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DaveSamsell

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Everything posted by DaveSamsell

  1. DaveSamsell
    @RickHunter, Am from Pennsylvania, as well. Great group of folks in the Forum. Welcome aboard. 🙂
  2. DaveSamsell
    @Ben_RF, I do enjoy a wide variety of channels. Way too many to list. From the amateur folks with just a few aquariums to the highly polished, larger channels. It's beneficial to gather information from a wide source, IMO. With the 'internet age' here, remember those things with covers and pages inside; they are called books, lol. 📚 It's refreshing for me just to do some reading on the fish hobby or whatever else might be interesting, for a change at times.
  3. DaveSamsell
    Vallisneria Spiralis - I think a dense background, full of Vallisneria looks really nice, in an aquarium.
  4. DaveSamsell
    @Frogmouth Catfish, My aquariums kH & gH get depleted over time. What I use is pure baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to raise the kH & Wondershell to raise / maintain the gH. Note: Both supplements are potent so care should be used when dosing. Start with small increments. The baking soda raises pH very quickly. There are online kH dosing calculators for an added convenience, for the baking soda, to measure how many degrees of kH of change, per dose, etc. The Wondershells are great too, but you have to be also careful not to add too much as well, otherwise the gH will get too high, over time. Everything is a fine balance.
  5. DaveSamsell
    @RovingGinger The Tetra strips work very well, IMO. I do prefer the API liquid kits though, but it's a matter of personal preference. Water is truly amazing & I never understood some of it's complexities; only after entering into the aquarium hobby, has it helped my overall understanding.
  6. DaveSamsell
    @RovingGinger, your 20 ppm nitrate water source is fairly high. Think the highest I have seen locally, was about 40 ppm nitrate. Fortunately, our home well water is at a consistent 5 ppm nitrate level. 📊 I know what you mean regarding unnecessarily stressing the fish on excessive water changes. I really think it's unfair to the fish, personally. 😟 Does your source water nitrate level vary or is it generally the same?
  7. DaveSamsell
    @Cory's comments on the "no water change" aquarium & seasoned tank time (STT) caught my interest, because it was recently something that I was thinking about as well. One of my aquariums is leaning in that direction, since it is well established, has a fairly thick substrate and is heavily planted. Noticed the nitrates have been decreasing with every weekly water test. Usually, the nitrates always rose slowly, in the past. Typically change water about every 30 days or so, but am going to experiment and see if the time interval can be stretched further. The tank is moderately to heavily stocked and will keep an eye on overall test parameters.
  8. DaveSamsell
    @Bill, Maybe you have some other water you can test, I.E. left over bottled water, etc, just to get a small sample and see if it's the test kit or not. 3 ppm is high, no doubt. I had the same brown coating on plants as well. Not fun to clean off. All the best.......
  9. DaveSamsell
    @Bill. Just seen your post and a couple of ideas came to mind, that may help. Did you ever test for Phosphates before and know a baseline? Can you obtain water from a different source and test to see if there is any difference? Note: Brown algae was very common in my tanks when some of them were cycling. Seems like the brown algae was the first to appear and then it was outcompeted for nutrients by the green algae, etc. All the best....
  10. DaveSamsell
    @Daniel, was just curious, ever any problems with the cats picking up internal parasites, or other ailments, from the fish? Typically, I just bury mine or use them as plant fertilizer. Thanks...
  11. DaveSamsell
    @FishObsessed, My understanding of the water filter used may contain a carbon block. I suspect more is being removed from the water than realized. I don't use carbon based filters, with my water, for my planted aquariums and don't know who does. When filling my very first aquarium, I used a similar water filter product, and my plants were not doing great at all. Granted, everyone's source water can be extremely different often times; varying house to house. ⛲ Folks have their own way of doing things. What works for you may not work for someone else, given all the potential variables, etc. 😊
  12. DaveSamsell
    @FishObsessed, I have many Scissortail Rasboras & they really seem to go out of their way to stay in the "open" portions of the aquarium.
  13. DaveSamsell
    @ADMWNDSR83, We have a fairly large vegetable garden & our organic Zucchini was exceptionally well this year. I like to grow our own plants\ vegetables since no pesticides are used, etc. 🌱🌿🌾🌻🍀🍃
  14. DaveSamsell
    @Daniel, I'll be waiting with bated breath for next week's episode, and continuing saga, of CFI (care forum investigates). 😉
  15. DaveSamsell
    Moved some more mystery snails from my DIY hatchery to their 'grow-out" tank.
  16. DaveSamsell
    @Seized, what really helped decrease my GSA was a good number of nerite snails. BTW, I use several Nicrew lights as well, in addition to my main lighting. I mostly use them at night as a dimmable nightlight. You asked about the mystery snails. They are fairly heavy eaters, but I generally don't feed mine a lot of food. Am always trying to strike a balance in the aquariums for minimal algae while not starving the snails either. 🐌
  17. DaveSamsell
    @Pekitivey, those test strips work well. Am partial to the API liquid master test kit though. Would imagine it's a matter of personal preference and available time, etc. I also use other purchased liquid API tests, GH, KH & phosphate. They come in handy for testing my planted, freshwater aquariums.
  18. DaveSamsell
    @Pekitivey, IME, the nitrate test can be tricky, if not used correctly. I follow the instructions. The nitrate bottle #2, is especially critical to be mixed properly for an accurate test result. Back when I purchased my original API test kit, I even tried various times of mixing and there is a difference in accuracy. Went back to the provided factory instructions and it seems to work the best. Was curious, do you have a lot of aquariums to test? Maybe there is a better way for you, I.E. test strips, etc.
  19. DaveSamsell
    @ange, Most of my green plants don't need a lot of iron anyway. I use Aquarium Co-Op's liquid "Easy Iron" in my aquariums, as needed.
  20. DaveSamsell
    I agree with @Daniel, my personal favorite is a heavily planted 10 gallon aquarium. They are inexpensive & versatile.
  21. DaveSamsell
    @ange, Thankfully, I didn't follow their bad advice with the metal, with my beginner aquarium. It would have been iron overload, plus whatever other chemicals\elements that would have potentially leached into the water column.
  22. DaveSamsell
    One of the worst pieces of advice I received was to layer the bottom of the aquarium with rusting metal, for a source of iron. 👹
  23. DaveSamsell
    @FishObsessed, With my Aqueon HOB's, I don't use the cartridge & bio-grid system. It's really a blend of personal preference combined with functionality. What I use is a pre-filter sponge on the intake, reusable black coarse sponge pads inside also with a small piece of disposable fine poly pad all from @Cory 's Aquarium Co-Op. Seems to work well for me. I don't like to cram a lot of media into any HOB, when "hot-rodding" them, since they can potentially flood if backed up and\or cause other issues. Hope this helps. 😊
  24. DaveSamsell
    @FrostiesFishes In my experience, the Val in my tanks really didn't start thriving until I stopped gravel vac'ing near them. They seemed to love a rich substrate with finer gravel. Some of my Val looked weak, but suddenly grew new runners, fairly quickly, after leaving an area of the aquarium all for themselves.
  25. DaveSamsell
    I would have to say AquaClear on top, then Seachem Tidal and then followed by Aqueon HOB's. I have 'hot-rodded' a number of filters by several manufactures, but these are my personal favorites.
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