nabokovfan87

Next time please do. It's Plato's cave in a nutshell. You don't know what you don't know and getting a proper tank with a filter is likely CHEAPER than the little dinky thing they had in their cart. Petsmart isn't great about selling tanks. They are good at having pictures. Petco is slightly better because they actually have the aqueon bare tanks available and it's so easy to get one of those and go pick out the correct filter.

This is likely the cause. Temperature is the other big trigger for them. What is the temperature of the tank? Did you find them in one particular spot in the tank? Last issue would be that they are new and the question of how you acclimated them to the new tank. Shrimp can be very particular and require a very slow acclimation process sometimes when there is certain kinds of shifts in parameters.

I had this happen with tiger barbs and the skimmer on the seachem Tidal. The main treatment would be bacterial, which you're doing. But the indications of the tail not working / unable to sit upright. That's causing permanent damage at this point and I don't know if that fish will ever recover from it. That being said. so this doesn't happen in future, do you have any photos of the filtration? Is the pump too strong for the tank or what do you think was causing it? It's tough to look at, but I am guessing this is where the fish was caught on the intake tube?

Yeah. It looks like spinal damage somehow. It's likely something fell or crushed the back. I'm very sorry about that. I would suggest euthanizing the fish at this point. Points to either that's the normal color and I'm just not aware. Maybe @TeeJay can take a look at his and confirm. I think it points towards some internal issues though.

I tried IAL / Catapa leaves for the first time recently and I was pretty surprised at how it ended up. Let me elaborate a bit and then hopefully that provides the context for what you're targeting. My tank has generally always had some wood in the tank. This is where the majority of the tannins come from and it's the place where I find it to be the easiest method for tannins to develop for a basic "look". This will alter PH slightly, but if you're doing regular water changes you're talking about a very minor amount. If you're literally stacking the tank with a pile of wood, at that point you'd have enough surface area to cause some changes. When I did the leaves my hope was to add to this look. It's a pretty bare tank and so blackwater was the look for it, for me. I added just about the entire pack of leaves and within about 3-4 days the leaves were halway gone. I added more, moved them to places where they weren't in flow and the fish and shrimp could interact with them a bit more. If you have something like hardscape and you can wedge a leaf in there, or a kelp holder, that might be a great way to add leaves without having it on the substrate. Obviously, if you're going for a full blackwater, filter allowing, you would just add those leaves in without worry. I would highly suggest something like cones, pods, etc. in addition to wood to give you that blackwater look. If you're trying to rely on JUST leaves, I think you're talking about a lot more leaves than makes sense to get the water to shade. Rooibos tea is also a great option, as long as it's pure / organic. As for the fish in question! I think most nano fish, corydoras, plecos, will do well with the blackwater setup. It shades out light and that's what they tend to want. Corydoras and plecos especially fall into that category. from another forum, trying to google search some info about the point that you mentioned. That being said. I don't know what is meant by "acidis, low TDS" environment. Potentially an acidic, high TDS environment is fine? Are they viewing 7 as normal and 7.4 as the target? I'm not quite sure. Looking online I'm seeing: Acidity: 6.7-8.5 pH For me, that means "optimal" is about 7.4-7.6. They like hardwater, some salt in the water, generally speaking. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/molly-fish-care

Yeah exactly. The thing a lot of light companies and hobbyist overlook is how it works and not just what works. Will it work? Sure. Is the scape designed in a way to make it work well? Possibly. Let's say.... You had an offset scape, so all the plant mass was to one side and on the opposite side of the tank you had anubias or java ferns. That would mean that you have adequate, effective lighting for that tank and the nano would work well. Your castoff is always going to be a square and not a rectangle. So if you have a square tank, you're ahead of the game with the nano. If you don't, keep that in mind, purchase 2, etc. The light is made for small rimless tanks, but you can totally get a 3d printed adapter for a rimmed tank, use several, if that's what you have. If you can get the smaller planted 3.0 traditional light, you might have a bit more options. Especially if you can lift it up off the tank. I would think the nano "works" for anything up to a 20L depending on setup. 12" depth and smaller.

