Jungle Fan
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Posts posted by Jungle Fan
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The big difference between Freshwater and Reef lights is the quality of light that makes the difference. For Freshwater plants you need a lot more red and amber spectrum than in the general mix of harsh reef lights for coral, by the way on the AGA site you can find a slew of articles about the different types of lighting, and you can get as scientific as you like, there are some articles that go into dissertation level.
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I would generally agree to most of what was said by @Patrick_G, @Mmiller2001, @Zenzo, and @gjcarew but on the Chihiros I would differ, partially because I'm biased toward my Kessil A360X Tuna Suns which I'm running nowhere near capacity on my tank, and because I love their shimmer that looks more like sunlight, and partially because if you are going to spend that kind of money to get the most color out of your plants then you might as well get the Eco Tech Marine Radion XR15 G5 Freshwater LEDs from what I've read they are still a bit more powerful than the Chihiros, on the dual stage CO2 regulator I also run a Green Leaf Aquariums regulator and they provide the best warranty in the U.S. As for learning the correct needs and levels for plants I recommend the Aquarium Plant books by Christel Kasselmann, and membership in the Aquatic Gardeners Association of which, full disclosure and shameless plug, I am also a member.
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@Cat23 Three reasons why I'd advocate for a glass top under the light, #1 evaporation, unless you want to top the tank off every now and then in between water changes, and #2 when I wasn't using a glass top I found multiple Blue dream Neocaridina shrimp that had "pole vaulted" themselves outside of the tank overnight and I found them bone dry and shriveled up the next morning in front of the stand, an Amano I actually found half way up the stairs from the living room. #3 has to do with algae spores being indigenous to the air in the atmosphere, and while they will find their way into any aquarium one way, or the other the glass lid is just another way to make things even a tiny bit harder on algae, mind you there will be plenty of folks debating that point, and I'm well aware of all their arguments, it's just one of the things I started doing over the years because they make sense to me, and if you have everything balanced out and heavily planted you could certainly do without the lid, but I believe strongly in "every little bit helps.".
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@pseudomugil was just about to post that, looks like a Schefflera to me too. I used to have a Schefflera arboricola "Umbrella" that is what this reminds me of.
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One additional thought, I couldn't help but notice that your Anubias don't look like that they're attached to rock, or wood, but in some of your pictures they look like they are planted in the soil. I don't know if it just looks like it, or how long you've had them but they are epiphyte plants meaning they need to have their rhizome located above the substrate surface, or they will eventually rot and die. So if you should have them planted in the soil you can attach them to the wood, or rocks by using gel type superglue. Here's a link:
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What struck me when I looked at the description of the Tetra light actually was one of the reviews that described them as "it's not overly too bright although to where I can see my fishes." Other than this Tetra just describes the light as 12 LEDs, brilliant white light, and it should do well for any of the low light plants you currently have, as can be seen from your pictures, you're fertilizing at the correct level as well, however the Tetra light probably doesn't provide the amber and red light at the levels the Hydrocotyle needs, and at that point the light becomes the limiting factor for the growth. If you absolutely want to grow the Hydrocotyle then you might eventually want to replace the hood and Tetra lights with something like the Fluval Plant 3.0 Light where you can control the individual light levels, but in my opinion your tank is beautiful and a new light is not an absolute must, there are plenty of plants that will fit in with your current set up as I mentioned; however I can understand the urge to grow certain plants, I've been there myself, and my current set up followed only after many years of wishing and improving my budget, and set ups over the years, and learning. I hope this helps, I think your tank looks really nice but in case your heart is set on the Hydrocotyle here is a link for the Fluval Plant 3.0 as just one option:
https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/lights/products/fluval-plant-3-0-led-light
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It depends on the inner workings of the heater in my experience the horizontal type usually are smaller, and more compact and usually their instructions on the largest (highest wattage) ones have said something of using them in up to 40 gallon tanks. It really depends on the arrangement of the heater element, vertical heaters are much better for high flow tanks like the Fluval 407 canister filter I use in mine, however I really always go by the manual for each heater if the instructions say place vertical, I place it vertical, if the horizontal positioning is an option and it is a smaller low flow tank I'll go with the horizontal. I at least hope that whoever the engineer was who came up with the design knows why he /she designed the heater the way they did. Just my practice in regards to heaters. I also still have a preference for Eheim heaters as they still are the ones I've had the least problems with in my 54 years of messing with those contraptions. The ones I like the least are the inline heaters, tried them twice, cut brand new canister hoses to accommodate them in both cases, and in each case ended up having to buy new hoses afterwards to replace the cut pieces after the inline heaters conked out after a few days; so I'm not a fan of inline heaters. The Oase canisters with integrated vertical heaters might be an option but so far my Fluval 407 runs like a champ..
