Root

My bad...Bigger. I disregarded that this was for nano tanks and got carried away 😆

I do a whole dose. If it were me I would only spot treat slow growers/decor/equipment and just trim my pogo since it grows back so fast. I can't feed that stuff enough easy green.

If you can't do anything with the window I would personally try to reduce iron maybe one dose a week for a couple of weeks and see how that goes. If you notice iron levels are dropping when you test or plants are losing coloration/stature you can go back. I don't know of a creature that will take it out 100%, but I hear true Siamese algae eaters and Panda Garras will take on different sorts. They may be a good preventive measure in the future once you get everything dialed in. By the way your pogo looks nice! Seachem Excel is pretty effective. I just got into it and dose it everyday to be safe with algae

I know I had my aquarium next to a window months ago with the curtains closed and I got crazy amounts of algae. I also dosed iron weekly. I reduced the amount of iron I used and then moved the tank and the algae has gone away. I don't known which one it was. Could have been a combination of both or one or the other. As far as the Amanos go, I never saw them take on staghorn, but that was my guys. Can't speak for the rest.

Hello! Please don't mind the questions, but the spots aren't uniform and are everywhere? Has it been like this since you got it? Are there new java fern babies growing out of the leaves? How much light/how bright/how long, and do you use any fertilizers?

Looks like the start of it to me. Does the tank get 8 hours of artificial light as well as natural?

You have really nice shrimp crew! That is really cool about the Amano shrimp hitchhiking! I bought an Amano and RCS for the first time a few months ago and they ended up being my favorites. If I had to pick between them and fish the shrimp would win out. They always have something going on lol

So far for me it is pogostemon stellatus octopus. It gets tall and fills in. I couldn't ask for more from a stem plant. It is so unpredictable and grows in the craziest directions.

Tank looks pristine and the shrimp are doing well! I just wonder how the Betta would do if it were taken out of the tank and put in a hospital type situation with softer water. Perhaps use some of the gallon water jugs you can buy from the store? If it were me I would try that out and leave him in there for a few weeks to see if he would heal up. I would almost say lightly treat him while he is in the hospital tank for that full week and do a water change afterwards. Then just leave him without meds for another week or two and see if his condition gets better.

Yeah Pygmy Cories are tight knit! I think a nice runner up that I have seen that school well together would be: rummy nose tetras cardinal tetras black neon tetras

I love it! I love that substrate in your tank too! What kind is that?

I keep Dwarf Sag at the front of my tank and my tallest one is probably six inches. I keep the light going full blast. Val would be nice, but you would have to trim it often. Another one to possibly consider that would look great and do well especially for Molly/Guppy fry would be pogostemon stellatus octopus. It would need trimming too, but is such a fun plant. Here is a pic of the dwarf sag

He is beautiful! If you don’t mind me asking what have you been medicating him with and do you know your water parameters? I’m thinking out loud, but I wonder if a water change every other day is necessary. Do you do it to fight algae or following the directions of the meds? Just curious.

That is awesome. That is nice to hear about substrate. I am sure that stuff is packed with bacteria and nutrients. Growing up it was a thing in our family to replace the substrate during the yearly aquarium deep clean or just wash it out with dawn 🤦‍♂️😑

Yeah, that is a beautiful piece. Please post if you do one. I'd love to see that with the ribbon eel

Over the years I have lost some of the items I had, but I remember my mom had this huge castle in her tank and it stayed with the family for many years. She eventually gave it to my uncle and I don't know whatever happened to it. It was definitely a conversation starter and I remember we had two Striped Raphael Catfish that lived in it. As a kid I would get so mad because they only came out at night when I had to go to bed and I thought they were the coolest fish ever. I almost bought the tank at the thrift store to do a retro styled tank, but my wife gave me a big no. The old seals did look sketchy, but hey...lol

Absolutely! That is awesome!

The other day I was at a thrift store and saw an old aquarium for sale that was stuffed with equipment from the 80s. Some of the equipment reminded me of my mom’s tank she had in the 90s and then I started to wonder if there's someone out there that still has that one piece of equipment that is still going strong or that old castle that's been in the family for years. If this is you, what is that one piece of equipment that is tried and true or that piece of decor that is the family staple? Or what is that one item that you remember growing up or would be unheard of to new hobbists today?

Glued some chopped-up Christmas Moss to my driftwood today. The glue ended up being a disaster, but hey it will look pretty one day right? 🤷‍♂️ Lol

I purchased some moss for my snail breeder box a while back that came with those guys. I was super nervous about them at first, but they never bothered my plants, fish, or shrimp. They wandered on the glass for a few weeks and slowly started to disappear. You can see them in my pictures there had to be 1000s of them. I was kind of hoping they would stick around. I always enjoy observing new things in my little ecosystem.

Sorry to hear about this. I know it is heartbreaking. I had a bunch of endlers a while back that was taken out by a single sick male endler that I ordered from AAG. I didn't quarantine and everything snowballed from there. Looking back I learned a lot from that mistake. Never to use AAG again and to quarantine, quarantine, quarantine. Anyway, when I was losing fish left and right due to a fungus-type disease I was spending a lot of money on medicines that didn't work. It lasted a little over a month and I couldn't shake it. I almost gave up on the hobby until I finally broke down and tried AC’s medicine trio. I followed the directions that AC recommended and now here I am about 5 months later and haven't had a single sickness or death. I even have 4x the amount of endlers now from the ones that survived lol. It may work for you or it may not, but if you have the means and one more shot left, I say consider it. I will recommend the med trio to anyone. It saved my little guys. Here is a link that touches more on it. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-use-quaratine-med-trio

Understandable. I understand money was spent on both and you don't want to waste it, but after looking at the specs on each light they are both capable of promoting plant growth alone. The two together could be giving extra light which will throw the balance off and promote the algae growth. Honestly, if it were me Aiden I would take out one of the lights and do a water change once a week for the next two to three weeks to see if it reduces and starves out the algae. After the two to three weeks, see how it is looking and if there is any progress. I feel like that will be the fix, but If you are still in the same boat after the first 2-3 weeks I would reduce how long the light is on each day and repeat the water change process for the next two to three weeks and check again. Just know it is going to be a process and take it one baby step at a time. I hope this is helpful.

Got a dying Peace Lilly that looked a lot worse in the first picture and decided to put it in my Aqua Clear 50. It perked up almost instantly.

It seems there are a few different strands of algae going on and I am not able to see them too well. Are you running the two lights at the same time? If so can I ask why? Also, do you use any ferts? If so what type and how and often and do you do any water changes? If so how often?

Below is a link for a very informative reference regarding Rams that touches on your questions. Also, as far as a cleaner of some sort goes a bristle nose pleco with plenty of hiding places might do well with a pair of Rams in a 29 gallon. There are other species mentioned in the reference so feel free to check them out. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ram-cichlid-care-guide