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Koi

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Everything posted by Koi

  1. Koi
    @CorydorasEthan I wish my guppies would leave the algae wafers alone! My bristlenose has to come in hot bearing her spikes just to get a bite of food.
  2. Koi
    You won't really need wonder shell since you are already getting equilibrium. But that solely depends on if you plan to add any other fish in addition to your cories. Any kind of livebearers, shrimps, or snails would benefit from it but I think it would be easier to measure out how much calcium/magnesium you add to the tank with equilibrium. The choice is up to you really you could always buy one wonder shell as a backup when you run out of equilibrium but the kinda do the same thing. Just be sure just mix the equilibrium in a bucket and test the gh before adding it to your tank. It probably would be better to slowly introduce the minerals over the course of a few weeks through your water changes so you don't shock your fish. Epsom salt is just a source of magnesium but you don't need it, it was just a backup questions if for some reason you weren't able to go to the store. Do you have root tabs?
  3. Koi
    Once you see aerial roots you can begin planting the tops you cut off. Most times you can even cut the tops of ludwigia with out seeing roots and it will grow. Waiting for the aerial roots to develop just makes the process that much quicker when planting. Floating the plants at the surface of the water is a good trick if you need to force something to grow roots. I suppose you could leave the stem floating if you'd like, the aerial roots will grow longer and you might even see multiple shoots of new growth horizontally across the entire stem. But if your goal is to plant it, the stem is ready to go. If you really enjoy the process of propagating, you can pluck off a few of the lower leaves before planting. It is rather pedantic and not necessary but I do enjoying physically inspecting the health of my plants.
  4. Koi
    This is the guaranteed analysis that I refer to NO3 - 3ppm PO4 - 0.162 K - 2.01 Mg - 0.18 Fe - 0.034 B - 0.004 Mn - 0.01 Mo - 0.0002 zn - 0.002 It was given on this thread
  5. Koi
    I double what @CT_ said about getting the api liquid GH KH test kit whenever you get the chance. I have a friend with the same thing where the GH and KH readings were very off. But sounds like you might need to get equilibrium or anything thats like that when possible. There are some really ghetto ways we can add calcium and magnesium but if you can wait till tomorrow or go to the store today( depending what time it is for you) that would be a better option. Have you tried testing your tap water outside? I don't know much about water softeners but I would think it isn't connected to that. If gh is present in there you can change out some water and replace it with the tap outside. Do you have unscented epsom salt?
  6. Koi
    Did you say your gh is 0 or is that a mistake? If it is actually 0 you need to add minerals into your water. Things like wondershell or crushed coral but if your water truly has no minerals you might want to consider something like Seachem Equilibrium. There are some other homemade concoctions you can use to raise you calcium and magnesium(gh) in a pinch but make sure that gh reading is correct. I don't fully know how water softeners work but I figure its job is to strip out the calcium from your water which could be your issue.
  7. Koi
    My sponge filter does the same thing sometimes. I think the reason for mine is the little bit of air line tubing I use to connect the air stone to the sponge filter gets loose. I’ll take out and clean the discs too but I’ll still don’t know which one is causing it.
  8. Koi
    @Fish Folk do you keep your wave maker on at all times?
  9. Koi
    By the way I forgot to mention the mistake I made with this light! I ordered the 12-18 inches version when my tank is 16 inches long and realized that the length is including the mounting legs. If you look at the picture above it doesn't fully cover the tank. If I were to do it again I would pick the size up and just have to light sit on top of the tank without the legs. But it might not matter to you just wanted to give you a heads up.
  10. Koi
    One dose looks like its roughly double give or take compared to easy green. I would just use it the same way as easy green but at half the amount. You shouldn't see too much problems at 1 or half dose a week. You could technically even dilute the solution with some more water but I don't think you want to be bothered doing all that math. I wouldn't say one is better then another. The fertilizers are all the same it's just how you to want implement it. Oh and you might want to keep that bottle out of light in case of mold. Some people put excel into their solutions to prevent mold.
  11. Koi
    I used the Nicrew Classic and it grew plants great for me and I really like the color rendition. This is a really old picture of my 5 gallon. Since that tank was so short I didn't have trouble carpeting but it will work great for low light plants too. You could definitely carpet even with the height of your tank. Without having tried this light at multiple heights all I can say is there is a possibility that your carpet might be a little taller and less compact.
  12. Koi
    @ererer all good brother. To address your question if you use something to cover the entire bottom of the tank there technically is no overhang. The plywood isn't really used as structural support, that job would be allocated more to the legs or frame of the stand. Not to say that there is no such thing as too much overhang but in most cases the failure point becomes the structure itself that is holding the tank up. The structural integrity of the frame of the stand is more at question than what is on top of the frame. The plastic framing makes it so that equal weight is pushing down towards the ground.Neither the center nor the corners are applying more downward weight than the other unless you are purposely trying to push it to drastic extremes. Here is a great video of this technique being applied in a sleek way. Although this is the inverse of the method I use, it still supports the idea that you support the 4 corners of the tank. @Brandy I was gonna say the same thing but OP mentions that this is just for visual purposes
  13. Koi
    @StephenP2003 The purple BBA looks dope! It's working as a really nice accent.
