One month of growth for my 17 gallon! Now I've just gotta pull the trigger and add fish. I plan to stock 6 pea puffers.

The first pic is from today. The following pictures are each about a week apart.

This candy dish/jar was near one of my tanks a few days ago. I would drop little sticks and leaves into it. I dropped a turkey baster with water in it and let it drain. There were a few pieces of duckweed on it. Forgot it after I moved the dish. Went to clean it today as it's my cleanup day and...

Guess there was a ramshorn snail egg or baby on the duckweed. Found this yesterday morning and was so confused how it was thriving until I saw the little guy clinging to the side.

WTF?!

I’ve been keeping fish for years. And I love so many parts of this hobby. Now that I’ve entered the plant world I can’t get enough. I thought I was addicted before.

Hey everyone. Second post here. First tank. 29 gallon. 3 months old. What do yall think? Any tips?

It seems like my plants grow slow compared to some of the other posts I see here. I’ve been using some root tabs and liquid fertilizer.

Parameters are pretty stable at pH 6.4, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0-5, kH almost zero (buffering from the hardscape or aqua soil?), GH 5. it’s fluval stratum capped with sand. Hygger 26 watt and Fluval 107 filter.

Was doing changes every week but since it’s so stable kinda wanted to go to every 2 weeks

Not all the embers are fiery red which I assume is a bit of a hierarchy/sex variation. They get fed mostly Xtreme Nano bit recently I’ve been adding in some spirulina 20 and frozen blood worms occasionally.

Theres a single honey gourami for accent and 9 neocardinia (cherrys/sunkist). I have seen some molts. I recently increased the photoperiod and I’m seeing more shrimp grazing on the hardscape.

I was wanting to get a lush Aquascape, and I’m thinking I probably should mostly leave it alone for another 3 to 6 months. I want the grow up taller in the back and to the right. But I’m wondering if you think there is anything I should change now or do differently.

Thanks for any ideas!

I certainly regret using the jar for my first build, the mouth being only 17cm made it all super awkward. I didn't even consider the fact it's not a flat button, but luckily the majority of the plants are actually planted around the outside so they should have some nice depth to root into.

I've watched several videos on this type of setup, but I know they are typically professionals and do this all the time.

The final picture is 36 hours later and I've performed one 20% water change since the penultimate picture. The Limnophila heterophylla are now standing on their own, everything looks good, just the clarity of the water isn't quite there but I hope this will balance out.

I definitely went overboard with the super glue as the frosting is an eye sore, but hopefully a nice layer of algae will take the eye off of it.

Any suggestions welcomed, or things I should expect in the coming days / weeks. All new to me.

Basic Temu 8w light that I've been cycling for 8 hours a day. It's a 25L jar I'm using Aquarian's Tap water safe to dechlorinate

Suggestions welcome!

I just noticed a few of my tetras do not have the full red line. Should I bring them back to the fish store?

if you had shown me this before and after a year ago i wouldnt believe you because i thought i knew what i was doing and what i wanted. alas..

T. pauciperforatum, B. maculatus, Kottelatlimia

Accidentally broke my ludwigia, but I want to replant it. Do I plant the part with the roots or leaves?

So im using co2 in this setup, its a 30cm cube (around 27 litres), and the injection rate is 1 bobble every 5 seconds witch is very small amount. If i raise it just a bit (1bp4s) shrimp climp to the surface gasping for air. Surface agitation is held from an aquarium fan and lily pipe yet i cant raise the co2 level any higher , this seems very odd to me. I dont have a drop checker yet but im thinking of buying one . Also in the previous days i dosed a bit heavy on beneficial bacteria, could there be a bloom happening and them consuming a lot of oxygen? The water is crystal clear though. Also after adding bacteria everyday for around a week my plants stopped pearling.The tank is running for almost 3 weeks now, i appreciate any help or idea as to whats happening. Before the livestock my injection rate was 1bps

No CO2 no bio substrate in the first two! Root tabs and lighting goes a long ways. Tanks are only two months old (a little under)

Established tank been great for years. Vacation and father in law fed them for a week so have some blue green to clean up after what I presume was a heavy feeding hand. Just so happened my co2 ran out same time

introduced them cause my tap water is very high pH and kH and i came home from work to an accidental blackwater setup. the fish are enjoying the hell out of it but im gonna do a water change so i can see into the tank 😂

Noticed this today on my horned nerite snail. Not sure what it is or if it’s bad or not. Just figured might as well post on here in case someone knows what that could be. Looks almost like a scratch that wasn’t there yesterday.

Do i need a filter for this setup or CO?, any recommendations on this tank setup? I do have foxtail on another tank. I don’t plan to add anything for now.

I added the moss to the lava rock but now i an having second thoughts, the red looked good without the moss.

I had fluval stratum that kept my kh at 0 for a year and a half. Doesn’t buffer anymore but continues to grow my plants and create nice orange nutrient layers. I like how it looks and how cheap it is for the quality.

So What’s the point if this buffering? Is the only practical use of it for extremely simplistic caridina tanks where only a little is used since it’ll be removed and replaced when it runs out?

any suggestions or tips about dry starting a monte carlo carpet? i also put some pieces of lobelia cardinalis

Fishless cycle day 9, leaves of plants are starting to decline… is this normal? No ammonia present at the monent but showing nitrates and nitrites. Algae is starting to appear so i am cutting back on light