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That guppy's clamping its fins which means it's feeling really awful/sick. It also looks like there is a bit of fin rot. The white streamer is likely diarrhoea, which could be worms or a systemic bacterial infection. You might be able to feed medicated food if the fish is still eating but ideally you'd have a hospital tank to treat sick fish in - this way you can treat without risking harming plants and shrimp. It's hard to judge which medication would work but kanaplex + furan2 is a combo that should manage most bacterial infections. It might be too late but it's something to consider if you notice it spreading to other fish. New fish often carry diseases and get sick due to stress, which can be caused by shipping/handling and by poor water conditions both of which can happen before the fish comes into your care. I think you've got a good sized tank and reasonable stocking levels but at this point it looks like you are having a fish-in cycle (the nitrogen cycle which depends on bacteria to consume wastes and convert them to a safer form). Your filter should develop a layer of bacteria which should be allowed to build up; the fact that you saw a nitrite spike could mean your bacteria population which consumes nitrites is not sufficient to provide stability as your tank's levels are fluctuating. Over time it will settle down but in the meantime keep a close eye on ammonia and nitrite levels and watch for nitrate levels rising over time. Fish need zero ammonia and zero nitrite for optimal health. So you want to ensure you have a filter with sufficient filtration media to house enough bacteria for your fish load. Porous ceramic media holds a lot of bacteria per volume so hopefully your filter contains some of that. Regarding snail eggs, it's possible that the egg case will dry out and no eggs will hatch or for it to be too wet and go mouldy. If you want to keep and raise the babies I've seen a technique where the egg case is moved to a floating container in the tank with a damp piece of paper towel in the bottom to ensure humidity. Once they hatch you can feed them veg to keep the plants safe. I don't think you have room for hundreds of snails though! Have you got a plan to deal with snails as they grow? If not it's probably better for your sanity to remove the egg case and let it dry out and have zero baby snails to deal with. It can sap a lot of the fun out of things if you end up with Too Many Babies and then you have no room for animals you actually wanted to keep.
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Jan 21, 2020 04:32
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I have Malaysian Trumpet snails ordered for my big tank to get a colony started for an eventual pea puffer introduction. But I don’t think I’ll have much room for this many mystery snails. At the same time I don’t want to just kill the egg sac. I’m kind of curious what a black snail and a yellow snail combo looks like. It’s in a pretty humid spot, so I’ll let it stay put and get a bowl ready to keep the betta safe. If it hatches then most will probably perish quickly as the ecosystem hits its limits. I’ll save what I can.
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Jan 21, 2020 05:10
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If your snails have bred once, they'll do it again and newborn mystery snails (or slightly grown out ones) might make better puffer food than Malaysian trumpets. MTS spend most of the time burrowed under substrate in my experience. I think puffer food counts as a decent plan for dealing with too many snails. I'm not saying don't get the MTS, I like them for stirring the substrate and helping with clean up.
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Jan 21, 2020 06:48
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BONGHITZ posted:Are you using any water conditioners or any quickstart bacteria? I have API tap water conditioner, and I'm adding 1ml every time I do a water change. Stoca Zola posted:That guppy's clamping its fins which means it's feeling really awful/sick. It also looks like there is a bit of fin rot. The white streamer is likely diarrhoea, which could be worms or a systemic bacterial infection. You might be able to feed medicated food if the fish is still eating but ideally you'd have a hospital tank to treat sick fish in - this way you can treat without risking harming plants and shrimp. It's hard to judge which medication would work but kanaplex + furan2 is a combo that should manage most bacterial infections. It might be too late but it's something to consider if you notice it spreading to other fish. New fish often carry diseases and get sick due to stress, which can be caused by shipping/handling and by poor water conditions both of which can happen before the fish comes into your care. I came down this morning and the guppy was stuck to the inlet of the filter, struggling to swim away. Might be looking at the second guppy death. The fact that it's the two males makes me think there may be something that came with them from the pet shop. I went to a different shop than usual to get the guppies and I'm not sure I trust it as much. Do people actually have a second hospital tank on standby? I assume you have to keep that one with a running filter, water changes etc. the whole time just in case a fish gets ill? Or are you talking about just taking some tank water and putting it in a bucket for a couple of days? My filter has a cartridge full of some sort of porous rock, I assume that's what that's for. I think my tank water is OK now: pre:Date Sample Ph Ammonia (ppm) Nitrite (ppm) Nitrate (ppm) Notes 28 Nov Tap water 7.5 0.25 0 20ppm 7 Dec Tank 7.5 0.25 0.25 20ppm 28 Dec Tank 7.5 0.5 0 40ppm Add shrimp and guppies 12 Jan Tank 7.6 0.25 5 40ppm Sick guppy 16 Jan Tank 7.8 0.25 0.25 40ppm More shrimp, daily changes 19 Jan Tank 7.8 0.25 0 10ppm Another sick guppy
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Jan 21, 2020 13:45
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Some people do keep hospital tanks on standby I think the better solution is to have an extra filter running in a bigger tank. When a hospital tank is required, that filter is pulled off and immediately able to do its duty in the hospital tank. Sponge filters work well for this.
