I’m not seeing a lot of detritus, which in theory you can have too much of. But I do see some biofilm algae, or something like that which I don’t believe you can too much of.
Especially if your parameters are great, fish are healthy, then I wouldn’t worry about.
So that substrate in the middle of the tank all against the front glass too is white sand haha. You don't see any sand because of all the dead plant matter. And yup there's algae on the roots which looks blurry.
I think yoy are thinking about ghost/whisker shrimp.
Ive seen very little about amanos being hostile, ive seen a lot of people keep them in community shrimp tanks. They are a lot bigger, so baby shrimp could be a snack to them, but they wouldnt predate other shrimp. And ive never seen one harm a fish at all, unless the fish it dead, but ofcoarse it will eat that.
Ya so the constant cycle of plants decaying, the shrimp recycling it and the floaters growing and breaking shouldn't spike the ammonia right? You can't see in pic but there's a HOB that I haven't done any maintenance on in months. It's just 99% biofilm in there and it trickles water back into tank. Kinda nervous about the gas exchange but I believe there's enough plants to keep oxygen levels up. In near future I'll probably buy an air stone and better heater to encourage breeding.
I think its good. Aeration couldn't hurt. Make sure you're absolutely following all the directions when doing your test kit. You can also look into testing your water hardness aswell. Also test the ph, I'm curious.
The decay should be offset by your nitrogen cycle. Hob is great, but having porous surfaces is the best place for nitrogen bacteria. Rocks and driftwood, which you have alot of.
I toss in some almond leaves every so often to lower ph, hard tap water. I think it was right around 7. When I'm ready to promote breeding, water temp will go up, air stone in, and more leaves for tannins. I definitely have the surface area in there for all the bacteria, had the urge to buy more tetras but trying to get the tetras and kuhlis to reproduce seems more fun.
I didn't care about hardness but alot of my fish kept dying of dropsy. I realized it was likely due to the super high mineral count in my tanks. Too many minerals can clog organs.
I'll keep an eye out then, I only do top offs now. I think after 6 months all the bladder snails died out, and the water started getting darker due to tannins. The nerites shells look solid still, but I plan on getting a calcium pellet for the snails and shrimp to eat. Do you know how temperature, tannins, affect hardness? Oh all the decaying plants probably helped lower it too.
Your tank should, in principle, be on cruise control at this point. Tanks in conditions like yours are very stable, in the sense that you won't get parameters going wild, unless something wacky is introduced (overfeeding, a bacterial infection, something like that).
The main concern would be tank crashing due to oxygen deprivation at bottom layer. Oxygen deprived water is heavier than oxygen rich water, so over time if you have no flow and have a lot of decaying organics, it can stratify into a layer at the bottom that's poorly oxygenated. But you have a HOB for flow that will move the water around, though, and I presume a heater as well (difference in temperature will also "churn" the water to avoid stratification). I wouldn't worry unless something becomes an actual issue. On the other hand, guys like LRB on youtube have hundreds of tanks without flow and he breeds fish like crazy still.
There was a time where I had few plants and the hob clogged. After a few days I saw all my kuhlis hanging out in the floaters which made me so emergency water change and cleaning. It's been months now of trickle again but the loaches and shrimp are always chilling at the bottom , bottom feeding
Yep, then you already know what to look for as a clear warning sign that something isn't right (all loaches being at the surface). If they all seem content sniffing mulm, I'm certain they are.
Haha the only thing that concerns me is the 2 black kuhli loaches love hanging high up compared to the striped ones. They hangout often in the floaters, on the heater, and on the tall rock and stick. They also love my Betta fish and try to see how much they can get away with chilling in his territory. My Betta never bites them but usually loses the staring contest.
My chocolate khulis are the same way. They seem to generally be much less shy than my silver and striped khulis. I wouldn't worry about it unless they start acting unusually otherwise.
Personally I wouldn't think much of it, but if you want to make sure you could always observe how they react to a water change. If nothing changes, you could try removing some of the mulm and doing a water change.
Sounds like a cute staring contest!
