tolstoy21

I also like and use Fluval 3.0s and have thought about a Kessil for aesthetic reasons, but have yet to pull the trigger on one of those because $$$. My wife wants me to put a large angel or discus tank in our living room (darn spouses and their demands!), and when we do that some day, I might check out the Kessils.

Yes. It looks that way to me. The sump looks like it also has two inlet pipes, perhaps for a Herbie style overflow. The other side is where you’d typically put your return pump plumbed to the water return in your tank. That specific sump may have had an external return pump as opposed to one sitting inside the sump, in the water. Link below to different styles of a sump overflow plumbing in an aquarium. How Durso, Herbie, and Bean Animal Overflows Work - Marine Depot Blog BLOG.MARINEDEPOT.COM Aquarium overflows can be a tricky DIY project. Skip the mistakes and learn from the experts at Marine Depot. We’ll show you how to do it right!

Yeah, I generally check if the light has a par rating chart first, illustrating par at the various depths, and then see if I can find any information or reviews discussing its realistic spread in various tank sizes. i only really do this in my display tanks. My other tanks I just grab the most inexpensive planted LED I can find and not really worry about its performance ratings.

@MAC Yeah same. I have about 30 healthy, growing, 2-month old fry out of these two fish. My hope is that there is nothing environmental in the tank they were spawned in with the parents, since they've never been relocated out of that.

@Culo - I broke down the quarantine tank that I believe this started in. But knowing that, the parameters were all well within healthy scope -- nitrates < 5ppm, PH 7.4, everything else of note that could cause stress = 0. Temp 78F. To be honest, I think this pair of apistos came to me with issues. They originally lived in their own tank until they spawned and I moved the male out to the community tank. The female died 2 weeks after spawning, which would be three or so weeks after I received them. The male developed pop-eye in the community tank shortly after, which is full of otherwise healthy fish and has been stable for a few years. I didn't treat them with anything after purchase, given that they were going to stay isolated as a breeding pair. I only moved the male because of aggression issues with the female after spawning. I guess at this point, I'll re-quarantine and treat for internal parasites, and use salt for any possibility of fungus. Unless anyone else has other suggestions.

I just finished treating this fish for pop-eye and moved it back to the community tank after a month-long quarantine. (Hmm . . . eyes seem bulgy, actually now that I look at these pics. But nothing like they were.) These spots on the head started as one teeny speck while in the quarantine tank, but I dismissed it as discoloration since the fish had just finished a course of Kanaplex (soaked in food) and salt, and then convalesced in a clean tank for three weeks. Now the spots are getting bigger. Fungus? Hole-in-the-head? Thoughts? I lost the female a few months back suddenly after she went south fast and her stomach bloated and showed what looked like red internal hemorrhaging.

I use a simple ten gallon I leave empty until I need it. I have plastic decor/plants for some cover for fish. If I can, I try to have an extra, small sponge filter sitting in a tank somewhere, ready to go to drop in the ten gallon when I need to use it. That's pretty much it. When I'm done, I break it all down, clean it out, sterilize sponge filter and drop that back into a tank to get cycled for next time I use it.

If you look at drip emmitters, you also have to make sure your water line is pressurized to the correct degree. Most of them require you to be running at no higher than 30 - 40 psi. This is easily achieved with simple valve that is usually available inexpensively through most drip irrigation vendors. I use the 0.5, 1 and 2 gph emitters from DripWorks. Not sure their degree of accuracy, but they work in my applications. I use simple in-line solenoid valves plugged into simple plug-in timers to help regulate the drip duration.

Sand is not required. I breed apistos fine on Carib Sea Peace River gravel substrate. It’s small sized and they can dig in and rearrange it fine, as they like to do. This is my favorite non-black sand substrate. I think apistos appreciate (but dont require) something they can dig in and rearrange.

I’m in the area too (Jersey side) and use both Fish Factory and Hidden Reef. Sorry, can’t help ya on the splitting the costs of tubing, but just wanted to chime and say hello to fellow aquarists in the area.

Definitely good advice. With plants, aquatic or otherwise, you have to learn to adjust one thing and then just wait. Plants don’t turn around overnight. It could take a few weeks before you notice any change at all after putting in root tabs. Resist the urge to make additional changes until some time passes and you’ve spent time observing your plants. And as Cory stated, put a bunch of root tabs in. Don’t be shy on using them. I put 6 to 8 under large swords and replace those every 3 ish months.

