tolstoy21

@AdamS Hard to say. I'd think If it's running correctly, and the flow rate is correct, there should be no bacteria in the water column to transfer. Some units will list suggested flow rates for various purposes. This is typically found in the more expensive units that require a dedicated pump sized specifically to their use. But, in general, you just want the water going through it to have a decent contact time with the UV light.

I'be been running these in a couple different tanks where my fish-load tends to cause occasional bacterial blooms CoolSpider UV Sterilizer So far I like them. Been very effective. Been running them maybe 6 months. I have also used the Green Killing Machine in the past and liked that as well. Both of those are good options. Very easy to setup and remove.

I would consider the following -- Make sure the java moss cannot get sucked into the return pump. Probably not hard to do, but if it get sucked in, it will eventually (or suddenly) choke the impeller. Have mechanical filtration before the java moss so that the only water going to the moss is clean and free from all detritus. You can probably accomplish this through the use of filter socks on the pipes coming in. You don't want the java moss getting too clogged up with detritus because it could become a bottleneck for water flow and removing and cleaning it is probably a much bigger chore then removing and cleaning a filter sock or some replacing a sheet of filter floss. Otherwise, I like the idea. I also prefer java moss over pothos, but this is just a personal preferred and not based on any real science or anything. I would use xmas moss over java moss, again just a preference, but I like that it grows denser than java moss and looks nicer. If you're looking for xmas moss, when the time comes, send me a PM. I have a ton of it and wind up chucking out handfuls of it from time to time. I'll gladly send you some.

Nice thing about reactors is that you don't get 'sprite water'. Downside of them is that you'll need a small pump to run water through them as CO2 is fed into the reactor. I ran one of these in my sump on a 125 for a while --> https://www.sera.de/us/product/freshwater-aquarium/sera-flore-co2-active-reactor-500--1000/ There are a lot of DIY reactor videos out there as well.

For a 3d background, I would imagine if it's properly affixes with silicon one can probably avoid a large buildup of mulm and detritus behind it. To do this you'd probably just need to make sure to have a solid bead of caulk around the entire border/edge.

Yes, the slim backgrounds from universal rocks are super slim. They are not as awesome as the 3d ones, but they don't take up any space. They won't protrude out past the rim so anything you can clip in your tank now should be able to be clipped in after.

Is the back glass tempered too? You don't have to plumb through the bottom. You can use an overflow box attached to the back of your aquarium. I have a slim one on mine. Slim overflow

I have a tank with discus with a similar depth (front to back) but opted for a slim background. I would imagine 32 cm would be enough, especially since the entire background isn't going to be 18 cm. Visually, it might make the tank looked cramped but I doubt the fish will mind. How long is the tank? How deep?

Water conditioner typically does not affect the hardness and/or Ph of the water. With a Kh as high as yours, I doubt there is any reasonable amount of drift wood or leaves you could use to significantly drop those numbers. Hard to say if tetras will do well in your water because I can't tell what your Ph/KH reading are other than they hit the maximum that the test strip can read. Neon's should be fine up to a Ph or 8. Higher than that, maybe? Honestly, I think all of us just starting this hobby tend to stress over water params only to find that, over time, many typical, pet store fish will acclimate to a wider range of parameters than the internet would have us believe. In my experience, trying to change your water's makeup can be a frustrating and usually unsuccessful effort. There are products you can use to lower the Ph/Kh of your aquarium, but these tend to make your parameters bounce. It's best to just stay the course with what you have. What fish appreciate the most is stable parameters over perfect parameters. Good luck and stay with the hobby even if you don't succeed with your first tank. (Alas, many of us don't. I know I didn't). And ask any question you want. Many knowledgable people here to help you on the journey.

Make sure the bottom pane is not tempered before drilling or else it will shatter into a million bits. This is easy to check with a pair of polarized sun glasses. Many tutorials online show how to do this.

I use a dollar-a-gallon 29g. This was a bunch of years back, but I don't remember the 2 glass dividers being super expensive. But, yeah use anything that will hold water, is easy to work with and inexpensive.

