OnlyGenusCaps

Ah, the craftsman seeking the increased challenge. I love it!

I think you raise a very good point here. This is a practical solution to a problem. That is indeed it's great strength! Something that can be immediately applied by even those with the least experience in aquariums. At the same time, @dasaltemelosguy 's background in physics has been clear to me through out this process. However he may wish to pass off his 'lack of scientific cred', it's simply not true. His scientific mind and training are evident for all to see. I watched as he probed and questioned to better understand the ultimate causes of the pattern he was seeing, when he could have far more easily said "it works, that's good enough" or given hand-waving explanations. He was the force pressing to understand; driven to know what was happening and even more so why. I think had he access to the tools and equipment he wouldn't have stopped until he had created complete knowledge about all the processes that interact to lead to exactly what we are observing. Thank goodness for all of us that he didn't because that would have taken much longer. And because circumstance denied him those opportunities, we all get to benefit from his diligence, creativity, and hard work now. Selfishly, I am glad to have this tool now and not later. Even if questions remain about the details of the precise physiological and physical process by which it works. Yes, those questions are awesome to explore, but hardly necessary for the practicing aquarium (and honestly the remaining ones would take some serious access to expensive equipment to even being to address). Still, it is wonderful to have the level of understanding and evidence brought to this process as opposed to some advocates for processes, who despite making grandiose claims in this hobby, can only offer misinformation and no credible evidence.

I know zero thing about construction, so I am genuinely curious; is this because of a difference in functionality for those sorts of releases, or because of an aesthetic or personal preference? You know, just in case I can afford a hidden room some day! Like that will ever happen. 🙄 But I am still really curious.

You might be a nerm if you go to a rock yard and have a conversation like this: Them (clearly making small talk): That's 400# of rock. What'cha doing with it? Me: It's for an aquarium. Them (looking a little amused and bemused): How many aquariums is that for? Me: Just the one. Them: ?... Me: Do you want to see pictures of the fish I am going to put in it?! Also me (not giving them any time answer): *whips out phone and proceeds to scroll through too many photos of the fish I want* Them: 😐 Ah, I need to find time to get to work on hat tank again. 🤔

I find I don't always have a proper ID on the parasites my fish might have. I think of Paracleanse as a gentler medication, and go to that for suspected parasites first. But if that doesn't work, I'll pull out the Expel-P. One thing to keep in mind with Expel-P is that is is definitely not safe for some species of snails - mind you it's fine on the species you might want to eliminate, just hard on the ones you might want to keep. So, use it with caution, and you may need to pull decorative snail species and hold them somewhere else for a few months. Hope this helps.

The lights I like the most these days are ones where you can independently adjust the R, G, B, & white LED bulbs brightness for just the reasons you describe.

I think he is in western MD, but @Fish Folk might know something about it.

That is awesome! Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted a secret room, and watching reruns of Scooby Doo probably contributed to that significantly. Someday when I get to design my own house... Someday. Someday...

I think at the very least, it should got to Amazonas Magazine. As a minimum. This is such great stuff, it need to get out there as best as possible. I do think there are peer review routes for it as well - that's probably based on whether he wants to take on that sort of work load. I fully understand and feel the same! @dasaltemelosguy's generosity and openness 100% embody the kind and community oriented ethos I believe @Cory said he wanted to foster here in the intro video. Good guy. Good research. Tough to beat that combo! (I hope he's blushing.)

Yessir! I did run this on some X-Mas moss. I just used some store bought seltzer (not club soda as that has salt in it). I also sealed it in to let the pressure increase. Worked great! Wiped out the snails & I've never gotten algae on the moss since. I also did this on my crypt spiralis and didn't introduce anything unwanted. However, that tank is currently covered in hair algae, but that's a cultural issue, not a failing of this system. Interestingly, the crypts didn't melt for me. I don't think this is a particularly melt prone species, but still, that was a nice bonus.

