nabokovfan87

Mine was the same way.... 😂. He would wait for the active fish to go away then would go in or he'd do what the amano's do and strike first, try to run back to his little territory with the spoils.

It's an interesting question! That newer 60B is really nice, but maybe not as perfect compared to a 75G/40B for the angels. I would move over the corydoras without much issue. The rams I would actually keep in the 29G, just in case the temps for the rams are higher. Pandas do tend to like low 70's for me, but I know people have them all over the temp range. You mentioned barbs, so that falls right in like with those lower 70 temps. Melon barbs, odessa barbs, cherry barbs.... I would pick 2 of those and get a good size school or treat it as more of a species only setup and enjoy their behavior. I think the angels and gourami might have their antennae nipped on by the barbs, so the gourami especially I would keep with the rams. Angels, just keep an eye on them. It all depends on temp for me about what ends up where! ...... Option 2: 29 stays cold, the 40B goes a bit warmer. In the bigger tank then you can add the angels, the gourami, the rams. You can wait for a spawn or add another pair and see what happens. You'll definitely have enough space for it. In that case, something like schools of tetra would be the species I would add in lieu of barbs or cypranidae species. A corydoras like sterbai or false julii would do better at bolivian ram temps in the setup and it's one of those amazing things where the older they get the more amazing that pattern becomes! You could even add in something like hasbrosus or other nano corydoras species. In the 29G then you have room for cherry barbs, white clouds, or other small rasbora species. very beautiful angel!

I have the same sort of predicament. 😞 I like the tumbler and ziss breeder because they both can be used inside the tank with the lids closed. For some reason I have some fish that love to jump and whatever box I end up using, I need to have them covered. In the tank, I think it's a bit more secure as well. For eggs only, I think using the tumbler is great. Then transfer that to whatever box/method you like. If you don't have a tumbler, then something like the ziss is nice (or the hang on marina/fluval ones) because they have the ability to circulate air. The "floating style" ones and mesh styles ones have their use, but I just prefer something a little bit more technically advanced. It makes it easier to clean. For most fish eggs you can add some neocaridina shrimp to the tank and they are used to keep the eggs clean. Keeping them in the box, goes back to that lid situation. Moss is also a big key point for me as well. The powdered food sticks to the moss and then the fry can graze on that. It works really well.

I would run the 207 with a spraybar.

Good to hear @Seanwoodey . Keep an eye on them and hopefully you'll continue to see them thrive!

There are plenty of studies about the impact of nitrates on livestock in aquaculture. Nitrate levels do matter and there is an acceptable threshold for things. That being said, I understand the intent behind what you were saying. Sometimes we just do too much and try for too many things. I think in terms of media, maybe it's sufficient for nano setups. For something like a 5-10G tank it's tough. If you continue to see issues then I would consider finding a way to add more biologicals. One of my favorite ways is with porous rock in the hardscape (lava rock).

I just put tabs in yesterday. The last time was 5 weeks ago, which was after I had the plant 2 weeks. If you continue to see issues, I would consider changing the type of tabs you're using. At most, in my tanks I use easy green and then I use iron. The only other thing I would consider would be to use potassium supplements as well. Ultimately, everything checks out so to speak, but I would just keep an eye on all of the details and try to be aware of what is really going on day to day. If you have dying/dead leaves, go ahead and pull those off. We want to get KH to be less than GH as well. Preferably you want GH to be near double your KH. (This is a recommendation from Green aqua that I received to ensure plants have sufficient ratios of nutrients.) Track what you're adding to the tank and if you really need be follow that up with actual testing of those parameters. Sometimes one deficiency can be linked to another, or you can have one that appears very similar to another.

