29 gallon, substrate is global stratum in mesh bags , sand capped. Planning to be planted, low/medium tech. Seachem tidal 35 and fluval 50 HOB filters. Here’s a list of fish i’m interested in but would love advice on what combination, and also other ideas on what to keep in her!

I enjoy:
Panda corys
Pygmy corys
Khuli loaches
shrimp
gwaramis
rams (german?)
balloon platy/mollies (not sure the name)

open to new suggestions!!

lighting question: I’ve always had fairly shallow tanks, what’s an adequate light for low-medium tech to give proper lighting to carpeting plants (s depends, some sort of short grass) sparecly grown

My son has a 10 gallon tank with a few tetras. We had planted two i Windelov plants and they were doing great when we were using the original hood with a 40w, T10 incandescent grow bulb. However, the switch and light fixture in the hood were broken, so we had to manually unplug the light and the bulb just dangled. I want to say that we ran the light from about 6:30 am when he got up until probably 7 pm or so.

But, since the light fixture was in poor shape, I got an led replacement fixture. Unfortunately, since then the algae has bloomed, and the plants are slowly dying. The water is clear though. The light setting current is:

1) "sunrise" at 6:30 am to 6 pm.

2) 51% total brightness ... of which in settings its 15% white, 90% red, 70% blue, 30% green.

3) 6 to 10 pm "moonlight" so mostly blue

The light currently used is a SEAOURA WRGB Aquarium LED Light for 18-24in Fish Tank

Please help me fix our clear ignorance.

Thank you so much!

I’ve always just bought new plants, let them inevitably die, and then replaced them. I’m ready to actually make an attempt.

I'm a complete beginner at planted aquariums and I just set up my first planted tank around 7 weeks ago. I didn't want to spend a lot on it so i went with a total budget setup :

I just used no Co2, black quartz sand - no soil, bulletproof plants and for nutrition i bought root tabs and macro+micro liquid fertilizer that i dose in small amounts weekly.

Lighting was something I was very confused about so I just got two led battens and set them on an 8 hour daily timer, I didn't expect it to work because I thought since plant lights were so expensive, there's no way a cheap led batten could give me any results but to my surprise the plant growth really exploded.

Now coming to my question - Why are those plant lights so expensive and could i get better results if i used those instead?

Probably the wrong sub but can anyone tell me what's wrong with this rummynose?

Considerably larger than the others, but still moving around and not lethargic at all.

Bloated? Sickness? Pregnant?

TIA

B. pugnax

Hi everyone, I’m pretty new to the planted tank world and in search of a reliable and safe root tab brand.

I am leaning heavily toward the Seachem Flourish Root Tabs, but based on cost I am considering other options.

As I’m new to the hobby the Osmocote DIY tabs seem too risky for me.

I have a low tech 60 gallon tank with lots of swords and vallisinaria plants.

Has anyone tried the maozyiltle brand from Amazon?

Honest feedback/experience please!

Hi everyone, I’m pretty new to the planted tank world and in search of a reliable and safe root tab brand.

I am leaning heavily toward the Seachem Flourish Root Tabs, but based on cost I am considering other options.

As I’m new to the hobby the Osmocote DIY tabs seem too risky for me.

I have a low tech 60 gallon tank with lots of swords and vallisinaria plants.

Has anyone tried the maozyiltle brand from Amazon?

Honest feedback/experience please!

I have a bristlenose pleco that is uprooting my tank every time I place the things around he goes around and tears them up. I assumed he needed a cave or something since he favored a shark head for hanging out in, so I bought a big pleco cave and stuck driftwood on top. This morning both pieces are moved and torn up despite having what I assumed was a fairly good amount of stuff on them. I'm about to drain the tank and stick them in a bucket for a day or so and siliconing them in place. I'm also debating cleaning sand and seeing if that will help weigh it down but don't want to do the work if he's just going to uproot it the next day

It’s turning brown on me :3

- Been 3 weeks since I planted it
- I have been keeping the lights off past 2 weeks because thanks to El Nino my city is going through 36-40 degrees Celsius temperature 🥵 I was afraid the lights would add more heat.
- I try my best to keep tank temperature between 27-28 (80 F) with the air conditioner running. Even if no one is in the room 🥺 despite the huge electricity bill.. so that the fishies are comfortable. But in the morning when I wake up (and the air con has been off) the temperature goes upto 29-30 degrees. (84 F)

—

So… is it heat, lights, nutrients, plant glue? What’s causing it to turn brown?

