Recent content by Trashpanda49

What Fertilizer do you use?

The short answer is no. But it depends on your ambitions as an aquascaper. If you want to maximize growth, color and health then yes. But you can have healthy plants without it. I have a 20 cube with no CO2 and I’m always trimming and plants look good. Not a show tank but it looks good.

Most likely jumped out. Had an African frog do that and even though I searched the ground it was a year before I found it.

Anubis won’t always do well if it’s getting direct light from your tank light. Mine tend to do better tucked under rock, plants or driftwood. Not fans of direct light.

3 weeks is new so the plant could still be acclimating. Is it getting to much light? Is the rhizome damaged or under the substrate? Could be a nitrogen issue. It’s a little trial and error

Try not to over think it and do to much. Sometimes they injure themselves and it’s the result of healing themselves. Try not to stress her out by trying everything in the book.

It’s pretty common to get a fungus on driftwood in a new tank. Brush it off and do a water change. It will stop in a few weeks.

It’s really hard to do a 100% biotope especially in a small tank. Water quality can be hard to control. You want have sandy bottoms in the wild but it would make things easier to balance with all the other organics

Cattapa leaves are what you’re looking for. And look for spider wood pieces. The substrate will depend on the plants you want or don’t want.

I would do a sandy bottom with leafs and debris if you want it natural. Then lots of floating plants for him to hang out.

Sand can definitely hold nutrients especially since it packs down. It can also be a dead zone. The high end products contain nutrients but while the lower end substrates don’t they do an awesome job of storing it. Seachem Clay works really well and won’t break the bank. Same for Carib sea. And...

Taco says Hello

If you’re not using proper substrate your fertilizer is probably going right up into the water column and away from the roots of your plants. Plant specific substrate is designed to hold on to the fertilizer and feed the plant as needed. A lot of aquarium gravel won’t do that. Also depends on...