I took some quick photos of my sponges just to give you an idea. Shrimp can definitely handle a good amount of air! Ultimately it's a balance between noise for you, circulation+oxygenation for them, but it looks like things are headed in the right direction. (The same tank, I have 3 air drops, 2 sponge filters and 1 air stone)

It has been tried, but once you look towards modifying or removing the basket then you're basically looking at doing a full custom setup. Think of it more like a hang-on sump in some fashion. They make these for saltwater as well, a hang-on refugium setup. The design would be similar. Overflow in... overflow out. The issue is all of the work to get the water down to the bottom, then just simply flows up. On of the nice things about the tidal though is that you do have some pretty decent opportunity to modify the basket of make a custom baffle out of acrylic. It's a "generally rectangular" shape with curves you could sand to fit fairly easily. I would recommend using a piece of thick paper (manila folder is commonly used for templates) and then transfer that over to your flat piece of plastic. Prep the surface well with cleaners and by roughing the surface appropriately. Another method you could consider is using the tube itself as your guide. You can remove the chute piece entirely, which eliminates your flow adjustment. That leads to a simple hole which you could easily add a plug, attach it to a hose, then that directs the flow right to where you want it to be. It is definitely possible, and it's a bit of a blank canvas for you to modify if you wanted.

I had a look at the filter. It seems really undersized. It could just be a scale thing or due to the way the photos look. I also tend to over filter my tanks a bit just for stability sake. Either way, maybe this is the first time you've used this particular filter and that speaks to the issues you've experienced? In terms of circulation and flow, how is the pump working for you with this particular setup? Just in terms of media, how do you think it compares to something like this... https://store.oase-usa.com/collections/aquarium-filters/products/oase-filtosmart-60

Very sorry about the accident. 😞 It's good to hear everything is ok now and the recovery process went well. Wonderful news about the baby fish! Looking forward to seeing more.

There's a few really amazing, high quality, dutch scapers here. I would love to see another one!

What is going on with the KH and GH? I would run a liquid test to verify those. For the plant in question, when was the last time it was tabbed? Agreed, it looks like a deficiency of some kind. KH and GH both seem pegged to the max.

Just an FYI.... I've seen reports of some people who would have the knowledge to say this, that if you're using multiple bacteria sources, one of them can simply out compete the other. Given certain parameters like PH, the live version of the fritz bacteria may not do a whole lot. They do have a version that is much more similar to seachem's stability product. I would suggest using one only and I would suggest following the directions for dosing off of the seachem stability side of things as opposed to the fritz packaging. (One big dose on day 1, then normal doses for 7 days) That being said, I don't think gravel or bacteria is to blame here, so let's dive in. What is the actual filtration you're running and what is the media setup in that filtration. (photos help a ton here) It's definitely a unique situation and I am not sure why or what's going on. If I had to guess, I think there's a combination of things, but most importantly something is leeching into the tank. I would start by testing your tap water. I would ensure that you're not getting ammonia from chloramines and that you're not getting nitrates from the tap. As mentioned, you did this, and it was a big goose egg. 😞 That's a wonderful thing though because it means we can isolate everything to something inside the tank. The common things here would be substrate (active soil leeching) or snails. Is there anything like that going on? Maybe some snails got brought into the tank via the other filtration? Last but not least, I don't think rocks leech ammonia, but I have heard of gravel leeching/raising ammonia. This could be due to things in (or on) the rock/gravel and it may just be a matter of doing a ton of water changes. The only think you really should or need to do, is to do daily water changes as large of water volume as you can. There is only plants in the system, they will actually be fine with larger water changes as long as they stay wet. Daily 50-80% water changes would be my go to right now. Before you do any water changes, disturb the substrate with your hand and see if there is a lot of debris that ends up in the water column. Move things around, try to find that ammonia source, and just change water until things stabilize. For 1-2 weeks I would stop dosing in any of your bacteria product and I would simply focus on water changes, dechlorinator, and trying to observe test results. Take a water sample to the LFS to verify the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. Consider grabbing a KH / GH liquid test kit to verify what your parameters are as well. It'll sort itself out, right now, just a bit of patience and see what's going on.

How about some Apistogramma species?

Carpeting plants, I think you could get away with something like S.Repens, Hydrocotyle species, and even something like microsword. They are very unique, each have their own little challenges. I think of those three, the S.Repens can probably be the "most challenging. As for other plants, I don't think you can go wrong at all with a pile of plants and some nice anubias. Because you have the soil substrate and you have the nice big tank, a generic amazon sword should do really nicely for you. There is also red melon swords and other things. With those plants all you would need to do is add some root tabs every 2-3 months and fertilize as normal with your liquid ferts. Alright, what else.... I love the red lotus recommendation above. Val is also a really easy one to manage and to grow. There's a lot of really impactful plants that work well for a bigger setup. If you want 2 slightly more challenging ones. I would check out pogostemon erectus (not the octopus) and then look into bacopa species. Bacopa Caroliniana being my personal favorite. Ludwigia is another stem plant that should do really well in those situations once you get more comfortable.

