Lynaea

Just to add more confusion 😵‍💫🤪 I agree with @Tony s (and Cory), gravel is better. But small gravel, like Flourite size pea gravel. It does not have to be Flourite though, just any smaller sized gravel because the plants will have an easier time rooting in it. You could also just get some small terracotta pots and plant in those then bury them in your existing substrate too instead of changing out all the substrate. BUT it will almost certainly look better and give better growth of large plants like swords if you just change out all the gravel. Also, you need at least two inches of depth for ease of planting and root development. HTH

It would probably be a good idea to change the water occasionally regardless of nitrate levels. There are other things in aquarium water that are good to dilute out , fertilizer for instance. Also, female shrimp release a hormone when they molt that attracts the male to breed, I would think it would be a good idea to dilute that occasionally. How often is really up to you but I would recommend once a month at a minimum. What type of shrimp are you planning to keep?

Put the air pump on a timer if you can and run it 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off ( or similar). stop or reduce feeding. stir or pour tank water at regular intervals with the goal of creating bubbles. HTH

Well, there’s a big bad hurricane 🌀 heading straight for me so I decided to move the orange rilis into the ‘big’ tank today. It’s only a few days early so hopefully all will be well. I only found 11 of them in the QT tank so I guess a few more died that I didn’t see 😞. On the bright side there was one itty bitty baby in there, no idea how that got in there, I guess one of them must have been holding a few eggs I didn’t notice. Anyway, now I don’t have to worry too much about power outages because the main tank has a battery back up air pump. I do intend to keep the QT up and running for now though because I plan to order two Honey Gourami in a few weeks! 😍 Not much else going on so time for pictures!

I had to use the crop feature in the iPhone to get it to take my profile pic.

The brown stuff is likely just detritus, you could try rinsing it out, or the unused stuff you have should be fine too. Try putting a piece of foam or filter floss in the HOB before the coral to catch more of the detritus even if only a smaller piece will fit over to the side. You may have to replace it fairly often but it will help keep the gunk out of your crushed coral.

I had to look up the uvc as I’d never heard of it. First negative, the Amazon listing states it doesn’t fit the FX series canisters. I would say not to bother with either though to start, a uv sterilizer is not really necessary unless you run into greenwater issues and even then there are other ways to fix it. I would say save your money for some other , more useful gadget.

Have you tried using the integrated spray bar? That might be even better than just removing the nozzle.

If it’s only for a couple days the bucket will work fine with dechlorinated water . I would skip the ferts and light though so you don’t start algae growing.

Gorgeous tank! I assume you run CO2?

I wouldn’t worry about that too much, bladder snails are small and they only reproduce to match the amount of food available. My colony boomed for a minute but has now leveled out to a sustainable population.

When I had a saltwater aquarium I once had several clams grow from a piece of what looked like bare rock, that was pretty cool!

I wouldn’t try mixing Caridina with Neocaridina shrimp, their choice parameters are very different. You could keep Amanos or some of the other larger shrimp like bamboo or vampire. Your setup looks good, what size tank is it?

If you raise your water level to the bottom of the blue sponge holder the flow will be out and across rather than straight down. That said, I find it odd that it doesn’t have any flow control, many (most?) HOBs do. You could also try a finer sponge in the overflow area.

Yes it could, plants can only photosynthesize (haha, is that a word?) for so long, after that they rest whether their is light or not. Also I don’t think blue is their preferred spectrum.