Pfrozen's 20g Aquascape Build

[Pfrozen]

Wow, what a horrible thing to read. I'm so sorry Pfrozen

Thanks friend I appreciate the support. I'll eventually figure it out

Sorry to hear your plant struggles I do know how you feel as I’m no good with plants either, I just replace them when they eventually die.
There are lots of people who have lovely tanks with artificial plants & there are many on the market now that you can’t tell from real. My Lfs has a large corner tank that the waifs & strays live in & I never realised it was all fake plants until I was told, so if you want to go the fake route then do it

Luckily I've had good luck with Anubias and other low light plants.. I think maybe I just need to simplify things, maybe not that much though.. (yet) lol

Also, update:

Tank is super cloudy this morning, fish are super upset, only a small area of algae died. Portions of BBA that I deliberately painted and soaked in pure Excel are completely unaffected. I'm not sure why pretty much every account of red algae and Excel I can find says that a 5x overdose killed it all when 40ml of pure Excel in my little 20g does nothing except hurt my fish.

That being said, it's official. Not only is red algae IMPOSSIBLE to kill, but I will be tearing down my tank when I can afford to set up the 40 breeder. I will post back then and will keep this thread active for the new tank. No sense in creating a new one

Thank you to all

Edit: today is now surprise 100% WC day

 

[Pfrozen]

I figured I should scrap my 20g tanks anyways since once is overrun with red algae and the other one leaks. I didn't want to spend a ton of money buying things for the 40B so I just picked up a new 20 high. It was cheap.

I'm going to set up the low maintenance black water tank I always wanted. I have 40lbs of Mopani, some rocks from outside, and a bag of unclumping, unscented clay kitty litter (basically just a bag of clay but 10x cheaper). I will be running 2x AC 20s on this with airstones instead of sponge filters because they take up too much space and its too hard to aquascape around them. Plants will be Anubias and tissue cultures to minimize my risk of re-introducing BBA or snails

The only thing I'm moving over from the current tank will be the heater. I just need to bleach/scrub that along with the inlet for my AC 20 and I should be okay

Will have pictures of the new setup soon

Im going to keep running this tank but also set up the other now... it was cheaper. I have some ads out to trade some of my other tanks for a stand. the old tank will just house the 3 otos, pleco, and shrimp, and will be used as a quarantine... the new 20 will be a blackwater setup for harlequins and pencilfish. I have everything I need as of today aside from the stand

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

I figured I should scrap my 20g tanks anyways since once is overrun with red algae and the other one leaks. I didn't want to spend a ton of money buying things for the 40B so I just picked up a new 20 high. It was cheap.

I'm going to set up the low maintenance black water tank I always wanted. I have 40lbs of Mopani, some rocks from outside, and a bag of unclumping, unscented clay kitty litter (basically just a bag of clay but 10x cheaper). I will be running 2x AC 20s on this with airstones instead of sponge filters because they take up too much space and its too hard to aquascape around them. Plants will be Anubias and tissue cultures to minimize my risk of re-introducing BBA or snails

The only thing I'm moving over from the current tank will be the heater. I just need to bleach/scrub that along with the inlet for my AC 20 and I should be okay

Will have pictures of the new setup soon

Really bummed out to hear that the tank took such a quick downturn. It's weird that the Excel had very little to no effect. I had the opposite experience where I'm pretty sure painting on some Excel to my smaller Java Ferns to remove some staghorn pretty much burned them. Ended up trimming back to the rhizome at the end of the day.

But this new part is great to hear! I mean I'm sorry to hear about the other tanks being in disrepair but at least you've got a plan of attack and something positive to set your sights on!

Definitely down with the TC's. I don't think I would ever go back to buying plants from my LFS. It's been great knowing that they all came from clean environments and are pest/algae free.

