zpayne10
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Posts posted by zpayne10
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On 6/19/2023 at 2:27 PM, anewbie said:
personally i wouldn't deal with that company. Providing a 21 inch light for a 30 inch aquarium is a red flag in my book unless they have a very good explanation.
Here is the response I received from their customer support: "The 21.1" light fits within the tank itself. The 30.1" size chord cannot fit under the glass lids all the way. This is why we recommend the 21.1" model."
So basically a poor design on their behalf limits someone from adding a longer light.
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On 6/17/2023 at 7:30 AM, anewbie said:
Yea - the 30 inch blade is excellent but pricey. You can of course obtain an adequate light for less money. Btw it seems weird to me they offer the 21 inch blade - is it a freshwater model or one targeted at saltwater.
It's a freshwater setup. I agree that it's weird they include the 21" light vs the 30" in the kit, knowing it would fit better. There would be quite a bit of shading with a light 10" shorter than the tank.
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On 6/15/2023 at 12:23 PM, anewbie said:
confused by your comment; there is a 30 inch blade which would fit well on a 31 inch long aquarium.
My apologies, let me clarify: Waterbox Aquariums offers the Eden line of aquariums, and on their website you can buy either the tank itself, or a bundle which includes the tank + AI Blade + Sicce EKO 200. However, the 40 gallon kit which measures at 31" long comes with the 21" AI Blade in the bundle. My comment was instead of buying the bundle, I'll probably buy the tank separately so that I can get an adequately sized light for the tank. Sorry for that confusion 🙂
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Resurfacing this thread as life got in the way, and now back in the market for a setup. I'm still eyeing the Waterbox Eden, and as stated above the 40 gallon is 31" long. They make a kit that comes with the AI Blade, and a Sicce EKO 200 filter. I'm thinking of just buying the tank and the light separately, since a 21" light is going to leave a lot of drop off with the 40 gallon length...
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On 3/12/2023 at 9:22 AM, anewbie said:
I purchased one for my 29 to test (which previously had a plant 3.0 - here are some pictures); if you look at the substrate you will see the fluval is a bit yellow and the blade is more neutral (this of course can change based on light setting so it might be possible to make the 3.0 more neutral); the blade is quite a bit stronger on max - i estimate par 100 at 15 inches (which is one inch off the substrate in the 29) and around 520 at the very top. The blade only has a 1 year warranty and is not ip67 (don't let it fall in the aquarium; which has happen at least once with my fluval); the fluval has 3 year warranty.
The blade is new product and no history on longevity the fluval 3.0 has a reputation of being pretty much problem free. I dislike the bright green led on the blade and how it sits on the aquarium but it is definitely an overall nicer light in terms of quality of the output and ease of obtaining neutral light.
One odd thing about the blade is they do not have a suitable model for 36 inch aquarium (40B) but they do have a lot of interesting sizes for larger aquariums. I would definitely recommend the blade over the wrgb2 which has a bluish cast (the pro adds white led but it is extremely expensive relatively speaking).
plant 3.0:
blade:
This is great, thanks for the side-by-side comparison! How's the coverage between the two? The tank I'm looking at now is the Eden 40, which is 32L x 16W 21H. Curious if I'd want one or two light bars for best coverage.
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Title says it all - has anyone used the AI Blade FW yet and have an opinion? How does it compare to say, the Fluval Plant 3.0?
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Do most people add fertilizer after a water change? I'm specifically curious for those with new tanks, if you're doing water changes a few times a week to try and prevent excess nutrients, do you add a few pumps of fertilizer afterwards?
The 'right' answer is probably to test you nitrates after each water change and determine if you're within a desired range or not, but maybe there is a faster/better answer.
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So this is a totally stupid question, but which magfloat scraper should I consider? The tank has 10mm glass, which means the medium magfloat is good for that glass thickness. Or am I better off going to the larger size for a "stronger" connection (up to 19mm glass)?
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On 2/23/2023 at 11:47 AM, HudsonH said:
if it's too expensive, your LFS should be able to test whenever you go in?
This isn't a cost issue, it's a colorblind issue that makes the API tests difficult to read 🙂
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On 2/23/2023 at 10:50 AM, BuzzDaddy21 said:
Yes.
The nitrate kit is complete where the phosphate kit isn`t.
