Can I partially bury an anubias rhizome? Or does it need to be fully exposed?
I'd say it's like 20% buried, 80% exposed.

Little shit keeps detaching from the driftwood.

>>5142860
It's fine.

I'm gonna be getting a 20G(long) tank and I was thinking about doing one of two things. It's gonna be heavily planted either way.
1. Western theme. Like various old west towns that were submerged for dams. My local petsmart has cowboy themed decor. Things like an Inn, Saloon, Jailhouse. . I'd have anubias and moss attached to them.
2. 3D printed underground tunnels mainly to act a place for Shrimp to hide.

>>5143420
1. Gross.
2. Great way to never see your shrimp again.

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I moved the betta and the sidekicks into a new tank 9.5 gal the sand is a very fine sand, I hope it won't be a problem

Do bristlenose catfish (Ancistrus sp.) eat short fuzzy hair algae (Oedogonium)? Useless google AI just tells me that feeding them pelletized hair algae is good for them (wow really?)

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It's always the slavic girls.
Not even this hobby is sacred

>>5143838
>slavic
You sure? With that schnoz, looks more Eastern Med.

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>>5143839
Could be Turk or Greek or just an all around gypsy but her channel has only been propped up now because of her glow up

Kids got a female veiltail betta. Have in a heavily planted and well cycled 2.5gal for now.
>Does she need more space?
>What is a typical feeding schedule?
>Do I need to worry about biofilm?

>>5143838
>>5143839
>>5143869
Less incel screeching over the woman, more talking about her aquarium please

>>5145017
>more talking about her aquarium please
Saltwater scares me.

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>>5145017
Not an incel man, this girl is fine as fuck but because she only recently had a glow up so she's using the algorithm and now when I want serious tank videos she is shoved down my throat (not that I mind it much).

>>5145018
Saltwater tanks seem like a disaster waiting to happen imo.

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>>5145017
I can barely see the aquarium. Or was that how she planned the aquarium to viewed from, at an angle and far away?

>>5143420
I wouldn't do those underground tunnels, they seem like they'd be a bitch to clean.

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Never posted here before, but a friend said this thread might like to see my setup. I've got another, smaller tank that I refurbished earlier this week too. If anyone wants to see more I can take more pictures.

>>5145013
I wouldn't keep it in something that small, 5 gallons will work better. Feed her twice a day for best results. Biofilm is natural and inevitable; just clean it off the glass and you should be fine. If you hate the way it looks, you can get snails or shrimp that will eat it.


>>5145018
Saltwater isn't that bad, but it is a lifestyle change. The biggest difficulty (besides the price) is the logistics of water changes, and explaining to people why you have drums of water lying around. If you're dedicated it shouldn't be that much different from freshwater.

I've been cycling a tank for three weeks and today I noticed my driftwood is covered in white fuzz.
Did I fuck up?

First tank, don't really know what I'm doing.

>>5145449
>>5143869
SHOW ME THE AQUARIUM YOU FUCKING GUY GODDAMN IT JUST SHOW ME A PICTURE OF THE GODDAMN TANK CLOSE UP AAAAAARGRGHRHHEHGRIEGHIIHGIHGIH GGEHGIH POSEIDON SMITE THIS MAN NOW

>>5147076
It's mostly likely a bacterial bloom. These are very common in cycling aquariums and go away on their own. What kind of wood is it, and what are the water parameters?

>>5147087
Cholla wood.
>and what are the water parameters?
Haven't tested this week.
I had those test strips, but apparently they're not accurate. So I'm waiting for the API master kit to come in the mail.

>>5147092
Cholla should be fine, I can't imagine it would leak anything into the water. Test strips aren't worth much besides a general overview, and I would absolutely recommend testing more often, especially, near the end of a cycle. Biofilm indicates the presence of nitrate in the water, which means you're getting near the end. There are a thousand different opinions on this, but I like to monitor my parameters daily in order to make sure I'm adding the right amount of ammonia.

>>5147093
>but I like to monitor my parameters daily in order to make sure I'm adding the right amount of ammonia.
I was ghost feeding... which, looking at the bacterial bloom, I now realize was a complete mistake.

>>5147106
Ghost feeding is an old method, but its imprecise. I use bottled ammonia so I can know exactly how much nitrogen I'm putting in the water. All of my aquariums have had bacterial blooms while cycling, so I don't think you've crashed your cycle or anything like that. If anything, you're almost finished. The bacteria quickly consume all the nutrients they can and then die.

>>5145013
>>5147030
She'll be dead by the end of the day. Looks bloated. She's spending all her time just sitting and breathing heavily, now she is listing slightly at the bottom.
>fed twice a day only as much as she could eat in a couple minutes
>no feedings on sundays
>water is perfect, if a bit hard
>added catappa leaves
>some water flow but not too much
>biofilm manageable
>recently did a 1/3 water change with distilled
>actively growing column feeders doing great with several new leaves
Any help or advice appreciated.

>>5147189
>distilled water
this is your problem. Do a 100% with normal, de chlorinated tap water.

>>5147189
>>5147220
Yeah don't shock her system with water with completely different ph and gh/kh/tds etc.

If she is bloated try fasting a few days. Could be egg bound too.
2.5 gal is fine for a single fish.

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>my old tank
i didnt know how good i had it.

>>5147189
You're feeding way too much, you should be doing like a quarter as much as you described. One eyeball sized amount of food every day or two is more than enough. And domestic bettas can't go into pure distilled water. You probably shocked her a bit by dropping ph quickly, which weakens immune systems. The stress of changing from store tank also did this, and they compound a bit.

Add some pest snails and additional filtration, remineralize distilled water to close to current pH before you use it to water change (or balance your system and just do top offs but that's harder in 2.5g).

Sometimes you get a fish already sick, so that's possible too, but I'd put money it's that you're ridiculously overfeeding.

>>5147030
Looks nice, though I think it'd look better with a solid colored background. If you've grown several discus to adult size you're clearly doing things right.

I just filmed a little clip of the fish room I’ve been building in my basement.

https://files.catbox.moe/udvnt1.mov

Don’t hate on me too bad. It’s always a project and I always have a ton more to learn.

>>5147265
NTA but speaking about feeding... I have espei rasboras and they are all sorta FAT despite feeding small amounts every two days... are they just absolute HOGS or could they be bloated?

>>5147220
We have a well, it's hard. Same advice? The water changes are small volume. Thanks for response.
>>5147223
There's a white object stuck at her vent. Mucus covered constipation or egg?
>>5147265
>way too much
Got it. The advice on this topic is all over the place. I will probably move to live daphnia if possible.
>pH
Hasn't changed meaningfully
>additional filtration
Hard time believing that's necessary, the thing is stuffed with actively growing plants but snails I can do

I gave her an epsom bath per ChatGPT. No movement of blockage. Considering hand expression. Seeking further advice.

>kills self from overeating
We are more alike than they will ever know.

>>5147448
white dot around the vent does sound like egg bound, no idea what can be done in that case

>>5147448
Live daphnia are good but are not nutritionally complete for a betta. Just get a couple high quality pellets and rotate.

It's probably fine if it's stuffed with plants, but they filter a lot worse than you'd think (other than fast growing floaters). More filtration will lower bacterial load in the water by providing living space for heterophagic bacteria which consume the free floating plant matter. Snails and shrimp help with this too. Every planted tank should have trumpet snails and ramshorns (or bladder snails, but fish tend to always eat their eggs IME), to get plant matter into a better form and then to sift it into the substrate.

Good luck with the egg bound problem though, that's a bitch.

