Woowala

Usually bubbles like that are from an excess of dissolved organic compounds, which makes sense given it's a new dirted tank. Carbon would probably fix it.

Just turn the filter, like putting electrical tape over your check engine light. Problem solved.

That'd be nice if that was it, assuming they don't melt completely. As long as they're growing, it's easy to do nothing and see. These are the first Bucephalandra I've had, so I'm inexperienced with them. Anyone got an ID for the one in back?

More is probably better, but healthy and growing is most important I think. That and keeping algae off it. But it's pretty tough stuff. Really it's light, nitrogen, no algae. That's all it needs.

I think this is just normal human behavior, to one degree or another. My interest waxes and wanes too. Success breeds enthusiasm, failure is disheartening. Sometimes fish are a burden, other times a welcome distraction from the human condition. My advice is to know first who you are, and then adorn thyself (with fish tanks) accordingly. By which I mean, be realistic about what you're willing to do on a daily basis to take care of everything. Keep stuff that plays to your strengths. Try new things and push your boundaries and all that, but set yourself up to succeed. Make all frequent tasks ridiculously easy so you'll do them even when you don't want to. Keeping stuff clean and organized helps quite a bit.

I hate the api nitrate test. If you want it to read 80 hold it closer to the paper. If you want it to read 20, go into a different room with different lighting.

If you're having trouble with java moss or something similar and you get some little tiny 2" square, grow it out emersed for a while first. Just any clear container, keep it wet with tank water or very dilute fertilizer. Trim it and spread it out, and once you've got it going you can take some and experiment with it in the tank. Once there, light and nitrogen is really all it needs. Just keep it algae free with snails, shrimp, ostracods, flow, or good tank conditions where other plants are growing fine but algae really isn't. I think half the problem is starting with some tiny amount of beat up or algae infested moss. So I'd definitely do this if you're starting out with some brown or not thriving moss. Some pics. The brown moss on the second one is where I almost let it dry out completely, then flooded it to hatch out some cpds and added snails to take care of any algae.

I would just track the pH throughout a couple days to see how much photosynthesis is occurring during those dim periods. I expect the difference is little though, maybe undetectable, and would probably just aerate 24/7.

Anyone know what's up with this buce? It's in a 5.5 gallon on miracle grow soil under a 10 watt 2 foot led. Seems to be growing well, for a variegated buce anyway, but the yellowing on the older leaves is concerning. The buce behind it is growing very well, but experiencing the same issue. Possibly relevant info- I got these about 7 weeks ago from a high tech tank, not sure if they were getting full light or shaded in that setup. I moved a couple of those hydroton balls to check out the rhizome and roots. All looks good, nice and green, new root growth is white. They get a light spray with a pretty dilute fertilizer solution, mostly N and K, a tiny bit of P, about once per week or two. The rest of the time they get sprayed with RO water to keep up the humidity. Any other info or pics needed let me know. Questions, comments, wild theories, vicious personal attacks, all welcome. 🙂

It would be nice. I've never been much into catfish but the fry are cute as hell.

The aquaswap sub on reddit would probably get the most views. Would love other suggestions though.

This thread gives me hope that my hitchhiker pygmy cory fry are still alive somewhere.

I was thinking an empty teabag or even some small micron screen, for being able to just lift the eggs off the paper towel. I'll post the results. Thanks for your video, it's tough being motivated to pick eggs when you think you're probably just gonna purposefully kill them. It was encouraging.

That's it

No problem. Make sure it's jb water weld. It's a ~4 inch putty stick. There are a lot of jb weld epoxies and I have no experience with the other ones.

I think so. Silicone flexes, epoxy cures hard as a rock. I've used it on live rock in reef tanks, pretty similar to lava rock. There's probably a limit as to the size of the structure you could build before you had to drill the rock and use acrylic rods or something, but I'm not sure what that is. At any rate I'd trust the epoxy to hold over the silicone.

jb water weld really any 2 part epoxy putty that's safe for drinking water. take care to hide it as it cures bright white.

Ha, I would never. I don't know why I didn't think to use paper towel. So easy!

Son of b**** stole my line! 😄 I think I'm gonna try this method first as it doesn't involve me hacking chunks off a brick of fake peat. If I had some actual peat on hand I'd try it for the acidity, but we'll see how this goes. I collected 18 eggs last night, haven't checked them yet. I'll probably do this a few different ways and see what happens. It'd be really nice to just collect some eggs and throw em in a bag for a week before hatching.

Yeah, it's easy to overdo it, especially with a young tank.

Root tabs spiked the nitrogen faster than the plants could use it. Water change back to safe levels and stay on top of it until the plants and bacteria catch up.

Will do. I haven't collected eggs in about a week, so the plan is to collect tonight and get anything laid in the last week, then again tomorrow for the peat (actually coco fiber). I'm not sure if it would be best to collect eggs, place in methylene blue for a day to remove infertile eggs, then put in the peat, or to just add a bit of meth blue to the water I soak the peat in and add the eggs directly. I'll probably try both ways. Right now I'm getting pretty bad hatch rates. About half the eggs are usually infertile and about half of the good ones actually end up hatching. I'm hoping it's just cuz they're young fish, but in case anyone sees what I'm doing wrong, my process is this- pull mops, remove eggs and reattach to some 3 inch lengths of wet yarn that then go into a cup with tank water and a bit of meth blue. They can be out of the water here for a good few minutes while I'm checking mops and I think either drying or temp changes might be a problem. Next day I pull the bad eggs, and usually check again the next day before changing out about half the water. I change out most of the cup water again around day 10. Cups are just placed on a high shelf and stay between 75 and 80 degrees. Anyone who breeds blue eyes, how do you handle the eggs? This is all fine for now with the gerts but eventually I'd like to get some P. mellis and it'd be nice to have the egg procedure dialed in.

It's a catchy tune, and solid advice.

Haha, it's just so exactly like something he'd say. I have had that song in my head for like a week now.

My tap is the same and I raise it to the same levels. All my tanks get the same water as it's pumped from a central reservoir, so everything has to live with it. I think 4kh and 4gh is a pretty good compromise for everything- cpds, blue eyes, neos, plants, snails, and most things I might get in the future. Maybe not great for the endlers but they're tough and breeding like... well, endlers. I fill the reservoir, add rift lake salt for cal and mag and let it mix, and a day later add baking soda for kh. Lasts a couple weeks, depending on use. Point is, op, there's a lot of ways to do things. Everyone here does it slightly differently. So you don't need to trouble yourself too much right now, but it's not gonna hurt to have a better understanding of water chemistry. Grab a bucket of a known amount of water, add a known amount of stuff, see how it changes and write it down.