nabokovfan87

That doesn't fix the skimmer and other holes. But yeah.

I love the tidals, but just be careful with small fish. Especially when sleeping, they can get sucked in. On my 75G I ran 2x 75G tidals.

Seiryu stone might also be a great addition to your tanks, generally speaking. It will also help to buffer up your parameters. Just remove it from the tank for 1 day then 😞 If you have valves you might be able to balance out the pressure a bit and get them both going.

The difficult thing, and I can go grab some photos of my setup (same filter) is that there's really not room to add enough crushed coral. I would have on hand for you: 1. Seachem Equilibrium 2. Crushed Coral 3. Media bag of some sort I have a dark substrate as well, and corydoras, and so I really didn't want to add the crushed coral to the substrate itself.

KH - about 80 is the goal for a minimum stable tank. GH - Can fluctuate a bit, but I would think that 80+ or so is about what you want for "soft water" I suggest reading through that co-op blog post, it has some great information. This might be a seasonal thing too, so it's definitely something to keep an eye on with monthly testing or testing every few months. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh Just to see if the test is the same results or different.

yes. so now that same water sample, aerate it for 24 hours and we'll see how PH and KH and GH changes. Just to verify, this is the reading after 60 seconds of waiting for the color to develop? (It should only matter for nitrite/nitrate)

I really am gonna enjoy this thread! I don't even have a local shop, but when I do!!!!! Nice to see everyone's setups and what they have available. I am very jealous!

No. The tank is going to have oxygenation and flow from the filter, air aside. The water/cup aeration test is to show you how stable or unstable your water is. That's the main point of it. So we can verify how much things are dramatically changing.

likely will need more CO2, but adjust this over time. I would focus on a few areas. I don't think a 75G fits those needs. I would set a rack with a few tanks focused on a few key items. 1. A tank with carpeting plants that are easy to pull a mat of and portion out. 2. Stems 3. "special care" high tech or high demand plants that have higher value. 4. Easy stuff that is easy to propagate. (even mosses work very well)

KH is absolutely crushing your PH. So you need something to buffer that. your water has basically 0 KH it looks like. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh Take a cup of water from your tap. test it immediately. Aerate the water for 24 hours and test it again to see how your KH, GH, PH changes. This is basically what's causing a lot of issues for you because you don't have stable parameters.

There is virtually no difference. Go with the one you want and like more as an adult form. The false Julii's look amazing once their pattern comes in. Pandas are the own kind of awesome.

I use the sheets of filter material. I think it's the same brand and material but just in a sheet form. There is also aquarium specific fine pads you can use. Seachem also sells fine pads for tidals.

I'd point you to Bentley's light guides for those specific fixtures. I'd pull blue way down. Depending on cover you might have to pull it down to 50-60% (hard to know without the scape/demand) and just keep an eye if algae is starting to form. If it does, then I would go ahead and pull blue way down, and pull the others down appropriately. I run a 90 minute sunrise/set. Yours looks fine too. The only real question I have is the length of time at that strength. Keep an eye out. reduce it if you need to.

Yes that looks like about .25 or .5 ammonia and that would cause some bubbles. For the PH issue we'd need to use a test strip for Kh and GH

The one I saw basically was similar but just smaller diameter pvc. If flow is the concern, potentially run 2 of them. They also sell prefab ones that hang on the tank. "Box style" I think is the trade term.

I added photos. I was trying to find it too!

It takes a lot of effort these days to get the fish from the farm to the store. When that happens on time (slightly difficult) it means that they need a bit of TLC when they arrive. Most of the stores, especially big box, might not QT things the way the co-op does and that leads to a lot of disease on the system or a row of tanks. The animals are stressed. So even if they DO make it to the store, they might not last. Then you have someone who might not even be normally involved with that section of the store who is now tasked with taking care of that particular section. Yes they can do the job, but it's also something where they would be following the methods that the company says they should be following.... which we all know might not be up to date and provide the best environment for the fish themselves. Right now, that ends with empty shelves, higher cost, higher waste, and a bad experience for everyone along the way. It will get better. I can't wait until I walk into the big box store and see the betta tanks Cory used instead of reading reddit posts about people working at the big box store not knowing what to do with all the dead cups of fish they have in the back and keep receiving more with full shelves and too many cups to change water on.

I literally would have a dozen of these and they'd all be able to be setup for the entire year.... if it weren't for the constant 80 mph winds we have 4-6 times a week. I love the setup you have. Nice work. As for my day/Week. I got out finally and went and got a new CO2 tank. I called them up before, asked them if they had any 15lb tanks, they said no. I left my existing empty at home, went in and asked for a 5 or 10 lb tank and ended up with a "ten" and found out they were talking KG the entire time and not lbs. That's fun. The reason I needed the CO2 was because I've been emailing back and forth with CO2 art trying to figure out what exactly is going on with my regulator. One of the dials was loose, which had me concerned it wasn't operating correctly. One of the screws on the back of the dial has a screw that is stripped or loosened up over time putting the regulator back into the foam packaging or something. I needed the tank now to verify if / where the regulator was leaking and we'll see how that goes. I ordered a lid and a new light for the tank. I also was able to get a new 29G thanks to the sale starting up. I have to clean this tank pretty good, but that's just part of the process. The stand is in place, the lid is about to arrive, the filter is already cycled, and all I need to do is determine substrate and scape. I have to order / install the shims for the stand because of how.... terrible the floor is. Eventually I'll get everything setup amidst the construction on the house going on. The goal being... finally get my QT tank empty, get the pandas 3x the tank space, and get them in from of the family so they can actually be enjoyed a bit better. SOON! Lots of progress and that feels good.

Amazing tank.... I love the difference in texture.

you can do it with something as simple as a piece of airline tubing. Here's another one...

Plato's Cave.... 100% I hope things improve for you! Looking forward to seeing your progress as your journey moves forward.

nice! Definitely not an easy one. For context for everyone.... These are fish that Dean had and it was something he was feeding tubifex worms by smooshing the cube on the glass.

SO..... Big disclaimer as a fellow Seachem Tidal owner. I have has some pretty small fish, but please just be aware that you're going to want to run some reduced flow. The fish sleep, they don't really know what's going on, but they likely could end up stuck to the side of the surface skimmer. Especially wide bodied fish. The filter is awesome, this is just a really frustrating issue as a result of their design choices and trying to appear to saltwater vs. planted tank enthusiasts. There is some ways you can mod around and keep your fish from getting stuck in there. That filter has about 50 holes in the intake, so it takes quite a bit of effort. I mention this, simply put, be careful on the fish you opt in and be sure you run reduced flow as a general rule. The pumps on the seachems are pretty much the best of all HoB and it shows. What you need to do right now is to daily be dosing in some bacteria from a bottle. It should be once per day every 7 days to get the tank going. After that, you're still going to end up wanting to keep an eye on parameters until you show 0 ammonia for 3-4 days. I would test daily, about 30-60 minutes after you feed the fish.

what sucks.... I've seen it all. but we have a roku with a family account and my youtube on the phone/personal is different. 😕 Oh whale. I was messaging with the mods, trying to figure out how exactly to opt in. Here is what you *should* see. Just to let everyone know. https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/11/youtube-memberships-gifting-feature/

I think it's a smaller barb or pencilfish species. It's like... one of those "on the tip of your tongue" names. 😂 Here's one that might be it. "Barred Pencilfish" - Nannostomus espei