Daniel

I don’t know one way or another if EPA regulations are dispositive for nitrates in well water in rural areas.

I did some measurements earlier and here was I got for two 36 inch Finnex Stingrays at 16 inches depth of water: And one 36" Stingray at 11" of water: And baby's tears are growing just fine under this lighting. The main thing about Stingrays is that they are tough as all get out. But if my goal was to carpet, I would go with a Fluval 3.0.

If the snails and shrimp are okay, 1 ppm nitrite wouldn't bother me. I wouldn't worry about de-detoxification as that is just adding more chemicals into your aquarium. Here was recent tank I setup without cycling. I just added fish and plants on day 1. Here is a graph of the aquarium cycling over the next few weeks after setup. As you can see ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and rose and fell with no harm to the shrimp, snails or fish in the aquarium.

If I could only have one, it would be hornwort. Why? easy to grow (as long as the water isn't extremely soft) Champion consumer of nitrogen provides a great hiding places for baby fish, shrimp, or fish with aggressive mating habits inexpensive and at least for me in North Carolina, is a native local plant

Turn out, just like reactions, there apparently is a limit on hat recommendations. 😒

I am going for the jackpot! Can I manipulate the product recommendations to be hats all the way across? Here goes nothing.

Look! There mere mention of hats triggered these recommendations🙂

Yeah, I am waiting to see what the product recommendations are when inevitable 'anal prolapse' topic rears its ugly head again. Triple hat tip to @TheDukeAnumber1 for one of his many classic meme posts back on December 7

Plus 1 for what @Betsy just said. I think tanks with plants cycle 'better', because the plants and the bacteria that do the cycling have a commensal relationship. Live plants have an enormous amount of surface area and provide additional nutrients in the form of sugars and other carbohydrates that aid the beneficial bacteria.

One day when I have filled out all the columns which include things like PAR, native distribution, propagation, etc. I will post the whole thing in the files sections. I have to give @Streetwise credit for nudging me on this. He is always asking plant family relationships and stuff, so I just started keeping a list and turned into this spreadsheet.

First take this list with a huge grain of salt🙂. I have been working a spreadsheet that has most the common aquarium plants. I have hidden most of the columns in the spreadsheet just for clarity, but I have left unhidden the notes column where 'brackish' would show up. Also recently I have also working on the origin of the Family, genus, species, etc name. I do not have personal knowledge if the information below is true, only that it has been reported in the literature. Genus Notes Alteranthera Alternating anthers Ammannia Honoring Johann Amman Anubias brackish Egyptian god of the afterlife Anubias brackish Egyptian god of the afterlife Anubias brackish Egyptian god of the afterlife Anubias brackish Egyptian god of the afterlife Aponogeton rest period Neighboring the Apono tribal district of Gabon Azolla Anabaena Azollae Local name named by Lamarck Bacopa brackish Aboriginal name in French Guiana Bacopa brackish Aboriginal name in French Guiana Cabomba Yellow flowers Likely an aboriginal name Cabomba Yellow flowers Likely an aboriginal name Ceratopteris Multiple cryptic species Greek cerato, horned, and pteris, fern, referring to the antlerlike Ceratopteris Multiple cryptic species Greek cerato, horned, and pteris, fern, referring to the antlerlike Crinum Lily flowers from the Greek krinon for lily Cryptocoryne derived from the Greek crypto, hidden, and koryne, meaning club Cryptocoryne Cryptocoryne small Cryptocoryne medium Cryptocoryne Cryptocoryne Cryptocoryne Bronze leaves Cryptocoryne Easy Cryptocoryne Ceratophyllum Nitrate absorber Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Echinodorus Heavy feeder Eleocharis Eleocharis Hemianthus Hygrophila Hygrophila Lilaeopsis brackish Limnophila Ludwigia Micranthemum Micranthemum Microsorum (Leptochilus) Brackish Microsorum Brackish Myriophyllum Nesaea Nymphaea Nymphoides Pogostemon Riccia Liverwort Rotala Sagittaria Brackish Arrow leaf Staurogyne Taxiphyllum Bryophyte Versicularia Bryophyte Versicularia Bryophyte Vallisneria Heavy feeder Vallisneria Heavy feeder Vallisneria Heavy feeder Egeria Egeria

Found it! Back from September 15, 2021 - the trick was to search for 'skittles'. This was the video that started the 'does blue plus yellow equal green debate'

@Kirsten Thank you so much for so much valuable food for thought! I hope you get nominated for a future CARE package as your posts always make this forum a better place. Strangely enough, I find myself using a ginormous pair tweezers at least a couple of times a week just pull stuff out of deeper tanks and reach items that fall behind by aquariums too.

Yes, they can. With plants, it is all about the roots. Typically the leaves die back away when they are transplanted into a new aquarium. Plant them right away (and after a little further die back) you should see new leaves before too long.

Divert you snail's attention by giving you snail an alternative, like a small piece of winter squash. Or anything else tastier than a root tab.

I can't find the old posts where we debated this last summer. Their general consensus was that you will get a little of everything. There were a couple of holdouts though who thought 'wildtype'. I think that was @ange?

When I was 9 years old I read a children's book (Henry Huggins) about a kid who had guppies and the guppies kept multiplying like bunnies. So I got together some quart jars and took my 50 cents allowance to Grant City (sort like a 1969 version of Target) and bought several guppies. I learned what the word 'gravid' meant and I could see my guppies were 'with child'. I could even see the eyeballs of the soon to be born baby guppies through the body of the pregnant females. And when my guppies had babies some were gray, but some were golden! And I started to learn about the wonderful different kinds of guppies there were and I was hooked!

@James Black being a youngster, you didn't think to ask, 'Where are you most active on the Forum?' Being elderly, my answers are: Upstairs bathroom 30% Fishroom computer 40% Downstairs bathroom 30%

Having 7 cats means never having an unmolested roll of toilet paper.

With lighting two factors are very important. The amount of light and the quality of the light. LED desk lights have LEDs designed to be pleasing to people. It is unlikely that they are rich in the red and blue parts of the spectrum that are essential for plants and plant growth. You'll notice when you see lighting designed for horticultural applications that it may give off a purplish hue. This is because these lights are rich in photosynthetically active radiation (blues and red). Something like this: It is possible that your desk lamp is fine, but yours results so far are cause for concern as you have noted yourself: I suspect none of the other YouTubers you mentioned are using desk lamps. But you don't have to spend a lot of money on lighting either. Very good results can be obtained using sunlight. I have an aquarium that is near a window and uses only sunlight. This can be tricky, because in inexperienced (or even experienced) hands, you can get so much high quality light that you end up fighting green water.

I'd say the culprit is the LED desk light. Some water movement and fertilization would also help.

I think you are all setup to grow plants!

I know when I have been out plant collecting I have seen hornwort in lightly brackish water. I haven't tried this at home though.

It depends on what kind of fish are in your aquarium. I have one 75 gallon with pygmy sunfish, so there is hardly any flow in the entire aquarium by design. Just below the pygmy sunfish tank is another 75 gallon with a coop sponge filter running wide open. This seems to be just about right for the dozen angelfish in this aquarium. What kind of fish are you keeping in your 55 gallon? What are your goals for this aquarium?

When I have fry or small discus that I keep in 40 gallon aquariums, I change the water almost everyday. But with the adult discus in my largest aquarium, I might do a water change anywhere from once a week to once a month.