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Jan 21, 2020 14:05
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Wolfsbane posted:I have API tap water conditioner, and I'm adding 1ml every time I do a water change. You should have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite every time you check it in a cycled tank - you might want to hit the tank with a dose of seachem prime or another conditioner that can bind to ammonia and neutralize it. For the time being I wouldn't add anything else to the tank until it's cycled.
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Jan 21, 2020 15:36
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Can't hurt to add more water conditioner too, the bottle might say 1ml but that doesn't take into account chloramine vs chlorine or seasonal changes in water treatment at the source. Another way to calculate is to dose for your tank total size, not just the water you're removing and adding. Starting out with a tank is the hardest part - your new fish are at their worst and most stressed, your tank isn't mature and none of the bacteria, funguses and microfauna have come into balance yet, let alone plants or algae. It will settle down over time so be patient while all the ugly stuff happens. There are things you can do to smooth out the start a little but the potential for everything to go pear shaped is always there. A hospital tank can be as simple as a plastic tub, or bucket like you say, but for observation purposes something with clear sides is preferable (I have a few 25lt tubs that are reasonably optically clear which I use in a pinch). Having a sponge filter that you can take out of your main tank and add to the spare tank or tub = instant cycling, if it's been running long enough, which means you can isolate fish and keep an eye on them to see how they are doing during their treatment with the bonus that if the fish dies, it won't stink up your main tank and spread disease all through the water as it breaks down. It's also very useful to have something to quarantine new fish so that you aren't putting your established healthy fish at risk. Many of us do end up with multiple tanks running and the least favourite or ugliest tank often ends up as the quarantine or hospital tank because if there is a disease outbreak it gives us an excuse to strip it down, clean it out, and start over once the disease outbreak is dealt with. Just do your best with whatever you have or whatever you have space for, there's plenty of right ways to keep fish and as you get more experience you'll work out what works best for you and your situation.
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Jan 21, 2020 16:09
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The Petsmart and Petco dollar a gallon sales are the perfect time to get a hospital tank. I have a 20 high and a 10 just so I can QT and treat fresh and saltwater at the same time if need be.
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Jan 21, 2020 16:14
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Hey! I hope this is the right place to ask, but I recently got a new betta fish after not having one for a few years. This one I have in a bigger tank than before (6.5 gallons, previously I had a 2.5so I wanted to spice things up for him with more than a few plants. I recall reading that you need to be mindful of what you put in a betta’s tank since they have delicate fins, so I was looking for recommendations?
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Jan 22, 2020 03:59
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Morshu posted:Hey! I hope this is the right place to ask, but I recently got a new betta fish after not having one for a few years. This one I have in a bigger tank than before (6.5 gallons, previously I had a 2.5so I wanted to spice things up for him with more than a few plants. I recall reading that you need to be mindful of what you put in a betta’s tank since they have delicate fins, so I was looking for recommendations? Do you have a filter for the tank? What's the light like? You don't have to worry about plants hurting bettas AFAIK but you do have to worry about them hurting themselves on lovely tank ornaments like all the fake ceramic/whatever poo poo people like to put in. You should youtube 'Low tech aquarium plants' and especially look at stem plants since they are pretty easy to propagate and do some real work on cleaning up the tank.