>We have a well, it's hard. Same advice? The water changes are small volume. Thanks for response.
Most bettas are tank bred, they have never lived in the wild. When it comes to pH and hardness, consistency is MUCH more important than hitting a specific number. Since you're dealing with a small volume of water, you could get distilled/RODI water and remineralize it, but I'm not sure its worth your time. I keep Discus; everywhere you go, it says to keep them in soft, acidic water. My water is hard and alkaline, but my Discus regularly spawn in it regardless. Like your Betta, my Discus were born in an aquarium. Unless your water is absurdly hard, it should be fine.

>>5147466
It's possible to plant a tank heavily enough and stock it lightly enough that the plants will remove all the waste from the water. I've done it before, but it's a finicky balance

>>5147466
>>5147496
Solid advice, thanks a bunch /an/ons.

>pineconing
Should I attempt antibiotic? This is likely her last day. Again, thanks for all the advice. Seems like she bought a one way ticket.

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>>5147651

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>>5147683

>>5147651
I've never successfully saved a pineconing fish, but that's pretty mild. If you can measure out the dosage for the small amount of water, go for it. Hit with a mix of antibiotics, antifungal, etc, anything may help. But I wouldn't have high hopes.

>>5147651
I'm sorry to hear that man. We all make mistakes, don't take it too hard. If the fish is still alive, one thing you can do is put it in a hospital tank and then really crank the heat up for a short period of time. Maybe 82-84. This will kill parasites as well as boost the animal's immune system/digestion. Use epsom salts as well, they work wonders on a bloated fish.

>>5147727
>>5147749
Appreciate it guys. She passed. Miss her. I'll take all the advice moving forward.

>>5147907
Sorry to hear it. Betta alone (plus snails) in a planted 5.5g with a couple sponge filters should never need any water changes or meaningful maintenance. I've had one for over 5 years in that exact setup with zero water changes, and he's still going strong.

Guys I hate it how some times my fish just fucking disappears. I assume they died for what ever reason, but I don't see any body (eaten by shrimp, snails and other fish?) and I get no closure on what happened to the fish.
Lost some otos, ember tetras and cories in the past weeks.

>>5147913
Corys usually leave a skull for a week or so. They might be hiding, they're sneaky fucks - I have probably 25 of them but only see 6-10 at a time, generally.

>>5147913
This happened to me recently. I lost a fucking dwarf gourami. He didn't jump out, I built my tank specifically so there was nowhere I fish could truly hide. No skeleton, no swarming snails or shrimp, no change in water quality. It was like the ayys just came along and took him.

>>5147907
I'm sorry your attempt ended in failure. Everyone in the thread has lost a fish; you'll do better next time.

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>>5148025
What's the fish loss that still hurts?
For me it's one winter the power went out and they all froze. I had two gouramis that were a nice size I had them for so long. I sobbed it felt like I was allowed nothing. :'[
I also recently had a ropefish that got ayyed. I've had enough with getting attached to fish. Life is too fickle I can't afford the angst. Maybe npc fish tanks are the way so you don't get attached to any in specific.

>>5147350
wow I'm jelly

>>5147350
>https://files.catbox.moe/udvnt1.mov
Are you planning on breeding fishes?

>>5148048
Poor little guys. I don't think they felt any pain, just got sleepy and never woke up. Hearing that story makes me want to go buy one of those backup batteries just in case. I lost a discus a few weeks ago, that hurt a lot. He was a runt and somewhat stunted, very shy and timid fish. Worst of all he had a marking below his eye that made it look like he was constantly about to cry. I was really rooting for this little guy but I don't think it was meant to be. He stopped eating and nothing I did helped. I threw everything at him but he still died and I felt like I failed my poor little friend.

>I've had enough with getting attached to fish.
The bigger the fish, the easier it is to get attached to. I think it's just natural. Small fish have personalities too but they become less distinct when you have a dozen virtually identical fish swimming around. If you truly don't want to get too involved, maybe a swarm of nano fish is for you.

Had to harvest some of my greenwater even though my daphnia didn't explode in numbers yet, because I went past the saturation point and the water was foaming again.
On the bright side, the daphnia tank how has a secondary population of seed shrimp that I use to feed my pygmy sunfish that they'll eat all the same.

>>5148419
I've been doing it two ways.
>dedicated green water bowl that I ladle into the daphnia bowl
>rotate 4 one gallon jars full of green water. At any time daphnia are in 3 and the 4th is replenishing the green water.

The ladleing method is the easiest to maintain but it goes through a shit load of water. I dump a liter of water a day in my yard.

The jars aren't wasteful with water but it's a lot harder to get consistent amounts. A lot more boom/bust.

My other takeaway is redundancy. Always have a couple reserve cultures of bith daphnia and greenwater on hand. I have a couple quart jars that I keep a small pop in. Every couple of weeks I empty half of it and refill it.

It's worth it though. Everyone in the tank, even my fat fancy goldfish, go nuts for them.

>>5147076
Is it like patches of white fluff? Cause that's a fungus, it's common for driftwood especially when the tank is new and harmless, and if it sticks around cherry shrimp love eating it and will pick it clean.

Any thoughts on (very course) filter media in a sump return section? I have a pump that has been running about 6mo without issue, has auto shut-off, etc, but there's been a little bit of infiltration of k3 media from the static 2nd chamber (1st is a big moving bed) into the return. I haven't seen any issues, and the return usually runs at only 1/5th power to maintain level, so I was wondering if I could put more of the stuff into the return chamber and "expand" the static section.

For reference, k3 is a honeycomb like plastic media that's roughly 25mm x 10mm x 2mm in size with large pores, and I wouldn't be putting anything like sponge or foam pads into the return section that might actually be able to fully clog or sneak into the sump's "cage" that's over the intake.

Got a small shoal of Hockey stick pencilfish, I love these little dudes so much I wish I'd got 12

I’m gonna get a 20 gallon, probably a long, for the express purpose of breeding for profit. I have 2 LFS I can sell to and I’m capable of doing online sales as well. What should I breed? Needs to be something that breeds year round and in good amounts.

>>5148864
Keep in mind anything easy to breed isn't very profitable at small scales.

>>5148906
I’m aware which is why I was thinking of just doing a pure guppy strain. Sure I might only get $1-5 per fish depending on grade but at the rate guppies shit out babies that’s still a couple hundred bucks a month, and that’s wholesale. If I sell online with pure strains I can make even more. Not bad imo. I’m also entertaining angels but I’m not super researched on them, I doubt 20g is enough for a pair, and I don’t have space for a growout to split the fry from the parents so I would need to hope they learn to not eat the babies and also don’t turn the tank into a giant shit cloud with the sheer numbers. Medaka also seem interesting, but with both them and guppies I get exhausted just thinking about the different strains and all of the deformities I’m gonna have to cull with no proper predator tank, meaning mass euthanasia. I should really just sell off my two 10 gallons and put a 40+ in their place. But 1 of them is a super manicured betta tank and the other is home to exotic OE neos and habrosus corys. When the corys finally spawn that’s gonna be a fucking payday, mfs are fiending for habrosus.

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Pic above is from one month ago, bottom pic today. My Cuba pearl grass has neither grown at all nor died. What’s going on? They are mounted on tiles and netted, supposedly they’re supposed to be left as-is.

>>5148929
How are you gonna look at that before and after and say it’s not dead? It’s dead as fuck.

>>5148937
What went wrong?

>>5148949
Cuba is extremely demanding and you seemingly have no clue what you’re doing. What light are you using? What ferts are you dosing? Why is it not planted? Are you using CO2? What else is in the tank? What possessed you to get such a needy plant without researching it at all?

