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Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <10 pH 7.3 gH 200 ppm Chlorine 0 29gal, moderately planted, gravel bottom with 15 cardinal tetras, multiple cherry shrimp, a clown pleco and three honey gourami (2 red). I do a 25% water change every week, water temp is 76F. A week ago I got two red honey gourami...

I haven't been able to see any poop, but he is eating. I bought the medication you mentioned but haven't used it yet because I've been away. Looking at it again, I remember a previous case similar to this in my tank. A cardinal had what looked like a shard of gravel or shell stuck inside it...

Update: I looked last Friday and seeing the fish front to back, I noticed it looked like a puncture wound, like the two spots were ends of something that speared into the fish. There was a slight diagonal angle visible too, so it wasn't straight across. I had to be away for the weekend and when...

OK, if I deworm and it does nothing, what would the next step be? Assuming it's bacterial, is there any way to determine if I am I going to be looking at a tank-wide infection or an isolated case?

Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <10 pH 7.3 gH 200 ppm Chlorine 0 29gal, moderately planted, gravel bottom with 15 cardinal tetras, multiple cherry shrimp, a clown pleco and two honey gourami. I do a 25% water change every week, water temp is 76F. The past month I have lost three fish, one gourami...

I have a few plants, I definitely wouldn't say a lot though. And I have some nitrates, just a very small amount. What about that isn't good? Oh, I know they can swim against the flow, but they don't like the waterfall it creates coming out, which they avoid and that means they don't use 1/4th...

Isn't the point of the water changer siphon partially to remove debris from your tank like decaying organics though? Also, these look good but is there a gap at the top big enough for something to get caught in? Otherwise I'm sticking to my sponge

I see what you're saying about illness, and I agree, although like I said nothing appeared to be wrong. The second part I do personally disagree with though - I've lost easily over two dozen fish while using this filter, many unfortunately to an ich outbreak. These incidents are only the second...

I have a 29g tank with cardinals, a honey gourami, dwarf corys, cherry shrimp and a clown pleco. I use an Aqueon QuietFlow10 filter, and put a cylindrical sponge over the intake so it doesn't suck up shrimp or snails. For a half a year, this hasn't been giving me any issues until recently...

Update - I vacuumed the whole tank and did a 50% water change the past 2 days, and today I got him to come off the bottom and swim up to feed. I'm not sure if he ate anything, as he stood still most of the time, but I noticed he didn't seem to be struggling to maintain buoyancy anymore. Of...

I agree that it appears to be an air bladder issue. I'd like to have more input on the origins of the issue though. I find it hard to grasp that he would have no visible issues and then suddenly manifest them like this, if it was a organ problem, but maybe I'm wrong. My theory is the constant...

Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <10 pH 7.3 gH 200 ppm Chlorine 0 29gal, moderately planted, gravel bottom with 15 cardinal tetras, multiple cherry shrimp, a clown pleco and two honey gourami. I do a 25% water change every week, water temp is 76F. The honeys are the newest editions to my tank. At...

Thanks, do you have any insight into the necessity of vacuuming gravel? I've had my gravel unvacuumed for over 6 months now, and I thought doing so helped fertilize plants and created a more realistic aesthetic.

I don't know why but I thought drip acclimation was what all hardcore enthusiasts did because it was the most humane and least likely to stress the fish.

Wouldn't drip acclimation not only be counterproductive, but more likely to kill your fish if this was the case?

I haven't vaccumed the gravel in over 6 months...should I be experiencing any problems I don't know about? The reason I dont vac is because I have a lot of small delicate plants and I was told that the fish poop can act as a supplemental fertilizer for plants.

My understanding is that acclimating longer is safer, but not always necessary. Is that not the case?

Is the clown pleco both a bristle and a sucker? And I thought it was a bottom feeder, not an algae eater...uh whoops. Does all this additional waste necessitate using a gravel vac? I don't clean my gravel at the moment.

Ok, I'll do better research before choosing plants from now on. Thanks

No problem, he's just in quarantine right now. He'll be moving to my 30g in less than a week. I didn't realize their bioload was so large, I might be underfeeding mine then, I've only been feeding it a hikari bottom feeder piece a night.

This is all fantastic stuff that I didn't consider, thanks! The only problem is my LFS goes through all their cardinal stock in under a week (now that I think about it, whoever is vacuuming up the cardinals is probably experiencing the same problems as me), and they don't take reservations on...

Not other than the root tabs. I have a few other problems I'm dealing with, and at this moment I'm not interested in spending anymore on live plants. But once I get stable again I'll be using that for sure. I talked to my LFS, and they do exactly what I've been doing - the same liquid fert and...

Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <10 pH 7.3 gH 200 ppm Chlorine 0 Tanks - 10gal, heavily planted with hornwort, java moss, and amazon swords, gravel bottom with cherry shrimp, a clown pleco and two honey gourami. I use a strip of LEDs for illumination. I have purchased 3 rounds of cardinal tetras...

I got some more swords, some red ludwigia and anacharis last week, planted with seachem tabs and my flourish for my water. Within a week the anacharis leaves have gone from lush green to pale yellow and the stem has dissolved. The red ludwigia looked ok but when I changed my water the current...

Can you explain how you deal with lowering water levels? Do you just have to adjust the positioning on a regular basis, or is it self-adjusting somehow? Also how do you secure the tubing?

Ok, I'll look for this at my LFS. If they don't have it, I'll look into the others you mentioned.

Putting it that way, it sounds like duckweed provides a bit too much surface cover. I guess I kept it around because I figured the more cover the better for the fish. But ill definitely start doing that. Would you have any specific recommendations for plants that provide surface cover for...

I don't mean to put you on the spot, as your suggestion is general advice I see everywhere, but I really don't see how this is effective. I've tried numerous times, and every method except a breeding divider has failed to keep floaters out. Suction cups randomly fail, the water level decreases...

My tanks will soon have honey gourami in them. Right now I have duckweed covering 95% of the surface, and I know gourami need access to the surface to breathe. Do you have any experience or knowledge about what I'd need to do for the gourami in this situation?

Thank you very much, that was exactly what I was looking for, and a fascinating read. Based on your comments and what I read, it sounds like my current schedule should be OK, but I'll try to reduce the photo period and brightness a bit during the tank light hours, as I'm pushing it with 12 hours...

I've had two community tanks with tetras, gouramis and catfish for almost a year now, and there really isn't any indication that there's a problem, but try as I might I can't help but feel like I'm doing something wrong when it comes to lighting. So just for my peace of mind, here's a timeline...

My stocking levels in both tanks are well below 100 percent, so maybe this applies here. I'm assuming it has to do with lack of nutrients?

I don't use tap water in my tank, I use water from a well. I'm not exactly sure how much that would differ from your situation, but I imagine it means my water has more nutrients than RO water. This sounds like a nightmare to work out. I'm glad it did for you in the end, but the effort...

Do you have a theory about why the buried one grew so much larger than the others? It's easily three times their height! In your experience, are individual aquatic plants a hit or miss kind of thing? As in, you can buy several at the same time, and half will thrive and the other will falter...

Based on this description, it sounds like the ferns in my second pic should be doing well, not the first, which is completely buried. Am I missing something? That is strange then, because I keep mine on for 12 hours a day and don't have algae issues at all. Could the duckweed and reduced...

That's strange, because based on what I can see the first is completely buried and doing fantastic, whereas the second is not buried and hasn't grown. Am I wrong? Thank you for telling me this, I just wish I'd known sooner! Is there any chance of it growing back after a while, or is it a lost...