Cbass

Hi everyone. Just noticed this AM that one of my tetras gills is inflamed and that there's a small bump on it's mouth. Have a feeling it could be columnaris? No loss of appetite and swims normally. Although one started to isolate itself from the school and really only stays on one side of the tank (I have 11 of them in total). For meds, I have Kanaplex, General Cure and Erythromycin. Water parameters: pH: 7.6 Ammonia/Nitrites: 0 ppm Nitrates: 20 ppm GH/KH: 6/3 Last water change was almost 2 weeks ago (was planning one tomorrow as its my schedule).

Shrimplets are super fun. My female ghost shrimp has been berried several times and we went from 5 to 11. My kids love searching the tank to see if there are any more as the momma dropped her eggs about 3 weeks ago.

I love Oscars!!!!! I used to have 3 of them. Even though they were messy and loved to rearrange the tank they were so much fun to watch and play around with. Mine would always rub up against my had when I was trying to clean the tank. Welcome!

Crushed coral raises KH (Carbonate Hardness) and GH (General Hardness), which is why your water is testing hard. I would be careful as you are likely also affecting pH. So there are a couple of vids on the AC site that can help. This one helped me a lot. It's long, but worth a watch. What are your current water parameters, especially pH, KH, and GH? Also, what are the parameters of your source water?

That's super cool! One of my regrets when I was still in school is that I didn't realize the value of traveling abroad. So far so good in the community tank. We found a small shrimp fry hiding in my rotalia the other day, so I have hope that there are others that can manage to stay out of Ghost's hunting areas. They're so hard to see that I'd like to think that the Betta has to REALLY try hard to find them. She's also adapting to the Neon's speed. She finally realized that if she doesn't grab her betta food, the Neon's will. It's pretty comical because she gets a little irritated, so she'll grab it and swim to a different corner to eat.

@Flumpweesel No kidding. The prices where I live have gotten higher. I have a koi betta (not galaxy) in my 3 gal. She was expensive, but no where near that price when I bought her 6 months ago. @SpacedCadette Thank you! It's a lot of work and patience. Which is why I make a ton of mistakes (I tend to be impatient...haha). @Brian I've had males in the past. The really don't react well to a lot of fish (especially bright colored ones). It's the reason why I switched to females. I have 11 neons with this one and so far no one has gotten irate. As long as they get fed, they're tolerant. Ghost did try to show a little dominance to my large female shrimp, but it didn't last. She's almost as big as Ghost and she'll push neons away from her food if she has to.

@Torrey I should. Just to punish them. Also the fact that you TM'd your Patient Spouse AND use that as a moniker is so much winning you made my day. Amazing. Maybe she'll channel a loving ghost and my fry will be free to roam until they get bigger. Until then, it's the Jaws theme song every time she roams around my rotalia forest. Which is even funnier because all you see is a betta tail sticking out from between the rocks....waiting patiently.

Thanks all for the advice. Decided to give it a go, but there was no way in hell I was going to put a Galaxy Koi betta (the one I really wanted) in the community tank as an experiment. Plus it was freaking $65 bucks. No thanks. Lol Settled for a simple, female betta. Looks like she's been crossed between a dumbo ear and crown tail, isn't perfectly a solid color but we love her. Since she's that opal color, under the blue night lights she actually glows. I wanted to call her Spectre, but kids veto'd me 2-1 and she was named Ghost. She settled in pretty quick and it was hililarious. Tried to eat everything before she realized they were all plants. Shrimp barely give her the time of day and the neons and otos ignore her. Although, I have a sinking feeling that she found the hiding spot of my shrimp fry. No big deal though. I figure if any fry can survive her then more power to them. That and my female shrimp keeps getting berried so Ghost is kinda my population control. Pics below of her and the tank!

I have a 20 gal and 3 gal. The 20gal has a good amount of plants, driftwood and ADA aquasoil and I tried buffering my tap (5 gal container) with Seachem Acid Regulator. The tank is about 5 months old. When I did a 20 percent water change, the next day my pH shot to 8.6 and ammonia spiked to 1 ppm but I have a feeling it was something else. I test my tank almost everyday so I was able to catch it. I'd love to raise my kH a little and thought about crushed coral, but I'm hesitant as the fish and shrimp seem happy for now. It's strange because when the tank finished cycling (2.5 months, fishless) the pH was between 6.8-7.0 with a kH of 2. But my tap pH at that time was 7.6-7.8. A part of me thinks that my substrate has lost some of its buffering capacity, but I thought it would last longer.

+1 to Torrey's comment. My tap pH is between 8.0 and 8.6 with a kH of 7 (for some reason it's been fluctuating a lot), and when I do my water changes I usually have to cut it with some RO water. When my water settles after the water changes, it consistently 7.6-7.8 with a kH of 3-4. After my last pH debacle where I tried Acid buffer, I basically threw up my hands and finally accepted the fact that I'd rather live with a stable, higher pH and happy fish than trying to chase the chemistry. I just keep a closer eye on ammonia since it supposed to be more toxic at higher pH levels.

Definitely the vids and Cory being so straightforward and honest. No BS. Saw the forum when I was putting an order in and posted an issue. Community has been really great, even though some of my questions feel really idiotic at time. Which is often since I have kids running around driving me crazy. My tanks are my therapy.

@Brian Tank is almost 5 months old along with the filter media. It's a medium planted tank with ADA Amazonia II as the substrate, no cap. The filter media is coarse foam (2 kinds from Fluval I have a 107) Fluval biomax (1.5 trays full), and then a small bag of polyfill as filter floss. No carbon. I feed first thing in the morning at 7am. The test was run at 3pm in the afternoon. When my ph vial turned purple, I knew something was wrong. I test that tank at least every 3 days since my Kh is typically 3-4. The only thing that I can think of is that a fish died. I may have lost 1 otto (hard to find since they like to hide). I did lose a small nerite this morning, but I think something was already wrong with it since it didn't want to move from the top of the tank for almost a week. This morning, all the readings are back to normal, including Ammonia (it's 0 now).

