nabokovfan87

The shrimp didn't hear you say action. 😂 Little catfish are so fun. Not sure what it is about them, but such a joy to watch.

Plant weights! I just let mine sit on top of the substrate. Ferns are hard for me to glue/attach because the rhizome is so small compared to anubias. You should be able to recover / pull the old ones out and check the base. But yea... replacing them is a good thing too. Oh yeah. My female is so gigantic she's 2x the size of the males and it leads to some mating issues 😂 They will figure it out eventually! Corydoras are just so cool.

You can always pre-make your water for water changes and have it set aside ready to go. It might be a good way to keep things going for longer trips, top offs, as well as having a camera to monitor tanks while you're away.

Odd Duck uses it, quite a few people use it. BDBS is a recycled media and as such you cannot guarantee what the contents are. That alone tells me I won't ever use it again. I use the seachem flourite black and it's perfect for "black sand". The BDBS bag I got was the same one everyone else gets, the correct pore size, from the shop you get it from.... it was filled with chunks and chunks of metal. Locally, machine manufacturing is one of the high demand industries and that's likely why for me it isn't an option. The media itself is extremely light and just not something I would recommend based on trying to work with it. My hands were irritated, the fish took a very short amount of time to have redness, scratches, and severe stress signs (and damage) from the substrate. I don't like to use paver / play sand because it's too fine for filters and siphons. It can easily end up down the drain, bucket, or in the pump. I am leaning towards the "sand" mentioned above as it's a natural product and works well or using the carib sea crystal river sand because it can be siphoned so easily. Flourite black: Flourite black sand: In the tank above. Contrasoil ( extra fine) capped with the flourite black. As mentioned, the BDBS is very light. It would mix easily.

100% agreed. One of my favorites and for bigger tanks they are a workhorse pleco on the glass for algae cleaning.

Why is it livebearers do some foolish things! They can be such a feisty and aggressive eater.

I would use the permanent style pleated filter. Run it for a few hours every day or so on a timer. I wouldn't think you need to run it 24/7. There is a use case if you have something like a co2 diffuser and you would be able to point it towards the diffuser, push the bubbles around or across the tank.

They look good! Congratulations. I don't see any issues.

I would love to have one. It's pretty cool and a unique little tool for clearing up a cloudy tank. Add UV to that thing.... it would be great!

Once you get a side view it should be easier to ID. It's either the one above or is a cardinal tetra. Based on the amount of red would be how you tell the difference between neon and cardinal. Cardinals also get a little bigger.

First, welcome to the forums! The water changes should be good. You can always take a day and then go ahead and just scrub algae. It will help dislodge it into the water column and push that into the filter to be easily taken out later. Depending on what kind of algae you're dealing with, this is a great method to handle the algae. My second tip / question would be to ask what your light is set to and is it on a timer? Considering the algae issues you're having and low demand on the plants you likely don't need it set very high at all. Cutting that back should help with algae as well as the manual cleaning. As far as how, they use things like steel brushes on hard surfaces for very persistent algae. You can do bleach dips on decor and that would kill the algae. If that's something you're interested in I can track a video down for you. Another common tool is something like a toothbrush (or vegetable scrubbing brush). Even electric toothbrushes can be used to help for persistent algae. I use a fish only dish sponge on a lot of my algae. If you notice a specific piece of decor that is growing much more algae than many other, it may be worth removing it. It should not be an issue, but I just wanted to mention it as it does happen based on some of the materials used. Most often the algae is going to go where you have the most light. Very likely, yes. The plant you mentioned can be sensitive to salt.

