nabokovfan87

Borneo loach has a very subtle baby blue coloration at times. Very beautiful. There is a lot of good videos by Racheal O'Leary. I'd recommend enjoying her breakdowns on the different species and then go from there. My store locally managed to get the Borneo variety, not the RHSL species.

Amanos and Hillstream loaches and gobies go well together. Nerites you don't need to have, but those work as well. Guppies, I am unsure specifically. Aq advisor is a great resource to check out for a question like this.

If you run into issues, place the jar in a tank and run the heater in the tank to passively regulate the temp in the jars. Kind of like a sous vide or something.

I am thinking.... PH, Temp, and Oxygenation all played a part in this one. Initially I would think there may have been a chemical or oil from the surface of the glass, a cleaner, something that caused issues. The fish are scaleless, which means something like that would cause these kinds of issues. Take the lid off, clean it really well, check the water surface for film and if you see some I'd likely change a large volume of water.

I'm exactly the opposite. I appreciate koi, ponds, and I feel really bad for a lot of the goldfish I see. I feel like they can barely function with all of the mutations. I feel really bad for glofish, because I can appreciate the beauty of their normal versions so much more. Instead of a "coat of paint" I wish people that had glofish would be more exposed to focusing on the personality of the fish and not the colors themselves. I also feel bad for a lot of cichlids. That's probably my answer to the question in the OP. I feel like so many of the tanks I see are either battlegrounds or far too small for natural behavior. I think back to a few YouTube videos and people that converted full size swimming pools to their cichlids. That's sort of where I feel like these fish thrive is in a pond scenario.

Hey everyone, I know we see a lot of efforts by a lot of people to try and steer good companies in the right direction. Honestly, this is my first time seeing what this tank can do and it absolutely blew my mind when I realized what the "feature" is. It led me to want to ask so many questions as a hobbyist. We've all had conversations about how some aquarium equipment and "technology" is 30-50+ years old and hasn't seen a design improvement in such a long time. We even have a thread here talking about what things we'd like to see in the hobby. I would like to ask, if you may, please watch this tutorial and provide whatever comes to mind. I don't want to poke fun at the commerical or the quality of the audio/video. I see so many missing, necessary bits of advice and I really don't understand how this could really be the final version released to help customers. And yes.... I clicked on this because I actually was interested in the tank and wanted to know more. For me, the standout line was: "We we have is the 2-2-2-1-1 rule" "Wow that's so easy" I also never thought I'd see a plastic moss ball. I'd love to see one of these tanks after a year of use. Just to see how it held up.

Do you have any way to test water parameters?

For the corys that should be fine. for the GBR, it might be too cold. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ram-cichlid-care-guide They will definitely get spooked by the vibration. The thing with shadows is just that it's a big dark blob and that is threatening to most fish. A lot of times they will dart / run. If you take 5-15 minutes and sit a few feet away from the tank you should see them come out of hiding and resume normal activity. That being said, I do see a lot of open space on the left side of the tank and a cave for them. I'd really expect them to be on that left side of the tank a lot of the time. I would suggest sitting in front of the tank or checking the tank at night under blue lights and see how the fish are behaving. That's when you're going to know what their typical behavior is. I'd expect them to be doing ok unless there is something else specifically causing stress. What are the water test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate?

As someone who would like to actually design products for a living, it's pretty sad given my experience, when I see companies flat out copy/paste a design. Usually what I see on amazon (and there is A LOT of this culturally from china in general, just ask top gear) with regards to finding something, replicating it poorly, and selling it using worse materials. On amazon, photos sell. I've even had conversations with their support team regarding an item I wanted to purchase and it said one thing in the description, had a photo saying another, and the description said something else. Which one was right? They said they don't know but I would "receive the item as it was described and shown". It's pretty bad when there is no quality control and when major corporations don't understand that selling bad products hurts *their brand* more than anything else. I could start with a list of 50+ things I've purchased from amazon, because they don't sell it in a store anymore locally, and absolutely refuse to do so. The biggest one is electronics of any kind. True story, I had an amano get "cooked" from a fluval e-series. I don't know if it died from my moving the rock, or it just got too hot one day and passed in the area where the heater was located. I definitely prefer to have the guards on things now. Generally, the biggest deal for me as a customer is to have it be precise, and work when I need it to. Even if I had to replace it yearly, having a good controller in there to keep the temp monitoring on par, is what I care about.

