Cory

Hello everyone, Over the last month or so, we've been noticing a trend of negativity on the forum. It's not wide spread, but it is making it's way into more threads being reported and customer service. Essentially threads like "what annoys you" "what don't you like" "what would you change about X" All lead to people's feelings getting hurt. It can be as innocent as 10 people posting how they don't like glow fish. Imagine your niece, nephew, child reading this and becoming discouraged with their aquarium. We've always been a be kind and helpful community, I don't believe these threads are intentionally harmful, but the mods have seen them devolve and we are asking that we avoid this types of writing prompts, and will likely be locking them. I wanted to post this so it doesn't seem that any one comment or thread is a problem. Instead this is a choice to maintain a positive space.

Can you test your tap water? The problem is, the likelyhood of 1 bottle of test strips being faulty out of a huge manufacturer run is really small. With no other kit, it's hard to verify anything. If you're cycling a tank with ammonia for instance, it often crashes the pH/buffer. Fish store water could be crashed as well technically. The baking soda test doesn't make sense either. Being that there are different tests on each one, if it were to be "faulty" it would be like 1 of the pads not working. I suppose there could be something in your local water that is skewing all results, but we haven't seen that either. I'd like to help you get to the bottom of it, as I'm afriad a new kit would have the same results as you're getting now. Do you happen to have a list of chemicals that have gone into your fish tank so far? But to start, does tap water and the fish tank water look the same? I want to be clear, I'm not being accusatory. I'm just playing detective to figure out how this result is possibly happening as we sell huge amounts of these and see wide spread success and finding out how they are failing can only help us improve.

How are you testing the water? The #1 cause of an incorrect result is improper following of directions. Once we rule that out we can look at other things. Make sure you're swishing for 3 seconds, then letting it rest on a level surface for 1 minute. Then compare to the chart.

Yeah mounting it to the wall is what we usually do. GFCI is what your bathroom should have. basically if something goes wrong it pops the circuit.

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For me, we make sure to mount them off the ground, and away from drip loops as much as possible. Each one has 12 outlets. We typically don't mount them facing up either. Also as much as possible we use GFCI on the circuits for an extra layer of protection.

For pretty much all my buildings. I use 48 inch power strips for harbor freight.

I wanted to start a thread because I thought it is an important message to spread. Shopping in person at local mom and pop businesses instead of online. Especially our local fish stores. This thread is similar to the "what I got done today thread" except post pictures of your local fish store haul. I love that our fans buy from us, but it is important we keep our local stores in business so that the next generations can be inspired and we have a space to run to in a time of need to get something that can't wait or just someone to spend an afternoon. I don't have a picture yet, and I don't shop at fish stores much anymore. I do hope to add pictures of fish stores from around the world when I travel, and just good ideas I see in fish stores. Be a part of the solution, snap a quick picture of your latest fish purchase or food etc from your local mom and pop store and share it with others. Being it's Friday, I expect some of us are shopping over the weekend 😉

Dang, sorry to hear that 😞

The intended goal with this would be to sell this as an accessory. I believe it would be made out of plastic to keep the cost down. We have a few things to think about. I think we've sold like 30k+ sponge filters so far, how many of those would potentially want this "improvement" so we'd need to sell it as a separate unit. After say a year or 2 of selling these, if everyone simply wants this as a included thing, we could change or add in this to all the sponge filters we sell. However we have started with 3d printing, having it mocked up and printed by a forum member here from my idea. We actually have 3 different designs to test. I have bought a 3d printer myself, I just need to set it up and start playing with it. Then I can make some more. Currently Dean and I are testing them in our fish room in limited quantities.

The key here isn't how much co2 you put in. Co2 and oxygen are independent in the water. It just so happens that people try to not gas off co2 and therefore have poor oxygen. Another side effect is that when plants don't have a light they consume oxygen. When using an oxygen meter, non co2 injected tanks, with high plant loads or very high fish loads, would have low oxygen before the light comes on for the day. This happens regardless of co2 injection technically. This is why it's important to educate people like you have, to have good gas exchange and not limit it to "preserve co2" at the expense of oxygen. You can 100% have both high levels of oxygen and co2 in aquarium water.

I suppose it is like a jetlifter, but those are made for specifically those mattenfilter/their sponge blocks? There wasn't anything on the market that adapts to normal sponge filters that I'm aware of.

In my opinion this is a subject people like to take to extremes. with surface agitation, you won't have co2! When that isn't a true statement. Agitation on top of the water, will disperse some co2. If i put a co-op nano sponge filter in my giant pond, that'll barely do anything for oxygen or co2. If I put a large sponge filter in a 2.5 gallon with a giant air pump boiling over, that would gas off a lot. In real life though, people have say a 29to 75 gallon with a sponge filter. They want to add co2. Lets say your plants eat 5 units of co2 every hour. Lets say your sponge filter gasses off 1 unit of co2 every hour. To offset this you just turn your co2 up a bit. Instead of refilling the co2 tank once every 18 months, you do it every 16 months now. Cost being probably $2-3 difference. However your aquarium will get the benefit of the additional circulation. Your plants and fish will get the oxygen they need. (you do know that plants consume oxygen at night right?) and keep your pH more stable in your aquarium. At the cost of $2 per 16 months or so, best money spent is to have both vs investing it anywhere else in my opinion. But this is only if you want to play with co2. Most times I don't.

