Mmiller2001

I do use CO2. It makes everything easier.

Thank you @Pepere, I really appreciate it. I also read all the judges comments for each tank I enjoy in every category. It's valuable information for sure. Here's another cool thing to look through even if Dutch isn't your thing. It has some water parameters listed and such. NBAT

I use pool filter sand and I do not use root tabs. My tank is at 11 times turnover and I have my plants gently swaying at all times.

I use potassium carbonate when I want to raise KH. If the tank has plants, this is the easy choice.

I do not vacuum. It's only caused more problems than solved.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

The drop checker should be lime green, dark green indicates suboptimal CO2 levels. There's no reason to be this high. 30ppm of NO3 is more than enough for plants. I have had decent luck with Apisto's, and if this was me, I would do a round of Paracleanse and a round of antibiotics (fed directly) just to eliminate those possibilities.

Do you have a water softener?

Shh, don’t tell anyone 😆

There’s no reason to go over 30ppm, even in a heavily planted CO2 tank. So I would change water when you reach 30 and if you have plants, keep it between 20 and 30.

As far as total darkness, just plug in a night light in an outlet. I have one with a sensor so it’s not always on. The brightness is adjustable too.

Dude, nice! That Crypt, holy smokes!

Eriocaulon Cinereum?

You want to remove the runners going for the surface if you want to keep the plant more compact.

Can you explain what’s “crashing”? If you are referring to a .5pH drop, that’s not a crash or anything to worry about. I’d be more worried about going from 5ppm NO3 to 50ppm in 5 days. Something is wrong if that is happening and I would address this problem.

It’s fine to do.

Nothing wrong with trying it.

A 1 to 1.5 pH drop will put you into the desired 30ppm CO2 range.

It’s also more difficult to grow and it’s a slower grower.

That will be submerged.

Easiest way is to cut your source water with distilled water. It will lower GH also and I would test GH so you have a baseline established.

You can dose directly or make your own liquid and dose that. I dose my water storage to the numbers I want (toss in the dry powder) the tank to be and then use water changes to dose the tank. I separate Macros( NPK ) and trace elements. All my Macro dosing is complete on water change day and then I dose micros 3 times a week. I make a liquid solution of micros and use a syringe to dose them. It sounds more complicated than it is, but after you do it a few times it’s straightforward. Again though, any well balanced liquid fert will work. I recently bought a bottle of Nilocg Thrive. It cost 27 bucks, I could make easily 50 bottles (probably more) and the salts cost 30 with shipping.

It’s not salt like Sodium, it’s just a name thing and does not change salinity. PH is mostly affected by carbonates and bicarbonates. The liquid fertilizers you buy commercially are made with these salts. You simply cut out the middleman when you buy fertilizer dry, saving a significant amount of money.