nabokovfan87

That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

Oh absolutely! My main issue is source. I'm about to beg @mountaintoppufferkeepery to let me have some of his! 😂 I run extremely high flow tanks and the main issue for me has always been that I start with these little pieces of glitter that just aren't big enough for me to work with. On top of that I just cannot get the stuff to grow. When it does grow.... Right into the filter it goes. I've redone things so I have two "moss only" tanks which do not have that issue anymore. 🙂

From George Farmer (check out his latest video as a thank you). He passed this along in his community tab this morning, link to the PDF of the book is in the description.

They have those strong wild genes! 🙂 I'm glad they are ok.

A day late, but.... 10 buckets of water later, 2 filters later, and a lot of sponges later the tank is clean. The fish were fed some flake (and they were meh about it) and I spent the morning trying to sit, breathe, and enjoy the work. I checked in and enjoyed the shrimp, I moved around more power and messed around with cleaning up the mess from rearranging the entire space. It's been a stressful and busy week. I wanted to pause and just take a moment to note where we are right now with everything. I wanted to exhale and try to explain exactly where my head is at with everything going on in this tank. I think it's obvious and clear that I do not have enough hardscape. It is also obvious and clear that while the stuff I do have isn't perfect, it's looks mildly nice and visually "ok". I get to see the details you don't, but the general feeling when I wake up to the tank is one where I really enjoy having it there. It has taken time to get to that point. I see holes in the moss and I see gaps in the decor and it's frustrating. I see the fish acting uncomfortable sometimes and I see the filter choking up plants daily. I see the algae (that stupid BBA algae) and it's infuriating, but it is simply a product of the system. It's going to be there and I have to minimize it's impact. I do know that I need to add a lot more plants. Donations welcomed. I did have a plant for a lot of plants to make it's way over, but unfortunately that didn't work out. 😕 I will check on stuff when I am able to make it to the local big box store, but I won't have high hopes. I might be able to pick up one or two plants at a time when I do order some food online, but it's going to just take time. The goal is to propagate what I have, get a carpet, and to keep the moss in place, thriving. the goal is to get the Hygro to be a back wall feature on the tank and to do well. Every plant in this tank I cherish. I spent the week asking a ton of questions about exactly how to do a certain trim on the foreground. Days of research for something that should be second nature. My own fears of breaking the delicate balance of things working for once is intimidating, but the goal is to push through and to get things done in such a way where the end result is worth those little moments trying to decide exactly how to do the things I need to do to get to that point... This quote is from a movie I just finished watching, Air. It's a good story, fun movie, entertaining, but for me this single quote defines most of the movie for me. There are a lot of lessons in life we have to learn. There's not a manual on how exactly we learn them. There isn't a guidebook and unfortunately the AI, google searches, library books, and the youtubes aren't a complete picture. In philosophy there is a term for this, experience. Even such a common word we think has a clear definition for it's use does have a variety of interpretations given a context for it's use. This is something hundreds of philosophers have been searching for the right words to finally explain it's full definition. While I can't say it for certain, I am pretty confident in saying that whatever definition we have now isn't quite complete. The journey of such things is an ongoing experience in our lives. Right now, that is what this tank is for me. I am trying to sketch in the lines on the page and I am genuinely trying to visualize the boldest of structure of the image. It will get there eventually, "precisely when it means to." (bonus points if you know the quote) I got through the rushed maintenance routine and dosed in my buffers and fertilizers. An hour of making a single cup of coffee later I tried to sit and just see the tank. Even now, in my mind I am picturing what it is. I will wake up tomorrow, hopefully right as the lights tick on and this box of life in my little piece of the world will start the day for me. A clock of perpetual nature. Another philosophy term, but that is for another time. I will try to run some water tests tomorrow and we will see where we stand with everything. I will also try to get some photos if things are cleared up and show a bit of the cracks in the armor so to speak on the tank. My plan right now is to get some thread for the moss and to work on something like a moss wall or figuring out a way to get the hardscape in a bit better shape. Ultimately, it's a small tweak, but I just want to get things set in a better direction. Second thing on my mind is removing the unmodded tidal filter. It's sort of an unnecessary hassle of sorts. It is something that causes algae to end up in a filter as opposed to drifting around the tank. I guess either way it's going to end up in the prefilters and the fish don't really understand I'm trying to keep it attached! Hence, it's in the "mulling it over" stage of things. Fix part A so Issue 2 isn't once. Have a good day everyone, thank you for reading and participating in this journey with me.

