Pepere

I am not sure, but it is entirely possible the co op heater has a glass tube inside the plastic housing… when I first bought heaters, I purchased Aqueon pro heaters as they marketed them as shatterproof since they dont have glass, but metal. Aluminum I believe, which that metal has a tendency to brittleness. True enough, but the metal does not mean the metal tube is free from catastrophic failure. I am not certain of the failure mechanism, but the have had incidences of the metal swelling at a point that results in a catastrophic failure of the metal tube splitting open. Cases where this killed all tank inhabitants… I removed all of the aqueon pro heaters… There are metal tube heaters constructed of Titanium as well. I don’t know if those are free from tube failure… without question the safest most reliable aquarium heater is one that is not in your tank, but rather heating your room the aquarium resides in. Unfortunately I prefer keeping my aquarium water about 3-4 degrees warmer than I like keeping the air temperature in the room my aquariums are kept in…

I only have 50 watt heaters on my 29 gallon tanks.. I have them controlled by Inkbird controls programmed to turn on the heater when the tank drops to 74 degrees and turn them off when the tank hits 76. This works well with room temp as low as 66 degrees.

I kind of like them, though primarily , I got them for my two nearly 5 year old grandsons. The tank is 4 inches above floor level so they can enjoy it while they play with my early 1970s Lesney Matchbox cars and Tonka Trucks… And since it is a tank for them I also have 2 Paw Patrol character ornaments in the tank and I have a black light I can turn on fir them along with a setting on my finnex planted plus of a blue green mix that makes them really pop… I drew the line against glo decor and gaudy fake Glo plants, and Glo substrate…

It has been about a year and maintenance free. I have literally done nothing to it. bear in ind though the gravel is separated from it by essentially a wall of rocks. Idid have another tank I excavated out some gravel and put in sand and that would continually get covered by gravel… so same level would be different than different elevation with a rock wall separating…

Who knows. My experience with crypts gives me little to judge by. I initially bought 3 Pink Flamingo crypts from the co op and placed 1 each in 3 different tanks. Two looked to be heathy enough the third looked rather week with minimal root. 1 healthy one melted away within a few weeks or so never to rise again. The other healthy looking one just stagnated there for like 9 months running in place… a new leaf popped up, an old leaf melted, another new leaf, two more melted… just pitiful… the weakest looking one melted to nothing and then the roots strated sending out new leaves and in a couple months time it was spreading all over and over powering the tank…. All three tanks have aquasoil supplement near plants, weekly water changes, front loading water column ferts, and strong co2…. I harvested some bits of the best one and planted it in a new low tech tank and all of the leVes promptly melted away, but the roots are shooting up thriving new leaves.. I also bought a crypt Wendetti red and lutea and planted those in the low tech tank that also melted away quickly. And are growing new leaves nicely…

Wow. I wish I had known about ebay as a source to buy from the vendor..I bought 6 through Amazon and could have saveda fair amount…

I have done it. Rather than covering the entire bottom of the tank with flat mesh bags of substrate, I prefer to place long thin rolled up bags of a little aquasoil. Sort of like sausages strategically placed in the tank. This allows me to places stems/ roots between the bags allowing less height of substrate over the bags. yes the roots do migrate toward the bags and into them. I like this as it allows me to keep my soil and gravel separate easier to repurpose if redoing the tank and uses oh so much less, expensive aquasoil, (A bag goes a long, long way… By the same token, the vast majority of plants can grow exceedingly well without any active substrate or root tabs or such. For inspiration, check out @Mmiller2001 build journal of his 120 gallon dutch style tank with no soil, or active substrate or root tabs. I would love to have his skills and abilities with aquascaping and plant husbandry… He has accomplished amazing things using cheap inert pool sand with no root tabs or soil… I would take his tank over any of mine any dayso long as I could afford to hire someone of his skill to keep it looking like that for me, cause I am nowheres near that level… photo from his build journal to whet your appetite…

I dearly appreciate the 50 watt units. I have inkbird controllers for all of my tanks. I would definitely prefer buying these heaters from the Co op, but will try the AQQA ones to replace them as needed. The plastic pieces and functionality seems to be near identical. No idea if they have cut corners on the inside though, but the inkbird will at least protect against overheating. Clearly I would prefer to get the same co op 50 watt heater from the co op rather than a look alike with same functionality and know that corners were not cut to reduce cost… I hope @Cory is following this thread and sees the affection for this unit.

Idont for a second think it means they cant survive hard water, but it might be that it is an added stressor in addition to the stress of shipping, comingling and handling from farm or wc through wholesalers to store and to new tank.

“In their native habitat, these tetras are used to soft, acidic water and dimly lit conditions. Thus, it’s crucial to mimic these conditions in your breeding tank. Use dark-colored substrate at the bottom of the tank, and add plants to provide hiding spots and to help dim the light. You can also add a sponge filter for gentle filtration that won’t suck up the fry once they’re born. Proper water conditions are vital for encouraging them to breed. The water should be soft and slightly acidic, mimicking the tetras’ natural Amazonian habitat. Aim for a pH between 5.0 and 6.0 and a water hardness (dH) around 1.0.“ I read this on a site describing how to breed Green Neon Tetras… I will grant it was one site and I don’t have experience breeding and raising fry other than Cories. If it is factual though, would it be likely that a farm who recreated this environment would then go to the effort to acclimate the fish to higher hardness water? I have had five batches of Green Neon Tetra and only 1 batch suffered any mortality. One would think this to be a significant outlier if normal expectation was 60% mortality at best or as mentioned higher in post the need to buy 20-30 if you want to stock 10….

