R Budds

My betta got ich and the LFS recommended Pimafix and Melafix, made by API, when I went to look for IckX. They are West Indian Bay leaves and Tea tree oil, respectively. The ich was gone in less than a day with no further occurrence so she was right. Anyway I like the combination of the 2 scents, tea tree can be a bit harsh imo, of course it's not what you are going for, but a path you might consider. I still use it once in a while and the water tastes great.

In my opinion it's definitely worth it, my tanks are doing better than ever, by far. All you need is a UGF with about 3 inches of SafeTSorb and some liquid iron fertilizer. I run the uplift tube to the surface to monitor the flow. I thought it would be best to have the uplift tube next to an air stone to reoxygenate the water from the plenum, but maybe it's not. The one tank I setup that way still has some nitrates, that tank has 4 Mexican dwarf crayfish so maybe their waste is just different from the fish somehow. I have slow flow plenums in three tanks, a 20 long, standard 10 gallon, and a 5.5 gallon. The 20 and 5.5 are at zero nitrates and the 10 is around 10ppm nitrates. They are all moderately planted and thriving. The 5.5 gallon has 6 green corys, 4 guppies (one is a baby), and 2 mystery snails, so it's a bit overstocked, but they are looking and acting better than when they were in my conventionally setup 29 gallon tall tank. Another plus is that it's very cheap. I spent $30 for all three tanks with enough left over for another small one.

Hi Fish Folk, Yes they got to him, but not in the dark. I think it was while he was hanging out in the wisteria, because they like to jump into the airstream and it usually takes them there. They just gave his lower tail a bit of a trim, so he'll be ok. I feel bad but he got a taste of his own medicine I guess. He knows where to go to avoid them, since they can't really swim, and that's where he seems to sleep. I am setting up a 20 long and he will be the first one in there, probably later today or tomorrow.

One week update for the zero nitrate 5.5 gallon. I added a betta and a male guppy. The betta had to go into a different tank because he ate some of the male guppy's tail. One of the female guppies also had a baby. So now it has: 6 green corys, 3 guppies plus the baby, and a snail (I think the snail may have died though, it's been in its shell for a few days) The tank was a bit cloudy because I had just drained and refilled most of the water to move it. Here's the male's new tail, he will be fine. The tank has a nursery for the baby guppy. I used some "small bug" screen I had to make it. I cut the shape out and hot glued the corner seams, then turned it inside out, and added some foam at the top to hold the shape and make it float. I have been using EPP foam since november with no known issues so far. I left some space around the front and right side so the corys can clean the outside of the basket and any new babies can swim freely there and be more easily seen. Below is a close up of the baby through the screen. The baby is about 50% wider than the holes. The plants have grown quite a bit. I added a new LED light (Aqueon for up to 20 gallons) its made for plants. This was last week. I need to get an appropriately sized (and adjustable) heater. The first small one I had was on all the time and just heated at a 15 watt rate and gets too hot if the room is 76 or more; plugging and unplugging it is not an option, so I moved it to a bigger tank. Right now I'm using a 10/20 gallon heater, which isnt a good long term option.

I picked up a little betta the other day to put into the 5.5 gallon tank. He ended up being a bit too aggressive with the male guppy and bit 1/4 of his tail off so he had to go in the 10 gallon with the crayfish. It was a wakeup call for him. They dont back down, he went down to check out Little Man (who has grown a bit this last week) and those little claws touched him once, he hasn't bothered them since. Here the little guys are playing, just kidding Little Man then Whitey are trying to kill Lefty for the biggest flake that fell. It was too late since he had already eaten it. There was a decent distribution of flakes on this side of the tank but they all just went after that one big flake. Here Little Man and Whitey are sparring so Lefty trys to join in but Whitey just swats him away. Here Little Man (who looks huge now) backs down as Lefty approaches. After they ate they separated and calmed down. They've been getting sinking cichlid pellets, cory pellets, and tropical fish flakes, but yesterday they got some live baby brine shrimp. I injected them with a big syringe and a tube, I tried to get them on the driftwood and near the bottoms of the plants. The betta got his share and the rest were gone in a few hours. He loves the wisteria just like our other betta. I ran out of space or I would upload some more pictures of the betta and Righty, plus I can't access a few more pictures that I already uploaded. So far the betta and crayfish seem like a good fit; he stays where they can't go and they don't look too edible to him. However they like it cooler so he will have to go eventually, the tank is around 76-77 degrees now, normally I try to keep it around 73-74.

