nabokovfan87

I think bacopa is Normally about twice the size leaves, especially at that length.

That's awesome. It's so fun to see what behaviors fish have to try to stay alive. In my tank, I have an oto that has claimed the drop checker as his home and he lays on it, balanced, all day now because he feels protected. Algae always grows on those things, it all works out like a shark with a ramora. Looking forward to seeing more, very cool tank!

That's awesome to hear. Nice work!

Oxo sells them, but I highly recommend silicone drying mats. They come in any color and a variety of sizes. Loving having mine around.

I totally was thinking something like monopoly but you upgrade the shop over time. Think aquarium hobby version nof civilization. Fun stuff.

Protect it with rocks too. But I had a question, what is your substrate?

Square for me. Well... Rectangular. 100%

Let us know if you see any improvement or are already running an airstone. Please check all of your filters and equipment to make sure they are functioning, especially temps.

You definitely shouldn't*** have any issues with your cycle. Could it be affected, sure. Will it crash, no. Maybe some cloudy water. A few things first to go ahead and do. A. Take a bit of your new planted substrate into a cup and aerate it with an air stone for 24 hours to check it you have ammonia leeching from it. If you don't, proceed. B. Get a good tub or bucket for the fish and filtration to hang out on while you do the changes. This preserves the cycle as long as media stays wet! This doesn't mean it needs to run, it just means you need an airstone and any sponge / ceramic media in a bucket with the fish. C. Take all of your decor and hardscape and stuff and set that aside, preferably in a bucket with tank water, but you can use a bag and just keep things wet. This is not a priority, but it is something that can preserve some bacteria on any rocks or wood. D. Scoop out your existing substrate into a bucket and rinse it well. Clean it as well as you can. Then go ahead and let it dry if you want to store it for a few days, rotating it around every day on a towel. Rinse the new substrate lightly, then go ahead and add it to the tank, add your hardscape and run the tank for anywhere from one hour to one day so it can adjust and filter out any media in the water. You can also add your clarifier if need be. This is where you'd see the PH shift due to the new substrate. You can change water on the fish in the bucket every day as well as use dechlorinator once every 24 hours. When you're ready and readings look good, add the fish back with all the plants and enjoy. You can add bacteria from a bottle to "boost" the filter for a week, but it shouldn't be necessary. Helpful, but not necessary.

yep! The method I have used: A. Test your tap water right away B. Aerate that sample for 24 hours with an airstone, then re-test. C. Compare those results to the water parameters in the tank, that's what you'd expect on water changes to happen.

Have you ran an off-gas test on PH, GH, and KH in your water? It might go down to about 7.8-8.2 or so. Hard to say. Cardinal shrimp might be a good one for you.

Whenever you do your WC, add half a dose for the tank and treat it like anubias. Once you see new growth and things doing well, then I would go towards monitoring things. But, for now, in terms of "finding out how to get it to go" then I would just stick with lean dose, focus on light and go from there. One things I didn't do and wish I would've was the cutting things to encourage new growth. It might've saved mine, but I have seen moss in my tank go well with good CO2 (add an airstone if you need?) and then just play with lighting. Hopefully you'll see some bright green growth!

Yeah, very true. Once your plants "grow in" you're going to have clippings and will likely have extra, eventually. For me I had that happen once I had something over 20G and the plants took off. Especially a 75, you can trim a lot of plants and not make a dent. It's always going to look wonky right after a trim, but.... eventually, you just learn to live with it. 🙂

I dont know either, but between RLP and BNPs.... BNPs have mouths like a clown pleco, but clows just really tend to graze on wood. My clowns, if I add a cave, that's where they go. Most plecos for me because of lighting intensity issues (they like blackwater / lower light tanks, typically). I have tried frozen and fresh+blanched, but one thing I never paid attention to was organic vs. regular. I've tried the green beans, snails have gotten lettuce, I've tried a lot of different ones, but just never had success.

Reminds me of this one: Yeah, I have the same issue sometimes. I totally understand what you mean. I'll add another to your list 🙂 . Pecktec "scapes" his tanks by following a few key rules. 1. Don't add a tank unless you take one down 2. Uses items from other tanks to scape it or items removed from old tanks 3. Uses plants that he grew, typically doesn't buy plants anymore. This also is how he knows those plants will work for him.... because they already have.

Good eye. I also wanted to note, some others have reported issues with hot glue and some experiences over time. It might be worth a search on the forums for "hot glue" and see what sticks out. Based on what I've read it's not something you'd want to use in an aquarium scenario, especially submerged. It might be. The MSDS / Ingredients should say 100% Silicone, this one says it at the top on the tube. If it is the mold resistant one, then no.

Because of the scape of the tank the top fin ones tend to be pretty narrow and might work for this tank. I prefer the python ones, but I do have one of those around for tight spaces. Honestly, you might have the best luck just getting some 3/8" vinyl tube and going that route to clean the gravel in some of those smaller spaces.

😂 I swear if someone can get my fish to eat some food like that... by all means! I can't even get the plecos to eat repashy if they aren't RLPs/BNPs. Clowns for me tend to stay in the wood and rummage around when the lights go out. Whenever I feed veg and stuff it usually just gets ignored and because of that I stick to repashy only now for days when I want to give them something super healthy. Maybe I'll have to try again! I have learned a bit more, haven't tried in a long time. That's awesome to hear. I can't wait to get some 🙂 .

Stem in the front looks cool. I like the "scape" so to speak 🙂 . I would think when the stem gets big it might be too big, those plants might be too big for that tank? We'll see! I like it though, and hopefully you let it grow out and see what the plants do and then trim it as you see fit! What is the plan for stocking?

I had the same thing happen in my 75. It did well for months.... years I think. I added CO2 and then had issues with it and slowly weened all the plants off the co2 and down to "low light" levels where the plants and everything wasn't high demand. The moss and anubias and a scattered few plants survived. Over the next several months the moss just kept fading. I equate it to a plant that needed root tabs not getting them and it slowly wilted away and stopped growing overnight it seemed like. Moss does well with good light, no algae, and steady nutrients. @Odd Duck might be the perfect one to ask. In my view, I would try to trim out dead spots, cut it so it encourages new growth, and then try to get the moss to "wake up" so to speak. Whatever the lighting is I would add about 5% or so and see if you notice any change after the trim and the cut to encourage new growth. Is there any chance this tank saw some salt and that lead to some die-offs? You mentioned nitrates, but the brown makes me think something happened to cause an issue and the plant had issues recovering. What is your dosing schedule for fertilizer in this tank?

you should be able to add something that sticks to the substrate or glass without much issue. You might also see different predation behaviors depending what you add, like small snails and shrimp. So.... for me "species only" just means that it's a tank for one type of fish. Doesn't mean you can't fill out the water with fish that wont impede or attack said fish. This is why most breeders have plecos in everything.

Aquahuna has the black emperor tetras with these really nice green / blue eyes. I also am partial to the green neons or the green rasbora (never had them available locally, any of those). In terms of the tank, chili rasbora would pop really well, so would the more green Sundadanio axelrodi or the variety of tetras depending on what colors you enjoy.

you have a betta in there and so that limits things. Most peaceful for me personally is WCMM, but they like cooler tank temperatures. A green neon might do well for you!

it was 68 in my tanks yesterday morning. I dropped in the heaters, now it's 72. No issues. If you're "within range" of the fishes habitat, then you're generally ok. Let's say it's too hot. Fish tend to do ok with cooler water compared to water that's too hot. If you're heater is overheating things, turn it off. Let the room temp control things until you can get a new one. If it gets on the bad side of cold, then plug it in for a little bit and then go ahead and unplug it again.