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Jan 22, 2020 04:04
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What's the best way to trim Jungle Val? I'm trying to aqua scape my tank after a year of laisse faire attitude towards the plants. The plants are doing great, just a trim and rearranging. 
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Jan 22, 2020 04:15
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I've heard both sides of the tale: just cut them how long you want them it'll be fine, and cut the long leaves off at the base and wait for new leaves to grow and leave the shorter still growing leaves, because cutting a leaf in the middle will cause the rest of the length of the leaf to die off and rot. I don't know which version is true or whether it is different for different types of Val. When I had Val in my 4 foot and I was finding 10 foot long leaves, they were breaking off and I was just removing the loose ones. As far as I can tell either the leaf was too long and was snapping by itself or snails were chewing it off so they'd have decaying leaf matter to eat later. I did find that damaged leaves would tend to rot but not sure if a clean cut with a sharp set of pruning scissors would make a difference there. It's day 9 post surgery and so far I haven't done any water changes. I'd planned to yesterday because I felt pretty good, well enough to spend time cooking burgers for dinner and had thought to do water changes that evening but post-dinner the fatigue hit hard and I couldn't. I've lost one guppy and one sterbai cory in the time between water changes, and as far as I can tell it was an elderly female guppy, just normal attrition and the sterbai was from an uneaten wafer that has messed up that tank a bit. I'm going to try again this afternoon, I can't put off cleaning the messed up tank in case I lose more fish and I feel like I can carry the empty containers and hoses without trouble now, so I can enact the no-buckets water change plan. The sterbai apparently don't like that type of wafer at all, I need to remember to only feed that wafer to my tanks with loaches and guppies as they seem to love it. They are Northfin kelp wafers that contain krill as well as vegetable matter so they're a good omnivore food, they just might be the wrong texture or flavour for the sterbai to handle.
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Jan 22, 2020 04:43
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VelociBacon posted:Do you have a filter for the tank? What's the light like? It does have a filter and it’s got an LED light that I keep on during the day. I’m not so much worried about plants hurting him, I just wanted to know if there are any recommendations on things like rocks and such. I can try different types of plants though! If this java fern is like the one I had before, it’ll grow like mad lol
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Jan 22, 2020 04:54
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I'll try some cutting of the leaves before any big aqua scaping and see what happens. Does val have leaves or blades?
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Jan 22, 2020 05:04
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Windelof java fern is the frilly looking one, it tends to stay shorter and might be more suitable for a betta tank while having the same fairly low care requirements as regular java fern. I'm a big fan of it and especially the way it drops plantlets so you get free ferns for all your tanks, forever.
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Jan 22, 2020 05:04
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Crypts are pretty similar in that way. I started with two teeny ones and now the left side of my tank is a Sri Lankan Salad and nobody gives a poo poo about hiding in my crappy caves anymore.
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Jan 22, 2020 05:12
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Why did my dwarf babys tears end up with HUGE leaves and 4" tall? It was started via DSM and then flooded. It looked very babytears-y at first but then grew enormous. How do I fix it?  Also I have a bad greenwater problem, which I'm wondering if it's related.
