nabokovfan87

I don't know the situation, so we need a few details. Can you please test your water out of the tap for KH, GH, and PH and report back. (usually KH and GH is only available on a test strip or if you have the other kit) Then, with that same water sample, Aerate the water for 24 hours with an airstone and repeat those tests. This blog post will give you an idea of how it's related. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh Let's say your tap has a PH of 7.5-7.6. After 24 hours some parts of the water are unstable and your PH may change naturally. This is where some people will "condition" there water to avoid pH swings. Then you're adding the wood, and then you're seeing that lower PH. I wouldn't expect the wood itself to dramatically affect the water until 24-72 hours after you have it soaking. You're going to see a lot of color at first, but eventually that will fade away. Usually, you'd soak the wood, replace the water every day or every other day until it runs clear a bit longer. At that point, you would soak the wood for 3-5 days and test your water to see where it's at. There's a lot going on, especially if you're just testing water out of a bucket, with/without aeration, how long the wood has been sitting.

Very cool. Tank looks awesome.

Seachem has a product for this, Acid buffer. Is your GH that high or is this specifically KH? I'm just curious, what is your PH?

^^ I avoid rocks with the calcium veins as much as I can. Pretty much the rest of it should be fine. I do like your rule about hardness. There are some rocks that are very crumbly (petrified wood for instance). I have a aquascaping book, I'll try to find it, with some details on rocks common to the hobby that aren't necessarily available here. A lot of those rocks you're showing look like stuff FishForThought used on his betta tank series. He did a stack of them and wedged plants on it. Looks really cool. These would be a pretty awesome tank for a river scape to build in flat caves and crevaces. Stacking them like Jenga blocks and leaving gaps where you want to. Aesthetically, extremely nice rocks!

For those that wish to see it in action: As far as how to make one (or have one) I would think you would take something like this..... but then add the siphon tube similar to the video above.

Don't change your dose for high/low tech right now. You might see a lot of growth, or it might take time for you to dial in the CO2 with the plant load. What light are you using? As far as where to start, Let's say you're dosing 3-4 pumps every week. (it's about 3-5 mL). Your dosing is going to be around .4 ml up to .75 ml per day to start. Eventually you'll get to dosing progressively more, but it takes time for the plants to demand that. I have 12+ in mine.... might order more! Love me my amanos.

I'm just guessing here... The code is going to be matrix based, something like what you see for FPGA/ASICs or Microcontroller codes. There's likely one variable type for each LED color, simply put you can turn each one off/on or vary some settings (a custom data class for each color). In the "behind the scenes" of each class It's very likely a matrix of LEDs and it codes out what each one is by assigning each LED a location under each class. Might have a use for a nano soon. Just need to find a 3d printer. I want to get a susswassertang nano tank. Update on this. I kept an eye out on the tank after the deep clean and needless to say it worked really well. Flow increased slightly, but I've been fixing the HoB as well just out of necessity (bypass is dumb). On topic though, NEW GROWTH IS HAPPENING and it's magical. It's been a long time and I am so glad to see the larger light hitting the soil hard and the plants reacting to it. The Dwarf Hairgrass is growing fine, outcompeting the algae right now. I am still waiting to see new growth on the Staurogyne Repens. I also verified. I did not adjust the light down. I left it at 90% on the pure white and didn't change anything. Update #2: I posted some photos and video in my journal regarding growth regarding minor updates (Once I have final details I'll post here). I did opt to drop the lights down from 90% to 80% about 2 weeks after the light was installed (5/14 --> 5/29). Update #3: It's now 6/7 and I did opt to turn down the light another 10%. Anubias is growing, but algae keeps re-growing on the roots. Staurogyne repens is growing, but is showing signs of algae. Hardscape was clean, but I am seeing the algae take hold again. In Lieu of heavily dosing easy carbon, we'll see if lowering this light slightly gives a chance for the plants to catch up. Update #4: 6/10. I do see good growth, but the tank is not being fed heavily right now. As soon as the Amanos eat the BBA/Staghorn it's back twice as dense. Ultimately no change dropping it that additional 10%. I realized the issue though. I meant to set the time for a specific "window" but I miscalculated and had the light on for 14+ hours a day. I've gone ahead and adjusted it down in terms of time and I will report back once I have "good results".

I would suggest a lot of stem plants or epiphytes in a sand tank for "best success". That being said, a lot of rivers and other natural environments are going to have sand as the substrate. I don't have a photo with it all grown in, but here's what my sand tank looked like. Scarlet Temple Dwarf Sagittaria Bacopa Caroliniana Staurogyne Repens Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus Anubias Java Fern Mosses I also had no idea what I was doing with stems when I had this tank and it was a massively fun time for me. That is why a lot of these look barren when they are towards the bottom from melting and converting to my water. I have since learned how to care a lot better for stems and working on a new tank with sand here shortly.

The real question. How much is it going to be to purchase a sticker pack. Item 1: 5 random stickers Item 2: 10 random stickers Item 3: ALL THE STICKERS. Let us know!

