Mmiller2001

Wow, and I thought I was OCD! I'm having too much trouble finding and midground plants.

Looking pretty good! I wish I could come up with something like your arrangement. How many plants total are you going with?

Just needs to be more forward.

Thank you. Ideally, you want a fish load and plant load such that the plant load can lower Nitrates. Then you add Nitrates via fertilizer. I always suggest maintaining 20ppm NO³ as it seems to be a safe number to shoot for. However, these days I'm shooting for 16ppm. Seems like I scrape glass less at 16ppm. But fertilizing is more than just Nitrates, make sure you use something comprehensive.

No, it's fine. Too little turnover is a bigger issue.

Media like phosphate removing media?

Usually not, but some retail places will tell you if you ask. I medicate every fish no matter what.

I would 100% deworm all new fish. If they are wild caught, they definitely have parasites. Paracleanse or General Cure are excellent options.

FYI, I gave up on S. Repens. I consider it a difficult plant. It's never liked the soup I served.

https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/fertilize-planted-tank/root-feeders-fertilization?_pos=1&_sid=b218f76d2&_ss=r The problem I see most is new comers, more often than not, over use tabs. This common theme sends the tank into disarray.

This is commonly misunderstood. Water column fertilization is all that's needed.

The current color is from about 2 hours in the past.

Rocks, substrate or some types of decor.

I build from zero up. I start with RO water. Definitely don't use crushed Coral.

Usually going to be RO water or running your tap water through something like the zero water filter. You can do a portion of it and re-test to see what you need to "condition" your water to for WCs This is just creating an ideal world, but lower Calcium will be a good idea and lowering Calcium will drop GH. Are you using crushed coral or anything? I will post my stats that I'm running from April, I have recently made a change but it's still very similar. I run 21ppm Calcium.

You are definitely low on CO2, fertilizer and light. Not to get too long winded, but I recommend doubling everything and that's just a start. Go 50% on the fluvial, 3 pumps on Easy Green a week and increase water changes to 50% weekly. Bubbles per second is meaningless,.you need to get that drop checker yellow green. So try 4 bubbles and watch the tank for stress. But I suspect you will be way higher. Your calcium is high as well. I would look to lower overall GH if your livestock are soft water fish. Fe is low, so probably all Micros are low. Increasing EG dosing will help, but you will probably need to add additional Fe. I would look to raise Fe to .4ppm

If your drop checker is blue green, then you are low on CO2. You will be close to 30ppm when the checker is lime yellow. If the drop checker is blue green, then the CO2 did not kill your fish. When CO2 is too high, the fish will swim to the surface and be gasping. They will then begin passing out which would eventually end in a slow death.

What are your dosing and when did you add them? What is your GH and KH? What ppm of CO2 are you at?

Clean the filter once a month or every 30 days. By clean, I mean just do a couple of squeezes on any sponge material and debris filter chambers and media.

You could, but 50% once a week should be enough. That said, these competition tanks, that blow your mind, probably get 90% changes 3 times a week.

100% safe.

I would begin cutting away the worst affected leaves and increase water changes. I would also reevaluate your dosing and try to improve the growth of your plants. The best defense against any algae is healthy plants and water changes. I would also look to increase water turnover to 5x to 10x, but this does not mean increase flow in the tank. Good flow is all that's needed but turnover really helps keep things clean. I would also increase filter cleanings to no more than every 30 days.

Root tabs are not necessary. All that is needed is proper water column dosing and a good water change schedule. I advice cation with root tabs, especially Osmocote.

I will keep working on the 75. I have too many fish in the 40 as well. And I have nowhere to put them.

Thank you. I wish I would have kept at for the competition, but maybe next time!