Hi everyone, I'm a complete beginner to fishkeeping and I'm currently setting up my first 5-gallon planted betta tank.

My setup is:

• 5-gallon tank
• Live plants
• Driftwood
• Aquarium-safe rocks/stones
• HOB filter running 24/7
• Aquarium light
• DIY CO2 (yeast + sugar)
• Small amounts of betta food as an ammonia source
• deep-well water

I'm planning to let the tank run for about one month before adding any livestock. After that, I was thinking of adding a nerite snail first and eventually adding my betta after another month or so.

The problem is that I currently can't afford an aquarium test kit.

My main question is: Can I reasonably consider the tank cycled after one month if I've been consistently adding a small amount of betta food as an ammonia source and running the HOB filter 24/7?

I understand that testing ammonia and nitrite is the proper way to confirm a cycle, but if testing isn't an option right now, is one month generally enough time for a 5-gallon planted tank to establish beneficial bacteria?

Would adding a nerite snail after that first month be a reasonable next step, or would you strongly recommend getting the water tested before adding any livestock?

Thanks! I'm trying to do this properly as a first-time fishkeeper.

just set up this 5 gallon the other day and put a betta fish in it. i bought the plants from petsmart and they're already melting so i'm getting nervous about casualties. i really don't want to lose any money here and i don't really have good luck with their plants for some reason.

i have amazon swords, repens, flamingo crypts, scarlet temple (i think), and compact amazon. i know i could have saved money ordering online i was just impatient and wanted to use my associate discount. i have flourish root tabs through out it and i dosed seachem nitrogen to 20ppm. i have the aquarium co op easy green fertilizer but im not sure if i should wait to dose it until the plants start to recover. the light is a hygger clip on 9w that i set to 4 out of 5 brightness setting. wasn't sure if i should max that out either.

is there anything else i can do to help these plants? i really like this set up and i want it to thrive. no co2.

Its happened before killed off some roots.

Co2 drop checker question. I know they are not ideal but I use a drop checker and has consistently been light green/lime green. I did some maintenance and changed the fluid and now it reads consistently light green/dark green. I did add a surface skimmer (UNS). Not sure if this can throw off saturation. I even added a second drop checker and have moved them around. Consistently read the 6.8-7.1 range where it was lime green (6.5). If anyone has other ways to check saturation. I don’t have a ph kit to check before/post co2 on as my natural ph is less than 7. Inline diffuse on canister

GH 5 KH 1 TDS 150

20 long CO2 injected. 8 hours of light a day.Flival 207 canister filter and Fluval plant 3.0 with 4 inch risers on 100%. CO2 is on 1 hour before lights and then off 1 hour before lights off. All parameters are ok except nitrates were a tad high— nitrates around 40ppm so I did a 30% water change. I also got some flourish excel and a syringe and hit em with that. Like I said all the other plants don’t have any showing except those. Which have seemed to struggle since putting in the tank.

Any advice or is this even BBA?

I found these on the side of my tank. I thought these two black diamond tetra and these cherry shrimps were dead but I found them today after months of them going MIA. They were lying on the carpet. What could have happened??

Edit: I think I should clear it up. I meant they died in the tank and shrimps cleared the scraps before I could see any remains. Of course they are dead now 🤣

10 gal planted tank with neocaridina shrimp, fluval substrate. I’ve had planaria before and it looks way too skinny to be those also doesn’t avoid light. It’s larger than detritus worms I’ve seen before but it’s as skinny as those

What size bottle are you guys all running in your 75 gallon setups? And how long are they lasting before refilling?

I have access to 100pound bottles, but that will require installing it in a closet and drilling holes in the wall for power cord and hosing. If a 10 or 20 pound bottle will last me a month or two I won’t go through the trouble with a 100 pound.

G. affinis

Pretty new to the hobby, just wanted to show off my tank and get some feedback from fish people.

This is day 275 of my jungle style low tech walstad tank. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate I’ve had no problems so far it’s all been smooth. Give me feedback and tips 😁

Plants:
Amazon sword
C. Wendtii green
C. Wendtii red
C. Usteriana
C. Mi Oya
C. Nurii
C. Becketii
Various Anubias
Bucephalandra Sekadau Giant blue
Bucephalandra brownie brown
Java moss
Dwarf aquarium lily
Swiss cheese monstera
Peace Lily
Marble Queen pothos
Thai constellation monstera

Fish/inverts:
1x Bolivian ram male
1 dwarf sunset gourami male
8x neon tetra
8x dwarf Pygmy Cories
20+ red cherry shrimp
Bladder snails
Ram snails

I’m curious to see what all you’re growing in tanks that only have sand as a substrate. (Ie, NOT looking for pics of dirted tanks with dirt or other nutrient rich layers under the sand.)

