Milliardo Peacecraft

I'm looking for a 4 to 6" long air stone that produces as fine of bubbles as possible. My current air stone is just a regular air stone from petco that produces fairly large bubbles which results in the glass on the top of the aquarium stays quite wet and grows a fair amount of algae under the light. I'm wondering if a smaller bubble size may produce less spray. I'm also debating on playing around a bit with a few LED lights and figured the smaller bubble size may have nice effects to it having the fine bubbles getting pushed/bent around a little more in the currents within the aquarium.

Thank you. Your explanation lead me in the right direction to get a better understanding of soluble iron vs pH. I've dealt with iron before, but that was with ways to get iron out of drinking water, but I never thought about it before in reverse of wanting to hold iron in its soluble form so plants can utilize it. I attached a link below to an article from Michigan State that has addional info that I found helpful. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/selecting_which_iron_chelate_to_use#:~:text=There are four commonly used,(o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid)).

I wish I could figure out the same thing. Otos are just so passive/timid that everything else tends to claim the food first. Otos are persistent though, and they feed just about the entire time they are moving around. I freeze the gell food into small cubes and then drop a few of them in. It seems it keeps the other fish/snails feed more so there is more algae for the Otos to eat. I also try to put the cubes in when the lighting in the aquarium is low, just before it turns off to give the otos more of a shot at it. I also don't bother to thaw out the little cubes before I add them. They thaw out really fast in the aquarium and the fish don't seem to mind, they start picking at it within minutes.

I ordered mine from Aquarium Coop just after Christmas. If i remember right, I used the notify button and got notified when it was back in stock and then ordered it. I've also seen it at Aquatics Unlimited in Greenfield, WI (near Milwaukee, WI). It's an "almost local" fish shop for me, probably one of the best fish shops in the area.

You might be right on the iron deficiency. I think I'll try dosing Easy Iron twice a week instead of once and see what happens. As of flow, I have quite a bit of that due to overkilled filtration on my 29 gallon aquarium. I have a Fluval C4 HOB and a Fluval 306 canister on it, though both of those will be moved to my 75 gallon aquarium once it's ready to go in a few months, so then it "should" result in a more normal level of flow on that size aquarium.

@Mmiller2001. Your graph intrigues me, can you explain it a bit more or direct me to an explanation of it.

Just an update, after just over a week from my original post some of the leaves at the top of the anubias are now showing a bit of graying on them. I attached a picture of it below. One of the oldest leaves on the plant has a few holes in it as well. Not sure what to attempt next. It does have several roots that are well into the gravel from the driftwood it's mounted to so I'm debating about loading it up with root tabs and seeing if that helps.

I rigged this up for draining and refilling my aquarium, it works awesome. It's 3/4" pvc. The tee on the bottom has a 3/4" inlet and then expands out to 1" on the outlet that then drops the velocity of the water so it comes out nice and gentle. The caps on the end are 2" diameter covers that I put on using calk since that is all I could find at my local hardware store that would work so I didn't suck up fish as I drained the tank.

I think you would do just fine with either rhe cholla wood or the Repashy food, or both, for your plecos. I've used cholla wood and just standard drift wood for my plecos and they have always done just fine. Between the 2, I have seen them hanging out on the cholla wood a bit more, but I think since it's a little softer and more porus it grows more algee/biofilm on its surface that they like to eat.

Your water sounds similar to mine for pH (southern Wisconsin). Mine runs at 8.4 if I do nothing, so I use about 5 mL of pH down for each 50% water change on my 29 gallon to get the pH down to about 8.0. I've kept Otos at these parameters and they have been happy for the past 2 months. As of cories, I've had them for 30+ years as I have always liked them. I've never really had any issues with having them...other than if I try to get panda cories from Petco...those never seem to make it...not really sure that one is all my aquarium though....

