Pepere

I had one rather poor batch several months ago which the coop promptly refunded… I tried multiple hatches from that batch figuring I was doing something wrong and was troubleshooting my technique… My most recent can is rather off as well, lots of unhatched eggs and poor survival of hatchlings… It isnt as bad as the one I received a refund for, but is noticeable… It is not bad enough that I would ask for a refund, but noticeable… I just opened another can to see how this one is… I have the Ziss hatchery and the co op brine shrimp salt. Hatchery washed well after every hatch…

Personally I dont have confidence in the ammonia test strips. I have repeatedly dosed a sample to an expected ammonia level that the API test correlates pretty much while the test strips report either significantly lower levels, or none whatsoever. Ie 2 ppm per API not being detected on strips at all. the multi strips are ok for a quick screen…. her the multi is reporting around 25 ish nitrates. API reporting maybe 30ish to my eye… so Nitrates is ok ish. I have no idea what the test strip is reporting for gh. It is light purple. API is reporting 5 degrees of hardness, so around 85 ppm ish… Strips reporting kh of 0. API reports 2 degrees, or about35 ppm.. My water district reports 2 degrees kh and API and Test strips report same return on tap water… so I am left with not understanding what the strips are reporting for GH, KH reporting lower than 2hat I am pretty sure is in there and PH reporting a bit higher than what I think it is…API reporting 6.0 ph is pretty much close enough for my needs… Nitrate is in the ballpark, iirc nitrite is pretty close… But I can dip a strip in for 3 seconds and a minute later, have a quick screen of5 parameters to see if anything is grossly out of range… by and large the gh is the same color every time, I would pull out the API if it looked significantly different…

Do you have any houseplants with potting soil that you keep the soil moist and dont let dry out? A quarter cup of that soil stirred into the tank would seed the filters nicely… personally I have no confidence in any bacteria in a bottle products, and I tried multiple doses of multiple brands..

I use a python on my 2, 29 gallon tanks. Certainly not overkill in my estimation. I have them in my bedroom which is right next to the bathroom. Rather than use faucet water to drive the suction of water out of the tankI simple put the end of the hose in the bathtub for gravity siphon. for filling I attach the nozzle onto the kitchen sink. Some day I hope to get the livingroom remodeled and put in a 75 gallon tank. When I do that I am planning on plumbing in a drain into the cabinet that I can slip a gravel vac hose in to for clean8ng the substrate and also hard plumbing a siphon to the drain with a vacuum break at the right level somI can simply turn a valve todrain waterto the 50% mark for water changes. And I plan on having a water tank in the v basement with a pump in it to flip switch to fill up the 75 gallon with preheated pre treated water… I am a big believer in investing to make water changes easier… To my mind much easier than dealing with the results of trying to avoid water changes..

The bacteria that metabolizes ammonia to nitrite seems t establish itself quicker than the bacteria that metabolizes nitrite to nitrate. When I was establishing a beneficial bacteria colony, the tank could metabolize 2 ppm ammonia to zero ammonia in 24 hours in a few weeks, but those nitrite to nitrate converting bacteria took about 6 more weeks to grow to the point that a 2 ppm ammonia challenge could be metabolized to 0 ammonia 0 nitrites…

Personally I would leave it there…. It looked to be a smaller tank. If someone didnt want it in there, my advice would be to get a new tank. Small ones are cheap enough it wouldnt be worth the agravation to work at removing it…

What size is the aquarium?

Each pump of easy green adds 3 ppm nitrate to 10 gallons of water. an embarrassing mistake I made early on was thinking that bottle 1 and bottle 2 of API Ammonia Test and Nitrate test was due to the fact the test required more drops so they provided 2 bottles wort for those two tests. i had no ammonia and minimal nitrates early on cause I was only adding detops from one bottle…. I was in too much of a hurry to read the pamphlet and besides, the bottles told me how many drops to add…. Once I read the instructions in full and followed them I was getting different results…

