Hello, wanted to share some pics of my tank and see if anyone had any suggestions. It’s dimensions our about the same as the 90p. It’s set up with C02 and I use the Chihiros slim. I currently have 7 Congos, 10 fire ember tetras, 7 Pygmy Cory’s, 4 peppered Cory’s, 1 otocynclis, snails, 1 Siamese falgae eater ( had another but he recently hopped out the tank) and a large colony of Orange rilli shrimps. It was set up in the end of Nov 2024. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated. Sorry for the glare in some of the pics

This tank has been established for a couple years, with the floating plants being in there for about 4 months now. There used to be a really thick layering of duckweed and RRF's but recently they've started dying off. There's 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrates (which is the first time I've ever had an established tank read 0 nitrates, especially since I haven't done a water change for about a month). It's a 60L low tech tank with 7 rummynose tetras, about 5 white cloud minnows, a handful of kuhli loaches and a few shrimp (I'm aware that it's heavily stocked, I'm planning on upgrading very soon). The light is on 8-10hrs a day.

I removed a heap of the dying plants yesterday so it doesn't look like there's many dead ones from above, but from below you can see the clumps of dead duckweed. I read that floaters love nitrates, so is it possible that they're dying because there isn't any in the tank? And what can I do to help them?

Added a micro sword to the foreground and cleaned up a little. Starting to fill in as I hit the 2.5 month mark. 🙌🏼

This is my first planted tank 75gal. I've done salt water before. But plants are new to me.

The tank is visible from both sides so I don't want to block vision if that makes sense. Any ideas on plants and where to put them?

This is what I have so far:)

1st image is today. 2nd one is about 7 days ago. 3rd is tank while I was topping it off.

22g long with lots of plants, also have some photos cuttings hanging out of the tank.

there are no inhabitants besides a couple of bladder snails. I used stability/prime.

Am I on the way to a cycled tank?

Should I do a wc or can nitrates levels settle by themselves?

Also any suggestions for inhabitants are welcome, I know I'd like a snail and lots of lil shrimps, but also a nano schooling fish and a bottom feeder one.

Thanks!

My first real attempt at aquascaping. Tank is a 40 gallon breeder. My plan is to eventually have tall plants growing across the back 2/3 of the left side, to hide the filter/heater and take advantage of the extra light.

I'm pretty happy with the placement of my stones/substrate, but I feel like it needs something more. Maybe some spider wood branches reaching from the back and across/over the right side? Any artistic input would be much appreciated, thanks!

Hello! So I started my first real project for aquascaping recently. My plan has been to collect equipment over the course of a few months and slowly build the tank out. I'm a bit on a budget, so I figured if I could just space out purchases on specific things, I could still go a little higher tech with the tank and not break the bank.

I've gotten my the tank, substrate, lights and hardscape so far. So, really am just waiting to find a deal on a CO2 set up and solid canister filter.

But I got a little excited and wanted to start laying in the scape, just to figure out all the final tweaks for it. So, I spent a couple of days setting it all up and getting it right about where I wanted it. That was 4-5 days ago now. I have since noticed that the aquasoil(Mix of ADA Amazonia and Fluval Stratum) have changed color. Assuming it has dried out. Which, I just didn't even think about before starting to scape everything.

Is this a bad thing or is it okay? If it is bad, how long can the soil stay out in the open? I probably won't have the filter for a few weeks at minimum, so I'm hoping that it would be okay atleast until then. I really don't want to have to tear it all down and relay the substrate if I don't have to.

I see a huge misconception here on vacuuming/cleaning aquasoil. A large portion of the community seems adamantly against it and against vacuuming in general. So should you vacuum aquasoils? The answer is YES, absolutely. Here's why:

Many will claim detritus provides nutritional value to the roots of the plants and this *might* (big might here) be true. Detritus certainly can contain nitrogen and phosphates, and thus may contribute to the nutritional need of plants. However, the ratios of nitrogen, phosphates, and compounds present are not actually known (let's be honest no one is testing their detritus). It may be that these ratios are more preferable to algae, bacteria, and other unknown/pest life forms. Detritus also adds to the organic load of a system over time, maybe these are broken down maybe they're not. Point is detritus is a large unknown component and we should strive to reduce the amount of unknowns in any given system. It *could* be beneficial, but more likely than not it is not. When I'm hit with the comment of using detritus as a nutritional source, I often wonder why? Why use an unknown by-product when we can use a known product in the form of liquid fertilizers, root tabs, and of course our soils.

