Jenja

Really wish they could get shipping up here sorted.

If it's not broke then don't fix it is now I would lean. Plants look happy. Fish look happy. The only variable here is are you happy when you look at the tank?

Spent nearly an hour gently cleaning and separating a tissue culture cup of marsilea crenata. There may be tears when I attempt to plant this - and eventually rage if it turns out to hate my water after all this effort.

Looks very similar to my nymphaea rubra, especially in the second picture. With it I found it was short but very full looking until it started sending up lily pads, then it definitely started looking sparser with smaller leaves below.

I'm betting it probably won't raise it much, if at all. In a neutral or acidic environment it would leach quite a bit but in an alkaline tank I don't think it would (plus you have fish who favour those parameters so it would be to their benefit even if it did). I'd probably start by sitting a piece in a 5g bucket of your water, wait a few days, and test parameters on it - you get to confirm or refute my theory without impacting your main display.

I'm sure all 3 are factoring in. This is also a hobby - after the past couple of years the number of people willing to spend money on any hobby when the cost of food and gas are rising have likely dramatically dropped. That said I don't frame it as the hobby is being killed or dying, simply that the mainstream popularity has decreased. Eventually it will surge again, I'm sure.

He's using a light meant for salt water, that is probably part of the issue for his plants.

So I'm currently soaking out 6 pieces of driftwood (all small, 3 mopani looking type on one bucket, and 3 spiderwood on the other). I don't boil my wood but I use hot water from my tap. As I was dumping the water off today I started wondering if I actually need to use hot water for soaking or if the tannins would release better in cold. Anyone know? Or is it going to be a case of temperature doesn't really matter. I'm not really trying to eliminate the tannins entirely, that'll be impossible, especially on the mopani - that'll tea stain the water for at least the next decade or more (as I've seen first-hand in my old 5 gallon tank - it has never stopped and I think it went into that tank around 2010ish). However I would like my tea stain to be weak hence the week or so soaking I'm planning (not a single piece floated when introduced to water which mildly freaked me out).

Neat little tank, I can honestly say I've never seen anything like it. I'm setting up a pair of 3.5g and have got my eye on marsilea crenata and gratiola viscidula as low tech carpet plants - no idea if they're going to work for me (given my water, temperature, and lighting - so many variables that aquatic plants are my form of gambling, lol) but I'm probably gonna try them.

That's one big and beautiful wendtii! I'd be aiming to repeat that kind of massively successful growth rather than looking to shrink it 🤔

Any tank maintenance includes my endlers testing if my hand is food multiple times....at some point I just might make their day and have repashy on it 😜

Grub pie on a bobber, against an algae infested backdrop 😄

Drop in a fine foam sponge filter, like what you'd find on Amazon, not the co-op sponge filter - it'll help clear it up (I'd probably use a plastic bag to put the sponge in gently haul up and squeeze it out outside of the tank every 4 or 5 hours or so). I'd probably stop the HOB, or significantly turn it down, the flow from it is likely stirring up the surface silt. Once you can see into the tank better then vacuum close to the sand to pick up that top silt-y layer. When that's gone I'd probably turn the HOB back on and see if the clarity remains. If all that fails, or if you'd prefer more instant results then consider using a flocculent like Seachem Clarity. Never tried it myself but in theory it'll make your HOB able to filter out the cloudiness.

Definitely a good tip. Never considered using dual light sources. If only API would create a gadget that could read the colour without any guesswork - they'd make a mint.

What excites you? There's so many nano fish that will do well in a 10g that it's really just a case of looking for a species or two that gets you enthusiastic. Did you enjoy the solitary betta? Maybe a pea puffer. Do you have an interest in shrimp? A colony of Neos would make for a colourful setup (especially if you go the skittles route). Are you wanting to ditch the heater and have an appropriate room temperature? Maybe white clouds are the way to go. I'd start by simply looking through some of the journals on the forums to see if anything jumps out at you, or even just google nano fish and look through different species - something will pop for you.

Wow, that's one resilient baby!