It does a lot of the things activated carbon does. It removes tannins and medication from the water making it clearer and not have colors from tannins and humic acids. Ie, it cleans out that dingy yellowish green cast or brown cast from woods etc… That much is pretty accepted by most people. Some claims it absorbs nitrogenous waste from plant metabolism and lock it up so it doesnt break down into Nitrates… and hence can reduce rise in nitrates in a tank vs not having it.. I have no idea if that is true to any practical effect, but I dont use it for that reason. I use to keep the water looking nice and clear… I pull the bag out monthly and put a new bag in and then use bleach to recharge the removed pouch and then store it in a container in the fridge filled with water and dechlorinator. That way a pouch is ready to replace at the end of the month…

I have pretty much stopped dosing alkaline buffer. My tap water is 1 degree KH and I do a 50% water change weekly and test ph a few hours after water change. If I see it has dropped I will test KH. I only ever so rarely have to add a tiny bit to raise kh to 1 degree. In about a year on this schedule I haven't perceived any downside to it.

I had heard it was potassium bicarbonate based… I guess that source was wrong. Any time you raise KH, PH will rise as well unless an acid or acid buffer is added as well…

Some people feel that Carbon absorbs the fertilizer. I am not convinced it does. It certainly doesnt adsorb nitrates to any appreciable amount in my tanks, and I havent noticed any difference in plant growth or leaf shape of new growth when I run carbon in the tanks. Better question is what do you want to run activated carbon for? I use Purigen in my planted tanks personally which is cheaper than running carbon continually. I do use carbon in my quarantine tanks after running meds and doing a water change to scavenge remaining meds…

Crushed coral will raise GH as well as KH. Baking soda adds Sodium. Seachem Alkaline buffer raises KH without affectingGH and does notadd Sodium. 1 teaspoon Alkaline Buffer added to 20 gallons of water will raise KH 2.8 degrees.

Ok, but I am not going downstairs to get the fluvals again… both photos show black background darker than they do to my eye. Finnex planted plus ALC Chihiros WRGB2 pro

Both methods can work. There is no question that fish waste is a great source for seeding beneficial bacteria in its own right. Probably a more reliable source of seeding than bacteria in a bottle products. I have not found a bacteria in a bottle product that gave me any confidence it gave me value for the money… Stocking and feeding lightly with daily testing to keep an eye on levels and water changing if they are rising works well, but “stocking and feeding lightly” is rather sunjective…

Ok, so in 24 hours your tank was able to metabolize 1.5 ppm of ammonia. To some nitrate and 0.25 ppm nitrite. In essence the nitrite metabolization is a bit lessthan the ammonia…. so, you have both types of bacteria you need, but the amounts of them is not as strong as you ideally want, but they will increase their colony size with time and food. That food can come in the form of more ammonia drops and time if you wish to wait longer. Or you can do water change to remove ammonia and nitrite and add a low bioload of livestock and feed lightly and and they and the food will provide the ammonia to feed the bacteria… Some people argue to keep the fishless cycle going until you can fully metabolize a 2 ppm ammonia challenge to 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites within 24 hours of dosing.. it is a metric that you can point to, but I dont know how much science is behind it as a needed metric.

The females are veil tale cherry barbs. The males are standard cherry barbs.

How much ammonia did you dose?

a glow eye tetra. male and female cherry barbs and Harlequins. Better view of Harlequin giving a hint of the iridescence they are displaying with this light. And a gratuitous photo of a new stem I am working at propagating more of… Again, the photos cant quite capture whatI am seeing in person…

Thanks for the compliment. yesthese plants are water column fed using Easy Green as well as Seachem Equilibrium, co2 and intense lighting. The substrate js inert gravel and I do not regularly use root tabs… the Equilibrium supplements calcium and Magnesium as I have very sift water and also provides Iron and Potassium. I am planning to switch to dry salts fertilizer soon and purchasing trace elements liquid fertilizer from another hobbyist. In essence, you dose dry ferts for nitrates, potassium and phosphorous and the suitable number of ml of the trace elements solution. Mixing up traces is a lot of bother vs NPK…. I do a 50% water change on Saturday morning and then dose Easy Green sufficient to raise nitrates to 30 ppm. As this is a 29 gallon tank instructions would be 3 pumps Twice a week. I end up frontloading after water change usually 20 pumps…

