nabokovfan87

What plants? This is basically lava rock. Not recommended. Mine are on this substrate. You can see a few videos, photos, etc. of the substrate in the journal in my signature. Please feel free to ask any questions in either thread. As for Flourite for a planted tank, yes it's recommended, but it's something that stores nutrients over time, it doesn't start with them. In either case you'd want to use root tabs to feed the plants. I've also had corys on fluval stratum, very soft, no issues. I have had them on gravel, no issues (as long as it is not sharp edges). I've had them on a few varieties of sand. On BDBS, definitely not recommended, and I have had them on the Imagitarium "sand" which is literally just small gravel bits painted with black acrylic paint. I think you're doing perfectly fine with exactly what you're doing now. We can talk more about any issues you might be experiencing once we know what plants you're using! Please share any photos you'd like to regarding issues or to show off your setup. Works pretty well! Just make sure the sand cap is actually thick enough otherwise it'll just mix up. That's the mistake I made. With a lot of soil based substrates you want to also verify they aren't leeching ammonia into the water when you first add them. Because Corydoras are closest to the substrate level, they tend to get the brunt of the issues when that happens 😞 .

Because of the loach temp and the bonzai. white clouds seem really appropriate.

Not even joking. I need about 3-4 of these.

Welcome to the forums. If you can, please provide photos of what is going on. Melafix is a passive tool, not really a medication. It's made from botanicals. As for treating fin rot you need to use a medicine that works on gram negative bacteria. The one I have heard recommended elsewhere is neoplex from seachem. Because you're also dealing with Ich I think the best thing to do right now is to treat for Ich, then treat for the bacterial issues. Here is a very good video to check out regarding treatment for Ich. I will also link a few blog articles that are related to the situation. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-treat-ich-on-freshwater-fish https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/how-to-treat-fin-rot Note, the salt used to treat Ich may help with the fin rot. It's difficult to say that it will treat it, but it might help. One of the first things you need to do when treating for Ich is verify that it's actually ich. Please provide photos of everything as best you can. Video also helps. You can upload them to youtube if need be and post an unlisted link here. The critical think here is to verify this is ich, double check everything like stocking and temperature, filtration, etc. to try to decide if this is caused by stress or if this was an illness the fish brought to the tank. If the fish is new, and they showed up with the spots right away, it's very likely the brought that to your tank. For Ich, you'd usually see it on the fins and then on the body itself. Your temps are already the correct range, so you'd just need to treat with Ich-X and Salt, then follow up with bacterial medications to treat any secondary infections with the open wounds. Because of the issues you're already having with Fin rot, this is where it gets tricky. treating for Ich opens up wounds and leads to a gram positive and gram negative bacteria (simply put, different meds needed to treat each). If we can verify fin rot, then we'd start there. If you have a food like repashy you can dose that, or another food with bacterial meds to also treat the fish. This method is proven more effective as it guarantees the fish receive the meds. This would not be done now, but after treating for Ich. So.... Let's take a step back, verify everything, recommend a good treatment plan, then proceed forward 🙂 What meds do you have on hand currently?

Is there a database of PH that plants like? Maybe this is something useful for ACO to have in their website or something we can compile for ACO plants as an "advanced planted tank" tool? The biggest one that stands out to me is how many people struggle with Scarlet Temple.

Yep that's it 🙂

It's difficult to do on the phone. I had to use a computer to do it. I think it's part of settings now where you click on your username menu. absolutely beautiful coloration.

I believe they only sell 20 or 10 lb bags, not sure what your local store has. It might be 5 and then 20.

Good to hear. Yeah, you would do epsom baths, then you would dose ich-X and Maracyn to the tank itself only.

You can see the scuffed up window piece now. It's a lot sturdier with the surface prepped and being a bit more liberal with the silicone. You can also see the little holes I cut for the adhesion to bond / hold rather than just attaching.

Very cool. Check this out, let me know if you have any questions. What I meant by "things will get mixed up" is what she mentions regarding the chopstick and moving things around.

