I'm definitely seeing the frogs more mainly because I think they got a bit lost in the larger tank. They think it's feeding time every time they see me! I'm pretty sure my betta thinks the same or that I'm invading his territory I always found my cories quite shy with the exception of my pygmies, so I'd feel bad for disturbing them and scaring them off.Well please don't feel bad that I feel bad, or we'll be in a weird, badness loop we can't escape from!
Ah.. yikes! Completely understandable why you'd move to RO with that! What a nightmare. Another example of how you were going above and beyond to take care of your tanks. And you had a good grasp on that for a long time! They were doing well for so long. It's horrible that so often these things that are out of control can happen. Like people who've lost whole tanks or more because of a change from the water company... you were avoiding something like that, only for a variable like those root tabs to then throw things out instead.
Urgh, it just sucks, I'm sorry!
Aaaww! Love that there's a heart-warming, positive spin. I'm glad this isn't putting you off the hobby entirely, that you're going to focus on the nano tanks and the fish you still have, at least for now. Admire you a lot for that, and grateful you were able to share and others contribute so we can all learn from things like this, as sad as it is.
There's still so much you can do with smaller tanks after all. And like you said when you were able to quickly do W/Cs in half an hour before work, there's a lot of pros to having smaller tanks! When I'm doing a change now on my 15L Ciano shrimp cube, I'm always shocked how easy and quick it is to do a W/C on it now.
Glad your betta and frogs were able to ride things out too! Crossing fingers and fins that things stay steady and peaceful for you all for a long while. Let you recover and reset after a horrible experience, and especially as you recover from steroid injections in the spine. My mum used to get those now and then for back pain, I hope it helps you, back pain is such a torment and difficult to treat.
@Wills has a lovely journal about his little desk tank! There's a charm with having a little tank you can sit and observe while you're working, when you need a moment with nature! You might find it a bit distracting at first, but I'd bet overall your productivity might well go up! There's a soothing effect when there's water involved, I reckon. Plus since they get used to you sitting so close, you'll probably see a lot of things you might not have expected to. I've only had my first betta for a couple of weeks now, and I'm loving the differences, where I'm focusing on a specific fish to feed, that he comes to the tank and interacts with me in a unique way compared to my other fish... the cute way he moves those little pointy front fins... they're cool little fish!
At least I have something to distract me during any boring meetings at work now too