Yeah pretty much that's my experience of married life. Someone gotta catch you before you go too far down those slippery slopes!

I think it all depends on how they are spraying for pests. If they are fogging your rooms, then yeah you need to cover up tanks. If they are spritzing around the baseboards and cleaning inside kitchen cupboards and whatnot, you probably don't need to worry so much unless your tanks are under or near the cupboards in the kitchen. Years ago, I lived in an apartment in Brooklyn that sprayed regularly for cockroaches/pests and they just sprayed stuff around the baseboards that didn't get up into the air at all. From your description, I'm going to guess that's what they are more likely to do than fumigate. Really, in the end, it depends on how fine a spray they are using and proximity to aquarium. Draping plastic over the tanks is probably a good, easy, safe option. But if the pest product is completely aerosolized as a fog, then you'll probably need to seal them up somehow. If you don't need to leave for a while when they come to do this, and they don't show up with respirators, I'd guess your fish will be fine.

In had the same exact problem a few years ago in a large community tank with three dalmatian mollies. I had mostly tetras and danios. At feeding, the mollies dominated the food situation and were overall bullies. I had about 50 neons in this tank, but that number didn't stop the aggression. Maybe it spread it out, but still, fish were being aggressively chased away from food. In the end, I brought them back to my LFS which gave me a little bit of credit on the fish.

I just asked a question about heaters for the Ziss and @MickS77 recommended the Uniclife 25w heater available on Amazon. I have since purchased one and can attest that it fits the Ziss blender perfectly. Only had it a few days, so I cannot comment on its quality long term, but it is a perfect fit and reasonably priced. Here's our original thread -

Also @Cory, I blame your root tabs. I used them. Now I have too many crypts. 🙂

Yeah not sure on the resale part yet. I'd say, maybe? I need to thin out some crypts and wanted to grow out the small ones shooting up in the soil in some of my grow-out tanks. Not sure yet if I'm going to try to sell or trade them or not. Just depends on how many I accumulate. Are there any caveats to rock wool?

Can rock wool be used as a medium to propagate plants in pots submerged, or is this something that's better suited for immersed grown plants? If not, what's an easy medium to use in pots for submerged plants? Planted substrate?

I use a Thermapen. Super accurate and fast. Sometimes I even clean it afterwards before using it on a steak or chicken! 🙂

So to ‘calibrate’ it’ just turn the red dial to point to 78 so it matches the actual water temp.

There would be no benefit to RO for your 40 gallon setup. You’d just be incurring the expense and work of remineralizing and buffering the water you just stripped down.

@DanielAre those nice graphs a result of the journaling in a spreadsheet your were talking about in an earlier thread a while back?

My salt and peppers spawn regularly too, but I’m not sure how long between spawns. I’d say I see them laying eggs at least once or twice a month, but I’m not really paying attention 100%, so it’s probably more regularly than that. I don’t do anything to trigger them, they just do their thing. This is in a community tank. I’m not intentionally trying to breed them. Occasionally some survive to adulthood by hunkering down in the java moss or between rocks. I started with 2 and in two years about two dozen have made it to adulthood. I found I had the best survival rates when my dwarf sag had filled in real thick. When I removed all that one day I was like - wow look at all these corys I had no idea we’re in here!

As @MickS77said, you sometimes need to calibrate them. They’re not always calibrated 100% out of the box. Those steps are in the instructions. However, I have a few that just won’t calibrate accurately not matter how hard I play with the red dial. For those I just adjust them according to the tank temp reading and tweaking a bit and don’t pay attention to what the dial says.

I really like Flourite Black Sand and pretty much exclusively use that. #1 reason I like it -- looks. I like the black sand look. Plants grow well very well in it, and I have noticed i almost never have to vac it, ever. My corydora pack does a good job kicking up everything into the water column from the surface of that and that gets pulled out into the filter. Can't remember the last time I used vac. Ok so cons -- and there are few: Expensive. Hard to keep plants rooted until they root themselves. Has to be super rinsed or you'll have an insanely cloudy tank. Has iron in it, so git will get stuck in a magnetic cleaner if you get too close to it, then you risk scratching your glass. If you do vac it, its sucks up easily and if you use a python, gets all over your sink and in your trap. So why do i use it after all the above? I like it. Looks nice to me. I'd use it again in a heart beat. It grows plants well.