Twigflinger

I have a hollow log standing vertically mine was growing in. That is a lot of roots though...

Hey guys I know its been quiet a while but wanted to give an update. The previous tank cracked so I ended up getting an acrylic which I love . The front and sides are molded from one sheet so there are no seams in the corners. very clean looking. I have increased P and K fertilizing and picked up more Ottos which seems to be helping with the algae problems. Also started injecting CO2. Both tanks now have Current USA Serene lights with backlighting which I really love. Being able to adjust the colors to my liking and the morning evening ramp adds so much to the aesthetic. I still only do very minimal WC of about 5 gallons every 3-4 weeks and top off 1-2 weeks. I came to the conclusion that I was way under fertilizing using seachems basic instructions. Now I am using nilocg phosphate mixed in a dosing bottle and Nilocg potassium sulfate dry. I still have some work to do to dial in dosing on both of those. I figure I have 50 gallons of water, temp raised a week ago from 77 to 80, also dose seachem iron and comprehensive and nitrate stays around 40 from feeding. My dwarf aquarium lily and what I think is rotalla look to be defficient in potassium? What do you guys think?

Just picked up the NilocG glass indicator. Will check it in 2 hours. how quickly should I increase bubble rate until it turns green? I have heard that wild swings can cause algae issues. Got some thread algae multiple inches long making a mess in moss that I am hoping increased Co2 will take care of.

Thanks guys this is all great information. I guess I will order more solution. I do want to experiment a little bit and bubble co2 directly into the indicator to see it change. I have been pretty cautious with raising co2 levels so far but still noticed an increase in plant growth. Algae still sticking around though. Last week I started increasing potassium and phosphate doing.

Not really. This thing looks very thin in comparison and cant really see with the naked eye. I was only really able to pick up movement. the Planaria I have seen online are easily visible by eye.

Has anyone used this? I have had one in the tank for a month or 2. Never seen it actually turn green. More of a bluegreen. I had the bubble counter at several bubbles per second but was afraid to go any higher. Lost 2 neon tetras so i turned it down slightly. The other 2 have been fine the last few weeks. Not sure if the tetras dying was Co2 related, parasites or something else.. I have misplaced the refill liquid so now I am debating getting a different indicator and liquid. Is all liquid the same or are some brands better than others?

Temp 77 KH 3 GH 10 PH 7.2 Hey guys, I am having an issue I hope you can help with. Just found another dead cherry red shrimp. In the video below you can see a tiny worm on it. At first I was unsure if it was inside or out but upon closer inspection it seems to be on the outside. Not sure if this is what has been killing my shrimp butt I have been losing them one at a time over several months. I did some googling and have not found good pictures of anything that matches this. Yesterday I did about a 20% water change dripping water back in over roughly half the day. Prior to WC, I tested Nitrates and they appeared to be about 60 ppm or a little higher. Much higher than I am going for. Generally I only do very small water changes on an irregular basis. This one was after a second round of paracleanse (suspected guppies with parasites). I am almost hoping this is a parasite that is killing my shrimp so at lease I have some closure. Oh and I also have Amano shrimp that done seem to have any issues so far. Please help!

It’s been up for a year. I have had a few spots of BBA which was more tufts of blacking blue but those have cleared up. It looks nothing like the BBA I have had but the closest picture I could find was on an article about BBA. So far I have not done any scrubbing. I want to figure out the root cause and hopefully it’s something I can manage. The 2 SAE nibble on it but doesn’t come off. Going to work on fine tuning my fertilizer schedule as Mmiller2001 has suggested. I think it’s time to invest in an auto doser 🙂. Also working on Raising KH which is 0 or close to it. Tank is slowly improving and I am loving it. Thanks everyone for chiming in.

So I have seachem comprehensive but probably need to dose more. I was just looking at seachem trace and it looks like it has most of the same stuff with the exception of nickel and vanadium. Should I go with both or stick with comprehensive? If both, how should I go about dosing as there will be a lot of overlap.

