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BaRanchik

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Posts posted by BaRanchik

    Too low Nitrate levels - how much Flourish Nitrogen to use?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, Isaac M said:

    @BaRanchik the reason that recommendation seems weird by the seachem flourish calculator is because of the units. The units are in ppm of Nitrogen, not nitrates. At the bottom of the calculator, it mentions if using a nitrate equivalent, then divide by 5. So in order to add 20ppm of nitrates to your water, you would need 2 caps, not 10 caps. 1 mL of Flourish Nitrogen gets you about 1.7ppm of nitrates for a 10 gallon aquarium but the calculator rounds up to 2ppm. I assume it is done this way to simplify. 

    As a reference, Easy Green gives you about 3.1 ppm of Nitrates per mL for a 10 gallon aquarium. 

    To recap, use 2 caps or 10 mL of Flourish Nitrogen to add almost 20ppm (about 17ppm) of Nitrates to your 10 gallon aquarium. I hope that helps! 

    I see now. Very helpful, thanks!

    • Like 1

    Too low Nitrate levels - how much Flourish Nitrogen to use?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted · Edited by BaRanchik

    7 minutes ago, Cory said:

    What is your all in one fertilizer?  If it's flourish comprehensive? I dosed that at 16x the strength before we developed easy green.

    Oh my, now I see why you decided to make your own product, haha.

    Mine is called Nutrafin Plant Gro. Right now I use it twice a week (5ml for my 10 gal every time), and its contents are:

     

    WhatsApp Image 2021-06-03 at 21.58.44.jpeg

    Too low Nitrate levels - how much Flourish Nitrogen to use?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted · Edited by BaRanchik

    55 minutes ago, Jungle Fan said:

    So you say "everything but floaters is doing great so far", you also say "I have duckweed (by choice) covering my whole tank", it would seem then that the duckweed, which is a floater is doing well? Maybe you could give us a bit more info on what types of plants, what kind of light, and how close the light is to the water surface where your floaters would be located, also is there a specific reason why you rely only on what's locally available in regards to ferts? I've personally never relied on local purchases for fertilizer, especially a good All-in-one, with the exception of some Seachem Flourish Potassium as an add on for my potassium ravenous Java fern. Aquarium Co-Op's Easy Green is a great All-in-one and it contains 2.66% water soluble Nitrogen.

    https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/the-easy-range/products/easy-green-all-in-one-fertilizer

    PS: for floaters it also makes a difference whether your tank is covered, or uncovered

    I have a bunch of different stem plants, anubias, java ferns, a crypt, tiger lotus, dwarf sag. All of them are doing great and are growing nicely. My light is a Nicrew light, currently only 1, but I'm actually getting some high tech plants soon, so I ordered a second one which I'll be using alongside the first one. The light is about 2.5 inches away from the water surface, and I have a clear acrylic cover.

    The duckweed is currently covering my whole tank, but the problem is every few days it starts disintegrating, just like this article from Co-op states is happening due to a nitrogen deficiency: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/plant-nutrient-deficiencies

    I can't get Easy Green or any of the Co-op products because unfortunately they don't ship here. Amazon doesn't ship those products either, and ebay's price is 3x higher due to shipping. I found 1 place that sells the Seachem Nitrogen on the other side of the country, so I ordered it.

    So unfortunately I have to rely on products that are either being shipped here, or they have a local distributor. This hobby, as far as I can tell, is not as big here as it is in the US, mainly for cost reasons - so even the local fish shops don't get too much of the well known brands and products due to the lack of customers.

    Too low Nitrate levels - how much Flourish Nitrogen to use?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    I just ordered a nitrogen specific fertilizer to compliment the all-in-one fert I'm using.

    I have duckweed (by choice) covering my whole tank, and it's sucking up WAY too much nutrients. The tank is 2 months old, under stocked 10 gal. Ammonia and nitrite are 0, and I'd love to have nitrates stable on 30ppm. I'm doing water changes every 2 weeks, and about 25%. I get very little algae so far, just a bit of diatom and green hair that my cleanup crew is taking care of for the most part.

    My tank is heavily planted, and everything but floaters is doing great so far. The problem starts with nitrates - my fert includes them, but I guess it's not very concentrated, and this is the only one I could find around here. Within 1 week, nitrates dropped from 30ppm to 5-10ppm or less, and old floater leaves began dying slowly (the tips begin disintegrating slowly). This has happened before and as suggested here I now dose twice a week.

    For a bit it seemed great but now nitrate levels are super low again! So I ordered Flourish Nitrogen, hoping it will solve the problem. I checked their website as they have a dosing calculator and it tells me I need to use 10 caps to raise it to that level?! This seems weird so I wanted to hear some more opinions here. Also, I don't want to get a whole bottle of this fert every 2 months....

