Milliardo Peacecraft

Thanks! Good one to know.

@Pepere The main preventative maintenance on a plastic check valve is to remember to replace it more frequently instead of running to failure and then replacing it. Kind of like what i do with all of the seals on my canister filter. Every 3 years or so I replace all of the seals on the filter to reduce the chances of having a leak develop. Same with my HOB Fluval C4 filter, every 2-3 years I change the motor and o-ring on that, granted for that one it seems to start making a ticking sound by then anyways. As of the air pump itself, an adjustable rate pump wouldn't outright prevent a leak from occurring, but the hope is that the diaphragm would reduce the leak rate and the gfci would kick out the power if the pump did get soaked and then have the power restored to it. It wouldn't replace the need for a check valve in the system, it would just be one more thing to try to reduce the size of the leak.

I was wondering if anyone has noticed a difference in adding fertilizer to their aquarium in the morning vs doing so at night. Historically I've added fertilizer at night around 9-10 pm, mostly because that's when the house gets quiet and I have a few minutes to get a few things done before going to bed. I was thinking about that over the weekend a bit and I'm debating on if that's not the best idea. By doing that the aquarium ends up having the highest concentration of nutrients during the lowest light periods. My finnex 24/7 light has a rather long ramp up and ramp down rate, so I'm guessing the light is too low for the plants to do a whole lot with the nutrients during those periods, but I question if it's plenty for the algae. I question if it would be better to add the fertilizers in the morning before I left for work so the concentration would be higher during the higher light periods.

@mynameisnobody I currently use a multiple needle valve setup and bleed the excess air off to control the flow rate without putting excess strain on the diaphragm of the pump. I am trying to get away from that if possible, because appaerntly I'm not the best at keeping up with preventative maintenance on the cheap plastic check valve, as I currently discovered my current one has failed in the open position. Thus you end up with a line that is directly open to your room should the water backflow in the line. Thankfully I discovered the failed check valve when I turned off the air pump myself, otherwise I could have had quite the mess...

I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a quiet air pump for a 75 gallon aquarium, preferably one with an adjustable air flow on it. Over the weekend I replaced my 29 gallon aquarium with a 75 gallon aquarium and my old AquaClear 20 air pump is now screaming in disapproval. It is definitely not happy on its new home. I'm not sure how old that pump is. I'm guessing 10 to 15 years maybe, it's been long enough that I don't really remember, so it probably is time to replace it. Since the aquarium is on my livingroom, low sound is a high priority.

It's not totally necessary but I've found it convenient for killing off anything that maybe on it and it helps waterlog the wood faster so it sinks.

I found this GFCI extension cord at home depot that says it automatically resets when power is restored to the unit after a power outage. I might pick one up and see if it functions that way. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-2-ft-12-3-15-Amp-In-Line-GFCI-with-Power-Block-Red-04-00105/303694836

I was wondering if anyone has had any luck having severums in a planted aquarium and if so, what sort of plants have survived them. I've always found them quite interesting, but everything I've read online seems to point to them being little terrors in regards to plants. I was curious if that was really true or if there are some types of plants that do survive them.

I would avoid ones like the one below that says it has "safe start" on it. Apparently these require you to press reset each time you want to use the cord.

@Galabar. I'm wonderimg if it's how the "smart" feature on the power strip cycles the power on and off that may be kicking out the GFCI. I wouldn't think a standard power strip with surge suppression only would kick out the outlet.

Something like this?

@Pepere When you are referring to a grounding probe in your aquarium, do you have a stainless steel probe in your aquarium, and if so, where di you attach it to?

I was wondering if any of you have used GFCI outlets with your aquariums. An aquarium seems to be the definition of why you would want a GFCI outlet, several things plugging into a wall outlet that are above an in the water, and then you stick your arm in the water frequently without even thinking twice about it. I've never seen any home user have a GFCI outlet on their aquarium, nor have I had one for the past 30-40 years of aquariums. I'm debating about swapping out the outlet behind my aquarium with a GFCI outlet, and I was wondering if anyone else has done that?

I just use a garden hose hanger from Ace hardware mounted on the side of a shelf in my basement. Quite simple, cheap, and it works good.

I'm thinking your correct, I think I should experiment a bit with this concept just to see what happens. What's the worst that happens, I kill off a plant... lol. Well that certainly won't be the first time thats happened. 😉

Using a pot for rooted plants in a gravel substrate. That's a cool idea, not sure why that never occurred to me to try that. How big of a pot would one need to use for something like an Amazon sword to use better soil for the pot, but still being able to use gravel everywhere else. Overtime would it choke off the plant, or make it so root bound that you wouldn't be able to get root tabs in?

Thai is an absolutely amazing aquarium in the picture.

@anewbie Question for you, for a 75 gallon aquarium do you think 1 blade AI light would work. The light quality from you pics looks quite a bit better on the blade vs the fluval 3.0 and the fluvals I've seem in person do look a bit more yellow and not as vibrant as my current finnex klc. It looks like the blade AI has 95 degree spread for the light where as the fluval 3.0 and my finnex has 120 degree coverage, so I'm wondering if the 18" wide 75 gallon would require 2 lights or if 1 would work.... for the price of the blade AI I am really hoping one 48" long light would work.

That is awesome! I'll have to give it a try to make a few well blending in bottom contours/caves.

@CJs Aquatics. That is awesome! I love the line "I think he would rather starve than eat anything..." He sounds like a kindergartener if it isn't hot dogs and chicken nuggests forget it and your the creative parent trying to find ways to hide the veggies in something they will eat.

@Sarina . Thank you! That is an awesome reply. It's amazing that plants will utilize multiple methods of reproducing themselves to insure survival.

As I was sitting looking at my aquarium last night, a thought occurred to me. How do underwater flowers function biologically. I have a working understanding of how flowers grown out of the water function. Pollinators are attracted to the pollen/nectar and it is then passed from plant to plant thus generating seeds, which is the ultimate goal of the flower/plant. How does this function for underwater plants. Does it just release stuff into the water column and it eventually finds other plants, does it hope other critters spread it, or is it something totally different. I was wondering if any of you have ever thought about that before and maybe had more insight. I realized last night that I have never really thought about that before. I know I could probably just go to Google and read a few articles and get an answer, but sometimes it's more interesting to contemplate about it for a while thinking about how everything works and then think about it with others. The process of discovery is sometimes more fulfilling and interesting of a journey than the answer is.

I've always have had issues with keeping neon tetras and they never have seemed to last. I've always just assumed some of my other fish decided they looked like sushi, though I've never seen them really terrorized. As of the Otos, those have been challenging in the past, but my luck has been way better since I started using the Rapshy super greens food. I've had outstanding luck with otos since using that. My conclusion is that there wasn't enough algee long term to keep the Otos happy.

I have a clown pleco that hides in a house I have as decor in my tank, or at least I think he hides wedged in there somewhere and it will be weeks on end where I don't see him, and I'm convinced that he became sushi as I have fish that would clean him up and be quite happy about it... but then after a few weeks I'll spot him again and he's just fine and very healthy. He just is never visible.

Is this a Ramshorn snail and if, how much of a headache are they in your aquarium. He magically appeared last night, about a month after I got a few new plants. For size reference the cube of Rapshy food is about a quarter inch.