Buckman
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Posts posted by Buckman
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Tada! Congrats.
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Nope. I am totally wrong. My mistake. Wow, now I feel dumb. It is blue green. Brown is not the gym sock variety.
Pay no mind to my rambling. However, I will admit mistakes if that helps. Thanks for the correction.
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If you have a real tank and a real regulator that should work. Well, unless you have a weird regulator. I was thinking about buying one from Milwalkee Instruments until I found out it was low pressure and not recommended for aquarium use. So that does happen now depending on your brand. Maybe leave it for an hour or two to let pressure build up? Sounds like that thing is having trouble though.
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Couple of questions to help. How deep are you placing the CO2 diffuser? And what is the CO2 source? I struggled with the same diffuser in a 20 gallon high. It's too deep and too much pressure for the average bread yeast, sugar bomb set up. The diffuser may act weird like you describe because the pressure needs to be so high if you are 10-12 inches deep. To test this, try and run CO2 into it in a shallow cup. If it works in the cup, go shallow in the tank. If you are using yeast, let that pressure build up for awhile as well. Might take over an hour in some cases.
Dennerle supposedly makes a brown stone based diffuser that makes tiny bubbles with low pressure sugar bombs. I think it's called the Ultra line. I can't find a retailer in the U.S. or I would be all over it.
If you have a pressurized CO2 tank then it probably is something wrong with the diffuser. Might clean it with bleach to see if it helps?
Be sure to report back. Good luck!
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All that is good advice. Follow it. But...I had a brown algae problem a while back that got weird. If it gets so bad you can smell something weird like old sweaty socks, then you may need to do something else. Brown algae is not actually algae but a bacteria that has learned to photosynthesize. I got rid of it with e-mycin which is an antibiotic which is cool for plants. It's actually in the quarantine med trio. Maracyn is the one you are looking for. But don't do it unless it gets bad. The weird smell is a dead give away. "Brown algae" is usually part of all tank cycles. But for some reason it is the only one that makes me intervene. Maracyn fixes that quick.
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Stratum's pH is lower? This is something I did not know. I only have it in pots right now, but that is something to keep in mind.
If you have a tank of that size, yeah, a deep sand bed will take up all of it.
And just to clarify, I use sand as part of the substrate. But I only top with straight sand. If you truly make a full 8+ inch sand bed it'll drain even slower than Novak wants it to. The full substrate is a mix of stuff I have lying around. Stratum, gravel, and sand are always in there. Crushed coral makes it in there often. I top with pure sand, and that can be cleaned usually. If it really gets jacked up you can retop a portion of it. I also like to build boxes to keep it neat out of cloroplast which is that corrugated pvc stuff. Keeps it from spreading around or shifting. My first experience with sand was a complete catastrophe. But I got stubborn and tamed it.
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A 34 gallon is a weird size. What are the measurements on that? If it is deep I would definitely try a deep sand bed to stabilize it. Someone was complaining of detritus on sand beds. A turkey baster and an over-sized HOB temporarily turned up to high will do wonders. Takes a little practice but the junk will float and the sand will drop. Build a little skill and it will work wonders.
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I started my community tank with as many transparent shrimp and fish as I could find. If anyone knows of a transparent snail, let me know. But transparent fish and shrimp make it easy to see problems. It is also super fun to see a ghost shrimp heart beating.
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Ha, now I want to add pronouns to my profile! He and him, but I welcome all types. All plants are the good ones. But trying to grow scarlet temple taller than about 6 inches is my new concern
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More good advice. Thanks. It's a peaceful tank. Harlequins, trap door snails, ghost shrimp. The betta is the wildest choice but she was chosen for personality.
So this is a 'modular' aquarium where I experiment with conditions, placement, lighting, etc. So new plants go in here at least once a week. Or if that doesn't happen, something usually gets consolidated or re-potted. So there is a change. The tanks stays stable because right under those concrete plates is several pounds of lava rock with a solid culture of bacteria. The pots usually contain a mess of sand, gravel, Fluval Stratum, and sometimes even some crushed coral. I have a box of old materials taken out of other tanks. I put that in as the substrate and then top off with sand in big pots, and usually gravel in the smaller ones.
It's got an AquaClear 50 HOB filled full of donor lava rock as well as crushed coral. I make one gallon sugar bombs and pump that in through a little in-tank pump turned turned into a diffuser/reactor. And I have a nano sponge filter from the Coop in there too.
