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Hi all, One should be fine, as @Nick potts says they are efficient biological filters. Have a look at the <"Envobee ones">. I've used these <"big sponge blocks a lot"> (although mainly with a powerhead). cheers Darrel

Hi all, If they are up the bank above from the water level? The <"Sand Martin"> is the most likely excavator, they won't arrive back for ~6 weeks or so. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Probably sea sand then, but it doesn't sound like it has much maerl or shell in it. I wouldn't have any reservations about using it. Any bits of wood that don't smell resiny and/or have lost their bark should be fine. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It could be where it <"crosses the sandstone">, or it might be water worked glacial till, or possibly loess (or other aeolian deposit) from periglacial conditions. Another option would be the <"remains of raised beaches">. When the <"Lake District Glacier"> finally melted ~12,000 years...

Hi all, Where is it? I know you are in W. Cumbria, so you have <"sandstone deposits"> at the coast. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Should be fine, the matrix holding the sand grains together might be soft, but the grains themselves are quartz and really hard. Just don't add much in. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It depends a little bit on how much you use, and whether it was <"JI No3 etc">. A lot of people have used the <"potting soil they sell for Water Lilies"> etc successfully. I've not tried it, but I think <"Westland Aquatic Compost"> is the preferred option. @Tim Harrison is your "go...

Hi all, It does. Yes, you probably have got a reasonable amount of NO3- and PO4--- in your water. Severn-Trent have an analytical lab. with a lot of expensive kit and scientists who can use it, so there values will be pretty accurate Personally I don't <"regularly add fertiliser">, and one...

Hi all, Yes, you can never have too many plants. We don't know what <"causes algae "outbreaks">, we know tanks with low levels of organic debris and a high plant mass are less likely to have algal issues, but we don't really know why. One problem is the the green algae have the same...

Hi all, That is some <"very healthy Frogbit">. Have a look at <"The Scientific......">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I think you are right, and CO2 would diffuse in more slowly at night, for the reason you've given. I'm not sure how much difference that would make to the CO2 levels in the tank, purely because of the <"high solubility of CO2">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes, most UK <"tap water is treated"> to raise the pH and has phosphate added to <"precipitate out any heavy metals">. Those metals <"would include iron"> (Fe), even though that isn't the main target. Water companies will aim to reduce levels of iron (and manganese (Mn)) in tap water...

Hi all, Iron (Fe) is probably the most likely to micro-element to be "missing" (probably just unavailable), which is partially why I've gone to using a <"hybrid duckweed index">, where I add iron and magnesium (Mg) <"on a regular basis">, but don't add any other fertilisers until the <"Frogbit...

Hi all, Some people <"will tell that there isn't">, personally I'm not sure and would rather have low levels of nutrients. My guess is that plant growth is the important thing, and that as long as you have plant growth (and you aren't adding toxic amounts of ammonia etc.) not a lot else...

Hi all, I assume that is because the plants are carbon and/or light limited, so they can't make use of that level of fertiliser. As you drop the dosing rate, and/or frequency of dosing, down you are eventually going to arrive in the "Goldilocks zone" where there is the right level of <"some of...

Hi all, That one. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I think if you get it from UK ponds it is pretty likely to survive at tank temperatures. Some mosses from rivers grow OK (Fontinalis etc.), but they tend to get a bit leggy. I've only tried Gammarus as an invertebrate, and that definitely has higher oxygen demands than warm water can...

Hi all, Gerard (@frothhelmet) had some, I'll cc. him in. They have persistent resting cysts, which blow about in the dust etc. and then re-animate in contact with liquid water. My guess would be that all water bodies (that are more persistent than a standard puddle) will soon get Ostracods in...

Hi all, Your Ostracods are doing very well, judging from the photo. I've never tried Sphaerium (or Pisidium), next time I encounter them I might try a few. A few people have been successful with <"Theodoxus fluviatilis">, but I'm pretty sure they need harder water. I have Acroloxus, although...