Looking forward to new pics

 

[Pfrozen]

Update:

Some of the BBA did actually die off and all the staghorn is dead or gone... probably 60% of all the red algae. I think the excel overdose weakened it and I haven't been using ferts lately. I've also been keeping my lights at the lowest setting.. maybe 10-20%. The fish seem happier with the low lights so I'm probably going to keep the tank running and slap the old 6 watt nicrews on it. I'll just do the water changes once per week and enjoy it for the fish.

I have the supplies for my new 20g Blackwater but I need to assemble the steel shelving I bought. I plan on having it hold all 6 of my tanks. It might be slower from here on but I'll post another update whenever I make progress on it. The wood I picked up is MASSIVE and absolutely perfect

Btw: Ludwigia Arcuata is doing great under low lighting with no CO2. Better than all my other plants. I don't think it is actually a high light/high CO2 plant

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Update:

Some of the BBA did actually die off and all the staghorn is dead or gone... probably 60% of all the red algae. I think the excel overdose weakened it and I haven't been using ferts lately. I've also been keeping my lights at the lowest setting.. maybe 10-20%. The fish seem happier with the low lights so I'm probably going to keep the tank running and slap the old 6 watt nicrews on it. I'll just do the water changes once per week and enjoy it for the fish.

I have the supplies for my new 20g Blackwater but I need to assemble the steel shelving I bought. I plan on having it hold all 6 of my tanks. It might be slower from here on but I'll post another update whenever I make progress on it. The wood I picked up is MASSIVE and absolutely perfect

Btw: Ludwigia Arcuata is doing great under low lighting with no CO2. Better than all my other plants. I don't think it is actually a high light/high CO2 plant

It's a brave new world. Glad to hear that there's been some sort of improvement

Looking forward to the future posts!

 

[Pfrozen]

My old tank is completely torn down. I set the new one up and moved all the fish over yesterday. All have colored up with no losses aside from one cherry shrimp that I forgot in the ruins of my old tank overnight

Also, I have a fish room now

The new tank is hob only with a bubble wall. I have s. Repens in the front with a dwarf lily to the left and a small patch of c. Lyrata. In the back I have a single stem of hygro siamensis 53b, a java fern, and a bit of ludwigia. Theres Christmas moss and guppy grass in the driftwood cracks. I'll add some anubias to the wood later on but for the most part it's sparsely planted and I'm just going to let it grow out for a long while. I made the mistake of not leaving my plants enough room last time but now they have plenty of space to grow

 

[Kribensis27]

Hope this one goes better!

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

My old tank is completely torn down. I set the new one up and moved all the fish over yesterday. All have colored up with no losses aside from one cherry shrimp that I forgot in the ruins of my old tank overnight

Also, I have a fish room now

The new tank is hob only with a bubble wall. I have s. Repens in the front with a dwarf lily to the left and a small patch of c. Lyrata. In the back I have a single stem of hygro siamensis 53b, a java fern, and a bit of ludwigia. Theres Christmas moss and guppy grass in the driftwood cracks. I'll add some anubias to the wood later on but for the most part it's sparsely planted and I'm just going to let it grow out for a long while. I made the mistake of not leaving my plants enough room last time but now they have plenty of space to grow

That's an epic piece of wood! Wow.

And you've got a nice new set up there. Glad that everyone made it into their new home! I think having some space to grow will make it a much easier (and hopefully less stress-filled) project

 

[Pfrozen]

That's an epic piece of wood! Wow.

And you've got a nice new set up there. Glad that everyone made it into their new home! I think having some space to grow will make it a much easier (and hopefully less stress-filled) project

Thanks! Only issue I have so far is that the substrate is dusty and all the fine particles build up at the front. its very easy to clean though so a quick vac every couple days until the dust is gone wont be a problem. My fish seem much happier with all the open space too.. they didn't really have any before lol. It is more peaceful in general now I think

 

[Pfrozen]

Woke up this morning to a crystal clear tank. I have the lights on higher to get some green algae growing for the otos.. I'll lower it once they have some food. Luckily they eat veggies and wafers in the meantime no problem. There's some tannins in there already but you can't tell because of the light... I'll probably add some pods and cholla to make it even darker within the next few days. Ammonia is coming up at true 0 and the fish are happy.

