WickedOdie

Yeah the Cabomba is gorgeous, this picture does no justice for it. I'm going to have to invest in a camera! Thanks guys!

So I started my first ever tank on Aug 8th 2015. I decided to put a lot of research into the hobby and as someone that is really into plants as it is, decided to go for a planted tank. I went the dirted route! If you're gunna get dirty, might as well do it the right way hey?! Anyways, I started out with just under an inch layer of miracle grow orcanic potting mix, otherwise known as MGOPM. I then put a healthy 1 inch layer of painted black gravel on top. Had I really put more thought into it at the time, I would have gone with a substrate that held nutrients better, such as eco complete, or flourite, or something along those lines. I then filled up the tank with water using a plate and a bowl. Thank god I bought a python, I would not have wanted to do this with buckets! I then decided I would aquascape! Boy were my first couple attempts terrible! HAH! I didn't like this very much so I went out and purchased a few more plants and I thought I'd get some ludwigia granulosa to add a bit of color to the picture. I read somewhere that planting in groups of 3 was the way to go. Well to my dismay, I had a terribly aquascaped tank that I thought at the time was heavily planted. I then went out and bought some micro sword, driftwood, crypts and an oriental sword. At the time I was getting this cloudy cloudy water. All my research suggested that it was just a bacteria bloom. That turned out to be false. I attributed the causes of my water color to big als brand dechlorinator. Ever since I switched to prime I haven't had cloudy water. I then went out and purchased a couple more plants and came out with this. I still wasn't 100% happy with the tank and in all honesty am still not. But i'm hoping my carpet will grow in nicely and once I do some trimming and get everything going it will look good. Here is the finished product and what it looks like today.

WC's are the best thing to keeping healthy fish. I do an 80% on Sunday's and a 50% on Wednesday's. I wouldn't bother testing your harness. If you're just using tap water there is nothing in your tank that's going to make astronomical PH swings. PH is so widely concerned about and it needs not be. As long as your PH is consistent you need not worry. However I don't know much about goldfish so I'm not sure how important calcium is. But under normal circumstances I wouldn't test for it. You've got a cute goldfish, keep up the good work!

It's a floating plant also known as aquarium herpes. Hard to get rid of once you introduce it to your tank. Is pretty hard to kill and doesn't need much in order to keep it alive.

Very Nice.

It's almost a shame to compost that. :P

I heard increase heat and aquarium salt does the trick for ich.

I heard goldfish love duckweed. I have some you can have for free if you're in the Calgary area.

Rainbows and angels are always nice. Bit pricey though.

Goldfish are messy :P I like the bowl inside a bowl. That's a pretty neat concept.

Welcome aboard! Enjoy your stay, and I hope you're ready to get dirty! Also! How big is the tank? Whatcha got in there so far?

If you look at the cory cat, that's what leads me to believe it's velvet.

Yeah it shimmers with a gold dust. I had a picture, dunno what I did with it. Lemme look around.

I moved all of the fish to a 20 gallon tank. Started treating with malachite green, increased temp to 84 and malafix as well. No real signs of improvement but they don't seem to be getting any worse. I guess I'll just keep treating. My corries and ottos don't seem too overly affected however being pretty fragile. One of my danios has come down with dropsy, hopefully he improves, but I after all my research I don't think hes going to make it. Hes held on for quite a while though, over a week for sure. I'm on day 7 of the malachite treatment. I've been advised by the pet store to start API General Cure with a half dose of malachite green. I'm not really sure what I think of that, as API General Cure does not have copper, from what I'm told. I don.t have enough research into it though. EDIT: See the biggest thing is, I'm not 100% sure its velvet. All signs point to velvet, but from everything I read, velvet kills. I've yet to lose a fish and it's been over 2 weeks since I found the velvet.

Welcome to the forum, enjoy your stay! Great to have you aboard!

That's the thing, whenever I set the flow and the bubble count, after a while the flow will be reduced and my bubble count goes down. I can't set a steady bubble count. I ordered a Milwaukee and imma take this one back.

Cubic feet per hour. I'm going to take it back as soon as the new one I ordered comes in. I'm stuck with 1 bubble per second for now. Hah.

So I have a Co2 tank set up with a regulator controlling my 90 gallon planted tank. I'm having trouble with keeping pressure. It all works up to my needle valve. When it's closed, not allowing Co2 to move through it builds up pressure. Once I open the valve, the pressure drops and the tank dumps until it reaches the lowest pressure i set it at, which is about 10 CFH. This however is not the pressure I set the regulator at, The regulator when the needle valve is closed sits at around 25 CFH. Now... From the needle valve my ADA Co2 tubing goes up into a Fluval Co2 bubble counter. From three it leaves once again using my ADA Co2 tubing goes into my store bought reactor. Water Plant System is the make I do believe. It is then mixed in with my water. I've checked everything for leaks, I can't find anything. I don't understand the drop in pressure. I can't set anything higher than 1 bubble per second. It's something after the regulator. I do have a bubble counter coming from china that actually hooks onto the needle valve itself. So all in all, when the solenoid is off, it builds up pressure, as soon as the solenoid gets power, the tank dumps until my regulator loses pressure. It's not a huge dump, but it's not consistent. Any ideas?

+1 ramshorn As stated above in a planted tank I find all 3, ramshorn, mts, and pond snails to be vital to the balance of a tank.

That worked by the way. Got the last two out. I'm hoping the one with dropsy clears up after the malachite green gets working. But I don't have high hopes.

Okay I'll try it. My danios are super quick lol. Thanks for the advice.

So I have a 90 gallon planted tank. It has come down with freshwater velvet, what are the chances eh? Anyways, I've moved 99% of my fish from the 90 to a 20 gallon that has malachite green in it. Basically the fish I caught were the ones still in good shape. Now I have two fish that are stubborn as hell, one's got dropsy and the other has clamped fins. Both spook real easily. I've caught 90% of the current fish with fish traps, basically 2 liter bottles. the other 10% i caught with a net. The problem I'm having is they are hiding in all my plants. I can't just take out the plants, it's a dirty tank. They at the end of the day are going to die regardless. The one with dropsy is anyways. But I'd rather get them out and have them face the meds than to sit in the tank and die. Does anyone have an idea on how to catch these fish?

That's actually only about 6 weeks old. The myliophilum and ludwigia repens in the back haven't sprouted very tall yet. The hardest part was coming up with the money to buy the plants hah.

That's awesome! Welcome to the site, I hope your ready to get dirty with some of us dirted tank folks!

I'm pretty new to the hobby. Can you explain what exactly a cas auction is and what goes on and whatnot?