Bill Smith

Hi all: I use Easy Green heavily on all my tanks, and I'm very happy with it. However, I tend to overstock most of my tanks. So sometimes, rather than do an extra water change mid-week, I'd like to fertilize my plants heavily with everything EXCEPT nitrogen, especially phosphates and potassium. I know that Easy Green is heavy in nitrogen, and I could just do a water change to reset it and dose with Easy Green, but sometimes I'd rather just let the plants use the nitrogen that's in there and supplement with all the other nutrients. I have been using Seachem Flourish as this alternative, but I don't really think it's doing anything. It's too watered down. Do any of you plant experts have a recommendation for a plant nutrient supplement that is heavy in everything BUT nitrogen? For water column feeders, I'm stocking anubias, crypts, java fern, water sprite, red ludwigia, baby tears, nothing too advanced, and no CO2. Thanks!

I have never found the Easy Carbon alone to be very effective at reducing hair algae. Easy Carbon combined with a Siamese Algae Eater or two? Now that's a potent mix!

What's your plant quantity/density? Got a pic? Yes, it sounds like your plants are really consuming it all. Cory has suggested in the livestreams to aim for 20 or so ppm nitrates in the tank at all times. You can slow down the consumption by reducing the light.

For @Ksant6 and @Solidus1833: Not to toot my own horn, but I managed to put together a fairly functional DIY version last weekend. Hope you like!

I HAVE FISH! And I have the crappy photos to prove it. I have very specific species in mind, so I decided to stock these nano-ponds strictly with mail order choices (lousy LFS options in North San Diego County). I made my selections based on these criteria, 1. A variety of color themes 2. A variety of small fish types to fit the small size of the nano-ponds 3. Not prohibitively difficult to breed 4. Fish I've never kept or rarely kept Love opinions/observations on the choices, because they're pretty new to me. I started sprinkling in some greenery as well, but I have more coming. So sorry for the poor quality of the photos; I will try to get better ones soon! Nano Pond #1 (RED): These are 12 cherry barbs, with a water hyacinth and some duckweed for cover. There's also a dwarf lily bulb in there. Nano Pond #2 (YELLOW): These are 12 leopard danios, also with a water hyacinth and a few stems of moneywort. And a dwarf lily bulb inside. More greenery to be added! Nano Pond #3 (GREEN): These are 12 green kubotai rasboras, also with a water hyacinth and the beginnings of some errant water lettuce that appeared out of nowhere. Dwarf lily bulb as well. Again, more greenery coming next week! Nano Pond #4 (BLUE): These are three MFF trios (plus one extra, total 13) Hawaiian blue Moscow guppies. The females are nice and robust! This pond also has a water hyacinth, a dwarf lily bulb, and some moneywort stems. Hope those moneywort spreads and starts growing upward! Nano Pond #5 (RAINBOW) These are 10 very young clown killies. Also with a water hyacinth (no lily) in here, with more greens coming next week. I wonder if I'll need to think about lowering my water level much to allow for jumping...maybe duckweed or water lettuce in here as well? What do you think? Nano Pond #6 (LIVE FOOD) I have a large culture of daphnia magna arriving tomorrow, so I hope to keep it alive in here with a large supply of green water I've already prepared. Greenery coming next week: Guppy Grass, Subwassertang, Water Lettuce, and Salvinia! Which of these would you suggest for the clown killies to mitigate jumping? Anyway, let's see how this goes. I will try to get some better pictures in direct sunlight soon, and I'll be feeding them twice a day, with Aquarium Co-Op Easy Fry Food in the morning, and live/frozen baby brine shrimp or small daphnia in the evening. Any thoughts, concerns, advice, please feel free. Most of these fish are new to me! Thanks for looking! Bill

I have drilled holes in the bottom of a tank and run directly to a canister filter, with no problems for years: Non-tempered, of course: I know it's not exactly the same position you were describing, but I figure if this works, your notion will work. I would say drill away! Bill

