nabokovfan87

Cc @AllFishNoBrakes is another person who loves the blackwater side of things. I do too! It looks great, keep at it. Well done!

I would suggest going to the thread in my signature. It has photos of all the mods I've done and what the result of those changes are. Fixing one thing compounds an issue elsewhere and so you have to decide what sort of fix you want to implement based on what your goal is. My goal was to remove the skimmer entirely.

There's a variety of issues, the majority of the water does not flow through the media. Cutting holes in the bottom doesn't fix that. There's bypass cutouts to ensure flow happens when the sponge is clogged, but unfortunately where Seachem put those in the basket design it means that the "path of least resistance" for the filter is to basically avoid everything. The filter supports bacteria because it has media in a section of high oxygenation and flow. It can be greatly improved relatively easily.

I woke up to the craziest issue with my canister filter yesterday. Not even sure it works, hoping it does.... The tidal has plenty of issues, so does the 407. So does just about every single filter out there. There is no "perfect" filter and it's sad that it's this difficult to get something that just works effectively out of the box. I'll post some sketches and details when I can in the morning, but for now, I highly recommend checking out my mod thread.

It's a very common thing... Are you running them stock in the media basket or is anything modified? Basically it's "normal" but there's a lot to discuss with that. Appreciate the tag!

If you take the collar and gently lift it off the "hat" then you might see flow immediately return to normal. If that's the case, the air collar isn't the issue. I had to remove mine because the sponge I had just didn't let the flow... flow. The amount of water/air I was pushing, when it was all setup must've been the crux of the issue, but even with the sponge cleaned like new I couldn't get it to flow (using very fine sponge in a shrimp tank). Hopefully that helps. @AllFishNoBrakes is working through similar issues with normal sponge.

"shrimp" is a broad term. I would never, ever plop and drop shrimp. I use an air pump, drops of dechloinator, drip acclimate. It takes zero effort to do and it's easy,

I use one on a 75G. That filter is designed 100000000% for use on a 55G tank long term. All the parts "fit" that size tank rim and so on.

The only thing I would beware of is the moss balls, breaking apart, and then going into all of the nooks and crannies on the tank. Moss is a little bit easier to handle in that regard. you can use things like moss ledges as well as mesh sections on suction cups to make a "moss wall" too. The tank sounds awesome. Looking forward to seeing it!

This is me too.... My fish will eat pellets, flakes, frozen brine, and when the mood strikes them they like repashy. The hikari wafers are known to be great with corydoras far and wide, but there have been concerns about what's in them. For me, the vast majority of my choices are based on the following: The most recent documentary made on the topic and specifically applicable to this issue is going to be FIN by Eli Roth. I watched in on HBO Max app. I would point you to the above thread and or movie club link in my signature for discussion off those sorts of things. What this ultimately means is that my preference is to limit fish meal and fish oil. I prefer to use krill meal and krill oils as well as spirulina (and chlorella) algae based foods. NLS has probably the "best" recipe with their algae based wafers, but they have a lot of other things available too that I wish I could try. Northfin is similar where they have a lot of the same things and the public perspective is quality ingredients in the food. Aqueon nutrinsect is something I will shout about because it's very affordable and the ingredients are great. For my corydoras they can be anywhere from little ones to big chunky 4" fish and they prefer nano pellets for their food. The nice behavior I want to see when feeding them is this... and it's always fun for me to watch. This is where the substrate matters as much to me as the food choice because I want the fish to be able to get to the food in question. Have a half-sand tank for feeding if you wanted to is an option as well. I won't say it's required, mine are not on sand currently, but it's just all back to the above behavior for me. If I was to send someone a kit of "foods" for corydoras I would tend to look for: -pellets that are 0.5mm in size (1mm works if you had to use it) -krill oil as opposed to fish oil -alternate sources of protein: algae, bugs, shrimp and krill -frozen and gel foods Things that have worked well for me is the typical "community blend" styles off food where it's a mix of protein and veggie foods. This comes in forms of pellets and flakes from just about anyone as well. I tend to buy them separate and make containers of them on my own ratio. Usually it's around 70/30% up to 50/50 range leaning towards more of the krill based foods are the staple. Bug foods you kind of want to make sure they don't go stale on you or rot (so I've heard), but I never have them ever last long enough for that to be an issue. My favorite thing is probably frozen brine. I thing it's one of the most underrated foods out there for corydoras.

Fuzzy would be fungal, so you'd want to use malachite green or something like that. Polyguard and ich-X being the two I have on hand for fungal as well as botanicals or salt. Considering it's danios, the concern over NTD/Columnaris is a genuine one. One tidbit that is often overlooked is temperature and pH and that contributing to general stress. I would ask what the temp is, given things are warming up, and recommend adding a bit more oxygenation if you could. Beyond that testing pH, pH swings and ensuring the hardscape didn't do anything funky and shift parameters on you. Something also to rule out is just the general water source and what is going on before the water gets to you. I've had my tap change drastically on me and it wasn't something I noticed apart from general issues inside the tank. Netflix added the a movie called Dark Waters, it's worth the watch. Best of luck with the resolution on this. They are a beautiful, cherished species and the struggles you're having are something I can relate to.