Hi Matthew, I am no expert, but I had a similar problem with a 10 gallon I set up a while ago. I believe it was the sand, since it only had a couple rocks from an established tank and a throughly cleaned HOB with a new sponge. It was a fine sand (I forget the brand, but I know I got it at petsmart) finer than yours. I put 2 green corys in it and 12 hours later they were in obvious distress (laying lopsided on the bottom, barely moving and gasping) so I moved them back to their original tank and they are fine now. It also had some odd bubbles, but I didnt think too much about them. When I drained the water the glass had what looked like oil on it, I wiped it down but couldn't smell or see anything odd. I tore it down and throughly cleaned it and did a completely different system and it's been running great since. You didnt mention any oily residue, but I only noticed it when I looked directly at the inner surfaces, which is much easier with a short 10 gallon. The only other thing I can imagine is your reused filter media. The one that was in your 5 gallon bucket was always wet and the life in it continued basically as normal, but maybe the other media sat out and dried or was in "sterile" water which may have fouled it. Good luck I hope you get it fixed.

Thanks for the reply Andrea. I was thinking male, but its fins are much shorter than my other betta. Of course it's a different breed and still quite small. The red highlights really pop under the greenish nightlight in the tank. This picture is fussy but you can see the red.

Can anyone identify this betta? It wasn't labeled, and I'm not even sure if its male or female. You can see the red tail highlights a little in the second picture. Thanks for any help.

Hi Fish Folk, Thanks for the questions. By anoxic I am describing the condition at the bottom of the substrate (100% SafeTSorb 2 to 3 inches deep) as the water column goes down into the plenum (DIY undergravel filter) through the substrate at a very low rate. The water then goes up thru a 3/8 inch tube to the surface, this tube has an airtube in it that is turned all the way down to just lift a tiny gulp of water at a time. This should create anoxic conditions at the lower part of the substrate and in the plenum then this oxygen deprived water is dumped right next to the air stone stream. The oxygen level in the tank itself seems good. The 29 gallon tall was a tank I had setup in the standard way (substrate directly on the bottom). The 29G had 6 neons, 2 guppies, 6 corys and few snails. The ammonia and nitrites were zero but the nitrates kept going up, especially since my tap water is high in them already (40 ppm the other day when I tested), plus the 29G tall is too tall for how I had it arranged. I took the 29G down and moved the 6 neons to the already stocked 20 long. The 20L was setup with a similar plenum and SafeTSorb anoxic UGF back in January with a betta, 7 Julii corys, 5 black neons, and some snails. It has been under 20ppm nitrates for a couple of weeks now. I moved the other fish from the 29 (6 corys and 2 guppies and 2 snails) into the new 5.5 gallon. It's at virtually zero nitrates. I used Dr. Novak's teachings to make the systems. He has a YouTube channel where he talks about his work.

I took down a 29 gallon tall tank I had setup. The substrate was gravel and sand on the bottom with a few plants. They never grew well, possibly due to the tanks height and weak lighting. The nitrates had risen to around 80ppm even with regular water changes, but it doesn't help that our tap water has 40-50ppm already. The fish were not doing as well as they should be and one tiny cory had died. Above are the test strips for both anoxic tanks, the top is the 20L the bottom is the 5.5 gallon. I moved 4 mystery snails and 6 neon tetras to the 20 gallon long where they joined our 5 black neons, 7 Julii corys, a betta, and 2 snails. The 20L was my first anoxic test and is running at under 20ppm nitrates, zero nitrites and ammonia, very hard, low KH, around 6.8pH, around 340ppm on the TDS meter. It has a slow plenum under gravel filter, an intank filter, and an airstone. It has some basil growing in the top as an experiment. I clear the center duckweed every other day, I just slide the foam dividers together and scoop it out. The top is a foam box with a reflective fabric made for hydroponics boxes this helps get the light onto the tank. The cutouts are terrible, I should have made them before I assembled it, but they work. I can tilt them to open them up and let it breathe. Now onto the nano tank with essentially zero nitrates. It's a 5.5 gallon with 6 green corys, 2 female guppies, and a mystery snail which all came from the 29 gallon. It uses a slow moving plenum, an intank filter, and an air stone. Its currently around 350ppm on the TDS meter. I filled it 75% with the old tank water the rest fresh, along with the plants, a big rock and a tiny section of the old tank's filter sponge. The next day I drained 25% and used water from the 20L anoxic tank and added the small pot which has a few scoops of the 20L substrate. The nitrites and nitrates registered for the first 3 days and have been clear for 3 days now. It has a deep bed of Safe T Sorb over an under gravel filter made from plastic fabric that has 7 holes per inch. I pushed the UG plate to the back so I can see inside a little. This picture isn't to scale, but the substrate is about 3 inches on average. The plenum is 7 squares tall (about 1 inch/25mm) with a 3/8" ID vinyl uplift tube (in the picture above it goes from over the 75mm down to under the 25 mm) it then goes to the surface, to monitor the flow. The plenum has some support plates holding it up but is otherwise open. It also has a small cheap intank filter. I blocked most of the lower inlets and cut a weir into the side. There is also a surface divider around the filter and the plenum uplift tube, it has some foam blocks to keep it floating. It's kind of ugly but it keeps the duckweed out of the filter and makes a nice clean surface. it seems a bit overstocked but so far they are all doing very well. I plan to add a male guppy and possibly a new betta.

