Update: got some tetras and corys living in the tank and seemingly happy. I'm down to about 1/3 of the plants i started with, i expect in the end i'll be down to just a couple which is pretty disappointing. They're rooting really well, but the brown algae just keeps coming back and i can't keep it down and they die off. About two weeks ago I stripped every plant out of the aquarium and bleach soaked whichever ones were still alive, and hand scrubbed each one. Then cleaned the tank really well. They looked brand new two days later. But now pretty quickly they're getting covered in it again. I have ten red racers in the tank munching away but they don't really touch the plants at all. parameters are all stable, and my nitrates on water change day is only between 10 and 20ppm so i know nitrates aren't their main food source in this tank...so the saga continues of hunting it down and eliminating it.
fish for kids?
- Thread starter jyabs7
- Start date
Firstly, apologies as I have not read the whole thread so if I repeat something someone has said.....sorry.
Ensure the backing is as right to the back as possible. Any gap tends to let the light reflect off the glass not the backing when coming down at an angle. I tend to use black bin liners as they almost stick themselves but with any water they stick.
As for the algae, need to sort it obviously but a trio or more otocinclus might help.
Plants will like flow, not excessive but enough to keep the water around them moving, but will not like spray bar, plus spray bars don't move the water too well unless they are really jetting in, which is worse still for plant growth.
I tend to add an old T5 light to the top of my planted tanks as you can get a great coverage of the whole front to back lit. I find the leds good for spot lighting but need more than one unit to do front and back due to narrower light shed.
Ensure the backing is as right to the back as possible. Any gap tends to let the light reflect off the glass not the backing when coming down at an angle. I tend to use black bin liners as they almost stick themselves but with any water they stick.
As for the algae, need to sort it obviously but a trio or more otocinclus might help.
Plants will like flow, not excessive but enough to keep the water around them moving, but will not like spray bar, plus spray bars don't move the water too well unless they are really jetting in, which is worse still for plant growth.
I tend to add an old T5 light to the top of my planted tanks as you can get a great coverage of the whole front to back lit. I find the leds good for spot lighting but need more than one unit to do front and back due to narrower light shed.
Update....Well, this went from a small project to a giant project in a hurry. Decided to make the 4 hour trip to the nearest petco and pickup a few tanks while they were on sale to use for my reptiles, and ended up grabbing a 75 gallon as well. I'm going to transfer the few fish i have in the 55 to the 75 and start building that one while working on letting the darn brown algae die a horrible death. Right now i have some corys and some tetras, and some nerite snails, any ideas for other fish that can live with them in a 75 gallon now? lol If i don't find any that catch my eye i'll just increase the numbers of the same species but was curious to add a little more variety.
75g is a nice size and opens many options for you.
you could try angelfish and Congo tetras
gouramis come in some pretty decent sizes that would go well in a 75g
or you could stick with different small species. Rams, kribs, cherry barbs
75 with Flourite black sand. The finnex planted plus from my 55, i also ordered a finnex vivid plus i want to mess around with and some ohko dragon stone but idk if i'll use that in this tank or one of the others.. Fish come tomorrow, plants come thursday. Should be an exciting week lots of projects going on. If i don't kill these feels or plants i should have some pictures for you guys soon.
Thanks! I ordered about ten plants or so right now. Going to take it slow with the planting. I went all out with the 55 and the brown algae cost me every single plant by the end. It was pretty disappointing but, i'm hoping that problem is behind me now and won't share it's ugly face.
All the while i've set up a tank for a crimson day gecko, a green pacman frog, dart frogs, and started working on a chameleon enclosure so it's been pretty busy here. But we had a snowpocalypse that closed access to town down so that gave me some extra time to tinker.
All the while i've set up a tank for a crimson day gecko, a green pacman frog, dart frogs, and started working on a chameleon enclosure so it's been pretty busy here. But we had a snowpocalypse that closed access to town down so that gave me some extra time to tinker.
NNOOOOO NOT TRUE AT ALLLLLLLLL
I nearly fainted from anger seeing somebody say that khuli loaches can be kept in a 5-gallon. They need at least a 29G and I hate small tanks and I'm saving up for a 265G to keep arowana and the tanks right now I have is 80G, 40G, 10G and axolotls need a 10G alone not a 5G and dwarf gouramis need a 10G and the only schooling fish you can keep in a 5G are cardinal tetras, neon tetras, false neon tetras
gallon jugs are only fit for a piece of coral, sall plants and ghost shrimp nothing else and bettas need 2.5G probably 5 is better alone
