MidnightBel

My frogbit has some black ones when I first got them in. I picked out what I could and did a quick dunk in the water to drown them. I lost on 2 bunches of leaves. There were some individuals that yellowed too. The rest were fine though and are sprouting babies left and right. For added precaution you could also dry the leaves after with a paper towel if you're worried.

IT'S BEGUN! A war against snails shall soon begin. I love them, but for the purpose of this tank, they are unwelcomed guests. The plants arrived on the 22nd. Fearing doing a dip would hurt my cute frog bits, I opted to place them directly into the newly set up tank. Allowing for their old roots and leaves that didn't make it to rot and feed ammonia into my tank to cycle. I did a through check of any suspicious looking goo on the leaves from an underneath view of the floating plants and all seemed well. I was however mistaken. By chance when doing one of my occasional checks, I discovered small little black dots hiding under a frogbit leaf. As I picked up the frogbit, two little dots escaped into the water. I had to keep my eyes peeled for the intruders on the days to come. I placed the gooey snail eggs into a cup and not 2 days later they hatched! They shall be under surveillance for now until I can identify them. Perhaps a small nano tank in their honor shall be created. Not a movement or dot in sight for the next week. The storm seemed to have past, and it seemed like lady luck was on my side... but alas I was wrong again. More have popped up and begun developing. I've since taken out two more egg sacks on decaying leaves and picked up 3 individual tiny specks to join their comrades in the snail cup jail. A few more eggsacks will need to be removed tomorrow and the jail could use some more water. A few more baby snails that escaped the egg sack purge are hiding at the floor of the bare bottom tank. A good decision on my part, as I had expected a snail invasion, and wanted to get the best view to keep them at bay. No additional filters have gone in, except the original one so they won't have any additional places to hide. Turns out the finnex PF 7 nano aquarium Hob Power Filter is wayyy too strong for frog bit. 😅 Any suggestions on helping this? If not I will go back to my original backup plan; using a sponge filter. The tank has been set up since Feb 22nd or 23rd. New long roots are growing, old roots dying back and getting swept to the bottom of the tank whenever I disturb the water. A thick white biofilm or bacteria bloom layer has formed on my still water aquarium. A bubbler will go in eventually, but for now I want the best view. I will just have to occasionally disturb the water for oxygen. Some weird bubbles formed as I turned on the filter today shortly to help with flow. If left on too long, the suction is so great that the roots and plants move to it. Shown below are some pics of the day I set it up. Sorry this update took so long. I was sick for the past week.

Thank you for the heater suggestion!! As for the betta, I have 3 already who are potential candidates to go in. 2 female koi, and a male red rose petal betta. I have one of the outputs blocked in the fluval flex to reduce flow and it is hitting a bit against the wall as well. So far the red male is looking like a very likely candidate. I have his tank next to 5 zebra danio, white minnow (singular), and 3 guppies. Those guys are in quarantine right now waiting for another 2 weeks for their 2nd round of paraclense. I love khuli loaches so much and planned on putting a mesh on intakes to stop anything sneaking behind. Would 2 khuli loach, a mystery snail, and some ottos not be too much algae eaters? 🤔 I plan to establish the fish community in the tank and add the betta last for the best chances. I have 3 different bettas too if they don't work out, and if not they will get their own 10gal tanks. As for parameters I will need to check. I think pH is probably 7-7.6 because I have had crushed coral to help the kh and gh recently. It will be removed soon as I will be dosing liquid fertilizer more regularly again. Occasionally I'll have to add it back in or I might keep a super small bag in the back chamber. I will probably stay away from guppies even though I have 3 already (2 are fry still growing). I know bettas aren't too happy about their fancy fins usually. At first I planned to have neon tetras or rummynose/red nose tetras. Then I saved a deformed white cloud and got them zebra danios to school with, but was told to get them a long tank instead of square, so got them a 20gal for when they are done with quarantine. Will give me plenty of room for more guppies too this way with them. So would green neon tetras be good in small tank? Not too active to stress a betta? I would prefer some blue/white colors in there for schooling fish so they would be quite perfect. What about rummynose tetra behavior? I love how tightly they school and would love to get them for a different community tank if I end up with green neons.

