Mmiller2001

I researched twinstar as well and they have the same problem as most lights. They use white diods which ultimately leads to a yellow cast to the tank. Great light though. I found one on sale and it was hard not buying it. PM if you can.

Where is that by the way?

I did buy mine from Amazon. You might get a warranty somewhere else though.

LoL 😆

I think I have more bright green plants in the 75 and it was looking a bit too much. Indeed, around 3am causing quite the excitement! Mine would do the same. So when I removed the lids, plop they went. They no longer attempt to ride the tanks! 👹

I run a UV sterilizer on the 75 FYI.

My wife keeps cats and they did learn a hard lessons. They don't jump on top any more. 😁

Might be an Ammania, but I'm not sure.

Yes, any leaf that is higher than you'd like, remove it.

I run open top. I've found that gas exchange is just better without tops. I definitely have to top off the tanks daily.

Hello Drwhem! So there's quite a bit going on here. So much so that I'm going to try and keep this as short as possible. But first, can you please report your hardness (aka GH) and your karbonate hardness (aka KH) and please report those in the measure named degrees. So these numbers will look like: example, 4dGH or 4dKH. I ask you to convert these numbers because this will cause, maybe, a bit of research on your part. You mention 1 cap Flourish a week. Do you add anything else?

When you use Seachem Focus, it will allow you to bind meds to food. This way, you can target medicate without dosing the entire tank. Also, feeding meds is more effective than dosing the water column. This can be a very targeted method when a QT tank is unavailable.

GH is too low and the tank is under filtered. I would triple tank turn over and if you are not going to quarantine your fish, I would at least feed Seachem Kanaplex and Seachem Focus per directions. A cheap GH booster like Seachem Equilibrium can be used, but there are better option to boost GH. I'd imagine the stressful environment played a large hand in amplifying disease. Most likely a bacterial infection that quickly spread.

Do you shake bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds and have you ever forgotten to shake bottle 2? I would calibrate that tester before assuming your reading is correct. Why are you trying to keep 30ppm NO3, that's unnecessarily too high. I'd drop to 20ppm.

That's a tough one for sure. I think maybe going the cryptocoryne route and making it look like it's attached to something might work? I know a few Bucephalandra can have some red in them. I find them to be terribly difficult to grow though.

I like spot dosing h202 now versus Excel. 15ml per 10 gallons. Just push the snails out of the direct area when applying. The other livestock will move if they need to. Turn off everything and let the water settle. Paint the area with the h202 and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then just turn all pumps and such back on. You can repeat this every 24 hours.

I would avoid the 3.0 as it commands a top end price for middle road color/ performance. If you have the budget for multiple Kessils, go for it. My recommendation is a Chihiros wRGB2. There's a new model out as well but haven't used it. It's superior to a 3.0 in every way. On my 75, I had to run 2 3.0's as they have a narrow angle. Wish I had known about Chihiros earlier!

You will want to make a reactor for a tank that size.

Maybe some kind of biofilm or fungus? Make sure you are adding P and other Micros to your fertilization regiment. Just adding potassium and iron seems odd. Definitely staghorn, usually caused by small unmeasurable amounts of Ammonia caused by underlying poor plant health or too many fish and possibly mulm buildup. Plants love low KH and pH, but livestock conditions look good. I'd get a comprehensive fertilizer regiment going and stay the course. Cryptocoryne can adapt and I would give it time. I would also increase water changes and verify no ammonia in the source water.

Any dead material will spike Ammonia, ultimately leading to higher Nitrates.

I would match it to the output size tubing the manufacturer designed into the filter.

I would get the cheap API GH and KH test kit and test the well water. You do not want to use water softener water. Use the water from the bypass. I would then select fish based on those readings. If the well water is hard with lots of carbonates, and if you want to keep soft water tropical fish then I would get a RO system. It adds cost, but simplifies the process long term.

Pogostemon Kimberly

Chihiros WRGB2 Technically, yes you can use too much fertilizer.