 

[MacZ]

That's quite a chunk of wood!

Looks good so far. Think about more plants, especially high growing. The tank lacks in cover right now.

 

[John58ford]

That's quite a chunk of wood!

Looks good so far. Think about more plants, especially high growing. The tank lacks in cover right now.

Fish for Thought on YouTube went on about a nice piece of drift wood a few videos back. My wife actually shut it off lol.

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Woke up this morning to a crystal clear tank. I have the lights on higher to get some green algae growing for the otos.. I'll lower it once they have some food. Luckily they eat veggies and wafers in the meantime no problem. There's some tannins in there already but you can't tell because of the light... I'll probably add some pods and cholla to make it even darker within the next few days. Ammonia is coming up at true 0 and the fish are happy.

Looking really great now. It’s very natural looking - almost like you took a slab of river bed and put it into the tank. The wavy front soil cap line has god movement.

 

[Pfrozen]

Looking really great now. It’s very natural looking - almost like you took a slab of river bed and put it into the tank. The wavy front soil cap line has god movement.

Thank you! honestly I am so much happier with it this way. The fish seem happier too so I'm wondering if there was something wrong with the old tank. Maybe the weird black silicon or the soil I was using, who knows. It is much less maintenance now and more enjoyable

 

[Pfrozen]

added the pleco cave back in and did a nice rescape of the front. my pleco had been digging and clogging up my filters and choking out the plants real bad. for some reason adding his cave back into the tank made him dig more. I ended up selling him to my LFS who were very impressed with how plump and healthy he was also added a siamese algae eater that is basically still a fry. I'll add more pictures in the coming days, just waiting for the water to become clear again. cleaning my filters from all the pleco digging disrupted something

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Looking forward to it!

 

[Pfrozen]

Just some quick updates. The tank is still cloudy so I can't post pics. Mr Pleco created quite the bloom of heterotrophic bacteria before being rehomed.

I'm very happy with the substrate.. I used Special Kitty unscented non-clumping clay litter and I was aware that it tends to turn a bit mushy. But its actually perfect like that in my opinion. It holds a solid form but has the consistency of a thick muck. And the other fish don't really disturb it at all. So basically its exactly like a riverbed would be, which is what I wanted anyways

pH went up a bit and is holding steady at 7.2. I think the pH will take some time to come down. Special Kitty is very high in calcium so my hardness likely went way up.

oh, and I always wondered why my city's water quality report didn't list phosphates. I finally got around to buying a kit and it looks like I have 0.5-1 ppm at the tap. That helps explain a lot of the weird algae problems I had in my old tank. no problems in the new one so far so fingers crossed

I have cholla and alder cones coming in tomorrow, along with some salvinia and subwassertang. The red root floaters I had in there survived initially but the entire clump sunk all at once out of nowhere while I was watching my tank the other day. I know they do that if they get wet but the leaves were fine :/

 

[MacZ]

Definitely test your hardness and probably cap the clay with sand. Just as a precaution. Your fish are not very hardwater adapted.

 

[Pfrozen]

Definitely test your hardness and probably cap the clay with sand. Just as a precaution. Your fish are not very hardwater adapted.

That's a good point actually, thank you. I'll run out and grab some test strips today

 

[Pfrozen]

Still waiting to take some nice pictures but my little fish room is coming along nicely. If anyone is interested in the little tank to the left its just a basic shrimp tank. Build thread here: Pfrozen's belated shrimp tank 10 Gallon Tank - | Members Fish Tanks Forum | 479406

 

[CTYankee79]

Is that an empty 40 gal and 10 gal I see??

lookin good so far

 

[Pfrozen]

Is that an empty 40 gal and 10 gal I see??

lookin good so far

thanks! its actually a 40B and two 5.5g tanks lol

 

[CTYankee79]

Nice! Do you have plans for those tanks?