Phosphate kit is for freshwater.
Do you find it's pretty easy to calculate the dilution factor? My understanding is the nitrate test is for the low range (up to 5ppm), but they have a dilution equation to track up to 50ppm.
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On 2/23/2023 at 9:39 AM, BuzzDaddy21 said:
I got Hanna checkers for Nitrates and Phosphates a month ago or so and really like them. (I found one for freshwater the other one is marine, but it works just fine.)
If you look around online, you will find good deals on the reagent powder and also kits.
Last Nitrate check on a 40B was 0.11ppm and the 20T was 0.06ppm.
I will never go back to test strips or the API test kits.
Next up will be a Hanna checker for PH.
I don`t check for anything else.
Are you using the marine version of the nitrates from Hanna?
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On 2/22/2023 at 5:34 PM, Theplatymaster said:
@zpayne10 i imagine that most parameters for saltwater, will test similar to freshwater.
people deal with PH in saltwater
people deal with nitrogenous compounds in saltwater.
@Biotope Biologistyou are a marine biologist, can you confirm this^
If I could use the tests "designed" for saltwater but under freshwater conditions, I'd be quite the happy camper.
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Has anyone found reliable digital test kits for the freshwater hobby? I know Hanna makes a bunch for saltwater, but I can't seem to find anything for freshwater.
I'm red/green colorblind so reading tests like the API nitrate test is darn near impossible (not to mention lighting changes how the colors look).
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On 2/19/2023 at 6:23 AM, FLFishChik said:
So, as it was explained to me in another thread - Easy Carbon works as an algae inhibitor because it absorbs the nutrients out of the water column. Therefore, you’ll want to wait several days after dosing Easy Green and Easy Iron together.
That's very helpful, thank you! I think I'll take the "tried-and-true" method of reducing the light a few hours a day, reducing my feeding (not that I overfed, but to be safe), and increasing my water changes from weekly to 2-3x a week. Appreciate the feedback!
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On 2/18/2023 at 8:18 PM, Pepere said:
I have found hair algae loves it when you dose EasyIron a lot…
I never really found much benefit from dosing easy carbon…. Well maybe that is being too charitable…. I cant say that I saw any benefit from dosing Easy Carbon…
The most effective thingI did that affected Algae growth was adding pressurized carbon…
I have tremendous respect for people who can keep algae to a minimum with only controlling the nutrient and lighting levers along with some algae eaters… I was never able to pull it off. I would be in the tank several times a week, manually cleaning, trimming leaves and vegetation choked with algae, pulling plants to treat the algae with reverse respiration, microdosing spot treating algae with easy carbon and or hydrogen peroxide… it sucked the joy out of fish keeping for me…
and after putting pressure co2 in a few weeks later, I noticed things significantly better. And then I noticed my Scarlet temple starting to show signs of life…
I have loads of respect to anyone who can balance a tank without co2….
I definitely think there is something to be said about running injected CO2. I've never done it before, and honestly I'm a little intimidated by it which it why I haven't gone down the route. But maybe it's something to consider?
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As the title states, can I dose all of the Easy-line additives? I'm battling some hair algae at the moment, so thinking about dosing Easy Carbon in addition to my weekly Easy Green dose. Since I also have a few red plants, I'm inclined to also dose iron to give them some extra pop.
I want to preface that I know these aren't "one stop solutions" nor do I want to just throw them all in because it'll "be the best". I do think each have their merit, however. Easy Green has been great, but I've also reduced my lighting schedule and am actually waiting for my Fluval Plant 3.0, so it's just a regular LED light strip for now, to try and combat the hair algae. I also plan to increase my water changes to keep nutrients more in check. But I'm hoping Easy Carbon can give me a boost. I am using the API freshwater kit to test for nitrates to make sure I'm in the 20-50ppm that is often recommended.
Clearly I'm a noob 🙂
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On 2/10/2023 at 9:35 PM, Cory said:
If you're trying to maximize, you'd figure out your dose, and then dose daily. Really you'd want to dial in your dosing based on what your plants etc. It's a bit like saying, I have a 2000 sq ft house. How much food should I buy for the week. It depends more on, how often are people are eating at home. How many people are eating a home? Are they teenage boys or elderly? This is why there is a 1-2x a week to start. From there you adapt based on what the water parameters are saying. Might takes 3-4 weeks to figure it out.