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Jan 22, 2020 17:25
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If you grew it from seeds, you likely got some hygrophila species - you can fix it by removing these wrong plants, draining your tank, buying some tissue culture dwarf baby tears and starting over. It's possible you've got too much light and nutrient available which is allowing the greenwater to grow - if you aren't adding CO2 I think it favours algae over plants. What else is going on in your set up? What lights, what nutrients, what substrate? Oh hey is that the same Marineland 5g you posted last year? If doing a new dry start is no good for you, you might be able to get reasonable results with monte carlo instead of dwarf baby tears, it's a lot less demanding as far as I can tell. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Jan 22, 2020 |
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Jan 22, 2020 17:34
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This was specifically what I bought: https://smile.amazon.com/Aquarium-Foreground-Carpeting-Aquariums-Goldfish/dp/B07WJRVNV2 My tank is a Fluval Spec V, running a pair of 16" Finnex FugeRay Planted's from 9:30 - 4:30. I am injecting CO2, and I'm using Flourite Black substrate, and SaltyShrimp GH/KH-dosed-RO water. The leaves started a minor die-off after submerging, and I'm thinking that's providing a lot of nutrients into the water column. I'm doing about a half-gallon per day water changes to try and stay on top of that. The leaves seem to be maybe a little smaller after dosing the water column with iron and adding that second FugeRay. edit: I retired the MarineLand, it exploded in algae. edit2: I have $200 in skrimps in this tank, so I don't feel comfortable just ripping everything out. I'm ok replacing the plants, I just need to know how to safely do it... insta fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Jan 22, 2020 |
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Jan 22, 2020 17:54
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Yeah those seeds are pretty much a scam. You might not even have aquatic plants there, who knows what they sold you. It should be safe to remove them using the jiggle method, grab one stem at a time and very gently wiggle the plant up and down (about as if you were scratching an itch) and it should ease its way out of the substrate without making too much of a mess. They might work well as a marginal plant for a pond if you have a patio pond or similar, otherwise let them dry out or otherwise neutralise them and bin them. If it was me I'd have a temporary tank water bucket set up to check for shrimp escapees before doing the final disposal of the plant. It does sound like you've got ample light (maybe photo period is a touch too long) but I'm not sure about nutrient levels for HC (dwarf baby tears). A quick google suggests the real thing needs a LOT of nutrients, more than you can get from just flourite and would probably appreciate liquid dosing. Your mix of lighting, CO2 and nutrients currently isn't right which is why you've got greenwater, so when fault finding, pick one thing and change it, and wait a week or more to see how it affects the tank. Then tweak accordingly. It takes time! I do think you should be able to slowly remove the plants, and if you don't have any other plants, cut the CO2 and reduce your lighting. Try and get the greenwater under control next, you could probably black out the tank without harm to the shrimps. Once the green water is defeated I do think you could plant some well rinsed tissue culture HC without risking your shrimps, you'd just need to slowly adjust your CO2 and nutrient dosing to appropriate levels to allow the shrimp to adjust to the change. There's nothing wrong with tissue culture wet planted HC apart from that it grows so slowly. The point of the dry start method is to get lots of plants, more quickly, as they'll have access to atmospheric carbon dioxide and will grow much faster - but you don't NEED that to have a successful carpet. You just need patience, or to buy a whole ton of HC to plant all at once. I've got an old style Fluval Spec V myself, did you do anything in particular to shrimp proof the filter inlet? I've got a fine plastic mesh over the weir and I still sometimes find juvies on the sponge side of the filter.
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Jan 22, 2020 18:30
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Speaking of plants, I've lost several species of plants over the past year. While other species have totally thrived. Mostly, recently I lost all the anachris. I also lost Cobomba and Ambulia as a total mystery. What could cause certain plants to not thrive? Not enough light or fertilizer? Or do those plants need exact params? Should I retry them once I get CO2? I lost Dwarf Hairgrass, Staurogene Repens, and other carpeting plants but I understand that my sand didn't make it easy for them, also my Gouramis loved to uproot all that stuff so they never took hold. At the same time though, my vals, dwarf sag, rotala, bacopa, amazon sword and ferns are all growing wild so I'm not sure whats up. I'm not the most well read or researched on plant care, to me the fish come first, but now that my fish have been happy and healthy for a while and I'm not gonna stock the tank up anymore (I'm gonna try a Pom-Pom Crab and Vampire Shrimp as my final stockings) I want to try and do well with aquascaping. Phi230 fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Jan 22, 2020 |
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Jan 22, 2020 18:41
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Stoca Zola posted:Yeah those seeds are pretty much a scam. You might not even have aquatic plants there, who knows what they sold you. It should be safe to remove them using the jiggle method, grab one stem at a time and very gently wiggle the plant up and down (about as if you were scratching an itch) and it should ease its way out of the substrate without making too much of a mess. They might work well as a marginal plant for a pond if you have a patio pond or similar, otherwise let them dry out or otherwise neutralise them and bin them. If it was me I'd have a temporary tank water bucket set up to check for shrimp escapees before doing the final disposal of the plant. It does sound like you've got ample light (maybe photo period is a touch too long) but I'm not sure about nutrient levels for HC (dwarf baby tears). A quick google suggests the real thing needs a LOT of nutrients, more than you can get from just flourite and would probably appreciate liquid dosing. Your mix of lighting, CO2 and nutrients currently isn't right which is why you've got greenwater, so when fault finding, pick one thing and change it, and wait a week or more to see how it affects the tank. Then tweak accordingly. It takes time! Dang it. So, just remove them manually? I've been trying, but they're quite rooted into the substrate. I guess it's just a battle of pull 10 out per day and don't let it stir up too badly. I have a whole cabinet full of Seachem liquid ferts, but I was waiting until things got under more control before starting dosing. My solution to shrimp through the filter was just to have more shrimp.
