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Koi

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Everything posted by Koi

  1. Koi
    If I could ask is there a target kh level you are trying to achieve or are you seeing a negative impact that you think is a result of your kh?
  2. Koi
    How do you pronounce your cat's name? Valcour sounds like the name of the dragon from the never ending story, I'm not trying to be mean at all haha
  3. Koi
    Without fully knowing your water parameters, I'll give you a very general explanation to what I think might be going on. I think it's fair to assume you have fish, so I think the tan layer you're referring to is fish waste that has settled. If not fish waste than iI'd assume its organic buildup from dying leaves of melting stems etc. Eventually all the buildup will find its way to the very bottom of the eco complete, which you do want because it will eventually be reused as nutrients for you your plants. If you take a closer look at the substrate some of your plant roots will be making its way to the spots where it builds up. I would recommend against gravel vacuuming as you might be pulling all the nutrients out of the substrate but you can try to siphon the top layer of organics by gently fanning the substrate with your hand to kick up the debris (I use a turkey baster). As for your stems, two things come to my mind about why the bases are melting. While planting you could have damaged the stems trying to stick them in or the base of the stems were already rotting. My recommendation is to pull up all your stems that have melting bases and cut off the bottom node and replant. What I like to do is actually feel the stem and cut off all the parts that feel mushy. The other would be lack of nutrients. You did mention that you inconsistently dosed and without knowing how you gravel vac, Im assuming you took out root tabs in doing so. All I can really so is to think about just adding the fertilizer. I would not worry about algae at this point, all new tanks get it. Better to get it over with now then have it strong later. Get the plants to grow so that way you don't have to buy more and address the algae after. Once you get your plants to grow and you fill out your tank the algae will slowly go away.
  4. Koi
    Thanks @CanadaAmanda! Thats really helpful information now that you mention it, I can actually see the difference of light its been receiving looking at its leaves. That pothos has actually been there some time I grew it from a single cutting and it is actually twice as long as the picture indicates. I know this plant hates me cause I'm rather clumsy. Whenever I do maintenanceI I always manage to rip its older leaves off. You cant see if cause I keep shoving the vine deeper into my tank every time I do it haha. @Daniel I totally misread your post at first! The tone of your post totally changes when you take out "Like". In my head I was thinking " I'm on your side man! " haha Just to add on to what you said about sunlight's relationship with green water and algae I think people are quick to blame sunlight but don't consider the heat that radiates from it. From my own tanks and ponds I've kept each and every one of between 60 and 85 degrees (my ponds is usually low 50's all the way to 90 depending on the seasons)and noticed that algae is much more prevalent in warmer temperatures. Wether it be that higher temps allow algae spores to populate much faster I'm not sure, just something I've noticed. Another thing everybody should consider, if sunlight is so detrimental, why aren't all ponds just giant green puddles? Often there are more factors at play and people tend to tunnel in on just one. And I know I'm really over simplifying a lot of things here so don't slam me too hard guys
  5. Koi
    All my tanks have plants...haha just kidding here it is just ignore all the Indian almond leaves in there. So this part is ugly but I'm holding it up with a plastic cover until I find a better way to hold it in place. So I can't say I know if this will work I was just repotting my peace lily and decided to rip some out and see what happens. I also potted an amaryllis that I cut out of a wax casing and once I get another plant from that, I'm gonna throw that in this tank too. I like your foresight trying to match terrestrial plants with the style of your tank. I' know absolutely nothing about houseplants and this is more so me throwing stuff together and seeing if it works. I'm a firm believer that there are a lot benefits for fish getting to live out in the sun. I grow my guppies in my pond outside from spring to early fall and not only are they much more colorful, they get huge and breed well into the thousands. Also I feel like they are a lot hardier being exposed to the elements.
  6. Koi
    I still believe! Put that sucker right under the light haha. Do you have ferts in your water column?
  7. Koi
    GOT IT! haha just teasing
  8. Koi
    That is crazy, I have never experienced that. Do you know what kind of bolbitis it is specifically?
