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Isaac M

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Everything posted by Isaac M

  1. Isaac M
    Sounds like a great way to stay committed to the 1 hour challenge! The aquariums are looking good. That is a really cool piece of driftwood also!
  2. Isaac M
    Hello @Ian Tilley, yes, I would assume your fish are happy. An ecosystem however is always changing. As a result, I would suggest testing your water once every week or two and simply spending time observing your aquarium daily(algae growth, fish behavior, plant deficiencies). Plants grow and get trimmed, fish may grow larger, tap water parameters may change and more which is why it is difficult to say that a consistent 1 gallon a week is all you need. I would make sure to test my ph, gh, kh and nitrates. This way you can avoid high nitrates or even low nitrates if its a planted aquarium. You also want to make sure to avoid old tank syndrome. I hope that helps!
  3. Isaac M
    Hello @Mread, why do you want to lower your pH? Are you attempting to breed a certain fish species? If you could provide an idea on what species you would like to keep, that would be helpful. It is often not necessary to attempt to chase certain water parameters. Typically stability in an aquarium is all you need to keep a healthy thriving environment.
  4. Isaac M
    That sounds really good, I would go with the single black lava rock and maybe go with cabomba, rotala or ludwigia for the red plant.
  5. Isaac M
    Yeah it is interesting to me how some people have been able to grow hair algae on surfaces but not the plants. I imagine someone will come out with the recipe eventually
  6. Isaac M
    Thats brilliant, I need to try the bagel 😂 but yeah, what I have done is use a marimo moss ball to try to mimic hair algae a bit but it does not flow like hair algae does. It looks really good in your aquarium!
  7. Isaac M
    @Patrick_G beautiful! Cube tanks always look great with an island scape haha
  8. Isaac M
    @Patrick_G actually the soil is not the reason for the fish eating the sausage breakfast sandwich, its the glorious mane of hair algae!
  9. Isaac M
    I guess it would depend on what plants you are thinking of buying. You can also make multiple pieces look monolithic by glueing them together and sprinkling some dust from the rock onto the glue. The dragon stone does look really cool though, if you plant heavily enough, the contrast with the black substrate would not even be noticeable at that point anymore haha
  10. Isaac M
    @Frodo is that hornwort in there? That alone should be removing a lot of nitrates from your water. Does it grow slowly? If it does, I would imagine your lighting may need to be stronger. A lot of the plants you have in there are root feeders and/ or slow growing plants. Java fern, crinum and crypts all grow rather slowly. I also think your aquarium could be planted heavier, especially with stem plants that grow fast.
  11. Isaac M
    I agree with others, you can probably go some time without a fertilizer. Especially given the aquasoil. But to answer your question, I would assume seachem flourish is the most available at chain stores so I would go with that. It does not provide much of the macronutrients however. To compensate, I would reduce my water change frequency to let the nitrogen or nitrate build up in the aquarium. I would also make sure I feed fish flakes regularly to increase my phosphates. Unfortunately I do not know of a way to increase potassium so I would get seachem flourish potassium if it is available.
  12. Isaac M
    Wow your water has very low hardness and buffering capacity. I would recommend getting some crushed coral at a minimum. Do you have any pictures of the entire aquarium?
  13. Isaac M
    @yes_i_like_pie wow really? It looks a lot like diatom algae to me. Even the rocks seem to have some growing on it. Maybe it is just difficult to remove. Anyways, for plant deficiencies, I would use this link here. It is an article by the co-op discussing nutrient deficiencies. Please correct me if I am wrong but it looks like your substrate is black diamond blasting sand? Do you add any root tabs for the crypts? If you could provide your water parameters that would be great too (pH, nitrate, gh, kh). A picture of the entire aquarium would also be helpful.
  14. Isaac M
    Hello, I like pie too, but thats besides the point, it looks to me like you have diatom algae which is common for newer aquariums. You can check by just rubbing one of the leaves, if the leaf falls apart, then the plant is brown and has a deficiency. If the brown is slimy and comes off, it is diatom algae. Your java fern may also still be acclimating to your tank conditions, they are very slow growing plants.
  15. Isaac M
    Thank you @Streetwise, looking at your journals for all of your aquariums and tubs (plus other projects) inspired me to do the same. So thank you for setting that example!
  16. Isaac M
    @Patrick_G haha I would not be complaining either. I want to rescape my 55 gallon and use it on my driftwood as a “moss”. But I am currently only in the planning phase for that.
  17. Isaac M
    @Patrick_G Sterbai corydoras are my favorite fish! Haha and thank you. I assume you are referring to the 20 gallon long, that moss would actually be a marimo moss ball haha I believe it is an algae though, not a moss. Marimo moss balls can actually be grown on most surfaces, it does not need to remain a ball shape. It looks really good on rocks and gives that “algaescape” look people sometimes go for.
  18. Isaac M
    I see, my pH is around 8.0 to 8.4. As a result, you can imagine that my water is hard as well. My neon tetras have been doing great so unless your water is very very cold, I do not see why you could not keep neon tetras from my experience. Yeah I do not manipulate my water either. It is a hassle to manufacture water haha
  19. Isaac M
    Sorry @tonyjuliano, I should have wrote it all out, I meant neocaridina shrimp such as red cherry shrimp or blue dream shrimp, etc. I keep neon tetras in an unheated 10 gallon with no top and they are looking great. As long as your house is heated, I find I do not have any problems. Coldest my aquariums get is 65 degrees Fahrenheit or so in the winter. What do you mean by too hard? Like the gH would be too high? Are you looking for a schooling fish? A species only aquarium? Or a community? Then I would go with black lava rock. Even elephant skin stone would work. Or another dark grey stone or black stone, just something more natural. It will make the plants and fish stand out more as well.
  20. Isaac M
    For rocks I would do a darker stone so it does not contrast the eco-complete too much. I have dragon stone with black sand and if I could do it over, I would do a black lava rock or black sieryu stone to make it look more natural. As for fish, maybe a large school of celestial pearl danios since you prefer colder water fish? And some neos of whatever color you like the most.
  21. Isaac M
    Hello @Nina, pictures of your aquarium can really help if you are willing to post them. It helps people see any potential sources of gh in your aquarium like the substrate, rocks , etc as @Mmiller2001 commented. kH or buffer is what is directly correlated with pH. If you want to increase your pH, I would recommend crushed coral. It is likely that your pH dropped due to the removal of crushed coral and acidification process @tonyjuliano described. If you want your pH to go up, you have to increase your kH. That can be done by keeping the crushed coral in the aquarium. It must stay in there however the whole time, it cannot be removed after one week or else the change will just be temporary. As for the gH, we need to remove whatever is in your aquarium that has increased it. Guppies however do like high gH as well.
  22. Isaac M
    I agree with @laritheloud, buce is a great option. If the aquarium is on the smaller side, I would go with buce or anubias nana petite. If the aquarium is larger, I would go with bolbitis or anubias coffeefolia. Java fern trident is a great option as well as @Stealth Aquatics mentioned! Even a mossy plant like fissidens can look amazing. Hygrophila pinnatifida is a great contrasting red plant like @darkG mentioned. I guess it really depends on the whole look you are going for.
  23. Isaac M
    @BaRanchik I will link the article with the chart link at the bottom from aquarium co-op here. I hope that helps!
  24. Isaac M
    This would depend on the size of the aquarium but I really like bolbitis.
  25. Isaac M
    The aquarium is looking good, lots of new growth. Great job!
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