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Jan 22, 2020 18:45
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Phi230 posted:Speaking of plants, I've lost several species of plants over the past year. While other species have totally thrived. I'm not a plant pro either, but vals, dwarf sag, rotala, bacopa, swords and ferns are all easy care plants, that is, low light and low ferts. One stand out is your vals, they will melt if dosed with excel, and prefer hard water to soft (which I think matches higher pH, a lot of plants prefer slightly acidic to help them absorb nutrients so that could be a factor here). I suspect the others might die off due to lack of light, really when you increase light you have to increase fertilisers too or the extra growth you'll get will be stunted or yellow or otherwise weird. And for best results you increase CO2, light and ferts all at the same time, in the right balance otherwise you get algae or greenwater - which is what I think happened in insta's tank. With a dry start and a tank full of plants, double lights, and CO2, definitely should have been dosing ferts as well to encourage growth even though the plants were not the expected HC. I have no idea what proportion is needed as all of my heavily planted tanks except my crypt tank and fern tank (and my new combo, bacopa and susswassertang is working well too despite small amounts of algae) have turned into melted algae failures. I just know that deeper tanks are harder to light than shallow, stem plants need more ferts to get good colour and thick growth than non-stem plants (or else they grow in leggy/tall), and carpeting plants need extremely bright light and CO2 to ensure dense low growth. I think it is worth experimenting with different plants to see what goes well in your tanks with your water and lights, and then aquascape from there. You can get some pretty good results without going next level high end gear auto dosing crazypants stuff like the competition tanks have, the principles of getting the scale of the plants and leaves right vs positioning of hardscape and so on can all be done with low tech plants and low end gear, to some extent anyway.
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Jan 22, 2020 20:34
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I think my light is adequate but I haven't been dosing fertilizers often and I don't use CO2. I was thinking about getting a CO2 system. Other than Flourish what ferts would I need? Would I need to stop using flourish and start dosing NPK + Trace elements separately? Anyway today I tried feeding the tank 2 slices of a blanched cucumber. The fish seem unimpressed, all my gouramis nibbled at it but didn't seem to like it. The shrimp seem to like it but aren't going crazy for it. Did I not blanch it enough or should I just go ahead and try other vegetables? Tomorrow I'm thinking broccoli, a carrot, and a slice of zucchini. Maybe I should try floating the vegetable instead of sinking it? Phi230 fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Jan 22, 2020 |
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Jan 22, 2020 22:12
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I found mine didn't like cucumber much either. Too slimy or not nutritious enough maybe? My shrimp like cooked carrot and broccoli and peas, my fish like peas (but I push them through a 1mm mesh rather than use whole pieces) and my loaches and otos like blanched zucchini. I did find with zucchini it has to be in there a few days and get fairly mushy before the otos are into it. I'm using a locally made all in one trace + macros mix, I'm not sure what the difference is with flourish as I haven't seen or used it myself. I think based on what I've read though, flourish is fine for low tech but once going high tech and adding CO2 people do tend to dose differently. Some people swear by the EI dosing method, where you overdose the tank but do big 50% or more water changes every week to make sure it doesn't build up in the tank. That way every mineral is always definitely available and you get optimal plant growth. I think doing this with flourish would be expensive so that's why people mix their own stuff using dry fert powders. I worry more about consistency for the livestock and can't change that much water at once which might be why my planted tanks don't do so well but for only one tank it's probably easily achievable.