If you want something nicer, you can always use the ribbed polycarbonate windows from Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sunlite-24-in-x-48-in-x-5-16-in-Polycarbonate-Clear-Twinwall-Sheet-174040/305560353 You cut them with a circular saw or table saw or bandsaw, and they're clear enough to pass light through. Downside is you have to buy a 2' x 8' sheet for $30-ish (cheaper in-store than online), so it's cost effective only if you plan to have more than one. I covered six tanks with a single sheet, so it's worth it for me! I covered my 29 and several 20-longs with them:

LOL I'm flattered, thanks! I'd get right on it, but it looks like @MickS77 and @ChefConfit found an awesome solution. I'm picking one up straightaway!

@Frost Not sure how wide your tank is, but I have patched this space in the past by going to Home Depot and buying plastic "No Parking" or "For Sale" signs. They're a few bucks each, and you can "score and snap" them with an x-acto blade or razor blade. They're not clear, but face-down, the white isn't ugly. They can also be cut with sharp scissors if you need to make holes for tubing and cords. Much easier than big polycarbonate DIY lids. Looks like a 1" strip, taped to the back of your backer, would do ya. 🙂

Glad to hear Trello is working for you! I have Android and tried Aquarium Note and one of the other tank tools. Problem with those, for me, is that they requires some setup time. Trello doesn't really. You can just start typing.

Thanks guys, great thoughts!

I have liquid rock here in Southern California, and the pH out the tap is 8.0. I have some mail order fish arriving soon from areas with lower pH, and I will need to get them used to my water. Normally I'd do some drip acclimation over time, but it occurred to me that I could use pH-Down to artificially drop the pH in my quarantine tank to the right levels, and then the natural buffering tendencies of my water would bring it back up over a slow period.This should be slower than drip acclimation, and potentially much less work! Can it be that there's a real useful purpose for pH-Up and pH-Down products? 😉 Thoughts? Has anyone tried this?

Thanks! Yeah, totally makes sense. From my internet search, it seemed a couple of these (like the ADA one) were packed in some fairly elaborate packaging, when a short poster tube would have sufficed.

I can't imagine competing products would be a problem here, there are no such rules posted anywhere that I know of. I would think it's fair to compare/contrast Aquarium Co-Op products with the competition. It's just the affiliate links where posters are trying to generate money for themselves that I would recommend avoiding.

Nicely done! The splitter, very clever. I hadn't thought of that when I tried to set up one of my own. What do you think is the cost of all the parts? Bill

All filled up and ready for denizens! I have some fish and daphnia coming late in the week. The right-most planter has only an airstone; all the rest have box filters.

LOL Thanks Daniel. Yes, it is sized for the Aquarium Co-Op root tabs; 5/16" is the perfect hole diameter. I have updated my post above to be more clear about that. I suspect that's a fairly common capsule size.

