Phantom240

You need a manifold, if you want it to dispense evenly. Something like this would be what you need. Not specifically that one because it's expensive, but it should give you an idea. Fair warning though, you'll deplete a paintball tank stupid fast. I go through a 5 pound tank in roughly 4ish months in my 55 gallon

I've done the same thing before, not with an aquaclear, but same concept. It worked just fine, after everything was appropriately modified to work together.

I'm curious to know where these are native to as well

Tell me about it. Kinda want to get a variety of rarer plants and see if I can make some bank lol There's only a few, so who knows. Then again, predation from wild animals and feral cats may be to blame. I'm in Southeast Louisiana, and this is on the back side of my house, facing north, so it really doesn't get much direct sun.

I set up a tub (120 gallon, IIRC) outside to toss some dwarf sag and random overflow/trimmings/excess guppies (turns out, they haven't produced many) into, so I could immediately carpet a tank with dwarf sag, and maybe produce some plants to trade or sell. After about a year, this is the monstrosity that it has become, LOL. More dwarf sag than I can shake a stick at, about 10 amazon swords I've potted for future trading, enough christmas moss for me to probably fill a gallon milk jug... It's insane. Christmas moss literally growing up the sides of the tub, and it's DENSE.

My outdoor tub full of plant cuttings, plants for resale, etc is full of oak leaves because I'm surrounded by huge oaks. No adverse effects, the snails and shrimp seem to enjoy them, and they provide a place for fry to hide.

Ehhhhhh I disagree. Those look like already submerged growth to me, compared to my sword plant. I'd say that it's adjusting to his water parameters with the normal expected melt. The leaf structure of my (admittedly ragged due to excessive plantlets) sword looks pretty identical. Shana, I'd say with a few root tabs and continuing to dose ferts, the plant should bounce back. It looks like a possible iron or phospate deficiency.

It would make a lot of sense for low tech tanks, since the demands aren't quite so high. However, when you're adding 10+ grams of dry ferts to your tank every other week or so, it becomes a much less useful product.

API master test kit and co-op strips. Pretty well stocked, 14 neon tetras, 12 rummynose, 6 emerald Cory cats, 7 kuhli loaches, 6 long fin black skirt tetras, 15ish guppies, some amanos, ramshorn and trumpet snails… but it’s well planted, intense light and co2 injected, so I dose everything but nitrates and the plants eat all the nitrates up immediately.

I haven't done a water change since I set up my 55 gallon back in september. Everything seems pretty healthy, and my nitrates stay below 5ppm lol.

Only way to find out is to change the water until you get down to about 20ppm, then monitor daily for a week and boom, there you go.

I never had any luck with dwarf hairgrass. Dwarf Sag is a really good carpeting plant that will grow in just about any tank though.

As far as plants that aren't considered a nuisance, I'd say swords, java ferns, dwarf sag, and anubias if you're patient enough.

If your ammonia and nitrite remain at 0 while your nitrates continue to increase, that's a sign that the bacteria are doing their thing. Keep at it!

That's so beautiful!

I had a betta in my main display that hunted baby ramshorn snails and would suck them down whole whenever he found them.

I have a single stage CO2 Art regulator on my main display tank, and it's been great. If I could go back in time I'd have gotten the dual stage, because it does dump at the end of the tank, but my plants and lighting are robust enough to not gas the fish. I have an Fzone from Amazon on another tank, and I want to chuck it. The solenoid leaks, so even when the system is shut off, it still allows some CO2 into the tank. The regulator itself leaks unless I have it positioned just right and crank it like Soulja Boy. Wouldn't recommend.

That's fair, for sure. I was just thinking about it from a side hustle perspective, and also from the viewpoint of a medium/high tech grow tank since I have a spare CO2 rig. Obviously, this would create bigger plants faster, but is it really necessary? Mehhh probably not, and reducing the ferts will reduce my cost and potentially increase profitability. Waiting for payday for a 20 long so I can start the growout tank.

Oof, that's pretty cheap for a plant potted with rockwool, unless you're getting a stupid good deal on pots and plugs.

What has me baffled is my big sword is something like six years old and finally happy enough to throw spikes. The other two taller narrower swords I got from either Petsmart or Co-Op less than six months ago, and are already popping off.

I really want my red melon and "reni" varieties to start shooting off, mostly to get more, but they're also more valuable varieties. I've been exceptionally poor as of late, so I haven't been able to pot the plantlets just yet. I'm gonna have to do some heavy root trimming on some of the larger specimens when I do though lol

Do daily 25-50% water changes until your nitrates are at or below 20ppm, then test daily and record your readings. Chances are, you're either overstocked or overfeeding. Regardless, you can either do more frequent water changes or add more plant mass and dose ferts (minus nitrate) to the water column to increase your plants' ability to uptake the nitrate. CO2 helps when going that approach, as well.

For what it's worth, my original sword plant did literally nothing for what seemed like years aside from be small and green and pop out a new leaf or two once a year. Once the mulm started to build in the substrate, and I found a light and photoperiod it liked, it exploded.

Update: Main plant has now four huge spikes, and one of the other swords (not sure the species, any ideas? The super tall one with the leaves curling at the top of the water) has decided to join the party as well. Send help.

I think I have plenty of biofilm (plants from old tank, driftwood), but mulm is lacking, as the substrate in this tank is maybe a month old, and the snails keep it pretty tidy. If none of the fry survive, that's okay. The cories will have lots more time to make babies.