Anjum

Gah! I'm so worried for you all! The spot where @rockfisher is got hit hard. Prayers up!

What part of FL are you in @Chick-In-Of-TheSea ?

Storm has made landfall... Please be safe FL nerms! Thoughts are with you all ❤️

I'm still practicing my aquarium photography, so I'll post a couple more before the contest is up. But here's one I got so far 🙂

The struggle is real 😂 I have the same problem with my 10 g bowfront, which is (was) heavily planted. I had 3 guppies & a SAE in there & just moved them last weekend to the new 20L. I had to take out a couple plants to get the guppies. But I had to take out almost all of the plants, plus the big rocks & the sponge filter, and get my husband's help to get the SAE out. SAEs do NOT like to be caught. They hide for days afterward. Poor guy.

He looks so majestic in the 2nd pic! I hope everything is ok.

Oooh I want to see how this tank turns out! Love the concept. I recently got a group of peppered corys (paleatus) in my 29. Love them! And they're already trying to spawn. Which might actually be a vote for pygmys in a 20L.. My personal preference on nano fish is bigger schools, so personally I'd do 10+ of a single species. But that's just for looks; 2 smaller schools would be fine too. I recently got a 20L going. I've got a nano sponge filter (right hand side) & a HOB. It's a lot of flow, but that mostly comes from the HOB. There's only a .25" difference in height of the small vs. nano, so either would probably be fine.

Is guppy grass the same thing as Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus"? I have it in all my tanks & love it. It quickly grows to the top, but stays wispy, so the fish can swim amongst it. You can trim it as much as you need to keep it in check. It does fine in lower light.

@Pepere so funny story... when I initially asked my husband if he had one of those ground testers, he said no but assured me everything was grounded, he'd already checked. Well he had to go to the hardware store the next day, and whaddya know, he comes home with one 😅 He gets to testing all the outlets & come to find out, there's a whole wall in our kitchen where the outlets aren't grounded! He was not happy about that. I told him sorry I found you another electrical mystery to solve. But I was also thinking about this whole issue of potential stray current in a tank... and I understand that having the ground probe would eliminate (or reduce?) any stray current in the water. But, you wouldn't know this is happening, correct? It would be making the tank safe for the fish, etc, but I wouldn't know I was having an equipment malfunction. I guess that's what I want to know - Is there a way to be alerted to the fact there's stray current in the tank?

Haha you did better (or worse?) than me! I went to my LFS yesterday, just to get frozen food. Of course I had to look through all the tanks of nano tropical fish. They actually had some surprisingly neat things. But I'm skeptical of how well they keep their fish, so I didn't leave with anything. I'll wait until I can get down to ACO again to get live animals. Soon, very soon...

Beautiful!! I love blackwater tanks. Do you know what kind of fern fronds? Looks like sword fern maybe? I'm always looking for more options to gather botanicals & hardscape. Wasn't aware ferns could be used!

I believe you can get pricing if you email the store, but they don't post it on the forum.

I'll have to read through it a few times 😅 But I'll have hubs read it too, he'll get it better than me. He already said he can switch out the outlets for GFCI pretty easily. The wiring in this (old) house has surprised him more than once, so he also can, or already has, verified that things are grounded properly etc. Thank you very much for writing it all out! I think this will be a valuable thread to refer back to.

Yeah, I think the general recommendation is 12-24 hours in the tank. But luckily there wasn't fish in there, you can remedy it quickly enough.

If you'd be so kind, explain this to me like I'm a 3 year old... I've always had the hardest time understanding electricity. Where exactly is the grounding probe? What is it attached to? I have all the stuff in my tanks plugged into GFCI strips, my husband had the foresight to insist on that. But the stray current in the water thing worries me..

Yes! I always forget about this. I've heard of multiple people having mysterious fish ailments or death due to stray current. Some fish just seem to be worse affected by it than others.

Yep, could be. Were the green beans in there more than a day? Maybe if you move some more plants into the 5 gal, it will help the betta feel more secure & eat up any extra ammonia quickly. The 2.5 would be good for snails and/or shrimp.

We have poor air quality outdoors because of a local forest fire. Good day to stay inside & do tank maintenance! Water changes are on the agenda...

Man, that is strange! I'd think a contaminant, but that seems unlikely if the other fish are doing fine. You've got aeration to the bottom of the tank? A bowfront is more of a deep tank, less air exchange making it down there from the top than I'm a shallower tank.

The waiting is the hardest part! But you're on the right track. As others have said, algae is just part of the process, it'll go away when the tank balances. Do you know your parameters out of the tap? It's also a good idea to test aerated tap water after 24 hrs, this is more indicative of what you'll be working with. If you haven't already, you can add a bottled beneficial bacteria product; that'll jump start the cycle. Botanicals will naturally, slowly, lower pH over time: wood, catappa leaves, etc. If you don't want tannins, you can boil them out ahead of time & they'll lessen over time with water changes.

Man seems like it was something no matter where you live. Gardens were tough this year! I got ZERO zucchini! That's unheard of.

Thanks @Guppysnail & @Its Hutch ! I'm so excited they're already spawning, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. I mean, they're very young, who knows if the eggs are even fertile?? I'm just going to keep letting them do their thing while I do research. I want to be prepared for the whole process before I start trying in earnest to actually hatch & raise fry. But I will! I'll check out Hutch's journal, thx!

Mine are doing well on Repashy Bottom Scratcher & frozen (thawed) bloodworms.

More Corydoras eggs this morning!!! I noticed the 1st 3 on Sat 9/17. This morning I sat at the tank a while & thought maybe I was seeing some mating/spawning behavior. It was definitely "different" behavior, enough to make me go "is that it?!" 😅 And sure enough, when I looked at the tank again a couple hours later, 4 more eggs!!! Now, I fully expect them to be gone when I get home; the eggs on Sat disappeared pretty quickly. I'm going to work on getting more plant cover in that tank, but also going to look into removing the eggs & letting them hatch somewhere safe. So exciting!!!

So I'll kinda spitball some ideas, but I'm not an expert in any of it.. The white stuff on the substrate looks like some kind of biofilm or fungus? Or maybe some of the root tab fertilizer leaching up? The plants that turn brown & rot away sounds like melt. Basically when conditions change drastically for the plant, it might sacrifice it's leaves while it's roots get reestablished, then it'll grow new leaves. That can happen from transplanting. It can also happen if the plant was initially grown partially out of water but then you fully submerge it. The leaves that grow above water are different than the ones that grow underwater. Generally, plants that are grown for the aquarium trade are grown out of water, so that's why brand new plants can melt once you put them in your tank. If the plant is strong & the tank conditions correct, it should have no problem regrowing. Regarding algae, it's a delicate balance between nutrients & light. Too much of either will favor algae growth. It can just take time to dial in how much is ideal for your plants without extra for algae. Do you test for nitrites & nitrates? This is one nutrient needed for plants and/or algae. If you have a high amount, the plants aren't using it fast enough & there's extra for algae. Conversely, if you have lower nitrates, but lots of light, again algae growth. You can dial your light period down to 6 hrs & see if that helps. Or split the photoperiod, on for 3, off for 3, on again for 3. Hope something in there helps 😅