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I would also suggest, with a tank that size @Lincs Planter, that the 2nd filter is a must for redundancy. Another FX4 or FX6 wont hurt!

Hi all, Yes. Yes, ideally really need one where the nitrogen source is mainly nitrate (NO3-), or urea (CO(NH2)2), rather <"than ammonia / ammonium (NH3 / NH4+)">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, That is an <"unknown unknown">, but I'm willing to bet (probably not appropriate at the moment) that some will. There is research from Marine Aquaculture looking at the effect of temperature on the microbial assemblage in biofilters <"Abundance and Diversity of Nitrifying...

Ah, I've actually got a bottle of Tropica Specialised Nutrion at home that I've not found a use for so far. So maybe I should start dosing that? Regarding hydropnic fertiliser, are you saying I could in the future replace aquarium fertilisers with basically any hydroponic fertiliser, or is...

Hi all, <"TNC complete"> or <"Tropica Specialised Nutrition">? There is <"nothing wrong with these">, but I'm not going to take part in the <"World's most Expensive water"> contest, so I use <"a hydroponic fertiliser">. I'm not sure what is available to you in Sweden. cheers Darrel

You don’t even need a filter to run it; you could hook your reactor up to a DC pump and use that to push water through it. In the US, 5lb tanks are very common. I have a 500L tank and the 5lb tank lasts 4+ months, with a pH drop of 1.1 or so. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Went with the Waterbox Eden 40, has just been delivered today. Been contemplating putting a Fluval 407 on it. Is that way too much of a filter for this tank?

I guess you could. However, I don't know if the bacteria species from the UK sea, which is colder than the tropics, could survive the temperature of a reef tank. Bacteria diversity increases in the mid latitude of both hemispheres (20–40 °N for N. Atlantic, 30-40°S for S. Atlantic), where the...

@castle heres a photo of rotala serpyllifolia from its wild habitat to my tank but i was not able to save or grow it with me and i lost it completely even trued growing emmersed but no luck there as well

Have shifted my focus more towards the epiphyte side of the aquatic plants hve more then 30-40 varieties including some of the rarest as well like bg-11 and wild caught pink martini/varegated pink buce

I think it's the spiders killing everything.

Hi all setting up a new system never used a CO2 system just spent the last ten years keeping it out of the system (reefkeeping) thinking of using a dual stage regulator with a reactor and at present I'm using an FX4 filter so going to get another filter to purely run the CO2 system. How much...

Hi sent you an email to get some advice but I think it might have got lost in spam somewhere?

Hi all, I think you've <"answered your own question">. Don't lower light intensity at the moment, just use the "TNC Complete". cheers Darrel

Have moved the diffuser behind the rock now, just trying to get the bubble rate right atm!!

Yeah unfortunately it wouldn’t work, the temptation to swap for a HOB filter is strong right now, but I’ll see how we get on!

Got mine as well this week and for the money it’s a bargain. Compared to what I could get for the same or more cost at local shops it’s night and day. Couldn’t be happier - Hope you are happy with yours 😊

Looks good mate. I’d personally be inclined to build more substrate at the back, as high as you can slope it. Flat slate helps to build retaining walls that can be buried in the soil. Edit: I see from the previous pic that the above won’t work with your filtration and heating.

Thanks Darrel, that's useful knowledge! Nothing has changed recently, no, so nothing to go back to. Regarding adding "all of them", is there any ready made solution for this available on the market? If not, I will try epsom salt!

Hi all, So should I then reduce my lights still more down? As they both set only for 30% intense. Both aquasky 2.0 and fluval plant 3.0 are set on 30% with blue light reduced to 15%. After my last water change I dosed TNC lite. But Bacopa and Altrrnanthera stand still in one place. (None...

Popped to the lfs on my way home at lunch today, first piece of stone I saw and picked up was perfect!! Had to do a lot of fiddling to get it positioned correctly but I managed it, now I just have to pray it doesn’t fall over when I pick it up to put it back on the stand!!

Hertfordshire's ant population seems to have taken up residence in my block paved driveway:(

For some strange reason I've been keeping my eye on the dam rupturing and flooding in Minnesota, you OK @MichaelJ or anyone else from there for that matter?

All of the surfaces within your aquarium is biomedia, I know biomedia is the given name for some porous bits of stone or round plastic balls but you are basically just providing a surface for bacteria to colonise, and it's then a case of providing the right conditions for the beneficial bacteria...

What I imagine on this topic, with no real evidence to back it up, is that the DOC trigger algae, but not necessarily is consumed by algae. I picture the DOC being processed by microbes and degraded into nutrients that both plant and algae can use, but the algae are "smart" and know that DOC...

