Mmiller2001

Don't use them, just sprinkle borax into your carpet and then vacuum a week later. Repeat if necessary.

All those meds are shrimp safe. But if it's just shrimp in QT, don't medicate them. Just watch them. Shrimp diseases are not shared with fish.

Dose more Easy Green. 1 pump is 3ppm per 10 gallons. 1 pump in a 20 gallon is way low. Shot for 15ppm NO3 a week.

Front side left and right? Juncus Repens left, Pennywort right.

I know I know, I'm just so frustrated with it. I keep scaring my wife that I'm going to switch it...again.

Every time I try to plant in it, it either breaks or damages my stem plants. And if it doesn't damage the plant, it will float to the top because it won't hold them down. It makes me want to scream. And then, when you damage the stem, it stunt for a bit, and I always get premature algae on the lower leaves. I absolutely hate EC.

Updated the plant list. Ammonia holding at .25ppm and just a touch of algae on the older portions of the plants. I think the plants are loving the ammonia! I still need to add some extra soil in the front, hopefully next week. Water changes and extra PO4 dosing continue, "Holy PO4 consumption Batman." Moved/arranged a few foreground plants, we will see if they look okay after they grow some. I'm thinking the left side, needs to go in a leftward direction? The Cabomba looks like a loss, I'm not going to touch it. I might have to buy it again though. *And now that I'm looking at these pictures, I already have color contrast issues....this won't be easy.... Maybe it's the light settings 😉

You will just have to try. Just do the shrimp first and let them establish a decent sized colony before adding the Betta. Also, use mosses to allow the baby shrimp a spot to hide out in.

I 100% don't recommend Eco Complete. It's the worst substrate for planting plants in. Using Eco Complete was the single biggest mistake I've made. I you want a black inert substrate, use coarse Black Diamond Blasting Sand. And it's super cheap. Just wash it well.

I QT everything livestock and hydrogen peroxide dip all plants.

It grew 5 inches over night. Yeah, it's out.

Insane!

I agree with @Patrick_G. I would also increase water changes to 30-50% per week and increase dosing to reach 20ppm NO3 and hold it there.

Can you tell me more about your water and system? GH, KH substrate and dosing amounts? Filtration, water change amounts and frequency? Is that a 75 gallon tank?

You are probably low on magnesium. 1dGH and only adding calcium via crushed coral to raise GH seems problematic. Reducing light duration is a good start, but I would look into Mg and see where you are. Plants enjoy softer water so I would look to have 20ppm Ca and 10ppm Mg. That should have you around 5dGH. Personally, I would throw a canister on the tank and I would shoot for 5x to 10x turnover. Sponge filters seem like the wrong direction. Address the Mg, reducing light duration, increase filtration turnover and large water changes is a good direction to be in.

I would look to Bulk Reef Supply on youtube and see what they have on auto dosing.

That approach is good. Controlling the amount of food you put in the tank really helps as well. I'd imagine a combination of those will keep them well under control.

Root tabs are not necessary. 😁

I would research Estimative Index dosing and use that as a starting point. It's very easy and effective. As you look more into high energy aquariums, you'll quickly see people are dosing to a maintain a target ppm vs a dosed amount.

Nor have I. I consider all Anubias to be difficult plants and have given up on them.

My tanks took 3 months. Just wait it out.

40 ppm is kinda high. One thing that needs to be accounted for is not just NO3, but PO4, K, Fe and Micro nutrients. If the tank is sitting around 40ppm NO3 and you don't add the other Macro and Micro nutrients, then where are the plants getting them from? So here we see the limitations of all in one fertilizers. How do I dose the others without exceeding one of the Macros? My advice is to do larger water changes. I would do them over a couple of days and get the nitrates down to near zero and then dose the tank back up to 20ppm NO3(as Proxy). Then, every week, I would do a 50% water change and dose the tank by 10ppm NO3, making small adjustments if you need a bit more or less. If you don't want to do 50% changes, then another strategy is to dose the incoming water to the ppm you won't the tank to be. This strategy requires a consistent water change schedule. At least 1 change every 7 days. Example, I have a 40 gallon tank and I change 10 gallons every 7 days. I would do my water change and only pump in the fertilizer for 10 gallons. So if I want to maintain 20ppm in my tank, I would use 6 pumps Easy Green every water change. After time, the tank will stabilize to 20ppm NO3 (proxy). Then if you test, and you are low or high, just make the small adjustment for the difference. If you don't use an all in one fert, then just dose the PO4, K, Fe and micro's as your livestock create enough NO3 for the tank. As a visual reference, I dose my tanks with 18ppm NO3, using CO2 and have all hungry, fast growing stem plants. At times, they can grow inches per week/days. If you use Easy Green, here's a nice chart for dosing. and my tank a few weeks ago.

It would, just add a small amount and make sure they consume it all in about 4 hours. then feed every other day or so. The leaves are plenty for back up.

I would to bolster the colony. Having the leaves in the tank works really well to of set their diet. However, adding extra protein is a good idea.