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nabokovfan87

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Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    I think all of those plants will handle a blackout pretty well. Anubias definitely doesn't care. I would honestly do a deep clean, black it out for 7-14 days, and then go from there. Glad you're doing a bit better healthwise. Hopefully this tank settles down for you! 7 day blackouts are fine, without an issue. You do need to keep them wet, adding an airstone would be beneficial to keep flow and PH stable. When you replant them, it is typically a good time to trim plants and leaves out that need it. anything over 2" you can likely trim without issue. I am sure you can go shorter and a lot of people do when they trim roots back to encourage new growth.
  2. nabokovfan87
    I've seen it. The main issue with the Tidal is that the intake sucks (not water) in from everywhere but the intake tube. 75% of the water would literally just come in as overflow in the skimmer grates. That clogs with plants, causes issues. Then you have the mid-water skimmer and it's right around the pump and completely open. That's the other main part of the intake. That clogs with plants, then you'd be lucky to get anything to flow through the pump. It also makes it a pain to feed because everything is just sending the food right to the media chamber. Blocking those off.... I'm sure @TeeJay will agree that it's day and night difference. It's a great pump, when the flow is right! I have seen people use it to keep debris. I would use it for moss.
  3. nabokovfan87
    You can run an airstone without burying it in the substrate. I use suction cups on the glass about 1" above the substrate. Anything over 4", over 6" for certain, I think you run a higher risk of issues. Just meaning, if you need to remove some it wouldn't be a bad thing. What are the water parameters? Phosphates and Iron can also cause BBA/Staghorn as well as nitrates being relatively high. What equipment are you specifically running? What filter, what light? Your OP says 5 ppm nitrates, what is it today?
  4. nabokovfan87
    Ironically. they sell extension tubes because of the complaints of the intake strainer trapping so much stuff and not letting it go into the filter / sponge. AC has a lot of different parts and mods, but.... it's so hard to find parts locally for me and they tend to break. I checked the Marineland book again and it's..... 1. Very weird they decided square tube was the way to go. 2. Very weird that they force some pretty long intakes on small filters. You can take the basket and connect it to the upper tube, but you're not going to have the length to the base of the tank. You can also try to cut the bottom section of tube so it is shorter.
  5. nabokovfan87
    I've run 3 different types of the caribsea sand. I've never had issues like you're experiencing, and I do have a tank infested with BBA/staghorn. I have photos and such in the link in my description. When you're saying it's coating the sand, I understand what you're saying. The sand sort of clumps together or little bits of organic material sort of spider web and suck in everything. In terms of tank setup I do have a few questions if we are confirming this is indeed an algae. A. How is water flow in the tank? What is your maintenance schedule specifically in terms of how often you manually turn over sand for gas pockets? How thick is your sand layer? B. Coming from the old rocks makes a ton of sense. Again, I would take those out, treat them / sterilize them with bleach and then go ahead and use dechlorinator (and then let them air dry) to remove any organic issues. C. Are you seeing this in your filter? Is the filter working effectively given any clogging issues with this stuff inside the impellers? D. Are you running an airstone in addition to your other filters? When you get that type of a sand issue, you're going to end up scooping out, siphoning out, etc. that top layer of sand. You have to remove it and losing some sand in that process is unfortunately going to happen. If we know everything is working correctly and every aspect of the tank is running fine.... water parameters, equipment, fish health, dosing, lighting, co2, etc. then we should be focused manual removal and sanitizing the items that are causing this stuff to host this algae. If you think it's dragonstone it could be due to the composition of the stone and the mud pockets inside of it. They can be insanely deep and using something to get way inside those chambers and clean it out might be a major step. I had one that was cleaned heavily, but after sitting in a tank for a year I took it out to deep clean it again (thanks snails) and was surprised at how much mud came out. Would something like the reptile mats work that go under the tank? Not sure they can take the load and weight of a tank, but that's the only equivalent I've seen. Here's a video of one method on how to set it up, they definitely exist!
  6. nabokovfan87
    You would or should be doing something similar once in a while. Gravel vac, move decor, etc. Especially with sand. There's something going on and completely removing what you need to (fish and hard scape) so you can sift as much out of the sand is the best advice I think I can give you. Once you get the sand clean, you can figure out what exactly is going on and how it's spreading. That's a huge infestation and it doesn't look like algae. Maybe others have seen something like this...? @Biotope Biologist
  7. nabokovfan87
    Oh.... Yeah. Those have a super long intake. Not sure why. Removing the mid strainer, potentially attaching the lower part to the HoB container might work, but from what I remember it doesn't fit that way. Let me know. Maybe I can figure something out.
  8. nabokovfan87
    My mistake, sorry about that. The plan when I'm done messing around is to have a concise 1 post summary with "this works well enough to fix some issues". There's notes and comments and I think I mentioned it, but just didn't have the photo because tube mod #1 didn't look great. I went for 1 too many rows of holes 😞 . Good to hear. Adding those holes is quick / easy, and it will increase your flow on the bump by a pretty good margin. Necessary from what I was experiencing without them.
