Markp2483

I was having similar problems got the test kit and found I had zero phosphate levels even though I fertilize a couple times a week. I’ve started adding a little seachem phosphorus and noticed a sharp reduction in gsa. Trying to keep the phosphate level in the 0.5 range. So far so good.

I do roughly 50% water changes using the canister filter intake as the siphon. The suction auto breaks at roughly 50% It’s made water changes super easy. Where he currently hides is around 15% down from the surface

This is his favorite spot. Top left corner on the underside of the wood. It’s a perfect pleco sized spot. Pretty much impossible to get him out if he doesn’t want to. Can you spot the bristles?

So today I did my second waterchange with fish on new planted tank. Tank was up and running fishless for a few weeks with lots of water changes. First time I waterchange everything was normal pleco left the wood when the water got too low. Today I didn’t notice that the pleco held his ground and was left high and dry. I panicked and tried to get the little bugger out of there but he was fully wedge. I upturned the wood to submerge the pleco again and he just stayed in the same place. Figuring nothing else to do I filled back the tank and started doing research on how long a pleco can stay out of water. Found out over 7 hours if kept damp , so feeling a bit better. I’ll be happy when I see him roaming around the tank today The question is next week when I do a water change do I just let the pleco go high and dry or try something else?

1.21 gigawatts!! Agree a bit over the top but I still think it beats the off the shelf external heater

Quick update it works inkbird temp controller and dab press sauce heat plate ( think it’s for making some kind of marijuana product) found it on Amazon. the pic shows the test setup in the tank. It’s not scaped yet . Didn’t even cut the hoses down to size. I currently have it set at target 75deg in tank and the heater max temp is set to 180deg. In the future I plan on playing around with different temperature zones, where I can try to keep the canister filter at a higher temp to promote bacteria. After doing a bit of research it seems 96deg is about optimal for nitrofying bacteria. With the pump I have I can play around with flow rate and the heat plate temp to try and hit my targets (canister 96deg, tank 75deg). It’s all still an experiment but I’m having fun. cheers mark

Hi dandy pearl, I think ken’s idea of using a ink bird may help with temp control. It’s a basic temp controller with an external prob. So you would leave the prob in the tank and the controller would turn on and off the heat element . My only worry is that if the pump died I might fully cook my media. I guess I could have have two temp controllers in series with one in tank and one on the filter but now we are really going crazy. Maybe I can find a temp controller with two probs.

I’ll check it out, thank you

So late one night i made an impulse buy searching aliexpress and bought a 10l ada style superjet canister filter. It cost be around 200usd (still expensive ) but compared to the ada version around 1000usd thought it was pretty good deal. So it came in today and when i opened it i realized it didn't come with a pump. Not a big deal found a pump for 40 bucks. I sort of like the build your own adventure you get with this thing and this thing is just that a stainless steel can with some tubes. Now im looking for interesting ways to heat the tank. Since its made of stainless steel and sort of looks like a cooking pot why not treat it like a cooking pot and put a heating element under it. Does anyone see any reason this won't work? This is going on a landen 90p rimless tank (48gal) and i like keeping coolish water fish (<76deg) not discus) Any idea how many watts i may need? I don't know if normal aquarium reasoning for wattage will work for this. Any comments or suggestions are welcomed?

I have a bristlenose pleco and lately he’s become crazy hungry. Normally I would feed him a whole Persian cucumber once or twice a week. Offset with an algae wafer and some sinking pellets. He is in a heavily planted tank. Now he comes to the front of the tank twice a day and begs for food. (Morning and evening). He’ll crush a cucumber at night and then want a few algae wafers, flake food, blood worms, brine shrimp or whatever I feed the rest of the community fish. This happens everyday. Is he ok, could he have parasites. He no longer hides during day ( day walker?) and in the presence of food he bullies all the other fish. Crushing a whole cucumber every day is having a negative effect on my water quality (lots of poop). Is this ok, should I limit food, should I treat for parasites? He seems very healthy but O so hungry.