  14. Koi
    The point of the framing on glass tank is to distribute the weight evenly. A fish tank can't decide if it wants to put pressure on the corner of the tanks only, this would only be possible if it wasn't level. The same theory applies to your bookshelf analogy because weight isn't being evenly distributed along the shelf, all the weight is coming down the center. Book shelvings are often held on the razors edge of the board with very small pins, but that aside you could even circumvent that issue by putting another board on top of it. In that scenario the only point of concern would be the pins itself. Even when you look at fishtanks wether built solely with wood or the use of cinderblocks the main focus is to support the 4 corners not the glass (besides rimless tanks). The point of plywood is not to support any pressure from overhang but take the pressure from the perimeter of the frame and spread it evenly. When building stands the fundamentals are all the same. This is a 65 gallon tank You can even zoom in if you'd like to see the level I'm not looking to argue but I felt like I should have clarified my point since I got shamed.
  15. Koi
    You can use plywood or anything that will cover the bottom frame of your tank if you want it on that stand. That way the pressure is distributed evenly.
  16. Koi
    Thanks @Fish Folk, I'm such a dummy I realized the video I used doesn't even show my fish! haha
  17. Koi
    How in the world are you guys getting such clear shots of the full tank?? I must be the only one using my phone camera, cause I can't see anything doing a full tank view!
  18. Koi
    I'm the same way with not wanting to waste water. I even stopped using the plastic T that you use to connect to the faucet since mine started leaking. I still connect the hose to my faucet but I use a brass quick connect directly to fill my tanks. As for draining my tank I use a 1/2 HP transfer pump that I connect a garden hose to the output leading out the house to water my lawn/garden. Even with a 50 ft hose its still strong enough to push 40 gallons out in around 5-10 minutes. The pump stays outside of the tank and I prime the motor by filling the python hose with water before turning it on. I plug the motor to a Kasa wifi timer so I have an easy on/off switch close by. Since the water pumps pretty fast I have a metal screen that conveniently fits into the gravel vac so that way If I'm not paying attention I don't suck up any fish. I can only gravel vac thick carpets with this though, anything else would be torn out the substrate. For areas I can't really get close with the gravel vac I use a turkey baster to disturb the top layer substrate and pull the mulm out while the pump is running. If you keep smaller tanks this might not really work for you though and it is a little pricey. But for the time I save on my bigger tank, It's well worth the investment. When I like to do more detail work I connect the gravel vac with the 10 foot hose attachment and do a regular siphon straight into a bucket. The shorter the hose you have the more siphon pressure. Also my tank is 2 ft above the ground so gravity does most of the work for me as far as speed goes. Siphoning directly to a trash can with a pump inside is a fast way too. But if you don't want to allocate a trash can just for water changes you can gravel vac in portions. If I don't feel like hauling buckets I just gravel vac enough for one bucket and then pump the rest of the water out. And on my next water change I gravel vac a different area.
  19. Koi
    Oh I'm sorry I wasn't talking about you, I was trying to clarify the point I was making. What he said isn't wrong I just felt it wasn't fully explained. I've noticed the way I write sounds very abrasive, not my attention at all! I just want to make it clear for others that I'm not disagreeing with what he said. Last thing I want is a mob out to get me haha Sorry for the misunderstanding!
  20. Koi
    I'm having trouble finding it but I remember the picture was something like this. https://www.canr.msu.edu/floriculture/uploads/files/blue-light.pdf I wouldn't say the video that Bentley made was trying to misrepresent the study. I just think the way he presented it was a little vague which allows itself to be misinterpreted. But don't discount the fact that I could be entirely wrong. From my general understanding thats how it makes sense to me. Everything begins to go over my head when it gets too sciency. Wish I could help you with your crinum issue. I kept it before but I can't remember if I used more light to achieve the crinkles. I Have crinum natans at the moment that I got a month ago. The new leaves aren't as crinumy as I would like but I don't really expect to see any progress until at least 6 months from now. I feel like in general for both of these plants, you really don't ever wanna mess with then or move them unless you want them to hate you for a few months. It is always around the year mark for me when they really take off.
  21. Koi
    If I could interject. It's not that the red light makes plants grow tall because of the color but its because red does not penetrate light as deeply as something like blue. I think I know what study he was referring to and the reason that the result shows that is because red was being used by itself. Since red can't reach further depths, plants have to reach higher to the point where it can actually photosynthesize from. When you are use multiple colors in conjunction, this isn't so much the issue unless all the other colors are turned down substantially.
  22. Koi
    Honestly I think this is how all people should layout their questions if they are having problems. It makes it a lot easier to rule certain issues out and sometimes while writing out your process you'll start to see what you might be doing wrong. Sort of like thinking out loud. Seems like you gotten help and are in the process of trying to fix your problem so no need for me to chime in. But I wanted to let you know the more information you give the better. I see a lot of posts that could be answered in few days get dragged out for weeks and it feels like pulling teeth when having to run down the list of common questions. Don't be afraid to give the full picture and hopefully you figure out whats going on!
  23. Koi
    It probably has something to do with the ingredients. I'm guessing its either potassium phosphate or monopotassium phosphate. I think it comes down to the price of buying one ingredient for large scale production more so than them purposely putting two ingredients together. But maybe I'm just being very cynical...
  24. Koi
  25. Koi
    But I wanna be part of the cool kids 😞 I actually love doing water changes and often I count the days till I can do it again. Most of my tanks I say are moderately planted (depends what you consider heavy) and I enjoy watching the plants grow faster and who doesn't like to see pearling? Although water is relatively cheap, I can't stomach pouring water down the drain. So rather than minimizing my water consumption I look to repurpose the water by proxy of gardening. I guess in a way I am reducing water consumption cause I don't run my sprinklers. I understand what you are saying I just wanted to bring up a better contender. The Fish Police!
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