Eric R

Oh, it's possible alright. There are plenty of reef keepers with different types or AWC setups that all use some sort of mixing system, so I'd suggest checking out how they do it on one of their forums (reef2reef, reefcentral, etc.). Most of the time it's a combination of holding barrels, pumps, and drains, so it might not be a continuous AWC system, but you could probably set it up where it's just two flips of a switch. Some people use aquarium controllers and dosing pumps to do continuous AWC systems on their reefs. You can use float valves to autorefill holding barrels, and you could probably even use dosing pumps to remineralize your water to a certain level. It all depends on how many tanks. You could also setup some tanks for Tanganyikan cichlids (which are fun to watch and breed readily as well) that will appreciate your harder water parameters in your fish room running straight from a pre-softened tap source.

Haha well.... this may be a case of do as I say, not as I do! My hardness isn't terrible though at the tap, kh 7, gh 9, ph 7.4. We don't have our house water softener hooked up, so my RODI is just running off of the well water. I may consider hooking up the water softener on a separate line just for the RODI unit at some point.

What's your ph and gh,what size tank, and do you have fish? I've seen hardy plants adapt to higher kh, though they do melt and then grow back after adjusting.

Whether you try a hard water fish tank or not is up to you. I'm changing my largest tank 55g over to a Tanganyikan community tank from a planted tank as I find the fish really more interesting to watch than the fish in my planted tank. The fish in the planted tank are being relocated to a 29g and a 10g. You do need a larger tank to do a Tanganyikan community tank, usually at least 4' long for many of the more common species, but you can do certain species only tanks all the way down to 10g. I have to buffer my water to increase dkh.

Also, since I assume you'll need to cycle the tank for freshwater, you'll want to make sure to test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels, which if your sand is a nutrient source from detritus and decomposing things, could be quite high at first. Water changes may bring it down over time, or it may not. If you were going to setup a saltwater system, I would 100% suggest new substrate, as saltwater systems tend to be a lot more nutrient sensitive that our planted freshwater systems.

You're definitely going to want to rinse the heck out of it if you're set on using it, substrates tend to accumulate detritus over time, plus it may be full of marine life (or dead marine critters at this point) and release a lot of ammonia as it decomposes. It's also possible that the substrate is crushed coral, or something similar that would be used to buffer a saltwater system, and that would end up raising your PH, which unless you are keeping rift lake cichlids, or have really soft water, you probably don't want. If you want to consider new sand substrate, I use pool filter sand that I buy in 50 pound bags from ACE hardware for relatively cheap for my aquarium sand substrate.

I got the RODI used and I eventually plan to use it for a couple nano reef tanks. I've also read that it's better to run your RO system after the water softener as it's easier on the RO membrane to remove sodium than calcium and magnesium.

I use a 7-stage, 100 gpd RODI system with a buddy booster. 1 micron filter, 2 carbon blocks, the RO membrane, and 3 DI stages. Before using the buddy booster, I only had 40 psi, now I have 80+, which makes the RO system more efficient. I mix 2:1 RO:tap on my water changes instead of remineralizing. I have covered tanks, so I don't top off between water changes, but it's best if you need to top of to do so with only RO water. Well water is ph 7.4, 7 dkh, need to test gh I just got the kit. By adding oak leaves to my tank, my tank is 7.0 ph, 3dkh. I'm still working to bring the hardness and ph down slowly.

I have the fluval plant 3.0, not the aquasky. What size tank, and is it planted?

Hello! Welcome to the forum. Is this a Tanganyikan biotope? You'll need to choose tankmates that also do well with the same ph and hardness needs for the frontosa. I've never kept fronts, I tend to like smaller fish, but I do have other Tanganyikan cichlids and hangout on some of the cichlid forums, so here's what I've read, though I'd recommend doing your own research on sites dedicated to Tanganyikan cichlids as well as asking here. Frontosa get quite big and can end up eating tank mates that are as large as half their size, so you'll do best with large fish that aren't too aggressive, as some Tanganyikan cichlids can get quite aggressive when breeding. Frontosa do well in groups and are often kept in species-only tanks, you have a nice sized tank and could do a group of 6-8+, depending on the footprint of your tank. You probably shouldn't have more than one more male, and would need to have several females, otherwise there will be too much territorial aggression. As far as tankmates, the most commonly recommended other than a species-only tank seem to be adult Altolamprologus calvus or compressiceps, you don't want juveniles as they will too likely be considered a snack. Even so, I think tankmates are most often recommended for juvenile frontosa, when the tankmates themselves start larger than the frontosa do.

