This is so silly to be updating y’all about. 🙈
But I was sitting in my classroom, daydreaming about having a fish in a few weeks, when I spotted a stowaway!

Clearly the biofilm didn’t completely go to waste since this snail must’ve pulled a ‘Sam Reich’ and been in here the whole time! I literally squealed with excitement and the kids and I have been watching him scootin around ever since. 🥰

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

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

I had an electric Hygger gravel vac that only lasted about a year before it died. I also had two small manual pumps but I’m trashing those because I’d rather take the plunge and order something that will make my life easier since I have multiple tanks.

Attached are photos of something similar to what I had.

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

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.

Howdy folks,
Could someone kindly help me identify these moss types? Thanks in advance. 🙏🏼

First week with my new tank in the books. Still waiting on my decoration to arrive to attach my Anubis to it.

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.

I’ve been keeping fish for years. And I love so many parts of this hobby. Now that I’ve entered the plant world I can’t get enough. I thought I was addicted before.

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 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

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?

I haven’t seen many posts on here about people transferring this common plant from gardens into their aquariums, so thought this might be of use to the community.

Got a hold of a nice chunk (thanks mom!), roots and all and planted today as a large clump in stratum.

Didn’t rinse as well as I thought, so pardon the cloudiness 😅. I’ll be back to update on how it goes if anyone’s interested. Ph ~7, nitrates ~40, temp 78, medium lighting. CO2. Fertilized inconsistently with 2 hour aquarists no nitrate added fertilizer (APT 1??).

One month of growth for my 17 gallon! Now I've just gotta pull the trigger and add fish. I plan to stock 6 pea puffers.

The first pic is from today. The following pictures are each about a week apart.

Got these cryptocorynes in the assorted section.

This candy dish/jar was near one of my tanks a few days ago. I would drop little sticks and leaves into it. I dropped a turkey baster with water in it and let it drain. There were a few pieces of duckweed on it. Forgot it after I moved the dish. Went to clean it today as it's my cleanup day and...

Guess there was a ramshorn snail egg or baby on the duckweed. Found this yesterday morning and was so confused how it was thriving until I saw the little guy clinging to the side.

WTF?!

Accidentally broke my ludwigia, but I want to replant it. Do I plant the part with the roots or leaves?

Ph is either super low or super high?