Would this be the first time for a tank with sand?

If you mix it well, I don't think you will. Keep in mind, you're going to move things around anyways just by gravel vacuuming. I would try to avoid making it ~2 inches or thicker. Especially given the difference in particle size. When you get the sand, play with it on a seperate container and figure out what gravel mix looks good, then go from there 🙂

Yeah, you can just use a small cup or something and gently add in the tank. I would imagine..... you'd push the gravel to one side or clear a spot, then add a region of the tank with sand where you can feed. The other way to do it is to just remove a good 70-80% of the gravel, then add the sand and decorate the surface with the gravel. If you cap it, then you'd just cap a part of the tank with the sand. On my 29G I used a 20lb bag. It's about 1 lb per gallon (obviously footprint matters) to give you a good base layer of sand. I think on a 55G I used about 60-70 lbs of sand. It seems to work out. But, this is for a sand base not necessarily a gravel base. The "rubble style" of a scape would be a section or the base of the tank with sand (or aquasoil capped with sand) and then the small gravel and pebbles along the surface.

With the type of algae you have, a toothbrush will work really well to remove it. Once you do that, you can siphon off the substrate and water. That will help the plants as well to fight off the algae.

Here is some inspiration for you two 🙂 I think Pecktec does it a lot too where he will have a sand substrate as a cap, then toss some things into the surface to add texture. It's sort of a "rubble style" aquascape. Edit: Another fantastic one.

LOL, you just have to get them after feeding when they ate so much they can't move!

My bacteria is in the filter for the most part and I generally run 2 filters on a tank. If you're concerned about it you can dose liquid bacteria following the change. I've done it... 5+ times, never had any issues. Never lost a fish from it.

I have never done it partially, I literally do a 90% or full tank WC and replace the substrate whenever I change it out. I remove the hardscape, plants into buckets, then I put the fish into a bucket with air for the time being. Do what need be with the tank, then add the plants and stuff back, then the fish.

Where is it at in the tank itself?

I cannot say this is safe, but this is what comes up for a "full tank" dosage of epsom salt. this is what some people do for altering water parameters in there tank or some plant deficiencies. @Tropicalfishkeeping201 depending how much you dosed, hopefully you haven't yet, you might need to do a water change asap. 50%. Here is another video on the topic it should start when they discuss use of epsom salt.

Sorry. I got mixed up between salt / epsom salt. Let me send you a Link with Epsom Salt directions via DM. The dosing I gave was for Aquarium Salt. As mentioned, Don't use Epsom and Aquarium salt at the same time. For Clarity, I have only seen epsom salt used as a bath, not in the main tank. I checked the link and it does not give a dosage for the tank itself, only bathing instructions. I don't know the science behind it, but this is why you shouldn't use both Epsom and aquarium salt at the same time.