Very nice! I like the flowiness of the fins.

Should be, as long as there has recently been a similar bioload in your old tank as to the bioload in your new tank.

Yeah, pretty sure those are all males. Sorry.

I'd recommend trimming and manually removing as much of the algae as you can, which will include removing leaves with a significant amount of BBA on them. Without CO2, excess nutrients and lighting will more likely promote algal growth over plant growth. Unless your testing shows low levels of nitrates or your plants are showing signs of nutrient deficiencies, I wouldn't increase dosing. What sort of substrate are you using?

Males are noticably bigger than females, with full grown males topping out around 2 inches while females are usually about an inch. Sometimes it can be harder to tell juvenile males apart from females. What size are your fish, and can you share any pictures? The one fish I think I can see in your picture near the anubias at the far end of the tank looks like it's probably a male.

If it's a light brown, wouldn't that mean it's 7.4? Hard to tell with the lighting.

20 long and 75g are both nice sized due to their footprint. Unfortunately, I only have one. 10 gallons are actually surprisingly useful if you know what to stock them with.

Do you know what style of overflow you have?

I picked up a trick from a youtube video that uses an aquaclear 70/110 intake extension tube snugly fit on the end of the python water change hook. I just shoved some filter floss in the extension tube and it works great to block shrimp from getting sucked up.

I think some very closely related apistos *may* produce hybrid offspring, but in general I don't believe they are fertile. I don't believe the A. agassizii and A. cacatuoides are closely related enough for this to happen, they aren't in the same complex/group. See this page for information on Apisto groups and complexes: http://www.tomc.no/page.aspx?pageid=127 Maybe someone else will know more? I've personally only kept A. hongsloi so far.

Mollies tend to be pretty hardy fish, for what it's worth. Keep an eye on the the fish for signs of disease for the next couple of weeks, if you haven't already, you should do some research so that you know how to identify the symptoms and how to treat if necessary. I believe that even if you detoxify ammonia with Prime or something similar, that it will show up on your test kit. Be sure to do regular partial water changes and test your ammona/nitrite/nitrate levels and you should be fine. Follow the instructions on the nitrate test kit (if you are using API), you really have to shake the vial and the bottle hard to get the test to come out correctly.

What do you mean "in balance"? Do you mean cycled? I usually just keep extra filter sponge cycling in my filters all the time. I don't keep quarantine tanks setup if I'm not using them. However, you should be careful with the filter media for quarantine tanks - depending on what illnesses the fish may end up having or what medication you end up using, you made need to sterilize the filter media before using it again, or simply get rid of it.

Just keep an eye on the hob when it goes to kickback on. Many hobs don't self prime and struggle to start when turned back on, without being topped off. I have the nano hob the coop sells and I usually have to add water back into it to get it to start running again after I shut it off for a water change.

Baking soda is a cheap and effective kh puffer. Epsom salts are a good gh buffer. I am surprised that your ph and kh drops so much, though 4dkh is a bit on the lower side. What happens if you just leave a bucket of your tap water out for 24 or 48 hours? CO2 in the air of your home can actually decrease aquarium ph over time as well. You can try removing the driftwood from the tank and boiling it in water for an hour or two, changing the water occasionally, to get most of the tannins out of it. It's best, as you probably know, not to chase numbers. Most of the fish that have been in the hobby for a while (not wild caught, but captive bred) are fairly hardy and adapt to a wide range of ph and hardness.

If the condensation is because the water temperature and aquarium surface is colder than the air temperature, I don't think it should be? I believe that condensation doesn't occur when we keep aquariums because the aquarium is usually warmer or equal to the air temperature around it.