I recently (as in the past few months) setup my 75G with aquasoil. I can repeat the directions from the manufacturer, the instructions from George Farmer or Green Aqua, but the just is this.... When you FIRST setup your tank with aquasoil the substrate is leeching out ammonia and a lot of excess nutrients. You physically see this in the water and all over the tank. There is floating debris, there is a coating on things, and it takes manual effort to eliminate those things. You're not vacuuming the substrate when it comes to that type of a substrate, you're simply going to do water changes, a few, for the first 1-2 weeks. This helps to get rid of that initial shock. This helps to get rid of that waste and mess in the tank that will cause severe algae if you do not. Now. You have a tank, with soil for plants and you'll be planting it. Those plants need a few days to acclimate to your water and to their new lighting conditions, nutrient conditions. It is generally common not to dose anything the first 3-7 days of setting up a planted tank. Once you're past the initial stage you are going to maintain the tank as you normally would. I can speak to my own methods and to my own maintenance schedule, but if your schedule is different than mine or just your water is different than mine you are going to run into issues that I won't. The idea is NOT to give you a rigid "follow what I do", but the goal is to train and pass on the technique of what works for a planted tank. There are many other, so many on this forum even, experiences sources on the internet to ask questions about how to keep a planted tank. Ultimately, there are a lot of best practices. Commonly: A. Water changes weekly, 30-50%. Dose in your buffers to keep your water parameters the same as much as possible. There will be fluctuations. (The only way to verify this is with testing!) B. Dosing daily or several times a week if possible of your fertilizers (not your buffers). If not possible, dose weekly. C. You want GH = 2x KH D. You want your water to be cooler rather than warmer to help the plants and fight algae. E. You want to have good CO2, good nitrate levels (fert levels) and you want to make sure that you aren't seeing signs of deficiencies with your plants. F. You want to actually maintain your tank and put in the effort to keep it "aquascaped". Things like cleaning up excess waste, cleaning off algae, maintaining your filtration, etc. The list goes on and on and youtube has a TON of wonderful resources. Again, I will mention and recommend that you take a look at green aqua videos. I will attach a playlist below of their tank care techniques.

Contrasoil with a cap is pretty awesome. Unfortunately this happens. The main thing is to sort out what you want and the. Everything else falls into place. The right sand is SO EASY to clean. I vac mine like it's gravel. It's heavy enough to work. Caribsea Crystal River. There is 2-3 others that are the same size that would work as well. Jungle something is one of the others. 1000%

They should be fine with it, they will do better if you add a feeding dish though or a sand section for feeding. For cooler tanks: Rasbora, barbs, minnows, river species, and cypranidae species are a great segment that should do good. Ricefish might be fun. White clouds. Rasboras. Nano barbs. There's quite a few options. Pleco and Otos also do great. If you don't have any shrimp locally, let me know. I might be able to help with that depending which ones you're looking at obtaining.

The tidal 35 is difficult to recommend. Honestly. I have just about perfected the darn thing and mine is sitting inside of a Ziploc bag in the stand as an emergency QT tank setup. I would only recommend the 35 specifically for use as a purely polishing filter in a tank without fish in the top section of that tank. In order to "prefilter" that HoB you're literally talking about a massive chunk of foam around an entire pump/skimmer housing. That setup isn't feasible for most, but it is basically mandatory to protect a lot of fish that swim in the middle and top sections of the water column. I had the tidal 55-75 take out my barb colony one by one as they slept, which is absolutely why I mod my filter now, and I would never trust the 35 near a fish as a result. Alright, so... In a 20L the optimal method is going to be a HoB on the end of the tank. That way the output goes across the length of the tank and gives you that better circulation. Given that setup it does mean you have to make or find a lid that fits that situation. Lastly, given that the normal versatop lids don't actually fit the 20L and 29G dimensions, this is a win-win if you can get it setup that way. If your preference is to have the filter in the back of the tank, normal position, then that is fine too. Just make sure the substrate is heavy enough so that it doesn't end up in your pump. (very fine sand will do this and light aqua soils can get easily pushed around, exposing the front/bottom glass. ..... alright, so what is a halfway decent HoB that "works"? Aqueon quietflow is good, but it really has longevity issues and isn't the best one to mod. It's a small space and difficult to set up easily. Tetra works and it's easy to mod, but it's a bit more of an older design. Not a flaw in some sense, but just keep that in mind. Aquaclear (and the fluval versions of that filter) will have a pump shaft failure leading to a variety of issues. This is a high wear item and for some reason it's never been addressed. The lid makes a lot of noise. Setup is easy, materials though are classic and not in a good way. The marineland comes in two forms, normal and pro. The pro has WONDERFUL features and it is one of the only HOB that actually has a prefilter designed specifically for that product. Not only does it have the option for an external filter, it has the option for an internal one as well. Pump is in the tank, flow control, I like it. A lot. The only concern is longevity. Similar to the aqueon the pump attachment method is not the best. With careful hands this isn't a concern, but it's the one knock I have. The non-pro version is an older design and doesn't have new features like a pump in water and some of the newer options. With regards to the older models, the main issue is that the pump is not replacement. It was designed at a time when the mindset was cartridge and replace when broken. They've taken the time to offer a better design, thankfully. Time will tell how the pro version holds up. Some others to check out is that each big box brand is releasing their own standard and pro versions of their own versions of hang on backs. I have zero idea what is best, but take a look at those and see what you think. The majority of them look like aquaclear replacements and use the same faulty pump setup and poor materials. Cheap, but not effective.

