DShelton

I dose my plants similarly with custom mixed potassium salt (K2CO3, KH2P04, K2SO4) solutions, depending on situation.

The bulkhead manufacturer should provide the relevant information on what size hole is needed. I have bought mine from BRS and their webpages show what size hole is needed for each size bulkhead they sell.

I have noticed the exact same change in my water chemistry with stratum. My tank water was (which is straight from the tap): pH 8.2 KH 6 GH ~150ppm A day after adding the stratum the the tank the pH dropped to 7.4. Tested the water this morning approximately one week after adding the stratum? pH 6.0 (almost off the scale of the API test) KH 0 GH ~120ppm There is a handful of plants in the tank: some sußwassertang, a water sprite, S. repens, and a moneywort, and other than some hitchhiking snails, there is no other livestock. It has been enough time for the water chemistry to stabilize after adding the substrate. I am not sure how long the substrate can continue to keep the the KH and pH suppressed from tap water.

They can absolutely be had, but the permitting requirements for them is pretty steep.

I am coming back to the hobby after about a 10 year absence, and the last lights used on high energy active substrate as well as Walstad tanks were T8s and T5s so I am still coming up to speed on brands and LED technology in general. I bought a hygger light for a 10gallon low energy tank that is going to be a heavily planted tank and it has 4kg of Fluval Stratum in it. The stock is unknown as of now until I am sure where the pH is going to settle with my tap water (pH of 8.2, 6°KH and 250 ppm GH from the tap). I know the Stratum is going to pull that down a bit, but until I know for sure, I am not making stock decisions until I know for sure, but Xenotoca doadrioi are pretty high on my list. I am still on the fence about which light to put on the 38 gallon. It is a strange size tank 36 1⁄4 x 12 5⁄8 x 19 3⁄4 (same footprint as a 30 gallon long, but 3" taller), and will be high energy (CO2, fertilized substrate, and water column) which is why I initially looked at some of the Finnex lights. It seems only time will tell, but once all of my hardware arrives and the actual build starts, I will create a thread to document its progress.

except venemous reptiles.

If you are just going to do CO2 injection on a single tank, there are some Citric Acid/Bicarbonate kits that steel/aluminum cylinders and dual stage regulators. They can be had for ~150$ plus the citric acid/bicarbonate supplies (which are cheap, comparatively). They require a bit more maintenance and have to be home refilled more often, but they are far and away more economical and much more reliable than the traditional DIY Soda Bottle systems. If you are going to inject into more than one tank, then the bigger cylinders make moire sense IMO. If your tanks are close together ~50' or so, you can buy a regulator with multiple needle valves/bubble counters from CO2Art and Greenleaf Aquariums that will allow you to feed multiple tanks from a single tank. AquaTek is another brand of regulator/solenoid combo that is a bit cheaper than some of the premium brands. I have previously used them and had no complaints with them (just ordered a new one for a new setup). There is also a COOP video where @Coryis installing one in the plant rack in the retail store or the warehouse. He specifically mentions AquaTek by name, and AquaTek is the brand that they used to sell. The video is a few years old, but in my limited experience the quality of their equipment has not changed appreciably since that video was made. Cheers

It sounds like the heater is just not calibrated. If you have a known good thermometer, you can use it to adjust your heater. Keep adjusting the heater upwards, i.e. turning the blue ring, in very small adjustments, until you get the water to the temperature you want, based upon the measurement from your "known good" thermometer. Once you get the water where you want, you can turn the red ring on the heater to match the temperature of the water/thermometer. It has to be done slowly so you always know that the heater is at equilibrium with the water (i.e. it just maintaining the current temp, and not still heating and raising the temp), and your thermometer has to be of known good calibration, otherwise you are still guessing.

40 gallon breeder - 36 3⁄16 x 18 1⁄4 x 16 15⁄16 55 gallon - 48 1⁄4 x 12 3⁄4 x 21 The breeder tanks are generally not as tall, and have more depth. Between the two the breeder tank is about ~6" deeper and ~5" shorter.