Looking for a DIY backlight solution. I really like the look of the Current USA Serene lighting kit but don’t want the overhead light. Specifically looking for something to use as a backlight that is programmable. I was thinking led light strip with a remote/controller. Is there anything out there like that? It would need to have a timer built in. The end goal is to having lighting that simulates sunrise to sunset colors. So maybe a warm orange in morning that brightens over time, white light mid day and fading to red In evening. It looks like the serene overhead light does that but the backlight can only do static colors and color fades would be going back and forth between 2 colors all day (not very realistic). The frosted film I can get from Lowe’s or Amazon. Luminal has a programmable rgb bulb but not to sure it can do what I want and would prefer something that doesn’t require account setup. I really appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks for the help. Can I dose Fe, K and PO4 same day or should I alternate?

Kind of. I rubbed between my fingers with little effect. Then I used my thumbnail gently and it came off the anubias. The sword is too delicate to rub off without damaging leaf.

Quick update on my limited egg shell test. Did not notice any change with the initial 2 hand crushed shells. I ground up another 1.5 shells in a glass with wooden handle as fine as possible. This I dumped into shrimp feed bowl which is not in a high flow area. I didn’t have a fine enough mesh bag and didn’t want it to blow around the whole tank.. the finest powder clouded the water briefly. The next morning I tested and water had raised 2-3 dkh! However, over the next few days it dropped back to 0. Something very interesting I noticed.. There is green algae on the glass in display tank that is hit by return water from sump. This section of algae turned brown…. Not sure if it got a concentrated blast of excel which I usually dump in sump pump area or if the powdered shells caused it? This has never happened before. I believe that fine powder that clouded the water initially is what dissolved rapidly to raise kh. Unfortunately I did not have a oh test handy. I believe putting this stuff in a high flow area is essential as well as increasing the quantity. Not sure if the effort is worth it for me as I was being meticulous about removing the membrane from shell. If someone told me leaving the membrane would not cause ammonia I would definitely try more. I did not see red shrimp rat membrane in another whole shell I had placed nor did bamboo shrimp eat a piece I pulled off. Hope this info is helpful!

Posting again about this algae. It’s a burgundy/maroon color. Excel is not killing it. Is it considered brown algae? If anyone can identify it, what does it indicate about water parameters. Phosphates look to be around .25 ppm. I got the Salifert nitrate test and it has been showing 25 ppm for the last couple weeks without change. I stopped feeding for about 3 days to see if it would drop but it did not. Kind of wondering if it is not accurate.. I was briefly dosing potassium nitrate but stopped after I tested with Salifert and found nitrates were not reducing naturally.

Good info. Thanks Mmiller2001! I think I will start slow like you said and ramp up. I have a few reds that are not red.. Also increased light a bit but it still may not be bright enough to really bring out reds.

So you were able to see a noticeable difference with the oyster shells? did you put them in whole?

I have moderately planted tank. How do i know enough is enough? Just look for signs of deficiency? I specifically use seachems iron.

Can anyone explain what happens to iron after dosing in freshwater aquarium? Both Seachem and Aquarium Coop say that it is utilized rapidly. What exactly does that mean? Seachem says to test within 30 minutes of dosing. I have a hard time believing the majority of water in the aquarium is exposed to plants and roots for the plants to strip iron from water in such a short time. Does some of it precipitate out or otherwise become unavailable to plants? If this is the case, Is it still harmful to fish/inverts if overdosed? Love learning about this stuff. Thanks in advance

Thanks guys for the comments. I have had the tank running for about a year now and it has certainly been an experiment. Water where I live comes out of the tap at 40 tds. What exactly that consists of I don't know and I have not tested ph and hardness out of tap. I probably top off every few weeks with about 2 gallons. I use seachem comprehensive, nilocg root tabs and just started using nilocg potassium nitrate. I have actually been concerned about minerals building up over time so I tend to fertilize light. Anyways, I crunched up 2 egg shells and placed over the return pump in sump 2 days ago. Will give it about a week and test again. If nothing changes I may add in more egg shells and see what happens. Ph seems to be stable for a long time now so I am not too concerned about changing it fast. I will report back with result but would still like to hear from others experience's.

