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To preface this, I have a strange tank set up of small American cichlids (8” and under) with tetras and platies. It’s worked pretty well, and it’s something I really enjoy. Recently, I lost my Electric blue acara. Don’t know what happened, he was acting a little lethargic, I was treating the...

I give them flourish fertilizer and phosphorus or potassium (forgot which one I have) weekly. And I have root tabs I give to everyone as needed

Just about any stem plant I buy eventually rots from the bottom up. I can not figure out what’s causing it or how to fix it. I have sand as a substrate, and have tried to put the plants in small cups with gravel in it to give it more circulation. I’ve tried spacing the plants out so they all...

I have a 75 with a blood parrot, electric blue acara, fire mouth, and a leopard bush fish. There platies and tetras in this tank. I’m looking at adding 1, maybe 2 more cichlids. However, I don’t really know what I want. Thinking in the realm of adding another acara, severum, or maybe maybe...

I could use some help. I’ve noticed my acara hasn’t been eating or actually normal. His belly is sunken, his anus is swollen and protruding, and he hangs out in a top corner by one of the filters. Has anyone seen this before? I thought it might be due to another cichlid being too dominant, so I...

Thank you I don’t think there’s much I can do now, but I can stock up for next time. I can manually add oxygen to the water by disturbing the surface and wrapping some comforters around everything if something happens this time around

I live in the south and there’s been a weather advisory and I don’t have any back up plan if the power goes out. I don’t truly believe it’s gonna snow, but if something happens I’m really not sure what to do. What I think I might do is IF anything happens put the fish I really don’t want to...

It’ll only be him. I need him to de-stress, heal, and stop eating other fish

Hi, I’ve got a firemouth cichlid that has been causing some problems in my 75. As in he’s killing a lot of the fish, 6 in the past two months. On top of this he got into a fight with my other firemouth that resulted in him having a huge bite taken out of his forehead. It’s been several months...

I let the guys in the big tank do whatever. NEVER see babies in that one. But the babies I do have are from a breeding project with a black high fin male, who is unfortunately now gone (old age), so I don’t want to put these guys in the big tank yet because they’re still bite sized

Hi, I’ve been growing a batch of baby platies, and I’m having to wait until they aren’t bite size to put them into the big tank. For reference the big tank is a 75 with South American cichlids and (non-bite sized) community fish. 3 of these babies are males, they’re not even an inch in length...

Hi, I’m new to shrimp, but have 7+ years in the aquarium hobby. Just got one cherry shrimp today, and have already fallen in love with the little dude. Is it possible to have more than one species of shrimp in one tank without one species suffering? I’m okay with a little crossbreeding as I’m...

I haven’t delt with ich in YEARS, and I normally raise the temps and add epsom salt to cure it because I’ve always had catfish. However, I’ve recently found out that the epsom salt makes my water extremely hard, and it’s proving very hard to bring it back down. Half of my tank has developed...

I kill every one of my tiger lotuses. I do root tabs, flourish, and iron supplements. My aquarium has a very bright light as well. But any lotus I buy just slowly melts into nothing. Most of the bulbs break off before I can get them in the substrate, and from there the plants just kinda dye. Any...

That is good to know! Thank you! I’ll get the gh back down before I start looking at using those kinds of additives again though

I’m okay with that. I’ll completely cut it out until the gh gets to a level I’d like, and then I’ll do some experimenting to see where the sweet spot is. If I end up not being able to use epsom salt in the tank at all, I can still use it as a dip like you said! Thank you so much for your help!

I’ll probably do that for the kh and ph, the gh is a little too high for my comfort… or for the fish I have. Is it possible to raise the kh and lower the gh? More wood maybe, and less epsom salt? Sorry I’ve got so many questions, this isn’t something I’ve got a lot of experience with in terms...

The person who got me into the fish hobby used epsom salt, so I just adopted some of her habits when I got in. Most of them at this point have been unlearned, but I’ve kept this one because I’ve found my fish to be healthier with it than without. If you think it’s affecting the gh then I can...

Yeah I do work at a fish store I will definitely double check my test, and check the water supply. Could the water hardness possibly be from over fertilizing or the epsom salt I put in to prevent any sickness? (1tbsp per 5g)

No everyone is very healthy. Maybe the plants are suffering a bit though

I’ve recently been digging into the more technical side of the aquarium hobby, and after 6 months of having the API master test kit I wanted to purchase a kh&gh test kit. I’m having some serious trouble understanding the results, and how to fix it because I’m sure something is way way off. My kh...

Alrighty thank you! Might wait on that then

Thank you! I knew I couldn’t do a whole lot with fish, but I wanted to double check because there’s a few articles that say otherwise. I’ve got one more question, will anemones hurt fish that I put in the tank? The only non-beginner coral I want is a rainbow bubble tip anemone, there’s some at...

I’m okay with more maintenance, I’ve got a 5 gallon fresh that I try to clean 3 times a week. Some websites say that a pair of clowns (no bigger than percula species) what’s your opinion on this? Would it be too much bio load?

I’m new to saltwater, but work in a exotic pet store where I do take care of saltwater fish and corals. I want to get into the hobby without a huge tank or massive expenses, so I’m choosing to start with a significantly smaller tank size. I plan on having a few hardy corals and at most one fish...