One month update. So far the crayfish are doing very well. Here are all 4 of them. From the bottom: Whitey, Little Man, Lefty, and Righty. Here is the one (Righty) that came with its left claw missing. This one (Lefty) lost it's right claw somehow, its molted since then. I think it was this one (Little Man) that did it. It's very aggressive and the smallest. Or it may have been this one (Whitey). It's aggresive too, but not as antagonistic as Little Man. The nitrates have dropped to around 20ppm, so the anoxic filtration seems to be working. Here's the whole tank.

I picked up 4 Mexican Dwarf Crayfish at the LFS 7 days ago and so far they are doing very well. Here they all are, the one coming out from the slate just molted. So far they've been peaceful with just a little sparring. They have plenty of places to hide, but they seem to be out most of the time. This one has a missing claw and 2 damaged legs, but its doing well. They like to get into the bubbles. Sometimes they jump in and fly up to the surface. They are in a 10 gallon tank with an under gravel filter, covered with 2 and a half inches of Safe T Sorb, and a slow moving uplift tube that cycles the tank about twice a day. I hope to create anoxic conditions. Its been running for about a month and a half, with other fish and snails, and the nitrate levels have already dropped below my tap water. The duckweed could be helping with that too. I put a cheap 4 gallon in-tank filter in to keep the flow low and more easily get the top fully sealed. I haven't figured out if I am going to put anything else in with them. I was thinking about trying some guppies or some other live bearers, so they have fresh meat to catch.

All of the fish are doing great. I added 2 Neons, they are tiny but strong. They came from the local pet shop and have a slightly greener tint to their blue. I also got the last 3 green Corys they had, so 7 now. Here they are having some frozen shrimp. They couldn't quite finish it so I sucked half of it back out. I ended up pulling most of the plants because they started looking bad. Then throughly vacuumed the gravel and sand. I knew our water was hard, but it's off the chart. When I used the drop solution I added over 30 drops and it was so red I couldn't see if it had turned green. I got some 5 in 1 test strips and they confined it. I put a water softening pillow from API in 26 hours ago and the GH is down to between 120 and 160 ppm. The KH is near zero as always.

Here are few pictures of my 29 gallon tank. It has 4 Neons (one died but I never found it, these are the only fish from a big box store, all the others are from a local pet shop), 5 Black Neon Tetras, 4 Corys (either green, emerald, or bronze I'm not sure), and a male Betta. It's almost 20 years old and had been sitting empty for about 10 years. It's setup with all natural plants and hardscape, most of which is locally collected. I tried to find out what this plant is but I'm still not sure. I collected it from a semi shaded cold clear steam running into a mill pond near Alloway NJ. It's been in the tank for a few days and has grown, or stretched towards the light, at least an inch. It curled up in the pickle jar I quarantined it in. Here is what it looks like from the top. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the stream. This plant was covering about half of it with more growing at the bottom throughout the rocks. I've had the tank setup for 5 and a half weeks and all the fish are doing well, except for 2 Neon Tetras. One disappeared after a few days and the other wouldn't eat. The other Tetras ate his tail and he looked bad and wouldn't come out from the plants. He's doing much better now. His tail is growing back nicely. He's still a bit timid but is out feeding with the others now. His belly is fuller and his color looks good. The red was almost gone when they bit his tail off. I started feeding the Corys their pellets in the back of the tank where he hid and the dust from their frenzy would float around and he started eating with them for a few days. Here are the 4 Neons together. I think I'll get 1 or 2 more from the local pet shop. This is a couple of the Corys feeding with the Betta joining them. He flared his gills at one of them once but the Cory didn't seem to care, he has been friendly to them since. Grinch can't believe I would put such a tasty stick in there. He found the driftwood before I scrubbed it off and grabbed it out of the bucket. I also added some mosses and leaf litter. The ammonia has been gone for over a week now, but the nitrites never came up, so everything seems good so far. I'm not sure if this is normal behavior but the Corys love swimming against the waterfall. I was enjoying the show too much to film it, but last night all 4 of them were doing it. Here is one jumping out. Too bad there's no sound, the flop is clearly audible over the loud filter.