The rule of thumb is 80-120 ppm GH. Essentially, your goal is for GH = 2x KH. Meaning, you prefer the substrate to fill with GH. So initially, buffer the tank with GH and get your GH to a good level and cycle the substrate. Then, once it is cycled and done absorbing during that initial setup, then you can proceed to worry about getting everything perfect.

Given how the garden looks, I can only imagine how well the pond will accent the surroundings for you. Beautiful work all around.

Given the tank has been setup for a little while and we know GH is low.... Give the soil a bit of time, at least 3 days before you do anything. Typically when you add GH (or KH) buffers it takes about 24 hours or so for it to fully impact the system. This means that on day 3-4 you're at a good pace to see exactly where the GH levels are. I would opt for simply doing weekly water changes at this point in time. If you were seeing excess ammonnia, nitrite, or nitrates right now, then I would encourage daily water changes. If things look ok, weekly for 2-3 weeks.

Looks good. A bit more intense brightness on the right. It looks more yellowed to me, but I couldn't tell you if that is 7500K vs. 6500K or what specifically. I like that you took the time to put the comparison together! Nice work.

Geez... I'm sorry. I know you're working on a big project. I hope the manufacturer makes it right for you.

At this specific moment in time, there's quite a few things I would change, unfortunately. I think one of my own mindsets, and it's something I've posted about here before, is that I need to be happy and content with where the tank is specifically in this moment. My current, biggest regret right now is that I am using too many filters and working far too hard to keep things the way I would like to. 1. There isn't a setup I have where I can just pump a ton of air into the tank and where I don't have to consistently work towards removing algae. I wish that aspect was a bit nicer. A good airstone, a bit of a bubble wall of sorts is underrated and it's fun to have in the tank. Even if all the other filtration is hidden, I feel like I will always end up having an airstone in there just for noise. 2. I would like to replace the 75G filtration with a good canister. This is in the works, but cost is a major factor here. There isn't a such thing as a 48" spraybar kit and it's pretty frustrating that to get an "out of the box" solution to a lot of my own wants for filtration is just about impossible. I want to get away from running multiple filters and moreso towards having a refined setup. I am absolutely fine seeing equipment, as long as it is the correct equipment for the setup. I will be excited when I can head to the store and pick up some things I want to have, needless to say we all know that feeling. 3. I absolutely do not have enough hardscape and I definitely don't have the correct setup. I have a fish that likes a lot of hides, swim throughs, etc. The plan was to have a densely planted tank, but I do not have that going on right now. Things happen and unfortunately it just is going to take time to get where I have things the way I would like them to be. One day at a time. 4. I would like to be successful with certain plants i failed with. Specifically susswassertang, Scarlet Temple, and Fissidens Nobilis. 5. I would like to swap my 29G for 20L size or even 30L aquariums. This is a good balance in size and height and I do like the taller tanks.... if they are longer (40B, 75G), but when it comes to smaller tanks, I think the size of a 20L is better for my own goals as opposed to dealing with height issues in the 29G setup..... or worse yet, the 38G bowfront I had that was even taller. 6. I would like to trash some substrates and get things I like better. Don't settle for what is in front of you. Get what you need to if it just means wait a few weeks. 7. Fight the urge to have something "out of the box" and just go ahead and deal with the challenge of getting certain items I need custom made. It's frustrating to be stuck waiting for companies to fix their poor products. This has basically touched every single aspect of my own hobby. You get what you pay for is such a true statement, but there is also a necessity as a designer sometimes to just have what you want to have. 8. Spend more time reading and studying people who are much better at this. Sometimes it takes a lot longer than you'd like for the advice and the inspiration of others to find it's meaning for you.

Looks great! Welcome to the forums 🙂 .

Punk is just the best.

Based on everything we know. You would want to use a product like Equilibrium to raise your GH. This is due to the active soil in the tank. You add 3 tbsp to raise your GH by 3 degrees. Once you see the soil stop pulling in those GH particles, then you we can move to stabilizing your GH and KH as a whole. For right now, you can't do a whole lot about the KH/PH itself because that active soil is still stabilizing. That process will take about a month at least. You'll see your PH creep up towards 6.8 when the soil has stabilized. For now, my advice would be as follows. 1. Get a product to raise GH of your water 2. Add per the directions on that product to raise your GH up to 100-120 ppm (this is 4-5 degrees) 3. Repeat weekly testing of your GH/KH as mentioned above for the next 4-6 weeks. You are either going to be doing weekly or bi-weekly water changes during this time.