Appreciate all you do Zenzo!

Beautiful colors. What an awesome fish!

These first 2 pictures are from a Top Fin "BettaFlo" Filter that looks very similar to what you have. A few notes. A. It's top fin, so there no real website for me to look at the manual and help with cleaning the impeller. Please do it though. If you don't know what that is we can help or I can track down some pictures of similar filters to help with taking that pump apart for cleaning. Basically, remove the pump, remove the impeller, clean the impeller shaft and chamber, clean the impeller itself, any covers and foam that are with the pump and then re-assemble. B. I think this *might be* the right filter, but hard to say. I use this only to show the flow and how the water moves so we can discuss things as far as improvements. Alright so "optimizing" this one is a bit tricky but there's a few tips and tricks we can do. Layout A: Layout B: (same thing, but you don't have ceramic media in the same location) For right now. Replace it with a new one.

Make sure that ceramic media in the bucket stays wet! Put that as close to the output as you can (after the cartridge). Working on some sketches now. What size tank is this?

yep, exactly. Let me try to find a manual.

If you can, when you get the gunk off and stuff. Please show the filter itself so I can get an idea for layout. Looks like water in from that inlet, pump is around there, and it goes to the cartridge and then out?

what filter is that? Maybe we can help to set it up a bit better. I see what looks like a cartridge, which explains a TON of the issues you're having. Take everything in the filter, including the filter itself (if possible) and then go ahead and use the toothbrush to clean as much as you can in a bucket. Fill it up with water about halfway just to keep things wet and make it a lot easier on yourself. Anything that isn't filter media you can take to a sink and clean and rinse at that point. Because of what you're showing you absolutely need to clean out the pump and the impeller and make sure those things are working correctly at max flow. Secondly, verify that you do have some sort of an intake filter on that pump if possible because you do have a lot of floating debris in the tank right now.

I've done it multiple times when need be. Once in a while you won't have any issues. Keep things wet. Rocks, plants, substrate, filter media, sponge, etc. and you won't mess with the cycle itself. The water is not what holds the cycle. You're doing a major cleaning, scrubbing hard surfaces, but the majority of the bacteria is going to be in the filter media, substrate, and hardscape. (not the water itself).

100%! I would recommend using a toothbrush to scrub all this stuff off. Take the rocks out, scrub them, rinse them, and then set them aside to clean the rest of the tank. Whatever the lights are at now, cut it by 50% and make sure you're not OVER 8 hours for your lighting times. Make sure that you're using a timer, etc. Once you scrap everything, use the gravel siphon and get it all out until you're happy with the change. Keep doing this every 2-4 days and you'll get ahead of it. Once you get it "clean" then you can just focus on having clean water, good conditions, and solving the issue long term. If this was my tank, I'd clean it, which usually is an 80-90% water change when all is done. This shouldn't cause any major issues, but this is all dependent on how close your tank water is to your tap water. If it's similar, you're very comfortable to change out water. The only final thing to note.... Please look into a background on the tank. Potentially the sides as well if lighting in those spots becomes an issue. There is a window behind the tank or something bright and it could be causing greenwater and those kinds of symptoms in the tank. You can use anything from a black trashbag, black paper, posterboard, window film, acrylic paint, etc. Edit: I also forgot to mention. You can use the soft toothbrush on the plants too. Hold the leaves in your hand and gently brush them. Remove them so you can do a deep clean on everything in the tank and not be concerned about siphoning them out. The plants will recover! Get your dosing and lights in order, they will come back.

Its a treatment schedule for most / all worms with the meds we use commonly. Paracleanse being similar to the Hikari PraziPro, but a slight variation in doses. Similar / the same active ingredients. Expel-P being the other one on the schedule, light NOT tolerant. Those two meds would treat everything internal / external without going towards something more potent like a canine dewormer that's going around. Salt being the third option in the triangle, highly recommended for meds / external treatments. Yeah. It could've just been an internal issue (big bit of waste or something). But for those worms you'd focus on the Expel-P. Planaria as well.

