yes_i_like_pie

It’ll be a 12 g long! @Comradovich I had no considered that. Thank you for suggesting it. I’ll experiment with that a bit. @AllFishNoBrakes oh that’s good to hear. I heard someone say that if there’s no flow around the heater it could overheat and be a problem. I’m glad to hear you’ve tried it without issues.

Hi, About 6 months ago I set up a 10g fishbowl as an ecosystem tank. No heater or filter. It has shrimp, endlers, snails, and some minnow. I love this tank and it's by far my favorite. Pic attached. I want to set up one of my other tanks similarly but it has some tropical fish that need warmer temperatures and heating the room isn't an option. Does anyone have advice on how to heat this tank with minimal added equipment? My understanding is that if the tank has a heater it also needs a filter, or at least something to move the water around. My goal truly is to limit tech as much as possible. The tank is a 12g long bookshelf tank. I welcome all advice and suggestions.

Hi, I have the med trio from Aquarium Co Op and some sick fish. I never ended up using the meds but now it’s time. I noticed some are slightly out of date (some more than others). Should I throw them out or can I use them? And if I can use them how much past date is ok? Ich-X - I can barely see the date. Picture attached. I think maybe it says 2022? Maracyn - 7/20/22 Paracleanse - 3/17/22 thanks for any advice y’all have!

I wish I had seen this earlier I totally over did it on root tabs and now my nitrates are spiking. Not to dangerous levels it’ll just take some time to level out. Thanks for that article. Really helpful!

Thank you I just put more in. I had no idea they were supposed to go in monthly. I’ll be better about that going forward.

@Mmiller2001I just tested my tap water for GH and KH to see if RO is necessary. And I found something interesting. My tap water isn't that hard at all, something is happening to it when it's in my tank. There is no crushed coral or anything like that. Any ideas what could be causing that? I added a pic of the comparative test strips but the below measurements were taken using using the GH and KH specific testing kit. Tank GH - 196.9 Tank KH - 107.4 Tap GH - 35.8 Tap KH - 35.8

@Mmiller2001 this is so cool!! How do you even measure and track all this? Amazing! no crushed coral. I was actually thinking of adding some since I noticed some holes in the shell of my mystery snail.

This is soooo helpful. I have made the recommended changes suggested by both you and @nabokovfan87. The plants look more yellow in the pic, but if I am being really honest with myself I do think they should be more green and I agree there is likely more than a simple light issue. Light is now at 50%, CO2 output is doubled, I'll do bigger weekly water changes and up Easy Green dosing. I have two questions about your advice: 1. You mentioned my calcium is high and to lower overall GH. Do you have advice on how to do that? 2. To boost Iron, do you think Easy Iron will do the trick or should I get some fertilizer that increase several micros at once? If so, is there one you recommend? Again, thank you both for helping me out.

@nabokovfan87 Thank you for your feedback. I already have a battle with algae. When I lowered the intensity to 30% made it stop accumulating as quickly. Over the next month I may slowly increase the intensity of the light incrementally to see what happens.

@Mmiller2001 Some more information and pictures from the tank: Tank: 12 gallon long with lots of plants Live stock: 10 exclamation point rasbora, 4 orange shrimp, 2 amano, 2 mystery snails, 1 ember tetra, and 3 otocinclus. Light – Fluval 3.0 at 30% intensity for 8 hours with an added two hour ramp up/down before and after Co2 – 1 bubble per second comes on an hour before lights turn on and turns off an hour before lights turn off Water Change – 30% weekly Temperature – 79.5 F Fertilizers Aquarium Co Op Easy Green – Once a week after water change Root tabs too but it’s been several months since I last added some Parameters – water was changed last night Amonia - 0 ppm Nitrate - 5 ppm Nitrite - 0 ppm Hardness (GH) – 196.9 ppm Buffer (KH) – 89.5 ppm pH – 6.4 Chlorine - 0 ppm Copper – 0 ppm Phosphate – 0 ppm Calcium – mg/l 60 ppm Iron 0 – 0.1 mg/l CO2 ppm – I just have a drop checker that is mostly green. It’s the fluval one so it’s a lil yellow on top and blue at the bottom. I just replaced it with a better CO2 drop checker today so I will have a clearer answer in roughly 6 hours.