This is a zoomed in section of your photo. This is definitely some stuff going on. Maybe you can see it better when looking at the tank, whether what you're seeing is growing on the edges of the leaves or where it is growing specifically? The one it could be looks to be staghorn algae. Here is an example for reference. If you can, talk with wherever you purchased it. Their might be a big difference in water chemistry or something. For staghorn you might have to dial down the light, and then keep an eye on waste and nitrates. Amano shrimp are going to be the go-to for resolving this too. If they make sense for the tank.

Hello and welcome! Here is a thread that might be helpful. Can you show off the tank so we can see the scape? I wonder what specifically is spooking them, it could be numbers. I have some corys that just generally don't do much, but others that are extremely active. Fish do have their own personalities. What kind of cory are they? One possible explanation might just be temperature. Especially with a ram in there and depending on what temp you're running the tank, they might simply be stressed out.

I have not. I have eyes the nano lights about a dozen times and every time I find a need for one I always realize I can't mount it. I also don't have a 3DP machine currently, but that's less of an issue. Cory has a vlog. He threw one in a pond for a few hours on at full power. The lights can handle being dropped in the tank accidentally as well as splashing and stuff. They definitely can "puff up" over time. The aquasky has a very similar metal back heatsink design. Just as an FYI. It's a great tip you had with the felt! Another thing people can do is use VHB and find a "bump-on". It's an industry term, but essentially it's a small acrylic or nylon riser used in a variety of industries. (Think of it as rubber feet you see on a variety of products). The 3M VHB should also handle the heat and water but there's spec sheets and a few different part numbers they run to verify the correct version.

Sometimes that's just the way it goes. Glad everything worked out! Here's Cory's video.

I'll edit and drop a comparison photo if I can find one. I was watching Pecktec and got inspired. He was doing a deep clean on plants, algae tank issues, I wanted to try out some of his techniques. I grabbed a cup of tea and sat in front of the tank in search of those pesky snails I might need to watch for. (none spotted) I kept staring at the anubias leaves and the wood, the filter, the rocks and I could tell that my lighting upgrade was giving the algae a bit of a "hold". I looked into the opening of the HoB and saw the usual waterfall of bypass in the back of the tidal and knew this wasn't going to be a quick fix. I wanted to do my darnedest to keep it from taking a hold and give the hairgrass it's best chance of thriving. I scraped the glass, grabbed the toothbrush as shown off by Mr. Peck and went to work. I got to the intake tube and a lot of mulm was stuck, cleaned that out, cleaned out the grate right above the intake and a bit of much and plants had been sucked into that grate area as well. I took that all to the sink and then went ahead and disassembled the pump. I went full on "not today Mr. BBA" and scrubbed the living heck out of the surfaces to try to get it cleaned off. I *finally* saw progress removing it and feel really good about the cleanliness of the HoB container itself. I returned the plastic glory back to the tank and then proceeded to clean the basket and media in tank water. The Sponge was pretty much clean, as I had literally just cleaned everything 48 hours before. I took the brush and scrubbed each piece of seiryu, wood, and the intake for the ziss bubble bio. I cleaned out everything I could and then proceeded to change water with all that algae floating in the water column. Added water, turned on the filter and it was feisty this time. So glad to know the filter it clean and working as it should! I cleaned the glass and observed the chaos. I knew the filter needed time to do it's thing. I saw one of the clumps of DHG was smooshed by some wood so I reached in to adjust it and the popped off a plant in the process so had to reattach that. In all, It's a lot of work I need to do, probably daily or every other day at this point. I'm gonna defeat this stinking algae.... Edit. Here's the before/after. Yesterday it was completely clogged (hard to tell in this photo, but you can see how bad the algae is. The white fuzzy looking stuff is just oxygen bubbles from the new water. The Amano's are going to town right now! Love to see that, and it's also something Pecktec mentioned he notices after he scrubs down hardscape with the toothbrush.

Looking forward to seeing them 🙂

You want ammonia to be zero. Can you talk through your filtration, media, and you feeding schedule? What is the environment for the fish like? Is there too many or is this just something much more simple to resolve?

I would use this as a reference. I pull heaters out of the tank because it gets into the 110-115's here during the summer. Absolutely no reason to waste the tank space and give algae more surfaces. I do it to provide longer life for my equipment and hopefully for the fish. I want them to have the day / night cycle whenever possible. That being said, this is a tank and a box. Location of height in the room matters a lot more than people realize as well as the ambient temp. If you're getting into the 30-50's at night, you probably want to add a heater for most species. If you're in the 60's at night, I would absolutely never sweat it. When I decide to pull heaters, this was my process. 100% Even then, you might "drop the temps" for the summer from 78-82 down 1-2 degrees if the ambient air is getting toasty. It might help out for someone like me where the tank is roasting and it's 110+ outside. If my fish want to be at 72. It totally makes sense to set a floor of 60+ on a heater and just leave it in. It's a safety measure. I love the fluval E series because they are precise. I don't like how.... imprecise other heaters can be and have a range of +/-2 or something +/- more degrees. Asking for 70 and you have a range of 68-72 does work for me, but you might have more sensitive fish that really can't tolerate a wide range. Know what your equipment can handle. That's basically a big lesson here.