I helped a new hobbyist with their tank purchase from petco and it was surprisingly challenging to really explain to them what to look for and make it a clear and concise issue. They ended up sending me photos and I took a few seconds and reviewed it with them. Essentially, the tanks are fine, but much like everything else what happens before the tank gets from Aqueon --> you is a major issue in some stores. Some stores store things correctly, others will use them to build forts! It's a bit ridiculous and so I would absolutely suggest things like verifying things in the store, check that the silicone is undamaged, leak tests, and all of these things can be done within the time of purchase and you can always still obtain that sale price on the tank itself. I have a 75G aqueon tank and it was something I didn't take lightly because that's a TON of water. I have gotten all of my tanks from petco and it's been something that I view as *the best thing* to get people into the hobby because of that affordability. If you want a "nice" tank, check out marineland. They do silicone well and the tanks generally are pretty beautiful. Lids aren't easily available and there are other issues with just general cost/availability of replacements, but that would be my other go-to. Seams: Check that they are not coming off the glass, that they are not scratched/damages and clearly have been abused. Especially on the bottom pane of glass, check that they bonded correctly. You can actually see a shift in opacity when the silicone starts to pull off as well as feel it. Also, understand that based on the size of tank, you have a different type of warranty. If you're buying a 10G as opposed to a 60 breeder, you have a much different quality of care compared to other things. Picture 1 - It's there from when they pressed the rim onto the glass. You won't ever see it, but it's there. Picture 2 - Often, yes. Picture 3 - Likely won't ever been seen. Picture 4 - No! This would often cause more damage than it would fix anything. I agree that the large bulbous edges on some of the beads would be prone to pulling off, but as long as they are bonded, then you should be fine. This happens a lot on the base of the tank, covered in substrate, you'll never see it and it won't ever be touched. Know your tank, be aware of that when scraping algae. This also will let algae grow in a very annoying spot, esp. bba. You can also just contact the store itself and tell them it leaked, if it's within the first 14-30 days (Not sure the specific window) I had one I purchased, set it all up, then I noticed a huge scratch on the front glass and returned it. It was a pretty deep cut from someone moving tanks or cutting the boxes and a blade went across it. Definitely feel free to go get more tanks, the new 60's are beautiful.

I still haven't done the necessary water changes. I dropped some mulberry leaves in the tank for the shrimp today and I went ahead and spent some time culling shrimp. I moved ~40-50 and I put some in each of my other tanks. These were mostly "off" compared to the normal bloody mary line and I'm thinking they are from the red-rili cross that got in the tank from the original supplier. I pulled out 3-5 pretty big females that looked like extremely intense, high quality red cherry shrimp, but they could also just have opaque shells from the sake of needing to molt soon. I will keep an eye on things, keep sorting them into their different bins and we'll see if I can get some of these red rili x shadow blue going in my cull tank. I think my one blue guy I had is no more 😞 Once I have the water change done, which could be within the hour, but unsure if it's going to get done today, then I will move the white clouds back home and hope that they no longer have any issues.

Green aqua has a video on testing as well as water parameters. It's a great place to start and open up the conversation about what you're looking for when testing things in the tank. The main thing is going to be what is your KH in relation to your GH, more or less? Things like fertilize regime, maintenance method and regime, those all play a role as well. Some plants can tolerate harder water (higher GH and KH), but others cannot. It really depends on what you're working with, seeing, and just responding to what the tank is doing.

Like from amazon or? Columbian / Ethiopian is really good when done via cold brew. Mostly chocolate malty notes which tend to lend themselves well to that type of brewing. The main thing is going to just be finding something "fresh". It could be an on-sale bargain at the grocery store, some peets from wherever has this italian roast that is greatly underappreciated. Lavazza is another one and they come in 50-200 different random blends which may or may not be discounted from one week to the next. I enjoyed stuff from these guys too. https://www.amazon.com/Copper-Moon-Colombian-Full-Bodied-Acidity/dp/B01L9YE26S?ref_=ast_sto_dp I have a hario switch. Best thing I've used in a while. For when you want it NOW! (or... for when you're making cold brew and you want to take a few spoonfulls and make some fresh) Since you're on a coffee venture and mentioning bitterness, here's this! What kind of plants are you searching for?

Look into blue green algae It's a type of bacterial issue / algae.

Good to hear! 🙂

Looks like 3 kinds of algae. BBA on the leaves, which is also indicative of the plants not doing well and those leaves being partially dead. Then you have brown and green diatoms on the hardscape (and some plants) BBA - Hydrogen peroxide and fix the tank balance as best you can. Could be circulation, co2, GH/KH, or a plethora of issues. Green diatoms - Too much light Brown diatoms - new tank, sand, silicates, too much light, or just needs maintenance. Most algae eaters and fish that graze on algae will eat green and brown diatoms.

