Streetwise

Wicked @MickS77, I love the scape and tannins!

I think I am finally ready to try guppies after all these encouraging threads. Will they do ok with Neo shrimp, Leopard Danios, Glowlight Tetras, White Clouds, and CPDs in a community tank? This is my one kitchen tank with some hair algae from too much window light, so what @Brandy said has me especially interested! Thanks

I keep spare foam blocks, used pre-filters, plant cuttings, and TBD new plants in my utility tanks. And like Dave, snails! I honestly get way more use out of them for plants, but my fish population is not large. Cheers

Wow, @Daniel where did you get those?

Thanks Dave. I’ve thought about trying my first Betta in that 3.5, but I’m not sure it is big enough, so I will probably drop in a handful of blue neos. However, plants, wood, and moss make me happy, even without fish or shrimp. Cheers

I want a graduated strainer or slow centrifuge to separate duckweed, snails, and shrimp fry.

Brandy, let’s say you run eight hours now. You could use a timer to do 2h40m on, siesta, 2h40m on, siesta, 2h40m on, then nighttime. You might even find that with the breaks, you could get away with three hours per photoperiod after testing. Cheers

For my pico tanks, I frequently have to remove duckweed, which is a biofilm buffet for shrimp and snails. Combs and hair picks are great for duckweed removal, with a bit of a shake to try to get bladder snails and shrimp fry to let go. I still put anything I pull into a clear bucket to check for fry.

Here are some other generic tips for forums in general and Invision in particular: Unread Content is the best way to read the forum. Pick your favorite topics to read and respond to first, then refresh and see what else is going on. The dot next to a thread takes you to the first unread post of the thread. The title takes you to the first post. Cory chose the best current forum software, so the desktop and mobile interfaces are both easy.

I have enjoyed adding local terrestrial moss on wood or rocks at the waterline.

Hi Brandy, I bought an Apex when I did because the 2018 smart plug market was frustrating, especially if you wanted to use Apple vs Google or Amazon. Now you can do so much with smart plugs for whatever platform you choose. I focused on getting the time schedule right (see the other thread), and then dialing in power per peak to let plants win over algae. Timing for me, power for plants vs algae. I do this via the FluvalSmart app for my current setup. Cheers

I wanted to add a bit more about why I like dual siestas, but I thought the topic should be separate from the Fluval 3.0 lighting thread. My dual siesta reasoning is 90% human, and 10% for a little bonus in organic soil Walstad tanks. I am not trying to promote it as a special formula for fish rooms or all tanks. I rejoined the hobby in 2018, after running marine tanks for a while until 2011, and under-gravel, plastic plant tanks as a kid. I spent a lot of time researching lighting, especially after I setup my first organic soil tank, and started to understand the balancing act between light, decomposition, algae, and plants. The corner case I was trying to solve involved the following: Organic soil Walstad tanks, bedroom setup, weekday enjoyment vs weekend enjoyment, and algae vs plants. I wanted to be able to grow my plants, let plants out-compete algae, and see what was happening when I was in the room, without disrupting anything. I could setup a weekday schedule, which was frustrating for weekends, or the opposite. There was no way to do a consistent 6-8 hour schedule without missing a ton of tank-viewing time. Before we got Fluval Pro Mode, I watched a few of Bentley Pascoe's videoes about using timers to trick the lights into more control points by resetting to midnight on a power-cycle. I also started reading Diana Walstad's book at the same time, where she discusses soil decomposition, CO2, plants, and algae, as well as siestas. My understanding is that plants ramp up photosynthesis faster than algae, so every slice of darkness-to-light favors the plants for a certain amount of time. In the meantime, with an organic soil substrate, the darkness allows for more production of CO2 from decomposition. The CO2 from decomposition is much lower than CO2 injection, but it is real. Once we got Pro Mode, I tried to find a way to slice up the time schedule so that I could get the equivalent of 6-8 hours of sustained light in a broken-up format, so I could wake up with my tanks at 07:00, enjoy them throughout the day, and have one hour of 1-2% blue from 21:00-22:00. I am getting 6-8 hours of normal light in 14-15 hours. That is what I tried to do with those schedules. I had to use triangle peaks rather than sustained peaks, since we don't have enough set points, but if you were to slide those triangles together, and overlap the middle ramp-ups, and ramp-downs, it would look more like a regular 6-8 hour schedule. I measured the pH changes with my Apex, along with temperature changes. Cheers

@H.C. Aqua, I love your stuff and you are a really great member of the aquarium community. Cheers, Jason

Not including outdoor tubs, I have ten aquariums, for 65 gallons total. Non-hobbyists are surprised by the first number, and aquarists by the second. My pico tanks are on window sills, bedside tables, etc., almost like aquatic houseplants. My smallest is a 1.25 gallon. However, when I stop renting I will get a big square-base tank for the center of a room so I can walk around and enjoy it from every side and above, and then who knows? Cheers

Leo, the 15”-24” dual siesta schedule I posted is for a 20 gallon tank. Cheers

@Cory, do you know if Fluval owns the Askoll brand from Italy? My Askoll tank was something I found randomly at a local shop and have never seen again outside the internet, but it came with various Fluval components. The name is hard to say out loud without getting misheard, so maybe they exited the English-language markets.

This is Valcour, an ex-stray who chose me when I let him in my window. He is named after an island on Lake Champlain, with a nod to Falcor from The Neverending Story. He likes drinking water from my utility tanks.

Thanks Bill, Duke, Dave, etc. I love seeing folks test and share ideas!

I remembered one other thing that has usually been part of the mix when I have had hair algae, which is window light. I have some now in only one tank, and that tank is in my kitchen area where there are a lot more windows. Cheers

I am used to bladder snails, and I have read about other snails, but I now have hitchhiker ramshorn snails in my tubs and I want to know more. I found this video from Cory, but let's have a chat about snails.

@Randy, that might be one of my new favorite fish!

This tip applies to shrimp as well!

I almost exclusively run Walstad tanks, so I have a big dirt battery that is always on. I have dealt with hair algae via much lower light.

I did a tub checkup on Thursday, but I haven't gotten a polarizing filter yet, so it wasn't worth filming, but I really wanted to do something outdoors. I spend most summers sailing after work on Lake Champlain, but not so much this year. I decided to take a bit of a hike and film the lake and some dinghy racing that was going on. It turned out to be a really nice day. I just put down the tripod, and relaxed. When the battery was about to die, I did a little walk back. Cheers.