Now that the particulars of the tank are known, let's talk about quarantine. I don't usually do it with plants. Just the fish. Lately I have been buying plants in-vitro and starting them in the bottom of this tank. I used to buy live plants locally. I just don't anymore due to a host of problems mostly having to do with bladder snails and algae. The plants in here look way better than anything I can find locally. I have something like 15+ plants going on in good quantity, so I don't usually add anything to the collection unless it's in-vitro or from the Coop. It just invites pain.
I have an InkBird in the basement. I have multiple small heaters in all tanks. I like to be redundant if possible. This one has two Fluval 50 watts in it and stays at 80. I am using the InkBird for a mushroom project in the basement, but I was wondering if backing down to 78 or so would make them a little less randy. Ever since I put those wide leafed betta bulbs in the tank, the harlequins are always dancing in frustrated ways.
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That's all good advice. To be honest, now that the tank is established I was wanting to add a few, but stopped when I saw all this different behavior. But I am in no rush to do anything to be honest. The tank is gorgeous, no one is hurt, and signs of mating usually mean super stability. (In most cases. Sometimes certain creatures and plants like to shoot out offspring if they are stressed.) I just made a couple changes and need to let it play out. If I get yard evidence of some thing I'll update.
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Hey everyone. I have had a 20 gallon aquarium for about 6 to 7 months now. Finally settled in well. I started with 10 Harelquins and 9 are left. I recently bought a new heater to make sure the temp didn't drop in winter. Maybe it is the added heat, the tank settling in, or both. But they looked extremely frustrated trying to dance.
They pair off and then fight a bit. I have even seen males separated from the group for a long time in a thicket of plants. It doesn't last more than a few hours, and I have never located the eggs. There is a fairly new female betta added to the mix that seems to like to disturb all this behavior. So that doesn't help. I would like to breed them, but not right now. I don't thing I'll be able to separate anyone or have an extra tank for this until Spring. So I have a few questions.
1. Would getting a 10th calm them down, or make it worse?
2. My new fluval heater is the one set at 80 degrees. Do I need to pull that out and reduce the temp a couple degrees?
And finally, when I do get another tank to maybe make some more...
1. These guys are in water that I have made hard with crushed coral. Was looking to stabilize pH with high light and CO2 going on in here. It helped a lot. But from my reading, if my harlequins want to breed in water this hard, they must be from farms in Florida and not from South America. So, when it is time to breed them, can I dispense with then soft water parameters? Or is this a hard stop and part of the reason why they seem frustrated now?
Thanks in advance.
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Was wondering if anyone got good aquarium books for the holidays? My wife got me something pretty cool. A 1951 copy of Exotic Aquarium Fishes by Innes in great condition with color plates.
Check out this little insane blurb on artificial light if you haven't seen it. The book advises to install a light bulb into a board and letting the glass hang down into the water.
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Ah, that's why I asked. At the very least I thought it might waste a lot of energy doing that. If it was going to be a pad or something I might want to see it. But that's my favorite bulb right now, so off it comes.
Thanks.
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So I know many bulbs plants will put out a pad or a flower, but I didn't expect it from a betta bulb. And not in my tiny 5 gallon either. The only thing this bulb is sitting in is a tiny terracotta pot with a little Fluval Stratum and it the tank gets a squirt of Easy Green every other day.
Is whatever comes out of this thing going to block all the light out of my 5 gallon? I have a 20 high it can go in.
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I often grow root plants on top just for the look of it. Instead of leaves and roots you get a flash of crimson now and again.
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Stratum has been super safe for me. I have a modular aquarium where I try new things and work stuff out. I have many terracotta pots stuffed in that tank and all are filled with Stratum and topped with gravel. So here is the good news for you. I don't know how many times I knocked over a pot and sent Stratum balls rolling all over the bottom of my tank. Never caused a problem. Shrimp, snails, corys and tetras all fine. This experience has proved it's safety to me and I am a fan. I've spilled Stratum everywhere. Zero trouble.
I often grow root plants on top just for the look of it. Instead of leaves and roots you get a flash of crimson now and again.
Fighting the brown algae
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
Ha! Then my absent minded mistake is fortuitous. And actually the reason I made that mistake is because this bacteria is usually the culprit when someone is freaked out about a tank that hasn't cycled yet. Your complaint sounded a bit like this and I got tunnel vision. That's still dumb on my part, but if that stuff stinks then chances are you have a nice big culture of cyanobacteria. Maracyn wouldn't hurt here unless someone else has another idea.