Pepere

They need replacing from time to time. Fluval recommends once a year on the 07 line… have you looked up the owners manual online for yours?

My first effort in April of 2022 July 2022 Sept 2022 January 2023 March 2023 May 2023 July 2023 December 2023 mid February 2024 same tank, hopefully getting better…

The more expensive light has more options including the ability to dial in the light rendering you want as opposed to set chocies. Also I note that on both lights you specified the 24-30 inch version which is cheaper than the 30-36. That option may work well for you, but the light at either end of the tank will be dimmer. As such you would want higher light need plants more to the middle of your tank and lower light plants on the ends. also that bears in to play if you place your light to the back of the tank, put higher light plants to the back and lower light plants to the front and sides…. I suspect @Guppysnail will be able to speak better to the timer function. I have one, ut have not used it much as I went a different route due to my split photoperiod…

I bought one of these Hygger lights, which gives you the ability to alter the color rendering to your particular preferences as opposed to the lower cost version that simply adjusts brightness and alters between a daylight and moonlight setting. due to my particular schedule I run 2 distinct photoperiods of 4 hours each 1 in the morning and 1 at night and this light doesnt allow me to program it to my preference. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077YWKZ1D/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&th=1 If you wanted to stretch your budget a bit, you might consider a Finnex Planted Plus HLC at around 80.00. This gives you Red Green Blue control and separate whites. Yes, the hygger gives 6 colors, but I am pretty sure it does it by blending colors.. The human eye only has color receptors for red green and blue light. When we see different colors it is the brain interpreting the relative intensities of the different RGB light receptor input…. Light and colors are funky that way…. But if you do opt for the Finnex I would caution against using the internal timer as it ramps shift of colors and intensities over a 3 hour time period. I bought inline timer dimmers from Nicrew for $12.00 to adjust my Finnex lights. https://www.amazon.com/Finnex-Planted-Aquarium-Automated-Spectrum/dp/B07S8DZHZR/ref=sr_1_3_pp?crid=1Q1N8493POZE8&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZZDmOq8wc-TponoGhmMmpn2NB1lq2zQ2iFH2tNPG9b3Mq5JD_GWa8JRQsLKQmn2ns-C_tpT8aODKeujiAq4XGLcF4hhFhjkZlxNdhsf_gSWcGMAb7CRi_yfINFJ-g4ILhKxVvevVTajFxBHcm1-qyQMloPCWZChnfGckwlzhp2IsUrJQ_7THrxmmFCz6WvTK_6spQ6ecaI9m2Vc9QkL1xbH6_J-qOy0rd46ZKS4hIDjjwbZPo_67CzlIBvxKes8tL_IKaTDWdHngfLf8tdAy07-H_vE_-84RhMsWm63EgFY.ECSH0WOvIdhKVa2OS4FyPaE9LPUmryxDtDVBlaFu-r4&dib_tag=se&keywords=Finnex%2Bplanted%2Bplus&qid=1709145414&rdc=1&sprefix=finnex%2Bplanted%2Bplus%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-3&th=1 The Hygger is a reasonable contender for your budget and will provide more light than you need for the plants you are looking to grow.

What sort of budget do you have in mind?

FWIW, my son has a 20 pound tank he keeps in his basement. He makes his own soda that he then places in pressurized containers and carbonates them. he also has a sodatream for convenient seltzer water upstairs, and he refills the soda stream container himself. other places to inquire about refills might be home brew supply shops, fire extinguisher service companies etc. I have seen regulators that fit on small fire extinguisher bodies.

I have no personal experience with CO2 generators but I did consider going that route. My understanding is the purchase price for the equipment is lower up front but the cost of CO2 generated is significantly more than the cost of co2 coming in a pressurized tank. and then there is the regular maintenance cleaning up the tank between recharges…. And the long term reliability, adjustability of the tank and regulator did not seem to be stellar overall… I opted to bite the bullet on pressurized…. But by the same token that is with 2, 29 gallons and a 20 high… If I was only going with a 10 gallon, I think I would not opt for CO2 and keep mostly easy plants… As a challenge I started a 17 gallon fish bowl recently with easy plants and no CO2 and putting into practice the horticultural practices I have learned to keep Algae at bay. I have battled some Algae since starting it up, but far less than I did with my previous low tech attempts. I am day 5 now of no visible Algae and am hopeful. I do have Ludwigia Repens in it growing well….

