Rube_Goldfish

Plus the bacteria breathe oxygen, too. I think the standard way is either to use breather bags, so that the bag allows gas exchange with the atmosphere, or to get a pure oxygen bottle and fill the "air" in the bag with pure O2. @tolstoy21, you ship fish fairly regularly, right? Any thoughts?

I'm sorry, everything I know about nerite snails -- which isn't much -- says that that ought to be fine. I wish I knew what to tell you.

I ended up removing that air diffuser altogether and installing an approximately one inch piece of flexible (standard) air line tubing between the lid and the rigid tube, with the idea being to have that rigid tube end as close to the bottom as I could without it directly touching. @Cory explains it here at about the 1:20 mark: (YouTube embedding doesn't seem to be working; try this link but delete the space between "you" and "tube": https://m.you tube.com/watch?v=d3osdgb7BGw&pp=ygUqemlzcyBicmluZSBzaHJpbXAgaGF0Y2hlcnkgYXF1YXJpdW0gY28gb3Ag )

@j2Raptor, do you know the pH of your water? I struggled with nerites in a similar way as you have been, and I ended up deciding that my pH (in the low to mid-6s) didn't agree with them and what they needed for healthy shells. That said, I agree with everyone here, but it can be one more bit of useful information.

Above sand, I'll sometimes swirl my siphon hose to kick up mulm or detritus that I'm trying to remove without disrupting the sand. You could also use a turkey baster to kick stuff up, then suck it out from the water column. That way you're not disrupting the substrate or the wood.

I have a fry grow-out tank with an Anubias barteri (I think it's A. barteri, I got it so long ago). For a while it held a pea puffer, which meant few if any snails. After I moved the pea to a different tank and the bladder snails came back, the green spot algae mostly cleared up.

@Water Weed, @GHSEZG was last on the forum in February, but may get a notification now that I've used the @ function. I didn't see Naja marina on Etsy or AquaBid, and searching "buy Naja marina" came up empty handed, too. So we might have to see if GHSEZG ever sees this, or maybe someone else here has some. Is the plant allowed for sale in your area? It looks like it may be classified as invasive in some places, but my two minutes searching certainly doesn't qualify me as an expert!

We were all beginners once; stick around and you'll be giving the advice here soon enough! In the meantime, here's the Aquarium Co-op's explanation of the nitrogen cycle and 'tank/filter cycling': For this tank, the hope is that you'd have seen measurable nitrite first, then measurable nitrate, which would have shown that the bacteria were processing the ammonia from the fish's waste and respiration into first nitrite, then nitrate. That you haven't ever measured any of those, especially nitrate, suggests that the filter may not have enough bacteria to process the amount of waste your fish is expelling. That's what we mean by "cycled" or "established" filter.

I've got a couple follow-up questions that I think will help us to help you. What size tank do you have? What kind of filter do you have? What substrate is in the tank? Do you have any wood in there? Can you post a photo or two?

@nabokovfan87 you've spent a fair amount of time with Tidal HOBs, right? Any thoughts?

Mrs. Goldfish's puffer tank uses an Aquatop Forza PFE1, and while I've been slowly turning against HOB filters generally, I do like this one. It's easy to clean and has adjustable flow, and, for its size, a reasonable media area if you want to customize. It even came with a prefilter sponge! It does not self-prime, though.

Red root floaters can be really finicky, but I've had my best success with them with minimal surface flow. Most floaters don't like to get the tops of their leaves wet, but red root floaters are particularly sensitive to it. Once they get going, though, they can grow fast, which is good, because they, along with the jungle val, will help 'protect' the other plants, all slow growing, from algae growth, hopefully. I like stems for that purpose, but I think vallisineria and a floater ought to do it for you.

Ah, see, that's likely one of those things I would have had to learn the hard way! Thanks!

To my eyes, that looks like a good, healthy anubias. The lighter, wavy leaf is the newest leaf, I'm guessing? Most of my anubiases (maybe all of them?) have lighter colored, differently shaped leaves at first, then as the leaf grows and ages, it darkens and changes shape to match the others. Is it new into that tank or has it been there a while? Anubias are pretty tough, just slow. If the leaves aren't covered in algae, and if the rhizome doesn't feel squishy (and is above the substrate), then I'd just wait it out a while, keeping an eye on the new growth. EDIT: I just snapped this photo of one of my anubias (Anubias nana, I think): (Please ignore all the little floating bits; this tank just got fed baby brine shrimp.) That curled, lighter leaf in the middle is the newest one, still growing. That's sort of what I mean. Incidentally, the one I'm worried about is the one to the right and behind of it, covered in hair and green spot algae, but I'm just doing manual removal for the time being.

I have no personal experience with them, and so cannot recommend any brands or models, but you'll want to search for 'aquarium fertilizer auto doser' or 'automatic dosing pump' or something like that. Probably someone here has experience with them. You'll want to get it in and set it up and really learn it before leaving though. That's not something you set up the day before leaving and figure you're all set, you know?

I second the notion to add plant biomass, especially fast growing plants like floaters and stems. You can always put fast-growing plants in now and remove them later, especially floaters, if you don't want them there long-term or don't like the way they look. And there are a fair few stems that can grow floating, too: Pogostemon stellatus "octopus", hornwort, and I think guppy grass counts as a stem.

@Kristina, might I suggest reverse respiration instead of an alum dip? https://reverserespiration.com/ Not that those other systems won't work (they will!) and not that you necessarily need to quarantine plants, but if you want to, you should look into reverse respiration. Among the other benefits, the only by-product is water, so you don't have to worry about adequately rinsing the treated plants.

I've never set up a pond, so maybe this is an obvious thing, but why put it on the cinder blocks? Is it a temperature/air flow thing? Because I'd be worried about bumping in to it. But this is very cool!

For what it's worth, Mrs. Goldfish's first pea puffer was a true murder bean; she would kill bladder snails seemingly for the sport of it, eating only a small portion or even none at all. She seemed to take their presence in her tank as an affront. Her current pea only seems to hunt when hungry, though. I mention it because there's a chance a group of peas might clean out the current snail population faster than you might be thinking, and also that it's good that you're "farming" them elsewhere. It would be a lot harder for us, anyway, to keep any pea puffers without separate tanks full of snails.

Obviously you need room in the house and room in the budget, but after that, I'll always be biased toward lower, longer tanks, all else being equal. Partly because more footprint gives more space for fish and territories and more swim space in the water column (since most fish do a lot more lateral swimming than vertical swimming), partly because more footprint gives more room for planting, but also because water depth dramatically reduces PAR, so getting adequate light to plants in tall tanks is a lot harder than in shorter tanks.

Mrs. Goldfish's pea puffer lives on a steady diet of bladder snails and grindal worms, with occasional baby brine shrimp and frozen bloodworms for variety.

Not to steer you toward another product, but I guess it's okay if you can't get Easy Carbon, but I think any gluteraldehyde would work in its place. And of course, if you're trying to remove BBA from an epiphyte, hardscape, or anything else you're able to fully remove from your tank, reverse respiration could work very well: https://reverserespiration.com/

Not to hijack this thread*, but can you elaborate a little on your procedure for keeping the bottom of your breeder box clean? I'm using the Ziss Premium Breeder Box for the first time, and the airline seems to be pulling in mulm (or it's naturally occurring) that's now making a small layer on the floor: I know I can siphon with an airline or use a turkey baster, but I don't know how to do that without sucking up eggs and fry I can barely see. Any suggestions? * I can repost this as a separate question if you'd prefer, @Flavoi1

I've heard so many competing claims about "skittles" tanks so I'll be interested in following here. Thanks!