Just going to toss this out there based on a few series I've seen by Mike Holmes (he fixes construction mistakes)... Temp changes like that with the added water, it might be a recipe for a major, unseen issue. Just something to think about given all of that. It might be time to have an inspection or open up some walls, rather then let things linger. I've seen all sorts of issues and the house I'm in now is probably one of the worst I've seen with some gremlins from "Mister Fixit" or whomever was here prior. I've seen Mike use Flir cameras to check wall insulation issues too, might be worth renting/borrowing one. Regardless, congratulations on the new space availability and it'll be great to see things progress towards completion! I'm excited to see what new opportunities it brings you. NICE!

Ok so! A couple things. Bulb! It's fiiiiine, but just has always been in this state since about day 1. It's my obi-wan Kenobi plant. 😂. I will dig around in the back of the tank when I trim and my hands are healed up. In terms of all of the corydoras, one of the first signs is clamped fins. Just general "I don't feel so good" body language. I have a picture of this corydoras in a few minutes we can see him better. This is Riddick. She has been through EVERYTHING and she lives in the 20L that every single sick corydoras has been through. She is in there with the white clouds as well. The debris on the bottom is plants, not food and I just cleaned the tank a few days prior. It'll get cleaned again today. She looks really, really good today. The other ones in her tank do not. I do not expect this fish to make it through the day. Unfortunately. I also took a video of the other one trying to function. Back to the main tank, the two smaller corydoras. Again, they visually just look a bit unhappy. Tank will get cleaned, I'll probably clean the filter again today just to do so. The weird bend on the tail in the first one is not a deformity, when I fed the fish she was fine. It was just a weird moment and definitely freaked me out seeing her contorted like that. If the video sparks any indications please feel free to share. I think this is legitimate some mix of multiple diseases and it's very likely ones that I've treated for. My focus right now is to give their body a break from the chemicals and harshness and try to let them recover. In a week I will revisit this choice and potentially start one last round of food based bacterial meds as recommended above.

I only found one, I didn't look for the others. The substrate is controsoil. The fish health is just a bit weird.... It seems like everything is fine for weeks and then all of a sudden one or two fish might be doing very poorly and I feel like I'm starting at square 1 again. I've covered everything I can seemingly thing of apart from the meds mentioned by OD/Colu above. I will spend some time watching the fish today. They seem to be active, behavior is normal, but I did see one of the very young corydoras that wasn't doing well. I still have 3 in my 20Long tank being monitored and 2 of those are likely beyond the point of a full recovery.

I have one more session of removing substrate and we are down to a "fine layer" of sand in the tank. After a water change, about 48 hours later the tank has become very cloudy and that's been the norm. I culled off some of the off-looking shrimp into my 20L tank and I do have one blue-red rili that I need to track down. There is a TON of baby shrimp and adolescent shrimp. I'd love to be able to ship/sell shrimp right now, but the tank being in the state it's in is absolutely a concern for that process. I'll have to get hands wet tomorrow (or the day after) and just focus on water changes to get through this weird cloudiness issue. I don't think it's a sign of a bacteria issue, but time will tell. My tanks are always so clear and have such clarity that this tank stands out like a sore thumb. 😩

Cc @tolstoy21 I would love to keep some of these guys in future, but I just don't have the space right now. There's a lot of great patterns and personalities out there with apisto species. Looking forward to hearing stories about them!

I have tried to grow this plant probably a dozen times and absolutely failed with it every single time. The longest I've gotten it to function is about 10 days. Step 1 I would recommend is to verify your GH and KH with liquid test kits. Second to that I will point you to this specific care guide. https://www.flowgrow.de/db/aquaticplants/alternanthera-reineckii-rosaefolia @Seattle_Aquarist @Mmiller2001 @gjcarew Do any of you have advice for this specific plant in question? I think it is one that is the most commonly "failed" stem plants, just speaking from my own experience.

Did we miss a month!? EH.... it happens. I am feeling inspired a little bit and I want to find something that has to deal with a few of my other favorite animals that are of the non-shark variety. I remember this very, very old VHS tape I would go home and watch almost every single day. This was before the internet, youtube, and all of those modern methods were really a thing and this was my version of sitting down and meditating. I was probably 10-13 years old and this was just how I spent my day... in awe, watching Talbot. https://talbotoceangallery.com/ Needless to say it's a bit difficult to find the video of the original VHS, but I will share this very brief 3 minute "trailer" of some of the work. The one I watched was ~30 minutes of dolphins and then 30 minutes of whales (grey or blue) and I just loved watching the whales swim. Please enjoy --> http://talbotfilms.com/#lg=1&slide=0 For those curious, it was something like this that I used to watch: https://www.amazon.com/Talbot-Dolphins-Orcas-Mannheim-Steamroller/dp/6303063888