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In addition to what has been said, there are some significant cautions here. Not all fish should be fed earthworms, they are high in fat and protein (going from memory), this is not good at all for cories for example. Most small fish cannot handle such large worms. If you have a compost and...

This is another debatable point, plants using or not using nitrate. Most aquarium plants prefer ammonia/ammonium, and will ignore nitrate if the ammonia/ammonium is in balance with all other nutrients and the light. They will not switch to nitrate (or nitrite) under normal circumstances...

Nitrate and Plants Most aquarium plants prefer ammonia/ammonium, and will ignore nitrate if the ammonia/ammonium is in balance with all other nutrients and the light. They will not switch to nitrate (or nitrite) under normal circumstances (low-tech, natural method planted tank) because chances...

I consider the flow in the video good for daytime. You say you adjust it for night, I am not sure this is needed. How much stronger is it at night? I know you are relatively new to this, so I'll do a bit of a summary. Surface disturbance provides the exchange of gasses, oxygen and CO2. A...

Yes, nothing to worry about.

We have no data on the light, spectrum and intensity. We also do not know if any plant fertilizer is being used. The water is quite hazy, and you are silent cycling, but this info is part of the process. Stem plants need good light and nutrients. Nutrients will be next to zero in a new tank...

Briefly to explain the reason...tap water can have dissolved CO2 in it, quite a lot. If you see lots of tiny bubbles after a water change, that is CO2 outgassing from the fresh water. I have seen this widely vary, depending upon the season, weather, etc, which all affect the dissolved CO2. In...

RO has (or should have) zero GH and KH. The pH at 7, fine. There is no KH, so the pH is free to do whatever the water in the tank dictates. The pH will rise because the buffering in the tank water affects it.

What does "muddies the colours" mean? When a fish that is normally light beige attempts to darken itself to be less conspicuous, it is because it is fearful of being too obvious. If you have ever seen tan-bodies cories on the habitat sand you can hardly see them unless they move. If the fish...

I don't think the blue LEDs are any help. Plants need red and blue to photosynthesize, and red is the more critical. White light that is high in red, blue and gree, around 5000K-6500K promotes the best plant growth. Nine hours is still a lot, but if the intensity isn't adequate duration...

@Essjay you have bettas, my eyes can't see these things well enough.

He needs to do research into fish requirements. Most store staff do. I was very lucky when I started out that I had an independent store owned by two hobbyists, and staffed by hobbyists only. All their freshwater fish were imported from the countries where the fish lived. I never had disease...

Not much info on Amazon, so have a look at the manufacturer website page, it has more info. I would say there are a couple that look good. Crystal River, Moonlight Sand, Sunset Gold, Jungle River Sand are the four that are OK for the particle size, The others are too large for pygmy cories...

Yes. The bacterial issues are in the Stratum and when fish dig into it, trouble. Sand on top will mix and be on the bottom in time, due to the natural water thermal currents as well as any fish digging. I know some people use these substrates, but I have yet to see any hard evidence they have...

No.

Measure the length, width and height in cm or inches, and use the calculator on the right side of the screen to calculate the volume in liters and/or US gallons.

I do not know if the worms might still be an issue, but for this plus other important reasons I would not use this stratum. Like all plant substrates, they have bacterial issues which can be harmful especially to substrate fish, and they are not suitable as a substrate for such fish anyway...

Yes. Vallisneria is particularly vulnerable. I believe mosses have trouble. Glutaraldehyde, a highly toxic disinfectant. Most here know I do not advise using this or any algicide. My opinion.

I know. The amount of misinformation, inaccurate information in this hobby is staggering. Most of what you find online through YouTube and similar is absolute nonsense. I can understand the frustration new aquarists today must feel. When I began in the early 1980's there was no home PC with...

Partly, yes. Carpet plants are not exactly easy though. Many need brighter light, the one thing these fish do not want.

They are wrong. Period. I explained the numbers before. You must give the poor fish what they want. Couled with this is your maintenance. Water changes, regular and substantial, once a week, 50-60% of the tank volume. Do not over feed. What goes in must come out, and feeding fish twice a...

White is not good, but there are ways to get around it. Dim lighting. And/or lots of floating plants. As I already posted back a ways, it is the overhead light on white that is the problem for the fish. So reducing the light is the way to go. Floating plants, and dark stuff on the sand...

Never use any so-called "medications" for ich. Never. Most of these are snake oil, and you are likely to cause more stress and lose fish. Heat works. Increase the tank water temp to 30C/86F and keep it there for two weeks. Do a major water change now, to get as much of the "medication" out...

Do not ever use reptile sand/bedding. It is likely too rough, or it may have additives. You want proper inert aquarium river sand. CarribSea produce several.

That link took me to the general site and I've no idea which substrate you're thinking of.

I do not see anything there that would cause me to take any form of remedial action. If fish are flashing, it is likely ich. But if they are not stressed, they will deal with it. After all, fish in the habitats do not get ich. And fish in the aquarium only get ich if they are under severe...

This is a 10g tank which is really not large enough for most of these fish. A single male betta, fine; with shrimp, fine. But no fish. Without the betta, nano fish will work here. Ember tetras, dwarf rasboras (like the "chili"), pygmy cories. But any of these in with a Betta is not...

Problems, very serious ones, with the fish here. First, neon tetras are shoaling, and that means they need minimum around 10. A scientific study on the effects of too few numbers with shoaling fish included this species, and found that in all cases, a group of 3 and a group of five developed...

Substrate colour matters especially to fish that live down on the substrate. Like cories, which on black will release melanin in an attemp to better blend in to the dark, and this causes stress and we all know or should know that stress causes over 90% of all disease issues in an aquarium...

Fully stocked at just what species/numbers? Once again, the numbers for the fish that I gave previously are minimum and not a problem, with or without the mollies, though I would get rid of them as soon as you can because they will/are weakening and this is not exactly good in any aquarium, to...

I would not waste your money on drugs that will deteriorate (limited shelf life some of them anyway) and you may never need.

Other members will have to offer advice, as I know nothing of either product. The black sand would never be advisable with substrate fish, but again this is for a betta tank (unless I got that mixed up). I had to use substrate tabs and liquid fertilizer when I had the Flourite so-called plant...

Gary, I would add that if an aquarist cannot be bothered to provide the essential elements for the fish, they are clearly in the wrong hobby.

For a betta tank with no substrate fish, fine. Your call. The betta is unlikely to succumb to any problems that substrate fish definitely would, so don't consider this for other tanks with such fish. I would bet that your plants will not really do any better, but suit yourself.

You really must discount most of the information on all this. There is no reason to add CO2 in a tank with fish being fed. The decomposition of the organics in the substrate produce a lot. It is true that if you want an aquatic garden that is high-tech, then mega light, diffused CO2, daily...

More false and misleading information. This hobby is certainly ripe with such. Aquatic plants will grow in any substrate in an aquarium provided it is not too large a grain. Pea gravel for example will hinder some plants, and the grain size should be smaller. Sand is absolutely ideal...

The numbers for the species in my previous post do not change, regardless of the mollies. I was trying to get across the point that for the Bleeding Hearts to be in good condition and less stressed, they need those numbers, it is absolute. Same holds for the cories and cardinals. Someone...

As some have noted, these snails are your best friends in an aquarium because they get places and eat organics which break them down faster for the bacteria. They also eat algae from plant leaves. They will not eat healthy live plants, just dead organic matter. As for the numbers, they will...