Really interesting shrimp patterns! Congratulations on the wonderful aquascape. Have you thought of adding anything to the back back as far as a non-green stem?

I can take a video of my tank if it helps. Here's another shrimpkeeper online that shows you a bit what it might look like. I tried to cue the video up to the part where you see the air flowrate. The type of filter you have, it does put out a bit larger bubbles than an airstone and maybe that's why it seemed a "bit much". It's really hard to tell from the screenshots, but you should see a general stream of bubbles and you should see debris going into the sponge part. You can check the filter, free up flow, and make sure it's not clogged up. In my shrimp tank I run 2 filters with one on each corner. I offset them in slightly just so it doesn't splash into the airline cutouts in the corner. Here's another in case it helps. (notice big sponge!)

Yep! If you have red shrimp, under a red or pink light it's a bit easier to spot them. For blue or green it's a bit easier under blue light. Some tanks only have the blue night light. There are a lot of species of fish and shrimp that are most active once the lights dim. It's mostly to hide from predators. Even doing something like feeding at night can be recommended for shrimp. If you've never heard of them, check out a channel called Mark's shrimp tanks on YouTube. You can definitely keep fish and shrimp together. I have some cull shrimp in my 75G tank that are doing well. I haven't seen any baby shrimp, but after a few weeks I have finally learned where all the adults hang out. It's all about providing the cover and making sure the shrimp have the ability to hide. Check out dragonstone and see if you can find a nice piece or two that fits the tank. Wood (or more wood) is also highly recommended because it gives the shrimp a big surface for microorganisms. One final thing to note is just to have a larger size sponge filter. The one you have might work for not, but it's a bit small for that tank (and stocking). I can't tell from the photo what the air setup is like, but if you can take a video of the bubbles it may help. You should see shrimp on the sponge filter pretty regularly as well.

If you can, try repashy and see if you notice any behavioral change. As far as granules, they do have krill pellets and even the newer aqueon nutrinsect line that is a great source of food they eat naturally in the wild. In my own experience as well, the more difficult it is for the food to break down the more difficult it is for the corydoras to "chew" that food and enjoy it. Some wafers, some pellets, they can just be so dense and they don't really break down easily. Once the fish try to eat that food and give the "nope" reaction, then it could take hours for them to get the courage enough to eat that food. They will naturally graze all day long and they don't mind waiting for the food to break down for their later enjoyment. Something like the nutrinsect granules, flake foods, repashy, and certain wafers are very easy for them to eat and enjoy. Frozen brine shrimp is another go-to for me. It could also just be a size of the group thing. Are you closer to 6 or do you have 12-15+?

Ultimately, one thing at a time. I highly recommend, for accuracy and long term sake of ease, grabbing the API kh+gh liquid test kit. Once you have that, test the tank vs. Your tap so we can get an idea of where everything stands. Not seeing shrimp, the stocking, all of this would indicate to me that there's just a bit of exposure acclimation going on. Danio can be extremely active fish. Because of that they might just be scaring the shrimp a bit, even to the point where they make it difficult for the shrimp to eat. If you're simply interested in keeping shrimp with fish, then I would suggest starting with amano shrimp and going from there. Fish will bother the amano shrimp much less and their personalities are slightly more outgoing compared to neocaridina. Second to that, for either case, I would suggest adding a piece of wood to the tank to help the shrimp have a bit of cover. Dragon stone is a secondary great option as well. It has little holes all over and that will allow molting and baby shrimp the ability to hide from stress. Once we have test results and check everything we can get you on the path towards success. In terms of how you're adding shrimp, how have you been acclimating them? Is there a possibility of having a shrimp only tank? Awesome! The baby shrimp will grow up in your water (and care) and have a much easier time. Keep an eye out at night for baby shrimp. 🙂

So close. Maybe another week and they'll be fully formed. They look good! If you can add a little moss to their box for them to graze off. (May already be there)

Hopefully no long term damage. 🙂

Watched mirrors last night. Pretty good one.

I have. Same with me. I'd love to see an emerald green style green laser one day.