles popping on surface and getting them wet?) On day 1 parameters were: Ammonia 0, Nitrites .25, Nitrates 40-80, pH 7.6, GH 15/285, KH 5-6/75-100 On day 2 parameters were: Ammonia .5, Nitrites .25, Nitrates 20, pH 7.4, GH 14/270, KH 6/100 I plan to do water changes daily for week 1, every other day for week 2, every 3 days for week 3 and weekly after that Adding Seachem Prime Stability for beneficial bacteria daily for first week per the bottle instructions. Then with each water change after that. I did add a medium piece of spiderwood, a few small dragonstones, java moss and 2 anubias nana petites from my cycled 3 gallon tank to help boost the cycling with beneficial bacteria (along with what is in Seachem Prime and Eco Complete). Thanks, Shane

@lefty o @Guppysnail I’m considering just gravel as well but was afraid to try. I’m assuming you use root tabs every 3 or 4 months and probably liquid fertilizer weekly? Do you use anything else to help growth, like CO2?

@Ragnarok12 Thanks for the info and photos. Your tank and lid look amazing and that's exactly what I would like to do. And I like the tip of using the rubber bumpers. I'll look into local glass shops for pricing! Thanks again for the photos.

@ZenzoThanks for the info, good to hear sitting it on top edge is working for you.

I'm putting together a rimless tank (39" x 12" x 12") and will probably add a lid to it. Being such an odd size, I know I need to do a DIY lid. Nearly everyone I've seen online makes lids from either glass, polycarbonate or acrylic and then hang them inside the aquarium with clips, so the lid sits down and inside the inner edges of the tank. My question is, why does no one sit the lid directly on top of the top edge of the aquarium (not inside it with clips)? Seems to me it would be more secure sitting on the top edge rather than clips and would square up the look with the edges of the tank nicely (obviously would have cutouts for filter, tubing etc.). But is there a reason why I shouldn't just sit the lid directly on the aquarium edges rather than using clips? Will condensation seep under it and run down the sides of the glass? Also, I see online some people drill a few large holes or dozens of small ones for air circulation under the lid (usually in acrylic), and others don't. Assuming the lid has a few cutouts for filter, tubing, heater cord, etc. and is not completely air tight, would you still recommend adding a few large holes or several smaller ones for air circulation? Seems like that might defeat the purpose of trying to eliminate evaporation by giving water more holes to escape from?

Yea, I'm pretty sure filter sponge is the route I'll go. Thanks for the 30 ppi tip.

Us nerms gotta stick together!

I'm like you, been out of aquariums for a while but recently started back up with a 3gallon small tank and I think I have the exact same filter as you - as well as the exact same problem. I can't really comment on saving plants, substrate, etc., but I can tell you my experience with spiderwood and how I solved it. I placed a newly purchased spiderwood in bucket of water for a few days and everything seemed fine so I put it in the tank without boiling it (only water/scrubbing it) Within a day the water was tan from tanins. A day or two after that the sides of the tank were slimy and the top of the water was turning into a sludge for the tanins and white film, just like in your pictures. So I move the fish, did a complete breakdown cleaning everything with just water, and set up everything back up but the spiderwood (no live plants at that time). At that time I bought a cheap Walmart 12 qt. stock pot to boil the wood in (didn’t use my good ones since I heard it ruins the stainless steel pans). I boiled it for 3 or 4 hours. Tested it by soaking in a bucket for 2 days and it still made the water tan and started forming the white slime again. Tried it again the next few days with the same results. Was at the point of just throwing it away when I read someone (possibly on this forum) saying it’s not how long you boil it, but how many times. He said boil it for 10 to 15 minutes, dump out the water, then boil it again, over and over until it stops leaching the brown. So I did. It took me nearly 2 full days of doing this and countless 10 to 15 minute boilings, but it finally stopped making the water brown/tea color. At that point I tested it in a bucket for several days and the water finally stayed clean, and it didn’t even form any white film on the tree or the top or sides of the bucket. So I put it in my tank and everything has been good so far (been there 2 or 3 weeks so far. The key was to boil over and over in smaller time quantities rather than hours at a time. Not sure if it will work your your wood, but you may want to give it a try. Attached is a picture of my wood after 2 or 3 weeks in the tank (FYI, the wood did change to a much darker color after boiling but I liked the darker color better anyway). Hope this helps.

Thanks so much for the complements on the tank. It’s my first tank in about 32 years and my first shot at using live plants so I kept it simple with low light, no fuss plants. It is java moss on the spiderwood and attached to the dragon rock in a few spots. Then a few anubias nana petite. And water sprite in the back that I hope will fill in that space more. Regarding the filter, the video on Youtube shows a slightly different version than what I have - mine doesn’t have the long intake tube shown on the video, and it seems it has much less area to intake the water than mine. I’ve attached a few photos with the filter out of the tank and top off so you can see the intake area. You can see there really is very little space for any filter media - just a little slit in the back. No intake tube. The water comes through the vents in the back which are right below the water line (it almost butts up against the side of the aquarium). Once the water goes through the vents, it then goes directly through the media, into the motor chamber area and out 3 little holes in the front that hit a baffle to make it trickle down into the water.

Thanks. My tank is very small at 9" diameter and about 12" tall, so not much room on the substrate, especially with the plants/rocks/wood we have in it. I didn't realize Aquarium Coop carried small/nano sponge filters though so I may look into that. Problem is the cylinder aquarium "magnifies" everything in it so it may make even the small sponge filter look huge. At least the internal power filter isn't very visible when viewing the tank. See attached photo for reference. So far the Tetra filter cartridge seems to be working fine and water stays clear. But we'll see how that goes in a month or so when I run out of filter cartridges and need to decide whether to buy more, switch to foam or change to something else.

Thanks for the reply! Since I basically only have enough space for one layer, you are probably right. Sponge would make the most sense because it would filter out larger particles but also can be reused to keep beneficial bacteria, even though it's tiny.

Hello. I have a very small Koller internal power filter on a 3 gallon cylinder acrylic aquarium. It uses Tetra XS filter cartridges that are around 2” high x 2” wide x 1/4” thick and are basically a thin filter mesh with a little bit of charcoal inside. See attached photo of filter and cartridge. I have guppies, a few anubias, java moss and water sprite in the tank with driftwood, dragon stone and coarse gravel. From what I’ve read online, the charcoal is useless. Given the small size of the cartridge area of the filter and my 3 gallon tank, what would be the best replacement media to use in such a small filter compartment: Fine sponge, medium sponge, coarse sponge, crushed lava rock in a bag, filter floss, other - or just keep using the Tetra XS cartridge? Keep in mind the total area of the compartment is only 2” x 2” x 1/4”. I’ve found tons of filter alternative options for large filters, but I haven’t been able to find any for such a small size. Any suggestions would be appreciated (but keep in mind, at this point I’m keeping this filter and not looking for alternate filter options such as a bigger one or an in tank sponge filter, etc.), I’m just looking for media alternatives. Thanks!