sapphireminds

How do they get to it??

Do you have corys? I want the aragonite to increase my kH. My tap water is nigh RO

Why do you need the mechanical/ammonia/carbon filtration?

Yeah, and obviously M&S love to dig too. I was leaning towards the sand anyway, this helps cement it!

I'm a big fan of common (bladder/ramshorn) snails and MTS for aeration, along with a nerite or two. I don't mind the eggs, I view them as bonus polka dots for the tank 🙂

One of my tanks has stratum right now. I'm not planning to root many plants, because of the diggingest dogs, but rather have them on rocks/driftwood that they can move around with. Everything that needed rooted in the current tank has died because some fish dug them up. I've been told to not do gravel with corys, and I feel like my current sand is even too rough for them. Maybe I'm projecting too much LOL

Thank you, he knows it too! Scully is nothing to sneeze at either 😉 https://imgur.com/gallery/xEf2pin is when they were babies/toddlers They really don't eat plants at all, just like to dig things up. I spoil them with their food and treats. There's some mollies in the tank that I'm actually going to be getting rid of because I really got them as fry to be feeders and dumbbutts didn't eat them! I had salvinia before, but when I broke my ankle and couldn't do a lot of tank maintenance, they got smothered by the duckweed unfortunately. Maybe I'll just do a little nano for the shrimps or give up on my shrimpy dreams. I do love the little things, but I'm trying to decrease my water and electricity usage. Power bill is getting crazy with three tanks Thoughts on stratum vs sand for corys? Any experience with algae scrubbers?

Guppies already live with the acaras and the acaras are full grown and sassy LOL There was some loss of guppies at the beginning, but now they don't bother them. I'm totally ok with them eating the fry! https://imgur.com/gallery/SBpzng1 I was afraid of that for the shrimp. Is there a way to box off a section to contain them maybe? I have done hornwort in my other tanks, but I love the look of cuculatta!! It grows fairly quickly (though not as fast as the duckweed, sadly) I'll likely have a little hornwort in the tank to eat as much nitrate as possible. They don't seem to eat the plants at all, just like to dig dig dig so everything I'm going to doin the tank is going to need to be able to be anchored onto something else so it is moveable. Mulder and Scully are about 6 inches, a little over 2 years old now! It's amazing to see how big they got, especially considering I got them when they were just wee little things.

I'm upgrading/condensing my aquariums - I live somewhere that has incredibly soft water, so I use aragonite as a substrate to harden the water a bit and help with pH stability. I also have a school of corys that I would like to make happy with a nice comfy substrate. black diamond blasting sand over black aragonite or stratum over some aragonite? I'm also interested in trying to maybe make at least a smallish algae scrubber for my nitrates, to decrease the amount of water changes needed, as I live in a drought-prone area and feel guilty about water changes, even though I do try to recycle some of the water into my plants. Is this crazy for a non-expert? Filtration is going to be by canister with supplemental sponge. I have 2 electric blue acaras, a school of smudge spot corys (7), and a variable number of guppies. I would also love to try and figure out a way to make it possible to keep some shrimp in there too, instead of having a separate shrimp tank. If I can't make that happen, I might try and make a nano tank for shrimp. Planting is going to need to be limited as my EBAs are diggy little friends :D I've been able to grow subwassertang (which I love) with them though, by kinda keeping it cornered with a piece of driftwood (which is what I was thinking for shrimp - basically giving them an area where they could live where the acaras can't get them, but I don't trust the shrimp to be smart enough to stay in that area LOL) I would love to have salvinia cuculata and maybe red root floaters on top, I'm going to try desperately to make it a duckweed-free tank. Any input, thoughts or criticisms welcome.