Use This Resource to Have Many of Your Aquarium-Related Questions Answered

[redfish]

Ha.  Thanks!  This article helps also.

 

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-change-aquarium-water-correctly

[PerceptivePesce]

I'm trying to pick out plants for my first tank, and plan where I'm going to place them around my hardscape.  ACO rarely has a size in their plant listings.  Buceplant.com has sizes listed but there are some inconsistencies.  For example:

In the written description for the coffeefolia it says it can grow 12" tall, but then under the plant's listed stats it says, Height: 4"-6".

https://buceplant.com/collections/anubias/products/anubias-barteri-coffeefolia

The anubias barteri doesn't have a height in the description, but its stat height says 4"-6" also.

https://buceplant.com/collections/anubias/products/anubias-barteri

The anubias barteri butterfly has no height in its description, but its stat height says it can grow up to 16".

https://buceplant.com/collections/anubias/products/anubias-barteri-butterfly

I'm thoroughly confused.  Can anyone help clarify?

[Odd Duck]

I’ve never grown coffeefolia or butterfly, but “standard” barteri easily gets to 8-10” tall for me in low tech, moderate to low light.

BucePlants is often one of my go-to’s for information but as with any source, double or even triple check.  Buce Plants and a few other sites have a few Crypts listed as being from South America, which is definitely not correct.  They are all from various parts of Asia and vicinity.

Some of Buce Plants listings just repeat generic Anubias, Crypt, or sword sizes, especially in the bottom section.  If they list a size in the main description, it’s usually more accurate than when they put the size only in the listing at the bottom of each description.

[PerceptivePesce]

@Odd DuckThanks for the reply.  After making the post above, I had the idea that maybe they meant the rhizome grows 12" tall and the stems with leaves only grows 4"-6" off the rhyzome.  When you say the standard barteri grows 8-10", do you mean the stems and leaves get that tall?  I just looked at a couple of the links in your sig, I'll finish looking at the others.  What I've seen is inspiring!  Beautiful!

[Odd Duck]

On 8/23/2022 at 12:24 PM, PerceptivePesce said:

@Odd DuckThanks for the reply.  After making the post above, I had the idea that maybe they meant the rhizome grows 12" tall and the stems with leaves only grows 4"-6" off the rhyzome.  When you say the standard barteri grows 8-10", do you mean the stems and leaves get that tall?  I just looked at a couple of the links in your sig, I'll finish looking at the others.  What I've seen is inspiring!  Beautiful!

Thank you!  I wish all my tanks were looking as good as the pics I’ve posted.  😆  They’re currently a bit more neglected than usual since I’ve been sick and out of town most of last week.  I still don’t have my energy back and I struggle to keep up with all my tanks currently.  My goal is a fish room with a water change system.  Then I would only have my pair of 100 G tanks to do separately.  If I can manage enough ambition to get the fish room (Offish) done, my life will be much easier and tank maintenance much better.  I just wish I didn’t have to rearrange over 1/2 the house to get the Offish done.  I need to break it down into steps.  😝 

The plant (stems and leaves) gets to 8” or so above the rhizome.  The rhizome will get quite long with the right conditions.  I cut apart my last one that got long into 3 sections.

[PerceptivePesce]

Do you happen to know or have heard a discussion about how much ACOs Easy Ferts lowers ph?

[Kasper]

Can someone tell me what Hang On Back Filter Cory always talks about and says they are the best and built great? Thanks.

[Atomicfish]

Hey blogs are pretty cool thanks for posting about it.

[Alex S.]

Hey Everyone!

I recently set up a 5.5 gallon tank for my desk and have a betta living in it. An issue I've been running into is whenever I turn the light on, my betta starts swimming back and forth erratically and seems to be stressed. I've tried to give her time to adjust and even tried to feed her while the light is on, but she won't touch the food until the light is cut off. At that point she goes straight to the food and everything is back to normal.

Right now I have a cheep amazon light that does not have dimming capability, so I'm thinking that the light is probably too bright. Before I go out and buy another light, I want to make sure that could be a valid issue. Does anyone have ideas on why she might be freaking out, or have recommendations for good betta lights?

[Odd Duck]

On 3/3/2023 at 10:50 PM, Alex S. said:

Hey Everyone!

I recently set up a 5.5 gallon tank for my desk and have a betta living in it. An issue I've been running into is whenever I turn the light on, my betta starts swimming back and forth erratically and seems to be stressed. I've tried to give her time to adjust and even tried to feed her while the light is on, but she won't touch the food until the light is cut off. At that point she goes straight to the food and everything is back to normal.

Right now I have a cheep amazon light that does not have dimming capability, so I'm thinking that the light is probably too bright. Before I go out and buy another light, I want to make sure that could be a valid issue. Does anyone have ideas on why she might be freaking out, or have recommendations for good betta lights?

Lights going on can be startling and bettas do tend to prefer dimmer light.  Do you turn on the room lights first, maybe open a blind if it’s light outside to add more room light before turning on the tank light?  Then finally turn on the tank light?

Is this a planted tank or are you using artificial plants?  You can pretty easily add floating plants of some sort, even if you go with artificial lily pads.  If it’s a planted tank, then live floating plants could be really helpful.  Whether real or artificial, either would likely help her be less startled when the light comes on.

[Alex S.]

On 3/4/2023 at 12:15 AM, Odd Duck said:

Lights going on can be startling and bettas do tend to prefer dimmer light.  Do you turn on the room lights first, maybe open a blind if it’s light outside to add more room light before turning on the tank light?  Then finally turn on the tank light?

Is this a planted tank or are you using artificial plants?  You can pretty easily add floating plants of some sort, even if you go with artificial lily pads.  If it’s a planted tank, then live floating plants could be really helpful.  Whether real or artificial, either would likely help her be less startled when the light comes on.

Thank you so much for the tips. I've tried making sure my room lights are on before turning on the light and it has seemed to help. I think I was just paranoid about stressing her out, but now that I've given her time to adjust she's acting back to normal even with the light on.

Right now I only have artificial plants because I inherited most of the stuff from a family member, but eventually I would like it to be a planted tank. I will definitely keep the floating plants in mind when I do get around to planting the tank. Thanks again!

[Eden]

Hi.  I'm not sure where to ask this question.  I think I'm at the right place.  If I had a specific question for someone at aquarium co-op, would I ask it here?  Or would I need to go to a different place? I live close to an hour away and don't really want to drive all the way there to ask.  I'm trying to put together a beautiful 29 gallon community tank and want a game plan before going up there.  

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 10/11/2023 at 7:43 PM, Eden said:

Hi.  I'm not sure where to ask this question.  I think I'm at the right place.  If I had a specific question for someone at aquarium co-op, would I ask it here?  Or would I need to go to a different place? I live close to an hour away and don't really want to drive all the way there to ask.  I'm trying to put together a beautiful 29 gallon community tank and want a game plan before going up there.  

The company Contact Us page is here: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/contact-us

I didn't see a phone number there but I didn't look too hard. Otherwise you could try starting a thread in the General Discussion forum.  But your best bet would be directly contacting them, I think.

[johnnyxxl]

On 2/22/2022 at 4:14 PM, Zenzo said:

Hey Everyone!

I just want to remind everyone that the Aquarium Co-Op website has dozens and dozens of blog articles (167 articles, with more added every week), many of which would be able to answer questions that you may have. Often times when someone on the forum creates a new topic with a question, the answer can be readily found through a quick search on our website. You can even type in the question in the search bar, which will often result with a blog article that may address your question. 

Here is the link: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium

Hopefully many of you will find this useful!

Thanks for letting me know