My bloody mary shrimp should show up right around when I wake up. I've never had a living thing shipped so I'm a little worried about them.
Anyone have experience with guppy grass? I ordered a tuft of that to float but I wonder just how hard it is to remove if it gets out if control. Might toss it in a bucket for a while and watch how it grows.

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>>5148974
You’re right, I don’t. I couldn’t find any instructions on how to plant them, so I buried them as much as I could in the substrate with some root tabs. Didn’t inject CO2. There was nothing else in the tank except these two other plants, and I essentially left it for two weeks. The Vallisneria also hasn’t grown nor has it died, while the Nana petite has grown quite a bit though it isn’t as green.

>>5148987
You might actually be retarded. Why go through the effort of setting that up and spending the money to not look at the foundational basics? If there’s no fish in there and you aren’t dosing the tank, tell me anon, how are the plants getting nutrients? It also appears you don’t have a light on that tank. Any carpeting plant, especially cuba, is extremely light-needy. Nothing is growing and everything is dying because you aren’t providing the bare minimum basics of what a plant needs. How do you even get to a niche aquarium forum like this and not understand that? How many YouTube videos and Reddit threads did you breeze past on your way to the plant store?

>>5148987
>>5148929
Why is it still on the plastic tray?

>>5148992
Forgot to mention I did have a light, on a 10-hour cycle every day during that 2 week period and still now, a month later.

>>5148993
From what I could find, it seemed like I was supposed to plant it as-is.

>>5143838
>>5143869
I love Slavic chicks.
Lepo dupe i velike grudi!

>>5147030
>Saltwater
>lifestyle change
>logistics of water changes
Y r u gae?

>>5148992
jeez give the guy a break. at least it's just a pile of moss and not a fish or something

>>5149054
>moss
It’s supposed to be HC cuba so…
>give the guy a break
No. Tired of spoonfeeding retards who can’t do the most basic research. It takes an extremely high level of incompetence to not understand that plants need nutrients. And yet every thread gets shitted up with questions like this which have all been answered thousands upon thousands of times over since the hobby’s inception and the information is readily available anywhere. Fucking cavemen knew how to cultivate plants but this retard can’t figure it out. And instead of actually doing a little bit of work on his own he just comes here and posts the same photos and questions he already posted last thread. Fuck these people.

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>>5149109
Fair enough. I find forums like this are basically hobby masturbation anyway because while you're right that you can find pretty much any info online, it's nice to discuss niche interests with others even if it's beating the same topics to death. I fully understand your point though.

Here is my first batch of shrimp, bloody marys, getting the drip drop. They arrived seemingly quite lively. Sorry if the pic sucks, first time uploading from this phone.

>>5149113
Yeah, I come to places like this for the discussion that isn’t surface level. I’ve learned so many things here and on other small but active forums that aren’t just rehashed Aquarium 101 tips. This would be like posting in a dog thread about why your dog shits all over the house because you never bothered to learn it needs to go outside. And with the amount of time between this post and their post in the last thread they must have done literally zero work or research of their own, hoping to just get an answer here instead. Meanwhile the entire time the plants are just fucking starving to death.

>be me
>breed high grade shrimp varieties
>post my projects on TikTok
>same foid on every post for months asking when I’ll have a specific strain available
>strain is finally available
>hard to find especially in the US
>still list them for significantly cheaper than it would be to import your own
>she blocks me when I tell her the price
And this is why you can’t expect to profit in this hobby. I didn’t specifically raise them for this sale or anything but people are so fucking stupid.

I placed the bloody marys in the tank with my cherry barbs. Supposedly they should coexist nicely but my barbs are very spirited little shitters and I think I may have seen one toss a shrimp like a football. It's very dark in there right now so maybe it was a drifting leaf from the guppy grass I just added, but that's what it looked like to me lol.

>>5149165
You probably could have fucked her for a handful of shrimp. What kinds do you breed?

>>5149189
Literally too many to list. These were some OE hornets

>>5149196
This is the first I've learned of the orange eye mutation. Looks amazing. I want purple with orange eyes. A quick search and it looks like purple is decently rare hue. might be fun to breed for.

>>5149199
Purple doesn’t truly exist in the hobby in a stable format. You can google it and find plenty of photos of purple-ish shrimp or maybe even the one off pure purple here and there. But it doesn’t breed true, hasn’t been stabilized. It’s something I work on a bit here and there, because the first person to do it will be revered in the shrimp hobby. But there’s people with far more experience and skill than me who haven’t managed it yet, so I doubt I will.

>>5149109
>gets shitted up
Good morning sir, is there any options to shit in the tank and do the needful to fertilize it? Pls advice and help with the same.

>>5149031
I've kept saltwater before, and it is. If you have a 100 gallon aquarium, you're going to want a 20% WC per week. That's 20 gallons of saltwater you need to mix at least 24 hours beforehand, with a heater and powerhead. As you know, it's basically impossible to have only one aquarium. The amount of water storage you need will be constantly going up until you have 55 gallon drums all over your house. Where is an aesthetically pleasing place to put them? This becomes especially difficult in an apartment. I have quite a few freshwater aquariums, some on the larger side. But they're all close to a sink, so my Python system makes maintenance effortless. If you want to have success with saltwater you need to think about these things. If you go into it half-cocked you're going to throwing a lot of money down the drain instead.

>>5149109
>>5149154
You seemed to ignore the fact that I had used both root tabs and had a light the entire time

>>5149210
I'd love to see pics of your favorite shrimp or setups if you have any handy.

If you have not done this already, grab a magifying glass and watch a tank. Can't believe it took this long for me to consider this.

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>>5149229
>If you have a 100 gallon aquarium, you're going to want a 20% WC per week
Imagine thinking that the size of your aquarium decides the percentage of water you need to change each week.

>>5149231
Root tabs aren’t enough on their own and a run of the mill light isn’t gonna cut it for carpeting plants. Also I’d love for you to explain how the cuba is accessing those nutrients from the root tabs when it’s not even in the soil you fucking retard.

>>5149280
Do you think this is a plants-only tank or something? The fish are fed, their poop becomes nutrients which stay in the water column.

>>5149154
It seems like you just came here to be a jerk. You'd fit in well at the alien forum,maybe even grt one of the 1% contributor tags

>>5148864
Least killifish or babaulti shrimp. If you're up for it, sulawesi cardinal shrimp are big dollars but need very tight parameters.

Just grabbed a 20 gallon long, gonna get some bristlenose plecos and let em go wild in there. These guys seem fun to breed.

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These cool goobers at a pet store I work at

>>5149280
It’s completely impossible to plant grass in substrate unless it’s anchored to something, is this supposed to be a dry start or something?

>>5149393
You just get your hands in there and plant it. You will stir up a mess but it will settle.

>>5149396
I’ve tried before even in larger tanks and it just floats back up with my fuckin hands. To be fair, the largest tank I ever dealt with was probably 5 gallons

>>5149379
I always wanted to work at a pet store, but never wanted to live anywhere civilized enough to have one. I recently said that to a girl at my lps and she told me it's hard because unless you're the owner and hate profit you spend most of your time selling fish to people you know are going just kill them or stick them in poor circumstances

>>5149397
you can try getting the roots as buried as you can and set a rock or something on top until it takes hold. I've seen people use mesh to lay down carpets as well

>>5149419
Thank you anon. Is there a chance that it could grow over the rock though? I wouldn’t want that.

