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nabokovfan87

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Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    PH is pretty low. What is your KH and GH at the tap? Perhaps the KH is dropping over time and turning to 0, leading to a PH crash. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh Secondarily, you may not be changing enough water which exacerbates the KH issue (if it's on the margins of stable). https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php
  2. nabokovfan87
    leeches.
  3. nabokovfan87
    It also keeps if from drying out and becoming brittle, cracking.
  4. nabokovfan87
    You can basically take some amount of the media out, add new media. Go in and remove the black stones as they don't work as well as the white ones that have holes and tunnels. The other thing a lot of people miss, especially in a strong HoB is that Matrix comes in different sizes. Larger filters, look up pond matrix. The reason being that a lot of media doesn't get cleaned properly and as it withers away you lose a lot of what you thought you had for surface area. Rocks might reduce in size something like 15-25% over time. In a media bag you're clanking them around together, acting as abrasion surfaces for one another and you've got erosion from the flow pushing out the fines that break off. It is a good idea to add more, replace, or remove the parts that have turned into basically nothing useful over time. The most I would remove is 75% of the media at any one time. 50% is more typical. New media gets seeded with strong, very active bacteria colonies. Can confirm.... this is mandatory and should be done.
  5. nabokovfan87
    Very tragic! I am sorry about that. Hopefully you have some barbs in your future though.
  6. nabokovfan87
    There's definitely bypass. There is also a lot of people that never remove the cover and maintain the pump / remove the gunk in there. Once a month, once every 3 months... it's a really good Idea to fully drain and rinse a hob and clean the pump chambers. (the actual plastic housing that everything goes into) Those slots are there for the sake of allowing bypass in the case the sponge is full.
  7. nabokovfan87
    How does the hyggar compare to the nicrew 24/7 light? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08LB8JHJT/ref=twister_B093BMKCRT?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 This is the specs on the hygger I haven't use either, but I am curious and ask about the spec as well as user experience / feel of the lights.
  8. nabokovfan87
    I'll post here because today was shrimp tank day! There's a lot to get into, but let's just try to do this rapid fire style. A. The pups got sick, parvo, and we have a new puppy upstairs. Zoey and buddy are both home for the first time today recovering. I am basically monitoring them 24/7 and not even sleeping in my room at this point until I know they are ok. It's a traumatic disease, for me and for them, which isn't something I would ever want anyone to experience. This just means time with the tanks is very minimal right now. Normally we (the pups and I) spend the morning watching the lights come on and they rest while I work on anything I need to. B. The most recent thing I did with the tank was trying to fix the floating plants not thriving issue, which it does seem the light was too dim! Good to see it working out now. I do see growth, I might even have to turn it up a bit more. C. I was trying to cull the tank, nothing too serious, but before things got hectic I found one male I wanted to pull, lost it, pulled it a few days later. D. GH and KH tested, things were good. A big thanks to @Chick-In-Of-TheSea for some cuttlebone and other goodies to try out!!!! It was fun to compare and contrast some foods with the ones I am used to. KH seems to be better now, which is great. I believe that the random deaths I have been experiencing were basically due to water parameter issues, but also exacerbated by food issues. My schedule is to feed powder 1-2 days a week and then to feed mineral based foods on Sunday. They get one day off a week, but I do feed this tank relatively heavy every day now. This is a lot less than I was feeding when I was experiencing those deaths. If I had to calculate how much food I'm feeding, it's about enough food for 175-200 shrimp per day, daily. (4-5 sticks per dish, each stick feeds "15-20 shrimp") I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for following along!
  9. nabokovfan87
    I keep trying to talk myself into clithon's (mini nerites) and then I always forget that my water doesn't work for snails. 😞 Literally wanting to get some, but not sure I can. Awesome to hear they kicked the algae with ease!
  10. nabokovfan87
    How are they doing!?
  11. nabokovfan87
    Yes, but it's likely not the lube that is an issue. Over time the shaft itself will wear. That is why the impeller itself is the most often replaced item and it is a standard part for most filters. Same thing with o-rings. You can visually see this on the shaft itself. The other thing that can happen is things just aren't aligned correctly due to debris. Marina, fluval, and some other people sell impeller cleaning kits for this task. Something like a bottle brush for a straw works as well. In terms of lube, you want to use 100% food grade silicone grease. The one I use is from a dive shop and available on amazon.