Are the Brazil and Columbia farms using river water which would also be soft?

In all fairness, I believe Jason has fairly hard tap water, and Neons tend to be a softwater fish. While Neons and such can adapt, I believe Neons are predominantly wild caught. I usually get better than 90% survival on green neon tetras shipped from Aqua Huna. They have very soft water very close to my tap and tank water. I raise my GH to around 4-5 degrees and my KH is kept at around 1-2 degrees. I have very little ongoing mortality of them as well. I think I have had two pass from swim bladder issue out of about 30 in 2 years that have made it past quarantine.

Your first post referenced it pumping air and cust support reccomended changing seals…I guess I presumed from reading that, you were seeing air vent out the outlet into the tank as well.. But if thats not the case,one can ceck voltage at the outlet and at the mains… Loose terminals can easily induce voltage loss, as well as marginally sized wire and long runs etc… As can power strips…

Two weeks later… In addition to Two weeks of growth, I added 2 tissue culture cups to the foreground. 1 of AR mini to right foreground in front of a different AR, with remaining plant mass to left foreground in front of anubias. The other TC cup was S Repens planted in bare spot under the Tiger Lotus and coming forward a bit between the Tiger Lotus and Pink Flamingo crypt… Waiting for them to grow in and establish. They were planted a week ago.

Yep. Last time I serviced 1 of my 207s and cleaned all the tubing and spray bar etc… i reversed them. And wondered why one hose was the right length and the other one was 8 inches too long… hint, if this ever happens to one of you check to make sure you are hooking it up right before whipping out the utility knife to shorten the hose…. Like I did…. Then, the filter would not prime or run…. And when the brain cells woke up and I reconnected everything… well one hose was annoyingly 8 inches too short…. Now I might not always be the brightest, but I am pretty strong on keeping back up parts on hand for emergencies… I had a spare ribbed hose set… I measured twice, cut once and hooked it all up right and it primed wonderfully and ran like it should…. Then I went and ordered a replacement hose set….

I would look over the entire suction side. You can have an air leak into the stream with no water leak out. You would only see a leak which might only be a seep, when the pump is off and then only at lower elevation where sufficient head occurs. regardless, if air is purging out, it is getting in somehow. I am assuming there is no air stone near the water pickup… have you lubricated the seals with silicone grease?checked mating surfaces for nicks, cracks deformation?

Well, air is getting in somewhere…have you checked all of the hose connections as well?

It is a relative risk insofar as it is dose dependent. If you have a well cycled tank and filter, and you are excavating say 10-12 square inches of substrate and placing maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of aquasoil and recovering with substrate I have not been able to discern any ammonia issues with ADA ammazonia. Neither have I picked up with issues after placing 1/4 in thick layer of ADAAmazonia over 24 square inches of substrate and using an aquascaping tool to stir standard aquarium gravel to let the soil granules to sink below the gravel. Other soils might pose more of an issue, and I would not advocate a wholesale excavation of entire substrate in short time period.. To simply supplement a single plant with Ammazonia, I have not seen a problem even when testing afterward. Ymmv…

Sure. You dont need to remove and replace everything to get benefit. I have simply excavated and area I wanted some, poured in that area and capped with the pre existing substrate. I have also placed a little aquasoil in a mesh bag and rolled it up like a log and made a trenchin the substrate and put it in and covered it. I have also simply covered gravel substrate with it to about 1/4 inch and then used an aquascaping tool to push up and down over area till soil was pushed down below substrate level fo planting a foreground carpet…

By golly there are a lot of fish in there..

I heard one for the first time last night. They were tiny when I got them definitely very young. I think I have 2 male and 2 female. Of the two suspected males 1 is about 50% bigger. They are kept in my 17 gallon fish bowl in the kitchen and last night I was sitting at the kitchen table and heard one for the first time. I know the sound from FootheFlowerhorn walstead tank videos. That video is largely what inspired me to get back into the hobby…

I would. Plants tend to do better in cooler water. Algae tends to like warmer. I us an Inkbird controller on my tanks that turns on the heater when the tank drops to 74 degrees and turns it off when the tank gets up to 76. This way you leave the thermostat on the heater just above that temp and it provides a failsafe in case of the Inkbird controller not shutting off. Ie 2 thermostats..,

I would be wanting to add some Calcium and Magnesium to the RO water to feed the plants. You could buy some epsom salt for the magnesium and a calcium supplement, or you could add Seachem Equilibrium… there is no question Seachem Equilibrium will cost a lot more per dose, but it doesnt require much math or measuring… it has the calcium and magnesium at correct ratio and also supplements potassium and iron… I cant speak to the shrimp myself… basically you will look for healthy new growth. It may take weeks… patience is the hardest skill to develop… I would keep up with 50% weekly changes until you have healthy vibrant growth with no visible algae. After that you could reduce to 30%, but your not talking a big difference in gallons. 51/2 vs 8 gallons…

I have used No Planaria to deal with a hydra infestation and did not see it cause any harm to Ramshorn snails that hitchiked in on a plant order…

$12.00 now. Money isnt worth what it used to be…