Pepere

Ebay is cheaper than Amazon. Look for the Inkbird store.

I use INKBIRD Thermostat ITC-306T . It does not have the wifi function to send alarms to your phone and let you adjust temps remotely. It does however suit my needs to a T.

Just mentioning that you don’t necessarily need “the absolute best” fertilizer schedule. Within appropriate nutrition there is a range that works well…. Some people are constantly altering their fertilization rather than picking something that will work well and working to keep those levels stable. Plants adjust to the soup being provided. Alter the soup and the plant expends energy adjusting again.. By and large I agree with you. Just providing a small amount of context…

And yet Aquascapers have great success both with EI and with lean dosing.

Yes. I show the pics to friends and family and they just nod politely… Early on I had no idea. I tried finding advice online and mostly heard “just put it where it looks good to you.” In reality it is not horrid advice, because early on you are going to be quite occupied learning how to just grow healthy plants and try to control Algae… i think Takashi Amano is quoted to have said “You can’t learn to Aquascape until you have learned to grow healthy plants.”

Well, seeing it is riparian creek, and peaks in spring, it likely is not a point of decreasing waterchanges as naturally water flow in a creek would be high in spring.. But likely photoperiod and intensity would be at peak so pegging lighting and perhaps increasing flow might recreate conditions… observing local streams ponds and lakes, I notice Algae highest surrounding the solstice. By mid August it clears dramatically…

But that begs the question…. If you actively try to cultivate algae, does it struggle to survive?

I know Fluval recommends new o rings at a year. Other brands might be different. I wonder if the reputation for being prone to leaking is due to not lubing and changing o rings as recommended.

A lot of them are hiding. 29 gallon 14 neons 12 lambchop rasbora 3 American Flagfish 8 Serpae Tetra 8 emerald Green Corydora 6 Kuhli loaches

It did end up costing me about twice as much, but it allows me an inline co2 diffuser and circular flow of water across top of the tank, down front back and back up across the full width of the tank holding co2 bubbles to stay in suspension.. As to complexity, labor etc, I so much more prefer the 15-20 minutes I might spend cleaning the canister filter monthly over the multiple times a week I was fiddling with the Tidal..,

The beauty of a free market economic system…. We all get to make our own decisions as to what we wish to purchase…

I do 50% water changes in order to keep waste organics and algae fragments to a minimum. It is a simple practice to decrease the incidence for Algae to grow. Shortly after starting this practice I noticed significant reduction of algae growth and nitrate levels. With a python system, it really doesn't take much longer to do a 50% water change than a 10-25%.

I originally bought and installed a Tidal 35 in my first 29 gallon tank. I think it is a ridiculously design piece of plastic masquerading as a filter. In order for such a thing to filter, the water has to pass through media and not bypass the media. The Tidal 35 is little more than a pump to move water around the tank with precious little filtering taking place. One of the best decisions I made was to chuck the Tidal 35 and replace it with a canister filter and flow bar. Had I gone with the canister filter at the beginning, the money I spent on the Tidal 35 would have covered half of my canister filter cost.

As an aside, I have no need of nitrate reducing filter media. I do a 50% water change weekly and need to dose nitrates in the tank with fertilizer weekly as after water change nitrate levels are lower than 10 ppm. I also redose midweek to next water change. I also clean my canister filter monthly as per manufacturer recommendation, and not at 3-6 month intervals as some people advocate. By cleaning the filter monthly it is not anywhere near the chore that it appears to be with 3-6 month intervals. I suspect by cleaning it out monthly I am removing a lot of poo and detritus that would otherwise be decomposing in the filter and pumping out nitrates… I also suspect monthly cleaning reduces waste organics in the tank that tend to facilitate algae growth.

I am not sold on the benefits of rock, pumice ceramic hard media types…. I never put them in. I put in nylon scrubbies instead. In essence the marketing claim of the various hard media is their porous structure gives dramatic surface area for growth of beneficial bacteria. I suspect that the functional surface area of such media is dramatically less than the calculated due to small pore size. Ie: once a biofilm forms, flow is impeded to the smaller internal pores. The second marketing claim for these media types that the inner core of these products are anoxic and breaks down nitrate to nitrogen gas… which would require decreased flow… My suspicion is that the nylon scrubbies give dramatically higher surface area than hard type media. I dont have lab proof, but the hard media folk dont seem to offer lab results either… We all get to make our own decision about such things. Mine was to substitute nylon pot scrubbies over ceramics, pumices etc…

Less friction and abrasion as you fit the lid to the canister hence longer leak free life.

If it was my filter, replacing the impeller would be my first attempt to fix the rattle. Its the only moving part. Its what is going to make noise, and it is what is going to wear. My guess would be the tolerance between the shaft and the impeller itself is looser than when new…. But, I have guessed wrong on things before….

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….