Hard to tell but if it’s white fuzz, that’s usually a fungal infection. An anti fungal med should help. Also, I noticed that you have some nitrites in the water. Has this tank fully cycled?

Tank is stocked with neons, otos, ghost shrimp and 1 betta. Before this last water change the tank was really stable including my nitrate levels (steady at 20 ppm for almost 3 weeks) One thing to mention. Today way a really hot day. Not that my house gets super warm but the outside temps were 10 degree’s warmer from yesterday. My tank temp is usually 77 but it did get to 79 when I got home.

20 gallon long and I use the API master test kit. Yes, I usually let the tap sit. Usually settles at a ph of 8.0 and the ammonia stays the same. I have RO but I was trying not to push the kh and Gh lower. Definitely not going to use the buffer again. Would rather have a stable higher ph than crashing.

I was thinking about crushed coral. My tap has a kh of around 6 but after a week in my planted tank it drops to 3. Tank should be cycled as it’s been about 5 months but I guess these things happen.

Hi all. I had a huge ph spike with an ammonia spike this afternoon and am trying to learn from it. Yesterday I did a 20% water change. Parameters after were: ph-7.6 Nitrates:0 Ammonia:0.25ppm (my tap has 0.5ppm) Nitrates: 20ppm Kh/Gh: 3 and 6 respectively This morning ph was fine and ammonia was slightly below 0.25. This afternoon it skyrocketed. Ph hit 8.8 and Ammonia 1 ppm. I did an emergency water change and the levels are back to where they were yesterday. Ideas? Note, I did use an acid buffer to treat my tap yesterday as my municipal water company changed our source water to a higher ph level.

+1 to the epiphytes. You can keep them in gravel provided you don't bury the rhizome, but in my experience they do better glued to some sort of hardscape (rock, driftwood, etc). They feed mainly from the water column, not the ground. Just be sure cycle the tank fully and don't panic if some of the leaves start to melt as the plant adjusts. Other than that, take your time and have fun! Planted tanks require a lot of patience and trial and error. I've been working on my 20 gal planted and have made a ton of mistakes. But it's the fun of learning that I enjoy. I'm grateful to the community here as they've all been so helpful.

If the tank is in a brightly lit area (natural ambient indirect sunlight, not direct) does that negate the effects of the siesta? I guess what I mean is do the plants need more or less complete dark...

Hi all. I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone here. After 4 days, our betta is finally starting to feel better. She's out and about during the day and a little more active. Still gulps a bunch of air in the early morning right before the lights come off and gets tired in the late afternoon, but is more responsive when we come up to the tank. I switched to Erythromycin as I noticed that her rear fin was not that great looking. I also dosed aquarium salt (thanks @BAT and @Torrey!!!) and got her a betta hammock to make her feel more comfortable and not have to swim as hard to get to the surface. After reading a bunch of posts on the forums, I think I may know what might have happened. I over cleaned the tank. I saw that I had cyanobacteria growing but didn't think twice about it actually being cyano. Right before she got sick, I scrubbed the hardscape and glass down and did a sizable water change. So yeah. One of my many smh moments in this hobby. She's not at 100 percent, so I'm finishing up the dosing. When this is all said and done I plan on re-scaping (slowly) the tank. Again, many thanks to you all!

If you use filter bags, you can also use poly-fill as filter floss. Yes, it's the stuff that you use in sewing. I use it in a fine filter bag and place it as the last layer. Works well for me and is pretty inexpensive. This was a method used a long time ago (sorta dating myself) so I don't know if it's still looked at as appropriate, but it works for me. My current setup is a course sponge tied to my intake, the coarse foams that came with my Fluval 107, biomedia in 2 trays and the poly fill on top. Pretty happy with the results. But to @nabokovfan87 point, best to get the filter and water in a good spot and then mess with media. @nabokovfan87 I just realized your username. I haven't heard that name in awhile! (I'm in the Bay Area).

@Goldie Blue How long have you been medicating? Curious as to your experience as it relates to how long before you saw positive results. As for carbon, I don't use it since I run a planted tank. But I always keep some in the event of an emergency. Like the time I failed to read the label on my algae fix and didn't know that it's not safe for shrimp. Sometimes this hobby really puts you in check and I say to myself (often) "You know nothing, Jon Snow".

Over cleaning the tank/filter is what I learned not to the the hard way. I'm going through the same thing with my small tank right now and the other night I realized that although my water parameters were fine, I did a big clean/water change out at the same time. Live and learn as always.

@Hannah Parker Yes, originally I was going to build a sorority slowly. But since my other female got sick in her small 3.5 gal tank (was supposed to move) I tossed out the idea. Unfortunately she's not looking too well so I'm going to stick to a single one in the 20 gal for sure. Most of shrimp are big enough. Smallest is 0.25 inches and biggest is the momma, who is almost 1.5 inches. I do have fry hiding in the tank, but I wasn't planning on keeping a large community of shrimp, tbh. The smaller shrimp are survivors, and my momma shrimp has been berried 3 times in the past 2 months (currently berried right now). Tank has a ton of hiding spots and I often think that 1 or 2 of my otos are dead because they'll disappear for days. Found out that they prefer the night time. @SpacedCadette Actually, I trained the neons to eat on the right side of the tank. It has more room. So I might be ok! Planning on going to the LHS to take a look. Send pics when if I decide to take a shot at it!

My tap has a pH of 8.4 but other than that similar parameters. +1 to @nabokovfan87 questions as well. Photos help!