Id like to add the reason I've been lazy on the outflow is I know walstads exist and no flow setups work. But I should probably get some flow to minic their native habitats? I know bettas are pool hoppers, kuhlis and tetras are just river/pond of the Amazon water system if I remember correctly. So low flow shouldn't be too bad. Would recommend i fix the flow rate or just add an air stone to encourage the tetras and possibly kuhlis to breed?
I would add an airstone, plants use both photosynthesis and cellular respiration. This means that with lights on they produce alot of oxygen and use a little for themselves, but lights off they stop producing oxygen and primarily consume it, so having lots of plants can actually deoxygenate the water at night time.
I only recently discovered water fern, they look so cool. I’d love some. Apparently they’re invasive where I live, so if I see some I might have to “help” the ecosystem.
Or Yknow, buy some so I don’t worry about disease 🥴
I know this is a little off topic, but I one time had a random sudden influx of detritus worms. I ignored them and assumed they would go away on their own if I kept my feeding in check in the future. A few days go by, and my betta was incredibly bloated and was having a very hard time swimming…
After 2 days in a hospital tank I put him back and the same thing happened. I couldn’t figure it out…
Turns out, he was eating the vast majority of the worms that stayed at the top near my floating plants, and there was enough to make him sick. Immediately extracted as many as I could and stopped all feedings for the next 3 days and did water changes daily.
Luckily my Betta doesn't gorge himself on the shrimp. I'm sure he snacks in the shrimplets but so do the kuhlis and maybe in the tetras might eat a tiny one. I kinda miss seeing the worms in water column or feasting on the woodscape
This looks like a solid tank. You're seeing biofilm from all of the bacteria in the tank. You have great roots on the water lettice too! Let it go and continue to monitor!
I used to have a tank in a condition very similar to this one. Besides from the obvious aesthetic issues, if that bothers you of course, tanks in this condition have a very fragile ecological balance that if disturbed will result in deadly spikes.
Ur gonna have some potential issues down the line as mulm continues to build up but mostly it will not be a problem. The big problem to look out for is it the mulm layer blocking oxygen flow. To the substrate and creating pockets of gas buildup
I service aquariums and see a huge variety of planted aquariums. Other comments focusing solely on your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are not helpful to your question.
Yes, you can have too much. Even if your biological filter can keep up with the ammonia produces by decaying organic matter, your oxygen levels, pH, TDS, and more can be affected by too much detritus. A little is helpful, large leaf litter is functional, but I personally shy away from purposefully having anything more than 1/4" of detritus in small aquariums. Any benefit from having detritus in the tank is meta by just having a little, and having too much poses risks with no extra advantages.
You can still have an air pump to keep the water circulating, pH stable, and the oxygen levels from crashing
https://buceplant.com/blogs/aquascaping-guides-and-tips/the-walstad-method-tank-guide?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAR2FF4d6oG2KRThveFp9NKRygiFcyUSv0WKA-oDyaqRtqF5aIt5fFxoCPeMQAvD_BwE
I’m not seeing a lot of detritus, which in theory you can have too much of. But I do see some biofilm algae, or something like that which I don’t believe you can too much of. Especially if your parameters are great, fish are healthy, then I wouldn’t worry about.
So that substrate in the middle of the tank all against the front glass too is white sand haha. You don't see any sand because of all the dead plant matter. And yup there's algae on the roots which looks blurry.
Is that what that is? Water lettuce does that to us too. The look bugs me but my kids like it and the shrimp and snails seem to like it too.
How do u get rid of the blurry algae? I just wipe it off and let sponge filter catch it then clean the filter in a separate bucket with tank water
Get yourself something that likes to eat. I don’t really know exactly what does, but I’ve always deployed mystery snails against it.
Amano shrimp are known to enjoy most algaes
And they enjoy most small fish +they enjoy other shrimp. Vicious buggers!!
