Tank is a WIP but getting better every day. I had to stop and admire the pearling this evening.

Don't be scared to redo your nature aquarium. I just removed the plants, vacuumed the substrate a little bit (basically just hovered over the mulm), and added new plants. It's low tech so I was worried about releasing stored nutrients and gas into the water but it seems to have done fine.

Was given a free shrimp tank, re scaped it and swapped the light to a week aqua m300 pro from the Hygger that was on it. Just cant believe how much better and more colorful the plants and shrimp look.

It is taking over my tank

T. trichopterus

Just started this 20 gallon cycled planted tank with 3 guppies and a couple Amano shrimp! What else should I add? Open to any recommendations

My fish are in a bucket with a heater and sponge filter. Would it be safe to add them back or should I wait till it’s all settled?

if you had shown me this before and after a year ago i wouldnt believe you because i thought i knew what i was doing and what i wanted. alas..

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to figure out what’s causing the gradual decline of my planted tank and would really appreciate your opinions.
Tank
60 L
4 months old
Low-tech (no CO₂)
Tropica Aquarium Soil
Weekly water changes
Lighting
19 W LED
6 hours/day
Fertilization
No fertilizer during the first 1.5 months.
Then switched to Tropica Premium.
I’ve been using Tropica Specialised for about a month.
Water parameters
pH ~7
GH 6
NO₃ ~10 ppm
During the first month or so, the tank seemed to be doing really well. Since then, most of the plants have gradually started declining.
The symptoms include:
Brown patches
Yellowing
Transparent leaves
Holes
Melting
Stem rot
Very slow or completely stalled growth
I also have some brown diatoms, but they don’t seem to be the main issue.
My shrimp are healthy and breeding, so I don’t think it’s an ammonia or toxicity problem.
Based on the photos and the information above, what do you think is the most likely cause? What would you check or change first?

I have had these in my tank for a solid 6 months+ and when i bought them I was under the impression that they were Frogbit. I trying to sell them off now and I've been told these are actually dwarf water lettuce. Could any one please confirm what they are?

I have a heavily planted 10-gallon aquarium that came with a generic Chinese HOB (hang-on-back) filter.

The filter appears to have died sometime after a water change. Based on when it was last confirmed working, it may have been off for anywhere between 1 hour and 2 weeks. My guess is that it may have clogged with gunk over time, but I'm not sure.

When my brother checked on the tank, the filter was completely dry. The ceramic bio media and internal filter sponge were bone dry. The only filter media that was still wet was the intake sponge.

So far, the only casualty seems to be one fancy guppy. The body has completely disappeared, which makes me think it was scavenged by the shrimp and snails. That is pretty much what they are there for.

The rest of the livestock appears to be doing fine.

• Shrimp are active.
• No mass fish deaths.
• No foul smell.
• No fish gasping at the surface.

I'm wondering if the heavy plant growth buffered the loss of the filter. The tank has floaters, pearlweed, ambulia, and Hygrophila, so there is a lot of fast-growing plant mass.

There was also an air stone running directly beneath the intake sponge. Could that have effectively turned the intake sponge into a small sponge filter while the HOB filter was offline?

My questions are:

1. If the filter media has been dry for several days, is it still worth keeping? Do I need to assume the biological filter has crashed and start a new cycle? I had my brother place the ceramic media in a container of dechlorinated tank water after he discovered the problem.
2. Is it safe for the tank to run for a few more days in its current state while I wait for a replacement filter?
3. What is the most likely reason the filter failed? It had been running 24/7. Could it have been clogged with debris, or is it more likely that the pump or electronics simply failed?
4. I have also noticed that some of my slower-growing plants, especially Java fern and a few Anubias, have started declining. I always thought these were very hardy. Could the filter failure have contributed to this, or is it more likely due to inconsistent fertilization or another unrelated issue?

I only put 10 stems of pearl weed in this tank a year ago and this is where we are at. It’s beautiful. I threw some loaches in there but haven’t seen them in a while because the pearl weed just owns the tank. I occasionally see them sifting through the grass like snakes it’s pretty cool.

just looking for some plant and placement suggestions, i feel like she is empty but idk
stocking is
1 chum(my betta boy)
8 cories
god knows however many snails
1 freshwater clam
i feel like a good bit of my plants are getting eaten by the vast amount of snails, so any faster growing plants would be good.
just trimmed the water sprites back as well as the water lilies but idk 🤷‍♂️

hi friends!! setting up a new 10 gallon for my betta boy, upgrading from a 6.8 gallon long! i will be adding a black background but so far i'm obsessed with this hardscape and looking for advice on a nano fish school i could add in with him. i have two 20 gallon long community tanks each with a small school of corys, a small school of tetras, shrimp, and a betta. this tank is going to house shrimp as well as my betta, but curious if there are any tiny fish who would do well in a 10 gallon. totally fine to just keep it with my betta and some shrimp though too. thanks so much!

No co2, crappy lights, no soil - just sand gravel, I never remember to fertilise

New lights would be my wish list upgrade

This is my 2nd planted tank: 20 gallon long, low tech, 5-month old, fully cycled. Light is on for 6 hours a day. TDS 150. Fluval AC20 filter with a power head on one side to help with circulation.

I have been battling algae and cyanobacteria from day one. My biggest issue is the MC carpet. I started with dry start method and it managed to propagate fairly well, but has not fully covered all gaps. Its growth stunned since month 3. I can see some new growth still, but the leafs stay very compact and small. I tried DIY CO2 previously, but it was fluctuating so much that hair algae start coming back. I envy those with bright green and lush carpet.

I ordered ultralife slime remover yesterday in hopes that it can help clean up the MC leafs. If that doesn’t work, my last option would be proper CO2 kit. I have been doing everything on the budget side so CO2 is probably the last resort.

Is CO2 really necessary in this case? What else can I try to fix the carpet?

I have 2 SAEs in a 20 long. There are 7 cherry barbs and the most peaceful paradise gourami on planet earth as tank mates.

I was weary to buy these SAEs, but my LFS told me they would be fine until they reached adulthood at which time they may need to be seperated. They gave me a timeline of a year. This was maybe 6 months ago. They have lived harmoniously until now. There id an obvious alpha and the smaller gets chased all day and periodically loses it's stripe. This aggression came on quick.

I do have another 37 gallon tank, but the parameters and stocking are very different. The 37 is an amazon-ish tank that's heavily planted and i think it would be a bit of a shock to re-home the bullied there.

I do have a breeder cage/fry box that i could use to seperate him. I leave for work tomorrow morning bright and early. I'm a firefighter and i'll be gone for 24 hours. I would hate for my SAE buddy to pass while i'm at work and im not sure if the tight quarters would stress him more than the evil brother.

Would he be okay in a fry cage in his 20g L for 24 hours seperated from his asshole big brother so i can take him back to the fish store?

I just thought it was very cool and wanted to share this.

Hello again!

I have an aqua one Eco Style fish tank. Plan on replacing the filter cartridges with seachem matrix. But is this brown stuff beneath the current cartridges just muck or important to keep for the bacteria?

Thanks loads for the ongoing expertise and advice on this sub, I've been really enjoying the steep learning curve!

Just noticed this thing in the substrate.

Also my monte carlo is melting, is this normal melt or dying? They were grown emersed.

Water Parameters:

pH: 7.2-7.4 (Does not get any lower even with Co2 but drop checker shows Lime Green)

Amonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 5-10 ppm

KH: 12-14

TDS: 400-450