Looks like after the 48 hours, no change. So this worked pretty well so far without too much hassle or effort. EDIT: It looks like *now* we have the standard rear of the basket bypass today. I'll clean it out tomorrow and take pictures and proceed with the next step! (Lasted overall about.... 80-96 hours before it started to bypass the media)

The tidals have the extended "output" and have much better flow path and do a much better job providing high flow to the tank itself. If you are concerned with flow in general, run two tidal 75s. You cannot run multiple AC75s on this tank because of the smaller rim clearance. AC: 500 U.S. Gal./h (1890 L/h) Seachem: 450 US GPH (2000 L/H) This works really well to push the water a lot further in the tank and it's a lot stronger output flow. Here's the AC Geometry. Did you talk to Seachem regarding the failure? The one I had issues with, it still works to this day. The issue was the impeller was dirty and nothing more. They still sent me a pump out without any hassle for the sake of failure. If you had a pump failure, they very likely would've sent one out or it simply needed to be cleaned. I'd like to hear the story of how it failed, sicce is known for how good their pumps are and how reliable they are. Edit. Here's a side by side so everyone can visually see the size and unboxing.

Aquaclear: -Cheaper -Less Reliable -Louder -More difficult to maintain (see below) -Extremely old design with flaws. -Very bad flow adjustment -Restarting issues with Impeller design Seachem: -"nicer" (preference thing) -Issues with bypass (see thread below) -SO QUIET -Amazing pump, awesome warranty and customer support. I had them send a pump out within 5 minutes of talking to support. -Restarts easily when power goes out -Flawless flow adjustment Regarding my experience with both... For the seachem, please review my notes in this thread. You're going to have bypass. You're going to be annoyed at the skimmer but it's fine and not a big deal. The only reason to suggest against the tidal is because if you have small or flat bodied fish, they can get stuck against it when they are sleeping. That being said, if that's a concern, I'd still recommend it and use silicone on the skimmer to close it off. The basket makes it so easy to clean, the flow warning actually works, the flow adjustment is the best one you can find. Unfortunately, getting past the skimmer for some is a dealbreaker, but the real reason I would avoid the filter is purely based on your comfort with "fixing it". When it comes to overall use, once you cut out the basket, you're pretty much "fixed" with the bypass issues if you know what you're doing. I have to use sponge to protect the media but there is one big advantage to the seachem for me in comparison to the AC. Reliability. I was forced to get the AC110 because it was the only filter at my local store that was available for my 75G tank. I had used an AC75 for a long time on my 55G and had a very similar experience, so this information is applicable to both AC models. On the 110, every single time I did a pump clean, used a brush to clean the impeller, added silicone to the shaft to keep it spinning, there was a very high chance I would have to take it apart or replace the impeller. The design is so ridiculously old that the shaft just wears. When I had 2 replacement shafts on hand, 2-3 replacement impellers on hand "just in case" I realized how stupid this product design was. I know a lot of hobbyist swear by them, all they did was make me swear. Here's a video that breaks down the issue. And this is something I would see after 30 days of use on every single AC I ran. Second biggest issue for me is that the 110 sponge is insane. I wish it was cut in half just to make it easier to clean. It's something like 2.5-3.5" in thickness and it's so difficult to really get it clean. Even using a sink with water pressure, there is likely going to be some mulm/gunk stuck in the central region of the sponge. When I say it's difficult to clean, that's what annoyed me most. The basket system sucks, but it's whatever. I am sure there is bypass as well, but the seachem takes the crown on that one.

Mine do it literally daily. It's just a normal cory behavior. They also do it just to "play" in the flow. I wake up to this daily. The fun days are when it's all 5 of them going to town.

Makes me really concerned whenever I see water out of the tap with issues like this. 😕 I would look into those under sink filter systems for your changes. Especially for a smaller 10G tank, you have a 3-5G capacity of filtered water. It should. Especially with prime and 24 hours for the tank to process it, should be ok.

So awesome! You will definitely have more!

I would run the guppies at the temp you have, drop the pandas and the snails to 73 degrees and then keep an eye on red gills and tank height. They might have too much pressure trying to get to the height of the tank, wearing themselves out. Lower temp, more success with food, more oxygen in the water might help the snails and Corys get over the hump. You're correct though, it might be something where we don't really know what's going on. It could also be a mix of a few issues. For the snail, all I could think was mineral issue, but I know you said your water was very hard. Maybe their food doesn't have enough calcium? I hope you feel confident enough to say it isn't a result of the tank itself (chemical) but something else going on.

I totally understand that. I wouldn't think we can just buy a co-op plant and then pop on the forum and try to sell a clipping. I think there's some room for "other plants" that wouldn't compete, but of course there's other sources for that potentially and doesn't make sense for the forum.

This video might help as well 🙂

Might be a flow issue? What is the temp you have the tank at?

Any timeline for plants? I only ask because of something like hygrophila pinnatifida where I really want to have something hobbyist raised. Floating plants also, some mosses, it's difficult for some people to find certain things locally. The obvious issue / concern to work through is the whole invasive species check.

Found this, this morning.

A lot of that goes into the IP67 certification, but I understand what you're saying. The tank looks good!

That Corydoras sticker....... Too awesome.

Mine only ever had ghost shrimp, rarely had amanos (have to go to petco for that). Will be nice if they can actually keep them well enough for people to buy. I feel like it's more difficult to keep shrimp and they barely can keep fish alive most of the time 😕 Oh they definitely have crusty tanks... Not enough in the tanks to actually hold a biofilm. Too much plastic and not enough wood in the tanks. At best, they add a lava rock.

How is he doing? The ram I had was very chill and swam in his little area but not really much else. He was in the back left corner of the tank and tried to avoid the crowd. Does your little one seem active when eating? (now that he is) Good to hear/see the progress! I miss having one.