AndreaW

I had anubias rot as well, and unfortunately it did spread to all Anubias and within about 6-8weeks all my Anubias were gone. I've read that you cannot cure or prevent AR, and that it can reoccur in your tank at any time, so I haven't tried reintroducing new Anubias yet. I do have Anubias in my other tank and so far is is doing well. There were some good articles that were a good read in my previous post about my AR:

Cats definitely rule the house and everything in it. Dogs are just happy because that's what they do. I'm sure my fish think we humans are the ones on display... "Oh, look! The humans came out of hiding again! Let's swim out and watch them! What entertainment do they have for us today?"

@Guppysnail ~ That's beautiful and just what I needed today! Thank you for sharing.

Yes, crystal clear water.... but scratched glass since the kids found my magnetic scraper and *helped* clean the glass a few times... Wish it was dirtier! Those fish need to step it up a bit!

That's a great idea! I tried matte black poster board on my Betta tank and he wouldn't stop flaring at himself. I bet a patterned window cling would hide the cords and not give him a reflection to flare at.

Everyone's will look different depending on what they are using to power their UGF, their substrate size/type, substrate depth, and how much mulm they get in their tank, but here is a photo from the underside of mine. When I gravel vacuum an area, I do get some mulm that gets syphoned up through the grate, but since I only do a small section at a time, that's good. I wouldn't mind a little more mulm down there for the plants. For more background: I've had this in place since I re-siliconed the tank, maybe 10 years ago? I did move the tank a few months ago, but I did my best not to disturb the substrate/UGF as much as possible. You can see the roots seem to love the mulm! These are the plants I added less than a month ago on 3/16. This is a 36"x12" UGF plate, ran with two powerheads on either corner. I do get quite a bit of flow through the plate, so an UGF with less flow (bubblers) might accumulate more mulm than this. I don't do much gravel vacuuming in this tank because it really doesn't need much. I mostly do the front area where the bow is that doesn't have the UGF plate under it. ETA: I do also run a HOB filter with this setup, but I don't replace the cartridges, just rinse out and put back in. I only have to do it about once a month, and even then, there's not much mulm on the pad -- and I leave the filter running when I feed the fish, so I know some of their food gets sucked up into the HOB filter.

20 years running an UGF in my 46G and I've never needed to clean under the UGF (I did have to take everything out to re-silicone the tank a while back, but there really wasn't that much mulm under there anyway). Just the occasional gravel vacuuming a small section here and there is all I've ever done. I have a glass-bottom tank on a stand where you can see under the UGF and some gravel and mulm works it's way down there, but nowhere near enough to impede water flow. Honestly, the small amount of fine mulm you do collect under there is the really good stuff the BB love.

UGF - UnderGravel Filter. I have an UGF in my 46G so that helps distribute the weight and would keep anything with a point from putting pressure directly on the tempered glass bottom. I also secured my large, heavy driftwood to rocks to give it a stable base so I don't have to worry about things getting shifted, unbalanced, and possibly tipping and hitting the glass at the back of the tank. I pushed (wiggled and shimmied) the driftwood/rocks down into the substrate so it looks more natural and "settled" and added some extra rocks around the base as well.

@Guppysnail ~ Bladder snails are pretty cute and acrobatic. I love watching them parachute, skim the surface and seemingly levitate. Watching them float down on duckweed is pretty entertaining, too. That's part of why my son's snail army is still around. Once they are big enough to be entertaining, I can't do anything with them. I can only squish the ones that are tiny specs on my glass. I'm considering upgrading them to a large terrarium jar with at least some bubbles and moving them down to my son's bathroom.

Often you can find adaptors if your faucet doesn't work with it, and sometimes if your faucet has a larger head, you can unscrew that to hook up the python. I also use mine on a bathroom faucet.