>>5149451
I imagine by the time it grows around the rock the roots have taken hold anyway. Just keep an eye on it and roll the rock around if it looks like it's growing over

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I'm going to get a koi betta. I've never kept one before but it should be fun, and they're gorgeous creatures. I've got the sponge filter in an established aquarium; hopefully in a month it will be nice and cycled. I'm also pleased with these two pieces of wood; if I put a rock or a plant in between them, I can probably make them look like a root or a piece of bark.

>>5149454
I’m thinking given the flak I’ve received as well as knowing how impossible it is to plant grass without it floating up, I might start a new tank and research a dry start.

>>5149365
Need some bristlenose-friendly plant reccs. Grabbed a bunch of different sized terra cotta planters, not gonna plant anything in the actual substrate just in those. Definitely wanna do dwarf hairgrass on the bigger planter I got, it’s a long tank so I’m thinking it’ll be close enough to the surface that they won’t mess with it and that’ll also get it a good amount of light. Need suggestions for the other ones though. Grabbed 4x 2” pots, 2x 4” pots, and then the 1x 8”. I’ll probably just pull some red root floaters from my other tanks as well.

looking for any sort of algae control advice on the internet is a mistake

>>5149415
Some people are too dumb to care, but most of them are willing to learn and I get to be a smart ass about fish keeping. I think the outbreaks of ich we experience are worse than the occasional retard.

>>5149365
20 with multiple BNPs is going to turn toxic fast unless you do water changes like every three days.

Try to find some Parotocinclus plecos instead, they max out at 2" and if you can get them breeding, you can sell juveniles for $25/ea or so to a LFS (vs. max $5/ea for bnp)

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>>5149755
>Algae control device
This is the greatest algae control device ever invented, besides the Mk. I Hand. You can buy it online.

>>5149837
I got a mating pair they’ll be fine. I already do water changes across all of my tanks every 3-4 days anyways

I hope my cherry barbs aren't stressing out my new shrimp too much. They don't nip or specifically nip at them but they are very nosey and active. They blow by the poor little guys with no regard and poke around all the hideouts.

>>5149866
>advice
not device
>inb4 balance your tank
wow amazing insight

It's surprising how slow this thread is. I would assume fishkeeping has so much potential as an autism outlet that it would warrant a whole board.

>>5150111
We need to bring Flanders back.

>>5150111
Most people aren’t coming to 4chan to talk about animals

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is 20 gallons enough for a goldfish?

>>5150177
Yes but the maintenance and filtration requirements will be a pain in the ass, and the goldfish will stunt, which doesn't cause cortisol release or other stress reactions and has been the case for all super-long-lived goldfish, but is worth noting.

I wouldn't recommend it below a 40 gallon, and even that's going to just be the goldfish and some cleaner snails if you can get the latter's population stable. They're really quite large fish, but also likely the hardiest aquatic animal this side of mummichogs, so will survive a lot.

>>5150187
going for no filter/no fert
all everything in the tank except for lava rock are local (mostly invasive +duckweed) stuff I scooped from my dock.
someone gifted me five cherry shrimp but I'm p. sure sure the goldfish will eat them in a few days.

>>5150191
>No filter

Yeah nah not gonna work

>>5150177
Out of all the cool stuff you could have in there, you chose one fucking goldfish?

>>5150216
it didn't happen that way, it happened out of order. I built two of these tanks for a palladium project, then happened to come into possession of a goldfish through someone else's actions. they also gave me some cherry shrimp, but I'm anticipating them to not last that long with the goldfish in the tank.

>>5150232
*paludarium

>grab some random local floater from swimming pond nearby (central MA)
>put into tank
>turns out it's invasive - and common in trade - fanwort
Lot of extra steps to end up with fanwort but at least it's thriving.

My tank is finally cycled. Ammonia and nitrite are zero.
But there is, what I assume is, a bacterial bloom on the surface of the tank water. It looks like an oil slick.

Does that mean I can't add livestock?
How do I get rid of it?

>>5150304
This is more likely protein scum, or maybe biofilm. It's harmless by itself, but indicates the surface of the water isn't being agitated enough. If you get an airstone or surface skimmer, it will completely solve the problem. You're good to get livestock, but be aware that if it gets thick enough, it can prevent oxygen from dissolving into the water.

>>5150304
snails will eat it

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>>5142759
Im obsessed with medaka now, but i keep having no luck with breeding them. They keep eating the eggs before I get to them. My bloody mary shrimp are multiplying like crazy though.

>>5150458
I was very close to breeding some furcatus and decided against it for similar reasons. I tend to avoid anything that eats its own babies or you end up stuck with grow out tanks full of cheap fish you’re gonna have a hard time selling, half of which need to be culled anyways.

>>5150362
I redirected my filter and it went away in like an hour.
Thanks.

>>5150382
Yeah, I don't want snails.

>>5150556
>I don't want snails
Pride month is over, anon!

>>5150557
I'm not risking them breeding and taking over my tank.
>get a nerite
Eggs.

It's a 5 gallon. I don't want to stress the bioload.
Shrimp is enough.

>>5150458
My medaka haven't bred and it's pissing me off so I've devoted the tank to my dwarf cichlids pair . Medakas are in the whiskey barrel outside and no doubt will be breeding once they're completely out of my mind. Hoping my cories breed soon but I'm certain they'll blue ball me as well

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Found my first molt on the floating guppy grass near the surface. That is a molt right? Some of the shrimp are still holing up under hardscape, hopefully just recovering from molting after the transfer to a new home. I haven't noticed any dead ones but only a few seem bold enough to hang out in the open with the cherry barbs swooping around.

>>5150640
Yes that’s a molt. Dead shrimp turn orange.

>>5143838
I wanna suck on her nose

>>5150640
They'll be less brave in general with cherry barbs (or any other fish). The cherrys have decent odds of eating one now and again, but even for stuff that never bothers them, having fish in the same container will make the shrimp shyer.

>>5150557
>autism

How would you acclimate a fish that’s been overnighted? It’s an adult pleco. On one hand, I tend to drip acclimate any adult fish especially if it’s from another state (completely different water to what it’s been in its entire life). On the other hand if there’s a lot of ammonium in the bag then drip acclimating is gonna do more harm than good. I won’t know if the seller did the diligence of fasting prior to shipping until it arrives. Also plecos are just hardy as fuck so I might be overthinking it. I’m pretty sure the bag is gonna come loaded with fish shit though. I just don’t wanna shock the fish to death going from the tank it’s probably spent its whole life in to a box to an airplane to a totally different tank with totally different water.

>>5150877
Prime is supposed to temporarily detoxify ammonia; if you treat the fish's water and then drip acclimate as normal it should be fine. I don't think a pleco is going to mind either way, but that's how I'd do it.

>hatching BBS for the first time
I added the suggested amount of salt mix but there’s a decent bit of it that’s settled to the bottom of the incubator bottle. It’s been going for about 3 hours now. Will that dissolve over time? Or what’s going on there?

>>5150885
Use an airstone to keep them circulating

>>5150877
Float the bag to temp equalize, then scoop and drop. Drip acclimating is a meme (for freshwater fish).

>>5150877
The bacteria lives on surfaces, not in the water. So there's nothing that will convert the "ammonium" (lol) into nitrites if you do drip acclimation.
Only the fatasses from KGTropicals claim otherwise, but they eat fried chicken while driving, so...

>>5150895
I have one

>>5150943
Ammonium is a real thing, anon. Less toxic ammonia ions. Google it.

But you're right that there is negligible nitrogen fixing bacteria free floating in water. And the claims that Prime does anything to ammonia are entirely unsupported.

