sairving

An update! Louie the betta and his roomies are doing good. Louie has turned into the worlds grumpiest fish. The plants are struggling. My jungle vals and crypts all melted. Melon sword? Barely hanging in there. My Anubias is doing okay and the watersprite is growing like a weed. It does not matter how many root tabs I add to the substrate, root feeding plants just aren't thriving. I'm tired of my tank looking sad and ordered a new bag Rio Escuro. Step one of getting my tank looking good again is to redo the substrate. I'll leave a half inch of sand, add the aquasoil, and recap it. Maybe I'll get some fine gravel and add that over the sand. Makeover time for Louie's tank.

Hey everyone! Back in Mid February my 10 gallon tank cracked during a water change. The previous tank had aquasoil capped with pool filter sand. Currently, there's only pool filter sand in the tank (its all I had at the time). Root tabs have been added twice. I've lost most of the crypts and the melon sword is sort of hanging on. Due to my hard water, I've learned plants do better with a nutrient rich substrate. My plan is to order some more Brightwell FlorinVolcanit substrate (it does not leech ammonia). Fluval Stratum should work too. Would it be easier to remove the sand in sections, add the aqausoil, and recap with pool filter sand or just remove everything at once? I'm trying to figure out the least stressful way for my fish. I'm also debating about a fine gravel over the soil versus sand.

Nice! I ordered 4 pots of anubias from co-op in the last 2 weeks. The plants I received were nicer than what I can buy locally.

That's very unusual. Normally, well water with a high ph is going to have high gh as well. Until it gets tested, best guess is there's a lot of sediment in the water.

I have a friend who has a master's in clarinet performance. An instructor helped connect her with somebody who could get a specific, hard to find wooden clarinet. It was a very expensive instrument.

Money saving tip, eBay can be a great place to find really good deals on equipment if your patient. I wanted a fluval aqausky but could see spending $70 for one. After checking eBay everyday for a week, I managed to find an open box one for $35 with shipping. I also started looking into inviting co2 into my tank (before the tank cracked). Figured out pretty quick that to save money and get what I wanted, going DIY would be cheaper. I bought a 2 stage regulator off eBay for $50. At some point I'll get the rest of the parts. My tank cracked about a week and a half ago while doing maintenance. I managed to save the fish but most of my crypts and jungle vals melted. I'm basically starting over at this point, which is why the co2 project is delayed. I just spent a bunch of money on anubias from Aquarium Co-op. The plants I received are healthier and larger than what I can buy locally. Anyway, moral of the story, if you know what your looking for, money saving deals can be found if your patient and persistent.

I bought the PPS pro kit and so far, haven't had to mix another batch of micro and macros yet. I really like the fact that you can tweak things when nutrient deficiencies happen. Pretty sure my current stash is going to last 2-3 years.

If your treating a larger tank or multiple tank, seachem safe would be a good buy. Like you though, I have a 10 gallon. My small bottle of prime is half gone after almost 2 years. We have well water. I don't always use a full dose. Money saving tip. If you have a planted tank look into buying dry fertilizer and mixing your own. Yes, it may be more expensive up front but 5 pounds of fertilizer is going to last you a long time.

I have an airstone running in my 10 gallon betta tank and its fine. It doesn't bother him at all.

My 10 gallon betta tank has a sponge filter and a tidal 35. I baffle the tidal filter with sponge. Overkill? Yes, but I can use the sponge filter for a new tank or a quarantine tank. The tidal runs with the sponge and matrix it came with, leaving me room for chemical filtration if needed. You can always stuff some fine filter pad or poly fill in there too.

My tank sits right next to my bed. My favorite time to watch it is when the light starts ramping up in the morning. I can wake up, watch my betta, and snuggle the cat.

Well, it was an eventful week (putting it mildly). I was doing a water change when the python clogged. My hand slipped while trying to remove the tube and my python knocked into the rim. It wasn't very hard either. The tank had 3 massive cracks from top to bottom. Luckily, it did not immediately start leaking. I managed to get all the plants and fish removed. I ran to Petco and bought a new tank. I didn't reuse my substrate because the aquasoil sand same mixed when removing it. It was a muddy mess. Plus, I couldn't find bucket number 3 and scooped it into the bucket for house cleaning. Good thing I had left over pool filter sand. Petco was out of fluval stratum so now I'm using root tabs. The plan to start injecting CO2 will be delayed for a bit. My previously healthy crypts are melting but hopefully they will recover. I really dislike crypt melt but like crypts. I scraped the tank slightly different and like how it turned out. Monday I received a really big, healthy anubias barteri from Aquarium co-op. Yes, I can buy them locally but they're never this size. The tank now officially needs something. Not sure what yet. Louie the Betta and his roomies are fine. Louie is cranky as usual.

Lol, I would put stuff in it too.

Yes, we all most definitely need one. Doesn't matter if your tank is 3 gallons or 100 gallons. Next time there's a sale, I'll probably just buy an extra tank.

I'm glad it happened during a water change. After the old tank was in the recycle and the new one home, I pulled out a level just to make sure it wasn't the stand for some reason. The stand is fine. I'm starting to think it was a defect with the tank around the rim. Because your right, it should have held up.

