ILikeFish

must have completely glanced over that when I was looking at it. Thanks!

Thanks for the help!

Silly question about the heater. What are the dimensions of the heater. I am trying to find out if it will fit in a Fluval Flex 15

Best name I've ever heard for floaters

Had the opportunity to go fishing with a FLW bass fishing pro, we spent more time talking about mosquito fish than bass.

My favorite videos from you lately have definitely been more on the business side, I think you have a very interesting perspective on the live animal business as a whole, focusing on the people as much as you focus on the animals, keying in on fish keeps me engaged as its something I can relate to. When I first found your channel, I was a novice fish keeper and the list videos, specific issue focused videos, and care guides were invaluable to me. Overall, I will watch anything you put out there regardless of who it is targeted at because there is always something new for me to pick up or learn from.

It is hard to say how much exactly to dose when. What I would recommend is that you start with one pump per 10 gallons, see how the plants react. If you are happy with the tank and the growth rate then one pump is your dose. If you want the plants to grow more, you can test to see what is limiting them, my guess based on your description would be that the lighting is going to be your biggest limiting factor. Growing aquarium plants is all about making one small change and seeing how the plants react over the next 2-4 weeks. It is important that you only change one thing at a time so that way you know what the impact of that one thing is. Also important to remember is that as your plants grow larger/more dense, you will need more fertilizer to keep them growing. The one pump per 10 gallons you are currently doing may work, but when you have double the plant mass, you will most likely find you need double the fertilizer.

I didn't even consider that prior to my post. Great bit of info there.

an easy way to measure this would be to take a known amount of water, say a 5 gallon bucket filled up, and pump one pump of easy green in. You should then be able to test for nitrates out of the bucket once it has had a chance to mix. I would test before you add the easy green and after to ensure you're not reading any false nitrates coming from the tap.

Update, I purchased a liquid test for chlorine and tested the tanks, the test I bought, a pool test, was not able to detect any chlorine in the system. I am still open to the idea of that being the problem, but I am not sure thats exactly what our issue is. It aeration makes sense that it would be an issue, I will see about adding air stones to the sumps to increase oxygen content in the tanks. Will report back with any updates.

Thanks for the reply. There isnt any CO2 being injected into the tanks. Other parameters are Ammonia: 0 Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0 Chlorine: 0 ( as tested by tetra test strips) Water comes in from the tap from the city. There is no degassing tower or tank. I don't notice any redness or burst capillaries, however from time to time I do notice some drooping tails. I am not sure what a TGP meter is. Yes, the tanks are freshwater. I agree that the ph at 8.2 isn't necessarily a problem but a symptom of a bigger issue. As far as aeration, we do not do anything special there, tap water chlorine is removed via degassing in the sump prior to being pumped up into the tanks. We change the carbon filters once monthly and the UV lamps get changed 2 times a year, every 6 months. Specifically, the tanks are Marineland commercial systems. We do a constant temp of 76 across the board. I find that hardier fish are able to survive, however most tetras, mollies, etc. are not doing as well. I have variatus and zebra danios that have currently been living in there for about a month. African cichlids are also loving it

Hi, I’m in charge of a commercial fish system at work. These systems run auto water changers, UV sterilizers, etc. the water also goes through a water softener prior to entering the tanks. Out of the tap, the water is between 7.4 and 7.6. After 24 hours in the tanks, it climbs all the way to 8.2 or higher. Just this morning, I tested ph at 8.2 and kH at 10dkh. I am curious if anybody had any idea what could be causing this. It is impacting our livestock with higher than normal mortality rates. I haven’t tried any chemical solutions yet, but I’d consider anything at this point. Any help would be much appreciated

@Widgets @dasaltemelosguy thanks for the replies. I think y’all are touching on an important point. Despite my confidence that zeolite would serve as a good host to BB. One slip up by adding salt to the tank will nuke it. I think despite my interest in saving money during this build, it will be much safer long term to use ceramic rings

I appreciate the reply, I’m not planning snails or shrimp in the tank I’m setting up, so calcium absorption shouldn’t be too big of a problem. I could always supplement it if needed

Recently, I’ve been working on building a sump and it’s finally come time to buy the filter media. I’m going to use mostly sponge, but I was curious about using a zeolite material in place of something like ceramic rings or bio balls. I’ve read lots about zeolites and understand they act as a magnet trapping ammonia and soluble metals. Due to their incredibly large surface area, I was wondering if this would be a cheaper alternative to ceramic rings. As I understand it, zeolites trap ammonia for a period of time before needing to be replaced or recharged. What if I didn’t replace or recharge the zeolite and used it to grow BB. Would this work long term the way it makes sense in my head? Does anybody have any experience with anything like this?