nabokovfan87

Fill it up all the way, let it run to clean out the fines from the substrate. Float the plants or just leave them in pots to do their thing. Take your time planting, no big deal. It's a new tank, so you can just go ahead and take your time to get things setup. Plants can sit for a few days, up to about a week before I really would be bothered to start rushing things. It helps the plants to acclimate to the water to to just let them sit before breaking down roots and pots and stuff. Not mandatory, but it's an option. Every time you add water from the tap, dose the tank. Fill it up, then add airstone, filters, etc. Whatever it is you have and plan to run so you can verify everything is working as you want it to. Once you get things filled up and the substrate is in there, then I usually run my hands through it to try to get the air out of it a little bit and start the process of compaction.

Is there a big PH shift between the tap and the tank?

Well, sad news. I lost one of the fry today. It was trying to gulp air at the surface, because I had sponge / fine pad to keep them from escaping through the gate, water level was slightly high and that's what led to it getting stuck on the ledge where the lid sits. It looks like it may have just smashed into the lid or something. I didn't catch it in time, which always sucks. I installed the last divider, hopefully it helps the mulm to be removed and pushes the muck to the right side where I can just siphon it out. In other bad news. The fish with the fin rot looks to be doing worse. I'll update things on that thread accordingly. Still waiting for more meds to run through.

Very fun stuff. To be honest, corydoras can be like the zombies in 28 days later sometimes.... They just pop out of nowhere in waves 😂

Yeah, then I would lean towards the bacteria based algaes. Try to siphon it and see if you can easily remove it. That's one way to resolve it among other methods. High silicates in the sand means that you just end up with certain kinds of algae and stuff.

My GH is like a billion. I think the 180 is fine. The main thing is just to be consistent with everything. If you're adding water changes and then dosing in x, y, and z, you're better off having pre-conditioned water and then doing the WC. As far as predation, someone posted that they had similar issues, moved them to a bucket or something until they could climb up in population. Potentially that's an option for you? Second to that, we look at the scape and get things like shrimp cages to give them places to hide. Balls of PSO / Water sprite, moss, etc. is also an option.

definitely wait until after substrate is in there to add the corydoras.

Yeah, it looks like the ratios I use. I've cut my tank back to 4 hours (yours is at 6 it looks like. I honestly think your issue is the plants aren't getting enough light. The leaves are covered and you have a "tall tank" and generally might need more light. Especially for PSO. What is your dosing schedule. It's hard to point towards a solution right now. If you use a toothbrush, hold the leaves, is it easy to brush this stuff off? Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' variety. There is a few different kinds with different length leaves.

It could be food. What food are you feeding? Is it red? Usually it's just why tanks have that bottom rim. To try to hide that look. It's normal for sand substrates to have a line across them. Siphon it, see what it looks like after that.

Just be careful with ohko stone. They can get stuck inside things pretty easily.

Once a week when I'm doing things right. I don't feed heavily. I do feed, and have been trying to keep things to several times a day when I see fish being a butt and pecking others for food. But usually water change day or Sundays I'll just take a break. I might feed heavy the night before with some repashy or drop in some frozen right after the pumps turn off, then do the WC. But it's all flexible. Intentionally taking a break, I try to do that once a week though, at least once every 2 weeks. Guaranteed they got stuff to graze on during that break and it encourages that natural behavior.

My issue right now, even using coarse sponge is that the height is so shallow any little restriction, bump in water height, and it's making the lid float.

Definitely some wood in there is good for em, just not anything too pokey. My go to is usually mopani

I don't. Nicrew loops a little yellow. Bentley does a ton of light reviews, maybe that's a place to look at. No sunrise/sunset. And it looks like the one you sent might be two different lights. One is the standard version and the other is the plus. There is also the plus pro version. I can't find the spectrum chart for the light. The expensive models give you more control over LED channels. The biggest thing to keep in mind when you're looking at a cheap light is what happens when it gets wet or splashes on it. You might end up replacing it. Just something to note and one of the most important features for myself. I'm watching a few of these. This might be something beneficial to mull over while you're comparing all of the spec sheets and trying to decide which way to go.

Yeah, I was going to suggest, once you have the 55G ready, then just add the corydoras to it. Meaning, substrate is in and ready and waiting for plants. They'll be fine in there and won't bother you when doing hardscape. Have you don't a test with the tank full at all? That would be where I start. I'd probably let it sit for 2 weeks somewhere with an air stone and lids on. Then inspect all the stuff you have going on.

Reminds me of being a kid and watching Steve Irwin. Honestly.

@Zenzo Any thought to having The Dave on for a members talk? I could only imagine how much information, insight, or just stories this person has. Amazing visual work. I can't say it enough.