Looks familiar I have an empty 10, 20 long, and 29 sitting in the garage. Once we move I have lots of ideas for setting them up
Although part of me is dreading setting up more tanks lol

 

[Pfrozen]

Nice! Do you have plans for those tanks?

Looks familiar I have an empty 10, 20 long, and 29 sitting in the garage. Once we move I have lots of ideas for setting them up
Although part of me is dreading setting up more tanks lol

lol it really is a lot of work. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with them but I definitely want one of the 5.5g on my work desk! depending on how this 10g goes I might set up a 40g shrimp tank

 

[Pfrozen]

I thought I had green spot on one of my plants this morning but I looked closer with a flashlight and it looks like there are perfectly round balls with embryos inside. And covered in green fuzz. I think one of my fish laid eggs and I didn't notice before I could remove them or treat with methylene blue about 50 or so eggs that went bad

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Just some quick updates. The tank is still cloudy so I can't post pics. Mr Pleco created quite the bloom of heterotrophic bacteria before being rehomed.

I'm very happy with the substrate.. I used Special Kitty unscented non-clumping clay litter and I was aware that it tends to turn a bit mushy. But its actually perfect like that in my opinion. It holds a solid form but has the consistency of a thick muck. And the other fish don't really disturb it at all. So basically its exactly like a riverbed would be, which is what I wanted anyways

pH went up a bit and is holding steady at 7.2. I think the pH will take some time to come down. Special Kitty is very high in calcium so my hardness likely went way up.

oh, and I always wondered why my city's water quality report didn't list phosphates. I finally got around to buying a kit and it looks like I have 0.5-1 ppm at the tap. That helps explain a lot of the weird algae problems I had in my old tank. no problems in the new one so far so fingers crossed

I have cholla and alder cones coming in tomorrow, along with some salvinia and subwassertang. The red root floaters I had in there survived initially but the entire clump sunk all at once out of nowhere while I was watching my tank the other day. I know they do that if they get wet but the leaves were fine :/

How are you liking the alder cones? After reading more about them and watching videos, they're not overly as effective with ph reduction as peat moss. Great for tannins and humic adic.
Having said that, I am sure my shrimp love them haha

 

[Pfrozen]

How are you liking the alder cones? After reading more about them and watching videos, they're not overly as effective with ph reduction as peat moss. Great for tannins and humic adic.
Having said that, I am sure my shrimp love them haha

I actually haven't used them yet. I added the cholla wood and don't want to add too much too fast. The tank is really quite dark now thanks to the driftwood alone and I think shrimp love anything lol

 

[MacZ]

How are you liking the alder cones? After reading more about them and watching videos, they're not overly as effective with ph reduction as peat moss. Great for tannins and humic adic.
Having said that, I am sure my shrimp love them haha

There are different ways of pH reduction and Blackwater aquaria are not necessarily defined by very low pH. In tanks we distinguish between true blackwater and faux blackwater.
True blackwater tanks run on 100% RO water, and usually have a pH below 6.0 and a conductivity of less than 50-100 µSI, while the water doesn't even have to be very tinted. Faux Blackwater has a heavy tint and low but not very low pH and conductivity.
Alder cones are great for faux BW and true BW alike. But in the latter they have minor influence on pH. But just a handful can make a tank look like strong tea overnight.

Right now I run an inbetween-version with relatively low pH and RO but not so low I would call it true BW right now.

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

There are different ways of pH reduction and Blackwater aquaria are not necessarily defined by very low pH. In tanks we distinguish between true blackwater and faux blackwater.
True blackwater tanks run on 100% RO water, and usually have a pH below 6.0 and a conductivity of less than 50-100 µSI, while the water doesn't even have to be very tinted. Faux Blackwater has a heavy tint and low but not very low pH and conductivity.
Alder cones are great for faux BW and true BW alike. But in the latter they have minor influence on pH. But just a handful can make a tank look like strong tea overnight.