That makes sense, and I appreciate the feedback!
In addition to the dosing question, how does one differentiate a low vs medium tech tank?
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I've purchased some Easy Green liquid fert for my tank, and I'm wondering about dosing requirements. I'm running a tech without CO2, but has two Fluval Plant 3.0s. Most of the plants I'd consider "low tech", so I'm not sure if I should be dosing once or twice a week, per the bottle.
Additionally, how should I go about dosing? It's a 75 gallon tank, so should I really dose ~7 pumps all at once, or it is more beneficial to do one pump each day so the plants have continually access to nutrients? Or maybe it doesn't matter...
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Now that I'm getting close to receiving my tank, I've been dialing in my expectations between dosing a liquid fert, root tabs, or both. I think there is validity to both, especially as things establish, but long-term I'm wondering if root tabs will be the preferred path (the tank will be mostly crypts, rotala, vals, and maybe swords (which I know will need root tabs).
Then on the topic of root tab, is there a "best" one? I always heard of API or Seachem. I've also seen responses of Nilocg Thrive root tabs being good. Anyone swayed one way or another?
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On 1/3/2023 at 9:22 AM, JoeQ said:
My 3.0 sits on top of my versa top and is about 21" to substrate. I use Bentleys day sim, below is a link to a spread sheet where you can dial up or down the output percentage. I typically keep mine at 35 to 38 percent. Below is a graph of his DaySim settings, Hope this helps!
Do you feel this lights up the tank adequately and you get good plant growth? 38% seems so low, but I also haven't seen the light in action so it might be plenty bright!
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Hi all! My new tank is almost here, and it'll be coming with two (2) of the Fluval Plant 3.0 lights (very excited!). I've looked at other posts around the 3.0 light and schedules, but wanted to ask a specific question with the dimensions of my tank.
Does anyone have schedules they find work well? The tank is 22" high, 35" long, 22" deep and the lights will sit just a few inches above the water (it's how the Fluval kit is designed). I plant to heavily plant the aquarium, with probably 85% coverage on day 1. I also plan to dose the liquid fert NilocG Thrive 1x a week for now.
From the videos I've seen, some of the preset light settings look pretty good, but they ramp up to 100%. I know I'll get some algae to start, but wondering how to find a happy medium to get plant growth without too much algae. The plants won't be anything with high demand - crypts, rotala, anubias, ferns, etc.
Thanks in advance for what people suggest!
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Quick update on this thread: I believe the snails I have are actually bladder snails, not ramshorn. Still a pest. A few details I failed to mention above are that a few amano and a few nerite snails are in the holding container to keep algae at bay.
Short of a full blown nuke user Cupramine and killing all the inverts I want to keep, I think I'm out of luck in eradicating the pests. Maybe I'll have good luck keeping their numbers contained when the display tank is up and as it matures? Any other ideas?
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On 12/19/2022 at 9:43 AM, Tanked said:
With the exception of one sanded tank, that is all I use. Shop around if you have time as different vendors will sell pea gravel from different sources. Some of mine has the brow/tan river gravel coloration, but the gravel in my 75 is white.
Ideally I find a black gravel for the price of the Vigoro bag, as it's the color preference of choice. Not sure I'll be so lucky to find it though...
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This topic is somewhat controversial, as snails of any sort so add benefit in the right numbers.
Anyway, I picked up some plants via a plant swap with my local aquarium community, and as-expected there are ramshorn snails. Lucky for me, the plants are living in a cooler with a light, heater, and filter until my tank arrives, so I have things in isolation. Is there anything I can dose in the water to eradicate the issue before putting it in the main display? I crush them as I see them, but their numbers are definitely growing. Maybe a kuli loach? Or can I dose with something that'll help?
Preventative Quarantine Process for Marine Fish
in Diseases
Posted
I know this forum is predominantly freshwater topics, but I was wondering if anyone has a solid preventative quarantine process for marine fish they wouldn't mind sharing? I read the article posted by Aquarium Co-Op (https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-treat-sick-aquarium-fish) and was curious if this would be effective for marine as it is fresh, mainly because it lacks a copper treatment which seems to be a staple based on a few saltwater forums.