3 Tanks...a Newbie's Family Quest

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Meh. I mess with my plants all the time. Not the best way or per some the right way- but it works. 🙃 Even when you add alll the plants sometimes you find you need to add more. 

[Guppysnail]

I’m not certain my fish would know what to do with themselves if I didn’t change plants every few months (or days). 😁

[TeeJay]

Yes I'm constantly adding plants. Just when I think I have enough I order 5 more. I think I may have developed a habit lol

[Patrick_G]

It is more difficult to add plants after the tank is full, but for me it's harder to not add any more plants! 😂

[Ken Burke]

On 5/31/2022 at 6:24 PM, PithyUserName said:

Well I got a small shipment of the small plants delivered today to try my aqua green thumb out. Overdid the glue on the Java moss. Live and learn. Floated the water sprite in a ring…it was so delicate I couldn’t do much else. Some bigger stuff will be here this weekend sometime.

Took out the fake Fluval plant & moved some driftwood and slate into the 2.6 gallon to get that tank started cycling for shrimp. 
 

Hopefully the larger plants help fill things out…kinda meh on the transitional stage. Took a pic right after rooting around in there for about 30 minutes. Sorry for the water being disturbed so much.

 

Nice.  Be aware, water sprite grows fast, so a little goes a long way.  Hardest part about it imo is learning that it’s ok to toss it into the compost bin.  

On 6/2/2022 at 12:49 PM, Guppysnail said:

I’m not certain my fish would know what to do with themselves if I didn’t change plants every few months (or days). 😁

Me too

[PithyUserName]

Corydoras are really digging the double island. They’ve got a lot more real estate on the floor to cruise around. The rasboras seem to enjoy the Java ferns after feeding they went and hung out in a group right next to it.

[PithyUserName]

Update photo. Things are going well, although the water sprite never got going and just died. Everything else has some new growth, and the PS Octopus had enough new growth to spread out the stems and add to the 2.6 Spec…which has a nice algae growth going.

I have a new surprise guest going in there this evening to clean that up…

Also have some Val and an Annubias Nana on the way to finish out the Flex 15 for a while.

Edited June 17, 2022 by PithyUserName

[PithyUserName]

Red Racer Nerite! I only ordered one to test the source’s quality and shipping. Little fella went right to work on the algae I made last week in the nano tank. Very small shell discoloration at the center of the swirl, but I don’t know if that’s typical. It’ll heal up fine, as I’ve got good mineral content in my water out of the tap. I should have plenty of plants to add in a few weeks to get it looking good. Going to be adding shrimp one the cover is grown in.

[Torrey]

On 6/17/2022 at 11:39 AM, PithyUserName said:

Red Racer Nerite! I only ordered one to test the source’s quality and shipping. Little fella went right to work on the algae I made last week in the nano tank. Very small shell discoloration at the center of the swirl, but I don’t know if that’s typical. It’ll heal up fine, as I’ve got good mineral content in my water out of the tap. I should have plenty of plants to add in a few weeks to get it looking good. Going to be adding shrimp one the cover is grown in.

I'm ORD😍 That nerite has gorgeous coloration and patterning.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Looking great friend!

[drewzero1]

Gorgeous snail! The pitting seems to be common in nerites. It won't heal in the middle but it also doesn't seem to bother them too much.

[Scrum Fish]

Looking good in there!  Love albino corys.  I have a little gang of them, myself, and they are hardy and busy little dudes.  

Wanted to add my voice to the chorus of people who are adding/messing with plants long after the tank is stocked, haha.  I just recently moved a huge amazon sword to a different spot in one of my tanks and I'm sure everyone in there was mad at me for a minute.  I like to think I'm enriching their environment by changing it every so often.

I have some octopus plant in one of mine, as well.  That stuff took a while to get settled in and then EXPLODED.  I routinely trim it back.  Good problem to have, though!  Someone mentioned Amano shrimps further upthread, too, and I second that.  I have them in both of my fish tanks and they're great.  Won't overrun the tank, low bioload, very effective cleaners, and super interesting to watch!  I'd have them in all of my tanks, but the third one is an axolotl tank and Amanos are too pricy for me to throw in there if they might get eaten, so there are ghost shrimp in that one.

[PithyUserName]

Long overdue update. Just trimmed up the plants on Wednesday, and see I need to scrape nerite eggs again. Been dealing with bladder and rams horn snail outbreaks from the last plant order a while back. Under control for the most part. The albino Cory’s spawned this week, so the kids and I are trying to hatch them into fry in a small container.

Next week the 32 gallon win finally get set up. Pretty pumped! Plants have been a fun thing so thanks for the encouragement.

I swapped out the pump head for a waterfall style from Etsy, and moved down to a nano sponge filter. Lots of oxygen in there now. The ACoO air pump is awesome. Lost power for 4 days and it was great to run it on eco mode. Only had to charge it on the portable generator twice. Highly recommended!

Edited September 16, 2022 by PithyUserName

[PithyUserName]

32 gal Flex is up and running. Everyone is enjoying their new home. I broke down the 15 gal and decided to try some diy by making a cave of pond foam…hope to have that tank back up this weekend.

Big tank stocking has changed, and is housing a few residents that’ll move back to the 15 once I’ve got a cycle going. 
 

32 gal: 8 very young gold white clouds, 6 mature harlequins, 2 Albino corys, 4 pepper corys, mystery snail, 2 Nerites, 3 amano shrimp, 2 rescue Mickey  Mouse platys, a blue and a yellow sunburst which may not make it unless her fins grow back. 

We are going to move the platys & shrimp to the 15, add some khulis, and try a dwarf honey gourami.

Kids still loving the journey, and I catch my wife in the office watching them do their thing when she doesn’t know I’m watching her :)

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Really looks wonderful!!

[PithyUserName]

15 gallon tank has been marinating for 4 weeks, and the water parameters have been consistent, so we stocked it today. Kuhli loaches and shrimp are doing great. The neon tetras made it about 2 hours and all died within 30 mins of one another. 😟 55 min car ride from the fish store, and they were visibly stressed while being acclimated. Sigh. 
 

Tested the water again to be sure. It’s unchanged from the last three days. I wish I had a fish store a lot closer.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

So frustrating!! Hopefully everyone else will do fine. I've heard the Neons can sometimes be difficult. What I have done in the past is ask the LFS for more of their water (an extra bag or two). Then when I get a small QT tank out (I like Petco's Imagitarium Critter Keepers- Med or Large) and put them in there with the LFS water right away- the extra water won't have any accumulated ammonia from that 2hr drive and should help some (not that there should be much). Then over the course of several hours I'll put some of my tank water in until the QT is full and and leave them in there for QT time, from 3 to 4 weeks depending on whether there are any illnesses seen or treated- but doing a water change every day if there are several fish- 20-30% is fine. In short order the tank will be all my water and the fish seem to transition well that way. 

[PithyUserName]

I’ve been off here a long while. The 15g is home to a koi betta, 2 amanos, 2 horned nerites. I want to add some tank mates, and need advice.

32 gallon is doing well. Ottos, glow danios, harlequins, gold white clouds, a bubba blue mystery, one big albino Cory hat I’ve had since he beginning, and 3 amanos. I’ve got some more anubias and some moss on the way to round replace some plants I removed.

 

Edited April 6 by PithyUserName