Scapexghost

There are a lot of ways. The most common is putting ozmocote into gel capsules. You can also freese mud in an ice try. You can also go all out like in option three in this Article.

I appreaciated the proper word choice of fewer fish instead of less fish. At least livebearers are easier to rehome than some other prolific breeders

I think the best thing to do is nothing. The stress was caused by change so more changes will only cause more stress.

Really its about finding balance. Cutting food or light entirely is causing more imbalance. I think of an island full of coyotes, deer, and bunnies. If the coyotes are wiped out, the bunnies will multiply and out compete the deer. Without deer or coyotes, the bunny population will explode and they'll eat all the vegetation. Without vegetation, the bunnies will die off. Basically, changing one thing in an evironment causes a cascade effect with unpredictable results. Generally, the most adaptable, in this case the snails, will benefit.

Final Update: Been putting off this final update out of laziness. Hopefully no one was worried that i killed all the guppies and was to embarassed to make an update (which is what i would do tbh). Against everyones advice, i moved the fish inside the tank. I took plenty of precautions but it was a pain. It was very stressful but it worked out. All the fish survived. Im not sure if any of the shrimp died during the move, but i know some died before and after. This summer, I'm going to try a shrimp only tank, and really put a lot of attention into them. The fish have gotten colored up and are reaching full size. Interestingly, while all the babies are dumbo mosiacs, they are all different colors. Some of the plants did well and some did not. The anacharis, water lettuce, and dwarf sag all took of. I moved the dwarf sag to another tank. The microsword never took off, i suspect it's root system is too shallow to take advantage of the substrate.

The tank will have plants, but not in the substrate. Whats a pleasant looking cheap sand that allows for digging?

Yes that should work.

Technically, none of them need to be replaced. The reason the do get replace is because we use up the neutrients faster than they are replaced. Soils have high CEC, so, in theory, if you can balance plants and fertilizers and stocking, you should be able to go indefinetely without changing substrates. However, this is not necessarily achievable for most planted tanks, since they have so much plant mass and growth. Much more than an actual lake of river would have in such a small area. You can add soil without tearing down the scape, by freezing the soil in an icetray and using them as root tabs.

If your keeping guppies, its almosy impossible to have too high pH, KH, or GH. The higher the better for guppies.

A few things. One, it gives you a reason to watch games you wouldnt normally watch. Two, i think you learn more about football, not only about players, but also how offenses are ran. Three, its probably the closest experience to being an nfl gm. Theres a lot of luck in fantasy football for sure, but it also puts your football intuition to the test. Trying to predict which players will exceed expectations in a season, or trying to predict which weeks mid teir players will have big games. It also is just something i can do on my phone, since i don't have social media anymore.

Prolapse. Itll right itself in time. However, it likely has a seperate cause, like internal parasites or constipation. If i fish prolapses once it is more likely to prolapse again.

Buffer is the water's resistence to pH change, hardness is disolved minerals (think mineral water, or lime and calcium buildup in bathtubs), chlorine is bleach put in tap water to kill bacteria.

Ill do pucallpaensis then. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Ive been doing a lot of tanks with gravel caps over active substrates, but it seems like a lot of carpeting plants have root systems that are too shallow to take advantage of it. So, what are some carpeting plants with deeper roots?.

1000 percent agree. Big reason i want to try them. So far ive only bred livebearers and cherry shrimp. So i think theyre a good next step. 1000 percent agree. Big reason i want to try them. So far ive only bred livebearers and cherry shrimp. So i think theyre a good next step.

Would a 10 work if i were to rehome the male after the fry hatch?

So, i've been playing with dirted tanks recently. My first dirted tank was a little dissapointing with plant growth and produced a lot of tannins as i did not sift the organic miracle gro. A was asking around about dirted aquariums and someone on reddit recommended worm castings. This is the second time i saw worm castings thrown in to this discussion, as a comment on an md fish tank video recommended this as well. That said, there isn't that much out on this stuff being used in aquarium and it has never been mentioned on this forum. Has anyone used it? If not, i just did. Well it was actually about a week or two ago so i can confirm it isnt gonna just kill everything. What drove me to try it, besides simply wanted to try something new, was a few things. First, it contains no wood chips and no need to sift. Second, it is almost entirely water insoluble nitrogen, which (i think) is what you want. However, the biggest reason, is this line of thinking. Composts and soils contain things like woodchips and eggshells to be broken down by beetles and worms and such, things not necessarily present in a fish tank, So, why not just skip to the good stuff, the worm castings? For those unaware, castings is just a nice way of saying poop. Thankfully, worm poop looks, smells, and feels just like dirt, since thats basically what it is. This is my setup. A 20 gallon with 4 lbs of worm poop. Im pretty happy with the scape. My brother helped me with the rock formation. To be clear, he told me where to put the rocks, he didnt help move them. My brother is the strongest person i know and he makes me do the heavy lifting. The stocking is all fish i already had in this tank. Some mollies, a couple tetras, a swordtail thats growing out until i trust in can handle its older siblings, a red tail shark i was planning on moving to a larger tank once it got to big, but its been like a year and hes still small. And a bn pleco.So, not a stocking i would necessarily recommend, but it works. The plants are dwarf sag, melon sword, pearl weed, anacharis, some type of ludwigia i think, tiger lotus, giant hair grass, the onion plant thing, and water lettuce. Some plants from other tanks, some plants from the previous scape, some new plants. I wanted a wide variety to test out the worm castings. The like is the nicrew classicled

This is my first year playing since 2019 and it was a lot of fun. Lost in the semifinals but I'm already strategizing for next year. I spend a lot of time on the ff subreddit but its easy to get drowned out in the millions of redditors. Plus, i dont even like reddit. So, anyone interested in talking about there experiences this season or strats for the next?

To each their own.

I want to try keeping apistos for the first time and naturally i want to breed them. It will be a 10 gallon blackwater tank with just the pair. So, for those who have bred apistos, what should i know? Which are the easiest to breed or which species do the best in hard water. I have seen the co op vid on setting up an apisto breeding tank, and i have some coconut shells.

I think that would work fine

Globetta seems like a weird one. I get glo tetras but regular bettas just look so much better than the glo varieties

Cash

A few days ago a purchased 2 plants from my lfs, aluminum plant and purple waffle. As i am now aware, neither of these are aquatic plants, and will die if submerged for too long. Now, i am aware that this is at least partly my fault. I should've done research beforehand. Even eithout research, i should have at least been suspicious as to why such pretty plants are never seen or mentioned in aquascaping. That said, this fish store did sell me plants that can't grow underwater. My question is, what is the proper next course of action: A) plop the plant in my HoB and move on. Maybe in 4 years when i have the time and space to set up a terrarium/paladarium theyll come in handy. B) ask for a refund or an exchange. Now, while im not necessarily strapped for cash, my aquarium budget is limited. But, even beyond money, a lot of people will by these plants from this store and put them in there fish tanks and kill them. This is bad for not only the costumers and, long term, the store, but the local hobby as a whole. That said, i dont necessarily want to cause any drama and it could be difficult to actually prove the plants cant be grown under water if they actually push the issue.

Water companies inject co2 into water to decrease pH. Once it gases off the ph raises again