@Mmiller2001 great questions. I just did a water change so I’ll let things settle and test tomorrow and answer the questions.

@nabokovfan87 yes same! My tank does have CO2. I think there is enough light, my worry is actually that it might be too much tbh.

Howdy, I have a 12 gallon long tank with Co2 and lights for 8 hours at 30% intensity. All my plants are doing great except for the S Repens. It’s getting more and more yellow and as of this week is starting to break apart. see attached picture. Could you help me diagnose the issue/deficiency? I looked at the aquarium co op deficiency chart and my guess might be iron or nitrogen. Any help in diagnosing and treatment suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Nelly

@Fish Folkthank you that explanation was super helpful!

Howdy, I recently watched Irenes video on PH, GH, and KH and I would love to know more. How important is GH and KH specifically? Based on the video I assumed that you either have low KH and GH or high GH and KH since the solution for lowering these is less water changes or to increase them is to add crushed coral. I tested my water and see to regularly have a extremely high KH (300 ish) and extremely low GH (0-40). Question 1: Are these parameters of for my plants and fish? I have dwarf petricola, orange shrimp, exclamation rasbora, and mystery snails. Question 2: How do I lower the KH and also increase the GH? More info on the tank. Its a 12 gallon planted tank, with a PH of 6.8~ and I inject CO2 at a rate of 1 bubble per second. No recent water changes have been made. Thanks for helping me understand this better. -Nelly

Thanks for the reply! The flow is good I have an aquaclear on one end pushing water down the length of the tank and a small power head on the opposite side to get some movement where the water was otherwise sitting. I actually for the rasboras at Aquarium Co Op about a month ago, they've been doing and looking ok this whole time. The CO2 was the newest addition a few days ago. I have some crushed coral and miracle shells, should I try those two in the tank to see if that could help?

Hi there, Today I found a couple of exclamation point raspborras in the tank that were dead. I’m trying to figure out what happened. I appreciate any advice you can give. tank: 12 gallon long light: Fluval 3.0 for 8 hours at 30% co2: yes, started 3 days ago at roughly 1 drop per second plants: Lots temperature: 79 degrees parameters: Nitrate 10 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 Gh 300 Kh 40 Ph 6.4 Chlorine 0 No recent water changes. I just watched Irene’s video on Gh, kh, and Ph. And it seems like my Gh is way to much but my Kh is super low? Could that be the issue? If so, how do I fix it. again I appreciate any help you can offer. Nelly

That’s great. Do you have any at the moment? If so I’ll stop by later or tomorrow. If not I can just keep an eye on here. Or is there a waitlist I could be added to?

I was wondering if you ever have teacup platties? I’ve been trying to find some locally and not having any luck.

@Isaac M thanks for all your help!

@Isaac M great. My tank has only been running since March so it could easily still be adjusting. I added some root tabs about a month ago so it’s likely time for some new ones. and yes, the iron test does 0-1mg

@Isaac M sweet. I’ll keep an eye on my kh. yes, the rocks are gradually getting browner. No level of scrubbing seems to get it off though 😞 i also noticed some green type of algae in little dots on the glass today. i just tested my iron and calcium too. Calcium was 40 ppm and iron didn’t seem to yield any result with the test. So maybe I’m also low on iron?

@Isaac M ok sorry for the delay. I added crushed coral and wonder shell. Tank stats are: nitrate25 nitrite 0 GH75 KH 40 PH 6.4 and here’s a pic of the whole tank.

@Isaac Mthanks! Here are my tank stats nitrate 20 nitrite 0 amonia 0 GH 75 clorine 0 Kh 0 Ph 6.8

@Isaac Mthabks! I just rubbed the leaves to check. Sadly no dust or slime came off. The leaves themselves are discolored 😞.