Here's another link from my bookmarks:
https://www.hometanks.com/aquarium-heater-vertical-or-horizontal
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@Cat23 I'm not really convinced you have a problem per se: all your plants (Swords, S. repens, Anubias) seem to be doing fine, except for the Hydrocotyle tripartite which usually prefers medium to high light. I did not see any mention of what type of light you have on the tank, only that you said you added two small lights to the sides of the tank because you were worried about not enough light. Rather than assume you need to change your fertilizer regimen, I'd just say that all your lower light plants receive the correct amount of fertilization, and light, except for the one medium light plant which would probably be happier in a tank with a light with a higher PAR rating. Adding iron and potassium to keep a plant happy that doesn't receive enough lighting to use what already is currently on hand would only invite algae problems like bba. Rather than to go that route to try to make the Hydrocotyle happy, which eventually probably will require a different light, I'd recommend the cheaper route of replacing it with a lower light demand plant like Pogostemon stellatus "octopus", Water Sprite, or crypts. I didn't recognize any other plant nutrient related, or other problems in your tank which looks very nice, so if I were in your shoes I would really just replace that one plant with a plant that will be happy with the current level of lighting, and fertilization because I really did not see any obvious algae problems that would point to lack, or over abundance of nutrients. Hope this helps.
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@TheSwissAquarist don't let any of the Reef Aquarists who take out a second mortgage on their homes to finance their fish see that meme, or they'll have a meltdown.😆
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Ludwigia, and Christmas moss both will need another trim by next week again.
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And of course there was the obvious "A Fish Called Wanda" with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese, and Michael Palin:
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Really surprised no one has mentioned the aquariums of the Bond villains yet. The Aquarium waterbed in "Diamonds Are Forever", and the aquariums of "Dr. No", and Karl Stromberg's aquarium from "The Spy Who Loved Me". Then again those were a long time ago, yet they rerun frequently.
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The best algae eating snails I've had are Nerites, especially the military helmet snails. The algae needs some more competition for the nutrients from the Stratum. Maybe some Cryptocoryne, some Staurogyne repens, and maybe even some Red Root Floaters if you can handle the roots hanging into your diorama. You could also get some Amano shrimp, or any of the Neocaridina varieties, I've got Blue Dream shrimp in my Amazon Jungle tank as you can see in my journal.
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What no Endor wallpaper background?
This is not the transparent view you're looking for!
Here are a few free Endor wallpapers that might enhance the feeling that the force is with you and your fish:
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@JoeQ Oh wow, I did not apply a magnet to my Eheim skimmer because I haven't had an issue with the suction cups so far. it seems to be quite an expedient fix. Another aquarist friend of mine actually once used a neodymium magnet on his aquarium not considering the force they're capable of, and cracked a tank when the outside magnet slipped out of his fingers and slammed into the glass. If at some time I'm going to apply this fix I'll use some of my older glass cleaner magnets from some of the old 20 gallon tanks I had that are actually flat and not rounded like the Mag-Floats. They have felt on the outside magnet and the velcro like scraper plastic on the inside. Sorry that your tank got scratched up that way, my former boss kept a coral reef acrylic tank and had something like that happening when a light fixture broke off and scratched along the side of his tank he said he used Rolite Ultra Fine Scratch Remover for Acrylic Aquariums to fix it but I've used toothpaste before to remove very light fine scratches even from glass aquariums. There are actually more ways to fix acrylic scratches than on glass. You might know this already but I had this link in my bookmarks:
https://ouraquariums.com/how-to-remove-scratches-from-the-acrylic-aquarium/
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I believe I might have posted some of these before but I'm not sure where, so here are some videos on how to use superglue:
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@Chick-In-Of-TheSea I've done it too but the outcome is usually not desirable because it skews the perspective, and adds stress to the process because of the much faster time to set which means the outcome most of the time looks not like what you imagined, not to speak of the nifty white globs of now hardened glue that will require sanding to get rid off. When you lower the water level instead it's less stressful, placement usually gets to be more precise, and if there is excess glue sand, or substrate can be applied to make that spot less obvious.