This is all entirely academic - an adult pleco is going to be fine in basically any sort of transfer process. They're very tough fish, and as long as you don't freeze them (for long), they'll keep on living their happy armored lives. The bigger the species, the hardier they are, to boot.

>>5150943
>doesn’t know the difference between ammonium and ammonia
(lol)

>>5150954
>*his phone doesn't know the difference

>>5151069
Are you really going to try and play that off like it was a typo?

>>5151073
aggressive auto correct will do that. I have faith that he hasn't gotten deep enough into the hobby to find this board and doesn't know it's pneumonia.

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plec

>>5150954
The original comment that mentioned "ammonium" was >>5150877, Einstein!

>>5150885
Follow up question: how do I make sure my bottom feeding corys actually get the shrimp? I shot some from a turkey baster at the substrate but they quickly just started floating/swimming around, particularly towards the surface for the light.

I have a ram cichlid who seems normal and healthy during the day but when I check on him at night he sleeps lying on the ground completely on his side, should I be worried? I don't think he used to do this, I've had him for about 8 months now

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babby panda suddenly showed up out of nowhere. he cute

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>>5151228
>>5150877
Day 2 with the plecos. These guys are so fucking awesome. The male seems entirely preoccupied with the tunnels, spending an hour in one before briefly coming out and moving to another. The female has been much more exploratory and seems to be more interested in food. The male may have eaten during the night I’m not sure but the tunnels seem to be of more interest anyways. Sometimes the female will come up to the tunnels and he’ll shoo her away. I assume he’s just staking his claim and not particularly hungry yet. Kinda funny though, feels like I bought a pet butt cause so far that’s pretty much all I’ve seen is his ass sticking out from the tunnels. Gonna go get them some more plants today.

>>5151447
aww cute.
>>5151576
what a cool looking fish. they need a decent sized tank right?

>>5151618
Bristlenoses are on the smaller side for plecos, maxing out at 4-6 inches depending on sex and finnage. I have these two in a double filtered 20 long with no other tankmates right now for breeding purposes. Might move them into something larger between spawns but there’s plenty of pleco breeders that keep pairs around this size in 20 gallons so I think it’s fine. I breed for profit so frequent water changes are part of the deal anyways.

>all tanks with multiple and/or larger fish are perfect, pristine
>betta tank is at constant war with algae
I just don’t get it man. It’s my most planted tank. I don’t overfeed at all. I’ve added nerites and ramshorns to no avail. I added amanos and he murdered them. I’ve done everything you can imagine with light and nutrients. I just don’t fucking get it dude.

>>5151712
I imagine you've considered this but is possibly getting more sunlight than the others, even reflected off the floor through a doorway or something?

>>5142759
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCrfiNsqFbk

>>5151712
which type of algae? it does make a difference, snails won't eat filamentous algae like blackbeard, staghorn or hair.

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lunch time!

>>5151730
I blacked out the window next to the tank and all sides of the tank. It gets zero exposure to sunlight.
>>5151745
Hair and cyano

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My Discus are spawning again. This lucky guy gets two females competing for his milt, he's really living the life. And if this doesn't force the picture to format correctly, I give up.

>>5151764
Does 4chan flip iPhone pictures to troll phoneposters?

>>5151777
It only seems to happen when you take them in portrait configuration; landscape is fine. But it's even worse than that: I'm not even a phoneposter, I sent the picture to my PC and rotated it 90 degrees clockwise to try and counteract the counterclockwise rotation. It still didn't work lol. 4chan is determined to punish me for buying an iphone, it seems.

>>5151777
Trips never lie

Do nocturnal fish need pitch blackness at night? My tank is in my bedroom and I like to play games at night and sometimes fall asleep with the tv on

>>5151758
nothing eats cyano
amanos will eat hair

>>5151817
How do you kill cyano then?
>amanos will eat hair
And the betta eats the amanos. Unfortunately. He’s a fucking savage.

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Is there a good way to manually and/or precisely feed an old betta fish who keeps missing their food due to partial blindness?
Floating granules are no longer working and it tires himself out after a couple tries of floating at the top. He hasn't eaten in 2 days.

I tried a small plastic pipette, but it's too hard to maintain the granules in place at the tip, and even then it still misses when dropped right above them.
I would need a clever way to hold a very small granule right near its face and wait until he can repeatedly try to eat it.

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Blorp

Why did I ever get these damn goldfish? They are like 7 inches long now. 5 in a 20long tank. Please save me who's got a pond in KC I will give them to you. I want small fishes.

>>5151818
>cyanoBACTERIA
you can use certain antibiotics but the best way is to just disturb it a lot so it can't settle in

>>5151824
Sure but…wouldn’t that also crash my cycle? I know it’s a bacteria but that didn’t seem like the angle for dealing with it, unless there’s an antibiotic on the market that specifically hits Cyanobacteria I’m unaware of.

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>>5151825
There is, it's literally called Blue Green Slime Remover.

>>5151817
Do they? Mine just steal the fucking cory wafers

>>5151859
Keeping amanos with corys is so kino. Their continuous passive look of stupidity turns into one of dismay in the context of a wafer being stolen from under their nose by a shrimp. Pure comedy.

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>>5151860
My neos never steal pellets or wafers, they get BULLIED away from them :C

>>5151862
Neos can thrive on dust they’ll be fine

>>5151814
I love looking at my tank in the dark and seeing the tv perfectly reflected in it. I wonder if they see a tony soprano's giant face projected on the side and think he's going to feed them.

>>5151820
I got a pack of ones like your pic and so far only use it for getting my test tubes even but they seem pretty accurate. My barbs appear to get a kick out of it when I squirt them with it and it feels like I could directly feed them with it. You can suck up the tiniest ammount of water into the tip so soft food in water should work nicely.

>>5151822
The beauty of fish keeping is that if you do five minutes of research, you then get weeks to do research while your tank cycles.

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The eggs have survived 24 hours. This is a new record, normally they get eaten not long after being laid. If they hatch, I don't know what I'm going to do with 100 baby discus.

>>5152237
throw them like skipping stones into your local waterway

>>5152243
Wait no I should get them a growout tank and then trade them to my LFS for store credit then I'd have no choice but to get another aquarium haha.

who wants to see sum pictures from the giant fish/aquarium outlet mall i went to in Beijing the other day? Western pet stores aint got shit on them

>>5152321
i do

>>5152321
sure

>>5152321
idk i went to the local fish store here and they had a nice ray who swam up when i walked to his tank. it was pretty cool, he is a nice ray

>>5152321
>fish store in a country significantly closer to tropical exports with less animal welfare and worker rights has an insanely cool fish store
Im not surprised

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Any bichirbros here? Found this blind boy at a local shop, they also had a delhezi the same size and a black Bichir, like absolutely black that I'm not familiar with species wise. Can anyone here identify this blind boy? Is it an Ansorgii?

>>5152412
Digits and you name him Flanders.

>>5152321
>Western pet stores aint got shit on them
Because we believe in animal welfare here.

My bristlenose pleco has started gnawing on my oranda goldfish. I think the oranda is getting near death and usually just hangs out on the substrate.

Anyone ever see something like this before? Does that mean my oranda is cooked?

>>5152575
Plecos sometimes eat the slime coat off other fish, usually when they don't have enough proper food to eat. Usually the other fish chases them away, but if the oranda is too lethargic, that's not a good sign. How old is the goldfish, and how long has it been acting this way?

>>5152586
The Oranda is a young adult. It has a number of visible deformities like one eye that never fully formed (had it as a juvenile so I know it's not damage). I assumed it also has problems with the internal organs, maybe swim bladder.

