Rory Waliser

What KH and GH do you think I will start to notice a more volatile pH and how long after a water change will it take for the pH to stabilize after adding the RO water? I know these aren’t exactly linear equations we’re dealing with here, but how long should I wait to test my water so I can determine if I still need to lower my hardness a bit?

I've decided I want to start using strictly RO water for water changes. I got a new well at my house which produces stupid hard water with a pH of about 8.4. The pHs are stable in my tanks, but with the high GH and KH, I've found it very difficult to lower my pH below 8 and keep it there as (I think) the hardness is pulling it back up. Does anybody have any experience using straight RO water and adding supplements to it as to not shock the tank? I'm assuming seachem makes a product for this, but I'm not sure which one it would be. Any suggestions or corrections to my thought process? I've never kept them, but from what I've read, these water parameters sounds like an african cichlid keeper's wet dream.

@Torrey good to know! Sorry for hijacking the thread @MyFish

@Torrey @Mmiller2001 Could the pH below 7, meaning higher CO2 content in the tank, cause issues with the ammonia present since there could be gill burn going on making it harder for the fish to intake oxygen? Or is the oxygen level completely independent from the CO2 level? Asking for my sake and @MyFish’s sake since I also run CO2 in a tank

Love the floating plants! Nice work!

Not sure if this is correct, but my thought process is that your tank was cycled but the biofilter couldn't handle that much of an increase in waste when you added all of the stock. It should, in theory, fix itself. I agree with @Tommy Vercetti on the water changes until you stop seeing the ammonia. Your biofilter will strengthen as the beneficial bacteria become more plentiful.

I never actually had success selling anything online so I've never shipped, but I've always wondered what the best method is to insulate the packages. The foam boxes from U-Line blow whatever $1 profit you might get immediately. Ever used like half inch rigid foam from a hardware store? Seems like a cheap way to go about it. What do you use?

Kinda seems like Lucy has some splainin to do......

Thank you! This is it!

Is there any information about reading the different types of algae that may or may not be growing in a tank to decipher issues with or certain parameters in a tank? I run CO2 in one of my tanks and I am unsure if I have certain deficiencies in either CO2 levels or mineral levels in the tank. Are there certain algaes that are prone to growing if, for example, there isn't enough CO2 in the tank vs not enough fertilizer for the plants given a certain CO2 level? I have an indicator in the tank all the time and the color is always the same on it, so I'm fairly certain the CO2 levels aren't fluctuating, but I seem to get a new type of algae in the tank every time I do a water change. Sometimes its like a hair algae, sometimes a blue/green color, sometimes dark brown or black. I would like to figure out what mineral additives, fertilizers, or CO2 adjustments I can make once I see these to keep them from completely covering my plants. Hopefully what I'm saying makes sense?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh Read through this. I think GH is what you should look at. If you have a steady pH, your kH is most likely fine. There is probably a recommended GH for your particular plant.

I don’t know if Bjorn was talking about your specific plant species or not, but I have setups both with and without co2 and they only difference I’ve observed is the rate of growth. There is a natural amount of co2 that will diffuse into the water via surface agitation. This is completely sufficient for keeping plants alive and healthy. I’m not a chemist or biologist so I’m sure there’s someone with more knowledge that will correct me, but I view supplementing co2 like giving an engine more air. If you give an engine more air(co2) and give it the proper amount of fuel(fertilizers) to go along with it, you can achieve a higher horsepower(rate of plant growth). This is obviously a very surface level way of looking at it. My co2 setup definitely grows fast, but my tanks without co2 have beautiful, slow growing plants. It’s really hard to tell what’s making them melt, but my guess is there is something about your water parameters that the scarlet temples just don’t like. It could be kH or GH??

I'm sure you know this if you have kept any plants at all, but from a personal experience, there can be issues with new plants depending on how they were grown. A lot of growers don't have the plants fully submerged ever before they get to you. Sometimes the change from the hydroponics setup (or whatever they use) to an aquarium causes them to melt. I've had plants melt down for a while and then come back just as nice as they were when I got them, and I've had plants that never come out of it. About 6 months ago, I added two ozelot swords from two different fish stores to my display tank. Both melted, one came back, and the other is a decomposing root ball.

