What are Cories Susceptible to

[Byron]

Huh ok.... I figured you meant the flap you open to feed fish but if I put a pen or pencil there it would fall in every time I open it to feed. I stuck one pen under the back corner of the lid so as to lessen the humidity like seangee said. It is barely open any more than before. Will it even lessen the humidity or be an issue otherwise? As to turbulance that keeps the plants wet, that happens when I change water because I can't keep the plants sectioned off as the water level goes down. So then when I dump new water in from a bucket the plants get pummeled and swirled around by the water being poured in. I worried about but cannot think of a fix for it. Is there any non floating plants that grow quick?

Water changing is not going to cause any harm, it is temporary. After all, it rains on the plants in the tropics and they manage. It is the perpetual soaking from too much surface disturbance you want to avoid. Seangee made this point well a few posts back.

All my tanks are securely covered; it is amazing how fish can jump through the smallest opening at night. And fish you would never think would even jump, like cories! I don't know how much air circulation may be needed above the tank, but my floating plants seem to do well for years, including Salvinia, Water Sprite, Frogbit, Water Lettuce. I will say that the Water Lettuce seems to have done best in the 20g tank I use as my new fish QT, which has the water level lower than the others. May be something, may not. The light over that tank is different and that could be the reason.

 

[seangee]

First I have to say that what works in one tank may not work in another. I cannot explain why water sprite always dies in one of my tanks and thrives in the other...

Here are some pics of the salvinia (auriculata in my case) and frogbit in the tank I mentioned.
When I change water I use a pump and hose to drain the tank. To fill it I place 25 liter jerry cans with taps above the tank. So its more like using a tap or hose than tipping in a bucket. I don't try to protect the plants and after filling I usually need to free some plants that have got stuck below the surface. The water flow in the tank is pretty decent but the filter inlet does enter below the surface. The little sponge filter seen in the top pic provides the surface agitation for oxygenation.

It is also worth mentioning that these guys grow fast and the tank does not provide sufficient nutrition on its own. I use Seachem Flourish Complete twice a week at half the recommended dosage. One 75% water change per week. Getting the correct time to keep the lights on was a case of trial and error.

Unfortunately I can't say do this and it will work for you. But it is what I do and it works for me.

 

[vio88]

Huh ok I assumed the tank would have enough nutrients, that may be my problem. Also it seems my guppies love to investigate or splash amongst the plants. My air pump is on the opposite side of the tank compared to the plants. As for light I recently put my fish tank light on a timer has stopped algae growth. How does it matter for plants when the light is on?

 

[seangee]

Huh ok I assumed the tank would have enough nutrients, that may be my problem. Also it seems my guppies love to investigate or splash amongst the plants. My air pump is on the opposite side of the tank compared to the plants. As for light I recently put my fish tank light on a timer has stopped algae growth. How does it matter for plants when the light is on?

The time of day does not matter. My lights come on in the late afternoon so I can see my fish at night. It is important for fish and plants that they do have a period of total darkness.

A little water splashing on your leaves from the fish is not going to harm them - look at how much water is on my leaves.

In simple terms the health of your plants depends on the balance between light and nutrients. By light we mean both intensity and duration. You can't really compensate for lights that are too dim by leaving them on for longer. In this particular tank the lights are actually too bright for the fish and plants I keep. So I use the surface plants to filter the light. When the floating plants get too thick I need to thin them out to allow enough light to get through. That's why I said getting the right balance is a case of trial and error. Every tank is different and when we change something it may take several weeks to observe the effect of that change

 

[vio88]

Huh ok. Well I am just gonna leave it then if it doesn't work in my tank then too bad.

 

[Byron]

Huh ok I assumed the tank would have enough nutrients, that may be my problem. Also it seems my guppies love to investigate or splash amongst the plants. My air pump is on the opposite side of the tank compared to the plants. As for light I recently put my fish tank light on a timer has stopped algae growth. How does it matter for plants when the light is on?

In response to your last question here, I will just expand a bit on what seangee posted. Just a bit more detail which may help the understanding.

All animals (including fish) and plants have what is termed a circadian rhythm. This is an internal "clock" that causes specific processes to occur in the fish or plant; these processes are endogenous, meaning they are internal or built-in to the organism and respond to primarily light but also temperature and redox cycles. The circadian rhythm operates over a 24-hour period.

In plants, photosynthesis is one of these processes because it is driven by light. The light has to be of a certain intensity for the specific plant species--as seangee said, duration does not compensate for intensity--in order to drive photosynthesis. If the necessary nutrients are present, the plant will respond by photosynthesizing which is how it grows.

You mentioned algae and this is connected to this process. When the light is not balanced by nutrients, or if the light is not sufficient intensity, the plants cannot photosynthesize. Algae is a lower plant and it is not as fussy as higher plants so it always has an advantage of being able to manage with insufficient nutrients and it can use pretty much any light. By ensuring that the light/nutrients are in balance for the plants in the aquarium, and controlled by timers, we can ensure the plants benefit and algae is disadvantaged.

As seangee mentioned, it does not matter that the artificial "day/night" cycle we create over the aquarium by controlling the light/dark is the same as ours, provided it is the same each and every day (hence the timer) and provided the daylight period is adequate and the night or total darkness period is sufficient to provide plants the needed period of total rest.

This is critical for fish as much if not more than for plants, so every aquarium should have a timer on the light.