As for food, I actually overfeed because it's packed with shrimp and snails too. Parameters are excellent because it's heavily planted and I do extra water changes to compensate. 0-0-0 300/120/7.8 pretty much any time I test.

I had also seen the part about maybe not getting enough protein. I'm going to mix in meat wafers and see if that helps at all. It's funny because the BN has been in the tank for years with the same feeding schedule and it just started going after the oranda. Makes me think it can sense the end of my.down syndrome goldfish.

>>5152589
>I assumed it also has problems with the internal organs, maybe swim bladder.
That could very well be the case. Maybe the pleco is getting enough food, but the poor goldfish is just an easy target. If you want, you can try treating your oranda with heat and epsom salts, that's an easy fix for swim bladder problems. You mentioned you overfeed; it could have intestinal blockage that's putting pressure on the swim bladder. It might not work, the poor little guy. Some fish are just too inbred.

>>5152321
Well I guess fucking not.

Why would a plant cause my ammonia to spike?
I bought java moss, it looks mostly green; but when I added it my shrimp freaked out. I checked and the ammonia was approach 1ppm.

>>5152793
Need more context. Was it a tissue culture? Was it one of those piece of shit dry bags of Java moss you find at petco? Was it from an LFS and bagged with water? What did you receive and what went into the tank? Could be as simple as as a dead ramshorn tangled up in the moss or you could be retarded and added dead plants.

>>5152798
>Was it one of those piece of shit dry bags of Java moss you find at petco?
y-yeah. It was attached to tubes.
Actually it was petsmart.

>Could be as simple as as a dead ramshorn
Nah, it's one of those guaranteed pest free ones. I think they culture it and then attach it.

> or you could be retarded
I definitely am. But, even if I was dead, would it really have caused that quick of a spike? Shouldn't it have taken a little while. It was damn near instant for them to freak. I tested 30 minutes later.
I trimmed off the dead parts.

>>5152802
Yeah so never buy one of those again

>>5152802
>puts ammonia source in tank
>”why did my ammonia spike?”
Fishkeeping in the era of endlessly accessible information btw

>>5152827
No, I understand and immediately noticed what caused the spike.
I'm asking why.

I also, previously, added java fern, anubias, and amazon sword. None caused a spike.

>Fishkeeping in the era of endlessly accessible information btw
And I'm coming here for that information. The other option is to turn to r*ddit.

>>5152807
Right. So you think I can quarantine it for, like, a week? Or do I just call it a loss?

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5 gallon with just pest snails and a betta. I wish I could add shrimp but I know this guy will go crazy chasing after them and I didn’t time things right, otherwise I would’ve loved to have seen cherry red neos in here to pick at the mulm.

>>5152890
Very nice! I think Amanos could hold their own, especially if you make a little shelter with the wood. Not as exciting as the cherry shrimp but they're great jannies.

>>5152877
Plants will sometimes "melt" when added to new environments, especially environments they're poorly suited to. That could be what happened, although generally, biological filtration will handle the ammonia spike. Perhaps your filtration is insufficient?

>>5152983
>Perhaps your filtration is insufficient?
I do have it set low. The shrimp were annoyed when it was set higher.

>>5153227
It's not the flow, it's the surface area. If you can't deal with literally any ammonia spike, you have insufficient filtration.

t. Has a rotating cast of clams

>>5153233
>you have insufficient filtration.
Or I didn't cycle for long enough. It's a new tank. I cycled it for four weeks, but half-assed it a bit.

>t. Has a rotating cast of clams
I used to, as well; but since I went bald they don't reply as often on Tinder anymore.

>>5153249
How did you cycle it, and what sort of filtration are you using? It isn't enough to let a filter sit in sterile water, it has to bed "fed" ammonia at regular intervals at optimal temperatures to ensure bacterial growth.
>but half-assed it a bit.
The cycle is the foundation of an aquarium. If you don't establish a bacterial colony, it's like building a house on sand. Once the bacterial colony is established, it can be very forgiving of mistakes and lapses. Everyone makes mistakes in fishkeeping, but if you don't have that solid foundation, the system won't be forgiving of those mistakes.

If your shrimp don't like the high flow, give them places to hide; things like rocks or plants or caves for them to rest in.

>>5152500
Checked and don't be a coward >>5152412

Whelp. Lost the coolest betta I’ve ever had to what I can only assume is columnaris this morning. Only had him 4 months I’m pretty sad bros. I just don’t get it. Parameters are pristine, double filtered, the tank was designed specifically for him. No other fish to bother him or anything. Super heavily planted. Fuck me.

I’m about to do a full reset on this 10 gallon I have. The only thing I really care to salvage is the driftwood that I’ve been growing anubias on. It looks really good it’s just covered in algae. Can anubias survive out of water? Thinking about doing a dry start on the tank. Presumably the algae would die off during the dry start? But idk.

my water is green like soap, how do i make algea go away

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>>5153403
sometimes things just die. It sounds like you gave him a nice environent, he could have had a genetic thing, you never know.

I think my little snail bro is dead. I found him rolled over three days ago, he I checked him out and he didn't smell and his door would pull closed. He has not moved since I put him in the corner. checked him today and I think he smells. It kind of seems like his door closes but I can't be sure. I hate handling him but I don't want him to rot and make my shrimp sick.

>>5153419
pic?

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>>5153420
I want to believe it wasn’t genetic. I got him from a pretty upscale LFS that claimed he was from a good breeder. I have to have failed somehow I just don’t know how. The only new thing I did was feed him live BBS, the lethargy started the next morning and then 4 days later now he’s dead. The BBS get rinsed with conditioned water and are also fed to my other tanks with zero adverse reactions. He just got some cause I happened to make extra. But with no other changes I can’t point to what it would be, especially with perfect water parameters. No visible symptoms or injury so I just made sure the water was good so I didn’t overmedicate. He was eating still, just not particularly enthusiastically. Then today I found him with the fuzz. Hospitalized immediately and dead within an hour. Just insane. Such a lively fish just a few days ago. I can’t wrap my head around it. Sorry about your snailbro. I just ordered some beautiful looking purple mysteries from mysteryaquatics on eBay if you’re looking for something new he seems pretty legit. Sent me this photo of them this morning before giving me the tracking number.

>>5153261
>How did you cycle it,
6 weeks, plants in. Ghost feeding + ammonia. But I wasn't entirely consistent with it.
API test says ammonia is zero. So I guess it's fine.
>and what sort of filtration are you using?
It's a hidden back tank. I pulled out the cartridge and replaced the whole back compartment with sponge filter media.

>If your shrimp don't like the high flow,
I'm just gonna keep toying with it. Up it a little, see how they react; lower it - see how the behavior changes. You know...

>>5153442
>API test says ammonia is zero. So I guess it's fine.
Generally what you want to do is detect nitrate and nitrite. Zero ammonia only guarantees either your Nitrosomonas is effectively converting all ammonia or your plants are effectively consuming all ammonia. It does NOT guarantee that all your nitrite is being converted to nitrate. Until you detect nitrate, you have no assurance you have sufficient Nitrobacter.
I mention nitrite and nitrate because the vast majority of home tests perform a chemical reduction of nitrate into nitrite, then detect nitrite.
This means it is possible to have almost no Nitrobacter and thus close to zero nitrate, yet still read nitrate because your test is really just detecting your nitrite.
Yes, this includes API.
All that said though, just wait longer. No need to anally test for everything every day. I assume you're planning on keeping that tank for years. It's unnecessary to stress out about just a couple more weeks in this timescale.

