#spec v

The Fender! Going to sell this on it’s own if anyone’s interested.

It’s not the absolute best this tank has looked, and some of the plants are still recovering from me not dosing for a while, but I love how lively it always is. Someone’s always out doing something. -Female Betta -Scarlet Badis -Galaxy Rasboras -Otocinclus -Amano Shrimp -Cherry Shrimp -Super Blue Shrimp -Carbon Black Shrimp -Horned Nerite Snail

Before and after picture of the headlight restoration. It looks like it’s practically new after about an hour of work and a little elbow grease.

The school of ancient Harlequin Rasboras finally died off, and Coral looks like she probably isn’t far behind. Not sure where I’ll go after that, we’ll see. Scarlet Badis and/or Sparkling Gouramis, maybe.

For the filter media I have two layers of bonded floss, Seachem Purigen, aquaclear 30 Ammonia remover, aquaclear 30 filter foam (slightly trimmed), and aquaclear 30 Biomax.

Qr25

Alright Fishblr, let's play a fun game of Kill That Algae. This is my Fluval Spec V, and as you can see it's having a nasty outbreak of what I believe is a mixture of diatoms and beard algae. I could be wrong on that though. The tank is pretty well established, and currently houses a female Betta, four Harlequin Rasboras, five Cherry Shrimp, and three or four Amano Shrimp. I only ever see three at a time, but the fourth could easily be hiding. Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate all test at zero with a liquid test kit. I haven't tested pH in a few weeks but it has been holding steady at 7 for a long time. I suspect phosphates may be high but don't currently have a test for them. The tank has pretty consistently had algae problems, at the beginning it was mostly green hair algae with some slight beard algae on the plants, but since the addition of the Amano Shrimp that cleared up nicely. There is now no visible hair algae, but Midway through the Amanos purging the algae this brown stuff showed up, and they don't seem to touch it. It also seems to make them not want to eat the remaining beard algae that it has mixed with. Am I correct in thinking that this is diatoms? If so, would a couple otos be a wise choice? I know that they relish diatoms and usually do an excellent job cleaning plants, but I'm concerned about the bioload they would produce. Keep in mind the filtration is not the stock filter, but a DIY using filter foam and Seachem De-Nitrate. So far it has performed far better than I would have expected and the water has stayed perfect despite me doing exactly zero water changes since the tank was set up (though i tested regularly to ensure there was never any spikes) and I would not be surprised if it could handle a few more fish.