My high school platy tank

connorlindeman said:

You are lucky to have found quikrete play sand! I cant seem to find it anywhere.

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I found mine at Home Depot. Lowes also seems to carry it, and I think you can probably find it online. I don’t know if those stores will be in NJ though.

foxgirl158 said:

I found mine at Home Depot. Lowes also seems to carry it, and I think you can probably find it online. I don’t know if those stores will be in NJ though.

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home depot and lowes are both here both they are out of stock. Have been for months. Online I would need to pay about 20 bucks just for shipping!

connorlindeman said:

home depot and lowes are both here both they are out of stock. Have been for months. Online I would need to pay about 20 bucks just for shipping!

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That sucks, I’m sorry! I think Ace Hardware carry’s it if you have those, but it’s more expensive. Something like $7.50 for 50lbs!

foxgirl158 said:

That sucks, I’m sorry! I think Ace Hardware carry’s it if you have those, but it’s more expensive. Something like $7.50 for 50lbs!

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Wow! lowes has it for 3.99 but not in stock. oh well I'll just wait till its back in stock. thanks!

Ask then what day they get a shipment in, and go early in the morning to get it on that day/the next day

I forgot to post the pictures I took on Monday, so here they are now.
Did my first water change and quickly realized I didn’t know how to gravel vac sand at all. Shot off a quick post here and got help immediately .


Pulled the filter pad out to rinse in the bucket. I’m using bio bags with carbon in them. The top popped open and spilled some rocks in the bucket. No big deal, I closed it back up and went to put it in the filter. It opens back up and dumps a load of rocks in the tank. I don’t have any pictures of this as I was rushing to clean them out.

While the tank was half empty, I did my first water test. The tank is still empty of living things, so the parameters are as expected.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.2 (I know it looks dark in the picture, but it was lighter irl)



Dechlorinated a 3.5g bucket of water and added it back to the tank. I need a small cup so I can pour without disturbing the sand, any recommendations? At home I use an old betta cup.



My plants should be here Friday. I ordered from Modern Aquarium:
x4 vallisnera
One 4oz cup of red root floaters
Adding some milfoil or anacharis from a teachers planted aquarium

I will be ordering 2 nerite snails from Aquatic Arts once the plants have been established for a couple days. Planning on:
x1 Batik Nerite (neritina variegata)



x1 zebra thorn/horned nerite (clithon corona/diadema)



The babies should be big enough to move here in the next month or so as long as the parameters are good. I’m so excited to move onto the next phase of this tank!

Another update:
My plants got delayed because of the big snowstorm that came through, so they sat in a warehouse in Kansas City for 5 days in -5 degree temps . On top of that, once they were finally delivered, FedEx didn’t ring the doorbell or knock, so they sat outside, again in -5 temps, for 4 hours. Ugh. Of course they were frozen, so we put them in a warm bowl of tap water and left them in a warm place. The red root floaters are definitely dead and I will be contacting modern aquarium about them, but I think there’s still hope for the Vallis.
I planted the Vallis today and they’re definitely struggling, but I hope now that they’re in substrate they’ll perk up. Only one seems to be healthy-ish, it’s standing up straight. The others are all flopped over. There were a bunch of dead strands which came off and floated around, which I removed.
My LFS actually has one of the types of nerite snails that I was going to buy online, so I think this weekend I’ll go there and grab a snail and some of the starter bacteria that they sell (it’s good stuff, not from a bottle. They store it in a mini fridge and sell it in bags like you get your fish in) and possibly some fertilizer too. What’s the best fertilizer to get for Vallis and red root floaters when I get more?

Back view of aquarium before plants. I was going to put a background on, but that would severely limit my visibility to see into the dank, so I decided not to.


Front view of aquarium through the window before plants.


Back view after plants


Front view after plants


Dead strands that I took out of the aquarium plus the bag I used to acclimate them.

Unfortunately, all of the Vallis died . I’ve taken most of the leaves out and am planning on taking the roots out when I have time tomorrow.
In other news, my LFS had one of the nerite snails I was looking for, so I jumped on the chance to buy one locally without having to pay for shipping. I love him already . We’re hosting a “name that snail!” Competition where people can suggest names and at the end of a week I get to choose my favorite

The snail in question

The poor Vallis after all of the leaves were removed.

Unfortunately plants do not fair well in the cold, freezing plant cells causes them to rupture which ultimately kills the plants. Also plants do not need acclimating.

That is cool. That is exactly what I did when I was at school some 45 years ago.
Just in a flash you will be writing this post, saying that is exactly what I did 45 years ago.
Every year is precious they go far too fast.