I normally don't order lots of root tabs. I should; I have tons of plants that can use them. But they are more buoyant than anything I've ever seen in a aquarium, and it's really difficult to get them deep under the root of my plants (even with forceps) so that they'll stay there before the tablet casing begins to degrade! It sometimes takes me several minutes to deposit one tablet, and it's a task I really don't look forward to. When folks on this forum a couple weeks ago mentioned a very expensive, unavailable-to-the-US mechanism made just for this purpose, I hit the internets. But there was no way I could have something like this shipped to the US for less than $60! So I started researching the DIY route, and after some trial and error and lots of research, I've come up with this one-handed solution. It can be made for less than $10 in parts from your local Home Depot. In fact, you can make two for about the same cost! It is sized for Aquarium Co-Op Easy Root Tabs. PARTS: So let's dive in. These are the parts I collected together (non-affiliate links) : 1. Straight PEX Pipe: 1/4" ID, 5' length: $1.76 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Apollo-1-4-in-x-5-ft-White-PEX-Pipe-APPW514/301541226 2. Wood dowel: 3/16" diameter, 4' length: $0.70 https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-16-in-x-48-in-Wood-Round-Dowel-HDDH31648/204354369 3. Drawer pull: 1-1/14" birch cabinet knob: $0.98 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty-Rowland-1-1-4-in-32-mm-Birch-Wood-Round-Cabinet-Knob-P10512H-BIR-C/204143998 4. Drawer pull: 1-13/16" birch cabinet knob: $1.88 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty-Classic-1-13-16-in-46-mm-Unfinished-Birch-Wood-Round-Cabinet-Knob-P10515C-BIR-C5/100156480 5. Springs: 6-pack zinc-plated compression springs (used the 3/8" x 1-1/8" x 0.041" spring): $4.22 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Zinc-Plated-Compression-Spring-6-Pack-16087/202045468 TOTAL: $9.54 TOOLS: 1. Drill and assorted bits 2. Wood glue (or white glue) 3. 5-minute epoxy PREP: The 1/4" PEX pipe does not fit the Easy Root tabs. I made it fit by enlarging the first inch or so of one end of the pipe using a 5/16" drill bit. Now, the smaller end of the Easy Root Tab fits very snugly. If I don't push it in too far, it's a perfect grip! Next, I cut a 12" length of the PEX pipe and a 13" length of the dowel. I don't have very deep tanks, so this is fine for me. But this can be cut to any length you need; just make sure the dowel is always one inch longer than the tube. The wooden knobs already have holes drilled in them, which made it very easy to enlarge them to exactly the diameters I needed. For the smaller knob, I enlarged the hole to 3/16", making sure not to drill all the way through. I glued in my wood dowel with a drop of wood glue to hold it permanently: For the larger knob, I enlarged the hole to 3/8" diameter, this time going all the way through. I made sure to start with a 3/16" bit, and repeatedly went larger and larger until I reached 3/8". This ensured my hole stayed centered and I had a nice clean cut all the way through. I glued in the length of PEX pipe with 5-minute epoxy. This should hold well enough for my purposes. I'm using the shorter, wider spring for this project (3/8" x 1-1/8" x 0.41"). For good measure, I used some 5-minute epoxy to glue the spring to my plunger. This is totally optional, but gives me one less piece I can lose. That's pretty much all there is to do. I just inserted the plunger in the tube and I'm ready to try it out! I placed an Easy Root Tab in the end, just far enough for it to grip, but not so far that it won't push out easily. I inserted the tool with one hand into the tank, pushed the plunger, and voila! A deposited tablet in 5 seconds! But I am over the moon about how this tool turned out. I just placed about 20 tabs in two minutes. Even with coarse gravel, forcing the pill in was no problem. The two pieces come apart for drying, as that wood dowel won't last forever. Now I understand why the professional ones are so expensive. This makes things so much easier. I'm definitely making a longer one for deeper tanks. Hope you find this useful. Thanks for reading! Bill

You could weigh it down with some fishing weights and fishing line...

I would think Amano shrimp would stand a better chance in there and help with your cleanup...

All wired up! No really, it is! Can't tell? Good!

Prepping the four remaining electrical boxes now...might be filling the remaining four planters tomorrow!

I'm playing with box filters again, hot rodding them with multiple densities of foam in one experiment. Have to agree with @Cory, in the sense that I think it comes down to preference for servicing.I would agree that sponge filters are probably faster and less effort, but even with the bag technique for the sponge filter, the box filter is a cleaner service for me. Bill

Rock-shaped potted plant holders. 🙂

Yes, absolutely. It doesn't use much power. I imagine that could work...it's a long way for the Vibra-Bites to fall, and giving the rotating nature of the food drum, you're going to have a pretty wide dispersion area. Do you keep your tank lid-less? And would your cat have too much temptation there? 🙂 Yeah, fair enough. I suppose one way to think about it could be to "lean in" to the feeder presence as part of your design. Clipped to the rim it would also be projecting the "moon" onto the ceiling. And you could cover the USB cord with black electrical tape as it runs down the corner frame, or make it part of your design, with some back-painted rigid tubing or something...it would barely be visible. Either way, it's pretty easy to experiment!