Hello All, I've got a tank of red rilis going and its just starting its second generation of culls. Ive noticed pretty much all of the shrimp in the tank have a black patch behind their heads and I'm worried they have some sort of infection. There isn't any out of the ordinary behavior from them apart from almost all of the males (or what I assume are males) frantically swimming around the tank. I am thinking they're most likely looking for a female that has recently molted since there is several other berried females in the tank, but I've done some reading and found some bacterial infections that look similar to this. Are these images a dead giveaway of disease to anyone or is this common among cherry shrimp? What is the course of action if this is an infection? Thanks, Rory

I've been looking at getting a few pea puffers for a while now and I think the setup I have will do nicely when I go pick them up. My only worry is the nerite snail I've had in this tank for several years. It is about an inch in size at this point and I've read that the puffers will normally just ignore a snail that is bigger than them, but I'm curious if anyone has experienced their puffers killing larger nerites.

@Ron Uni I must clarify that I was supplying to a 10 gallon tank when I tried the fluval kit. I needed to get it down to around 1 bubble every 3 seconds and it was just so difficult to get it there and keep it there. If you need more flow, I would say it is very attainable with the fluval kit.

If you plan on using CO2 long term, I would personally bite the bullet and spend the couple hundred dollars on a good regulator and gauge kit. The fluval kit works fine, but there is no need adjustment for this system so I found it very difficult to adjust my bps down to where I needed in a couple of my smaller planted tanks. A decent kit can be a bit spendy but I promise it's worth it. I've tried a few cheap ones that either don't keep a steady bubble rate or a gauge will break and dump a full tank of CO2 in 5 minutes.

I wish there was a product like the furbo camera that I could put in my betta tank for when I'm out of town so I could check up on him and throw him individual pellets. I usually just fast him over the weekend, but I think he gets bored when I don't walk in front of the tank to feed him once a day. Every time I come home he greets me with as much enthusiasm as the dog does when I walk in the door.

What is the lighting like in your tank? Are the plants growing or sort of stalled? Your dosing seems massive to me, but your plants are may loving it if they are in high enough light to consume that much and grow.

Your pH might be a bit low but this shouldn't be too big of an issue if it says stable. If you want to raise it up a bit, use crushed coral in your substrate to do it. This should be a good way to raise it and not have to worry about it too much after the fact. Research online or in the forum here about it though. I've never had to do this so I'm not too learned on the subject since my tap water is higher around that 7.8 mark and I only have to mix RO water with my tap water to fix it. The only other thing I question is your hardness. Usually your if your pH is low, your hardness is softer and vice versa. I'm not sure if 150 ppm is common for a mid 6 range pH or if there is some inconsistency in the test strips (please don't kill me for saying this @Cory)

Yeah I guess 200 watts is 200 watts so it would cost he same if you had 4 heaters or a singe heater. And you would be creating more upfront cost to buy an extra sump tank and plumbing anyways. Scrap that idea lol.

How many tanks are you talking? I guess decent tank heaters are like 30ish bucks average depending on size. You might see a dollar difference per month in your electric bill per 100 watt heater so i would say the cost is mostly upfront. Also depends on the type of fish you want to keep. A lot of species wouldn't mind staying in that 70-72 degree range so you may not even need anything to heat your tank. It might also be possible to run all of your tanks through one sump tank since you have done custom drilling. That way you may be able to by one higher wattage heater and put it in the sump tank to keep the rest of them warm.

I've got a mating pair of honey gouramis and my male changes color by the hour. I've noticed my female also gets a bit brighter when the male starts turning dark as well.

The only test strips I've had good results with are the Tetra brand ones, and even those can be inconsistent. You can have up to 40 ppm nitrates before your fish start to feel it but 20 ppm is good to have for your live plant to pull out of the water column.

Lineage? I thought cherry shrimp were just named based on some agreed range of color. So even if some of these shrimp do achieve brighter reds, it's not technically correct to call them fire red shrimp or bloody mary shrimp since they don't originate from a recognized colony of fire red or bloody mary shrimp?