@Mmiller2001 advised to decrease the exposure on the iphone when taking a photo until it looks closer to real life. so here are three more photos. It is closer, but it still fails to capture the full effect. 2 Fluval planted 3.0. This photo really starts to show the drop off of illumination to the left and right, however it is still much yellower light in front of me than in the photo. 2 finnex Planted plus ALCs. They are not horrid lights, and the color rendering is far superior to the Fluval in my opinion and it illuminates the entire tank better… but, where this set up cost me roughly $240.00…. And for $280.00 I get… The extra $40.00 is very well spent in my book, and cheaper than 2 Fluval 3.0s… The Camera fails to catch the serious illumination of the Fish. It almost seems to turn the fish into Glo Fish. MyHarlequins have brilliant red fins and a particular shimmer to their pinkish red areas. The Glow Eye Tetras stripe and eye spot light up like an old fasjioned neon sign from the 60s neon orange. The Malre Cherry Barbs become breattaking. The Green Neon Tetras and Lambchop Rasboras become irridescent in their coloration. No amount of expensive fish food colrs them anywhere near what this light does. You have to see it in person to fully appreciate it. If you ever had sunlight stream in to your fish tank and light up Neons and take your breath away from the beauty, it is akin to that….

Chihiros, Week Aqua and Netlea are the ones I would be looking at if starting feom scratch. I will likely get another Chihiros to match this one so I canhave them both on the same ap. The Chihiros Ap is nowheres near as nice to use as the Fluval 3.0…

3 different lights on the same tank to see the difference a light makes…. 2 fluval planted 3.0 lights one on back, one on the front. about $180.00 each, so $360.00 for the pair. These are the 24-36 to fit on my 30 inch wide 29 gallon tank. The lights are centered and full strength. You can see shadows in the lighting on the right and left edges especially near the top. 2 Finnex planted plus ALCs 100% red, 70% blue, 50% green, 100% white. About 107.00 a piece and I have each controlled by a nicrew inline timer dimmer because the onboard timer dimmer is a horrible design. $240.00 for the set up. Probably close to 60 watts for the two with these settings. Chihiros WRGB 2 pro. 116 red, 96 green 140 blue 11 white. single light, consuming 69 watts at this setting, extra power to spare. $279.00. All three photos taken with my I phone. None of the three photos, render in the photo as they do to my eye in person. I just finished a very big pruning session on the tank and weekly service. The white haze is due to Equilibrium added for GH. the Fluval looks much more yellow in person and is not at all to my liking. I love the Fluval ap functionality. I hate the led color and bulb counts fluval included. the light spread is unacceptable to me for a 29. The Finnex is better, but the RGB channels are not nearly powerful enough to light the tank. They are there primarily to help fine tune the color rendering. The PAR comes from the white leds… with the clear lens, there is a LOT of shimmer from the light and surface agitation shadows in the tank. The Chihiros is the one that looks the most different in person from the photo. The photo has the red and green far in excess from what I am seeing in person, but no mistake the plants are definitely redder and greener with this light than the other two lights. The harlequins and cherry barbs are also much more pronounced… with a plate of white sand in the bottom of the tank with this setting, the sand looked white. (A tip I was given for helping to dial in the color channels to prevent over saturation of a color channel) I am not sure this is the final setting, but, it is close. With the Chihiros you get most of your power from the RGB setting and use the white to tone it down to be more neutral. The Chihiros also has a white panel diffuser under the led bulbs eliminating the shimmer and shadow. it definitely gives more contrast and vividness and more sense of depth. While it is a premium price point for a single light, well, it is a single light that is getting me the power and coverage of two of the Finnex or Fluval lights… I am thinking I am going to offer the fluvals and the Finnexs for sale on Ebay soon in order to buy another Chihiros for my other 29 gallon tank.

When you have Java Fern, can algae ever be far behind? Java fern seems to be a bit of an algae magnet….

Just re read first post to see that it is 0.5 ppm ammonia. I thought I had read it was 4 ppm ammonia initially. I would not be the least concerned with 0.5 ppm ammonia. I deal with 1 ppm and practically speaking it is a non issue. If you do a 50% water change in a well cycled tNk it will be gone in hours…, if Prime and Fritz complete really do something to “lock up” ammonia temporarily, then all the better. I dont have much confidence in the claims, and would never rely on them to do anything useful regarding ammonia, but I am happy to have the protection if my doubts are baseless and it does do something…. I always double dose the tank with dechlor when I do a water change.