what you'd do differently if you had to start all over

I'd establish my plants first before adding fish.

I'll never use sand again. It killed too many filters when I used it in a Convict tank. Those guys were always stirring it up.

 

I think I'd do an all male peacock tank

 

i dont need to imagine i might be getting a new tank soon

 

Lucky you

I miss my tanks. I've got to get them down here soon.

 

As many tanks as I have, and im getting about 10 more, It's not too much of an issue for me lol!

 

wat happened to ur tanks? did u move or sumthin?

 

Yeah. I left VT about 2 weeks ago and moved down to VA.

 

oh, why dont u try making it fully planted then? need a walk thru?

 

Yeah, I may end up doing that since I have to empty the tank to bring it down here. My large cichlid tank may end up staying in VT longer than my Endler tank because of the size.

Sure

 

first of all, do you have any fertilizers already and what lighting do you have and soil?

 

No fertilizers... Only Flourish Excel.
Currently there's crushed coral in the tank.
My lighting is: Current USA Satellite 24" 65 Watt Power Compact Fixture-Single Strip W/Lunar Light

 

how large is the tank? you may need some dry ferts. crushed coral is iffy. but this is a cichlid tank, so....... do you have any driftwood or on ly stone in there?

 

Actually it's an Endler tank... 20 gallons. And there is a piece of driftwood in the tank.
I don't have plants in my Cichlid tank. They eat them or pull them out of the ground.

 

in a cichlid plant you can only go with anubias. they dont care for it much. in your endler tank i would get some nice beginner plants like anubias, stargrass, java ferns, different mosses, and maybe some salvinia minima.

 

I already have two types of java fern in my Endler tank along with java moss, some reddish plant, water sprite, and two others that I couldn't begin to name.

 

can i see a pic of the tank?

 

My Goldfish Pictures
It's filled in some since those pictures. They were still recovering from the Had-A-Snail (Death in a bottle) incident.

 

i dont think any of the plants in your tank is java fern. btw, the red plant is a crypt. i am sorry to tell you this, but your java moss is dead. even tho there is green still, it wont recover. same thing happened to me with x-mas moss. stupid thing came in a heat wave and died and became brown in my tank like your java moss.

 

The java fern is on the far left and in the middle of the tank is a large type of java fern.

Yeah, I thought the java moss was dead but I left it because of the fry. The green on the top is another plant, not the java fern. I forget what it's called.

(Sorry I'm replying so slowly. I just got a new phone and I'm programming everything in it)