I want to get some peaceful fish that do well in a 9 gallon and with a betta. Preferably tetras because a schooling fish would be fun. Due to square tank shape I'm asking advice on stocking. Recommendations for a small heater that can be asdjusted to my prefered temp versus preset, and fit in back chamber of fluval flex 9 gallon. Also open to ideas for more plants. All I have planned for at the moment is a betta fish, a mystery snail, and potentially some otos. background on tank: This has been a hard fought battle against black beard algae for 2 years, especially after my lights got stuck going 24/7 for the past year and half. Tried the neglect route and it somehow fixed it. Please excuse the calcium/crushed coral dust on everything. At the start I intended for them to go frequently to encourage algae growth for otos, but then black beard algae showed up. It's killed and shrunk back most of my java fern which was 3x the size at one point before being completely covered in black beard algae. It killed off my moneywort too though I have some floating alive still? The root areas rotted causing it to float, and also caused this red plant to float. I can't remember the name at the moment. I also have an anubis who had rot when I got it and had to be cut down to the last leaf, so it's grown an okay amount after a year and a half. I plan to add frog bit at the top too and more plants. Dwarf hair grass died out I think too. I don't know why some pics are upside down. I know it looks like a hot mess right now. It was my first attempt at aquascaping, but gave up on it after black beard algae war. I plan to add more plants soon, but I would prefer to keep the algae for an algae eaters so I've done very rare maintence. I didn't remove decaying plant matter so it could feed the tank ammonia since it is a 2 year old fishless tank, and because of this, when I add ammonia now, it can take care of 3-4ppm ammonia in half a day. Will be doing constant monitoring and tests to make sure the cycle is still going strong before adding fish. Included pics of before the battle below. Sadly don't have one of when the java fern was 3x the size. 😂

Okay. I'll be putting in the ammonia remover and active carbon again to remove the medicine. That you for your advice. I can't wait for these guys to be done and to finish adding plants to my 20 gallon for them. It was supposed to be a 10, but I upgraded because of how active the zebras were.

So it's okay they have been in there 9 days? I did a 20% water change 10 hours ago. Should I do more? I can feed them correct? Thank you for your help.

My tap water is 0.25 ammonia, so I am planning to use 2 gallons of that, and a gallon of spring for water change. Before water change tank parameters: Ammonia 0.23-0.25 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 2 Ph 7.5-7.6 Kh 4 Gh 5 Massive improvement from the 1 drops kh and 2-3 drops gh with a ph of 6.7

Have been bedbound for a bit after an out of state dr appt trip. I have had the zebra, white cloud, and guppies in paraclense for 9 days. My family was supposed to put the 2nd dose in on day 3, but I had to do it on day 4 after my trip. So DAY 1 first dose of paraclense. DAY 4 2nd dose because I was out of town. It is now DAY 9 water change. I'm aware I needed to do a 25% change on DAY 5 or in my case DAY 6 because of DAY 4 being 2nd dose of paraclense, but I got sick and couldn't gain the strength to even hold a bucket. My question is, I'm doing a 25% water change right now. How long until I do a second round of treatment. My poor babies have eaten for 9 days so I want to get them some food for a couple days first. If advised otherwise and told to start right away on treatment I will though. So far no additional fish losses. They are very active. The baby guppies are now pooping brown poop again too which is good. I'm super worried about Nitrite and ammonia levels so I'm going to do a test now. And will reply with tank parameters. They are probably overdue for a good water change with so many in there.

I do have live bearing fish so I'll keep the crushed coral. I don't have any carbon ammonia pads that would need to be removed, but I do have a zeolite only ammonia media bag in the tank. Would this need to be removed? I removed the filter, just don't know if I need to remove this bag I have in the tank.

