bucket_chemist

Thanks for the advice, everybody. I realize the lighting is likely part of what is holding me back, but I'm not in a position to make drastic changes at the moment. As for the plants, this is my first ever planted tank, so I did a bit of research and tried to pick plants which were relatively easy to grow that I liked the look of. I'll try to post a photo of what the tank looks like today. It's not a masterpiece, but I like it well enough, and the fish don't seem to mind.

Thanks, Godly...I thought that might be the case. I had been using Flourish Excel for a while, but it melted the twisted Val, so I've been just letting it do its thing for the last few months. There are some root tabs in the substrate around the tank as well. Since CO2 is now out, I'll look into other fertilizers.

Hi. I've been throwing around the idea of adding a DIY-style CO2 system to my 215 L community tank. I'd like to see my plants growing better, but it's also a neat project for my daughter and I to do together. The plants I've got at the moment are pretty basic - blue hygro, babies tears, twisted val, and dwarf sag. The fish are harlequin rasboras, guppies, leopard danios, dwarf chain loaches, kuhli loaches, and a goldspot pleco. The tank is a stock standard AR980, so not a super powerful light set up, but it seems to be working ok for the moment. So my question is, when you add a CO2 injection system, how much of a drop in pH have people noticed? My water is already a bit on the acidic side (~6.4), so I don't want to push that any lower. Thanks for any advice.

Haha. Well...um...yeah. You seem to have hit on the flaw in my plan. It's a big tank with lots of plants. Not easy to scoop up the speedy little devils. I don't want to uproot my whole tank if I don't have to. No fatalities today. I'm cautiously optimistic; for the moment everyone seems to be playing nicely.

Hi Adrienne, Thanks for your reply. I'll quarantine the loaches and see what happens. Thanks again!

Hi. I'm hoping someone on the forum can shed some light on what's happening to my corydoras. Three of my six have died in two days. :cry1: The tank is an AR-980 that's been up for about 4 months. Lots of live plants (babies tears, twisted val, a few others I don't know) and driftwood. Substrate is a mix of smooth stones and sand. The inmates are 5 danios, 6 guppies, 3 dwarf chain loaches, 6 (now 3) corydoras, and 1 gold spot pleco. Everyone seems to get along fine and aggression isn't a problem. There are some small snails as well. I've checked my water conditions and everything is within spec, although the pH is low (I think) at 6.4. Ammonia, nitrates and nitrites are all negligible. Yesterday, I found two corys floating, which was a complete shock, as they didn't give any indication of distress that I could see. They were eating the sinking pellets I feed them once a day, just before bed. I did a 50% water change last night, just to be sure of the water quality. There was no obvious sign of disease or trauma on either fish. One of them was quite red around the gills, but I'm not sure if this is a problem. All the fish were present and accounted for this morning. But just now I found another cory upside down in the bushes. It all seems too much to be coincidence, but I haven't got an explanation for what's happening to them. As I said, everyone else in the tank seems to be fine. Although I would have said the same of the corydoras three days ago. :phb: Any help you might be able to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, I'm just getting back into fish keeping after a break of nearly 10 years. I kept various fishes when I lived in Canada, ranging from a small community tank to a fairly large tank with a pair of Jack Dempseys. I figure I know enough to know when I don't know what I'm doing, so expect to see a few questions from me (and thanks in advance for your help!). My plan is to set up a community tank of about 215 liters volume, and I'll try my hand with live plants for the first time. It's all very exciting for me. Cheers, Owen