IAmTheElliot

I picked up these two dwarf petricola cats a few weeks ago at ACO (I originally bought 3, one didn't make it) and I've noticed one of them growing a large, white spot/blob on the side. They're both still active and eating, is this something obvious and/or need to treat?

@Fish Folk Now THAT is both a LOT of airline tubing and a VERY clean setup! My new regulator and drop checker arrived this evening, but unfortunately didn't have enough time to do the setup. I should get it installed tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to try again.

Anybody have a good pro-tip/hack for getting bubble to not stick to airlines? I'm using some of the ACO black airline tubing to start a pressurized CO2 system and have found the bubbles like to stick to the material like dog fur to a black sweater! And of course the diffuser is run straight below the hose, so the natural rise in the bubbles provides ample of opportunity for bubbles to stick. Thanks in advance!

Well, great. I actually had two guppies acting funny last night, but one of them seemed to get better when I dosed 4 additional tsp of equilibrium. Woke up this morning to find one on the substrate, passed away, that turned out to be the I thought was doing okay. The one who was really suffering last night is still alive, but was found nose down in a plant. I've currently scooped him into a net and left the net in the tank, at the top of the water in powerhead flow, to hopefully give him a rest to get better. I'm not holding my breath, unfortunately.

Following, as I'm having similar issues. Started a tank up again about 2 months ago. 55 gallon, stocked it with 10 cardinal tetras, 10 fancy guppies, and a half dozen plants. I live in WA and with RIDICULOUSLY low hardness and sub-7 pH, unfortunately lost 7 of the 10 guppies. I've since gotten the tank to cycle completely. Yesterday I added 10 additional, new guppies that all looked healthy at ACO. Current parameters after doing ~40% WC this evening, adding a little Seachem Equilibrium, few tsp of baking soda, and 5 squirts of Easy Green: Parameters: Temp: 76* ph: 7.0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 10-20 GH: 75-100 KH: 80-120 I noticed, about the time of completing my WC, two guppies very inactive at the top of the water, just under the surface, tail fins clamped but no labored breathing. I cranked up the airstone as much as I could to increase surface agitation and turned the light off, so I'm hoping these active, awesome little fish get better overnight and I don't have a repeat of last time despite fixing what I thought were all the issues. Edit: Also, how do guppies do with phosphates? I've been having a pretty major Diatom bloom, so I bought a test kit and found 5-10ppm phosphates a few days ago. I scrubbed all the algae off the glass, and in my WC this evening got as much off the plants & substrate as I could.

I would like to see Potassium, Copper, Iron, separated Calcium/Magnesium - Basically anything that's on the leaf deficiency diagram, or could be out of balance to create unhealthy plants/algae blooms. Something more specific to troubleshooting plants than overall tank health that already exists in the current ACO strips.

Hi all! For planted tanks and testing for macro/micronutrients, I've found single API test solutions for things such as phosphates, copper, etc. Does anyone know of a kit (such as the API master test kit) related to plant nutrients? I've already got 5-in-1 Test Strips from the store, and found individuals for nutrients, but it'd be really nice if there was a robust group of uncommon nutrient tests. Thanks in advance!