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sparklymoonshrimp

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  1. Awesome, thanks for the responses everyone! So the consensus is that the plant looks awful but it's not completely dead? And it should recover with care and a trim??
  2. Am new to a high tech planted tank and underestimated how much fertilizer the plants needed, so when I came back from vacation many of the leaves were brown and disintegrating. I had a lot of beautiful Java moss growing on a branch, but it's about 99% brown now, and it's been about a week and a half since I started dosing fertilizer again. My other plants are bouncing back and have new growth, and the Java moss has small spots of green, but on the whole it's almost entirely brown and I'm worried it's not coming back now. Should I remove the branch so it doesn't raise the ammonia levels? Thank you for your help!
  3. Ah, I tested my water for ammonia right out of the tap, before putting in conditioner. Should I test the tap after adding conditioner, as well? Or would that be redundant? Thanks for your help! The test I took today was about 4 days after a water change. I've never seen the ammonia down to 0ppm in this tank. ☹️ I think at this point, I should just take the water in to get tested. I have added some more plants to my tank, so I'm hoping that they will help it balance out a bit. Do you think it's unsafe to put my betta in there?
  4. Oh, you know what? I think I actually do have ammonia in my tap water. When testing my tank, I decided to "test" my tap water, expecting it to show 0ppm ammonia, and I was going to use that true yellow color as a comparison for my cycling tank. I was shocked, though, because it did show about 0.25 or 0.5ppm, it was notably chartreuse. When I refilled my aquarium, the water I added was about half tap, half RO water. Shouldn't the ammonia levels be lower? Wouldn't the ammonia quickly go down because it would be fixed by nitrates? I have the API Master Test Kit that I got about 2 years ago, and the bottles show that they are good until 2024. I thought this was a highly recommended kit, and that it was reliable? Or are LFSs going to be the only places that can really provide me with reliable readings?
  5. I started cycling a small, 5.5g aquarium back in May or June of this year, with the intention of making it an experimental planted tank. After 3 or more months, it STILL was not cycled, and I was barely getting any register of nitrates; I think the amount of nitrates even lowered at one point. Cycling this aquarium was really not working out for me for some reason, so out of frustration I stopped testing it since I didn't have livestock in it. I've since put plants in it, and I have some bladder snails roaming around, as well. I also just added a mystery snail today, too. I tested my water parameters--ammonia is still present at around 0.25ppm, my nitrites are 0ppm, and my nitrates are around 5ppm. Is this because I haven't added ammonia to the aquarium, so nitrates haven't had a chance to form? But.. I still have ammonia present in my aquarium, too, even if it's in small amounts. This is even after a large water change; a few days ago (Sunday) I replaced almost all the water in the tank when doing maintenance (I had also added a clay gravel on top of my planted substrate, to keep the dirt from floating around in the tank). Again, this aquarium has been running for nearly half a year now. It has a filter, light, heater, planted tank substrate, plants (for at least the past 2 months) and I have occasionally used water from my cycled aquarium. Why is it not cycling? How can I fix this? Is it unsafe to add my betta fish to this tank? He is in a cycled and healthy aquarium at the moment, but I would like to eventually move him to this planted tank. I added the mystery snail to it because I figured it would help with adding nitrates to the water over time. Should I wait until the ammonia level is registering at 0?
  6. Thanks so much for your response! This is a dumb question, but I'm not a very technical person and I have not yet set up my CO2 tank (waiting on parts). Would this screw onto where the bubble counter would normally go? And, I'm guessing this particular hardware does not fit onto paintball tanks, right? Still very good to have for future reference, though.
  7. Thanks for your response, I will definitely look into this! I only have 5.5g aquariums right now, so hopefully it will last me for awhile... Fortunately the place I can get it refilled at is only 15 mins away, but if I find it to be a hassle I might end up buying another set-up. Totally would want a larger system, but I think this is probably most practical for my small tanks and apartment haha
  8. I am setting up a CO2 (paintball) system and am wondering if I can use a T Connector to provide CO2 for two different tanks? I think I would probably have to increase the amount of CO2 that comes out so that I can get the right pressure? Thanks!