yeah that's mostly the just of it. There are some small details I can elaborate on. The skimmer, unmodified, is something like 60-80% of the water intake into the pump. The water drops down and it basically just goes from the skimmer into the pump. This happens so often with plants, food, and so many things. Once you plug the skimmer, then you see all the other holes that suck up the plants and food, namely all the cutouts around the pump (like the one for the heater attachment) and the grate around the pump that is labelled as the "mid-level" intake. The main issue there is that once you have say 60% of the intake coming from the upper skimmer, another 15-25% coming from the mid-level skimmer, by the time you get down to the normal pump intake tube at the bottom of the tank you are barely moving any water at all. This is very poor for overall circulation! It also does not help that 1/2 of the intake tube is cut off due to having that blue dial in the water.... without it, you can't close off the tube so it comes from the factory already blocked with a plastic rib at the tube attachment point. When it comes to the bypass specifically there are a few key characteristics that cause major issues. A. The pump is "sized" for a saltwater application in some aspect. B. The basket has 2 very large cutouts that freely allow water to flow past all sponge and directly into media. C. The water is pushed into the filter chamber in such a way that water easily bypasses the basket and is pushed against the right side and commonly flows over the basket walls as opposed to into the foam and filtration media. (i.e. you're running a pump, not a filter) The only way I was able to determine that C was an issue above was by filling up all of the gaps in the basket itself and seeing what the water did at that point. Definitely an interesting issue! The media being constantly covered in muck from the way the filter flows by default may have been hampering surfaces for the bacteria to colonize, especially strong bacteria. If the media is clogged, it's harder for it to get in there. I like to add that very fine sponge as just a lazy way to cover up those holes and keep the media clean. The irony / main issue there is that given everything we know you shouldn't have had any issues. The sponge should've been enough by itself and the media is generally regarded as higher quality compared to others. Yeah! This is basically the "phase 1" setup I recommend most people do right out of the box. 🙂 There should be a video floating around on my youtube or at the intial post. I'll dig it up if you need it. Basically, exactly what you did but also add the medium / fine foam to cover the window cutouts. (when you lift the basket, it is the large squares you see by where the water flows out of the filter and back into the tank) Genuinely, I appreciate it! There's so many small details that go into what we need as a hobbyist and it's particularly fun to dive into those challenges and review a product to this detail. I have ran the tidals for such a long time and do enjoy them, flaws and all.

I'm in the same boat with my tank. I do like the openness of the tank. More rocks would be awesome! One day add them, but for now it's about what you can do with what you have.

What do you think!?

They have little hooks on their skin. I use fine mesh nets and make sure the seam is on the outside of the net to keep the oto from getting stuck. It's definitely the type of thing where the easier the fish gets into the net, the easier it will get out. Best of luck. Hopefully no issues next time!!

Yes add the dithers first. Given all the issues you've had with the black neons is the only concern on using them. Beyond that, 100% He doesn’t think so 😢 I know.... 😞. Trying like heck to figure this one out. Explain? Basically think of anything small in the tank that would potentially attack a fishes slime coat. Per the ACO store page / hikari pages for ich-x: It would essentially be very microscopic organisms we're talking here. https://www.fao.org/fishery/docs/CDrom/aquaculture/a0845t/volume2/docrep/field/003/ac160e/AC160E03.htm

Are you dosing in CO2?

I would try the protozoan stuff. Chewing.... he might be going after things being felt on the fins. I can't say this with any ounce of certainty, but that is just what I would try. You've got the setup and everything perfect for the fish. A round of polyguard (seachem) might be a place to start. You can also try other external meds like ich-x. I do think dither fish is a great idea, especially given the main tank setup and how things are designed to give cover for those fish. Cardinal tetras or green neons are the ones I commonly see used, but I'm sure there's a list.

There are a few big companies that ship fish out to consumers as well as auction style sites mentioned above. I was happy with my purchase from aquahuna. I have also ordered from aquabid. You may be able to find a coupon code, but understand that you are usually paying for higher quality and or QT procedures done prior to the fish arriving to you. This doesn't mean you shouldn't QT the fish when they arrive, but it simply means that there may be reasons for the added inherent cost. The price of shipping is usually where the cost comes in. The price of the fish isn't typically too bad.

I am unsure what is going on there. More photos would help, it's a very strange thing. It looks like dead plants to me. You'd want to try manual removal as much as you can. Netting out all the plants to be able to clean them and then siphoning the tank, etc. Reset everything so to speak and check for dead snails and other ammonia sources. Light added to a timer is also necessary if that hasn't been done already.

Welcome to the forums! I would definitely avoid ohko stone (aka dragon stone) as they can go in and get stuck. I think the mopani will be fine. Keep an eye out on them for how they act and what they interact with. Adding something like pvc or ceramic pots with the bottoms knocked out might be an option as well. Making some stuff out of slate might also be a cool option and you can custom make it to fit the tank.

it's actually pretty common to play opposite hand for golf / hockey! I'm right dominant, probably could be both, but I mainly use right and play hockey with left. It's just what felt comfortable to me. (right hand on the knob to control accuracy) Ditto. This one was the interesting tidbit in the video for me.

I would check out some bucephalandra species and see what piques your interest. There might be some that fit the bill, especially that leaf texture.

Not sure if it's the flat style light or the tube style LED. I would check out some stuff available at your LFS and see what the options are. Being as it's probably an EU purchase it's difficult to recommend something specific. Have you noticed any issues with your tank currently? Nicrew and Hygger both seem to be available in both continents. There should be some nicer lights that are much more affordable and available in the EU.

What are you using to test KH? I would highly recommend verifying / checking things with an API liquid KH/GH test kit and PH kit. Welcome to the forums. I hope we can figure this out!