It's definitely a bit stronger light. After 24 hours I'm already seeing a lot of stuff popping new growth (mostly algae I mean). I am going to have to dial it down slightly, but I just did a massive cleaning to give the tank the best chance of growth possible. I deep cleaned the substrate, glass, wood, rocks, and then I got angry and tore apart the filter and deep cleaned all the much out of that. Flow should be greatly improved (never was an issue) and already seeing bypass. Thanks Seachem. Can't wait to get the new filter and glue a few holes and swap it out, tank looks lovely again! But man, it would be epic to see these plants take hold instead of keep melting. Edit: I forgot to mention. What it means also is that I can go ahead and swap off the Aquasky and put it back in the "things have broken and we need something" pile and then I have a nice 10G or 20L on my desk for *just* plants and it'll be so nice to have my 24" on that tank. It'll last however long it's going to last and eventually be running the Co-op light when it does stop working. The tank it's on now is BBA scape (only way to describe it) and I took Streetwise's guide and implemented the first tank I have with a siesta to really push back off the algae. Only anubias in the tank with new growth.

very true. It's hard to tell because the plant looks like it's been chewed up or beat up a bit. The other 2 I mentioned you'd have to see what it looks like growing out of the water, root wise, I would imagine (don't know for certain) that it's pretty hefty underwater.

I would imagine it does a much better job of filtering the water as well because it actually has a course and fine pad. Very cool. I have definitely been eyeing those but not sure what's appropriate for my use. (I also, really hate the tubes). The Tidal 35 definitely has some unique quirks compared to the others. Replacing the foams inside has been a pretty great mod and having "bumpy foam" seems to really help with channeling and helping the water flow in (another reason I like the 107 style stuff). Nice choice for sure. I'm glad you found something satisfactory.

Well stated. I agree with everything except for the noise. ACs are ridiculously loud and noisy to me. The "turbulence" is because of the extended "exit chute" that pushed the water a bit further out across the water than most other HoBs tend to do. If you adjust the water level, it's basically silent. It just really depends on where you keep your water level for how noisy the waterfall is. There's a way to fix it, requires a lot of work, but here's the quick and dirty version if you do want to "fix it". Especially the bypass on the basket. I just got the parts to do this on mine. I'll end up making a thread or something, but specifically trying to make it "look good" compared to this iteration.

I am going to end up doing a deep dive to figure out the root cause for this one #2 is literally causing me to clean the filter out every few days. There are VERY easy ways to solve it and I'm going to end up testing a few scenarios to figure out what works best. I will end up putting together a "tier list" based on difficulty to try to resolve issues and basically fix the filter itself. I've done a few posts with some pretty deep dives on what causes issues. It's hilariously bad to me as someone who produced parts for manufacturing that things like sponge can come in undersized and have bypass issues right off the bat. That being said...... I agree with a lot of what you said, but I don't think anyone is ever going to sell me on an AC filter for the "looks of it". 😂 If you're still having some severe issues with yours I'd like to try to help out. I have a lot of experience with the issues on these and I've used every size of them for a long time. Hopefully some of the complaints sorted themselves out. The market is screaming for a "better" HoB for sure.

Definitely a "rare" issue in my experience. Usually there isn't any issues with the impellers. If you continue to have some, try out some food grade silicon grease/lubricant on the shaft whenever you clean it out. I don't think the rattle is because it's broken. I think if you have any rattle there might be something that came loose in shipping, or might be something that needs adjusted. I know this is an older thread, but if you are still having issues please feel free to provide some details and I can try to help you out.

Absolutely. This isn't what happened. It's a "known risk" for sure.

You can "get away with it" in a deeper tank. The surface temp on the surface might be slightly different than the temperature on the bottom. Typically you're going to see a lot of fish hanging out on the bottom anyways. But, if the tank itself is in the 60s I'd end up adding a heater in the tank to try to get it up to 70 as a base. During the summer, temp sounds perfect. This might help you out. The big thing is going to be mountain / river species and others that enjoy high oxygenation and flow usually can handle cooler water.