I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on which food otocinclus catfish prefer eating. The Repashy Super Green vs the Soilent Green formulation. I have quite a few fish in my aquarium that like to eat algee (clown pleco, bristle nose pleco, 4 mystery snails, and 3 otos), so I need to supplement feeding since I no longer grow enough algee to keep everyone happy. Just to try something I picked up a container of Repashy SuperGreen and I have to admit, I'm becoming a fan. Though I'm not sure my otos are really eating it. I think they may just be timid enough that the snails, cories, platies, and plecos eat up the food before they get a chance. It seems like if any other fish claims it, they stay off. The otos seem healthy and have been in there several months, they don't look super thin, so I'm assuming they are doing well. So far the Repashy food goes into my top 3 foods for my aquarium (Standard flake food, Hikari algee wafers, and now the Repashy food). Since the "algee wafers" don't really seem to have much plant life in them the Otos didn't seem to care for them, hence the purchase of the Repashy food to try. I'm curious of people's opinion of the Super Green vs the Soilent Green because I debated quite a bit over which to get and ultimately just picked one to try. Which do you prefer, are there any advantages one vs the other?

The light I'm using is a Finnex 24/7 planted + (KL-C30A). Unfortunately I don't have a PAR meter and I have it set to change its intensity and hue throughout the day. I would estimate that the light intensity would be up to a level that the plants would find useful from about noon till about 7pm. I haven't run into algee issues since I got rid of the undergravel filter..and I discovered Otos...those things are awesome.

@MattyMHow often do you add rootabs and how many per plant? I've been adding them about once a month. 1 tab for each Cryptocoryne Lucens plant and then about 4 tabs around my small amazon sword.

@SleepyTest results from 2 days after a 50% water change. Nitrite 25 Nitrate 0 GH 150 KH 180 pH 8.0 Cl 0

@Theplatymaster Yes, I use easy green, from aquarium coop 2 to 3 times a week. It's a 29 gallon aquarium so I use 3-4 pumps each time (the 1st pump mostly just primes is, a full shot isn't delivered, so it's like 3.5 pumps each time).

I have a question regarding my Anubias Barteri and Cryptocoryne Lucens plants. The anubias has been in the aquarium for about 6 months and while it has been slowly growing putting out new leaves, slowly over time the new leaves have become more yellow with green veins and the leaves themselves are rippled around the veins and some on the edges of the leaves. I've been dosing 2 to 3 times a week with Easy Green and once a week with Iron. I have placed a root tab at the base of the plant as well. Since I use soft water I also use Seachem Equilibrium when I change water. I'm trying to figure out if this is just how this type of anubias looks, or if I'm deficient on something. I'm also curious about the crypts I have in the tank. These have only been in the aquarium for 1.5 months. I'm trying to figure out if the plants are just going through melting and will regrow, or if it's a lighting thing (meaning too much light). The reason I am wondering that is because the crypt in the back of the picture below looks better than the ones in front, but that plant is shaded by the Anubias that is over it. I'm not sure if that plant just happened to be more converted than the others, or if there is something else at play. All of the plants have gotten root tabs inserted by them each month. Any thoughts?

It's awesome being able to chat with other who enjoy aquariums. You all have tons of good ideas to look into. I'll try to answer some of the questions posed in the previous posts. As of fish, the aquarium is fairly highly stocked for a 29 gallon aquarium, though historically by doing enough water changes and filter cleans I've been able to keep it under control. Currently it has 6 platties (salt & pepper, sunburst, and red wag platties), 3 corys (2 green, 1 spotted), 1 buenos aires tetra (which has been in there forever and a day), 1 Denison Barb, 1 bristlenose pleco, and 1 clown pleco that you only spot every few weeks because he only comes out when it's totally dark. Oh, there are also 2 mystery snails that I originally put in just to do work getting rid of algae, but as it turns out my 5 year old, my wife, and myself have kind of been totally taken by the snails. Every time we look at the aquarium we are constantly looking too see where they are and what they are up to. I never thought I would find snails in an aquarium really interesting. I'll attach a picture below of my current layout, both from before and after I converted over to live plants. As of using too much easy green, last spring for the 1st month I had plants, I totally used too much, but for the past 2 to 3 months I haven't used any because I haven't been able to get the nitrates down decently. I am a little concerned though that other nutrients are probably low and that probably isn't helping the plants. As if floating plants, I haven't tried those yet, I do have a top on my aquarium so I always figured I would see those much, but maybe the underside of some of the floating plants would be cool. As of trying a different type of nitrate test, totally a good idea and I'll be ordering some up to compare the strips too. As of the water characteristics, you are totally correct, I am on soft water. The water in this part of souther Wisconsin is extremely hard and has over an 8 pH coming out of the tap. If I didn't use soft water I would be fighting lime buildup all over, and that has its own frustrations with it. As of canister filters being nitrate factories, can can totally see how they could become that, especially if you use plugging substantially as the criteria to clean them. For example on my 29 gallon aquarium I have a fluval 303 canister on it. I like how it has multiple compartments so I can use all sorts of things in it, and don't need to by anything special for it, aka you can just cut bulk stuff to fit. But anyways, it has a huge amount of surface area vs what would really be required for a 29 gallon aquarium, so you could run a really long time before cleaning it. The problem is, before it plugs off, it actually has a lot in it that is breaking down into nitrates, thus if you don't clean that out relatively frequently it's going to cause headaches that it helps with. Media wise, you can see in the pictures below it's just old fashioned blue painted gravel that I probably picked up at Petco years ago.

