Creedmoor Aquatics

Just the excess nutrients. With it being a dirted tank it would take years of trimming plants out of the tank to deplete to the point the plants die off.

Right on! It will take a while for all of your crypts to fully fill in, but keep trimming those stem plants and replanting the cuttings along the back and you'll be set for nutrient depletion.

Time to trim out the tank! I pulled a whole breeder box full of Riccia off my intake sponge with more leftover. I also pulled out the floating cork board planter. The cork itself worked great, but I never had enough light above it for potted plants, and ultimately decided not to add any additional lighting to my office.

The tank is 72-73F

I have really been struggling with trying to breed my White Clouds, and I'm not sure what I've done wrong. They're supposed to be prolific breeders! My females are extremely gravid and the males are exhibiting courtship behaviors. I have had them for about 6 months now and never seen a single fry. I have tried splitting males and females in a breeder box and then combining them in the morning at first light I have tried spawning them in a bucket I have tried spawning them in a floating isolation net I even tried spawning them in an isolation net, for several days, during Tropical Storm Debby! Still no sign of any eggs. They're really great looking fish and I'd love to have more of them.

I'm currently showing signs of a possible potassium deficiency and would like to try adding Easy Potassium to my dosing regimen. I currently have Easy Green, Easy Iron, and Easy Carbon all on automatic timers with dosing pumps, and I'm wondering if I need a fourth dosing reservoir, or if Easy Iron and Easy Potassium (or Easy Iron & Easy Carbon or Easy Carbon & Easy Potassium) can be combined in a single reservoir. I seem to remember from one of Cory's videos that the Easy Potassium had the same amount of Potassium as Easy Green, but that it was the maximum soluble amount. Since there's also Iron in Easy Green its clear that Iron could be added to Easy Potassium, but I'm not clear if the high concentration in both Easy Iron and Easy Potassium would cause either mineral to precipitate out of solution.

60 Cube will have the benefit of more tank height, and more depth front to back, allowing you to have a more diverse aquascape. 40 Breeder will be a bit longer, which gives a bit more swimming area length for your fish. Also, by being shorter and narrower, it is easier to reach into the back corners of the tank, making maintenance easier. I love my 60 Cube as a display tank and would not want to trade it for a 40 Breeder unless I were using it strictly for breeding fish/farming plants.

I have an outdoor 100 gallon tub that has been sitting idle for several years without any water changes or much activity beyond growing java moss, green water, and frogs. I wanted to add rice fish and wanted to know how acidic the water had gotten over time and if there were any minerals in it, so I used a test strip. As expected, the nitrates and nitrites were nil, the hardness was nil, and the pH was low. What surprised me was the chlorine tested super high, returning a bright aquamarine. I've no idea how there could be chlorine in the water, as our whole house is on rainwater and does not use chlorine. And if chlorine were added, it should have long, long, long since evaporated out. Are there other chemicals which could affect the result?

Has anyone ever tried purposefully adding shrimp, like neocaridina, to their canister filter to help break down the solids? If so, was it effective? Any lessons learned along the way?

My 3 year coin finally arrived!! I keep these on my desk in the office to fidget with.

The Easy Plant LEDs have extension brackets so they will always fit the next size up, so a 16" light would be no problem on a 20" tank. I think it comes down to what kind of plants you want to grow. If you're looking for a lot of red or white plants (poor photosynthesizers) or growing a carpet of dwarf baby tears, etc maybe the extra lumens of the larger light would be useful. Otherwise I'd say the tank is small enough and short enough you should be just fine with a 16", and will probably want to turn the brightness down anyways.

60 gallon cube tank with 2x 24" Easy Plant LEDs, both running at 100%, for 12 hours per day

Looks like Hydrodictyon Reticulatum

I'm just in love with these purple males, I do not see the likes of them online.

Those look great! I think I'd have to pick Pseudomugil Furcatus as a favorite, with Gertrudae Aru II as a close second.