meadeam

Interesting, thanks. I am not familiar with many barb varieties other than Tigers. I'll look into Odessas. I think I see some live-bearers in there as well. Did they get along? I have too many mollies and would like to be able to put a few in this tank if possible. I'm going to try to get a little current moving in this tank as well. I've never tried that.

Love this thread. I so want to keep Angels, but don't really have the space for the footprint they require.

I'll be setting up a new tank and have settled on a 20 long based on where it will sit, which is the bar between kitchen and dining room. The bar is wide enough to still be able to use the counter and it will be kind of a mini room divider with viewing on all three sides. My vision is to densely plant one end, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the length, and have the "peninsula" end be open swimming space. I've never had barbs because of compatibility issues, but have always wanted them. I especially like Tiger and Green Tigers. I think the 20L will be too small for them even if not densely planted. I'd love to be wrong about that, but I'm not hopeful. Have you had success with barbs in a 20 L? The other fish I really want to keep is pictus cats, but I definitely can't put them in 20 L.

Timely, as I have been wanting to buy a macro lense for my phone to shoot fish but didn't know where to start. It seems like it would be a good idea to shoot HD video and the pull still images from the result. Rather than trying to capture individual shots. Is there a disadvantage to that? I've never tried it, maybe the still images are of lesser quality than the video. I actually like the shots where only the nearest part of the fish is in focus sometimes. It accentuates the scale and close proximity. Edit: drat, I didn't notice how old this thread is... carry on!

10 minutes every hour seems reasonable. As far as I know my smart outlets can only handle 2 daily on/off cycles so I will divide the time up, with the larger portion of air time during lights out. I think I'll add a small sponge filter as long as I'm running air anyway.

I didn't lower the intensity at all, just the total hours from ~10 to ~7. I also reduced blue light to nearly 0 for most of the day, and only use it for moonlight late in the evening before total darkness. I feel like the Phosguard may be what stopped the diatom. I likely introduced excess silicates through the play sand substrate, and the phosguard removes silicates. Apparently you can also wait it out as the diatom will die off naturally after all of their food is consumed, assuming you don't add another source of silicates.

It is starting to go away! I'm glad I took a photo at the beginning of this thread so I can see how far it has come. I added Phosguard to my canister filter shortly after starting this thread, and have since introduced some mystery snails who I think do eat it. It is literally flaking off of the rocks and can be vac'd off of the sand.. The plants seem to be ridding themselves of it slowly with the help of the snails. I have some Red Cherry Shrimp on the way and hopefully they will eat some. I've also reduced photo period to 7hrs, and added a mid-day siesta period. Oh, and added supplemental CO2... So I guess I changed several things and have no idea what worked but I was going to do all of these things (with the exception of the phosguard) anyway. I do see what appears to be a small amount of hair algae on a java fern, so I may have both but the majority of the brown stuff appears to be diatom.

After briefly experimenting with the 2L Soda Bottle system, I recently started using an FZone 2.5L DIY CO2 generator in my 29 gallon containing Staurogyne Repens, Ludwigia, Amazon Sword, Anubias, and Java Fern. I'm also starting to siesta the lights in the middle of the day to keep the photo period to 7hrs and still be able to enjoy the tank in the evenings. I'm starting the C02 (currently at 2 bps which gives me a 1 pH drop in a few hours) 1 hr before the lights come on in the morning, then turning it off 1 hr before the lights siesta. I then start the C02 again 1 hr before the lights come back up, and run it until 1 hr before the lights go down and the "moon" comes up. At that point, I run an airstone for a few hours into the period of total darkness over night.. I know there are a lot of variables here, but does this seem like a good schedule in general? I want maximum benefit with minimal stress to the fish. I have the solenoid and air pump on wifi enabled smart outlets so I can synchronize with the lights. Edit: The tank is currently lightly stocked, but will be running at full capacity + when fully stocked.

Gourami are an enigma. I've read so much contradictory info on keeping them. I may try a single dwarf though.

I'm in a similar situation with an overabundance of black mollies. I like them and will always want to keep them, but I need to keep the population under control. I've been considering a Gourami of some variety, or a Koi Angel. I've never kept Angels as I've always had nano tanks. My largest is a 29, which I think is the smallest size recommended for them. I'll keep an eye on this thread for other interesting options,

good options as well. I just can't have too many fry perpetuate in those tanks, so I'd be relying on other fish cull further fry. A single fry eating species in addition to all the adults will do the trick I hope. I really like Gouramis and would love to keep them as singles.

