The tank looks like its coming along nicely, and your filter is finally evening out from picture one to picture two.

Thank you, That 'snow' stuff is the loose Purigen as soon as I get my new canister filter I'm hoping that it'll go away.

They are here.

https://i.postimg.cc/Fsss8L7y/20230105-121151.jpg My live plants arrived about 3 hours-ish ago and yes they look rough but I think in 1-2 weeks they'll perk back up.

Update and it's not a happy one.

I had setup my 20 gallon aquarium, ordered and planted my live plants, For a while everything seemed to be going smoothly even though some of the leaves on my plants were melted, I was confident that I could bring them back from that, However, even after I treated them I started noticing that the leaves looked gnawed on which is impossible since all I had in the tank were the plants, PH, Ammonia Alert, the liquid supplement, UV, and the other liquids that I knew were not going to cause further damage, I did a full sweep and couldn't find anything, after treating my plants for 2 weeks, during that time I started to see a white fungus that didn't just cover my plants it also covered my substrate, Lastly I found a parasitic snail, Today I took my 20 gallon aquarium down, it cycled for 20 days before I made the decision to shut it down, Keep in mind that where I got my live plants from were NOT forthcoming and failed to ask IF I wanted my plants trimmed beforehand, Meaning that they 'trimmed' my plants before shipping them out.

Now, This is not the end of our journey, No we are far from done, This hobby is not easy but that's what makes it worth it, I learned something from this set-back, If you want live plants, Don't buy potted or unpotted, Buy tissue cultures, 2 of each, That way they are already sealed in a cup and therefore cannot be 'trimmed/pruned' without you realizing it.

Now I'm going to rest after doing all of that work lol I'm tired and will probably be super sore tomorrow, If I'm up for it, Tomorrow I will try and post the last picture of my 20 gallon aquarium before I took it down, plus share pictures of the pump I used to fill the tank up with.

Thank you for reading this, I will be back to posting hopefully as early as Monday.

Damn. I had a feeling your plants were going to go to hell with what you told me about them. It's a damn shame since I know they aren't the cheapest things in the world to order, plus the shipping cost. It's a damn shame all your work got wasted for now.

It is a shame but I'm not giving up, I will however be ripping those sellers a new one, That fungus is what caught me off guard whatever it was it caked itself on top of my substrate, it didn't have an odor it was just a living hell to get it off or pick it up with my siphon, I did do my water changes but that didn't seem to do much for my plants :/ and because of the state they were in I avoided cutting any leaves off unless I deemed it absolutely necessary to cut any 'melted' or dead leaves off.

https://i.postimg.cc/59gZh268/20230118-125658.jpg

Here is the last picture I took of my 20 gallon aquarium before I took it down, Suffice it to say that I will only be ordering tissue culture plants going forward.

Now, just as promised, I will be posting now, since I have a few things to discuss.

Lighting:

Why does everyone make such a big deal out of lights?

The intensity of your light or lights can affect pretty much everything in your tank, including how your fish differs in colour, Plant leaf health and most importantly, Algae, Too much light and your fish and plants might begin to fade or melt, Having to much light (Leaving the light or lights on longer than 6-8 hours a day) Can result in algae, Now I won't go on a rant about algae, we all know how annoying it is or how frustrating to get rid of.

'I don't have plants, Does lighting still matter?'

Yes.

If you make it to bright (Pushing the light to work harder than it otherwise needs to) and it will begin to over heat, This heat can cause the light to fail, Worse case, it gets hot enough to melt or peel off the silicon seal on your aquarium, This is rare but it can happen.

'I'm scrubbing and this damn algae won't come off my glass!'

Remember that good algea I mentioned oh so long ago? That's what you are trying to 'scrub off' Don't do that, it'll go away on it's own.

'About those lights'

As long as you know your light cycle you should be fine, but just a word of caution for those on a budget, Don't buy 'Lightly' or 'Tested' Lights from Amazon or Ebay or Facebook Market place, chances are they will cease functioning as soon as you plug them in, So buy new lights and if you can buy them on sale if you're on a tight budget.

'My light won't reach the outlet in my wall'

Try these, Power bar extension (6 foot cord) or Tower extension power bar (I have one with 14 outlets and it works really well.)

'Hasty, Why does your aquarium have 2 lights on it?'

So you noticed that? The Fluval nano light I bought started dimming 10 days after plugging it in, so I decided to use my Nicrew plant light, that light has problems and won't turn off unless I disconnect it from the power cable.

I'll take a picture of it and post it when I get the time to do so.

Yeah, so my tank only made it to the 20 day mark before the fungus issue, I reached out to the company and they at first attempted to blame me, but once I pointed out what they did wrong, they offered me a huge discount on tissue culture plants and that's IF I decide to go back to them.

'Does this mean you're not getting your betta fish?'

You don't know me very well at all XD I'm not giving up that easily, I'll do it this way, Get my 45 going (Will be a slow process) Get my 75 gallon, once it's up and running I have one more project to complete and then I'll get my betta but I don't be using the same tank since I couldn't get that fungus out so that tank might be going into storage until I figure out what I want to do with it.

Speaking of my 45 gallon bow front.

https://i.postimg.cc/nrSSCMD5/20230120-135239.jpg

I should've put the lid on before taking the picture but this is where I'm at with it for now, Yes I know the aquarium mat doesn't look the best but I'm not going for 'pretty' lol plus the back was extremely difficult to cut so I tore it until it was short enough to thread the canister filter hoses over it, If I have too I will get black tape and tape it down so it's not in the way.

Now- 'Hasty, you forgot something~'

-_- Oh yeah I guess I did..

Debunking myths

Why am I even here..Just why?

Let's just get this over with -___-

'I made a gaming rig and in my case (Where the guts of the PC are) I had a glass box built and in it are guppies, they're happy!'

Yeah no they aren't, if you have a soul even remotely you'll go get a nano tank and set it up for guppies and never do that shit again.

e.e

'Cherry barbs are not red they're pink'

No they are Red and you are an idiot.

Can this be over now...One more..-_- I should've just stayed home tonight.

'I saw a video where [REDACTED] put a cichlid in his mouth and I did it too, he didn't get sick so I won't either!'

For fuck sake, I hope you get sick from doing that, maybe it will teach you that just because you see someone else doing it DOESN'T mean you should do it to, Just fyi that does count as cruelty so never attempt something you see an idiotic youtuber doing just because you think it looks 'cool' when in reality it is not right nor acceptable.

Aaaand that is the end of those myths, Thank fuuck it's over.

That's all I've got for you for now, but when I'm not so busy I'm hoping to go back too posting waay more often, Thank you for sticking with me for this long, Bye byee for now!

LOL With the cherry barb myth. I've raised and bred them in the past. You have albino, and it's hard to tell the sexes apart because they are both a coppery orangey color. The regular cherry barbs are the flashy reds are juviniles, the females will orange/brown out with hints of red at maturity, and the males will fade to a lighter red, but still keep a beautiful shade of red.

I agree, When I get my angelfish I might get Cherry Barbs just to give my aquascape that extra pop of red, Yes I still intend to do my Red Forest aquascape, Unless Cherry Barbs are bad for nipping fings then I'll look into possibly getting a 29 gallon community aquarium.

Cherry and Gold Bards aren't known fin nippers. They can be when hassled however, basically the only time I've ever seen mine turn into fin nippers is if someone nipped their fins first. They are some of the easiest barbs to raise, compaired to Dennison, Tiger, Odessa, and Snakeskins. I've kept Cherry Barbs with my bettas a number of times in a 29 gal tank. The thing to remember is to make sure they have space to school, and can get away from a precieved threat to them.