Daniel C

This is true. I have very hard well water and I do regular partial water changes but two or three times per week I top off with distilled water to keep this from happening.

Exactly. Works for me....

I definitely agree with that. In my case the only things on the particle board shelves are a power strip, 2 air pumps, fish food, Easy Green, etc.

What I used says "coal slag"..... https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/black-diamond-medium-blasting-abrasives

Yes, that's what I have. Black Diamond Blasting Sand and root tabs. I also recommend dragging a magnet of some kind through the sand before you wet it. Mine had a noticeable amount of small metal fragments in it. I don't know if it would have hurt anything to leave it in there but removing what I could made me feel better.

Your stand turned out really nice! I made some quick shelves for mine out of some black particle board shelf material from Home Depot, I think. Of course it's not very strong and certainly not waterproof. I think at some point I may replace mine with some painted plywood for a more permanent solution.

I actually ended up using two lights, one in front of the strip and one behind it. I just have to push the front one back to open the lid. And of course I also reduced the light output on both. Not an inexpensive solution but there are no shadows.

What I have is the "coal slag". I got it at Tractor Supply Co. They had medium and fine grit, I used the medium. I've never seen the "blasting abrasives" product before.

Yeah, it's little bits of metal you can see. Definitely recommend using a magnet, makes removing it so much easier.

I've been using BDBS in a planted tank for about a year now and I'm very happy with it. Before I rinsed it in a five gallon bucket, while it was still dry, I took a good sized magnet and dragged it over and through it and it did attract some small metal bits. I kept cleaning the magnet off and repeating this until I was hardly finding any. Obviously, it has no nutritional value at all for the plants so I use Easy Green in the water and LOTS of Flourish tabs. I personally think it is a very good looking substrate and makes the colors of the plants and fish really pop.

Black Diamond blasting sand with Flourish Tabs and Easy Green works for me. I like that I have control over all the fertilizer.

I recently got my first gouramis, a male and female pair of Honeys. So far they've been great. What I read about them is true. They looked so pale in the store but their colors really started to pop when they got settled in to their new home.

Same here. I generally love Fluval products but between the rattle and being not self priming I had to switch to something else. It's a shame, I wish the company would fix these issues. They have been this way forever and otherwise they are great filtration.

I recently moved these Neons from a ten gallon to a twenty long, and this is what I came up with. Most of the plants were moved as well, some are new. I think it will look better as the plants recover and fill in. For my first real attempt I'm pretty happy with it.

I use a medicine dropper to measure it out.