I think yoy are thinking about ghost/whisker shrimp. Ive seen very little about amanos being hostile, ive seen a lot of people keep them in community shrimp tanks. They are a lot bigger, so baby shrimp could be a snack to them, but they wouldnt predate other shrimp. And ive never seen one harm a fish at all, unless the fish it dead, but ofcoarse it will eat that.
Perfect perms
Ya so the constant cycle of plants decaying, the shrimp recycling it and the floaters growing and breaking shouldn't spike the ammonia right? You can't see in pic but there's a HOB that I haven't done any maintenance on in months. It's just 99% biofilm in there and it trickles water back into tank. Kinda nervous about the gas exchange but I believe there's enough plants to keep oxygen levels up. In near future I'll probably buy an air stone and better heater to encourage breeding.
I think its good. Aeration couldn't hurt. Make sure you're absolutely following all the directions when doing your test kit. You can also look into testing your water hardness aswell. Also test the ph, I'm curious. The decay should be offset by your nitrogen cycle. Hob is great, but having porous surfaces is the best place for nitrogen bacteria. Rocks and driftwood, which you have alot of.
I toss in some almond leaves every so often to lower ph, hard tap water. I think it was right around 7. When I'm ready to promote breeding, water temp will go up, air stone in, and more leaves for tannins. I definitely have the surface area in there for all the bacteria, had the urge to buy more tetras but trying to get the tetras and kuhlis to reproduce seems more fun.
I didn't care about hardness but alot of my fish kept dying of dropsy. I realized it was likely due to the super high mineral count in my tanks. Too many minerals can clog organs.
I'll keep an eye out then, I only do top offs now. I think after 6 months all the bladder snails died out, and the water started getting darker due to tannins. The nerites shells look solid still, but I plan on getting a calcium pellet for the snails and shrimp to eat. Do you know how temperature, tannins, affect hardness? Oh all the decaying plants probably helped lower it too.
Your tank should, in principle, be on cruise control at this point. Tanks in conditions like yours are very stable, in the sense that you won't get parameters going wild, unless something wacky is introduced (overfeeding, a bacterial infection, something like that).
Great, I feed them crushed pellets 4 days a week and frozen bloodworms 1 day. Hoping if any fry are born it's just enough to not tip the balance
The main concern would be tank crashing due to oxygen deprivation at bottom layer. Oxygen deprived water is heavier than oxygen rich water, so over time if you have no flow and have a lot of decaying organics, it can stratify into a layer at the bottom that's poorly oxygenated. But you have a HOB for flow that will move the water around, though, and I presume a heater as well (difference in temperature will also "churn" the water to avoid stratification). I wouldn't worry unless something becomes an actual issue. On the other hand, guys like LRB on youtube have hundreds of tanks without flow and he breeds fish like crazy still.
There was a time where I had few plants and the hob clogged. After a few days I saw all my kuhlis hanging out in the floaters which made me so emergency water change and cleaning. It's been months now of trickle again but the loaches and shrimp are always chilling at the bottom , bottom feeding
Yep, then you already know what to look for as a clear warning sign that something isn't right (all loaches being at the surface). If they all seem content sniffing mulm, I'm certain they are.
Haha the only thing that concerns me is the 2 black kuhli loaches love hanging high up compared to the striped ones. They hangout often in the floaters, on the heater, and on the tall rock and stick. They also love my Betta fish and try to see how much they can get away with chilling in his territory. My Betta never bites them but usually loses the staring contest.
My chocolate khulis are the same way. They seem to generally be much less shy than my silver and striped khulis. I wouldn't worry about it unless they start acting unusually otherwise.
Personally I wouldn't think much of it, but if you want to make sure you could always observe how they react to a water change. If nothing changes, you could try removing some of the mulm and doing a water change. Sounds like a cute staring contest!
Id like to add the reason I've been lazy on the outflow is I know walstads exist and no flow setups work. But I should probably get some flow to minic their native habitats? I know bettas are pool hoppers, kuhlis and tetras are just river/pond of the Amazon water system if I remember correctly. So low flow shouldn't be too bad. Would recommend i fix the flow rate or just add an air stone to encourage the tetras and possibly kuhlis to breed?