Right now I run an inbetween-version with relatively low pH and RO but not so low I would call it true BW right now.

That’s pretty cool; thanks for sharing - I do not know very much about BW tanks. I would be interested in doing a small 5-7.5 gal so I didn’t feel so bad about the RO waste.
But my MTS is gearing towards a no filter, no fert planted cube after I’ve made use of my QT. I may be able to swing it for my bday haha.
I guess I could do a BW, no filter, no fert?

I actually haven't used them yet. I added the cholla wood and don't want to add too much too fast. The tank is really quite dark now thanks to the driftwood alone and I think shrimp love anything lol

Yeah I’ve read that they love humic acid and to graze on the biofilm. Glad it’s going well. ^_^

 

[MacZ]

I guess I could do a BW, no filter, no fert?

No fert easily, as BW is usually very poor in nutrients. But I wouldn't do a no filter BW. The thing is you have rotting plant material in your tank. Without movement in the water it will likely go foul. Also with a lot of tannins the plants get too little light to make the feasable in BW.

PM me about it if you like.

 

[Pfrozen]

The water cleared up and the plants have new growth. I was finally able to snap some pics of the rasboras and pencilfish too

 

[MacZ]

Nice tint, but you really urgently need some cover for the pencils. Are some floaters in the budget? Also, maybe collect some twigs outside you can hang in the tank. Combined with floaters they help a lot.

Why is there a wall of bubbles? You have HOBs, your water is aerated more than sufficiently. The bubbles only build up foam which in turn actually stops the gas exchange.

 

[Pfrozen]

Nice tint, but you really urgently need some cover for the pencils. Are some floaters in the budget? Also, maybe collect some twigs outside you can hang in the tank. Combined with floaters they help a lot.

Why is there a wall of bubbles? You have HOBs, your water is aerated more than sufficiently. The bubbles only build up foam which in turn actually stops the gas exchange.

I have some salvinia in my other tank, I'll rinse and move it over later today. There isn't a whole lot of it so I'll see about twigs as well. Thanks for the heads up!

And I didn't realize that about the bubble wall, I thought it would be beneficial in a blackwater tank for some reason. Do you recommend removing it altogether?

 

[Pfrozen]

I added the salvinia right away and theres a few pencils using it for cover already

 

[MacZ]

I have some salvinia in my other tank, I'll rinse and move it over later today. There isn't a whole lot of it so I'll see about twigs as well. Thanks for the heads up!

And I didn't realize that about the bubble wall, I thought it would be beneficial in a blackwater tank for some reason. Do you recommend removing it altogether?

You're welcome.
Any plants that give cover are good for the pencils.

Yeah, get the bubbler out. I have one and only use it for my nano planted tank. The blackwater would be covered in foam soon.

I added the salvinia right away and theres a few pencils using it for cover already

Thought so. You want floaters and plants that grow to the surface and flush there (meaning they spread instead of growing outside the water.) like jungle val, water weeds, brasilian pennywort, lotuses and waterlilies are what you need.

 

[Pfrozen]

You're welcome.
Any plants that give cover are good for the pencils.

Yeah, get the bubbler out. I have one and only use it for my nano planted tank. The blackwater would be covered in foam soon.



Thought so. You want floaters and plants that grow to the surface and flush there (meaning they spread instead of growing outside the water.) like jungle val, water weeds, brasilian pennywort, lotuses and waterlilies are what you need.

