Recent content by Waterboy1650

After a year off from fish keeping my young kids begged to restart our fish tank again, a ten gallon running a sponge filter with a substantial amount of live plants that are doing well. After doing some research on heartier fish that can handle our generally harder water and higher pH, we...

Thanks that is good to know about floating vs not. the tank has a good amount of Anubias, floating water sprite, and lace Java fern, both because I liked the look of live plants and to help keep nitrates down, though maybe more will be necessary when we confirm water quality is good to add new...

While walking past our tank I noticed Strawberry, my kids male Betta had died. We just returned from a four day vacation a few days ago, but I had an auto feeder running the whole time. since we returned he had been acting lazier than typical, but I didn’t think it was anything out of the...

Maybe there is a fuzz to it? It is almost stringy

Our family Betta has been happy and healthy for the past year with decent consistency in water parameters. Tank has been fully cycled for over a year and it has healthy growing plants. PH is typically high, around 8.0, but that is due to our tap water and it has been that consistently over the...

I promise, there is an entity that owns the building and signed your lease, though the lease may say something like it is signed by a management company as agent of the owner. Regardless, that owner is your landlord. Your lease should also have a point of contact or agent of the Landlord that...

I don't have anything fancy for my light, it is just a TopFin 8" Color Changing LED Bar that my 3-year-old picked-up and wouldn't let go of when we were looking at the lights they had in the store. My light is currently on from 10am till 5pm via a smart switch timer. It sounds like my plan is...

For liability reasons you should 100% find out if you are overloading the floors with your tank. 800-1,000 pounds in that small of an area is a lot of weight. I can't tell from your post if you are renting an apartment or if you own a condo, but what you should do is dependent on which. If...

There is absolutely no light at night and the light during the day either cycles through its available colors or I stop it on white. If diatoms like low light, should I increase my light to more than the current 7 hours?

Thanks, it is good to know it is just diatoms and nothing more serious. What, if anything can I do to help it along, and get the tank looking better and plants growing better in the meantime? should I do any of those things I listed or just keep going as things are? Maybe just half light and...

I don't have the cyanobacteria, but I seem to be going through a very similar issue, and feel like I am flailing about trying to find a resolution (photos attached). What was your ultimate solution here? It seems like from the above your steps were: 1) large water changs, at least two 50%...

I finished cycling this 3 gallon planted tank a two weeks ago and it is now home to a happy Betta and a happy nerite snail (I know many people don't like this size tank for a Betta, but not really a debate for now). It also has some java fern, anubias, and S. Repens, none of which is thriving...

Thanks everyone. So it seems like I will not mess with any filter cartridges, sounds too risky without any payoff. I will just try to keep doing 50% water changes every day or so and see if that helps clear out the detritus and get the water a bit clearer. Since the general thought may be...

I have a siphon, but my gravel substrate is about 1.5-2 inches, so there is just a lot of dirt and decomposing food mixed in, plus I usually run out of water in the tank before I can get much of the gravel cleaned, which is why I was think about just scooping out all of the gravel to rinse in...

My 5 gallon planted tank is finally fully cycled and now has a happy male betta and nerite snail cruising the tank, along with two tiny ghost shrimp who I got to help clean up the mess, and which I assume will eventually be a betta snack. My problem now is threefold: 1) There is some white-ish...