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Jan 23, 2020 03:45
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I used to cut cucumbers in half length wise and sink them with a skewer in my bn pleco tank. They would absolutely swarm the cucumber, and by the next day all that was left was the super thin translucent remainder of the skin.
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Jan 23, 2020 04:26
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Is this the right stuff? https://smile.amazon.com/Hemianthus-Callitrichoides-Aquarium-Freshwater-Greenpro/dp/B01CS6H6SM/ref=sr_1_2 I'm slowly pulling out the old plants and doing water changes, haven't lost any stock yet, and the shrimp loving love digging around in the newly-exposed substrate.
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Jan 23, 2020 18:01
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Yeah that's the right species, whatever one you get make sure you rinse off any liquid or gel medium before splitting up the plants and planting them out. They'll be emersed growth so planting them is pretty much the same as if you flooded a dry start tank. Today is day 2 of really slow painful water changes: my 3 foot rasbora/cory/platydoras tank's glass was covered in algae but all lifestock look fine. Which is weird, as I found the main filter pump had completely failed, no flow through the filter box, total sulphur stink inside. The whole tank was being sustained by a cheap ebay no-name canister which I'd been using as a secondary filter, and a giant sponge filter. I double rinsed all the media until it didn't smell, double dosed water conditioner and set the filter box up with a half arsed mini pump dangling into the tank, attached to the box with a tube. The tank didn't lose it's cycle so hopefully the filter box will recover. Meanwhile my trilineatus/brevibora tank which looked pretty fine up until Monday, it turns out that I've lost 2 of the corys. All the rasboras are fine though, I think rasboras are among the toughest fish that I've kept. I think if I'd been able to start water changes on Monday like I'd planned, this tank would have been okay but it was just too long since the last water change.
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Jan 23, 2020 20:03
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What about mats? I'll have a lot of square-inchage open in my tank, can I just plop a mat on top? Do I need to cut it into a checkerboard? Should I stop being lazy and do something different? Something like: http://aquariumplants.com/baby-tears-dwarf-mat-3x5-hemianthus-callitrichoides/
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Jan 23, 2020 20:23
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This is completely guesswork and opinion only: You absolutely can't just plonk a mat down and hope for a healthy carpet. I think you have to split up and plant it so it can grow roots and establish properly, if you dump in a mat, I think the middle and underneath won't have good circulation, the roots won't take to the substrate, and it won't do well. If it was a moss, no problems. HC is a really fussy high care plant. I think if you want something easier try Monte Carlo but you'll still be planting lots of little plants to get an eventual carpet. And once you have a carpet you'll have to trim it to keep it flat and compact. Ok so I read the actual item you linked and that stuff is grown in a coco fiber mat substrate so I wouldn't want to add that to a shrimp tank in case the coco fiber has soaked up something that could adversely affect the shrimp's health. It might be fine but I wouldn't risk it myself. There's nothing wrong with being lazy, your hobby should be fun and not a chore so you want to pick a set up that is realistic for the time you have available to put into it. A plant I love for the ability to just chuck it in and let it go nuts is subwassertang (or susswassertang), it's got no roots, it just grows in a big clump, lots of green surface area for shrimp to hide in and graze on. You can push it aside to clean the tank then push it back where you want it afterwards. Riccia is another one that just grows in a huge lump with no roots and would probably appreciate the higher lighting you have, I have a big mat of it that floats but I believe it's possible to anchor it and get flat growth with enough light. It tends to be pretty messy though as pieces break off. A fissidens style moss mat might work for you, or one of the other low lying mosses (so avoid flame moss as it grows straight up, and java moss as it grows crazy everywhere). It just depends on what you're trying to achieve, the flat immaculate mown lawn look of a carpeting plant like HC, MC or dwarf hair grass just isn't possible without putting the effort in. Conversely, the lazy method of moss or subwassertang doesn't need a lot of lighting or nutrient and would be fine without CO2 but can still see increased growth with added CO2. You can make it as complicated or easy as you like depending on which plants you choose to get the look you want.