My dogs peeing on the grass seems to kill it. Its like liquid acid. :D

If you go the HOB way, you could try the steel mesh cover for the intake instead of the sponge. It's more compact, but more shiny.

Really keen to read the responses to this question! It is a great question. Especially that you don't use biomedia in your aquarium environment - begging the question where all autotrophic and heterotrophic critters are colonizing.

Yep! They do go unnoticed. There are so many snails, shrimps and other microfauna that any dead fish wouldn't last long. The only deaths I notice are the times a fish gets in the overflow, but this is rare because I have a big canvas mesh barrier around it.

My parents recently redid their reef tank, replaced the tank they'd had 30+ years. It had wound down so they started from scratch but despite using artificial rocks still have bristle worms back again and alsorts of critters. I don't think it takes long to get going.

My aquaclear has my spare mini-pat sponges in it. I think I'd keep a hob just for the storage space 😂

Oase Biostyle? https://www.oase.com/en/products-a-z/family/f/biostyle.1000958459.html

Every year. 😭 I should have bought an ornamental tree to be honest. To what end? I rarely fertilise my lawn and have never considered putting a pesticide on it. I think my dogs peeing on it all winter probably adds enough fertiliser. 😄 I can sympathise with this. Can’t have lupins, marigolds...

Hi all, I wonder if you could age "artificial" live rock in UK seawater? I know that UK <"rock-pools can get fairly warm">, but still have <"coralline algae etc">. in them. The scenario would be a bit like <"cultivation of Oysters"> in trays, or <"Nori on ropes">, but in this case the "crop"...

You could look at Eheim liberty hang on filter! It's sourcing them though.

Hi all, The Maxi-jet 400 is still going, I've had it since ~2005 and it has run continually for at <"least the last ten years">. I bought the <"Eheim AquaBall powerhead"> (<"1212 / 650">) as its eventual replacement. I always have a few spare sponges lying about, it allows me to donate the...

A wee update, Gex is doing great!

Received mine yesterday. I haven’t fully removed all the packaging, But from what I can see the silicone work and mitred corners look very smart.

I was just mentioning this the other day. The garden seems to be empty this year. Flowers that are normally covered in hover flys and bees only get the odd visitor. Only things that seem to be doing well are snails and slugs, the lawn is absolutely covered with huge black slugs every evening.

I built a new kite and go it up in the air last night. It flew well. This design is based on traditional Japanese multi-line bridle Edo kites, but with modifications including pretty small (22" X 38" sail) size, simplified bridle configuration and the round vents.

Beetles, moths, wasps, wild bees and butterflies are all practically all gone here in our area. It is very different from how I remember it twenty or thirty years ago when we would find insects of all kinds everywhere. Aquatic insects seem to be less affected, so we do still see swarms of midges...

Massively looking forward to the underwater video. Would be great to see that. Here is a macabre question for you. With such a well planted tank and so huge, I assume that fish deaths go unnoticed to some degree and they just decompose in the aquarium?

I think this is a big problem in many places, not just this year but over the last twenty years or so there has been a slow but notable decline in insect life! I could quote many examples but the more obvious ones would be butterflies and grass hoppers. Wasp are noticeable by their absence...

I'm starting to regret my addiction to post-apocalyptic SF, it does feel like we're living in a 'choose your own disaster' novel. We have our usual biplane-sized hornets, but we are short butterflies. West Somerset here.

I’ve had a tank from Nd aquatics and as stated above, it was very good quality but the silicon could have been better.

I am often asked why I do big and frequent water changes in a planted tank if the plants are consuming the excess nutrients. From what I have read on several forum posts is that there is a correlation between water changes and reduced algae and increased plant health. The most common reason said...

I cut some down maybe 18 months ago, kept outside I use it to add cover to the Robins nest box to deter the crows and magpies from predating the nest( it worked🙂) no sign of rot . It's been open to weather all the time, as l do with my collected oak ,hawthorn,,but undecided how it would be submerged

I'm running a 55l and a 75l on one mini-pat so it may well be enough for you, it depends how much flow you want and the hardscape. I've an aquaclear on a 180l, which is just a simple pipe intake I've put a sponge over. I don't like it because I think it's a bit noisy but I think I've above...

I used live rock in my first SW tank many years ago. I tried to buy some for my new reef tank a few months ago, but no luck. I went to a few lfs to check out their "live rock" and I found pieces full of algae. And the smell...ough! Real live rock smells like fresh ocean breeze. Anyway...

The smallest visual impact that I can think of would be the intake tube from an external or perhaps a hang on back filter. Both however would need some kind of sponge over it to prevent shrimp being sucked into the filter.