I wanna breed Gardneri killis in an iwagumi-style setup is that just cursed? Also fear the spawning mop is gonna look mega ghetto in that kind of setup

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The Turquoise Tiger (top right) cuddled my hand during feeding today. I want to try petting her, just a little bit. I don't want to disturb her slime coat, but she's such a friendly fish, and it would be cute.

>>5153442
Ghost feeding and ammonia? You generally don't do both. I tend to be a bit of a control freak when I cycle a tank: I take daily readings of Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and and pH. I want to know exactly what's going on with the chemistry. The bacteria that turns Nitrite into Nitrate grows significantly slower, and Nitrite levels above 5ppm will stall a cycle. Additionally, pH below 6.0 will do the same because the bacteria need carbonates to grow. If you're just adding ammonia and hoping for the best, you don't know what state your cycle is in. After 2 weeks of cycling, I can add 2ppm Ammonia and it will be gone in 24 hours, but some of it is still Nitrite. Nitrite is toxic at 1ppm, and if it's building up without becoming Nitrate, your tank is not cycled. It could be that your tank is cycled and that you had back luck, but without regular water testing, you have no clue what's going on.

>>5153460
>This means it is possible to have almost no Nitrobacter and thus close to zero nitrate, yet still read nitrate because your test is really just detecting your nitrite.
I've read this before but I've never had a problem with it. Maybe it has something to do with other water parameters. An easy way to be sure is to remember that 1ppm of ammonia will become 2.7ppm of Nitrite, which will become 3.6ppm of Nitrate. If the math doesn't add up, something is wrong.

>>5153414
Anubias grow out of the water in nature, they should be fine

How do you circulate CO2 in a tank with a sponge filter and low flow livestock?

Are the effects of seiryu stone on pH overblown? So many really cool aquascapes use them but everyone online swears they’ll kill your fish

>>5153503
You can still have some directed flow in areas they don't congregate and use hardscape to your advantage.
Some wavemakers have more dispersed flow (larger angle) than others. Combined with its lowest settings, you can create very gentle flow. I'm sure there are 3D printed shrouds to accomplish this as well.
Finally, you could also just have your CO2 dispersed in multiple places. I've done this once with a simple splitter valve and two diffusers.

>>5153460
pH: 7.5 Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 15ppm
The spike has passed and it has held steady around this for a couple days now.

>>5153482
>Ghost feeding and ammonia? You generally don't do both.
I started with ghost feeding, but then everyone yelled at me and said it was old fashion. So I switched to ammonia.

>>5153622
Pissing in your tank is old fashioned. Ghost feeding is standard. Dosing ammonia takes it to “advanced” tier imo despite not being difficult or anything. Just in terms of effort and purity to “the process”. Ammonia is ammonia. Doesn’t really matter how it gets there.

>killifish should be kept 1M:2F because they’re bully breeders and will spar with other males
>only sold in pairs
Insane how even the most reputable vendors sell them like this. Dan’s fish? Wet spot? Pairs only buddy. What’s the right amount to get? I’m thinking two pairs. 3 seems like it could spell danger if 3 males team up on 1 female but maybe the higher numbers would help? Idk

>>5153649
1 male 1 female makes sense because there is no other male to fight. It's only if you want to stock more that you have to stack the ratio against males

>>5153674
Exactly. And I don’t want to start with just 1 pair. So I’m screwed.

>>5153692
Let the males fight it out until you have a 1:2 male:female ratio?

one of my guppies vanished in my 29 gal. can 11 neocardina make a corpse disappear in 24 hours?

>>5153703
Just gonna provide a lot of lines of sight and hope for the best with 2 pairs desu

>>5153692
I don't understand what the problem is. Why can't you do a 2:1 ratio?

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>>5142759
Hello /aqg/, yay or nay

>>5153713
gay

>>5153713
90 kg weight on a simple desk, gonna be a nah.

>every single plant you don’t want is in stock
>every plant you do want is out of stock
>go back to the LFS/website weeks after you finally find what you’re looking somewhere else for something basic
>it’s out of stock
>the shit you wanted originally is in stock
Every. Fucking. Time.

>>5153715
no u.
>>5153716
Simple? Its 36mm chipboard

>>5153726
if it's wobbly at all the fish are going have a bad time. It would be really cool for sure, just make sure the desk is up to the task and won't interfere with your use or the fish's comfort.

>>5153726
chipboard is not good around water, it loses strength and gets mushy when wet. a solid wood top would be preferrable to chipboard or MDF/LDF

Even a small tank can create a huge mess so I am extra cautious about where I set tanks, 'good enough'... isn't

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Jannies

>>5153779
Why would it get wet? The water is inside the aquarium, not around it.

>>5153831
Is this your first aquarium? Water gets everywhere.

>>5153548
Most people online have not ever had a tank for any meaningful amount of time. They parrot falsehoods as fact, and attack anyone disagreeing.

If you have blackwater fish, particularly ones that are wild caught, the slow increase in pH due to seiryu stone can cause problems. If you're raising anything else, including almost everything that's captive bred, the change will be slow enough to not harm the fish, and the extra hardness will likely be beneficial. The one thing to watch out for is not to cause pH shock by doing big water changes with acidic water, expecting your tank water to still be whatever it was originally.

Tl;dr, Slow buffering to mid-high 7s in pH is almost always a good thing, in a well designed system.

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>>5153751
This thing is ROCK solid, I try to wobble it but just tire myself out. I mean 2 alex drawers and the desktop amount to a 100kg. My only concern is putting so much weight over the alex that a bump can cause it to fail laterally ie like a house of cards and carry the tank (and the massive board) with it. But it would be heckin' cool
>>5153779
>>5153841
Well its laminated, and I've had this kind of furniture all my life and the only time it has actual bubbling/water dmg is when water sits on it for so long, idk why the whole internet both here and reddit jump to say it. But yeah the stakes are high if it crashes

Also I am not the anon>>5153831 that asked before but please elaborate. I don't see any major dripping if I slowly siphon the proper way directly into a jug and wipe my hands as I scrub algea or feed fish and so on. How does water get everywhere?

>>5153911
It’s gonna be for a tank with softer water breeders so

>>5153917
Then avoid it. Won't kill the fish but will decrease productivity of the tank. Volcanic rocks with good sized pores tend to be both entirely inert, and useful for both food (biofilm) and hiding spots for fry as they start free-swimming.

>>5153915
>How does water get everywhere?
Nigga. Water is a formless, natural force. It could be as simple as small amounts of splashing over time from a filter on the surface. Maybe you bump something during a water change and splash/spill. Livestock can jump, equipment can fail. Even just the room the tank is in will be more humid from gas exchange and moisture. I don’t mean to insinuate that you’re going to be mopping up water every day just by having an aquarium but if you’re putting this tank there under the assumption that no water will ever get anywhere else you’re 100% retarded and deserve whatever happens. And the thing with water is it’s always way more when it’s on your floor than it is in a tank. Even 1 gallon on the floor can be abysmal to clean up. Notice how you didn’t put the aquarium directly next to your pc. That’s because on some level you know water can/will escape. Moving it a few feet over doesn’t solve that problem.

