Waka88

Meh, I wouldn't upgrade a 40 breeder unless it was a 75. The dimensions of 55 and 60 are vomit to me. Confuses the hell out of me why they make large tanks tall and narrow. What is it for, a billion nano fish? Once my fish get to 6 inches each, I'll upgrade to a 75 with a 2nd canister. And on the 75, I'll do same with 40, no plants. I grow bamboo using a Aquaclear 50 with nothing in it but ceramic biomedia and the bamboo, on a very slow flow. The filtration is from a Fluval 407. Future plan for next year when upgrade to 75 is to add probably another Fluval 407. For the 75, probably upgrade the Aquaclear to a 110 to do the exact same thing, just add more bamboo 😄 Also I think goldfish are seriously the most underrated fish. They are adorable, and constantly moving, doing weird things. One of my Jikan spent the afternoon swimming downward against the flow of my air stone. And I didn't know they were such sociable fish, they are constantly following each other, bumping into each other, and just being clowns. I know with larger fish tanks, people really are focused on cichlids or carnivorous fish. But I think fancy goldfish may just be the best fish for a tank from 40-75 if you are just keeping 3-5 of them. Don't do 4, 4 remember = death.

I got one of those suction clips. So thinking of trying to get repachy on something and hang it off the glass. I'll try again at night, cause I did with plastic glass and the pigs went after it immediately, even with it faced towards the glass, they would wiggle in between and make a mess, now my water is slightly cloudy. Platies are ridiculous morons.

I have these garbage bins platies, that eat everything. I bought some Repachy Super Green to feed the Otocinclus. I just don't know how. By the time the Oto would find it, the garbage barrels would have eaten it already. And I discovered the garbage disposals never stop eating, so keeping them fed doesn't work. Feeding them and then dropping Repachy wouldn't work as they would go after the Repachy afterwards. They are horrible, if I knew Platies were non-stop pigs, I wouldn't have bought them. These menace, nothing they won't eat. I notice they try to eat the water during water changes... morons. Also I like my Otos even though they are new to the tank more than any of the pigs. Please help!

Now the problem I have is that the shrimp and Oto are cleaning up well. So the Otos and shrimp will have to live on the few algae left for a few days until Repachy Super Green arrived on Thursday. My plan is to smear that on a thin flat rock or glass and use a clip on hanger. Hoping the Oto and shrimp go to it right away. Will have to do it at night I thinks since my Platy are horrible pigs. I think they would eat themselves to death. There is nothing they won't gorge themselves on. WTF are these fish? No review or highlight ever says, Platy are voracious pigs who won't stop eating everything until they die.

You sure they are Platy? I know I've seen Mollies and Swordtails mislabeled as Platy before. Like I noticed a bunch of black swordtail female were in a tank with assorted Platy, and of those gold flecked mollies.

I'm trying to find some good plants. Aquarium Co-Op been great but USPS shipping times are too long and the plants arrive in very poor shape. Scarlet Temple I ordered are dead. I've done 3 orders of Bacopa Carolina but again, I think I've been able to salvage like 3 plants, 1 from each shipment and I don't know if they will survive. All my plants are from Petco, and they seem to be doing OK. But I want something more lush. All I can get from Petco are Crypts, Ferns, Swords or Anubias. But what I want are lush stem plants like Octopus or Wisteria. Problem I'm having is the local LFS in along the east cost, none of them care for their plants. Some do have Wisteria for example but they are such poor shape and the tanks they keep in, well frankly I'm afraid of what disease, snails, and crap they may contaminate my tank with. Those who have had great luck, where do you source your plants? Suggestion for a 20 gallon? I got cherry shrimp, and 2 oto as my cleanup crew. The bottom feeder are 4 cory and the rest are just 5 platy. I'm using 50 Aquaclear and a airstone just to move some water without too much current. Eco-Complete substrate, which I regret deeply, but too late now. Thanks!

Update: My water is crystal clear. Huge smile on my face when I see it. So I did two water changes where I did minor gravel cleaning with the python water changer. Since then I just do regular 50% once a week. Now I'm just battling brown algae. I added two oto and some shrimp, I think got that problem solved. Now I just need to add more plants. I think it's looking pretty good. I'm keeping it simple with Platy and Cory. Everyone seems to be doing well enough, no one is sulking.

Same here. Got a Red Honey Gourami. Looking nice already. Very active, still getting used to new tank. But already much happier with him over the Betta. Great with my other fish, sometimes see him hanging with the other Platy.