I am so thrilled to finally see this posted so everyone can benefit from the brilliance of @dasaltemelosguy, as well as the diligent and dedicated work of both he and @Guppysnail (who is also brilliant - BTW). This is legitimately the most impressive piece of science I have had the pleasure of witnessing from a hobbyist in... Maybe ever. This is such a clean, easy, and available solution to problems folks face in this hobby. It can be immediately used by basically everyone who wants to do so. Not only that, it has a tremendous amount of data and understanding backing it up! A rare thing in this hobby. Kudos to @dasaltemelosguy and his collaborators @Guppysnail and @Odd Duck. Simply brilliant work! *I see above I have been given credit that I simply do not deserve. I have been a keen observer of this process, and in awe of the dedication shown by these folks. That is all. My part has only been to be excited by the advances and research happening. I have used this and am happy to reply to the most recent posts, but I wanted to take a moment between stuff to congratulate the folks who made this advance in the hobby possible. Thank you all for sharing this with us, and the wonderful work you all did!!! I'm excited I actually know the cool kids for once. 😎

Touché! 🤺 However the equivalent would be "the sciences", but you don't study "sciences" in school; just science. Ha ha. En garde! 🤺 I'm not sure there will be a winner trying to find consistency in English though. That search has defeated many a linguist, and spelling bee participant, before.

I'm all onboard with metric, but I refuse to call math, "maths". There's just the one. Unless you want to count what one of my high school math teachers called "gnu math" - which was just whenever someone got the wrong answer.

Speaking of wolves... From the "...And out come their wolves..." album, this one is definitely my speed: I love the tempo of punk music! It's the pace I operate at.

Oh, if you like that, try reporting your weight in stone!

And so it begins... Today was 36C here. New state motto - Minnesota: the land 70C temperature swings In all seriousness, if you are in the area, it is now the time of year to drink H2O, and stay cool as best you can. Also, make sure your tubs aren't overheating. I now return you to your regularly scheduled forum postings (while I go have a G&T and sit by the A/C).

A song with an intro that lasts over a minute, and by the end of the song I'm still waiting for when it might pick up and start..? If my wife doesn't know this musician, then I'll have to introduce him to here. That is her kind of music! As for me... A concept that is becoming relevant for me for the first time since high school:

A sump build discussion?! 😍 I totally agree with @eatyourpeas. Just to echo here: If you want to change the socks out often - which can strongly aid in nutrient reduction, and thus reduce you need for water changes - the finer socks work well. The caveat is that to get the nutrient reduction you really need to change them out every 3 days at least to keep the trapped material from releasing N into the water column. If you are just looking to catch the bulkier material then the mesh can work well, and doesn't require the frequency of sock changes. In terms of building the sump, I've used multiple methods. The easiest, and cheapest is likely to be buying an aquarium conversion kit from eBay (checking guidelines to make sure I can post eBay links - yes!). I've liked these. But there are other options. I've connected multiple plastic containers with pipes - but that's a longer process and story. The other thing I have found, and like is from another eBay vendor - a magnetic sock holder. These are more expensive, but allow you to change your mind about wanting a sock in the sump, or it's position, etc. The other down side to the magnetic sock holder is that they stick out a little further and thus tank up more space. Despite those down sides, I prefer them in certain applications. It's all up to what works for you - which is why: Sumps and socks are great! Good luck with the build and let us know how it goes!

They are looking amazing! Nicely done!

I genuinely get a kick out of algae advice. The tank I had it in had chronically, zero nitrates, and I was told "low nutrients favor BBA because it is better and scrounging the little available than the plants are". So who knows... 🤷‍♂️ Regardless, I think EOP could sell her BBA suppressing water. 🤣

I'm enjoying reading about a turbulent political time. I know this forum doesn't allow discussion of politics, but perhaps I'll be forgiven this once: "The storm before the storm: The beginning of the end of the Roman Republic" It's been great so far. The fall or the Roman Republic seems to have been proceeded by the loss of political norms as it became a game of people willing to do anything to win power. I'm right where Sulla first appears... 🤫

