kelseylynn

The tank has 3 wpg and the substrate is a mix of flourite and regular aquarium gravel. Right now I've got some Echinodorus 'rose', anubias, some sort of crypt, and java fern. I had a lily for a few months but it has started disintegrating, and any stem plants I buy tend to fall apart after a few weeks. All the research I've been doing says that with the amount of light I have, I really should be running some CO2. I don't mind investing in a good system because it's my only tank and I'd really like it to be lush and healthy, rather than just an algae farm. DIY CO2 makes me nervous because I'm not sure how to get the mixture right, but it never occurred to me to try a prepackaged fermentation system. Are they expensive?

Where did you get the sparkling gouramis? They are adorable but I've never seen them in Calgary!

Where in Calgary can I get paintball canisters? Do they last as long as a 5 pound cylinder?

I've been maintaining my 20 gallon planted tank with no carbon other than the occasional dose of Excel. Plant growth has been underwhelming so I'm finally considering setting up a CO2 system. I'm not interested in doing the fermentation thing, I'd rather just jump right into pressurized CO2. However, I have very limited space around my aquarium and I'm not at all sure what to get or how much I should expect to spend. I'm trying to do some research on my own but it's like learning another language and I'm feeling a bit lost. What in particular do I need, and can I find it in a complete set for a reasonable price or should I expect to go running all over town getting different pieces? Is there anything I can get that doesn't involve massive canisters?

I saw some Ctenopoma at Tanks-a-lot today. Very cool fish! I wish I had the space for them...

So far I've only been able to find Thera+A, so I've been feeding that and I'll look for Flubendazole next week. I lost one yesterday but the rest of them are still hanging in there!

OK, I'm going to look for some today. Thanks for the help!

Hmm, I just went to check on him and the long pink thing is gone. Either it was a really big, strange poo or the worm has gone back inside? I'm not sure what to think. None of the really sickly threadfins have ever had worms hanging out.

I've been watching for worms, and until today I never saw any hanging out. Today there seems to be an enormous pink worm, over 1 cm long, hanging out of my healthiest threadfin. It looks nothing like Callamanus worms to me (I had an outbreak of those in some guppies once, and ended up having to euthanize). I'll try to get a picture of the worm after I post this. I've never seen anything like it. Any idea what specific medications I can use? My research seems to be turning up brands that are only available in the States.

Over the past month or two my threadfin rainbowfish have been getting skinnier and skinnier. They are still interested in their food and finishing it each day, so I don't know why they look like they are starving. I feed flakes (crushed very tiny to fit in their mouths!) and baby brine shrimp. My water parameters are all fine and I do a 20% water change each week. I've already lost one and would like to save the rest if I can. Does anyone know what it might be?

I ended up trading them in for more rainbows. I would have loved to keep the killies on their own in a small tank, but I've promised my boyfriend not to set up any more tanks! Hopefully one day down the road I can try again. I'm amazed that a Golden Wonder could eat a peacock goby! They look so small and harmless.

I was a bit apprehensive about leaving them in there overnight but when I woke up I'd only lost my 3 smallest rainbowfish and everyone else (shrimp included) seem fine. The male killie is aggressively guarding a corner of the tank but he seems to have settled down a bit. Hopefully it will work out after all! :thumbs: I've wanted gardneri for ages and it would be so disappointing to bring them back to the store.

I picked up a small pair of Gardneri killifish at Big Al's today - after reading everywhere that they were peaceful community fish - and put them in my community tank with some threadfin rainbowfish and spotted blue-eye rainbowfish. I thought it would be fine because all the fish are roughly the same size. Right now the male killifish is systematically hunting down and killing all my rainbowfish! I can't believe it! I have nowhere to move them to because it's the only tank I've got set up. I must be cursed because every time I buy some "small, peaceful, shy" community fish it turns out to be a total bully. Don't even get me started on my "harmless" croaking gouramis. I can't get a break!

Despite my best efforts, I just lost my last dwarf puffer to internal parasites. I'm thinking of moving my betta into the tank my puffer was in but I'm really worried that he'll catch whatever parasites made my puffer waste away. What can I do to protect him? I've already done a 100% water change and changed the substrate. Should I change the filter media as well? Should I bleach the thermometer, filter intake etc or would that be overkill? Do the plants in the tank pose any risk? I have no idea what specific parasite killed the puffer, just that he wasted away over a couple of weeks. I really don't want to see that happen to my betta! Any advice?

I'd like to get a few honey gouramis for my 10 gallon but it doesn't have a cover. I don't want to bring some home only to have them all jump out! And how many honeys would be OK in a heavily planted 10 gallon? I was thinking 3-4, would that be too many?

I'm adding 1 ml of Seachem Flourish every week. Do I need to be a member of CAS to go to the auction?

Haha looks like Rudy saw my next question coming. Looks like I will be paying a visit to Pisces this week to stock up on plants! I've also heard that too much water agitation will decrease CO2... should I be worried about my HOB filter messing things up?

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try the siesta thing and see how it goes. And I guess I will pick up some more plants, because my tank is still about 50% open space. Any recommendations for fast-growing plants I could try?

How much should I cut back the lighting? Would 10 hours be OK? I've been doing 50% water changes every week like clockwork, though it doesn't seem to be impacting the algae at all.

I set up my first planted tank (10 gallons) in December and I've had nothing but trouble with it since. It's got flourite for substrate and it's lit for 12 hours a day by a 28 watt CFL. I dose with Excel every other day and add ferts when I do my weekly water change. There's lots of water movement from an HOB filter. I've got some sunset hygro, wisteria, Anubias and Marimo balls in there right now. None of my plants have grown an inch! Algae is flourishing though. I finally starting winning the fight against staghorn algae only to start dealing with thread algae and now the staghorn is back. What am I doing wrong?? I've already sunk more money into this tank than my little student budget can handle!

Threadfin Rainbows are also a great option for small tanks. They don't get very large, and the males have long colorful fins. They look so cool when they're displaying to each other! Dario dario seem like very interesting little fish too, small and colorful. Sadly they're really hard to find (or at least I've never seen them in Calgary).

Other than a couple of nips when I first added the puffers, I haven't had any problems. The shrimp are pretty good at hiding under leaves or making a speedy getaway when they notice a puffer lurking nearby.

Have you looked inside your filter? I had a young amano shrimp "disappear" on me once and found him happily swimming around in my filter. You might have to cover the intake with mesh if your shrimp are small enough to get sucked in.

There are lots of options for 10 gallons. I've got 3 dwarf puffers in mine along with a few otocinclus and amano shrimp. What about a betta fish with some pygmy corys? Or you could always get some african dwarf frogs, kids seem to loooove those! Coralife makes some compact florescents that will fit into incandescent hoods, and they keep plants pretty happy. I've seen them at just about every pet store I go to.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. It looks like all my favorite brackish fish will need more than 10 gallons, so I'm going to hold off on the gobies until I have space for a bigger tank. I picked up some dwarf puffers instead and they are very entertaining!