r/AquariumHelp

Hi my betta fish is doing great very active and eating well however two weeks ago I noticed a small lump on its fin and kept an eye on it while maintaining water quality and adding Indian almond leaves and API Stress Coat, just in case it was an injury. However, its dorsal fin is now retracted; its appetite remains excellent, and it is quite active. I don't know what could be going on—I don't see a cottony texture, but I do see white scales. It has been three weeks, and this is how the situation has progressed. Do you have any idea what might be happening?

Last 3 photos are fron today the first was 2 weeks ago the second one week later

I don't know if I should euthanise this fishy now or still wait...

Neon developed some discoloration on him a bit more than 2 weeks ago and now it did evolve a bit as the discoloration filled in a bit more. He swims, schools and eats normally. And this makes it harder for me to just euthanise the poor fish, hoping it is not NTD...

I don't have any other tank to be able to safely quarantine him.

I was thinking that at any new symptom or obvious worsening I will euthanise the fish so that it doesn't die in the tank, but I am afraid of it dying unexpectedly despite normal behavior.

I’m cycling a heavily planted 39L freshwater tank and I’m a bit puzzled by what’s happening.

Tank:
- WIO 60-F Shallow (39L)
- Oase Filtosmart 60
- 50W heater at 24°C
- Twinstar 600E IV running 6 hours/day at 40%
- Dark sand over mesh bags of aquasoil
- Heavily planted (11 Tropica 1-2 Grow pots + Peace Lily) - these look very healthy and are growing well
- Redmoor wood and Seiryu stone

I’ve been fishless cycling with Dr Tim’s Ammonium Chloride since 19th June, testing almost every day with the API Master Test Kit.

Timeline:
- Started by dosing to ~1.5-2 ppm ammonia.
Had a bacterial bloom within the first couple of days which lasted about a week and has now totally cleared
- Biofilm developed on the wood
- Ammonia initially disappeared very quickly over 24 hours, which I assumed was mostly the plants
- Since then, ammonia processing slowed down
- On 2nd July I dosed 35 ml of Tetra SafeStart directly into the filter to try get the nitrifying bacteria to get going and dosed ammonium chloride to 2ppm
- Current readings over the last three days are roughly:
3 July: Ammonia ~1.5 ppm
4 July: Ammonia ~0.75 ppm
5 July: Ammonia ~0.5 ppm

Throughout the entire cycle I have never once measured:
- Nitrite above 0 ppm
- Nitrate above 0 ppm

I’ve confirmed the nitrate test procedure multiple times (shaking the bottles and tube very thoroughly etc.).

Water parameters:
- pH around 7.2-7.4
- KH ~4 dKH
- GH ~6 dGH
- Temperature 24°C

My questions are:
- Has anyone seen a planted tank cycle like this where nitrite and nitrate never become detectable?
- Could the plants realistically be taking up enough ammonium that I’m barely seeing nitrification?
- Could the bacteria simply still be establishing in the filter despite 16 days passing?
- Is there anything obvious I’m overlooking?
- If I allow ammonia to drop to 0, could I add some cherry shrimp safely in about a week?

I’m mainly trying to work out whether this is just an unusually plant-heavy cycle that needs more time, or whether something genuinely isn’t right. Any opinions or similar experiences would be appreciated.

hi everyone. i’ve been cycling this planted tank for around 6 weeks now, all the water tests i’ve done suggest it’s healthy but i have so much algae and growth on everything and was hoping to finally add some life (cherry shrimp and a rabbit snail) to this bad boy today. i’ve googled this a few times and it says all of this is okay for the tank but it doesn’t look great
any recommendations?

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So I've had my guppy tank for almost 3 months now and about a few weeks ago my tank has been growing crazy amounts if algae usually at the bottom of the tank and on a rock in the corner. It started with the rock a maybe a month ago, but eventually spread throughout the whole tank. I usually have to clean it out every morning, otherwise it'll grow more and more throughout the day. Is there any way I can stop it? If it helps, I have 3 bundles of Amazon Swords, one bundle of a Java Fern, a piece of driftwood and a moss arch. I took these photos maybe 10 minutes after I cleaned it. Any help would be appreciated!

Could anyone tell me what is this algea and if its bad for the tank? And how to get rid of it? This tank is few months old now for context

Can i put these river rocks in my 24 L aquarium?

My 110L planted tank has been running since 11 June and is fully cycled. Stocking is 3 peppered corydoras, 3 Julii corydoras, 2 Amano shrimp, and 2 baby corys.
I’m getting a brown film covering my driftwood, plant leaves, and parts of the substrate. There’s also some small white and black spots on the wood. I do weekly water changes and run the light for 8 hours a day.
Is this just a normal diatom bloom in a new tank, or is there something I should be doing to get rid of it?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello, I’m new to having a tank, we started out with our 5 gal tank, just fake plants, our beta Glubber, and a snail. The snail thrived till I tried switching over to live plants and not only did our snail die but our betas fin rot got significantly worse. Since then we re-did the whole tank, started doing tests, got better substrate, bio filters, cleaning enzymes, half live plants half fake (for now) and a new mystery snail. I have a pothos and some duckweed in the tank rn.

He’s a very active and curious fish (loves watching the hockey game), but his fins are just not healing. I’m assuming it’s because our water is so hard? But not sure what’s the safest way to fix that. Would love any advice please and thank you!

I got these ghost shrimp a few weeks ago. I read that cuttlefish bone and calcium is good for them and my snails.

I added the calcium rocks and cuttle bone and now the ghost shrimp are changing ???

Is this molt?

I also read about muscular necrosis so I want to be sure its not that

At irregular intervals, I hear a clicking sound that I would now attribute to tension in the glass. There are no crayfish or other noise-making animals in the tank (just *Neocaridina* shrimp, neon tetras, Siamese algae eaters, and ramshorn snails). I am pretty certain the sound is coming from the stand. It’s an old farmhouse-style cabinet/dresser that I reinforced internally with cross-braces under the top panel. I haven't had any issues over the past year, but now the wood has warped slightly in one corner. A spirit level shows the tank is still level, but the silicone mat underneath is compressed in one corner (see photo) other Corners Look fine, and I’m really worried now.

My plan:

- Drain water to reduce weight

- Move livestock to a temporary tank

- Get a new stand designed for this purpose

- Empty the tank completely

- Transfer the tank to the new stand

-...

My question: Is there anything else I need to consider or change in my plan, or am I perhaps overreacting?

Help :/

This is my first time ever setting up an aquarium. I got this kit from my coworker and think I have it ready to go. I turned it on and the filter started going strong, but right as it was about to flow back into the tank, it stopped pulling water. How to fix? Any tips?

We currently have a 29 gallon. It's running great, but I'm itching to make it bigger. Assuming I figure everything else out, how do you make the transition from one tank to the next?

I don't really have a lot of room to have another tank just sitting there cycling until it's ready.

Anyone have a similar situation?

There are always so many tiny babies on the glass that it’s difficult to get the algae off and my scrubber doesn’t work very well anyway on it. Any recommendations? Also, is that worm larva or just a detritus worm? Thank you!