The plant can separate from the bulb. As long as the roots grab on in the substrate it should grow. For the stickiness it sounds like some damage happened to the bulb and it started to rot. The bulb is nutrient storage for the plant. As you've reached out to customer service, I'm sure @Candi will get ya taken care of.

It doesn't exist yet outside of what we are testing currently. Currently it's in testing to see if calcium or debris buildup becomes a problem. If it passes these tests we'll take it to a manufacturer and see how we can have it produced.

@RachelM The cure for a lot of things is rest, and less stress. So time should fix this if it was the culprit. As for preventing it, technically you'd want to run a grounding probe, can find them for less than $10, they basically look like your digital thermometer but plug into the wall.

@RachelM Well you've got a couple options, get any heater to hold you over for a few days and then order something. Whether it's ours or another. or try and pick the best heater that is available to you. Pretty much any heaters will get you buy that is adjustable for like 6+ months. Then it comes down to longevity of the heater. We currently guarantee ours for 1 year. In a case like this where we could prove stray current, we'd ship out a replacement to you same day or refund if you were gonna buy one local etc.

My best advice would be to do these: Get your water checked by another kit or store. See if the pH is indeed 6.5. If it is, i'd add some crushed coral after washing it. Most all crushed corals are similar and no one brand is that much better. Next do you have a cooking thermometer to read the temp in the aquarium? Those digital thermometers are notorious for being off. You can often see in reviews, where people buy 3, and all 3 are different, and maybe off by several degrees. Basically double check it's actually 80, just like we are double checking that it's a ph of 6.5. As far as cleaning your aquarium. Gravel vaccing doesn't clean in the way people think it does. Removing physical debris, isn't the culprit usually of a disease. Bad water parameters usually is. For instance in the wild there might be a solid 12 inchs of mulm and is a great living condition. Because the build up isn't affecting the water conditions anymore. Conversely changing water often, using chemicals, might be causing a ton of stress. As for dosing meds in the food. I personally don't see signs that this is fin rot. To me this is like having the flu, and then having you take cough syrup because it can't hurt. Except it can when you throw it back up. Also it can delay finding the right answer, as most people "try" lots of things without diagnosing. I'd consider getting your betta a different pelleted food. You've got a container that's been open for 4 months, it will lose how many nutrients it has over time. While I don't believe this is the cause, I also think that long term it could become problematic as old food is hard to give nutrition to a fish.

I must be old fashioned but I use tupperware or a casserole dish to make mine. Then cut it into squares. And either feed it out that week or freeze the squares. I try to reduce prep/feeding time though 😛

I feel that we are missing something. Basically since we've used meds and such and it didn't help. I feel like it's a stress factor. Basically it's either an infection or it's stress. Meds usually take care of an infection. Lets start with the basics. Full tank shot that is current. What temperature is the water? I see you say 80, is it also 80 late at night? can you set the thermostat on the thermometer? Also are you checking the temp or relying on the heater? Just because it says 80, doesn't mean it's 80. What is the current pH? What is the Nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia? How long have you had the betta? How long have you had the food? You say you're doing partial water changes - why? is there a build up of something causing this? Also what chemicals do you add when changing water? I don't believe changing water without the goal of accomplishing something helps. For instance it doesn't make sense to add indian almond leaves, then change water 2x a day, you'll just remove the tannins. Unless there is something like ammonia or nitrite. Have you moved the rhizome of the java ferns above the gravel line so they don't rot? Normally all fish illness is a mystery until it's diagnosed. Right now we have the equivalent of "my car is making a sound" As mechanics we are trying to narrow it down to where is the sound coming from, when is it happening etc. Using meds, is like saying I got the car a tuneup and it still makes the sound. Adding indian almond leaves and water changes is like saying, I'm changing the oil every other day. This still doesn't get us to what is causing the problem and we are mostly playing, lets just try random things till we accidentally fix it. This is why it's critical to keep investigating. Things like regulating your light from being 24/7, to just 12 hours a day, and adding a background will be helpful long term anyway.

I’d say you could do some maracyn now, and in a few weeks follow up with paracleanse once this illness has recovered.

Yep, they're stored in a freezer at our warehouse.

Testing a feature. This picture should become the thumbnail.

In this video, I show how you can solve that problem.

I haven't seen the progress myself in probably 10 days. But it's definitely a slow and steady type of thing. The goal is being open for September. This is the latest picture I have. A decent amount has changed since then.