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I'd recommend some fast growing plants. They are the most beautiful filters.

click on video This is an 8 gallon planted bowl that I set up this past January. It is home to 10 chili rasbora, 10 crystal red shrimp and a handful of red ramshorn snails. It has a dirt substrate capped with black gravel. In the center of the bowl is a large piece of driftwood to which...

Licorice gourami are stunningly beautiful. I’m also a big fan of chocolate gourami.

I very much enjoyed my school of dwarf chain loaches. They are dizzyingly cute. I had them for 4 years then gave them to another fishkeeper because I wanted a school of corydoras. The chain loaches were such gavones that they’d completely outcompete any cories I had for food, leaving them to...

A 10 gallon isn’t really much room for a pair of gbrs. If they spawn, tankmates will be harassed to no end. A 10 is suitable as a temporary spawning tank but I wouldn’t put anything else in with the pair. I think a 20 long is the minimum for rams/apistos. I’d go with one or two honey gourami...

Haha! Very true!

Put a pleco in my tank? I’d rather have a pretty rock…at least I’d be able to see it.

Thanks!

Thanks! It’s one that I very much enjoy watching. Wild bettas are so intriguing.

Unfortunately that test will not always work because many aquatic plants can grow above water as well as below with different leaf and stem structure adapted to each condition. The vast majority of aquarium plants sold are grown emersed as the availability of CO2 lends itself to more efficient...

My kh is around 3 and my ludwigia is growing like bonkers.

That has happened to mine when there wasn’t enough light penetration. I suppose it could also be a nutrient issue. You can clip and replant the tip.

The one on the left looks like bacopa caroliniana; the one on the right- a species of ludwigia.

Right, but the filter has been running ever since. There’s a probability that most of the beneficial bacteria hasn’t died.

Why start anew? If there are no fish or live plants just crank the temp to over 86 for a week and dose ich x or something similar. You don’t have to wait 4-6 weeks for a new cycle.

Your tanks looks great! Love the mopani wood. It’s going to be stunning when it grows in!

There isn’t a way to know that your tank is cycled by looking at it. You have to test your water after having introduced a source of ammonia and after some time confirm that the level of ammonia and nitrite reads 0 and the presence of nitrates. Your use of the term ‘silent cycle’ leads me to...

Otocinclus and nerites have been the best diatom hoovers in my experience. Nerites probably edge out otos but I can’t live with all the eggs they lay on driftwood, rocks and glass. They’re very difficult to remove so I go with otos.

This is just what I was going to recommend- a bed of leaf litter.

Thanks!

Yeah, I enjoy seeing the fish. What was great about it is that there was cover enough for some green neon fry to survive to a size where they wouldn’t be eaten by other fish.

The 3.5 gallon has been up for a bit over a year. The 75 for over 4 years but I recently re-scaped it. The buce and anubias nana petite had basically taken over the tank. The fish had too little room for swimming. I gave tons of it away. It used to look like this:

They are beauties!

Good eye! In the 3.5 i’ve got 6 boraras uraphtalmoides and 4 blue dream shrimp Plants: needle leaf java fern, anubias nana petite, monte carlo, bucephalandra, rotala indica, golden nesaea, limnophilla heterophylla, ludwigia super red mini, alternathera reinicki mini and a couple whose names...

Thanks, They are Ecotech Radion XR15 Freshwater Pros. I love them!

Hi, I’ve been in the hobby around 8 years (not counting the 5 gallon tank I had as a kid). I’m into planted tanks and all things nano. I currently have 5 aquariums ranging from 3.5-75 gallons but have a feeling there will be more if I can successfully negotiate the space with my partner who has...

All true. I have a heavily planted 3.5 gallon bowl with 6 boraras uraphthalmodes and an 8 gallon with 13 boraras brigittae and crystal red shrimp. Both are very successful. I’ve even had fry in the 3.5.

My unpopular opinion is that bowls can make great homes for fish. I love my bowls and have even had fish spawn in them.

20 gallon long Sponge filter Current satellite plus pro lighting organic potting soil capped with pool filter sand TDS 85 Gh 3 Kh <1 Ph 6.3 77F (25C) The tank has been running for around a year and 5 months. It is moderately tannin-stained from driftwood, catappa leaves, alder cones and other...

I don’t think that java fern is a beginner plant. It doesn’t look good in a lot of tanks but when well-cared for it’s gorgeous.

I think boraras maculatus are just as beautiful. They get nearly as red as the chilis and have those contrasting black dots. They look like little strawberries.

I’d love GloMalaysianTrumpet snails. They’d make my substrate look like the Milky Way.

I Anything with unblinking eyes is creepy.