Update: Saddly the yellow guppy has passed today. I knew they didn't look good, and have been off since day one so I was prepared for it. Currently doing the full paraclense treatment. Just confirming again to dose based on box. I took out the filter with carbon since it was easier than disassembling. Should I put it back in? Figured carbon would ruin effect of medicine. I still have 2 airstones in there and a media bag of crushed coral. Any suggestions for keeping ammonia levels down? Our tap is 0.4 now, and when we did water change we used 2 of that, and 3 gallons of spring, yet it is already back up to 0.5. Just treat with prime? Stress guard? Fritz ACCR instead of prime? ⭐️ I currently have a bag of Aqua Clear Ammonia Remover (for 20-50 gallons) in the 10 gallon tank. Is this okay to keep in there to help keep ammonia levels down? There is no filter running through it however. Should I do a water change tomorrow or wait for 3rd day? And do I re-add aquarium salt for amount taken out? Out of curiosity, after quarantine period is over, do I also disinfect hospital tank's crushed coral with white vinegar & water or bleach? Or do I just toss it. I will most likely need it again in a month since I'll need to finish stocking a 20 gallon, so rather not toss it. If it absolutely needs to be tossed though, that is fine. Should I be tossing filter media from quarantine too & sponges? Or do I disinfect those? I would much rather be safe than sorry as each fish is important to me. Sorry for the long post. Thank you for all the assistance. 🙏

Plant light came in today in the wrong size 😭🤦‍♀️. Now I have to wait until Tuesday to finish setting it up. Thankfully my plants are still states away right now.

Should I be keeping the guppies, zebra, and white cloud on warmer side still until they are done being treated for parasites? What temp should it be for all species? I know guppies would def needed to be higher than the others at least. Starting treatment today for parasites as was recommended to me.

They are in a medtrio right now. How much water change should I do for this before starting the treatment? Because I'm assuming I shouldn't add it on top of current level right? I had added the aquarium salt to the red spots yellow guppy & zebra tank too, but haven't started treatment yet either. Had to run to the store to get more spring water before doing it and wasn't sure how much water to change for them too. Do I redose the amount of salt as the water taken out as well? Thank you for the help.

To clarify again. The 2ppm and planted tank is an established tank I've had for 2 years that was used to seed an old filter for several weeks before my first betta. I didn't use it again this time around and created a completely scrap cycle because the planted tank was seeded from my turtle tank. Former wild turtles kept with tropical fish for years that I rescued from neighbors who tried to release them back into pond. I didn't want them introducing stuff to the pond from fish from around world and didn't know how they would do against a heavily populated turtle pond after growing up in captivity. Anyways I used their media to help seed my planted. The planted was used to seed my 1st betta. Who developed dropsy after being introduced to it. I just wanted to eliminate risk in case it was related, so did fishliss cycle for this new bettas filter for a month before adding him. It wasn't strong enough of a colony though, because meds crashed it too.

The cycled tank removed a 2ppm ammonia level in 2 hours. I had a water change and test 2 days prior. The next day I added several plants into the tank and they weren't doing too hot. By the next night my ammonia had spiked from tons of plants melting. They didn't do well enough in transport and after a alum dip so they rotted in my planted tank. That caused the ammonia spike (I did a test after the plants had been in 2 and half days. Huge portions of plant were completely melted away). Later that day after removing the new rotting plants, my tank recovered after I tested again 4 hours later. There were no indian almond leafs, and barely any tannins from a driftwood. Sorry my other post was confusing. This planted tank is an established for 2 years tank. It is completely different to the betta semi cycle tank. I gave the readings of it at a post above. I'll quote it below. It was only max 0.5 ppm at the tims I was monitoring the drop. It had been 1ppm earlier in the week when the cycle got shocked by med trio, but you can see ammonia slowly drop as it recovered after meds were done, water change, and charcoal was added. As for removing tannin water. That is one reason I don't want to do the water change and was wanting a different way to test ammonia than the liquid test. It would be a waste of the leaves. At the least it has made the water safer by lowering pH and therefore impacts of ammonia to a degree and providing antibacterial effect for his fins to recover. Problem is I have to add crushed coral today to it because my KH is 1 drop and GH 3 drops and don't want the pH to start swinging. How does that balance out? Do I put only a bit? Or should I just leave it? Readings from today from betta indian almond leaf tank. ammonia: clear cant read it. Perhaps slight yellow tint? So clear it was like my low kh tube nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 4-5 Ph: 6.4-6.5 Kh: 1 drop (barely able to see it at all) Gh: 3 drops (barely able to see change) The gh if you add more does become more obvious green, but the kh you can do 10 plus drops and not a change, just slight hint of a bit more yellow.