Top Rack: 75G - 150 MP Canister - 150 MP Seiryu Stone - 20 MP Manzanita - 10 MP Fancy Buce - 20 MP DHG - 5 MP (probably x1,000,000) Fancy Anubias - 20 MP Bacopa Caroliniana - 3 MP Special order, fancy stems - 30 MP Bottom Rack: 4x 20L Aquariums - 100 MP 4x Sponge Filters - 10 MP 3x Lava Rock - 30 MP 1x Moss - 1 MP 1x Anubias - 1 MP 1x Fancy Anubias - 20 MP 1x Ohko Stone - 20 MP 2x Ghostwood - 20 MP Stocking (bottom rack) 1 tank = spare tank for greenwater / amano breeding 1 tank = Fancy Shrimp -10 MP 1 tank = Fancy Corydoras, fancy pleco -20 MP 1 tank = Dark Night Rams -10 MP Total: 650 MP I guess I get to grow out the fish a little while, I don't have any amanos, and the top tank is empty minus plants. LOL.

Is it bad that I'm afraid to watch it? LOL. I really appreciate that creator, very good cinematography work.

very awesome! Congratulations! Watching the parents care for the little juvenile corydoras is literally the best thing in the hobby for me.

Welcome to the forums. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Personally from my own experience I wouldn't get the aquasky. I think you're better off going for either.... Aquarium co-op light, nicrew, or for the fluval planted 3.0. This past week I just swapped my aquasky off of my anubias tank after seeing deficiency issues. Granted, it's entirely my own fault, but the light does play a role. I don't like how it is very yellow and very warm in it's coloration. Visually to my own eyes when I turn the aquasky on blue mode for night it looks like every cheap LED you've seen from the kit tanks with the LEDs stuck to a plastic hood. Visually, it's that shade of blue. On my planted it goes from this fluorescent and neon blue colors to something a lot more natural, royal blue with my planted version of the light. I would specifically buy something intended for plants. Whether that's the nicrew or some other brand, I would get something around 6500K, with that "planted" spectrum available. The one advantage for the fluval lights is their water resistance capabilities. Check aquasky on the box stores for black friday, a few hours to go. Mine cost me about $80 for the 24". Right now the 36" is $120. Aquasky Spectrum Chart Planted 3.0 Spectrum

How many corydoras do you have in the group?

Definitely black beard algae. It's a form of red algae which is why it has the black, iridescent coloration sometimes. Let's start from the beginning..... Show us the full tank, especially hardscape, filtration, and light. Let's talk about how things are setup, then lets dive into light settings and maintenance. Once we go through all those baselines, THEN we can nudge things and determine where some issues might be cropping up.

100%. It's about refraction and non-direct light. Because you don't have a lid, that's a good thing here in terms of refraction. Having the light with a short length as well as determining the angle of the LED also plays another big role here. Considering the tang size and length I think you would do better with two lights in this scenario. Right now I would turn the light you have up higher to see if you can get enough light penetration. These plants marked I would dose with root tabs. I don't know if everything else is anubias or swords in the pots, but swords you would also dose with root tabs. These sections of the tank I would consider no or low light sections. You can see on the anubias that the wood is casting shadows. Similar to the rocks on the right. Some of the plants in those areas should be placed elsewhere to give them a better chance at light. Where you have those blue lines on the tank I would have one light for each half of the tank. You can still have them mounted and looking awesome, but it gives you a lot better coverage of the tank. On the stems, make sure you're using root tabs. as far as other things going on: A. Plants arrive and slowly die off because of nutrient and/or lighting issues. Stems especially are light hogs and will wither away if there's KH, PH, or nutrient issues in addition to lighting issues. (Happens all the time with me with Scarlet Temple) B. Anubias is a shade friendly plant. It doesn't need a lot of light. It's probably clean of algae and the placement is such that you have adequate lighting for that plant to do well. Usually anubias can do well with liquid ferts (but often just fish load). C. I don't know the full details of the setup, but I imagine the discussion above is also what's going on. Let me give you an example directly related to my own experiences in my tank. 29G, which does need a decent light to reach plants at the bottom of the tank. I'll fully admit this tank was not in great shape, but let's focus on lighting right now. You can see DHG and S. Repens in the front corners (no hardscape blocking) and they all generally look dead. This light was a 24" light cranked to 75-85% (going higher meant severe algae growth). Replacing this with a longer light means that the LEDs cover to the edges of the tank better. The actual LED strip is longer. 20" vs. 30" LED strip and the light itself has 33% more LEDs. Not saying it would be a perfect scenario, but it does "cover" better. If you focus on the shadows on the substrate you can see the difference. The shorter, less powerful like does cast more, darker shadows. For some plants this is the difference between growth and between withering away. As far as what specifically is going on with your tank. I would suggest posting in the plant section with details, Test parameters, and a bit of explanation on your care for the plants. There are some insanely talented plant people on the forums. Many of them will be able to concisely help get things going for you. This is that same tank now. You can see the S. Repens doing much better.