Steve A

Howdy from Texas, beware of getting stream water from up north, you fish may get a Balvenie hangover 🙂

Howdy from a fellow Texan

I received my fist plants today, I got them in the tank and fed them. In a couple of days I will take them out of the pots.

Have you tried a thin O-ring on the water side of the tank?

I was out and about today and when I got home these were in the back of my truck 😁

Yep

I have (1) 80 gallon now but I would use a 10 gal for a QT and 3 more for some fancy guppies. 🙂

I just saw where one of my LFS has 10 gallon tanks for 9.99, guess I need to take the coolers out of the back of my truck in the morning 😁

Thank you Sir, great advice 👍

Thanks, I do plan changing them out one at a time. I don't want to go to drastic all at once.

Yes i have given it a good cleaning, Candi at the Co-Op said I should do that before I start planting it. I did it over a 2 week time span doing between 10 - 20 gallons at a time.

Thank you, I am talking about taking the little flimsy insert things out and replacing them with coarse foam blocks that fill up the chambers. The stuff I am using in the chambers is not quite as coarse as what the pre filter ones on the water pickup tubes in the picture.

Yes I am using the API test, Here are my numbers Tank Tap Target PH 7.6 7.6 7.4 High PH 7.4 7.4 Ammonia 0 0.25 0 Nitrite 0 0.5 0 Nitrate 80 0 <40 KH 71.6 125.3 190 GH 143.2 143.2 150 The tank is 80 gallons, 48x18x18 There is no nitrogen and I am not sure about the other things, I did order some Water Wisteria, Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, and Water Sprite last night. When I pull the 3 dirty filters I am changing them to foam like in Cory’s video. I have done one and plan on doing them one at a time. As the old filters are full of BIO mass can I vacuum bag them or freeze them and then vacuum bag them to use in the future?

Thanks, I am running 2 Penguin 375 bio filters. I filled one compartment with foam on one of them but the other 3 compartments have pretty dirty filters I was hoping to leave in until I got it all stabilized. I guess I could pull them out and bag them with water in them and then see if I can get my count down? I will do that on my water dump tomorrow.

Thank you, there may be a bit of excess food but with just 1 fish right now he is just fed a small pinch of flakes. I have got the count to come down from 160 to 80 but it has stayed at 80 for the last week even though I have changed out about 35 gallons in that week. I will try a bigger dump of water at a time starting tomorrow maybe 30 gallons at once.

Thank you, I have been doing 10 - 15 gallons every 3 - 4 days so I might step that up to 25 - 30 gallons instead.

I just finished a 2 week process of deep cleaning my substrate but I still have nitrates showing 80. Will plants handle this high of nitrates and help use it up? Another problem is that my GH is still over 190 ppm

I have been using it for years, about a 1/2 thimble for every 5 gallons

No, I have not added any thing to the aquarium in over 3 years except water with Chlorine remove and PH balancer but my PH was low so I have not used the balancer in the last 3 cleaning and the PH is up to about 7.5.

In getting my 80 gal tank ready to plant the folks at the Co-Op said to do a deep clean of my substrate as this tank has been in use for 18 years. I have done 3 cleanings of about 12 gallons and my nitrates are coming down from 160 to 40. The issue is that my GH has jumped from 89.3 nine days ago to over 214 today. I checked my tap water and it is 143.2. Any ideas as to what might have happened? The only additive I used was Chlorine remove. TIA

Thank you, that is a great link. I think what i have is Green Beard Algae as it grows on plastic, cermacis and rocks, and is tough to get off. I have scrubbed some stuff with a brush that took some of the finish off but not all of the algae.

I have tried google to figure out what this is but so far they don't show to many picture of all the different types

When I do it I put one end in the tank and stand up with the other end, you should have a half loop in the hose. Now suck on it and as soon as water gets to the bottom of the loop stick it in the bucket.

That's good to know, that would let me run them at 1/2 after I get everything in it, right now there are no plants and just one clown loach in it.

Thank you, so if your filter numbers are like mine you are cycling your tank about every 2 hours. 👍