Totally. That leaf is very similar to Anubias Nangi as well. Coffeefolia/Barteri, Gold coin, Hastifolia, normal plain anubias, and others in that size category would do well also!

Very likely because of the food. That's unfortunate. Let's go 15 little amanos! You can do it!!!!

Probably one of my favorite species of fish. One day @Zenzo will have a species spotlight on them!!!! (nudge nudge) 😂

Aquarium co-op has a few videos breeding his orange lasers on the vlogs. 🙂 I believe their needs are right on par with what panda corydoras prefer from what I've seen on videos. Hopefully that helps you out!

I actually don't think they mind the sunlight, or the light even, but I get the feeling you'll have an awesome little corydoras horde on your hand. Even a tank with a little section of val is plenty for them to hide and feel safe in. The setup sounds awesome and the numbers your going to have is really reassuring that they will do well in most / any conditions for you! Really wonderful that you get to see all those little fish grow up for you. One of my favorite things is seeing them interact with the parents and the new environment.

There's a ton of setup videos online. Dean's videos are a great place to start as well as Cory's vlog style videos. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:

Very cool. Honestly, once I see full body shapes / coloration they do well for me and I have very few losses. Usually 1/8" long or so I would guesstimate. Would the tank have cover / shade? Corydoras do happen to love moss balls too!

Awesome stuff! I'm always very excited to see corydoras do their thing and their lifecycle stages for each variety. I hope they do extremely well for you. I know they will love all your awesome mosses and plants 🙂 .

I moved some plants around during this week's maintenance regime. I slightly re-did the scape and I tried to remove a bunch of the junk in the substrate where I had shown that algae on the gravel itself. At this point, if I see things progress I might end up removing the top 1/2" or gravel and see how that does. I got a new python that has a shorter tube (I was using the large, got the medium) which gives me a little bit easier time getting into the little nooks and crannies to keep things clean. I don't feel great about how the CO2 is doing right now, just meaning I might need to dial it up. I need to test things and verify it's doing what I need it to. Right now I am seeing some issues with PH and not acting as it should under CO2 dosing (lower PH when CO2 is dosed in the system due to carbonic acid production). I moved a little bit of the Staurogyne repens that was in the front by the diffuser to the back corner. I moved the rocks slightly forward and trying to give the tank a slightly more cohesive look. For the spraybar I did a dry fit of the slightly stronger pump. The GPH is 112 on the current pump and would increase to 168. It's about double the size. This just means I need to mod the spraybar in such a way so that I can maximize the number of holes on the bar. It's a very short run for the spraybar right now and the first 2" or so doesn't have holes because it's designed to fit the 407 intake setups. I can totally add them, but I am likely going to have one spraybar for the smaller filter, and then one for the larger pumphead. The kit I bought came with two pieces, but only one endcap. I can get another endcap, seal it, or just move the endcap when switching out the pumps. Algae is still annoying, but I'm doing what I can. Tank is getting some new fish this week and I hope they like staghorn! I don't have any idea if they would eat it, but if they do, awesome. Test Results for the week: Temp: 72.3 Phosphates: .25 PH: 7.5 GH: 150 (likely dropped due to water treatment changes) KH: 80 Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 10** **This is why I'm needing to dose more often, plants are using the ferts. I dosed 24 hours ago with a full dose, which is usually about ~25-35 ppm for this tank after a WC. It's not likely to be from food, which means the nitrates you're seeing above ~5 ppm are from the fertilizer dosing itself. If dosing 3x a week it would be sunday, tuesday, thursday and up from 2x a week. Edit: For the time being I've added some plants to the side of a tank and using the overhang of the Fluval 36" to try and light them. It should mean slightly less intensity on the tank itself (at least on one side), but there is no guarantees. I'll snap some photos next time, but the goal is to grow some herbs for cooking. So far onion is doing well, lettuce is by the front porch, but I can move it now 🙂 . I do have basil and mint and neither of those did well at all. I am not sure why. The plants I tend to grow have just been stuff that are beginner friendly and don't require a lot of care. Growing herbs is slightly more specialized, but wanting to grow that for cooking is a must!!!!