Mmiller2001

I would use the salty shrimp GH/KH and just use your TDS meter to reach the desired TDS.

I'm running this on my 40 breeder. EHEIM Classic External Canister Filter with Media https://a.co/d/29gGmPS Just make sure you have plenty of head room on filtration. A Tidal 75 would probably offer you enough if you want an HOB. But it will not work if you want dwarf shrimp.

Total of 8 hours. So each ramp counts towards the 8 hours.

It's pretty standard to have high energy tanks ramp up and down in 30 minute increments with an eight hour duration.

Next year. Bigger better right! Thank you both.

Agree. Turnout for the Dutch category seemed low too. Maybe they relaxed the rules to encourage more next year?

If you like the those settings, stick with them and remember the ratios. If you need to drop intensity, lower them all in ratio.

There looks like a lot of mulm build up in a few of those shots. That's an ammonia source which is probably the biggest contributing factor to the algae problem. I would try to increase water turnover (filtration) or increase your maintenance cycles and water changes. After that's taken care of, keep up maintenance, water changes and fertilization. See what happens after about 3 to 4 weeks

Yeah, I definitely don't get it.

Not sure really. Diatoms just seem to take advantage of the early period of a new/reset tank.

Yeah, a reset starts the algae cycle to come. Going through it right now myself. Perfectly normal. Keep an eye on CO2, keep up dosing and water changes. Try to get your plant load as high as possible. Plant load being high is the best defense against algae.

New tank or well established?

I would have blues up. I have blue in my light that I keep higher.

2 36inch 3.0's. I would leave them at 100% until you see a problem.

I don't think 2 of those is enough light in general. You're probably fine. If you see algae, just lower intensity some and watch.

I doubt peat will ever get you down to a 4 pH, even at 0dKH. I would look into a shrimp substrate that lowers pH and run peat in combination and see how low you can get.

I would drop my recommended numbers by 3/4 to 2/3. Also, CO2 will now become the limiting factor. So if I discontinued CO2, I would immediately reduce fertilizer and light. Recommended EI dosing is for CO2 enriched systems. Tom Barr, the creator of Estimative index, states the system can be used in low energy tanks, just reduced. I also use to make a solution but quickly realized that dry dosing the tank was just easier. So, my recommendation is to dry dose. This will allow you to make changes very easily. I tossed too many solutions out because weekly adjustments were always necessary.

Bummer, I was thinking about selling one. I will hold on to them now. Go Oase then! Maybe those ridiculously expensive ADA metal canisters!

Buy Eheim, 20 year investment.

😭

My target dose recommendation would be 20ppm NO3 8ppm PO4 20ppm K .4ppm Fe as proxy K can be raised much higher if you need to. So divide those by 2 to get your weekly total, then divide the weekly total by the amount of days you want to dose. Macros can be dosed any way you want, but spread micros out over the week.

It's definitely a heavy handed dose and I would not use the schedule. 1 thing to consider, all things simplified, the reason you do 50% water changes is to reach a target dose. You can't have more than 2 times the weekly dose. So if you want to target 20ppm NO3, you dose 10ppm weekly. Also, ignore generated nutrients, always assume the tank is 0ppm. Finally, use correct gallons. That 10 gallon tank may have only 8 gallons in it. This is a hot dose also. I would target .4ppm Fe as proxy. We don't assume target doses with micros. It's always a weekly dose. Is it CSM+B? PH matters for the chelate. 100%, sadly. But if it is fun, use it. But it's definitely an issue and just not sufficient to keep CO2 levels consistent. Possibly, you want the light to be the limiting factor. Unlimited nutrients Unlimited CO2 Light sets the limit while the most demanding plant's needs are met. Your specific plants shouldn't demand alot.

Definitely stop the vacuuming. I might tap the surface in a few spots every once in a while. I would only deep vacuum on a restart. Plant more, absolutely fill that tank with plants. Are you dosing gla's schedule? I'm also thinking the substrate looks a bit too deep. How many inches?

Just went through the AGA tanks this year. I'm not sure how a third place tank happens with no Dutch street. I might have gotten a top 10. Ah well.

Yes.