Hi all, They will to some degree, but it isn't a straight forward case of "30% cover = 30% less oxygen", leaf architecture will matter, as will radial oxygen loss etc. cheers Darrel

Hi all, If you don't mind doing it over a couple of weeks I probably would. cheers Darrel

Hi all, That is why I like a floating plant, it takes CO2 out of the equation, and many of them are adapted to <"very bright sunlight">. These (below) are from a Varzea lake in Amazonia, where they occur with extremely tricky" turned up to 11" plants like <"Ludwigia sedioides"> and <"Victoria...

Hi all, Definitely the Frogbit, but then again I'm a <"Frogbit obsessive">, and treat this forum a bit like "Frogbit Anonymous"................"My name is Darrel, and I am a frogbitaholic" . I wouldn't shorten the photoperiod, in fact I wouldn't ever go under eight hours. Even with an eight...

Hi all, My guess is that a greater range of plants will thrive in water with low carbonate hardness and, as you say <"CO2 will be more available "> and a lot of nutrients are <"more available at, or below, neutral pH">. Many plants can use <"bicarbonate (HCO3-) as their carbon source">, Diana...

Hi all, I think <"shallow tanks"> are definitely easier to manage. cheers Darrel

Hi all, You just need more <"floating plants">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Light is definitely the driver of everything else, but you can always control light intensity, even when you can't control light intensity with a dimmer, by adding floating plants, as a <"net curtain">. Personally I like a long photoperiod and a reasonably bright light. Floating plants...

Hi all, Have a look at @hydrophyte's threads. He (<"Devin Biggs">) isn't active on the forum any more, but I think his company ("Aqua Verdi - Riparium Supply") is still active in the states. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Because you had problems when you went from RO to hard water it was likely that it was a problem with insoluble compounds forming, and a lot of iron compounds are insoluble in harder water. Because iron isn't mobile in the plant it <"will take a while"> for the plants to perk up. The...

Hi all, Those look OK. Perfect, that is what we need to know. You can discount CO2 and light so that just leaves the mineral nutrients. Have a look at <"Duckweed Index says">, and see if that looks like your Frogbit? cheers Darrel

Hi all, Welcome back. Can we have a full tank shot? What do your Limnobium laevigatum (Amazon Frogbit) plants <"look like">? They aren't CO2 or light limited so would help remove those from the equation. It could be a nutrient issue if your plants grew much better before? The hardness in your...

Hi all, I have started collecting the references for a series of articles that cover the the ground mentioned in <"Bedside Aquarium">. It is going to depend a little bit on what happens at work, but I'm hoping to pull this together by Christmas. cheers Darrel

Hi all, There is a numerical scale, but it doesn't give you any <"real empirical values">. This is the original research (from Takebe & Yoneyama). I think so, put at its most fundamental level the plants can't lie. Because plants need more nitrogen (N) than the other mineral nutrients, and...

Hi all, As a couple of people have asked about the <"leaf colour chart" (LCC)">, (that is linked into various threads talking about <"Amazon Frogbit and the "Duckweed Index">), I'll add some references into this thread, I'll add more as I collect them. The LCC was developed to give <"Rice...

Hi all, You could try a very thin layer. The problem with <"all of these types of compost"> is that they have <"composted garden green waste"> in them. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I found when I was sending people moss they were subsequently getting Asellus in their tanks , and I've found most of these small crustaceans travel pretty well in damp moss. We used to deal with Blades at work, and a couple of times they sent us something close to what we had ordered...

Hi all, I've never seen them either. My guess is that they aren't easy to culture in commercial amounts. There is a protocol for using the copepod Bryocamptus zschokkei <"as a bioassay organism">, but I'm not sure where you could get a culture from. The easiest way to find any Cladocerans...

Hi all, Not quite sure where to post this, but I thought it might go here, I've seen a similar one for freshwater tanks, I'll try and find that as well: cheers Darrel

Hi all, I've recently found a few more references using Limnobium laevigatum in wastewater treatment. Because Limnobium is my preferred "Duckweed" for the <"Duckweed Index">, I thought I'd start a thread. Because it is a thread I've started I should be able to add any new references that I...

