Shana

Thank you!

Sorry in advance for a longer intro/story. ☺️ Started back up this past February. With the kiddos old enough to not be at risk of climbing into the water or dumping things into the tank, we thought it would be a fun hobby to get the whole family involved…or so we believed. Both my husband and I had fish in high school (way back when, Guppies for me, Cichlids for him), so we broke out the 5 gallon tank and headed to Petco and let each of us in the family pick out a fish. Ended up with 1x Pleco, 1x Common Molly, 3x Balloon Mollies. Not even a week later, we had baby’s (I was so excited), but then lost power during the Texas snowmageddin.🥶 Not realizing the impact of temperature fluctuations, had a massive ick breakout and the fish just couldn’t swim, lost all the fish except the common Molly. Lesson learned, have a generator and hook up the tank non-stop to keep temp, I can always grab a blanket, these little fishies cannot. While it might have crossed our minds this is a sign we don’t have time to pick up this hobby with two jobs, 3 kids and a dog, we decided instead to get a larger tank, 65 gallon. Something about holding temp and overall balance better! 😁 Found one used online for a good price, and the LFS was short on supply (power hit the whole city, lots of people lost their fish), but only needed a couple fish to help cycle. Bought another Pleco (love this dude, oddest Pleco I’ve seen) and a white fish my middle child picked called Owl. Loved the energy and darting and eating nature of this unknown fish. Was in a tetra tank, but after looking it up, discovered the “Rainbow Fish.” We had a juvenile Bosemani. There have been many joys and hiccups in-between. Discovered Aquabid, bought a 35 gallon tank to get a new type of Rainbowfish, only to feed these young 1” fish bloodworms and end up with Swim Bladder disease and dead. 😭 The joys outweighs the setbacks…watching the color, social behavior and growth in the main tank has been amazing. The circling, the following my face as I grab food, the Angels swimming up and chilling with the hose during water changes, and the Pleco swimming upside down to eat flakes are incredibly fun and peaceful. This is just the beginning, and a hobby meant for the family. It has quickly become my hobby as I experiment with live plants and give raising fry a chance. I wish I would have discovered this forum sooner! I am excited and eager to learn from those who have been doing this much longer than myself. 🙏

Phantom240, Are those Swords climbing up the vertical part of your tank?!?! The plants look incredible. Thank you Ogpulcha and Phantom, I bought some root tabs and am getting them in the tank today during the water change.

Thank you everyone! Hopefully it’s just the conversion. For having the plant for over a month I would have expected it to happen sooner and I have been following the dosing with the 3-4 pumps each week for my 35 gallon (aside from doubling it each week). I bought some substrate fertilizer pills, and some new plants for my other tank and will test out which works better. Saturdays are my hobby day, so I will take your advice and trim the dying leaves to repurpose energy into the new grow and fertilize twice a week. I haven’t broken out the full water test kit, but my quick test kit is showing 25 mg/L. I also changed the light setting just in case the white light power was too much.

35 gallons, 8 young fish (about 13” right now). Doing 30% water changes weekly with 1/4 of the water R.O. to help bring the PH and hardiness lower. Have extremely hardy water.

Amazon Sword I believe.

Bought several plants a couple months ago. Went through a cycling bloom, then a diatrom bloom and were good. But in the last 2 weeks they have started turning yellow, and translucent and leaves dying off. I supplement 1-2x each week with Aq Co-op all in one fertilizer (which is what I believe spiked the diatroms), and just not sure what is causing this. Any insight and help would be greatly appreciated. I don’t want to loose any of my plants.