Except, unlike you I did not properly italicize it. I got so close, and yet... 😔

I scanned through the links the links @KentFishFanUK included. The shrimp one has me more intrigued with 3 little characters - B12. It seems one of their strains could produce this critical, and not easily created, compound. If this bacteria is producing and releasing this into the water, I could absolutely see it transforming the microbial community. That said, I, like @Biotope Biologist, wonder if these bacteria are already present in established aquaria, given their environmental prevalence. The other thing I took from the sprimp study is that they were studying saltwater prawns. Plus the bacteria looks like it was taken from sediment cores as well as water column. Perhaps to get anoxic samples where these bacteria are found? Honestly, a priori I wouldn't expect this to make a difference. That said, what we are talking about here is the ecology of microbial community composition. There just well isn't established theory for that. I mean, we are still figuring out what microbes are out there, much less how they interact and what controls differing community composition. We still can't predict with any significant certainty what species will become invasive or alter community composition when introduced on a macro scale in many cases. I think someone would be over playing their hand if they claimed they could do so for microbial communities. This is all to say, I think you and your friend should go for it! I for one would be seriously curious how it pans out. For a start I'd be interested in what you would use as your response variables, but that's starting to get into detail here. You should do this, whatever comes out of it will be interesting!

A few thoughts on this link. I think that's a pretty good primer trying to get started in understanding plant lighting and the responses plants have to differing wavelengths of light. I still don't know where "PUR" comes from, but YPF is used for sure. I appreciated that they recognized that YPF is not as generalizable as PAR. YPF will change temporally, ontogenetically, and plastically in response to environmental signals - in addition to varying between species. All of that makes it really hard to make hard and fast statements about that measure in practice unless you have a lot more information fill in the necessary variables. I loved getting to see the updated figure from Tiaz & Zeiger! I'm genuinely sitting in front a shelf with the 3rd edition they showed as outdated, right now. And it is outdated. Wonderful updated figure there! I didn't have time to watch the whole interview with Bruce in the embedded video, but it's nice to see him. Haven't in a few years. The pieces of the video I did watch were, no surprise, really informative. There was a lot of "it depends" he included in there, and I think that's the big take away. And not just with this stuff; there was the filtration discussion recently as well where people can take a "this is the one true answer" approach. But the truth is that, though there are underlying unifying factors, once you build complexity on in terms of real organisms, or real systems, everything becomes far more nuanced and context dependent. I thought Bruce hit on some of that very well in the video. Okay, at this point I think I've lost the interest of everyone on here except maybe you, @nabokovfan87. Thanks for looking up that link! I do think that's a good go to for folks to get probably as much information as they practically could need to understand lighting and their aquarium plants (with the possible exception of the elephant in the room - algal growth). It's a good primer and a resource worth pointing to. Well done, sir!

That's a great question and an excellent critique - I dismissed without offering an alternative. Fair points! The thing is, I don't know of a good concise video like that to reference. I've never looked one up. Perhaps I should just so I have something to offer. The thing is the folks who really know their stuff when it comes to plant lighting are growing a crop that... Might violate the family friendly rules here. Maybe? But that's where I'd start looking. Some of those folks could get a plant physiology degree! Not all of them mind you. Some of them perpetuate some really bad "information". Still, a photobiologist colleague of mine used to say "God bless those <covert> growers who put their information on the net!" He had more than one grad student who gleaned information from that group that allowed them to make a significant breakthrough. 🤣 Getting back on topic, the MSU study in the video with the different lights/heights has been a text book example in one form or another for a while. Generally blue light grows more compact plants than red. But it's really the red:blue and the red:far red ratios that are responsible for multiple signaling pathways. We're learning that blue:far red may trigger certain developmental cascades as well, but I am starting to get into the weeds here. No pun intended. But as it stands, I don't have an accessible reference on hand, and you are right, I should. Not sure how much time I can devote to the search currently, but that is what would be most helpful. Your point is well taken. Thank you!