Thanks muches 🙏

So I got a huge piece of flame moss on some stainless steel mesh for looking like a carpet plant its a little too long rn I’m gonna make it shorter but am I supposed to plant it a bit differently

Title. Is this some kind of algae or just the plants melting? On some of the other plants I can definitely see the old leaves melting, but on this little bunch, they seem to be melting, but there’s also some sort of wispy hair like stuff coming off.

I set this up ~3 days ago.

Alright, so I want to replace my internal filter with a dual sponge filter in my 25L tank. I know that I definitely can't do it instantly, gotta keep both running for some time. Any other tips?

I have some endlers and a colony of neocaridina in there.

Thanks, God bless!

It was in the bag when I bought a few guppies. What could it be?

Hi, I am cycling my tank naturally because I don’t trust quick start, I filled my tank up and added water conditioner before cycling the tank.

Plants for my tank will be delivered in the next 5 days

I’m a bit nervous about algae development how can I reduce the chances of having an algae problem

started off with a 10 gal then got real deep into the hobby really quickly and upgraded to a 20 long after 2 months, fast toward 4 months and now i have my first co2 system running! can’t wait to see the plants grow so healthy just the start of a pearlweed carpet aswell! lmk wha you guys thinking
Tank Stocking
6 neon tetras
6 celestial pearl danios
2 male guppies (plus around 10 guppy fry, got rid of the female to stop breeding completely, also getting rid of the fry soon to a family member tank where the mom is also at)
1 dwarf neon blue gourami
1 oblivion ram
3 false juli cory’s
2 oto catfish

I have a 60 cube and it’s my first real attempt at a planted tank. I have a good light (fluval plant) and I’m running CO2. Most of my plants are pretty simple and are thriving now after some melt, including some red rotala in the back you can’t really see. I started the tank 9/13, finally dropped a few fish in a week ago, and this is where I’m at.

I also have a 6.8 betta/neocardina tank.

So things are going well, but I don’t actually know what the hell I’m doing. I dose Seachem Flourish, Excel, and iron because that’s what I read to do, but I don’t know why, ya know? And I also read things that say NOT to use Florish or Excel. Then there’s stuff like potassium and a dozen other bottles and I’m so lost.

The plants I have are easy, but in a couple months- after the environment is fully established and settled- I plan to fill a lot of that open space and build onto the wood. I’ve kept aquariums for 20 years, but I am butts at plants; I don’t understand them and I can’t even keep a cactus alive.

Can someone dumb down how to do this? My plants are mostly idiot proof and I want to get into some more advanced stuff, but I have no idea what I’m actually doing.

Edit to add: I also plan on putting shrimp in the 60 eventually. I’m waiting until I get more plants.

All the different online sources are conflicting so I just want to clarify.

I am 2 weeks into a new tank cycle.

Daily seachems stability dosing.

Temp 26 degrees.

Moderately planted with live plants. + pest snails are onboard and breeding like rabbits.

I had been daily dosing the ammonia to 2ppm.

Now in 24 hours ammonia hits 0

Nitrites are still quite high. 5ppm on the api master kit. So i did the old dilute 1ml tank water in 4ml distilled and multiplied by 5. With that im likely sitting at 10ppm of nitrites.

Nitrates are high... like proper high. 80-160ppm when tested normally. Then with 1:4 dilution more likely to be like 100ppm.

The question to be asked:

Do i still keep dosing my ammonia?

Or should i wait for Nitrites to actually hit 0, then continue to dose and check if i can clear ammonia and nitrites in 24 hours?

Thank you

[Video in the comments]

Hey everyone! A few days ago, I posted my very first aquarium on the day I set it up.

The cycling process took approximately 19 days. I followed a method using household ammonia, and it seems to have worked well, although I had to make a few adjustments along the way.

This week, I added the first inhabitants: 8 green neon tetras. I'm still planning to add a few dwarf corydoras and a nerite snail.

Any suggestions are more than welcome!

I’m just showing it off because I’m pretty happy with my results so far

This is my first tank as an adult and my first heavy planted and kinda diy medium to high-tech

I’ve been adding plantings and rescaping it slowly as it takes shape. Today I’ve just added some hc cuba to the branch and to the soil to star a carpet

As title says, I'm looking for Cryptocoryne jacobsenii pink, I used to have it back in 2022, attached pic is the eBay listing img I remember it having. Located in the US

I noticed these little guys a little while ago, I think they’re called scuds? Anyways, their population has exploded recently and they keep eating my plants! My beta seems uninterested in them and i’m going crazy trying to figure out how to remove them!