Our cherry crop was as good as usual... as in there were loads and then the birds ate the lot in 48 hours. All the soft fruit is doing well too. Maybe a smidge early for butterflies? There's been a lot of rain until recently. Just starting to get the flowers they come for opening, nastursiums...

You can get fine mesh bags for this purpose off of ebay and similar. Some come with zips and others drawstrings. Stops the aquasoil rising up above the sand.

Still slowly buying stuff for the tank and looking at plants, but I'm wondering how to tackle my water. I know my water is very hard, when I had my shrimp tank, I bought RO water and used a shrimp product to remineralize it. I'm not sure whether to use a similar product for the new tank, or cut...

Well I have plenty of Bees busy ,my next door neighbour says they are scarce in his garden, maybe it's the plants he has ,not attractive to pollinators. All the rain earlier in Spring possible reason a lot of my flowering plants Roses some Salvinas looking good, l expect a swarm of greenfly on...

My fruit trees are very young so I haven’t really seen a reduction in crop. What I did notice though was that flowers lasted only a short while before the rain destroyed it. That may have contributed to reduced pollination? My pond seems to be the only thing that is doing well. There are plenty...

I agree with @hypnogogia. I would also see this start to rot over time.

Honestly, you do need to get out on your hands and knees and list rocks or kick over a bin, still plenty there; but I’m not exactly being very scientific. I fear a drop; pesticides will have a lot to answer for

Personally I wouldn’t do it. One reason being moving plants. Once the roots are anchored in the floss, moving it will upset everything else. I’m also not sure about keeping it clean. I can se it getting cloggged over time with no easy way to clean it.

There’s a few beehives nearby, so things just feel more beesy? Midges are about now. I strimmed the grass last week, so I did a no mow first half of the year. No grasshoppers, or butterflies. I dunno, ground wise plenty of bugs, same with ponds; but less pretty stuff. Summer skipped us too.

I really notice the drastic loss of insects this year.

Hi, just wondering if any of you think this is a stupid idea or not? I will be setting up a new 5ft tank in the near future that will be heavily planted with plenty of wood and rocks. I was thinking a bottom layer of aqua soil then laying a sheet of filter floss over that before capping with...

Is that the bit of Scotland that has had summer this year? My small bit of Edinburgh has been underwhelming this year, presumably because it’s not stopped raining.

Ha I recognise this powerhead 😃

So you have lots if insects? Having lived outside Glasgow for a while could I ask if highland midges pollinate apples?

Quite worrying to me is “concerning enough to vocalise to my party” Scary as fock is not a phrase I’d use, I’d probably say “that’s a little worrying” 😅 As for the garden, we’re good. Bumper crops, renfrewshire.

...garden is completely organic. I wondered if anyone else had experienced a similar situation? This is 'quite worrying' ( for US readers when a brit says 'quite worrying' read 'scarry as fu*k', a large asteroid is about to hit your house, it's a zombie apocalypse or Trump is actually...

Naturally unpacked everything as soon as I was home from work! I’ve tried a couple of layouts but not sure I’m entirely happy with either, I think I might need a slightly bigger piece of stone for the main piece Though in pictures I’m preferring the second one

Diffuser placement goes hand in hand with flow distribution. To maximize dissolution, you want to maximize the time the bubbles travel through the water before reaching the surface, and you want it to go through some turbulence, if possible. One common flow distribution technique is to have the...

One plant that caught my eye was the camphor tree -The Camphor Tree - Guide To Growing And Care – MK Library – super unique and adds a bit of spice to any collection. Plus, they're known for their aromatic leaves, which is a bonus! Does anyone here have experience with them? I'm curious to hear...

I like internal filters as I am frightened of leaks. I have a tidal 55, but it has loads of gaps even after I put sponge over the inlet. The bioplus looks like it has lots of grills, i don't understand why there is a gap in the market. I did consider multiple filters put that just eats up space...

Yes. You need trace elements and macro nutrients so you need the 2:1:4 aswell. That box of TEC will last you FOREVER. I use these products and you need such a tiny amount of the trace elements. It’s very good value. I run pressurised CO2 at a level lower than most recommend. It’s just a boost...

Hi, I personally wouldn't turn up the CO2 any more at the moment (your current plants will be fine with lower levels), in fact I would turn it down a notch for the time being. I can see you have guppy grass in there but with a tank that size I'd be tempted to add a fair few more bunches of fast...

I’d go with the recommendation on Dendroboard mate. Silicone and glass over it on the inside. Then wrap or paint that panel black. It shouldn’t need to hold too much water if you have the drain constantly open.