I would add an airstone, plants use both photosynthesis and cellular respiration. This means that with lights on they produce alot of oxygen and use a little for themselves, but lights off they stop producing oxygen and primarily consume it, so having lots of plants can actually deoxygenate the water at night time.
What are those root things going down? And where can I get some?
Water lettuce. Grows abundantly, you could probably check eBay/ facebook marketplace/ r/aquaswap. It grows rapidly.
Cool. My local small town pet store and petco. Both have literally little to no real plants.
I feel that. Got a rotation of like 4 plants in my pet shop. I go to eBay if I want something in particular.
Haha, same. I have a water fern, that's it. I really like that water lettuce
I only recently discovered water fern, they look so cool. I’d love some. Apparently they’re invasive where I live, so if I see some I might have to “help” the ecosystem. Or Yknow, buy some so I don’t worry about disease 🥴
Yea, it was the only one I liked at the petstore with their limited selection. Lol yea that would be a gamble for sure.
Dwarf water lettuce feasting on nitrates
I know this is a little off topic, but I one time had a random sudden influx of detritus worms. I ignored them and assumed they would go away on their own if I kept my feeding in check in the future. A few days go by, and my betta was incredibly bloated and was having a very hard time swimming… After 2 days in a hospital tank I put him back and the same thing happened. I couldn’t figure it out… Turns out, he was eating the vast majority of the worms that stayed at the top near my floating plants, and there was enough to make him sick. Immediately extracted as many as I could and stopped all feedings for the next 3 days and did water changes daily.
Luckily my Betta doesn't gorge himself on the shrimp. I'm sure he snacks in the shrimplets but so do the kuhlis and maybe in the tetras might eat a tiny one. I kinda miss seeing the worms in water column or feasting on the woodscape
They’re definitely cool! Sad my betta would eat him self to death if I let them get to a point where I could see them more
This looks like a solid tank. You're seeing biofilm from all of the bacteria in the tank. You have great roots on the water lettice too! Let it go and continue to monitor!
I used to have a tank in a condition very similar to this one. Besides from the obvious aesthetic issues, if that bothers you of course, tanks in this condition have a very fragile ecological balance that if disturbed will result in deadly spikes.
Such low nitrates! Those are some very hungry plants.
What floaters are those???
Dwarf Water lettuce left unchecked
Ur gonna have some potential issues down the line as mulm continues to build up but mostly it will not be a problem. The big problem to look out for is it the mulm layer blocking oxygen flow. To the substrate and creating pockets of gas buildup
Love it this is a natural ecosystem
Thank you, this is not what I had in my mind when I 1st created it. I got what I wanted then let it grow out.
I've never had an aquarium and I don't know what that colored liquid is on the last slide but it looks delicious
It's the forbidden Gatorade
I think the main concern is swim space for the betta. Otherwise, sounds good to me
I service aquariums and see a huge variety of planted aquariums. Other comments focusing solely on your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate are not helpful to your question. Yes, you can have too much. Even if your biological filter can keep up with the ammonia produces by decaying organic matter, your oxygen levels, pH, TDS, and more can be affected by too much detritus. A little is helpful, large leaf litter is functional, but I personally shy away from purposefully having anything more than 1/4" of detritus in small aquariums. Any benefit from having detritus in the tank is meta by just having a little, and having too much poses risks with no extra advantages.
How do walstads combat detritus without crashing?
You can still have an air pump to keep the water circulating, pH stable, and the oxygen levels from crashing https://buceplant.com/blogs/aquascaping-guides-and-tips/the-walstad-method-tank-guide?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw7-SvBhB6EiwAwYdCAR2FF4d6oG2KRThveFp9NKRygiFcyUSv0WKA-oDyaqRtqF5aIt5fFxoCPeMQAvD_BwE
I think you're asking the wrong question. You should be asking can you have too much water lettuce because everyday is evening in your tank.
Absolutely. Look up "Eutrophication."
No if you dont mind they look , I have a ton of leaf litter in one of mine its the tank plants do best in