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Never kept threads but gourami might like to nip. Rainbows are awesome though, you could fit 6 Praecox in there, they are gorgeous dwarf melanotaenids.

I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy watching the neighborhood like antics of Neolamprologous Caudopunctuatus and Julidochromis Transcriptus Gombe. My colony is just starting, so watching the males choose a shell to defend, with their courting behavior, is a lot of fun, as well as the Julies being little cave dwelling torpedos. I get it now. I don’t know why it took me so long to try out African cichlids. Second the Bolivian Ram. It’s like having miniature geophagus in your community. black neon tetras. Such a great looking school when healthy. im only ever disappointed when I’m not a good enough fish keeper to keep my critters alive and happy. 😕

I hadn’t considered shrimp. I’ll have to see if there are soft water varieties, I know cherries are supposed to like mineral content. Thanks for the idea and the permission. 🙂

Tomatoes need lots of calcium, so I pour it in my tomato bed, all year. Even in winter, the calcium’s not going anywhere fast. 🙂

It really would be worth a drive to a decent scaping LFS, IMO

I have a this 33 Long that I’ve set up as an “I-wood-gumi” ember tetra refuge. It has about 30 fishies in it for now, and some tagalong ramshorn snails. I do periodically have to clean out a little bit oh green hair algae, and was wondering about a few Siamese Algae Eaters. BUT This tank has been an exercise in self control, to try to keep it species only. It’s SO tempting to add some different critters, and I wonder if I’ll ruin the effect of the species only setup with new additions. thoughts?

I have two adult pearls of unknown sex in a 29 community, they sometimes chase each other but otherwise are beautiful cool fish to watch. Very personable, I can almost hand feed them like koi.

Second the notion for a sponge filter that isn’t neon green. I know it’s part of the brand and everything, but something about cylindrical and prismatic shapes make the color stick out a lot. A black, translucent gray (à la Fluval) or even a rock shaped base with a random looking sponge would be an interesting product. If you could figure out how to keep it from algaeing the stink out of the canopy above it as well you’d have my money for sure.

Welp, I went for it. Found local guy who sells caudopunks and set up a simple tank with Val, shells, and some rock caves made from rocks I fished out of my local creek. So far so good, these are interesting fish to watch. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful suggestions.

So it actually is as simple as mathematical addition and subtraction. You add fish food, it has in it nitrogen compounds that your fish turn into ammonia for your bacteria to turn into nitrite and nitrate, as you know. your plants consume that nitrogen, depending on the plant, how densely planted, light saturation, etc etc, but essentially when they grow, they are removing Nitrogen from your water. In order for the sum of this math problem to be zero, the nitrogen production needs to equal the nitrogen consumption. The way you can verify it is, as has been stated, testing for nitrogen. All this said, you absolutely can and should let plants live all over your tank, they will reduce your maintenance burden, look beautiful, and make your fish feel more at home. The top off question, once again, others have touched on it, but every time you add tap water you aren’t simply adding H2O. All the minerals and chlorine are also along for the ride. If you have livebearers or rainbows or African cichlids that love insanely hard water, you may get away with the minerals part, but nothing alive likes chlorine. You have to at least let it evaporate out of the tap water. ACO’s test strips are awesome for this because they include a chlorine test pad. Pour a 5 gallon bucket of tap water and check it. Then let it sit out for 24-48 hours and test it again. (Then do it with an air stone in there to see what it does) TL,DR: Topping off works best if you use RODI, have a massive plant to fish ratio, and test for Nitrogen regularly. But it can work.

I follow the Aqua Huna method which they include with their shipments. It’s similar to some other have posted. Float in your tank for 15-30 minutes to equalize temp, pour out into a separate vessel all water and fish. Add half again as much volume from your tank’s water and set a timer for 15-30. Repeat step 2. Net your fish out of the vessel and release into tank.

Thanks for the expertise everyone! She is still doing great, finding her place in a crowded community 75, I need to decide what to do, whether she will be happy by herself or if I should find someplace else for her to be, get her some buddies, etc. The males appear quite colorful, I haven’t kept Killis except for flagfish, but so far this girl is a model citizen in the community so maybe a small group could work. They don’t seem to be commonly offered for sale but maybe because they’re native minnows in Florida.

Paleatus Cories don’t get enough credit, they are bread and butter but super hardy, exhibit all the best Cory behaviors, and some I’ve had even have a nice emerald sheen to them. Can’t argue with the price either. And they would go along well with a massive cloud of another often overlooked yet awesome fish; the white cloud. 🙂

That time of year when my 75 overstocked community gets about 20 minutes of a six inch wide band of direct sun in the evening. Looks like I also need to clean my glass lol.

Man that fish looks an awful lot like a juvenile siamensis. I’d be a terrible Ichthyologist, so many similar looking fish!