AndreaW

How far off are the vertical supports from where the corners of the tank will be? Ideally, you would want the vertical supports under the corners of the tank. If you want to put another tank the same size underneath, then maybe create braces to support the corners of the aquarium on top. (Does that make sense?)

Look for a local fish club. That will be a good resource for offering your fish/equipment to other hobbyists.

I've read articles stating that ammonia detoxifiers cannot be proven to be effective. However, I tend to look at it this way: If it's not harming, and there's a possible benefit, then why not use it for instances where you want to do your best to protect your pets? I won't use it in place of other corrections, but use it in conjunction with them (ie: water changes), and I feel comfortable that I'm doing more good than harm. It's the same with bottled bacteria. I can't prove it helps cycle a new aquarium any faster, but if there's a possibility that it could help, and there's no harm, then I will go ahead and use it to provide the best environment for my fish possible. Those are my thoughts, for what it's worth.

Yes, too small and you basically block the water flow. I have traditional gravel like this: It works perfectly for the UG filter I have that is run by powerheads. With a powerhead, I probably could go a little smaller. If it is run by a bubbler, I don't know that I would, as you want plenty of water to be able to flow through. Sand definitely wouldn't work and you would end up with sand under the plate which would essentially plug it up. Even without an UG filter, you tank should have enough surface areas to colonize BB -- unless you were running a bare tank and wiping the glass down in every cleaning or something extreme like that. I haven't used sponge filters yet, but I like the idea of them, however, I really do love how crystal clear I can get my water with a combination of a HOB and the UG filter. The drawback though? I have a high flow of water between the powerheads and the HOB so there are many fish I can't keep in this tank. (I think I mentioned that in my previous response.) I can't remember who's tank it is, but yes, I've seen someone who has gravel on one side with an UG filter, and the other side is sand, with no UG filter on that side. BB will still develop on gravel even without an UG filter, but since you don't have water running through it, it will mostly live on the top layer of your substrate.

Beautiful! I love Betta tanks and this one looks great! It will be fun to watch those plants grow!

I think I was getting the plateau. If I have time, I'll switch them back and adjust the time manually to test and see.

@xXInkedPhoenixX~ I have it cut pretty close to my HOB and Bladder snails could get out, but Mystery and Nerites snails wouldn't be able to. There is just enough room

I think I noticed the lights getting dimmer before the moonlight came on but didn't pay enough attention to notice exactly what was happening.

If you have a glass top, you can buy a plastic strip called "back strip" that slides onto the edge of the glass and you can cut it to shape around your equipment to close the gaps.

@Widgets ~ You are right! I forgot to update that column, but went through and hopefully corrected everything. For L6, if I have it go from 20% to 10% at 8:00, would it occur in the 15 minutes prior to 8:00, or the 15 minutes after? Also, when they turn off at the end of L6, does it dim down to 0% in the last 15 minutes or just shut off? Since it's in my son's room, I see it as I walk past more than anything. I'm not about to camp out in his room for the day to observe all the transitions, but so far it seems to be working correctly. It would be hard adjusting for all the variables with multiple tanks in the same room, especially with different setups and depths. @PaigeIs ~ I really like being able to adjust intensity. I always hated having the light suddenly turn on/off when the room was darker, even though that's how it's been for many years. I have had this tank running for 20 years and only put it on a timer a few months ago! The biggest reason I like the ramp up/down is that I can have it come on the same time my son's alarm goes off and it gradually increases to help wake him up, and I can have it really low at night to act as a nightlight. I've got Water Sprite in my ACO shopping cart and the Pearl Weed looks really cute too! How are they growing for you?

I agree it looks female. The organs look like they sit lower in her belly, and if you look closely on the under-side, you might see an egg spot (hard to see most of the time though). Male organs sit higher, more along the center-line of their body.

I've been running on Standard Mode with a modified start and end time, overlapping the daylight/moonlight settings. It comes on in the morning at 7:11am and switches over to moonlight around 6:00/6:30pm and then moonlight turns off at 9:00pm. I'm getting pretty good plant growth, but also some diatoms forming (expected, since I disturbed my cycle re-scaping the tank). GSA isn't growing yet, but I should start getting it again soon. I switched over to Manual Mode today and set it up with the following: If I'm figuring it correctly, I should be able to see the changes happening in the column on the right, correct? At the end of L6, it should fade from 10% to off, right? My son likes the light coming on with his alarm at 7:11am (his time choice). I want him to be able to see the tank, but not have bright light for a couple hours, concentrating the brightest light in the middle of the day. In the evening hours, we go back down to 20% again, so he can see, but to keep algae growth under control, and then 10% while he's getting ready for bed and going to sleep. We will see how he likes the white light at 10% compared to the blue light. To me, moonlight is more white than blue, anyway. I figure I'll try this and see how everything grows. I know my Scarlet Temple needs some brighter light, so hopefully 3 hours at 100% plus 4 hours at 80% will be enough. It's looking a bit sad now, so I'm watching the new growth to see if I can make it happier. Everything else is doing it's typical melting or growing as expected for new plants.

@HotTunaCartel ~ There are different kinds, but in one of Cory's videos he said floaters don't ship well, which. is why he doesn't' sell them at ACO. I know their leaves don't like to get very wet. The first time I was at my LFS I purchased some live plants and asked if they had any floaters, which is where I got the duckweed. When I went back in the next week I asked if they had any floaters bigger than the duckweed, the guy took me in the back and their was a whole tank of the water lettuce and he grabbed me a handful. I have no idea what variety they are, but I've seen some with red roots that would be. coo, too. I would check at your local stores or with local clubs as there's got to be someone who has it. I pull out a big handful a week to keep it from taking over my water surface.