  9. I've used the Fluval Stratum for Plants & Fish but it's so messy, it breaks down quickly into a fine powder that coats every thing. I'm wondering if there is a good planted tank substrate that is a bit more solid?
  10. That's okay, what you were able to tell me is really helpful still! 🙂 Maybe I'll try using one of those cheaper, basic blue aeration stones you seen often, I think even Aquarium Co-Op has them. Thanks for your help! 👍
  11. Hi! So this is the diffuser I got for it (not the same brand I don't think, but is identical): https://www.amazon.com/Rodipu-Transparent-Diffuser-Durable-Aquarium/dp/B08R943ZW4/ref=sr_1_47?dchild=1&keywords=diffuser+co2&qid=1628959357&sr=8-47 I had a suspicion as well that there simply might not be enough pressure in my small bottle to push gas through this type of diffuser, as I usually see it used in fancier set-ups. Here is a picture of my bottle and check valve: http://imgur.com/a/rnwTmcd
  12. Hello, I planned on making my 5.5g tank a planted one, so I wanted to experiment with DIY CO2 as a way to save money. I followed the instructions of this article here: https://www.buildyouraquarium.com/diy-co2-reactor/ .... Despite following these directions, there are no bubbles whatsoever appearing from the diffuser, and after 12 hours the CO2 indicator shows no change and sits at blue. Since my tank is smaller, I went with a single bottle with a size of 15.2 fl oz and so halved the ingredients (sugar, yeast, baking soda) when preparing the mixture. I think this part might be okay-- I can see that the bottle has been reacting for about 12 hours now, bubbles are fizzing up towards the top of the bottle. I think something might be wrong with the physical mechanics of how the bottle was set up. Initially I had been fiddling around with the tubing and inadvertently pushed several inches of it into the bottle without realizing it, straight into the liquid mixture, so I think that might've made it to where the gas wasn't entering the line properly. Liquid also entered the tubing, and is scattered around different parts of it as well as a bit in the check valve and diffuser. I poured about 1/5 of the liquid in the bottle out and pulled the tubing further back out (the silicone for the lid was still wet, and I re-applied more afterwards) so that gas could rise to the top of the bottle and go cleanly into the tubing. I also wonder if the placement of my check valve is incorrect. In the article, it states to insert the check valve to where the arrow is pointed in the direction of CO2 flow (from bottle to tank) but the check valves I have do not show an arrow. The picture supplied in the article makes it look like at the tip of the arrow is also the tip of the the piece inside the check valve, so that's what I used to base the check valve insertion off of, but now I wonder if this might be wrong, too... Does anyone know what might've possibly gone wrong with how I did my CO2 system? Please let me know, I'm eager to get plants in my tank! 😭
  13. Hi Roy, thanks for getting back to me. So I think my ammonia is sitting around 3.0 - 4.0 ppm-- would this be too dangerous for plant tissue? Also, I know that plants will lower ammonia levels, that's why I'm afraid it could disrupt the cycling process because the ammonia is needed to build nitrites/nitrates. Should this be a concern? That the plants could lower the ammonia to where there is not enough to continue feeding nitrites/nitrates? I'm not sure if it would matter too much, but am worried because I've spent a bit on aquatic plants in the past, only to have them fail ☹️ And I don't want to disrupt the cycle as it's already taken so long lol
  14. I'm currently cycling an aquarium that I plan on making into a planted tank. I've been cycling this aquarium for a long time now (over 2 months, due to some issues on my part) and am finally starting to get nitrates, so I'm a little paranoid about adding plants to the mix if they will be consuming the ammonia in the tank that is needed to cycle it. I might just be paranoid, but figured I'd ask. Is it okay to add plants in the aquarium even though it is still cycling? Would this mess with my parameter test results? Thanks!
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