BF McUmber

From what I have read a plant can definitely benefit from being in/above an under gravel filter, I do not think you are wrong there. I am going to try it as a partial UGF for cleaning purposes. I'm going to follow a similar approach that "Fishman" does on youtube.

I have been looking into these and other UGF quite a bit because I want to do them in my next tank. I have been working under the assumption that I'm going to put the UGF on half of the tank and let the other half collect mulm for more permanent plants. With the placement of your ponds I was wondering if you could employ a similar approach and only encompass the right most pond with the black modular plates with two lift stacks? I think I would want my uplift tube for my left plate to be on the left side of the pond. I think having my entire flow going through the end of one of the plates would be not the best. I would probably also take one of the plates and cut it on an angle to fill in the gap where the tank angles, again just to allow for more places for things to collect. I don't think I would think about the water trapped under the plate that does not have a uplift tube any more than I would think about the water trapped in decorations. I would probably be more concerned about actually getting the new tube in when it comes. Is the uplift tube that came with the feneci large enough to get an Ziss air stone in it?

The Kanaplex and other things definitely seemed to prolong the fish's life longer than some of the others, however unfortunately she did not improve and died on June 6th. Now, the 3 CPD's, the male guppy, and the amano shrimp have lived in the tank for 2+ months. They seem to look adequate from what I can tell. I would like to move them out of the quarantine tank and into my work tank. This tank is a little more publicly viewed, and I have some reservations based on the thought of it being something like fish TB or something that could continually come back. So my questions are two that I was hoping to get from more experienced minds. 1. We have said that it is unlikely that is fish TB. However, if we assume for a second that it is, I seem to find conflicting data on what to do. Are you of the belief that all tanks have fish TB in subcritical levels? (Such that it would be arguably inconsequential to move them.) 2. After having a possible sickness outbreak, how long would you typically wait before calling the fish good enough to go into the display tank with the other fish? Thank you, Brad

Thank you for that education on the hardness. I don't know with how it has been said other places that I would have looked up that formula.

@Seattle_Aquarist thank you for that comprehensive reply. I used the api calcium test kit. It says it is for salt water but when I asked them at the store they said it works for fresh water as well. I'm am confused as how you arrived at my tank only having 16.8ppm of magnesium? Would it not be 304ppm total hardness minus 100ppm calcium equals 204ppm magnesium?

All the values in the chart are in PPM. I should have cropped the conversions at the top to not be confused with being headers for the the columns they are over.

Thank you for the response Roy. I think in your math you took my KH measurement as the GH. Additionally, I misspoke when I said my calcium was 4.5 degrees. It was 4 to 5 drops in the API calcium test kit, which does not scale as the same rate as degrees but it is close. Today I went and did a larger battery of tests on the tank water and the tap water and put it in the below table. My API liquid GH test kit was not changing color so I was unable to get a new reading for the GH. The liquid kit is not expired and I have not used it since getting the COOP strips, so I'm not sure what is wrong with it. Using the old data I have the GH readings are about 250-300ppm which with 100ppm of Calcium would leave 175ppm for magnesium. Since my original post I have put 2 small wondershells in to see if it made a difference. I have not seen a change in their response though. I am on city water. My water is provided by the village of Waverly in NY. All the values in the table have been converted to PPM. (with the exception of temperature and PH :P) Thank you Brad

I always start rolling mine up and unrolling it from the same end to limit mismatching my twists in the tubing when I wrap it back up. If I mess up and it starts to get twisted I'll lay the rest of the tubing out and rotate the rest of the tubing in whichever way it needs to go to not make the roll twist. Then after that is done it has a shelf in my entry way that it lives on.

@Seattle_Aquarist my water is that hard coming out of the tap. The majority of it is magnesium though. I have measured the calcium in the past as 4 to 4.5 degrees and the gh as 14 to 17 degrees. I have not tested with the liquid kit in a long while, having the coop test strips now. Out of the tap I have closer to 100 ppm of kh. The tank is a 40 breeder. Based on looks and the charts I thought calcium deficiency or magnesium overload as they both deform the leaf growth. However, I would think my water supplies enough calcium.

My pogostemon stellatus octopus has started to grow quite curled leaves. Would this behavior most likely be a calcium deficiency and mg overdose? Should I be considering something else as well? My dwarf sag is also not doing so hot. How do you know if it dying because it is not getting enough light? Nitrate=40 Hardness >300 Kh=40 Ph =6.8 5ml Easy green weekly, crushed coral at base of sponge filter, root tabs have been inserted below the the plants two or 3 times.

Thank you very much. That is exactly what I was trying to figure out, but was getting different interpretations from different places.

I have been ordering crushed coral from the CO-OP in the past. In preparation to setting up a new tank I found out my LFS carries Caribsea products and it seems silly mailing such weight if we don't have to. However, when looking at the Caribsea line I am having a hard time determining what is the basic crushed coral. It seems like some of the main differences is the grain size and if they add sand to it. Would anyone be willing to explain the differences between the different Aragonites vs the Flordia crushed coral? More importantly should I just be getting the Florida Crushed Coral to buffer my freshwater tank? Thank you,

I gave her a little more time on her own and then went and bought a male to put in with her. The male I got was pretty small so I'm not sure if he was there just as company or as a mate. Regardless my guppy got big once again, but this time dropped about 26 fry 🙂 It is exciting. In another month or two I'll have all the guppies. Assuming they survive I'm going to go get them at least a 29 gallon tank. When I got the male I treated him with paracleanse and then waited 2 weeks and treated again. I was going to treat a 3rd time as has been said in some livestreams... but that's when the babies came. I'm assuming I should hold off on any of the other dewormers with the babies being young correct?

I got the kanaplex and put it in the tank. We will see how it turns out. It would be nice if it was just aggression. I also got the brother guppy. he was a hell of a spaz when I put him in the tank, trying to escape through the gravel. I put a towel over the tank and he appears to have calmed down, they appear to be in sleep mode. Maybe I'll leave the towel on till the morning and just skip feeding tonight to hopefully keep him calm.

I would get a new guppy from the store, not move the one I have. That is on the thought that something is going on that would constrain the guppy i have to the tank (like tb), even though that does not seem to be a main contender here. I will stop at the store and get the bacterial treatment I think I only have maracyn at home.