A quarantine tank is more trouble than it is worth…until you lose a lot of fish in a display tank due to not quarantining…. I was at a local Petco where I saw the store refund a customer for all the fish they lost due to a new purchase infecting them. It was mind boggling to me that the Petco would reimburse a customer for that where they didnt quarantine the new purchase… petco sells fish the day they arrive in store.. I dont know that this is corporate practice that all Petcos do… I have bought batches of fish and had them in quarantine with 100% survival, and some batches with 80% mortality… Fish that survive the quarantine period tend to live long uneventful lives…. On the batches that have high mortality I don’t think it is due to failure on my part…. The fact is the whole process of fish being comingled and exposure in the process of shipping from source to store along with the stresses of shipment leads to issues… I choose to keep a quarantine tank going. I have the space to do it in the basement. In addition to feeding snails, one could also simply dose some ammonia from time to time to keep it going…. I tried Irenes idea of using a tote for a quarantine tank and absolutely hated it. I much prefer a clear glass tank to be able to closely observe the fish. The tote keeps you from seeing so much detail… yes, there are times with sick fish you need to treat the whole tank, but sometimes a timely removal of fish for treatment and closely watching the main tank is sufficient.. Sometimes you want to remove a sick or injured fish to give him time in isolation to let him rest and not exert energy to avoid other fish… I have 4 display tanks. Personally I find the utility of quarantine isolation tanks worth the effort… I can understand why other people can feel differently….

This was my first foray as I re entered the hobby. There was an incredible learning curve of learning how to grow healthy plants and avoiding algae growth. My concentration at current is in the plant composition and placement and working on the grouping sizes and trimming them and forming them in to the forms I want. I do understand that the hardscape forms the backbone of the composition, and will be an area of focus when I start up a 75 gallon tank in the future. At present, I am loathe to tear this current tank up to do the work necessary to get that backbone in. I sort of view this tank as a sandbox to learning the plant side of aquascaping right now.. I am fond of the hardscape layout in George Farmers favorite personal tank as shown in this video. when I start up a 75, I intend to transplant a lot of the plants from this tank as well as another 29 gallon tank in to it. Then remaining plants will be consolidated in to 1, 29, and this one will be emptied and cleaned and be left a clean slate to restart at a later date once the 75 stabilizes… It may well be a foray in to dutch style with no hardscape at all… I definitely agree with the Val. It requires frequent pruning back and hair cuts…. It came with my first tranche of plants as a package deal of plants as a single bunch. I somewhat doubt it will be included in the 75. I am planning on thinning it back a fair amount on the back left side corner next weekend as it is getting a bit overpowering there. I am also not so much a fan of Java moss either though I have been enjoying the colony that self established on the top of the rock just to the right of the Pink Flamingo Crypt. I never placed it there myself, it simply hitched a ride in with other plants and chose that spot for itself…

The plastic buckets have been decommissioned. The 3 Stainless steel buckets fill the bill so much nicer…

I have had multiple shipments from AquaHuna that the shipper picked up Monday night and I received on Wednesday noon with 0 arrival mortality and 0 mortality 3 days later.

2 more weeks of growth. The Rotalla Wallichii is starting to grow in nicely, and the Cardinal Lobelia is getting up to a nice height. The corymbosa compacta on the left offsetts the val background and the Tiger lotus nicely to my eye. The Scarlet Temple doesnt really look to be doing much of anything. It just seems to be sitting there, but it is free from Algae, and that is always a plus.