That's hilarious. Avoid the used scales. But don't forget the serious home baristas who also measure their coffee beans in gram increments. @dw1305 I keeep meaning to share a link to 'coffee brewing water remineralising sachets' with you - worse than Seachem and Co...

unfortunately i think the way its put together is a bit too much for me to DIY, it needs to hold water in that specific section in between draining. I think it'll probably come down to getting a piece small rectangular glass and attempting repair on the inside, to see if water tight. We live...

I'd second (fourth) the powerhead and sponge combo - mini pats with larger sponges here too. I'd start with one and see how you felt about flow then add another in the opposite corner if needed. Black background and black sponge blend well. You could do a HOB and add a sponge to the intake, but...

Try googling the brand name and replacing the glass - see if there is anyone that's done it before so you can see how much would be involved in taking it apart to replace that section. Does it need to hold standing water or is it just damp? If it needs to hold water I guess the only way to...

Let me know how it goes!

Personally I suspect the iron, or indeed fert dosing at all, is a red herring in direct relation to BBA, as is the acidic substrate (I've seen it in plenty of tanks with sand/gravel). I would agree is seems to like higher CO2 areas though. For me BBA predominently appears with excessive organic...

I have a tank which I believe to be an old Juwel Primo 60. It has a Juwel label, the style and dimensions match, but it has an old fashioned T8 incandescent tube rather than a modern LED bar. I wanted to swap this out for an LED, and found a Superfish LED replacement (seemingly of the right...

Darrel, I believe you misunderstood my post. "Excess Iron, Lots of CO2 and Acidic substrate are some good conditions to grow BBA." This is a most common condition for EI dosed aquarium. Even under hard water setups, the BBA was mostly commonly found when Iron was present in excessive amounts...

Yeah more frogs, i'd kind of considered something else like the crested gecko, but this size wouldn't be the best.

What’s the intended inhabitants mate, more frogs? If you went with something else, you might be able to avoid all the misting and therefore less water.

It was only setup yesterday so I'm trying to get the required co2 levels by slowly upping the bps the defuser is at the opposite side of the tank where do you suggest for the best placement, again I've been using Google for the answers and what I'm learning is that there's a ton of conflicting...

Not an aquarium, but a terrarium i got from gumtree, still in original packaging. Should have trusted my instincts on why it was a good price, but here we are. As you can see from the attached pic, I have two lovely cracks that extend through the front bottom panel (front to back), extending...

Sillily I removed the air stone last night and I have put it back in this morning, I'm currently running at approx 2bps and to get that I counted the amount of bubbles in a 10 second period with my son on the stop watch and then devided it by 10 for the bps

The confusion arises because in a closed system not open to atmosphere KH does influence CO2. The closed system is where most of the chemistry discussions take place so this is a quite natural mistake to make. We however are nearly always dealing with an open system system where KH does not...

And this

It was often suggested that to optimize CO2 you should reduce aeration and surface agitation. Of course this would make it easier to reach higher CO2 concentrations. Nowadays the suggestion is the opposite. You need adequate flow throughout the tank to distribute CO2 and you need decent...

Is this the stuff ? And I don't mean to be a pain how do you dose it? Do you pre-disolve before adding it to the tank

Pause CO2 until you actually have more plants and plants that will benefit from it. Currently it is an unnecessary expense and thing to cause issues. Agree that inadequate ferts is the cause of your poor plant growth currently. Edit: notably, you currently are not dosing any nitrate. What's...

Thanks Darrell I appreciate your input I'll check them things you suggested out 👍🏻

Great response Bradders. I’m starting to think it may be something as obvious as plant growth starting to obstruct the inlet portion ( not the skimmer section ) of the glass skimmer, for info the inlet section is fully open. I’m gonna trip the foliage and see how it goes…..

Hi all, I'm guessing that is where your problems lie, you need a fertiliser that supplies all the nutrients required for plant growth. Have a look at <"Solufeed 2:1:4 and Solufeed Sodium Free TEC or Solufeed Coir TEC Combination">. I think you will struggle with Riccia fluitans, it really...

I had 1 dead fish now it could be coincidental I'm not sure, the reason I wanted to go down the co2 route is id like to be able to successfully have a more densely planted tank,I've recently added java moss and Riccia fluitan (because I'd like a carpet effect)and the guppy grass and I've tried...

I actually spat out my coffee laughing at that description.

Hi all, Yes, that looks fine. I can see the caves, do you have L numbers? and are they the fish that died? You don't actually need CO2 with the plants you have. I can see your floaters and I'm a <"floating plant obsessive">, but one advantage of floating (or emergent) plants is that they...

This is my 182l tank I run a fluval 407

Hi all, That is the issue for me <"with a lot of filters"> too much complexity and too many gaskets. I'd never realised <"this was an issue"> until relatively recently. Looking back it was obviously naive, but I hadn't imagined that any-one <"would use the scaffold intake">(as supplied)...