    I am thinking of trying a new dosing schedule: API Leaf Zone for potassium and iron twice a week, Flourish Nitrogen once a week, all-in-one fert once a week. Right now it's 2x API and 2x AIO. I'm afraid to lower the amounts, I don't want to kill my healthy plants!

    I'd appreciate any suggestions regarding this situation.

    nitr.png

    Is this mainly a guy hobby?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'd assume, just by seeing how much content on TikTok alone there is of a woman/girl with bettas, that it's not really the situation.

    However, I guess guys are more prone to the multiple tank syndrome because many of us are materialistic people, and we want more of the things we enjoy. I know for sure I'm never satisfied with the amount of tanks I have. I've been into this hobby only for a few months, and I already have 3 tanks. I just want more and more aquascapes, breeds of fish, and different sizes of tanks. Basically I want to have the experience with as many fish and tanks possible.

    This is only me speaking about myself, but it has been shown on researches that men are more materialistic than women, so this might be the reason you hear of a wife who wants her husband to stop buying tanks more often than you hear the opposite.

     

    • Like 1

    How much brine shrimp for Bettas?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Zenzo said:

    I would think that maybe hatching around 1/4 teaspoon of brine shrimp would be enough for two bettas. You can use any aquarium salt, rock salt, or reef salt. 

    As far as ratio of water to salt, I use 1 tablespoon per liter of water.

    Thanks!

    47 minutes ago, NanoNano said:

    Saw the "newbie fish keeper" tag, so feel that sharing these thoughts might be appropriate: 

    * Are you currently feeding your Bettas live brine and are they eating it well?  I have 8 Bettas and 3 of them are completely disinterested in eating brine shrimp.

    * My experience is that feeding Bettas live food often increases their aggression and exploration of "I wonder how this tank mate tastes?".  If your plan is to keep your Betta's in with inverts (shrimp) or live bearers that produce live fry and not have them eat the young,  feeding live food on a regular basis might work against that goal.  For the record,  I've found that female bettas are usually as if not more aggressive with other tank mates than males.

    Literal food for thought 🙂- Good luck and enjoy your Bettas!

    Hmm... Well I am keeping her with some snowball shrimp, and actually I don't really mind if she eats some of their baby shrimplets.
    What I don't want to happen is for her to eat the adults. So far she has absolutely no interest in them, and it seems like they know to be aware when she swims around.

    I won't be feeding live too often as I'm too lazy to hatch them on a daily basis - probably once every week or two. Plus, the tank is heavily planted and I'm always adding more plants, and replanting stems. I guess I'll find out soon if she stays calm - hopefully testing that just once won't make her kill every single shrimp in her tank.

    2 low-moderate lights or 1 moderate-high light?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted · Edited by BaRanchik

    I was wondering if getting 2 cheap lights will do the same job as an expensive light will do in terms of light intensity.
    I want to add some high-tech plants and I'm sure my NICREW light won't be enough for that, especially considering I am aiming for a layer of duckweed at the top (I'll have a floating ring clear of any duckweed right above the high tech plants).

    I have yet to find a place that sells well-known brands' lights here, and if they do - the price is usually 50%+ more than it is in the US.

    I'm also hesitant to order it online as it's not cheap and if it breaks quickly for whatever reason - I'll have a nightmare figuring that out and will probably just have to buy a new one. Amazon is really the only site I can trust with online orders of expensive stuff when it comes to shipping to Israel  (sadly Aquarium Coop doesn't ship here yet ***😉***), and they do not ship any of the ones Cory is mentioning every now and then in his videos.

    I have a timer on my socket so timing everything shouldn't be a problem at all. It's only the right light intensity I am after, to achieve very deep reds on some plants (I do use CO2). Will getting another NICREW light replicate the intensity of something like the Fluval 3.0 or Chihirios WRGB?

    My tank is a 10gal, 30cm high (11 inches).

    Edit: Each NICREW light is using 11w.

    Berried shrimp for the first time!

    in Photos, Videos & Journals

    Posted

    I have 1 adult male, 3 adult females and about 4 tiny shrimplets.
    Originally, I had only the 3 females and I got the other ones because I hoped they'll start breeding.
    Within a few hours from putting the newly bought ones in the tank, look what happened.

    I was sure it'd take more time, but I guess shrimp have needs too!
    Hopefully in a few days or so the other females will carry too. Can't wait to see tons of shrimplets everywhere.

    WhatsApp Image 2021-05-25 at 14.52.23.jpeg

    • Like 4

    Goldfish w/ white spots- normal or bad?

    in Diseases

    Posted

    I'm sorry about the fish. In case you are still thinking of getting a new goldfish, I'll tell you my experience with this.

