nabokovfan87

I have not. I definitely lurk and use their data!

I AGREE!!!!! 20L = 29G with less height. 37G = 29G with more height. I love the footprint of these tanks! If the big box store actually had 37's in stock, and marked the 29G stand as fitting the 37G, what a world. The 37G is also just the 29 but with a brace on the top section.

Yeah I checked that too! Same levels.

I think there's better ways to handle it. Mattenfilter, overflows, just using them seperately, etc. I think attaching them in that way, makes them both run non-optimally. A. Canister with in-line CO2 and a prefilter sponge, spraybar output for best flow paths B. UGF with air driven pipes, it just adds air, and does what you need it to. C. Gravel vac to clean things, assuming this isn't a planted tank or that if it is, the plants are done in such a way the UGF acts to hold in nutrients. Good stuff. This is his "I did some stuff and learned from it" latest update. I always enjoy his stuff 🙂

Ah. Looks like fish eggs! I know you said there's no fish, potentially it fell off a plant? I would remove them and keep an eye out to see if there is more appearing. they don't look fertile.

Comes in a few methods, but the fish will swim, turn their body, then "itch" so to speak.

API: Fritz: Any idea why there's a difference of treatment on these two? I am planning to dose every day, but I was curious why the API one was different when I looked it up. Lower stress on the fish I would imagine, but is there something I'm missing?

My stepbro had a tank, wasn't cared for well. I guarantee you that thing got warm.

I would just double / triple check temps. What I am seeing for Crayfish:

What temp is planned for the betta? 78-80?

Is it possible to get a 20L instead? the issue for me is just corys and temps. They like 2 airstones in a tank, not required, but they enjoy it, and then just the difference in temp where most people keep a betta pretty warm. It's been a long time since I've been around a betta or had one. I would lean towards shrimp with them, as long as it's planted and they can hide well enough (or just be big enough) as long as the betta doesn't go crazy on them. As long as the tank doesn't have gravel, it's ok. They tend to get impacted super easily. They usually go into the tank, then you never see em except at night.

Awesome! Welcome to the forums 🙂

Red-Tailed Black Shark: CR status https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/7807/12852157

Plants up to 1:05 are untreated. Everything after that (wood and rock) is treated on that "2nd treatment". Interesting stuff. Took me a few days to get CO2 dialed in, seeing some changes to the algae and the stuff on the rocks is staying smaller than others.

Yeah. A lot of them sink and then puff up.

Awesome name! Welcome to the forums. If you can, please try to get a photo that is a bit in focus so we can see what we're looking at.

Try to put only a spoonful at a time to start, then you'd want some sort of abrasive. You typically would use salt for this one, but this situation is a bit different. You can add a small amount, a small bit of water to let them soak slightly and then try to crush them. That becomes your abrasive for the next spoonful. Pound it to try to crush them, but just try not filling it so full and maybe it'll get slightly easier. Pepper grinder makes it easier, even a bag and a rolling pin. I would totally expect the mortal and pestle to work though. A lot of people use them and have little ones for fish stuff.

It depends on what you're doing. anaerobic bacteria isn't a negative thing. The issue is the pockets of hydrogen sulfide gas that could be deadly. If you're using sand, or a fine substrate, when you gravel vac you'd just want to disturb the substrate. Some people use chop sticks to do this as well or the handle of a net, aquascaping spatula, etc. If you're using gravel, I don't think it's too much of a concern, but you'd just make sure flow doesn't have the major dead spots, then you'd want to gravel vac it and make sure you're not leaving a massive amount of waste trapped in those dead spots. If you're using a soil or planted substrate, typically you wouldn't gravel vac as well, but you do want to make sure things aren't just heaping piles of waste and nitrates everywhere. Stirring things up and using a turkey baster is a common method I've seen that I would recommend. Again, you can use a net, spatula, something to get things into the water column and then siphon that excess off.

Are you able to test phosphorus? As mentioned by Roy, this is probably one of the big indicators and Your green plants might be taking the majority of it. Red plant isn't doing well, the indications lean towards Phosphorus and/or magnesium. I have very cold and then very hot water. It's no fun either way! Only the strong survive, and right now it's algae. 😞 I am guessing this is your CO2 setup and not the filter. With a tank this big, I would imagine a canister, in-line CO2 reactor, and pressurized CO2 is going to make things much more consistent for you. Your CO2 is likely alternating, your lighting is good, but then you have fluctuations in water and in your nutrients. If this isn't the case with the CO2, fantastic, for clarity and consistency let's just double check everything. Is the above shown your CO2 and how is it being diffused into the tank? A few things make sense here, specifically trying to stabilize everything and get consistency. This is where I think the majority of getting your consistency back will start! Great advice. I would then confirm CO2 is setup, working, and that it's stable. Then we dial in the water where it stands now, to best determine how to dose and what to dose. I would recommend verifying the tap with an off-gassing test: A. Take water from the tap, test everything you can. B. Take that same sample of water and aerate it for 24 hours, then test everything you can again. This is likely the values you'd expect to see in your tank when you change water. C. Compare these values in test B to your tank parameters to see the difference. I would test this after the water changes above are mentioned and you're on your second weekly 50% wc.

Yeah, that's what I was looking at. I would go for the whole thing. It could be a secondary fungal or bacterial issue. You can start with salt, level 3, add air, then monitor. Second to that would then be your ich-X and your normal bacterial meds you've been using. You can also do all of these at once, just follow the directions on the bacterial med, and then whatever the volume change is larger between ich-X and the bacterial med when you do a WC.

Always happy to help! I would expect PH to drop slightly, but it looks like pretty good water to start with.

I would recommend running an off-gassing test to see your parameters from the tap that your tank will experience: A. Take a sample from the Tap, then test everything you can. B. Take that same sample, aerate it with an airstone for 24 hour, retest. C. Compare Test B to your tank results. This would be what you'd expect to see when you do water changes and how it will impact parameters in the tank. Agreed. It's too easy to mess it up without doing this with preconditioned water. If you have the ability to buffer the water ahead of time, similar to saltwater, that's the only way I'd recommend doing that for a specific species. If your issue is PH/KH, that can easily be addressed long term without dosing the tank during each WC. Here is a great blog article on how these two interact to give you stable water. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

The one with the marks had to go back, the one without is doing ok?

Definitely seems plausible and it's something I've seen. Horde gets to a specific size, then they decide it's time to grow. They probably get about.... 1" or 1.25" for the females and then they start to lay or show activity for me. I will have to keep an eye out for the size of eggs. It's a good point. I think on my black corys I have 1 M and 1 F that I got from the last spawn, so it'll be a good chance to see what happens.

That's really good to hear, honestly. I guarantee I had the worst possible batch / mix you could have. I just don't think it's worth the risk without it being made of a known item. I feel so bad seeing what the fish are going through. I have been digging into "why" some lose barbels. I've even seen reports of it happening with bare bottom tanks, less so compared to "sharp substrate" issues, but that's definitely a possibility. It's a difficult one to pin down. I just hope they recover. Day 3 of meds. Photos yesterday trying to check in on them hit me hard, of course. I am hoping to see redness and stuff start to heal. They have always eaten normally, which is a good sign.