  9. Koi
    I feel that usually when people say absolutely no sunlight, it's more of a generalized rule for newer aquarist. It stems from a "catch all" kind of statement. Another rule that comes to mind is the " 1 inch per gallon rule", I think nowadays people are a little more privy to nuances in fish keeping where that blanket statement isn't used as much anymore and I feel it falls within the same category with the use of sunlight. The only concerns that I find in using it would be like you said that depending on seasons the amount of light you get will differ. To delve more into that topic most people tend to discourage using sunlight as it usually too strong and very inconsistent when trying to create a baseline or regiment for your tank. Often a problem I see is most people having a tank being beamed by direct sunlight all day, and that I find where usually the problem lies. But on the other hand I keep a 10 gallon plastic storage container outside under a tree and there is literally no algae present (I hardly dose, once every 2 weeks, no air or filtration either) I am similarly in the same boat as you I just don't get direct sunlight, its very minimal indirect sunlight in my room and I have pothos and Japanese peace lily growing out of my tank. I have minimal algae in my tank mostly staghorn/blackbeard on the roots of my pothos but nothing that I would consider out of control. Sure you might have to figure out what kind of fertilizing regiment you need to do but simple fixes like slightly shading the windows or just closing them at certain times might be just enough to reach your desired goal. You should definitely try it if you want, don't let the internet scare you away from playing around with your fish tank haha. I think half the fun is trying to work around mother nature and let her do her thing. After all, the sun grows more plants than any of us ever will.
  10. Koi
    For a floating plant I found mine to be surprisingly resilient. none of my plants could actually when i first got them. And the few plants i had that did have roots attached, the roots were actually the part that was floating keeping the leaves close to the surface but submerged. I thought everything was a gonner but I got lucky, hopefully you get the same luck I got Even single floating leaves without roots are starting to come back. This one was actually stuck to the skimmer of my filter
  11. Koi
    I may be too late, If you haven't already thrown the red root floaters away just throw them in a tank and see what happens. You never know, it could still come back. I actually bought some a few days ago and they were all dried out. I just put them in a low flow tank and now I already see new growth.
  12. Koi
    The co2 diffuser is supposed to be use with a co2 injection system wether it be you buy a co2 tank with a regulator or diy co2 where you mix citric acid and baking soda in soda bottles. The reason why your air pump might not be pushing air out is because it usually requires a higher pressure to push through ceramic disc. Since you have an air pump, maybe try just using an air stone. the gaseous exchange will be a good benefit for your tank, it will be nothing like passive co2 or high pressure co2 injection but it still has its use. I'm not to sure what you are referring to as the jelly substance, but I'm assuming you aren't intending to buy a co2 tank or co2 kits. If you are actually looking into setting up a co2 system please correct me.
  13. Koi
    So today I was able to go get some new tanks and took some time out today to clean up all these holding tanks for my new guppies. Looking at the pictures now I realize how janky I made it look, atleast thats done with for now. Still some more changes to do within the week but I'm glad atleast a lot of these materials to stack the tanks were already laying around. Before: Now: I also went to the flea market and found these air pumps for a dollar each and one is able to run air for all these tanks. Once they seed I can remove the hob filters which will hopefully save me some money. This is a gang valve I bought a few months back I probably spent no more than 5 bucks and I never thought that I would actually use it.
  14. Koi
    They days of DIY co2 bottles are away behind me, the last time I did it was at least 10-12 years ago. Since then I have moved more towards pressurized just to have it a little more control. Or at least relatively controlled in my eyes haha
  15. Koi
    Sorry I misspoke there, when I did it I ran a rather rinky dink setup with a lot of leftover plumbing supplies which led me to believe there weren't many issues to worry about. If it wasn't apparent I don't really have much of a chemistry/science background haha. I only ran the diy bottles for a few months at a time before I eventually got tired of doing it which might be why I didn't run into any accidents.
  16. Koi
    I forgot to mention get a check valve
  17. Koi
    If you're not overdoing your mix it shouldn't explode. But If you don't want to worry about that then I would say just run ain air stone at night for peace of mind. The point of the airstone is that it will create surface agitation to allow gaseous exchange in your water. To put it simply it will gas off the co2. The co2 will affect your ph but as long as you have some KH, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Definitely keep an eye on your tank and monitor parameters the first couple weeks when you do it. Running an air stone at night will also offset your ph from dropping too low. In general depending on how well you can even diffuse the co2 into your water, the diy bottle won't make enough to gas your fish or crash your ph. Be sure to have good flow and surface agitation
  18. Koi
    You can use an airline valve to close off the gas at night or just run an airstone when lights are off. In general the diy co2 won't create enough co2 to gas your fish I think these videos will be helpful for you, he also has a few little tweaks you can do for quality of life if you're handy. I would say just don't buy the solenoid or the pressure gauge. If you can afford a solenoid or have a little more of a budget, I'd would reccomend going this route. I think this is a nice middle of the road and you can save some money buying the bike co2 cartridges. This guy has a few more videos on the subject, I would definitely check em out just to cover your bases.