I've been keeping aquariums for about 37 years now, but this past spring I decided to change it up a bit and decided to try a planted aquarium. Since doing so I've had a really hard time keeping the nitrates in check. I have some thoughts on what may be occurring, but I thought I would post here to see if anyone had other thoughts. The aquarium in question is a 29 gallon aquarium, standard aquarium gravel with an undergravel filter, a HOB filter and a small canister on it. Historically I've been able to keep the nitrates in check with water changes and throughly vacuuming out the gravel. When I first put plants in I did the rookie mistake...I put easy green in once a week, added a few toot tabs, cranked up the light, and since i use soft water and have a few mystery snails in the aquarium i add Seachem Equilibrium to the aquarium....all said and done, i did an awesome job growing algee. Since then I turned the light back down, stopped putting in easy green and root tabs. I do still use the Seachem Equilibrium and every day or 2 I hit it with Easy Carbon. By doing that the algee is better under control, but the nitrates are still going nuts, measuring 100-200, even with 70% water changes each week. The water here is very high pH, 8.4. The aquarium is fairly well stocked with smaller fish, though not more than I have historically done. It's mostly platties, cories, a bristle nose pleco and clown pleco. I am questioning the test a little and wondered if any of you have ran into test strips misbehaving if you have high pH soft water and add Seachem Equilibrium to the water. In many instances the fish don't behave as if the water is high nitrates, but there have been some instances over the past couple months where they got more sluggish and didn't deed as well as they usually do...so I'm not totally convinced the test is bonk, though when I test the water in those instances it still shows 100-200 on the test strip. Now there are a few factors that may be at play that may be making it harder to get my arms around this nitrate issue. The first is that with the live plants I can't vacuum up every inch of gravel on a weekly to biweekly basis like I use to do. Second, I question if the undergravel filter makes life with plants harder since it basically equalizes the nitrate level out over the entire water column, thus overall it's higher on average, where as if you don't have an undergravel filter you could actually get a huge gradient of nitrate levels going from just above the substrate down to the bottom of the substrate. Thus your rooted plants could get a huge dose of nitrates while still letting your fish swim around in lower nitrate water. Where as with my undergravel filters (which I've used in everything since the 80s) the circulation from top to bottom just evens everything out. A third thing I've noticed is that since using the easy carbon my HOB and canister filter doesn't plugg up like they use too. It use to be every 2 weeks I would have to clean off the sponge in my HOB and every 6 weeks go through the small canister cleaning it out and there would be a layer of gunk on it. Since using the carbon there isn't hardly anything on it, which makes me wonder if the gunk has been broken down by the carbon and is holding up in the water column? Or is it that the gunk was really mostly algee plugging up the sponges. I've been looking around a bit, but I haven't found a good explanation of exactly what, chemistry wise, happens when you add easy carbon to the water. Anyone have any ideas of things to try to reduce the nitrates, as I would really like to run my light brighter than I am. I have wondered if using CO2 would help to reduce the pH some and maybe help the plants eat up more of the nitrates, but I think there are other things I probably should tweak first to get things narrowed in more before adding in another variable to the equation.