PH about 6.5. Hard to tell on test strips sometimes. Just tested DKH at 0 and DGH at 6. I have a lot of driftwood and don't do water changes so I am worried about ph dropping further. Low or no KH may be the cause of my lack of luck with neocaridina shrimp.. I have baked a couple pieces of egg shell and put in sump with shrimp. From what I have read, it seems that egg shells can raise KH and GH? I cannot find any info on how many shells would be required in relation to gallons and how long it would take for a readable change in degrees. Does anyone else use egg shells? I am in GA otherwise I would get a 1lb bag of crushed coral from coop. Other than that, I could buy a much bigger bag than I need locally and have it taking up space forever.

I have been adding 3/4 cap of seachem excel to about 40 gallons every day for a couple weeks and frogbit has been fine. I get a few leaves here and there that yellow but i think its more because they get stuck in a spot without light or under other leaves. I do not have a BN and have never seen the leaves melt to the veins like your top pic.

Thanks peeps for the tips.

Hey guys. I got the cheap 9watt sunsun jup sterilizer from Amazon and of course the thing leaks…. It’s not much but It starts as a little condensation inside the quartz sleeve which builds up over time. I ran the thing for a month or more before I noticed. I can’t see anything obvious where water would be coming in. The sleeve itself has an Oring at the top and seems to fit in very tight but is just friction fit. Almost to the point that a fear breaking it. At the top of the sleeve there looks to be some kind of collar with Teflon tape inside. Has anyone experienced this? Is there anything I can do to try to fix it or test I can do to see where water comes in? I have had it too long at this point to return it.

Hey patrick. Nitrates always 0 😬. I have 1 small otto. I had 2-3 others die while out of town and have not replaced them as they hid all day and didnt seem to keep up with algae. also have 1 nerite zebra and 2 SAE. Those 2 cleaned up my hair algae problem in about 2 days. also have 2 amano shrimp. they hide in hollowed out driftwood because the big angel hunts them. Just picked up a bamboo shrimp and the angel goes after him as well 😐 The stuff that looks like ludwigia has done poorly since day one. a lot of it would rot at the stems and drift away. also lots of leaf dropping from bottom up. Sounds like I need to get some nitrogen.

Photo 1: Sword is weak colored. Some of the leaves are translucent and break off. They are very crisp/crunchy when broken. Also dark green algae on older leaves. What kind of algae is this? Does this look like nitrogen deficiency? Photos 2 and 3. What are the tall reddish plants. They seem to struggle and drop lower leaves. Also some of the dark green algae in leaves. Photo 4. Reddish/maroon algae in wood. Algae on the wood doesn’t bother me. Just curious what it is and if it gives a clue about water quality. I dose Flourish comprehensive 1x week at recommended rate. I have dosed phosphate hoping that would help get rid of algae on plants. Also have dosed iron a few times which seems to disappear very quickly when tested. Irregularly dose excel. I have reduced lighting several weeks ago by putting a piece of screen under the light. This seems to help cut down on algae. Several weeks ago I did a complete rescape. Replacing all black gravel with pool filter sand and placing 1 nilocg fert tab under the swords and stem plants. I have been reluctant to dose more Flourish Comprehensive as it only has a little nitrogen and I worry about minerals building up since I don’t do water changes. I have been looking at the Nilocg potassium nitrate salts and dosing light. This is a 30g display with 20g sump containing porret foam and fluorite black gavel. I am pretty committed to the no water change concept but it would seem the sump may be working too well and the frogbit I added for asthetics only suck up more nutrients. I am open to setting an auto dose system for ferts/excel. Co2 is off the table at the moment. I appreciate everyone’s input.