Anubias rot

[Fish]

I thought it was looking relatively healthy until today when I tried to gently brush fine sand dust off of the leaves, and it basically fell apart. I prodded the base of the plant to find a big puffy cloud of decay! Took it out and gave it a really good clean, and removed everything with a black bottom of stem and cleaned the rest of the roots until it didn’t feel slimy anymore. I’ve put it back in the tank hoping it’ll live with its remaining 4 healthy looking leaves and stems left. Will it ruin my other plants, or the cycle?

Here is how it looks after the clean up -

[fr499y]

No, it will be ok as long as the rhizome isn’t badly damaged or buried (the big base that the roots come from)

[Fish]

No, it will be ok as long as the rhizome isn’t badly damaged or buried (the big base that the roots come from)

That’s just behind that big clump of roots and looks healthy enough! It’s one of my plants that are furthest away from the filter - would that have anything to do with it? I’m thinking of upgrading the filter, it was part of a set with the heater and tank but I feel like it could be stronger.

[fr499y]

I have anubias in tanks with no filter and they thrive, so flow isn’t an issue with them.

[Fish]

I have anubias in tanks with no filter and they thrive, so flow isn’t an issue with them.

That’s good to know. I am a bit concerned though if my filter is going to be powerful enough for when I finally start adding fish. It’s an interpet CF1. I was looking at the PF1 and 2 last night and no idea if they are actually stronger, but I like the fact I can adjust the direction of the outflow (I can’t on my one). I really can’t afford a lot of money to upgrade though but don’t want to run into problems down the line. Similar issue with the lights that were provided with the lid, it’s definitely darker towards one end of my tank.

[FishBubs]

What size tank do you have? I had a 64l tank which came with a cf2 filter but i popped a second one in to give it more filtration. I also rearranged the media setup in the filters though to maximise efficiency and water parameters were spot on (i have 9 young venezuelan corys with two rams.)

i have however now moved them to their 200l tank just because i wanted more space for them to scoot about . But i have to say the filters worked just fine for the set up i had.

[Fish]

What size tank do you have? I had a 64l tank which came with a cf2 filter but i popped a second one in to give it more filtration. I also rearranged the media setup in the filters though to maximise efficiency and water parameters were spot on (i have 9 young venezuelan corys with two rams.)

i have however now moved them to their 200l tank just because i wanted more space for them to scoot about . But i have to say the filters worked just fine for the set up i had.

It’s only 56 litre I wonder if I should just upgrade to the cf2, I’d rather not have 2 filters as it’s pretty small as it is. Can I ask how you rearranged the media inside?

I’ve put a black background on the tank now and can see lots of tiny particles in the water, and they are moving around slightly but not disappearing into the filter.

[FishBubs]

I removed all the media it came with as they are thin vertical slats with practically nothing in terms of biomedia and i didnt need the carbon either.
I placed a course foam on the bottom that i cut to shape, followed by a finer foam on top of that. I then filled a mesh bag with bio media (i had seachem matrix to hand so that is what i used). and popped it on top of the foam. To finish off, i had a bag of purigen and filter floss. Any small particles were trapped before flowing out of the top of the filter into the tank. The biomedia remained nice and clean. Doing it this way provides so much more area for the munchers and maintaining the correct flow of water through the filter. Just make sure you are on top of the filter cleaning. Two filters do take up room for sure but as my wee corys were pretty much on bottom level, they didnt interfere with their swim space. And i had insanely clean water too

One thing to note though about the Cf2 filters is pay attention to the small rubber bung at the back that blocks a small hole where the wire is. If this comes away, small fish can get in but cant get out. I learned the hard way and lost an oto I had no idea that hole was there until i had to resort to checking the filter bit by bit when i noticed my oto was missing.

[Fish]

Ah poor little guy, just had to look them up as it’s all new to me. First time I saw a pleco at a local store yesterday, I was mesmerised by it cleaning the glass I’ll keep that in mind though as everything I’m planning on adding is going to be small.

I’m still in the middle of cycling atm so trying not to mess with the filter too much. I did rinse it gently in tank water yesterday to see if that helped but it didn’t really make a difference. I’m not entirely sure how to transfer all the good filter stuff into a new filter, so don’t know if I should wait until the cycle is complete. I might just buy one anyway ready, at least I’d have one spare too. Thanks for explaining how you changed it all, will make a note!

[FishBubs]

No worries. If you are in the middle of cycling, i wouldnt touch your filter at all. Let it stabilise by completing your cycle. Otherwise you are only going to set yourself back.