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@Chick-In-Of-TheSea water will set the glue, and I do not recommend the glueing under water. I have a friend who's a wizard with glue under water but he' the only person I know who gets to pull that off. If it is on a rock, or piece of wood in a tank that you can't remove I recommend lowering the water level to below the site to be glued, using a paper towel to dry the site off a bit, apply the glue, position the plant, or object to be glued, spray with water and after holding for a short period of time refill the water.
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@Fish Folk you kind of gave that away when you said a few weeks ago but this is great for a high school class. Did you include the students in the set up and planting process? Would be a great way to combine biology, chemistry, and math too with the nitrogen cycle, and to show them that what they learn in school actually does have applications in real life. Photosynthesis and lighting, so many applications for a biology curriculum.
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@JoeQ With a 36 gallon Bowfront at 1 bubble per second you won't have to worry about turning the CO2 off while doing a water change. Acrylics are easy to scrape, that's why I don't use them. My current stand would not even work for an acrylic tank because it basically just sits on an open square tubing steel frame inside the oak cabinet. I believe the magnet fix you are referring to is the scraper? I have a magnet on my tank which I use for light dust algae near the surface in between cleanings because of the relatively high PAR rating of the Kessils. The scraper I was referring to is a handled plastic scraper that doesn't scratch glass, the credit card is also plastic and aqua soil consisting of tiny baked clay balls doesn't cause scratches. The tiny gravel pebbles are a different matter but so far I haven't caused any scratches. The only scratch on my tank is tiny and was caused by the stone on the ring of my friends' wife when she excitedly pointed at a huge Amano shrimp, and at 2/8 of an inch length I'll polish that out with some ultrafine grit some time but so far it doesn't bother me enough because it is on one of the sides. I've kept fish for 54 years now and over time you build discernment for which advice to follow, and which to file away.
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@jsem321 That is really up to you, at 6 weeks you can either leave them be, or if you prefer a more manicured look for the sheer optics of it you can cut them off, plant them and have them grow on their own and turn into another ma-ma plant eventually. Whenever my Amazon swords produce babies that way I either cut them off and plant them, or as of late have given them away to friends.
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@SchuylerUnless you happen to take a vacation for it specifically🤣! If you do the dark start with it you can just let it sit with the hardscape for a month and leech away until you do the 100% water change, but you do need to make sure it stays absolutely dark and the filter and heater are running, otherwise you'll end up with an algae bloom the likes you've never seen. I used ADA Amazonia three times before I knew about dark start and got so disgusted over the high price and problems it caused that I never used it again. I prefer untreated aqua soil, or mildly enhanced like the Fluval Stratum, but mostly the untreated baked aquasoil that contains iron in the clay and nothing else so I can dose liquid ferts, and root tabs knowing full well what the levels will be.
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@Slicedtomatoes5 as @Schuyler said it leeches some but not significantly. I used a thin layer of Fluval Stratum in my 75 gallon above the crushed lava rock and below a thin layer of gravel that underpins the Amazon soft belly soil. I did a dark start with just the hardscape for a month, and then just added plants for a week, added inverts for a week, and then the fish but out of curiosity I checked water level values here and there and the results of what the Stratum leeched was almost unreadable while ADA Amazonia was off the charts when I used it for aquascapes.
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Forgot to ask @JoeQ how big is your tank?
New to the forum! Coming from salt and have a few questions about the planted world.
in General Discussion
Posted · Edited by Jungle Fan
@Patrick_G I could see that the Kessils are not everyone's choice because of the shimmer that's why I mentioned the Eco Tech Marine Radion XR15 G5 Freshwater LEDs that on several sites were listed as having a better color representation than the Chihiros without translating the whole German web site the lighting ranking by AquaOwner who used an objective test measurement scale shows the Chihiros as #21 ranking well behind the Eco Tech Marine on #1. My Kessils were on #3. One of these days I might actually translate the whole thing, but there are also several lights listed that aren't available in the U.S.
https://www.aquaowner.de/led-ranking/