Furthermore, detritus overtime can and will actually hinder aquasoils reducing its lifespan and functionality. One of the major benefits of aquasoils is in fact that its form is in individual granules. This not only makes it easy for plants to root in and spread, but also it allows for proper gas exchange. In short it gives the roots of plants "breathability", something that is highly desirable as plants exchange waste products with the environment. I believe detritus can aid in the breakdown of aquasoils as the soils settle along with the detritus and experience the increased load as detritus accumulates, and thus begins to compress.

So how do we actually siphone/clean/remove detritus from aquasoils? We obviously can't just use a gravel vacuum for obvious reasons but we employ other techniques. A common one is to attach a turkey baster on the end of your siphon and "blow" the detritus thus sucking it up. I prefer a more aggressive (and frankly lazier approach), I use my index finger to stir up the first few layers of soil and suck out what emerges. Through this methodology, I find removing detritus to be relatively easy but also it allows me to get a deeper look into the tank, I can see which plants are doing well, which have been struggling and see the overall status of the tank. In using these methods, I have been able to keep aquasoil going for years.

If you want a video explanation of this method you can find it here on my instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIFku_9JCSe/?igsh=N2ttZms4bm1ibTJi

Thanks and I hope this clears some things up. I often get asked such questions so I figured I'd make post on it. If this was helpful to you please let me know.

Just gotta get that monte carlo to grow up the rocks...

Been enjoying the hobby for about a year now. Started with a 200L tank but it quickly got out of hand and i added nano tank after nano tank. Now im thinking about getting a 60L tank and try my hand at some breeding. Curious to hear what you guys think about my setup.

I’m just curious on everyone’s methods. Hoping to learn something

Hey guys, I feel like my tank looks pretty good, I recently added the cholla wood and the shrimplets love it. However I just feel like it needs something to make it less "jumbled". I have a large smooth lava rock I'm considering adding, to replace the gray rock on the right, maybe trimming the ludwigia in the back to make it thicker, and grouping the wood branches closer together. My dwarf hairgrass is doing okay but it has some algae on it and grows very slow. I don't have co2. Any suggestions on tweaking the aesthetic or adding other low maintenance plants?

30 days into a 1.5g dry-start. HC Cuba and moss planted inside, along with dragon stone for the hardscape. I just upgraded the lighting yesterday to a Chihiros RGB magnetic light to hopefully see some faster growth.

I'll likely flood the tank after 60-90 days and will run it with a UNS Blitz 6oz canister filter and pressurized CO2 system. Will eventually add a couple Caridina shrimp if I'm happy with the outcome. Fingers crossed!

I have a 55 gallon tank but I’m finding it hard to fill. I’ve tried drift wood but can never find anything big enough to fill it out even if I add a bunch of smaller branches to it. Is there any plants anyone could recommend that grow tallish and get really full that I could add? Also is there any plants that I can just grow the roots in to give it a bit more life outside, maybe something cat friendly because mine a little demons. I’m just fining it hard to make it look fuller. I also have a 10 gallon that needs some help too.

Hi!I am using an inline diffuser. My filter outflow looks like this right now.(First pic) I like the looks but i think that when the water surface get lower i lose a lot of co2 . So I wondering if its a good idea to buy a glass spray bar like this one (second pic) . It has great looks and I read that spray bars are the best pick for inline diffusers. Whats your thoughts about this?

I had an algae outbreak in my 15G tank. I don't know what kind of algae it is, but it was so bad that I had to restart the tank. But it came back after a week. I tried using fert to help the plant, reduce lighting to 6 hours a day and use algae eaters (2 nerite and 10 amano shrimps).

This algae usually stick to plants. It look like hair algae but very soft, easily broke apart when I tried to pick it up. The 1st image shows it grow on plants. The 2nd image shows a clumb of it. Please help me identify this algae and how to deal with it. Using chemical dose should be the last resort.

currently found on my pothos roots only

anyone knows what algae is this, cause and remedy?

my setup is more than a year, 1st time encounter this algae