Two regrets on my 7.5g Flora - that I only bought one small bag of the flourite red sand (really needed a second one for better depth), and that I gave up rinsing after a mere 25 buckets worth of water. My hand didn't have a dead skin cell anywhere after all that agitating - even after all that it took multiple water changes and 3 days running a small sponge to clear the cloudiness. I was completely set to hate the substrate with a fiery passion - until I saw it planted. Looks so natural to my eye, like the similar to what I'd see snorkelling in my local lake (though much redder hued, of course). Here's from February, showing my crypt wendtii grown in insanely (I ultimately moved them out and broke the two crypt parva bunches into individual plantlets).

Trust the packaging, after 2 weeks it starts growing fur 🤢

Copious paper towel usage for the win, lol. Now I don't feel so odd about avoiding regular towels because of my (probably baseless) paranoia of soap/lint sheet residue on them.

Cherry barbs are fun to watch. I've got 4 males and 11 females in my 33g (best guess on how long I've had them is since summer of 2019). Until I moved in a bunch of male endlers I got to watch some fairly interesting breeding behaviours. My males established territories that they lapped around, always trying to entice a female to come spawn with them - that was the biggest thing I wasn't expecting from them, even in a species only tank. The chase would break up if another male joined in, more often than not (my most territorial one was a particular stickler for that). My biggest, plumpest female would never spawn - almost always it was a svelte one in particular who seem to spawn. I still see some pretty finnage displays but spawning? Decreased to the point I haven't seen it in months now (though it certainly might just be happening when I'm not around). Definitely a species I'd recommend anyone try species only - they're good community fish, but far more interesting and entertaining alone.

Absolutely adore that you've posted an example of a deficiency. Charts and written descriptions just can't compare to a visual. I wish someone would take 3 or 4 popular aquatic plants, subject them to a variety of nutrient deficiencies and publish a book with a ton of photos - aka a deficiency diagnosis bible.

Plop and drop between my tanks (old ferrero rocher container being my go to transport tool between tanks), and drip acclimate anything new. Gives the critters a nice slow introduction to my specific ph/gh/kh and I get a half hour to relax, so win-win 😁

Photo journal. Photograph each plant when you get it and save the file with the plant name. By the tank a simple plant list stating every species in the tank. Between those two tools you should get very familiar with your hoard 😉

@eatyourpeas Add extra iron. I thought I was seeing iron deficiency in a new plant (pale new leaves with dark veins) so I added 1 pump of easy iron (it was approximately a 10g)....one tiny tuft of BBA multiplied exponentially. The tank had a fairly heavy bioload as well, so nitrate + iron seems to be the key to BBA. @ADMWNDSR83 Even with the ramp up that's a really long lighting period. Hairgrass likes high light yes, but I don't think it needs more than 12 hours of light to thrive.

Correct. How much you'll need to use depends on what GH you want to set your water at. Takes a bit of experimentation to figure out. I use 3/8th of a teaspoon per gallon to hit 8dGH (I think? I've been using that amount per gallon for so long that I've gotten foggy on the exact number). I recommend you get a liquid GH/KH test - far more economical as you figure out how much per gallon is your ideal. Then simply get a gallon jug and add a small amount of Equilibrium to it, shake the heck out of it and then test the GH. Repeat until you reach the number you want. Once you know how much per gallon you don't need to premix water with it, simply figure out how many gallons you're adding during your water change and measure out the the Equilibrium right into the tank. It will make the water cloudy for a little bit and you'll see some land on the substrate but it'll dissolve in and clear within an hour or so. I use gallon jugs filled 24 hours in advance, simply because they make adding water to my tank more manageable (python system isn't practical in my situation). However, if you do use a python then there's a formula I saw on a thread (apologies to whomever posted it originally, my memory sucks) that you can use to calculate - multiply WxDxH then divide by 231, of the drained area (Width and Depth are the footprint, Height is the variable you'd measure - as in you've drained 3 inches, for example). Lastly, I see your KH is also at 0. You might want to consider crushed coral to buffer that up so your pH stays stable. Personally don't have first hand knowledge with that, hopefully someone else can chime in on that.