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Before going down the road of mixing substrates or preparing different water, you should review what you now have. What is the GH, KH and pH of your source (tap) water? This will tell you/us if anything is neded for the fish. Plants need calcium among 17 nutrients, but this doesn't take...

This brings with it more issues. First, the water you have is ideal for soft water fish like the gourami and cories. To increase the GH suitable for livebearers especially mollies you would have to get the GH up around 12 dH. This is not good for soft water fish. So you are then causing...

False julii is a common name, and like all common names, not specific to any species as common names can vary from country to country. But using this name is something that should be discouraged because there is no such fish anyway; C. trilineatus is a distinct species, and has nothing to do...

I read most threads, and can't remember who said what, but I went to the other thread. The test strips are not going to be so far off as to go from very soft (25 ppm) to hard (215 ppm would be minimum for mollies) so please don't consider mollies, or platies for that matter. Scarcely 1 dH is...

First off, we/you need to know the parameters of the source water (meaning GH, pH and KH). You have fish in this list that absolutely must have water on the hard side, and other fish that will be better in soft water; some may fit in the middle, but without knowing the data impossible to say...

Always give the numbers for the tests you can do. None of us knows what "normal" may mean, nor what test it is. Initially, no there is no way. Fish have one main goal, to reproduce, so they will swim, eat and even spawn under good or bad conditions if they can, until the situation if bad...

Neither product will control the ammonia. Stability does nothing beneficial, save your money. Prime somehow "detoxifies" ammonia but it is temporary, and depending upon the pH may or may not be harmful. So as long as ammonia and nitrite are showing in tests, do large daily water changes...

You definitely want some floating plants, so the betta will be able to cruise among them as it does naturally. And these are some of the easiest plants. Frogbit already mentioned is a floater, others are Water Sprite and Water Lettuce.

Agree with essjay. Going further from your question, what is the GH, KH (Alkalinity) and pH of your tap water on its own? You should find this data on the website of the water supplier if you don't already know. Presumably you are wondering about softening the water for certain fish, and this...

The Anubias has a thick rhizome from which the leaves grow, and also the black thread-like roots. The rhizome must not be buried or it will tend to rot. Yo can gently poke the rhizome into a crevice in a chunk of wood, or use black thread to tie it to some object under water. It is a slow...

The KH is low as I previously suspected, so no problem here. You have soft water with an acidic pH, and make sure the fish you get are suited to such water.

I told you back in post #10 to not use any pH adjuster. You are only making the lives of the fish difficult and they may well die just from this. Leave the pH alone. The pH is closely tied to the GH and KH of the source water. There are also other factors such as the level of CO2 that can...

The plants will not die. Some info on how this works. Plants need a specific intensity of light to drive photosynthesis, and each species varies in what this has to be. Slow growing plants need less intense light than fast growing plants. Same thing as what works in your home garden, with...

Do not use iron. You can easily kill delicate plants, and it harms fish. I killed my floating plants with adding iron in addition to the comprehensive, but there is adequate iron in the Flourish Comprehensive to balance the other nutrients, and that is important. Excess iron alsocauses plants...

What is/are the plant species? A photo if you don't happen to know the name(s).

I just answered this same question for another member, so will copy over. If they come from a tank of plants with no fish, I just put them in the tank. I do not ever rinse them in anything but a bucket of tap water, as I have no worry about snails like some do, and any chemical really effective...

Welcome to this wonderful hobby and to this great forum. :hi: You have a good sized tank at 197 liters (52 gallons). Assuming your tank is cycled and the fish you have are doing well, your first task is toincrease the numbers of the neon tetras and the cories. These are shoaling/schooling...