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>>5153921
Well with a water change once a week (or biweekly/10days if planted tank and amano+oto squad keep algae at bay), I could put in the effort to properly hold vacuums and not bump shit. I mean even a few drops is whatever, wipe it and bye. I was planning to get vinyl/window foil and stick it to a third of the desk and the whole side of the drawer on the outside side beneath the aquarium to help. I've spilled whole glasses of water on my MDF and never had water damage (but yeah it is a bitch to clean up) Yeah even a few drops can kill a PC, or as you mentioned the localized humidity that is why I planned it on the other end (also aesthetics). Ye it bursting open and having 22gal on the hardwood (as a renter btw) would be a fucking nightmare, but I don't see if that could happen irl desu, even being too heavy or water damage would present themselves weeks before destruction (hopefully)

>>5153925
You sound retarded. Good luck with never making a single mistake or having any equipment malfunction/fail. Enjoy the kiddie pool next to your PC.

unless op's tank fails i don't think water spill is that big of an issue just wipe it off instantly after handling your tank

>>5153933
It’s not an issue if you and the space are prepared for it. But when you’re asking stupid shit like “why would it get wet? The water is inside the aquarium! Lololol!!” it clearly indicates an assumption that avoiding water and other spills is “easy” when the fact is the entire issue is inherently accidental and insisting you will simply “not do it” is retarded. One way or another you’re gonna end up with water on the ground when you have an aquarium. That’s not a problem. Assuming it won’t happen and being unprepared for it is.

Testing my patience with my first dry start. Just got home with $170 worth of aqua soil and lava rock. LFS didn’t have cuba, riccardia chamedryfolia, or fissidens fontanus so had to order some online and now the first wait begins. Kill me.

>>5153962
>>5153921
>>5153841
This guy is writing walls of text, probably copy-pasted from ChatGPT.
I've had tanks all my life and never had any issues with water spilling all over the place. Like, you have to be actually retarded to think the water will "escape" as if it's sentient, or you'll have a "kiddie pool" on the desk.

>>5153979
>everything I don’t like is AI
The audacity to call anything retarded, being yourself.

>>5153915
when you spill a glass of water on it, it's easy to lift the glass up and wipe it away
when you spill water as you're tending to the aquarium, water will seep under the leveling mat and stay there and soak into the top

>>5154065
ai

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>>5153926
You are more neurotic than a redditor. I chatted with a guy who had a 20gal on a similar setup for 4 years and he said it was completely fine.
>>5154065
Ye that's why im looking to put a layer of something waterproof before placing the mat and aquarium. Any good (and cheap) ideas?
>>5153979
As I said I am not the guy who originally asked, of course I know water can be an issue. But reasonably mitigated one

>>5154113
>I've had tanks all my life and n
why does he need that many god damn screens

also im jelly, i have a small shrimp tank on my desk but i like fish more

>>5154113
Based poster my dude

>>5154113
Spar urethane is the best in terms of protection. It's extremely durable and completely waterproof. It also doesn't turn yellow like poly would. It gets glossy though if that bothers you.

Absolute bitch to apply. Sticks to everything. Wear gloves when you apply and cover everything around the application area. Coat, dry for a couple hours, coat, dry, coat, cure for 48 hours for best results.

However, I also mirror the thought that it's just not smart to have water around sensitive electronics. But not my circus, not my monkeys.

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>>5153963
Time to stare at this configuration for a couple days and figure out why I don’t like it

>>5154200
I dig it

>>5154210
The rocks aren’t dramatic enough for me. Need to stack it differently I think.

>Daphnia culture swam its last
Time to hatch these Moina eggs and see how that goes

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>>5154200
Changed it. This feels better.

>>5154233
shieeet, you got dem whitey hands, cracka.
whats the substrate?

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BEHOLD TRUE BEAUTY

>>5154234
ADA aquasoil

>>5154233
Yeah now its based

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>>5154233
>>5154281
Forgot to attach

>>5154282
I’m slightly worried about the rock formation on the right sinking in and shifting once the soil gets wet. But I think I’ve gotten it sturdy enough. At least I hope I have.

>>5154286
fill it up and you can readjust once the substrate settles with water in it
may i suggest something like orange sunkist shrimp colony to simulate little lions walking around :3

>>5154292
I’m putting killis in here, unsure between golden australe and gardneri at the moment. My LFS has “fancy” orange/gold amanos though, will probably put 4 or so in.

>>5154296
Based tank, i would like to try killis at some point

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When I got my bristlenose I was told they lived two years and took it at face value. I only recently learned they’re about as long-lived as regular plecos. Happy my boy is sticking with me, but I guess I’m not getting loaches any time soon.

i do not care that this image will be sideways.

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>>5154305
Most people who get plecos treat them like second class citizens of the tank and as a result they don’t live as long. If you provide them with food consistently and scape in a way that allows them to be in the dark during the day safely, and graze easily at night, they’ll live a long time assuming you don’t mess up your parameters. These things are basically dinosaurs.

>>5154305
>>5154316
Plecos are the ugliest fish in this hobby.

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>>5154387
She’s actually adorable and you’re wrong and should kys

>>5154215
You have to keep backup jars. Fill a 1q ball jar with green water and put some daphnia in it. That way if you crash the main colony you can reboot.

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Really can’t decide which of these I wanna go with. They’re both so cool.

>>5154113
i would spend the money and get a piece of cut plexiglass that goes well past the area where you are planning on putting a tank. makes cleanup a breeze.

just today I had to wipe all around my tank after spending a few minutes pulling out hair algae, I make a way bigger mess during water changes despite making custom syphons and pumps to try and prevent this
>>5154074
what

>>5154468
The one on the bottom would be my choice, but it would be hard to go wrong with either.

>>5154393
That's the ugliest looking fish I've seen all year.

>>5154669
Truly cannot imagine having such shit taste. Post your favorite fish that you actually own.

>>5154393
Don't listen to haters. She is gorgeous.

>>5154387
>>5154393
>>5154669
>>5154742
Speaking of shit taste:
>The wife has a friend swing by
>Before they start chatting, she (the friend) wants to see my reef tank
>She looks at the fish and the corals, then moves around to the side
>"Anon, what are these???"
>Fuck, she's found some bubble algae
>She watches some more, then she's done looking at the tank
>"Really cool, Anon! My favorites were the bubble algae!"
>I did a water change right after she left
Was she just fucking with me?

>>5154931
Well, my current favorite colony is my bubble coral so... I guess if you squint it's kind of like that?
>>5154468
Obviously the solution is to get a second tank and do both.

How do I get rid of detritus worms? They're free floating in the water column at this point.

I cut back on feeding, and there are shrimp who should be handling most excess anyway.

>>5154983
>detritus worms
Also known as free fish food

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>>5154233
Moss and carpet plants arrive tomorrow. Trying to decide if I just stick with those or if I should do a red background plant as well and leave some space in the back. Thinking rotala Vietnam or ludwigia arcuata. But it might mess up the scale of the scape to have that.

>>5154983
Put fish in the tank. Fenbendazole might also work but I’ve literally never had this problem so. Make sure it won’t also fry anything else in the tank you care about first tho.

Getting a new fish tank very soon

>>5155201
big things happening on the /an/ fish tank community

>>5155201
BASED

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This is a fucking nightmare.
The Nazis were less cruel towards animals than the world is now under liberalism.
>>>/pol/541343342

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Google AI is amazing

>>5155215
This picture is misleading, it takes just common sense that fishers doesn't individually bag every single fish they catch.
Most fishes when caught are just thrown in ice alive, or gutted first to reduce weight.
And yes, when you throw a fish alive in ice, it will die by suffocation before it dies of hypothermia, since they can't breathe air.

>>5155220
This is a fish farm, I think. It would be trivially easy to just stun them.

>Alien betta getting slower and less active
>Color duller than before
>No obvious signs of illness; solid feces, fins still in good shape (dorsal fin actually grew back recently)
Is my boy just getting old, or is there something else I'm missing here? Had him since January 2025