Thanks, sounds good. The foam I messaged you about the other day actually started to go away and the odor is now gone as well... but if I don't need the bubble wall I could use the pump for my other tank and then I could plant some Vals at the back or something

Im hoping that salvinia grows out fast, I do have a dwarf lily and some pennywort but the pennywort grows very slowly in my tanks for some reason. The lily is exploding though so I won't trim the runners when they appear, I'll let them float for the pencils

 

[MacZ]

You can float the pennywort, if it's Hydrocotyle leucocephala. Or tie it to the driftwood, that also works with H. tripartita. (Or stick it in a cravisse of the wood.) They need quite a lot light which with a tint you only have in the upper third.

I would almost say it's best to only keep one or two species of planted plant in blackwater tanks and otherwise only use floaters or semi-emersed plants. In mine I have only the water weed planted (and a small Echinodorus that I don't expect to grow much) and pennywort close to the surface and some of it emersed. With the pothos I only have 4 species of plant in my tank.

 

[Pfrozen]

You can float the pennywort, if it's Hydrocotyle leucocephala. Or tie it to the driftwood, that also works with H. tripartita. (Or stick it in a cravisse of the wood.) They need quite a lot light which with a tint you only have in the upper third.

I would almost say it's best to only keep one or two species of planted plant in blackwater tanks and otherwise only use floaters or semi-emersed plants. In mine I have only the water weed planted (and a small Echinodorus that I don't expect to grow much) and pennywort close to the surface and some of it emersed. With the pothos I only have 4 species of plant in my tank.

Yea, I kind of just put whatever plants I had left over in there lol. The pennywort is literally one stem and it sent off another shoot recently so I'll let it grow a little bit but will definitely try it floating. I've seen some nice pictures of floating pennywort

Ideally I would have just used a couple species but I figured whatever thrives can stay and whatever dies dies lol. I do have too many species at the moment

 

[MacZ]

Yea, I kind of just put whatever plants I had left over in there lol. The pennywort is literally one stem and it sent off another shoot recently so I'll let it grow a little bit but will definitely try it floating. I've seen some nice pictures of floating pennywort

Ideally I would have just used a couple species but I figured whatever thrives can stay and whatever dies dies lol. I do have too many species at the moment

Look:
left of the driftwood - Pennywort planted. It was almost exactly like this when I planted it. Grew only two small leaves.
on top of the wood - Pennywort semifloating. It was a big piece when I got it, but grew about 12 new leaves already.

 

[Pfrozen]

Look:
left of the driftwood - Pennywort planted. It was almost exactly like this when I planted it. Grew only two small leaves.
on top of the wood - Pennywort semifloating. It was a big piece when I got it, but grew about 12 new leaves already.

Ah! I didn't realize it grew better floating. I will probably tie mine to the driftwood then. I don't think mine is the same species though.. each stem has 1 single leaf and every time a new leaf forms a new stem forms as well. all the stems branch off of a horizontal root, kind of like a marsilea would grow

 

[MacZ]

This here grows the same way, it's just hard to see. As it's the middle of the night here the lights are off, but I'll take some fotos tomorrow, where you can see it better. Or maybe time for a new video. You'll find it in the thread liked in my signature.

 

[Pfrozen]

This here grows the same way, it's just hard to see. As it's the middle of the night here the lights are off, but I'll take some fotos tomorrow, where you can see it better. Or maybe time for a new video. You'll find it in the thread liked in my signature.

Awesome, I'll be looking forward to that!

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Ah! I didn't realize it grew better floating. I will probably tie mine to the driftwood then. I don't think mine is the same species though.. each stem has 1 single leaf and every time a new leaf forms a new stem forms as well. all the stems branch off of a horizontal root, kind of like a marsilea would grow

Totally with you on that one! I had about 4-5 stems planted an always wondered why they never really seemed to be doing that well. If they did, the stem seemed really stagnant. Out of frustration about a month ago, I just hacked off the stems when I found two of them rotting and decide that they would all be floating.
Having said that, everyweek I trim about 2-3 leaves off due to them dying, but there are twice that (if not more) that pop up in their place.
The platies seem to like the cover and resting spot as well now hehe.