  19. Koi
    As long as you are seeing new growth, I would focus on that. You can't bring back leaves that are already lost, and plants can't really heal themselves if they are damaged. If the plants are still growing you can always cut the tops and try again. Usually when the lower ends of stems start losing leaves, they are giving up those leaves to give their remaining energy to the new growth. You're almost there though, you just need to figure out the minor tweaks you need to make to keep the algae at bay. And if I could just share with you they way I try to combat algae(something to think about I'm not saying you have to do it this way) Try not to think of "balancing a tank" as the end of algae in your tank but more so the point where you give the plants the best environment for them to grow in. Algae will always be present in your tank what I aim for is just that isn't visibly noticeable.The way I see "balancing a tank" is that you're not necessarily starving out algae but you are providing enough food for the plants that they can grow faster than the spores are able to attach to their leaves. As I said earlier plants can only grow, they can't regenerate. So rather than having a plant spend energy trying to keep an old leaf alive, I take the leaves off so that energy is better spent on producing new leaves. If the plant is healthy and growing, when I see any older leaves not doing well, I just take it out because the longer I leave it there the more likely it will die off anyways and grow algae.
  20. Koi
    Good job Mitch, sounds like you're almost there. 10-20 ppm nitrates is absolutely fine, I would stay the course how you're dosing. I'm a little unsure as to what you're seeing as a deficiency, could you elaborate on that? Are you referring to the lower leaves coming off of the ludwigia in the picture? It looks to me that its just being shaded out from its top portion. I read that you reduced your light more so I would suspect that not enough light is penetrating towards the bottom if thats what you're seeing as a deficiency.
  21. Koi
    As I am starting to running out of heaters and containers to separate all my new guppies I thought this was just a funny solution for my fighting fish till I go to the store tomorrow If it is unclear what I'm doing, Im doubling up on one heater by heating the bowl by having it sit in the storage container under it.
  22. Koi
    Yea his fishroom was pretty cool, I got to pick his brain a little and he has a lot of cool little tricks to operate his room. Super nice dude for welcoming me over and hooked me up on my order while I was there
  23. Koi
    As for your ring I think this could help as there are usually items most people have laying around This is airline tubing and you can connect it either with a T or an airline valve. You could also just superglue the tubing together as well. If you use a T find some way way to block the other hole so water doesn't go into the tubing. I'm cheap so i just point the airline tubing upwards so I can still use the pieces I need If you REALLY want to be creative you can connect the tubing together with a section of disposable chopsticks or 3-4 toothpicks (or whatever number you need to fit them snuggly inside)
  24. Koi
    What percent water changes are you doing weekly? Have you tested the water coming from your tap/ water source? Water from my tap has nitrite and nitrates maybe you're experiencing the same issue. I'll also mention if you know most of your nitrates are coming from the easy green (say 50% or more), I wouldn't overly stress over 40ppm nitrates. It is definitely something you should look to resolve, but isn't necessarily as urgent as something like ammonia or nitrite. Heres my take on some of your questions. 1. Your plants look fine I wouldn't say they are unhealthy at all. 2. Floating plants like duckweed, water hyacinth, water lettuce or pothos can help in reducing nitrates. If your filter is causing any floating plants trouble you can try to make a floating ring either with airline tubing or straws to contain the plants. 3. It's not that your plants aren't removing enough nitrates it might be that you're expecting them to eat more than they can. A lot of your plants are fairly slow growers (in my opinion)and they look fairly new. At least to me your crypts, crinum and sword look like they haven't been in longer than a year. If I'm wrong let me know, but until they get bigger you might not see substantial uptake. You could try propagating your hornwort and water sprite to several more plants. By doing this each piece will be its own plant and could absorb from their own roots instead of just the one. Looking at your hornwort I see a lot of side shoots coming at as it reaches the top, I would cut all of them off and replant them along the back while not crowding them together. Im assuming thats 1 or 2 stems in the right corner. But imagine if it was just 1 plant, that the root base for the hornwort has to spend a lot of energy feeding each and every single side shoot. It would grow a lot faster if it only had to feed the 1 stem rather than 5. Also you could even float some of the hornwort so that it has the max available light which will drive its nutrient uptake
  25. Koi
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