  9. nabokovfan87
    What sand is this? It's interesting because I've only seen issues like this on the saltwater side. It looks bacterial to me, or something more like a saltwater setup than a freshwater one. Caribsea sells both fresh / salt products and I can't really say which is which. Right now, I would remove all fish, remove all hardscape, remove the plants for the time being and then drastically siphon the sand clean. Start there.... Dip the plants in RR treatment (pinned link in the journals/photos category) and then go ahead and treat the hardscape (rocks/wood) with hydrogen peroxide or another dip.
  10. nabokovfan87
    What is the temp?
  11. nabokovfan87
    I ordered a new prefilter, I'll let you know. It's from a pond brand, but has the correct dia hole (just need to trim the outside. Also, did you drill out the base of the intake tube itself? Let me see if I can find a photo. Edit: prefilter has a hole in the bottom, not on the website. Cool. So that's a no. Edit: I didn't post the one I had because it looks so bad, but... here's what I did on mine to increase the flow from the tube: I used a 1/8" dia drill bit, but use what you have that works. I did 4 holes (North, South, East, West) of the existing hole, and then add the 4 on each 45 degree to those.
  12. nabokovfan87
    The wood is a bit more visible here, I think the tetras would've liked either version! Very nice work.
  13. nabokovfan87
    There is a lip on the cap itself. It might be backwards and not locking in properly. The air escapes on the outside? Can you take a video of the filter with only air and no sponge installed? The sponge will trap the air internally into the tube slightly... but verifying the mechanics are working is the place to start. The airstones do get clogged and need to be disassembled and reassembled slightly when cleaning. On some of the ziss airstones too, I have found these little plastic pieces (like a film, not the plastic washers) that does come off the felt eventually. I'm not sure what it is, but it's worth checking that as well. Second thing to verify is the pump and stone itself (without the sponge filter. If you have a clogged bit in the air diffuser, line, stone, etc. then that would put back pressure on the pump, that damages the diaphragm, and then you end up with the pump on, but no air whatsoever (or very low air pressure). From the sounds of it, you've lost some flow, so a video of what the setup is, how things are functioning, would help, especially to see what your flow looks like right now when it isn't working well enough for you. Third.... VERY VERY likely.... you could have a piece of plastic that was a part of the molding process that broke off and clogged something. The industry term escapes me right now, but it's just a mold imperfection where the plastic got where it shouldn't have and creates a little flake.
  14. nabokovfan87
    That snail is so gigantic! 😨 Ram looks happy though, looks like the tank is doing really well. 🙂
  15. nabokovfan87
    Interesting. If you hear it again, send me a video showing as much as you can in the tank and HoB itself. It's the pump struggling to get water, in some way. For me, I've only ever heard that with air under the intake and it's the sound of the bubbles popping in the impeller.
  16. nabokovfan87
    @Chick-In-Of-TheSea Does this look like your black neons?
  17. nabokovfan87
    Minor Update: There are a few new holes that are the focus to keep the pump clean. Plants DEFINITELY DO get stuck in here and this is a main source of input for the pump. The one circled here is a "feature" for the heater holder. and you can see some skimmer holes on the side there that I need to keep track of on the modified HOB container. The others do not need to be there, but are likely in place for the plastic molding process. @TeeJay Did you fix the noise issue you mentioned? Did you fill those slots on the side and the ones I just closed or leave them open?
  18. nabokovfan87
    yeah, 1000%. I try to let stuff settle and then vac where I can without pulling plants up. I put a gap right below the intake. At least enough to where I can get a bag in there. Front to back, the substrate is higher in the back. Then left to right in the back it shallows out in the middle where the fish hide under the wood and where the intake is. In my mind, probably not the case, it helps all the stuff settle in that spot and then I can easily siphon that one location where the fish usually hang out. For clown plecos, it's pretty obvious where they hang out!!! 😂 ^^ Apparently this didn't post yesterday!
  19. nabokovfan87
    If it's glass, try to soak it with isopropyll. It's likely a chemical residue of some kind. That's what we would use (That or Acetone) to prep / clean everything. Speaking of which... time to go glue up some holes on the tidal!
  20. nabokovfan87
    Reminds me of beetlejuice....
  21. nabokovfan87
    Very cool to hear this. I am so annoyed with my tank and the algae and trying to find the right knobs to dial. This helps. How will you handle getting rid of these algaes right now? Manual removal and just adjusting back to normal fert schedule?
  22. nabokovfan87
    There's an aqueon 30 too. It's similar to a 20L, but slightly longer. I've been trying to find a few options for a 36" long tank!
  23. nabokovfan87
    what a beautiful and unique plant in the hobby! Welcome, and that's a very awesome tank. Really unique, but perfect setup.
  24. nabokovfan87
    First time I got lucky, the next 2.... Nope. 😂 Mine are as well. I finally got the CO2 dialed in. I'd run a dosing pump if need be but for right now I don't. My biggest concerns are excess iron (substrate) and or potassium right now. I'll keep an eye on it. It was and has been growing fine, but the algae bloomed. Reading today it really seems like the light is too low. I'll keep an eye on things as the shrimp do their work and then adjust after a week or so if need be.
  25. nabokovfan87
    I do also have plant weights not, so I can wrap up the Hygro stems in those if I need to 🙂
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