    Anyway, this looks to me just like normal growth of the fat layer fancy goldfish like Ranchus and Lionheads have.
    It looks like pimples and if you watch it carefully for a few days, you'll see it's 'healing' and it's now normal colored and a part of the fat layer they have on their face. If it's somewhere other than on its head, I'd be careful and look for a different answer.

    My lionhead had these many times and he is healthy and fine, without any medication.

    • Thanks 1

    Tips to reduce Nitrates

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    1 hour ago, David W said:

    40 ppm nitrate probably isn't going to be terrible for your fish, unless your adding something super sensitive.  If they are behaving well, and healthy that is most important. 

    Saying that I try to keep mine lower too. One of the other nutrients may be your limiting factor. If you are not fertilizing at all you may be low on phosphate, potassium or some other trace elements. 

    I use Easy Green on a most tanks, but I have one a bit overstocked. I started adding some other ferts to target where I think I'm low.

    I used the deficiency charts to give me an idea where to start and essentially let the plants tell me what they want.  

     

    Where can one find these deficiency charts? I've been looking for something that can point me better to what exactly is missing in terms of ferts, so I don't overdose on other stuff.

    • Thanks 1

    Cycling A New Aquarium

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    26 minutes ago, tonyjuliano said:

    Not to sidetrack this thread, but many people use copper to purposefully eradicate snail populations.  I’ve never understood the “snail hatred” that can be present in this hobby, I always want lots of them.

    I used to love them until 1 single pond snail sneaked into my tank on a plant. 1 month later I had the whole substrate covered with snail poop, and the whole glass covered with babies.

    Duckweed new growth is white

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted · Edited by BaRanchik

    9 minutes ago, Mmiller2001 said:

    You are not dosing enough Macros and you might be dosing incomplete micros.

    If you can please tell me if something is missing from this list, I'll definitely get it:

    • iron
    • potassium
    • phosphorus
    • nitrate
    • boron
    • copper
    • manganese
    • zinc

    Would you suggest I double the amount of Leaf Zone then? Or maybe double is too much?

    Duckweed new growth is white

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    New growth seem to be VERY pale.
    Duckweed is spreading very slowly and new growth is whitish, and I'd actually like it to grow quickly.
    Anubias Barteri new growth is also somewhat pale compared to old leaves.
    Crypt Wendtii Red is now brown but healthy.

    Tank is moderately planted, at least until everything begins to spread.
    I'm using API Leaf Zone for iron, Seachem Phosphoros, and Nutrafin Plant Gro for other nutrients. I also use Aquasoil.
    Using DIY CO2.

    All of these I dose once a week after a 25% water change, at the recommended amount suggested on the product.

    Do I need to dose more? How often and what amount of which product if so?

    pH: 7.2
    Ammonia: 0
    Nitrite: 0
    Nitrate: 20-30
    Temp: 25C
     

     

    WhatsApp Image 2021-05-16 at 14.42.53.jpeg

    Maintaining a stable pH

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    8 hours ago, CalmedByFish said:

    I still don't really understand the KH stuff above. (I'm new to doing this well.) 

    When I recently asked a similar question, forum members told me that fish can adjust to a non-ideal pH much better than they can handle fluctuations, and said to not "chase" pH. So I stopped, letting my pH stay at the 7.8-8.0 that it is out of the tap. So far, so good. The only species we both have is snails, but I can at least tell you the snails are fine with it.

    For the future, it was also suggested that I stick with choosing animals that are good with a higher pH, so I don't have to worry about it. I guess that would also apply to plant choices. 

    To add to this, my sister owns a betta for a few months now and it's doing fine in close to 8 pH (tap water here is super hard and high pH).

    • Like 1

    Yeast based CO2 not generating enough pressure

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    `

    3 hours ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

    As someone mentioned above, most of the ceramic diffusers require quite a bit of pressure to push the fine bubbles through. I have one I just bought recently that the package says requires at least 30psi to operate . I have a pressurized system and already had the regulator set at 40psi so it was fine, but I am not sure that the DIY co2 will build that kind of pressure.

     

    4 hours ago, lkly said:

    I had the stone soak over night while my gelatin set. After the system was set up, it took about 15-30 minutes. 

     

    So after reading both your comments I have decided to get a pressurized system, with a decent canister to replace the plastic bottles, and I'm going to use the baking soda recipe. Hopefully either the diffusers I have will work, or the one that comes with the canister will. I have given up with yeast because for some reason there just isn't enough pressure for me.

    Yeast based CO2 not generating enough pressure

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    2 hours ago, lkly said:

    I'm using the same recipe, and only for a few days now. But with the diffuser form Co-op i've had enough bubbles coming out. lots at first when the yeast was eating up the sugar water, fewer bubbles now, though they are consistent. 

    Really? That's strange. I guess it's the diffuser's fault. I'll have to get even more of those. How many hours/days before bubbles began coming out of your diffuser?

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