I am not planning on it. But given the undergravel filter plate in the bowl, I am not concerned about the bacteria filtration in the box filter. It is just there to provide weight to keep the box filter down. The box filter is there to add flow and water polishing.

results after about 40 minutes of running . That is awfully good flow and mechanical filtration water polishing….

results after running 40 minutes after having done a waterchange and substrate cleaning… pretty good flow and mechanical filtration…

First day with the new Stainless steel buckets.. 3, 22 guage 202 Stainless steel 4.22 gallon buckets $39.60. Peace of mind the handle wont break loose from the bucket and drop 3 gallons on my floor…. Priceless…

medium sized Lee’s triple flow. easy Flow collar friction fits on top. the Easy Flow kit substantially increases flow….

Just to add for your consideration,…. I wasn’t sure whether your dislike of the thought of glueing plants to a rock was over not wishing to potentially disfigure the rocks in your tank or not wanting to commit to a particular location.. Rocks need not be large. Just enough to keep the plant submerged. This small rock, thatI glued a Java fern plantlet to, can easily be located anywhere . The tank. And if you dont like the look of the rock, most of the rock can be buried under your substrate just leaving the rhyzome exposed. Just something to consider…

Just to give some perspective on the magnification with a sphere. Here are the rocks outside of the tank. I pulled everything not rooted again this morning for another round of maintenance… and… to install a box filter in order to add mechanical filtration. Just gravel to weigh it down, and polyfill fluff for filtration. Here it is in the tank in the back andbI have all the air flow going into the box filter until the water clears . You can see the easy flow kit produces good flow through this medium size Lees triple flow. The triple flow comes in three sizes. The Easy Flow friction fits nicely on the medium sized one only. It does not fit on the other two. Once the water clears I will send some air to the ugf.

Between PVC pipe and Pex plumbing, plumbing has become downright civilized…. Quick, easy, and forgiving compared to plumbing of my youth… no torches needed, no pounding in oakum and pouring molten lead using Asbestos sleeves, no having to thread pipe and allow for offsets and insertion losses… A few hundred dollars in tools will serve you well… And the internet can easily bring you up to speed….

Well, it probably will never happen, but today I saw a few Youtube videos where people build swimming pools in their backyard that use no chlorine and such… Natural swimming pools with sand substrate, lots of rocks, waterfalls, filtration chambers, plantings, aquatic plants and keeping fish in there as well… Some of them were quite breathtaking with dumptrucks full of big rocks being delivered, sand beaches, docks… I doubt I would ever spend that amount of money…. But if I ever came in to a megabucks windfall, I might indulge in that instead of going on a cruiseship, or exorbitant extravagant vacation or some such friviolities…

It is my newest tank, homemade underground filter with easy flow kit adapted to it, a heater, and a small 80 gph powerhead to help improve flow. The sphere doesn’t show nearly as well in photos as it does in person as you can move around to see where you wish, and gain perspective that is lost in a photo. I have 4 sparkling gourami that are a treat to watch as they hide in the shadows and dart out to grab a falling bit of food, or just to surprise another sparkling gourami.. No real aggression mind you and all sorts of sight breaks between rocks, plants driftwood… A big sphere is just perfect for tiny nano fish as it is so magnifying. My Pygmy Cories look about 1 1/2 inches long when they are at the far side of the tank. Amazing to watch them shrink down to 5/8 inch as they come up to the front of the tank.. great tank to be able to see tiny little fish in all their grandeur… I have been trying to get this non co2 supplemented tank in balance with no visual algae. It has been doing so much better than any prior attempt, but hasn't reached the level I am aiming for yet.. It is still fairly new, with purchased plants as well as donor plants from my high tech tanks, so plants are still adjusting and reprogramming themselves. I put some Pink Flamingo in from a high tech tank that promptly melted away to nothing, but the roots are sending up lots of new leaves that are growing well.. I had been struggling with thin green threads of algae that were amazingly tough 6-8 inches long as individual strands. This week to work at knocking it down, I have done 3 separate water changes, one of them removing the driftwood and all rocks as well as the Java Fern in order to really clean up from the substrate, using a turkey baster to suspend detritus from the substrate and then vacuuming the cloud away. This weekend I will add a small box filter in the back to add some mechanical filtration to the UGF. Tonight I see no visible Algae in the bowl. If it continues to look like this I will be content with it at least from the Algae point of view. I don’t really have questions in this post to be answered, just sharing my observations and thrills with the fishbowl form for Nano fish…