I think it might be the Eco-Complete substrate, as the bag says no need to rinse and like an idiot I didn't rinse. I should have. The only solution I think is to just do 80% water changes. May have to just accept that I'll have these particles for a month or two, for a while. Lesson learned, rinse substrate even if it says no rinse needed.

Python water changer

Huh, interesting! His water maintenance was poor, maybe that was it.

Buddy of mine growing up had 2 Oscars in a 10 gallon. They never grew to their full size, not even close. He had them for 8 years. Also a large goldfish was in there. Honestly don't know how they lived so long. It's not a myth, it's not ethical, but not a myth.

Good to know, didn't know it was an extra 6 inches, was thinking was like a 1.5 feet. What kind of lighting people use for a 75? I see you used Nicrew x2. Did you use 2 like in tandem to span the width or 2 in parallel to cover more back to front of the tank?

Probably throw in species must be with other native species to their area, cause African Cichlid will get confused by South American fish.

It's eco-planted, from Petsmart. Planted substrate is very limited around me. Since tank is new, I do 25-40% water changes twice a week. Still having dust problem. But the tank does look clear from a distance. Filtering is Co-Op sponge + AquaClear with floss, (Amazon Aquaneat), and additional bio from Topfin ceramic rings.

I'm gonna try to find me some Hornwort locally if I can. Think that plant matches your description.

Did you check to see if your water source PH also dropped?

Why not just take planting tweezers and just grab it? Or take a scoop and scoop all the substrate along with him? Seems like it would be easy to catch him.

I still haven't figured out how to do the low tech plant balance of fertilizer, nutrient and lighting. I've already decided to toss the Excel stuff, since I think it's doing more harm than good. I upgraded the lighting, but dunno if that will just grow more algae or not. I got a small tank so I don't want fast growing plants as I think they will just grow too large and overtake everything. I got more Bacopa Carolina coming, really hoping those will do well. I'm going for the stem plants over the rhyzom plants. I'm discovering all the recommended easy to grow plants aren't that easy 😕 I've decided to just get rid of the lid and keep water level about 2 inches below in case of any fish jumping, but I doubt any of my fish will jump. I'm doing the zero testing and just do more frequent water changes if I feel I need it. I only got the Seachem Alert for Ammonia level and that thing is supposed to last a year, just hangs in the tank. I'm hoping I can find something like that for nitrite/nitrate.

Well, someone agreed to take the betta. I went and found a Red Honey Gourami and it was a great decision. The Gourami is still adjusting, glass surfs a bit, but already loving the activity and and liveliness he brings to the tank. And already showing some increase in color, looking forward to when he grows more and more color. I really loved the idea of a Betta, but lesson learned. A female short find typed betta would have been a much better idea. So hard to find a nice healthy female betta around me right now, hard as in I found zero.

This is something I want to do in the future, slightly smaller at 55. Quickly finding a 20 gallon is too small with most of the plants and the density I want to go for. This is looking awesome!

So the tank looks great and clear from say 6 feet away. But when I go up close, that's when I see it. It's just everywhere floating in there. Even after a 50% water change.

Around here they can't keep Cory's in stock. And no one seems to have stock of female Betta. Honey Gourami disappear fast too.

Hello, I started a 20 gallon aquarium. It's lightly planted. The tank seemed to have cycled OK I guess, it's got some light brown algae growing, but I think that was because of overfeeding and too much light, I reduced the hours on the timer and reduced feeding, hoping that will solve that problem. While the water is clear, it seems there is fine dust in the water. I can see them being sucked up by the Aqua Clear which I have filter floss with. Doesn't seem to get rid of it. It looks like really fine dust, it's not O2. I am using a Co-Op sponge filter medium sized as well. Substrate is the eco-planted I got from Petsmart. It's been a while so I don't think it's from that. I don't know what this fine dust is.

I've decided keeping a Betta in a community tank is pain and not really worth the hassle. Really limits what fish you can have. It seems to get stressed easily, even if it's lightly stocked, seems to be stressed. I have 20 gallon with 7 fish, 3 of them being cory, 4 platy. 20 gallon tank, with Co-Op sponge filter and 30 Aquaclear. Also in terms of filtering it's also pain if you like using a HOB, which I do, I use a Aquaclear. I got plenty of plants, a large driftwood, spongebob house, and the Betta still behaves as if it's a real struggle to live. Aquaclear is on the lowest setting. In hindsight I wish I got a Honey Gourami instead. He's really boring, all he does is look fatigued, resting in one spot from another. I find him hiding under the wood, under the sponge filter, in corners, just boring fish. Not really sure what to do atm, whether to return the male Betta or not. He's gorgeous, but really boring.