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Jan 23, 2020 20:54
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 I want a flat carpet. I already have the high lighting and CO2 automated, as well as all the liquid ferts, so I'm ready for whatever complexity the plant wants, I do want something lower maintenance. If HC will slowly grow to cover my substrate and I can ignore it and it'll cap at an inch high or whatever, that's perfect. If I have to go in and trim it with curved scissors once a week, that's not.
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Jan 23, 2020 21:10
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Haven't posted in here in quite a long time mostly because nothing much of note has happened. I've noticed the longer this tanks been running the less I need to do to it to keep it going. There's been a couple of occasions where its gone nearly 2 months without any of the fish looking as though they are in distress. I know you're supposed to change the water every week but sometimes life gets in the way particularly with my job being the way it is. Anyways I added a couple of new angels today because I wanted to get them when I first set the tank up but got Black Phantoms instead and they prooved to be overtly agressive. They basicaslly murder each other over the space of 12 months. Below is a pick of where things stand atm. I need to get some root tabs and all in one ferts so that the plants continue to grow but they seem to do ok without additional ferts. Click for huge.
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Jan 24, 2020 09:48
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:I know you're supposed to change the water every week but sometimes life gets in the way particularly with my job being the way it is This is why everyone should have live plants in their aquarium; it provides an extremely useful cushion if you can't keep up with maintenance. And speaking of root tabs, has anyone done the make-your-own root tabs thing? $0.10 a tab versus $0.50-$1.00 is a substantial savings, if they actually work.
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Jan 24, 2020 11:04
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Dr Garbanzo that moss tree is looking super good. Do you have to thin it out at all to stop the centre from browning? I haven't tried DIY root tabs, used to see people talking about osmocote in gelcaps all the time. But osmocote is just the brand, it doesn't tell you anything about which formula is appropriate or safe for aquariums. So what you're saving in money you're using in effort for research and then actually building the capsules. I decided in the end that off the shelf was okay for me!
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Jan 24, 2020 13:40
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IMO biweekly water changes can be perfectly fine depending on how established the tank and stocking levels. Hell with a low enough bioload it could be even less. Not that anyone would do this but if you had a 75g with one neon tetra in it I’m sure you could just replace evaporation. I do bi weekly in all my tanks.
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Jan 24, 2020 14:07
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Stoca Zola posted:Dr Garbanzo that moss tree is looking super good. Do you have to thin it out at all to stop the centre from browning? Not really tbh although I do cut it back on occasions cause it gets kinda top heavy and spreads across the tank. When I first set the tank up I used the osmocote for ponds which lead to some of the beads unearthing themselves along the way which was less than desirable. It didn’t crash the tank though which is a positive.
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Jan 24, 2020 23:39
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:IMO biweekly water changes can be perfectly fine depending on how established the tank and stocking levels.
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Jan 25, 2020 05:42
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In a heavily planted tank it's entirely possible to go months without changing the water, because the plants will take up the nitrates. I mostly just change mine once every couple months or so to get rid of some of the driftwood tannins. (That said, you should keep an eye on your water parameters anyway.)
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Jan 25, 2020 08:05
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Stoca Zola posted:Dr Garbanzo that moss tree is looking super good. Do you have to thin it out at all to stop the centre from browning? I've noticed this with my moss. How are you supposed to thin it?
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Jan 25, 2020 21:55
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| # ? May 25, 2024 12:44 |
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I go at it with scissors in my non shrimp tanks but I've sworn off moss and only have susswassertang in my invert tanks for now because I'm terrified of snipping a shrimp in half. You can chop moss back really hard and it seems to like it and come back nice and green and bushy. I think the middle where it browns is from lack of flow moreso than lack of light.
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Jan 26, 2020 19:43
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