Snails for me as well. I got a pair of Mystery snails for my son who is a snail fanatic (he has a pet garden snail, too). I am surprised by how much time I've invested on researching them and trying to figure out the best way to be sure they have enough calcium and thrive in that tank. I even bought stuff to make them "Snello". I seriously don't know what has come over me! I truly care about them now, even if I still don't fully appreciate them. However, I have totally fallen in love with my Nerite Snails! They are the only tank mates my Betta will tolerate. I know it annoys him when he flares at them and they don't seem to notice, but it's very charming and I love how clean they keep the tank. I also have to admit I have bladder snails. I'm still pretty intent on not having them in my tanks, but some came on plants so I put them in the quarantine tank because I promised my son I wouldn't kill them. (He doesn't know that I have some babies in my Betta tank that I squish when I see them.) There's no filtration in the QT tank so I was kinda hoping they would "take care of themselves" but so far, they have reproduced and my son is delighted in his "Army of Snails". They are literally sitting is stagnant water with some aquatic grass I didn't think would survive and some floating lettuce that is turning to mush. Somehow, they are thriving despite the neglect. I also inherited my sister's Kuhli Loach that survived her heater outage. I felt bad for him so I got another Kuhli and the two of them are quite entertaining and fun to watch.

How about a picture of your current hood and light setup? Yes, these are meant to sit on a glass top. You would need to get a glass replacement lid, or an LED light that would retrofit in your current hood (assuming it's solid) that would be waterproof.

I received mine (4/1) and planted it as-is (4/3) and it's already sprouting a new leaf despite the original leaves completely melting. (Don't mind the Scarlet Temple stems that are obviously struggling, or the diatoms I'm leaving for my snails.)

He does look bloated. You can do a "Salt bath" for them where you remove them to a different container with their aquarium water and unscented epsom/aquarium salt added. I don't have exact directions, so look them up to be sure you are acclimating them and get the correct time and dosage. What diet are you feeding your Betta and what temperature do you have the aquarium? Lower temps slows digestion and many commercial dried foods can cause constipation in Betta.

When my son moved his bedroom downstairs, I moved my home office into his previous room. He decided he wanted to take my 46G with him since he’s always had an aquarium in his room. I immediately felt a loss and knew I needed another tank to replace it and that’s when I got my 10G Betta tank that I get to watch all day while I work. I wish I had a livestream of my 46G now though. I miss it, having it tucked away downstairs.

As for shells, you can add them to your tank (many people add crushed coral to their substrate or filter to reduce pH, increase GH, etc.). Shells will break down over time in your aquarium water though, so know they may only last a short time. They break down faster the lower your pH is. As for live plants, like others have said, yes, add your plants while your tank is cycling. You will also want to "feed" your beneficial bacteria that you got in the sponge. Many people "ghost feed" their tank with a pinch of fish food.

The forum has been auto-rotating photos (only portrait, I think). Try doing a slight crop on your photo and uploading it again.

@Widgets ~ I think I'm going to try a factory reset and redo my DIY schedule to see if there is something I messed up on. I'm actually fine with it stuck as I like to leave some light on until I feed the fish at night (as long as algae is managed). I think I'll copy your L7 & L8 settings and see if that works for me. Does L8 let you overlap L7 or does L8 start at 10:01?

Val is in very back right corner surrounded by the PSO. The Red Melon Sword is in front of that on the right side of the large rock/driftwood. There is some PSO in the right back corner along with Java Fern to cover the uplift tube and give the Pleco some cover. I would like some greenery along the back wall, but more height to the right. I think variety and contrast would be nice. I will also have a majority of the water flow along the back wall, but I plan on reducing it a lot. @Patrick_G ~ Thank you! Should I start with 1 pump per 10G 1x a week, since I'm not necessarily dosing up to 30ppm?

Also, another question: Where would you plant the Tiger Lotus in this tank? It's currently rolling around in the back center, but I'm not sure where to put it if it sends leaves up to the surface? Any opinions?