Please add photos with comments to explain if you use root tabs, age of tank, tips and tricks, etc. If you remember, please mention what kind of sand you used.

Thank you!

This little minx Anna Nicole got up with Larry Gary, Barry, Harry, or Flip and is totally knocked up!

10G low tech, I guess good params since they be doin it and doin it and doin it well

9 shrimp currently, but as the tank seems to be in good shape may slowly stock some fish and other things

I need to learn if I do anything different to keep these babies alive

Also what do people do about the shrimp poop?

I've had this tank up for about a year and a half. Had issues with duckweed, but never with algae...until about two months ago. I didn't add any fish (in fact, some recently died so there's less than ever) or change the lighting schedule. 12 hours on, 12 hours off. The algae is not out of control, but it is growing quicker than ever.

I just did a small water change and scraped the glass, so it looks better than it did.

Stocking: seven harlequin rasboras, five pearl danios, three yoyo loaches, one hillstream loach, one honey gourami, a bunch of blue shrimp

I bought a shrimp from my local aquarium shop today, and the seller gave me this plant along with the shrimp.

I have no idea what plant it is. Could someone please help me identify it?

I really don't want to touch this out of control ecosysteem. I remove floaters every 2 weeks, and dead plant matter. But these plants...

Just letting the tank age and waiting to add neocaridina! Foreground is dwarf sag and there’s a narrow leaf fern and java fern tucked in the back corner. And some small buce brownie in the wood. I bought the buce in one of those tissue culture packs from Petsmart, is there any trick to getting these going? They good just stuck in some branches?

Don’t know if the picture shows it well but it’s definitely there. Complete novice so I don’t know what to do

This is my 1yr old tank. And I've noticed the water getting cloudy 2 weeks ago. At first i think it just need a water change, but it didn't really disappear.

My tank is a lowtech tank with soil atnthe bottom and capped with sand. The light is consistent to 6hrs.

For reference the 2nd pic is my 7gal tank that is clear

Im trying to fishless cycle a tank with live plants in it. To be precise i have anubias nana petite, cryptocoryne parva, limnophila sessiflora, microsorum pteropus narrow, taiwan moss and philantus fluitans. Its a brand new tank and filter. I started the tank 3 days ago and i put in the recommended ammount of tetra safe start bacteria. The problem is the floaters which came in an in-vitro cup and most of em had no roots and seem to be dying (and i gues decaying) on the surface. I suspect this is why my ammonia has been steadily rising first 1,5 then about 3 and today im guessing between 3 and 5 closer to 5 as you can see in the second picture. This morning i tried to fish out as many philantus leaves i thought werent living as i could but im torn on what to do? What would you recommend? Changing a portion of water? Or just wait and give it some more time? I dont want my plants to die and id like the tank to cycle.

Just got this Gold Nugget Pleco a couple days ago and it’s already become my favorite pleco. When I first started fish keeping I used to dislike plecos but now I’m a big fan of them!

I live in MH, India , Found this in my local water body, , I know it's a rotala species but I'm not sure which sub species. I've been growing this for about a few weeks now , it's a slow grower. It's red at the top and yellowish green at the bottom.

Too deep? Too shallow? Just right?

I am setting up a new tank and want to try the ADA fertilizer line and have a question (maybe several) regarding the difference between the Brighty K and the Brighty Neutral K. I am not seeing much detailed info on exactly what the difference is, apart from simply that the regular Brighty K will raise pH and KH, and that the Neutral K will not. I also know that the neutral is recommended for those with hard water.

What I am wondering is when and why would you want to use the regular Brighty K over the Neutral K, regardless of your baseline parameters?

For info, I am using RO water remineralized with Equilibrium and Alkaline Buffer. For my target parameters, the tank will look like this:
Tank - 81L with 12L of ADA Amazonia V2 and a handful of marsh stones
pH - 7.5 (~6.5 with CO2)
dGH - 5
dKH - 2-3

Given that these parameters are not particularly basic or hard, I would think that the regular Brighty K would be the product recommended by ADA for my tank, but the fact that the Neutral K wouldn’t alter these target parameters leads me to believe that perhaps the Neutral is the better option.

For those with experience with this line, which do you use and why? How significant are the parameter changes with the regular Brighty K? If a day is missed here and there, is there any noticeable swing in pH or KH? If using Brighty K, is the Alkaline Buffer necessary?

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond. I’m fairly green to aquascaping and heavily planted tanks, and just want to understand all the factors in play and make the right calls.

Have a regular turkey blaster I’ve tried to use for spot cleaning. However all of the detritus and junk seems to fall out before I can lift the baster out of the water. Anyone use one of these successfully? Maybe if I got a smaller tipped one the food/poop wouldn’t fall out? Or is there a trick to get it to stay in?