I think I am going to go the indoor tub route as I have also been considering propagating plants, both aquatic and hydro grown terrestrial plants. I have no experience with it but it could be fun.

The chains won't take them. There is one LFS I can try but I am not hopeful.

I have a few small tanks; 5.5, 10, and 29. The 10 Gallon is currently housing a batch of 20-25 molly fry who survived long enough to grow too large to eat. They are still in the 10 gallon growing but will obviously need to be moved soon. That is problem #1. The 5.5 gallon is being used as a hospital tank at the moment. I expect the fish in there to pass, or be returned to the 10 or 29 soon. I would like to house a single betta in the 5.5 eventually. and use one or more indoor tubs for quarantine/treatment of sick fish. In the 29 are a school of 10 assorted neons, 5 corydoras, 1 bn pleco, and 1 adult male molly (the progenitor of the batch of fry). I would love for this tank to have a hillstream loach or small school of otos as well as more mollies or a larger single fish. What do I do with all of the molly fry? For the sake of argument let's say there are 25 of them. I'd be full up with just mollies if I distributed them throughout the 3 tanks. I am not opposed to adding another small tank; I've considered a Flex 15 because of the form factor and all-in-oneness of the design. For reference, all existing tanks are moderately to heavily planted. The 29 is very adequately filtered with an Oase Filtosmart 200 (up to 55g), the others have cheapo HOB filters I am willing to replace. All have Fluval aquasky lights. I am currently doing 50% water changes weekly. I might have got them all in one photo... I count 23.

update: air stone running for a few hours, drop checker blue (really this time) and fish swimming normally. pH back to normal. I will start CO2 injection again tomorrow morning after running the air stone all night. I will add CO2 slowly, periodically checking pH, and turn the air stone back on at lights out. I'll order some timer outlets for the solenoid and air pump.

The tank has been off C02 for 18hrs and had a 50% water change. The drop checker is still green, and the fish are acting like there is low oxygen. They seemed fine last night post water change. I increased surface agitation by angling the spray bar a little more toward the surface, and will go get an air stone at lunchtime. I really didn't think it would be so easy to gas fish with DIY C02. I must have put a ton of it in! I'm actually not sure if the DC ever returned to blue after the C02 had been turned off over night; it is so hard to see the difference, and I have a blue background on this particular tank 🤨 I will proceed very, very slowly on my next attempt.

A couple things I learned and hopefully can save someone else the trouble: The more you fuss with the needle valve, the more you perpetuate the pressure differences between the bottles, and the more 'A' solution siphons to the 'B' solution, causing more reaction, which increases pressure, which means you need to mess with the needle valve... etc. I built up nearly 4 bar of pressure trying to adjust the flow before I realized I was making it worse by constantly messing with the needle. It's easier than I thought to reach CO2 saturation; I achieved a full 1 pH drop on the morning of my second day of C02 (I turned it off over night) and eventually had to take the diffuser out of the tank (29g) as my tetras were all clinging to the top surface of the water. The drop checker started the morning blue eventually went all the way to greenish-yellow but the fish started stressing when it was green(they are fine now) and I should have been around 30ppm C02 according to pH drop at my kH. I've ordered a solenoid with a bubble counter and will use the magnetic valve to turn on/off so as to not have to mess with the needle valve constantly which causes an over-reaction.

I'm more and more convinced it is brown diatom. This is a relatively new tank, and I used Stratum capped with play sand which I have never done before. From modestfish.com: "When you add new sand substrate, especially play, blasting or pool sand, it creates a huge spike in silicates. Eventually, the diatoms should eat up the silicate and then die off, but this could take months." Going to continue researching brown diatom. I hope I can get rid of it without changing out the substrate.

Thanks, I've always understood bba to be more hairlike. This stuff is like paint. Not at all fibrous or flowing. EDIT: after some browsing around awhile, I am fairly certain this is diatom. Most of the photos I've seen are not as dark as what I have, but it does seem to fit the description otherwise.

I am being attacked by this black stuff. It reminds me of the fungus that grows on the trees around a distillery. It just turns everything black. It is very fine, not at all hairy like some algae. It is on the sand and rocks as well. I did a large water change today and scrubbed a few larger plants by hand. It barely comes off and it is impossible to remove all of it. I'm going to avail myself of all this site and the internet in general have to offer on the subject, but thought I make a topic here to collect any info. I'll post water parameters and other tank info as well.