 

[Pfrozen]

Totally with you on that one! I had about 4-5 stems planted an always wondered why they never really seemed to be doing that well. If they did, the stem seemed really stagnant. Out of frustration about a month ago, I just hacked off the stems when I found two of them rotting and decide that they would all be floating.
Having said that, everyweek I trim about 2-3 leaves off due to them dying, but there are twice that (if not more) that pop up in their place.
The platies seem to like the cover and resting spot as well now hehe.

Well that settles it tomorrow I'll uproot it and see if it'll float nicely on its own. If it doesn't cooperate I'll pick up some fishing line lol.

I really would like to see it take off like the "weed" everyone else says it can be. It would look so nice as a big floating bush in my tank!

 

[MacZ]

And here some pictures as promised.

This is the planted pennywort again. You can see how it slowly developes.


Here the floating/anchored pennywort. One can see how big the leaves are in comparison.



And here some cuts I managed to put in the back of the tank, but it's obvious, that it doesn't get enough light, so it just grows more into a semi-emersed thicket than a real floater.



And mind you, these are all growth forms of the same plant. They are even all from the same source.

 

[Pfrozen]

And here some pictures as promised.

This is the planted pennywort again. You can see how it slowly developes.
View attachment 747285

Here the floating/anchored pennywort. One can see how big the leaves are in comparison.

View attachment 747286 View attachment 747287 View attachment 747289 View attachment 747290

And here some cuts I managed to put in the back of the tank, but it's obvious, that it doesn't get enough light, so it just grows more into a semi-emersed thicket than a real floater.

View attachment 747288

And mind you, these are all growth forms of the same plant. They are even all from the same source.

Awesome, thanks! the difference really is quite noticeable. Its funny because the information I could find online implies that it does better planted.. obviously that is not true

Quick update too: Tested for nitrates for the first time since filling the new tank. I've only been doing one water change weekly at maybe 15% with the occasional top-up. Nitrates came in at 5 ppm before today's water change, pH back to neutral at 7.0. And obviously 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites.

This confirms that I have denitrifying bacteria in my filter. My nitrates are always less than 10 even with fewer plants and fewer water changes

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

Awesome, thanks! the difference really is quite noticeable. Its funny because the information I could find online implies that it does better planted.. obviously that is not true

Quick update too: Tested for nitrates for the first time since filling the new tank. I've only been doing one water change weekly at maybe 15% with the occasional top-up. Nitrates came in at 5 ppm before today's water change, pH back to neutral at 7.0. And obviously 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites.

This confirms that I have denitrifying bacteria in my filter. My nitrates are always less than 10 even with fewer plants and fewer water changes

That's fantastic! On the up and up! Good luck with the Pennywort - I actually hated it when it was 'rooted' because it never stayed when I did my maintenance LOL

It was also a blessing because I could really easily take all of it out, put some tank water and Excel in a bowl and let it 'soak' to treat and algae. Worked REALLY well.

 

[Pfrozen]

One day I'll be able to take a decent picture of my rasboras here is a 4x zoomed in shot lol. They are so brilliant but I don't have a good camera!

 

[LilyPipeDreams]

One day I'll be able to take a decent picture of my rasboras here is a 4x zoomed in shot lol. They are so brilliant but I don't have a good camera!

They look absolutely LOVELY! H.Rassies (yup, that's my short form - heard it here first - although not that much shorter than actually just typing it out) are probably my new fave fish. So much character and actively school

 

[Pfrozen]

They look absolutely LOVELY! H.Rassies (yup, that's my short form - heard it here first - although not that much shorter than actually just typing it out) are probably my new fave fish. So much character and actively school

Yay I'm glad someone thinks so! I really can't get a good picture but I want to show them off lol. And H.Rassies it is, my son calls them raspberry fishies

They do have a lot of character but they are quite dumb as far as fish go lol. You'll see what I mean once yours settle in