Testing Results from yesterday: Temp: 73.4 Phosphate: 1.0-1.5 Ammonia: 0 Nitrate: 10 Nitrite: 0 GH: 300+ KH: 60-100 PH: ~7.6 It appears that KH is "stable" for the most part, but it's very hard to tell for me reading the chart at what the specific value is. PH being that high is a concern, especially with the amanos in there and recent issues. I did continue to add a bit of the alkaline buffer on the water change but I have been lowering the dose to try to keep things more consistent and the PH in the 7.0-7.2 range as opposed to higher. I'll test phosphate and PH again today just to get a reading after 24 hours. I am now running a phosphate pad for the sake of lowering algae and phophates. Ironically, since adding it, the phosphate has increased. Probably due to bypass on the Tidal and due to the algae killing plants. CO2 is doing better than it was when I first installed it and it makes me feel like I am getting back in stride with having a higher quality planted tank. I am having a weird regulator issue still but it is very likely due to the check valve I am using and causing a drop in pressure somewhere. I might've been running too long of a piece of tubing and that also caused issues. It's difficult to say. the issue being, at the regulator I am seeing 5+ drops per second, but on the diffuser it's much lower. Yesterday I moved the diffuser from the front to the back of the tank and the CO2 is dissolving a lot better. But, I am dumping CO2 in there and the way it's dissolving it appears I can just about double the rate and still not have much loss. (it's not reaching the surface and is diffused prior to reaching the waterline) My goal this time around, with some inspiration from @OnlyGenusCaps was to go ahead and scrub the living crap out of this algae and remove as much as humanly possible. I got everything setup, tried to remove things out of the way, turned off the filter, and moved the light out of the way. I went to cut the CO2 line from the diffuser so I could shorten it and move it to the back of the tank and immediate pinched the crap out of my finger with the scissors, what a great start! I took the wood out, rocks out, scraped the tank, gravel vacuumed, cleaned the lid, equipment, and I wanted to record a before and after. The rocks did well but you can tell the algae is deep in on the seiryu and it looks like it has little black dots for pores on its surface. The most annoying part is seeing it take hold on the edge of the silicone on all of the corners of the glass. The only way I'm getting rid of this is to treat everything and replace the tank 😞 . I don't think the scape looks good right now, but it is massively better for the fish and they have a hide now and feel a lot safer. I was watching the fish last night after everything, lights out, but this is how I tell that the fish are doing ok and comfortable with the tank. The sleep out in the open and don't mind it one bit. This is a very blurry photo, but for the sake of comparison this is how big my corydoras is compared to the ACO color chart on the test strips. I usually put my hand up to the tank for size and she's just a bruiser. I really enjoy this species and it has been a surprise that they get this big, but I am really glad I have a larger species. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to get them just based on size, but I can say that there's no reason to avoid a larger species if you enjoy something like panda corydoras. I got a backup impeller in case I ever run into issues with a pump. I found a new PH Checker and it works a heck of a lot better (from seachem) as well as the diffuser I am trying out. I also managed to find the "rest" of the Fluval aquascaping tools and I have been able to get some hands on time with them now. Spring Scissors: Extremely cheap feeling, but they work well in use. I will post a second photo below, you can see just how small the jaws are. It's a great bit of kit to have for the sake of trimming plants in tight areas. Flat Scissors: Works well for big tanks, blades have always been kind of dull, but works for plants. S-Curve Scissors: I don't know how I managed to get work done without these! Straight Tweezers: They work decently well and the tension on them I really like. The grips I like as well. If you look closely you'll notice that the ends are pretty chunky, but they also only touch at the tip. This makes it very easy for things to slip out. ACO Curved Tweezers: I always had some issues with the tension and getting these in-->out of the substrate without removing the plants. I would have to squeeze hard and then often crushed roots or something on very delicate plants. Not excessively, but trying to hold the plant wasn't easy. I noticed that the tips were bent at a weird angle and I had to make sure they could actually close properly. Much better now. Just be sure to check yours if you do have these that they close and the jaws / teeth are parallel. Spatula: The central handle and rod is perfectly fine. It might work better and actually be cheaper to produce if the entire thing was flat, but this is a 3 piece construction. That being said, the two ends are the cheapest, thinnest metal I have seen and these things will not work well over time. Do not get these, find something else that's better built. When mine arrived in the box, I had to open it from the fluval packaging and actually bend it straight. It's the equivalent material to stiff aluminum foil. 😞 I took a video of the before / after on the tank to make it a bit easier to see things. Sometimes photos get confusing, hopefully this is a little easier. The first part of the video is before, the following part is the next day after the tank had a little bit of time to clear up. Edit: Retest Results -PH = 7.4 -Phosphates = ~0.75

Edited: see below. Don't dose your tank with epsom salt without full research in it's uses!!! Maracyn on my box says to treat daily for 5 days, then on day 6 change water. Day 1: Dose everything, Ich-X, Maracyn, add an airstone if need be (EDIT: Removed salt, see below) Day 2-5: Dose Maracyn 1x per day Day 6: 50% water change, wait 24 hours, dose Ich-X

ORD, but congratulations, that's awesome! 😍