@Beckybettas it isn't an option for everyone, but if you're able to store water in a container for water changes it might be a method to off-gas your ammonia and get better water for your fish. You can use a jug (video below) or a big trash can on wheels with lava rock at the bottom. Add an airstone, and cover it with a lit (some vent holes added to the lid) and that would help to get rid of the ammonia in your water prior to water changes. If you're having issues getting them to eat, yes you'd probably want to dose the tank after a few water changes. Just keep in mind, whenever you add meds (food or directly to the tank) it is good practice to add an airstone. I had the exact same issue. My sponge just wasn't hosting enough bacteria. I added some lava rock to the tank and that helped stabilize things. It acts as a biological media and the hardscape. Depending on species in the tank, that may be an option for you. If that doesn't work, add an addition sponge filter or add a bag of ceramic media on top of the sponge filter (just rest it on top of the sponge).

What is the GH and KH of your tank. What is the GH and KH of your tap water. @Mmiller2001 and myself are very confused because there is a mix of TDS results. Let's take a step back and clarify.... what is the GH/KH of the tank and your tapwater? Until those 4 values are understood, it is very difficult to advise on what setup makes sense for your situation.

Thank you! @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

New coffee time! First time I've had this brand and it was affordable, especially for 2.2 lbs. Came in from the amazon a bit crushed up on the bottom, but it'll be ok. I just wanted to note that for anyone considering. The bag doesn't have a roast date, seems like it should be fresh. I don't see an air valve or anything, the bag just sort of breathes as it needs to. I don't know if that is a cause for concern with regards to oxygen getting in and making things stale, let's see.... Grounds: Very good smell! It's like what you think of when you mentally think "coffee scent". Oak, a bit of almond, savory spices. Nose: Very dark and dense. It's been a minute since I've had dark roast coffee and it's usually one of my favorites! I'm excited. First Sip: A little watery, maybe the recipe is off or time brewing off, but I think this coffee is a bit stale 😞 . Flavors are very muted. It tastes clean and clear, but it's just a bit muted when it comes to direct flavors. I taste roasted nutty tones, tannins, and a little bit of the rooibos tea type of acid. Finish: A bit acidic to my taste. I don't taste a whole lot. It's just a clean cup of black coffee. Not a lot else going on.

Yeah, that acidic of water shouldn't be a major issue (some people keep caridina with the neocaridina shrimp in that situation). If you can, I would recommend the liquid test kits, as I personally had a very difficult time reading the strip test results. Kh at about 60-80 ppm is ideal I think to keep the water stable enough. Hopefully we can get it there for you and the little shrimp! I use a few methods to add CC to a tank and some were more successful than others. One common method is something called a "shrimp filter" that you can make from an old plastic container and add to the tank. I'll grab a video and link that below. Instead of soil, you would add some crushed coral to that container over time and that would slowly boost up the KH for you. As always, go slow! @Chick-In-Of-TheSea has a friend who added a monumentally small amount of coral to the tank and ran into a few issues as a result. Even just doing a little handful a week might be a great way to start buffering the KH up. Personally, I opt to run tests in a 5G bucket. Take a cup of crushed coral and add it to the bottom of a bucket with an airstone and a lid. That gives you a testing method and after 7-21 days you'll have a general idea of how fast that impacts your water parameters. That being said, you can then take that same water from the bucket and slowly drip it back into your tank while you work on figuring out what your CC setup will be. Other methods include: A. Add it to your substrate B. Add it to a HoB or polishing filter in a media bag C. Add it to the top of a sponge filter in a media bag (rest the bag on top around the uplift tube). D. Shrimp filters:

As Mmiller mentioned, you need to have the ability to test your GH and KH. Preferably via a liquid test. Trying to use buffers without having the ability to track and monitor them is counter productive and can be very detrimental to your fish and plants. When my KH got too high, I lost about 30-50 leaves a day on my plants because of the drastic change. GH buffer ---> Seachem Equilibrium KH buffer ---> Seachem Alkalinity buffer Given your setup, if you don't want to add a media bag of CC to your filter, it was not an option for me as well... then your best bet is to use the above KH buffer mentioned. This gives you the ability to adjust GH and KH individually. If you would like a Pre-Made mix there are things like shrimp buffers (salty shrimp, etc.) which make it easier to do so. Green Aqua is a great resource when it comes to planted tank information if you would like to explore further. Here is another method using a media bag in the corner of a tank. This is inert gravel substrate. Mmiller is 100% correct, it won't impact your water parameters.

I totally understand that! I have the same thing in one of my mopani tanks. Looks clear as day to me, but the water in the bucket is definitely shaded. Lava rock is delightful! Might fit what you're wanting and very easy to stumble upon at the hardware stores.