My son says, "Tell them 'Thank you! Thank you very much!'"

Looks like hair algae. How many hours do you have your lights on?

I'm not sure, but I think this would be a situation where you would need to do lots of water changes and possibly even carbon to remove the chemicals before it would be safe for snails. Hopefully someone else will chime in.

@Katie B. ~ I noticed the different colors on your spreadsheet.... Do you have it set up to show different colors based on your input, or do you manually color the cells?

My tank is doing quite well despite my odd KH results. Current parameters: KH 4° (71.6) GH 20° (358) pH 7.0 Ammonia <.25ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 40ppm Phosphate 10ppm 78.4°F I tested the KH on 3/18 and it said it was 3°! My tap water is 7°KH, and I've been doing a series of small water changes and still can't seem to get it up higher than 4°. I've read that a lot of mulm or a dirty tank that hasn't had water changes for a long time cause a drop in KH, but that's not the case with my tank so I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm going to keep up the small, frequent changes, especially since my nitrates are are at 40. I have not dosed any EG since my nitrates are 40ppm. New plants are doing pretty well, with typical melting. The Scarlet Temple probably looks the worst of them all, but I was expecting that. I think I have leaf nippers as I keep noticing the tips of leaves are missing on ST and PSO. I have been replanting 1-2 stems of the PSO pretty much every day due to the Kuhlis and Cories and probably Gary the Pleco as well. I'm trying to figure out how to retrofit spray bars to the power heads do distribute the flow. Still researching the best way to make it work. I may just have to buy the spray bars and figure it out when I have them in hand. Today I was at the LPS and ended up buying 6 Neons because I felt awful about the single one I have in there now. He seems very happy to have some friends and they all seem to follow his lead. I have been telling my son we couldn't add any more fish until we make sure the tank can handle it since we are pretty heavily stocked already. What he really wanted to buy were some meal worms to keep as a pet with his garden snail. I figured the neons were a good compromise. The snails seem to enjoy the plants and driftwood in the tank. I've been trying to make sure they have enough calcium and I'm not quite sure if their shells look healthy or not? They look a little rough to me. Finally, I got a picture of my snail not caught in an embrace. Oh, and while I was enjoying the "natural" look, my son declared that the tank needed a little something, so he made me put all the glass rocks back in. Since it's in his room, and he's taken it over, I guess he gets some say in how it looks. I've been trying to leave some of the algae on the glass while I'm making sure my nitrogen cycle stays intact, but it looks like the glass and the back of the tank need a good cleaning. Notice the sad Scarlet Temple in the back of the tank below... Everything else is looking pretty good so far! I got Gary's Repashy in the mail today so I'll mix some of that up this weekend and see how he likes it.

@Katie B. ~ I love your thorough tracking and notes. I think you will like all the detailed info down the road. Snails are good, however, I have Nerite snails in one tank, and Mystery snails in my other tank, so I don't want bladder snails to overpopulate and compete with my other snails so as I've been seeing the bladder snails on my glass, I squish them (Shhhh! Don't tell my son! He's a snail fanatic). I figure I might always have some snails, but if I keep their numbers under control, the snails I purchased will be fine. I'm still trying to figure out how often I should dose EG as well, and am new to planted tanks (but not to fish keeping). One thing you will notice is that with that many plants, you might get dropping nitrates and may need to add fertilizer more often to keep those numbers up. I think the ideal Nitrate levels for a planted tank are 20-30ppm (someone correct me if I'm wrong). I still haven't figured out how to get mine up that high in my 10G (so I'm trying to dose EG every couple days), my 46G seems to sit at 40ppm no matter what I do (so I haven't added any EG yet). Like I said, I'm no expert with plants and I'm trying to learn. Have you been dosing Ammonia or what is your source of ammonia? If you are dosing, you can stop and see what things look like in 24 hours. When your tank is able to remove the ammonia in 24 hours then you can stop dosing since you have Nitrites and Nitrates happening. Once Ammonia and Nitrites drop to 0ppm, you can safely add fish and then you will rely on your plants and water changes to keep your nitrates within a safe range. Here's a great chart to show how to manage your Nitrates: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/water-changes And here is a great article talking about dosing EG and Nitrates: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/why-is-easy-green-raising-my-nitrate-level?_pos=1&_sid=ffa1eb244&_ss=r Good luck and keep sharing your progress! I look forward to following your journal

Here's a pic of my girl and the eggs she is laying. I was worried when people said their tanks were being overrun with eggs, but I find them kind of cute and it's fun to see a "trail" of where she has been.

I wouldn't. I've had to reseal tanks and the silicone isn't just cosmetic beyond what is in-between the glass at the corners. It does need that overlap on the glass for structural stability. It may not need that much, but I wouldn't risk it.

Yay for finding Hillstream Loaches! They are one of my favorite (although I don't have any right now). It's hard to tell from the pictures, but it does look like a fungus to me. There is a section on here dedicated to fish diseases which I would post photos and tank parameters and you will probably get a better response.

If he's young, you can expect those fins to grow! They usually come in clear at first and then gain their color (in case you don't know -- some people worry when they see clear fins). I really do think male with his beard hanging out of his gills. He has beautiful coloring! Originally, I was going to get a red/blue/turquoise long-finned Betta until my Cosmo (Plakat Koi Betta) chose me!

What is the KH of your water source?

I agree that it looks like fungus.