  12. nabokovfan87
    There's a thread in my signature that has the links to both tidal threads (showing step by step all of the things I modded, why, as well as comments and video. I am happy to answer any questions though and if you can't find the link I can copy it here as well. Basically, with the stronger filters (75 or 110) the gaps on the skimmer can be pretty big. It means using something to act like a "mesh patch" would be advisable as a means to support the silicone over time from little bits of pressure and to increase rigidity. This is basically the same concept for larger holes in drywall that get patched with kits. Same concept, but just adapted to fill that skimmer hole. You could also use a piece of acrylic and seal that in there. (details in the thread on how to prep that and add some bonding holes) I have my final thoughts in the last post there in the thread. Basically, I don't recommend them because of the various issues. I also think they have the best pumps you can buy right now. It's a dilemma for sure. I have removed all of mine from my tanks, still have them, but this is after about 6-8 years of use.
  13. nabokovfan87
    Happy Birthday!!! Dear Kasa / TP-Link... please make a battery powered "button" that I can push and acts as a switch so I don't need to use the app or install something in the wall! Would love to add a feed mode to my tank. 🙂 Congrats on the upgrades. I use them so often.
  14. nabokovfan87
    When I had to do mine, thankfully the seats went down and the car was generally flat and there wasn't a lot of issues with plastic things on the seatbacks or anything. If you do have any issues like that I recommend making a "pad" of towels or blankets. Just be sure not to pop out any bottom glass and support it as well as you can. It's a bit tense of a drive, but wishing you the best of luck on the journey as well as all of the little critters.
  15. nabokovfan87
    I was very fun to see Romeo's Journey. Beautiful shell coloration and he definitely had a full and happy life! I hate this as well.... it's so frustrating. I would recommend thinning out the algae over time. You can also cut feeding way back and let the shrimp graze on it more attentively. Ultimately, even with bigger shrimp like amanos, once the algae reaches a certain size they can end up ignoring it for easier spots to graze. The thin, new, "fresh" algae is their favorite, but the thicker, chewy, dense, harder, more robust stuff tends to get left there. Use a Soft toothbrush on the silicone and just be very gentle with it. You can drain the tank and brush on peroxide as well on any trouble spots and it should work wonders. Just let it be exposed to air with the peroxide on the area for 10-15 minutes.
  16. nabokovfan87
    Really unique and beautiful. What an interesting new fish!
  17. nabokovfan87
    Looks great! Congratulations on all the progress and interesting/fun projects.
  18. nabokovfan87
    You likely want to continue with a second round of meds. If you recall, I believe the plan was to get the filtration stable, then repeat the process with the meds.
  19. nabokovfan87
    My condolences. 😞 I'm very sorry for the struggles you've been going through with the rams.
  20. nabokovfan87
    You have a fitment issue with the airline. There should be no air escaping from the inlet side of the air collar. 1. Make sure the way the tube is cut is straight. 2. Make sure the airline isn't hardened into a preformed shape. Especially for the ACO airline tubing which has a different texture than other tubing. 3. Once you have the inlet side of things fixed, then you would only ever need to use a pipe cleaner to clean the inlet. I'll attach a video below. This is common on the marina hang on breeder boxes as well. Here is a video, air diffuser gets clogged at the bend... It's a typical issue but I very much doubt that's what you're experiencing here. I'll reiterate this again.
  21. nabokovfan87
    It's a single piece with a slot cut in for air to escape. No.
  22. nabokovfan87
    I would run the high end PH test and see the color. It also looks like a small amount of ammonia might be there (could be lighting). Based on the higher PH test, you're at the 8.2 range. Nitrates are around 40 it looks like. Just tied to water changes to decrease that if the waste is too high.
  23. nabokovfan87
    @AllFishNoBrakes what do you think? One filter per drop, right?
  24. nabokovfan87
    These plants all do well with low light. Increasing flow may increase an issue with BBA if that's something you're struggling with. Just something to note and keep in mind. The main thing I use is lighting from say 30-45 minutes after the light is on you start your lighting window and run for ~8 hours and then you have the same gap on the other side for your sunset. (Think of your ramp up/down time, use the middle of that slope for your start-end time) If you're having an issue, yes you can omit it. You can also just run only the pure white channels and go from there. The red-green hues on the warm channel are beneficial for overall plant health, just keep that in mind. The way I run mine, PW is a at the ratio for my desired max value and then everything is based on a ratio of that PW value. Something might be 5% less, something might be 15% less, just depends on what I am trying to emphasize. As for the tank, the setup, my low demand 29g tank (taller) is at about 35% max value without a riser. I would LOVE to have the riser to help spread out the light as I did with one of my other tanks. I would expect that with a shorter tank, you're going to end up around 40-55% or so as a max value, but more likely 30% is a good range to shoot for and see how the plants are behaving.
  25. nabokovfan87
    My apologies. Basically, take a sample of water from your tap, not the tank, and then you test it immediately. Aerate it for 24 hours with an air stone and then repeat the test. You can run it for longer to see what the pH stabilizes to.
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