The cracks were bad enough I ended up having to remove the sand and aquasoil before moving the tank. I was afraid the side would shatter if I tried to move it with the substrate. Bucket number 3 had a sandy muddy mess after scooping it out. I could have used less sand this time but I find the plants do better when they have more substrate to root into. @PineSong I'm glad a managed to get the fish out too. My betta is extremely stressed right now, he should be fine in a day or two. I was really worried about the possibility of 10 gallons of water on the floor after it happened. @Ken Burke there was swearing followed by an evening of controlled chaos. Yes, lesson of the day. Have an extra tub that you can put your fish and plants into.

I was doing a water change before dinner today. My python clogged so a went to pull the tube off and accidentally knocked the rim of my tank. The result? 3 massive cracks from top to bottom. Luckily the tank wasn't leaking right away. I managed to get my fish and plants into buckets and run to Petco for a new 10 gallon tank. Good thing I had some left over pool filter sand and recently ordered root tabs. Guess I'm now experimenting with plant growth in just sand now. Petco didn't have any fluval stratum in stock. Everyone is back in the tank. My plants were growing really well too.

I haven't been keeping fish for 20 years but my parents had a tank back in the 80's. When I decided to setup a tank in 2020, I found all their old fishkeeping stuff in the basement, minus the actual tank. There was a bag of smelly gravel substrate (no idea why they kept it). My mom and I went through the multiple boxes and threw out a bunch of faded plastic plants, old heaters that were probably a fire hazard, random bits, and some really brittle box filters. They had some really nice rocks, a few giant airstones, and some brass air control valves I decided to keep. If the box filters weren't in such bad shape, I may have given them a try. When I setup my first tank, my dad was amazed at how quite the HOB filter was. No loud pumps running. My HOB I started with was clear and he asked where the carbon was. No carbon dad, just sponge and a bit of biomedia. Lighting? A clip on led. No more big ugly hood (we found one those too). I think he was impressed with how clean the whole setup looked.

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I lost all my anubias to rhizome rot again! Bought some new anubias from my local fish store, two weeks later, all the rhizomes were mushy. When the weather improves, I will order some new anubias online. Last week, in order to keep the cat out of the tank, I bought some egg crate for the top of my tank. Its working, Sophie no longer knock the plastic piece off the back to get a drink. Instead, she wedges her head in the filter. The next major project for my tank this year, is to start injecting co2. I spent a few days last week pricing co2 regulators and decided to diy my own. I ordered a 2 stage Uniweld RHT 8013 off ebay for $50. Next, comes looking for the solenoid, bubble counter, and needle valve. Some of the biggest pitfalls that have come up, parts lists from older posts may not have the same part number now. Just trying to find some of the recommendations in stock someplace is a challenge. I may be scouring ebay for a few weeks. The information on building a diy regulator is available but its scattered. Most of the really informative threads are over on saltwater and planted tank forums. I did start a build thread but I'll post updates here too.

First update! The regulator shipped and should be here towards the end of the week. I've been reading through a few threads on other forums, and random posts on reddit. One of the biggest issues that has been popping up is locating various parts at reasonable prices or its just not available. Another hurdle is when you find a posting with part numbers, its from 6 years ago and the current number may be different. Here are some of the most helpful threads from other forums I've found so far. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/building-an-alanle-style-dual-stage-co2-regulator.687328/ https://www.plantedtank.net/threads/diy-co2-regulator-build-victor-swagelok-clippard-parts.1299967/

Hey everyone! I'm going to start injecting co2 into my 10- gallon planted betta tank. After spending the last few days pricing things out, I decided to DIY my own co2 regulator. Maybe in the end it won't save me money, but it will be fun to learn something new. I'm going to post updates, the build, questions, links to information, and how well it works here. There's actually some really informative threads on planted tank and saltwater forums. I need to read through them and get a parts list. Plus, at the end of the day, I'm sure I'll need input and some advice from someone who's actually done this. Yesterday, I spent part of the day scouring eBay for regulators. I looked at listings for Mathesen, Smith, and Victor regulators. There's a lot of listings for older models right now. @Mmiller2001 recommended finding a 2 stage regular. For $50 I found a Uniweld 2 stage RHT 8013 co2 regulator. The listing said open box, never used. The box looks like it was mauled by a bear but the regulator looked new. I ordered that. Next on my list is a soleniod, needle valve, and bubble counter. Back to eBay. Here's the manufacturer link in case anyone is curious. https://uniweld.com/product/rht80-series/

I'll start a build thread once I get the regulator and start ordering the rest of the parts. Need to spend the next few days coming up with a parts list.

Think I found my regulator. I've been looking at regulator listings for the last few hours. There are a bunch of single stage Matheson listings on ebay and then I found this one. It a 2 stage co2 regulator from Uniweld. Uniweld RHT8013 Medium/Heavy Duty Two Stage CO2 Regulator with CGA320 Inlet https://www.ebay.com/itm/363701596126?hash=item54ae4defde:g:t7MAAOSwDNRh7drH Regulator purchased

@Mmiller2001 yeah, decided not to go with the Milwaukee regulator. Based on the reviews, it appears to have some quirks. Needle valves needing to be replaced seems to be the big one. I think I've looked at most of the regulators in the links above. Today, I started researching DIY options. Could be fun project and I'm always ready to learn new things. Locally, I can get paint ball canisters refilled at Dicks. There is a liquor store in the area that sells brewing supplies and refills regular co2 tanks for $6-$14 depending on the size. There's a few welding supply stores too that will refill tanks. I may go for a regular tank.