This is my tank I've had running for about 20 years now. March 16th, I re-scaped it and added the live plants. It's a heavily stocked tank and usually sits around 40ppm Nitrates so I haven't added any fertilizers yet. It also has an UGF ran by two powerheads so it gets lots of flow from the water columns through the substrate. Scarlet Temple melted and the fish were also nipping it so I have bare stems left. It was fun while it lasted but I don't know if it will survive the nippers. The Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus has some great new growth as well as the Red Melon Sword and my Crypts -- all have sprouted new leaves. Java Ferns are growing and looking great. Anubias is being Anubias and I haven't noticed any change in it yet. I just added Water Sprite, Aponogeton Crispus and a Tiger Lotus. I do have one Crypt that I have noticed the new growth is coming in lighter with darker veins so I'm wondering if this is a potassium deficiency and if I should start dosing EG to the tank. They are also on the edge of the UGF plate, so I could also add some RTs to the substrate in front of the UGF in this area. Water Parameters: Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 20ppm (was 40ppm before water change) Phosphate 2-5ppm (before water change) 7°KH, 17°GH (I've been doing frequent, small water changes to get my KH back up to my tap water, which is 7°KH) Hygger 957 Light Schedule: 7am-10am - 20% 10am-12pm - 80% 12pm-3pm - 100% 3pm-5pm - 80% 5pm-8pm - 20% At this point, it seems my lights get stuck at 20% until 9-10pm, when I manually turn them off. I need to figure out what is messed up in the programming, since it's supposed to reduce to 10% and turn off by 10pm. I have had diatoms since a week or two after I re-scaped but that is reduced and now I'm getting some GSA back in the tank. Should I start dosing EG or do some RTs?

I get this (Green Spot Algae) on my tank too, and using a scrub pad works if you keep up on it, or if it gets really tough to scrub, you can use a razor blade (carefully) to remove it. You could also try dosing a smaller amount every 5 days instead to see if it will even out your nutrients and prevent as much algae growth.

I spent some time with this tank yesterday. It got a 15 gallon water change. No gravel vacuuming, but I did clean the glass and used a toothbrush across the front to clean up along the bottom front. This poor tank has pretty scratched up glass from my kids discovering the magnetic glass cleaner and being 'helpful' but there is nothing I can do about that. I added 2 new Anubias Nana Petites, a Water Sprite, a Tiger Lotus, and Aponogeton Crispus. The last three are experimental, just to see how they do in my tank. I added the Anubias to the driftwood, the Water Sprite is on the right to fill in that side and hopefully get some taller greenery there. I planted the Aponogeton Crispus among the Scarlet Temple stems to get some color there and maybe fill in if the ST doesn't make it, and the Tiger Lotus is in the back center. I was really unsure where to put the Tiger Lotus, so if anyone has any better ideas, let me know. I didn't know if it should be in the front if it eventually send out lily pads that reach the top? Right now it's kind of floating around the middle back. Here is a side view along the back of the tank: Lotus on left (bottom), Scarlet Temple Stems and Aponogeton Crispus to the right (middle). All my Crypts and my Red Melon Sword are doing great and show new growth! I haven't done EG in this tank since the nitrates are high (40ppm, usually). These ones look like they could use some additional nutrients; New growth is a lighter with darker veins. These are along the edge of the UGF so I can probably do some root tabs in front of them. Val isn't doing much, but the PSO has new growth that looks great! I've had diatoms and I'm happy to see some green algae growth now too. I'm wondering if I will get some BBA growth as I had it in the tank before. I'm expecting it, but it's never been bad in this tank. My tank this morning (apparently all the fish are on Spring Break): Add a small pinch of flakes and it comes alive! While I really like the addition of the Water Sprite on the left side, My biggest success yesterday was with the water change. For some reason lately, my KH in this tank has dropped down to 3-4° (tap water is 7°) so I've been doing lots of water changes, and finally yesterday I was able to get the KH back up to 7° and the pH at 7.6 (which is the usual as well). Another success is that Gary the Pleco has been hanging out on the bottom under the larger driftwood sometimes. I made up two kinds of Repashy for him but have no idea if he's actually eating them. I've been dropping them down in this area after I feed the other fish at night and then turn the light off. I guess if I was truly curious I could sit in the room with night vision goggles. That might be a little weird though, as it's in my son's bedroom and he's usually falling asleep then. Next up for this tank is creating a DIY submersed spray bar that will run along the back wall between the two powerheads. I also need to change out the uplift tubes for new ones and clean the back glass and replace the blue background. The right powerhead is also making noise so I may replace the impeller or the unit.

I have a thing for cories and their behaviors. If you don't already have bottom-feeders, I think you need to get them next. They will liven your aquarium up in a different way. It's really fun to have motion going on in different levels.

Nice! Does Reddo like the black background? I tried a background on my betta tank and it lasted less than 5 minutes after he flared and flipped out.