Hi all, Welcome Steve, this is interesting. Tom Barr @plantbrain used <"no water changes in his low tech tanks">, and it was also Diana Walstad's <"original technique"> suggested in "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". I'm personally convinced that water changes are good for all tanks, but if I...

Hi all, The Rolls-Royce of set ups. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes, I'm pretty sure it will. Biodiversity is all about mosaics. It is partially why I don't like to disturb the substrate too much, the longer it stays undisturbed the longer the biological processes have to stabilise and ramify. The same with nutrients, lower nutrient environments...

Hi all, You would just get a reduction in nitrate in the water column, personally I'd much rather have a floating plant and water changes. Marine aquarists are much more limited in terms of <"vascular plants"> (and there aren't floating ones), and they may also want to reduce the volume of...

Hi all, The finer grained substrates will slow oxygen diffusion, so you are likely to have denitrification nearer the surface and potentially sulphate reducing conditions lower in the substrate, it is more analogous to a <"Winogradsky column"> than a coarser grained substrate would be. There...

Hi all, There are quite a few references from recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and from waste water treatment looking at combined aerobic/anaerobic processes. Probably the ones that are of the most interest to us are the studies that have tried to quantify the contribution of both...

Hi all, That is a "how long is a piece of string" question, there are going to be a lot of variables. Having said that I think that 6" (15 cm) would be deep even for pea gravel. <"Yes H2S">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, We have a thread which looks at the tanks at "Ocean Aquariums" (video below), where they use this approach. I can't find it, but this was the video that initiated it. Personally I think that a deep substrate, heavy planting and just topping up with RO allows you "get away" with...

Hi all, I like that one. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes, it's the design of the uplift tubes that allows them to efficiently move that much water. I don't think it will make much difference, where the surface is broken you get a larger gas exchange area and you move a larger volume of water, so you benefit more from laminar flow. A larger...

Hi all, People have tried it as an <"additional carbon source"> and to lower pH. Have a look at @regani's comments in this thread on <"Apistogramma forums">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It doesn't look too bad, but it definitely isn't optimal growth. Do you have hard water? and do your EI salts include magnesium (Mg). cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes certainly could be, if you have plenty of oxygen in the filter then conditions will be suitable for nitrification to occur. The volume of the filter is actually relatively unimportant, oxygen (so flow in this case) is the really important metric. You just don't need a huge volume of...

Hi all, That is strange, it may be to do with the lack of water changes. This could have led to a deficiency of one of the other <"essential nutrients">. Personally I don't often measure NO3, it is <"more problematic"> than most forums acknowledge. That is the next question for me as well, did...

Hi all, Welcome, nice tank. Have a look at the links from <"Low tech. lighting levels....">. Can I ask what media was in the filter? And is there any possibility that anaerobic denitrification may have been occurring? cheers Darrel

Hi all, I would agree with that. I'm not a CO2 user, I use a method which reduces fertiliser input and I've used rain-water since the 1970's. I do, mainly for the water butts. They are used in the bio-assay for water borne pollutants, but I think their tolerance of low of low oxygen levels...

Hi all, Yes, it would be easy enough with a DO meter, unfortunately they are expensive bits of kit. We actually have some in the lab (for water testing in the field), but I still haven't actually left one logging in an aquarium. We do have a thread that looks at this, but <"using pH as a...

Hi all, Right at the start of this reply, I'd like to say to @sciencefiction, you are right, it is the plants that make the difference, not the filter. Same for me. The plants will still uptake the ammonia, but I think my main point would be that you will have a similar amount of microbes...

Hi all, You probably don't need the microbial filtration offered by the filter. "Filtration using plants" is always really filtration using "plants and microbes", and I think you will end up with a similar amount of microbial filtration when you have plants, whether they are in the filter or in...

Hi all, Probably not light then, as the Frogbit would have had first "dibs" on the PAR from your light. You can try adding some FeEDTA, it won't have an instant effect, but any new leaves (grown after its addition) should be greener. I've not used the Aquascaper Complete range of fertilisers...