Heh,similar story here, though I was not the culprit. I grew in a rural farming town in SW Texas. It must have been 2nd or 3rd grade, we caught a Louisiana Milk snake, and one of my friends/classmates took it to school the next day and let it go in the class. It was 'found' in the classroom water fountain. The teacher thought it was a coral snake, overreacted and class was evacuated for a bit while they found someone to catch it. My friend tried to tell the teacher what it was, and he/we were responsible, but she was having none of it, and would not let us pick it back up. Shrug, good memories.

I just missed 70's by a year or so. My first tank was in 80 or 81.

What size is the heater? In a 40 gallon tank (~150 liters), the bare minimum size heater (according to Eheim) would be 150W. As @Schwacksaid though, heaters are generally rated based on their ability to raise water temperature ~10 degrees above ambient. If you need to raise the temperature of the water more than that 10 degrees, i.e. your room is cooler than about 75F, then you will need more heater wattage. The safest way is to add a second heater of the same or slightly smaller size, so if one of them fails on, then you have more margin for recovery during the failure.

This exactly why I still have and use Marineland BioWheels. They do not always auto-start after power failure, but with the motors molded in the chassis, they are less likely to leak, they have plenty of volume for media (I use coarse foam in the bottom Substrat Pro on top) AND the lids do not rattle.

I have been playing with a Nicrew light for the last few weeks, and while it is a pretty decent light, I feel for the $$ the Finnex (a little more expensive) might be a better option. I know the COOP only sells the model 1 stingrays and I am curious why. Does anyone have experience with both care to weigh in?

As many have said before, two smaller is always preferable to one larger heater so if they fail on they hopefully do not boil your tank before you discover it and can react. Personally, I have been using Jäger heaters since before they were owned by Eheim (i.e. Ebo Jäger) and I have never had one fail on and cook a tank. Plenty of them have failed, but never on. Granted my experience is purely anecdotal, but after 30+ years in the hobby, I will never buy another brand heater, only Eheim.

I just let it settle along the substrate of the tank.

Thank You

these can be had through the Aquaculture store pretty reasonably.

Apologies in advance if this is answered elsewhere, my forum searches did not turn up any results. I am a die hard sponge filter user, and am giving the AQCOOP sponges a go after previously using the 'hydros'. I am curious what PPI foam you are purchasing from Swiss for your mattenfilters? I am thinking the 30ppi is probably the best kind of general purpose foam size, but am looking for alternate opinions.

Mulm is indeed 'good' it is a haven for beneficial bacteria, paramecium, etc.

There is a gentleman on YT that has quite a few videos about this very subject. His name is Dr Kevin Novak. He promotes what he calls a plenum, which is an undergravel filter (usually not the whole bottom of the tank) that has very very low flow, just enough to keep the bacteria alive. He does seem to have very good luck with his filters. I have been poking around the scientific literature, but with my local university libraries closed due to SARS-COV2 I have been limited to the the abstracts available through google scholar so I do not have the full papers of each. In my limited research, I have found several papers that suggest plants prefer NH3, as well as several others that suggest plants have a preference for NO3. My curiosity along this line started when I found Dr Novak, and was curious about whether or not I should put a plenum in my new 145l tank. (i.e. is removal of NO3 by methods other than plant uptake desirable?). As of now, the jury is still out, but I am starting to lean the "no it is not" way.

Yes, once the runner has a goodly amount of runners on it. You can cut from the mother plant and replant.

Honestly, You can grow a lot of great plants without CO2. If I were putting together a tank that large, I would sort the lighting out first, and use 'easy' plants. Then later on if I wanted some of the more demanding plants, I would buy the CO2 system.

I have previously used Milkwaukee and AquaTek and had good luck with both. I just bought a new AquaTek for the tank that I am currently working on.

I have read this before as well, and not from Tom B. Like you I have not seen a scientific reference that micro-bubbles are more easily absorbed versus dissolved CO2, It does stand to reason they would as most plants grow better emersed versus submerged. That could be attributed to the difference in the CO2 concentration in the air (~400ppm) versus the concentration in water (~30ppm +-).