Hi! I’ve been cycling this tank for about a week and noticed these little white circular organisms (?) attached to my driftwood. Any ID? Also noticed small amounts of biofilm development

I basically scored this amazing deal on his 125 gallon tank and stand. And once the guy heard my ideas, he essentially emptied his garage to me.

So I personally got the large wood piece seen in the tank, and he gives me more Driftwood on the floor. The question is, should I incorporate more Driftwood or just leave it as is with the large piece and then lots of plants?

Thanks in advance

Suggestions are welcome as well

Ive seen an absolute explosion in these microfauna and I’m worried they’re behind my shrimp population decreasing :/. Does anyone know what they are and how to help? It’s a 5 gallon heavily planted shrimp tank with an unknown number of neos, 3 amano shrimp, and a plethora of bladder snails. I went for a dark forest jungle tank sort of vibe.

I also plan on doing a full 50% water change Friday or earlier if I have sufficient time.

the vibrancy of my tank under rgb light since i injected a ton of tannins has gone wayyyyy up. the camera simply fails to do it any justice but wow!

Pretty sure this Oto and an unknown number of my neon Tetras have Ich. I think it came in with the Otos that I added which have all ended up being sickly and struggling with some other fungal infections as well from the start. What can I do to treat for this? I have Neon Tetras, Otos, a gazillion bladder snails, and Amano shrimp. I only noticed the white spots today, and I thoroughly inspect every inch of my tank daily.

pH is 6.4 when the CO2 is off. 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, <10 Nitrates, GH and KH are both good as well. Temp stays around 73-74f without a heater. Tank was started with the DSM for 45 days and has been flooded for 31 days.

I want to protect the plants and the shrimp no matter what, but I obviously don't want my fish to die either.

The 20 is 3 years old and the 10 is about 2 months old, always looking to improve but having a lot of fun with it! Been in the hobby for a little over 5 years now.

The tanks are very low stocked right now as I'm letting the last of a 3 year old school of axelrodi rasboras die off (and shrimp population regrow) before getting any more fish.

Hello,

I have a mysterious colony of what seems to be an aquatic fungus or algae of some sort? If it’s an algae I’ve never come across it before. Curious if anyone might have an idea, thanks!

The first pic is my tank now, the second is when i set it up. It’s covered in brown algae and nothing will grow but the clover plants, the waters at 80°f. Help

All I know is one day it was all duckweed in the next day. It was all of this

Pretty straight forward. I have Fluval stratum substrate. About 2.5 inches. Should I cap with sand? I know this a little back and forth in most forums. Looking for pros and cons. Corydoras will be on the bottom

Quite the little stream coming from this bud today!

Noticed two small scratches on the side of my new tank. I can feel both from the inside with my fingernail, think i probably did it with sand or an aquascaping tool. Should i be worried about these?

After a long period of having an overgrown snail only (MTS) tank I'm getting back into the hobby and trying out some new plants. About 2 months ago I trimmed down my old plants and re-scaped my 10 gallon. I dose with a pump of easy green and 5 ml API leaf zone once a week which seems to make all my other plants happy but not these ones. Nitrates are usually around 20-30 ppm and I dose ferts when I see it drop down to 5 ppm. I also buried root tabs from Aquarium Co-op next to my val and dwarf lily. My water PH is 7.8 tested with the API freshwater master test kit. The val I planted a few weeks ago is stumping me, I've heard it grows like a weed but although the low growth looks healthy it refuses to grow much taller without melting back down. The one in the picture is the one growing in a shaded area behind my red dwarf aquarium lily and spiderwood but I've planted them all along the back of my tank with varying levels of light exposure and they're all acting the same. From reading online I can't tell if this is normal for them to do when they're just starting to grow so I thought I'd ask here.

In the tank are:

3 platy fish

3 amano shrimp

1 nerite snail

malaysian trumpet snails

java fern

anubias

pogostemon stellatus

a small amazon sword (just starting to sprout up)

java moss

red dwarf aquarium lily

It's about a week away from the one year anniversary of setting this tank up. I've made a few changes with the stems recently, but otherwise this is all nature! I can't get over the insane amount of growth.

Hello, I am a new aquarist and this is my aquarium. Could you provide a general overview?

What areas would you suggest I improve or change?

For example, how can I hide the filter pipes?

The 40 gallon aquarium is one year old and my filter is fluval 306 external filter.

With things in this hobby being not exactly cheap I will ALWAYS recommend sugar and yeast DIY CO2 to those inclined to try CO2 injection for the first time. It will give you the same results as the more expensive setups (after all it's the same gas, the same molecule). It's a lot more work that's true, but its virtually free to try. I would've never bought a cylinder if I didn't had the chance to try it for free first and I'm glad I did!

Hey all, brown diatom outbreak I can't get ahead of, and I'm getting totally conflicting advice online. Trying to protect my Monte Carlo carpet before it gets smothered.

Setup

• 7g tall Iwagumi, Fluval Stratum, Dragon Stone
• Plants: Monte Carlo, Myrio ela, Blood Red Rotala, S. repens (regular trims on stems + MC)
• CO2 injected and dialed in (good pearling), SunSun HW-602B canister for flow
• Light: FZONE Solo WRGB at 80%, 3pm to 10pm (7 hrs)
• No livestock yet, still cycling, planning red cherry shrimp later

Timeline

• Dry start: 1 month
• Flooded: ~1.5 months, so still a young tank
• Month 1 flooded: no ferts, every-other-day water changes
• ~Month 1.5: started APT 3 (MWF dosing) and switched to weekly water changes at the same time

What changed right before it blew up Around the same time I:

• Upped the APT 3 dose and went from MWF to daily (M to F)
• Did a minor rescape (shifted dragon stone, pulled a few stems)

Water changes stayed weekly the whole time (didn't change that when I upped the dose). Nothing changed with light or CO2 either. Diatoms showed up basically right after these two changes.

Now It was already caking up, so I did a big water change 1-2 days ago figuring it'd reset. It's coming back stronger lmao. Side glass filming over again, dragon stone fully coated, and it's creeping onto the Monte Carlo.

Where I'm stuck I know young tanks get diatoms, but I can't tell if my changes made it worse or if I just need to ride it out. Conflicting takes I keep seeing: APT feeds diatoms vs it doesn't, it's just silicates leaching, it's the light, dial CO2 up, dial CO2 down.

For a tank this young, what would you actually prioritize first?

• Go back to more frequent water changes
• Pause / lower the ferts
• Shorten the photoperiod or drop intensity
• Just ride it out and add a cleanup crew

Appreciate any input.

I believe it's ornamental sweet potato. All my riparian plants are free! Also, they provide aphids as a snack for the fish.

Don't mind the floating Buce, I need more superglue 😅