Hi all, The Diatoms have an additional photosynthetic pigment (<"fucoxanthin">) which is why they are brown in colour. Green algae really are green, they are more <"closely related"> to all the aquarium plants, and have exactly the same photosynthetic pigments. If there is a brownish film on...

Hi all, It looks like it might be <"filamentous diatoms">, is it brown tinged in colour? and does it feel slimy, but slightly gritty? If it is "grass green" it is a filamentous green algae like <"Spirogyra">. In either case manual removal is your best bet, I'd try wrapping it around a...

Hi all, I should also have said that if you aren't too far away <"Peter Clarke"> is in Chesterfield, and he should be able to advise you (and he should have a range of species available). If you NW Manchester then Pier or Leyland Aquatics might be an option. Another really useful PYO item are...

Hi all, <"He did">, he used <"John Innes No.3">, and that has lime (CaCO3) added during processing . Also you don't know the origin of the "loam" component (but it is usually the soil riddled from potatoes (or Sugar beet) during processing) is with JI mixes. What is your garden like (if you...

Hi all, You aren't going to be changing any water, so you can just add the fertiliser. I wouldn't even add a weeks worth, just enough for two or three days. I'm often away from the tanks for extended periods, and I don't usually ask people to feed the fish or plants if it is less than two weeks...

Hi all, Absolutely fine for low tech, you don't need anything else. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Give it a go and see what happens. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Definitely could be, you can't really tell just from the leaves. The in situ shot doesn't really help either. @RyanB do you feed vegetables to your fish? You could try cucumber, green pepper or courgette and that may stop the leaf damage. You don't have snails so you can just embed the...

Hi all, Agree with @hogan53 that is definitely plec damage. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Are they the off-spring <"of these">? cheers Darrel

Hi all, In the rhizosphere, <"the zone around plant roots">, and in the surface layers of the substrate. Plant based filtration is always plant/microbe filtration, even when it just uses floating plants. Have a look at <"Mini-pumps for ......">. Diana Walstad herself changed her...

Hi all, Should be fine, planted tanks don't need cycling in quite the same way as non-planted tanks, so not having any ammonia addition for a while isn't a problem. That probably isn't enough light. I've had a standard Chihiros A series light for a couple of years and they seem quite good, and...

Hi all, I'm pretty sure the large one is an Amano, and shows primitive reproduction (the larvae have a true planktonic nauplii stage), but there are also plenty of shrimplets, I wasn't sure whether they were from another species of shrimp in the tank. cheers Darrel

Hi all, @AverageWhiteBloke nice tank, I enjoyed that. What do we think about the shrimp? They look like Amano shrimp, but have re-produced in fresh water (and provided a very useful fry food supply with the freshly released nauplii). I think the nature of the plants in the tank is also quite...

Hi all, I know we've been down this road before, and we've had a few threads, but it really, really annoys me. For newer members have a look at <"Shabby ....chic"> and <"Hello to all..">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, They can, they are forms of <"Cordyline fruticosa">, but it grows exactly the same as a Dracaena. I grew a couple of them (a red and a green one) from the foliage stems in a bunch of flowers. cheers Darrel

Hi all, The tank looks great. Quality job. Definitely a Dracaena, either Dracaena deremensis warneckii or D. reflexa (the real "Song of India"). Yes. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'm a Ceratopteris fan as well. Pets@Home are selling Ceratopteris cornuta in the 3 for £11 pick and mix. The book might have been Horst and Kipper "The Optimum Aquarium". Have a look at the links in <"How do you know ....">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Definitely plec damage, but possibly because the leaves were already unhealthy? cheers Darrel

Hi all, Probably a <"bottle trap">. Baited with <"grindal worms">? cheers Darrel

Hi all, That would be my guess. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It looks like snail (or Otocinclus?) damage, probably the leaves were beginning to decay. I'd try some potassium nitrate (KNO3) and see what happens. You should get a pretty quick response if it is nitrogen, or potassium, or both. cheers Darrel

Hi all, None at the moment. I've lost the last two Otocinclus over the last year, which were either these same fish or their descendants. I still have most of the same plants. Because I've been away a lot at work, there wasn't any-one working permanently in the lab. last summer, and I'm...