Agree 100% on the filter socks. I wished I had planned them into my sump design.

I followed the below video for as a simple design. Plumbing the sump and adjusting flow rates is a different topic not covered here and will depend on how you plan to feed water to and from the sump. You will need a install a PVC gate valve to tweak the flow rate for the return line to the sump. Additionally there are a number of options on for how you can configure the overflow/return -- https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/content/post/md-2017-08-durso-herbie-bean-animal-overflow#:~:text=Durso%2C Herbie%2C and BeanAnimal refer,see used on an aquarium.

If this fish s truly constipated, epsom salt and a little bit if smushed peas can help relieve it. https://be.chewy.com/aquarium-fish-constipation/ Epsom salt can also be attempted as a possible cure for dropsy --

Ah, Ok I see what you're up against now. Just drill the clear parts. 😛 😉🤪🤣

Keeping the fry in the tank runs the risk of 2 things: 1) The mother killing other fish in your aquarium while protecting the fry 2) The fry being eaten by other fish I use a turkey baster on fry all the time. If you're gentle with the fry, they'll be fine.

Feed them! Find foods small enough for them to eat. Frozen baby brine shrimp are easy to find in many pet stores. I would move the mother back to the tank. She'll be unhappy in the breeder box and won't really be able to care for the fry in a meaningful way in the box. I wouldn't put the fry back into the community tank if you want them all to survive. The magic of nature! Sometimes fish will just do their thing without you knowing or doing anything. Other times, you really have to usher along the process. The conditions were just right. But the size of 'just right' is not a tiny, hard-to-hit bullseye. A lot of times its a more forgiving range or parameters. My guess is they will breed again. Hard to say. In regards to LFSs, I've gotten everything from 'Go Away!', to 'well take em off your hands for free', to store credit or $10 a piece. In terms of cash or trade-in value, it would be roughly 1/4 what the store would sell them for. For apistos, typically you sell them in male/female pairs. Good luck raising them and have fun!

It feels like just yesterday that they were in diapers and eating paramecium.

Not in my experience. I haven't seen that in any of my fish. I guess it could be normal, just haven't seen it myself. Attaching pics of my male and female.

I'd put them in like every 3 months. if it's a new plant, just bury three or four tabs in the substrate underneath it. As swords grow, they can create quite extensive root systems so you'll want to increase the number of tabs at that point, and position them all around the plant, not directly under it.

And they will work fine without the hassle of harvesting from nature.

Agreed. Make sure you have bits rated for steel, otherwise they will either burn out or break before you get through the stand. It also helps to have a drill with decent RPMs.

Try conditioning them without live foods and see if that works. Mine spawn a few times a week just eating things like Hikari Vibra Bites, black worm pellets, freeze dried tubifex worms, Northfin Bug Pro, etc. I make a mix in out of this and feed it 2x a day. I think the key is quality foods, not necessarily live. But yeah, you can't go wring with live foods. I feed the fry BBS and, as they get a little bigger, grindal worms, eventually switching them to flake. So, no real recommendations on what is good that can be harvested from nature. But a good, quality flake food, crushed up, will work as well.

Ignore the high-range Ph test. It's only applicable if your Ph is above the level that's readable by the regular Ph test. The high-range test is more applicable to African cichlid or reef/saltwater aquariums. On your water it's just giving bogus readings cause your Ph is not super alkaline. Looking at your readings, I'd take an educated guess that your Ph drops over time as a result of buffers being eaten up by botanicals, or whatever you have in there that acidifies the water (fish waste itself can have this effect too). Try the fluval pellets and see if they can help lessen the impact of your water changes. Let us know how it goes. If you stage your water in a bucket, you can mix in some Seachem acid buffer to eat up some of the available Kh and reduce the overall Ph before adding it to the tank. (A few drops of muriatic also works, but you'd have to do a little bit of testing and tweaking to get the dosage right).

Yup that's the stuff.