I know. I watched those videos too. I spent about 9 months trying to balance my low tech tanks following their advice. And I got the algae eating fish…. I dosed Easy Carbon daily, I tried spot dosing easy carbon, spot dosing hydrogen peroxide, whole tank peroxide treatment, pulling plants routinely to soak in seltzer overnight and replant…. Starving the fish so algae would look good to them... more light, less light…Finding the proverbial balance using the methods I learned from them proved elusive.. I watched and rewatched these videos and videos from other presenters of a similar ilk. Maybe the things they recommend work for them, but the simple fact of the matter is the advice I got from these sources simply was not getting me the results I wanted. I bit the bullet and went with co2 which was my first real reduction in algae…. I then bit the bullet and put in canister filters with spray bars which was another improvement. I then saw @Mmiller2001’s tank and asked him for advice on the algae front as it sure looked like he had good results in his tank. He turned me on to the 2hr aquarist pages on dealing with algae and I read and re read and instituted his methods and finally had tanks free of visible algae. As an aside, the 2 hr Aquarist site does sell fertilizers and algae reducing substances in bottles. I never bought any products from him. I simply followed the horticultural tips he gave to get the results I have. I still use Easy Green and Easy Iron and will continue until my supply is used up. After that I am planning on converting to dry salts ferts instead for cost savings. To a beginner trying to get their arms around things I think I would still recommend Easy Green and Easy Iron as needed for shear simplicity.. If you like Algae, great. It is the easiest stuff in the world to grow. I can grow bumper crops of it within a short period of time…. Please note, I am not intending to be dismissive or insulting. I get that we all have different motivations and aims. I don't intend to imply that my aim is superior to anyone else's aims. Just stating the facts that when I look in my tank and see algae it doesn't make me peaceful and happy. It makes me motivated to suppress it. But thats me…. After keeping my display tanks free of visible algae for about 9 months I decided to try the low tech route again and try the horticultural tips I learned at the 2 hr aquarist, and learn to adapt them to low tech tanks… My 17 gallon fish bowl has a lot less visible algae then I ever managed in my prior attempts at low tech aquarium keeping, but I am trying to further improve it…

I have a tank with cories and kuhli loaches that has standard inert aquarium gravel for substrate and they are none the worse. Initially I had a few areas of sand bed for them as well, but it continually got covered with gravel…. Gravel did. No stay put. another tank has cories in it with a large sand beach to one side with a raised gravel bed beside it with a stone retaining wall. That keeps the gravel clear. To be honest though, I never see the cories frolicking in the sand. They spend more time over the gravel…

Yes, if fish health is your only concern. Plants really don’t do better at 50 ppm than they do at 30-35 ppm. 30- 35 is the most they can process. The only rational that I could imagine with dosing to 50 ppm is the thought that it will gradually reduce to 30 ppm over the week…. For myself I front load after doing a water change, and then add another 6 ppm midweek.. Saturday morning is water change day, and nitrates will be around the 20 ppm mark before I do a 50% change. I dose about 25 ppm in my co2 tanks. A bit higher would make plants grow faster, but at 25 ppm, it lessens the trimming and replanting work. One of my 29 gallon co2 injected tanks. In my non co2 supplemented tank, I am keeping it down to 15 ppm. I am also doing 50% water changes twice a week along with using a Turkey baster to suspend crud from the bottom in order to vacuum it up. I also put in an 80 gph powerhead for extra flow. It seems to be helping. My hope is once algae is in abeyance I can back off on the water changes… my low tech 17 gallon fish bowl.