Hi all, This really is a zombie thread, but over seven years later I think I have the answer. I recently had to strip this tank down, because it sprung a leak, and........ .....when I started scooping the sand out I found a number of empty little orange "controlled release" fertiliser prills...

Hi all, It looks OK. You only need a tiny amount of salts going into solution to raise the conductivity. The 1000 microS (1 milliS) conductivity standard solution is 491 mg/L NaCl, so just ~5g of salt will raise the conductivity of 100 litres of water by 100 microS (~60ppm TDS). My suspicion...

Hi all, It has quite a lot of nitrogen, with a reasonable amount of ammonia, and is fairly balanced for potassium and phosphorus. I would expect that you would get a reasonably large ammonia spike when the tank was flooded. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It may do, I don't know which formulation Scott's sell to gardeners. I think it might just be 15:9:12 (N: P2O5: K2O)? If it has magnesium present, it may be quoted as magnesium oxide (MgO), so (24.3/40.3 ~ 60% magnesium). Yes, 650ppm TDS is 1000 microS. cheers Darrel

Hi all, They both sound a good idea. If you can raise the sponge filter, so the top of the air lift is at surface level you will get more flow and greater levels of oxygen, but it might sink the Duckweed. Have you got a conductivity meter? It won't tell you how much NH3/NH4+ you have, but...

Hi all, Yes it will. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Brilliant. The males are aggressive little blighters from an early age, and start fighting with one another. It allows you to sex them, but you need to separate the males before it becomes too serious. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I've never managed to catch any of the Otocinclus in the larger tanks, it looks like it should be easy, but they seem to manage to secrete themselves in places that you can't reach. I think you are fine with just the air powered sponge filter, personally I'd just use a bigger sponge...

Hi all, Just the <"duckweed index">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It should work. I'd go with Honey Gourami (<"Trichogaster chuna") and Threadfin Rainbow ("Iriatherina werneri") if you wanted to keep a small Rasbora sp. as well. I'd definitely have some leaf litter as well, if you wanted a bottom dweller any of the Kuhli Loaches ("Pangio" spp.) would...

Hi all, Yes it isn't conclusive, because it is just a snap-shot and because we can't measure the level of dissolved gases directly and have to use pH as a proxy of the CO2/O2 ratio. My suspicion was that the differences you see mainly relate to the differing levels of dissolved oxygen. There...

Hi all, I like small regular water changes as well, I usually change about 10% a day on tanks bigger than 50 litres and proportionately more on smaller tanks. I'm often away for reasonably extended periods (2 - 3 weeks), in which case I change a larger volume when I get back until I get the...

Hi all, I think both <"Tom" (@plantbrain)> and <"Diana Walstad"> have recommended not having water changes in low tech tanks, but I think the over-whelming experience of low tech people on this forum have been that water changes are beneficial. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I agree with @Kezzab, I also think water changes are a good thing in low tech tanks. Have a look at <"Low Energy, Water Changes....."> cheers Darrel

Hi all, Get away with you, it is quite straight forward. I started measuring the conductivity because it was the only parameter that I could measure easily (and quickly) with a dip meter. From <"Best way to cycle...."> Subsequently I realized that, because the datum for every tank would...

Hi all, It isn't an exact science. You do a relatively large water change (with your tap water, assuming that you use this) and then measure the TDS. This is your baseline level. You add the dose of 1/3 EI etc. measure the TDS again (you can do this after a couple of minutes even if you add...

Hi all, Yes, size of the bubble, and dwell time, are the important parameter for gas exchange with direct aeration. I think that your idea would work pretty well. You don't get any more oxygen, or CO2, than the atmospheric equilibrium values, but you replenish (or out-gas) them much more...

Hi all, I like this one as well, it isn't a very quick grower, but will grow in very gloomy conditions. . It looks different grown submersed, compared to when you buy it having been grown emersed. Submersed Emersed (from Flowgrow ) cheers Darrel