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You can either prepare a solution as indicated in Clive´s article or add ferts straight away, what is usually named as "dry dosing". You can either buy measuring spoons for 3-5 euros/pounds/dollars or use a small tea-coffee spoon. In your case, having such a small tank, I recommend you to...

Size doesn´t matter. CO2 and light are what matter. If you have high light and CO2, you should be adding ferts using whatever method you consider appropriate. But add them. The problem with small tanks is that it is more difficult to balance. CO2 is the gas, light is the gas pedal, but ferts...

Yes. No doubt about it.

You can prepare your own. It is easy. Have a look at this article from Clive.

Algae haze on the glass = Green dust algae (GDA). Follow the advice given by Julian above plus, if using EI, add more MgSO4. It worked for me. Mg must be around 10 ppm per week. I had to remove that haze from glass on water change days with a cotton wool (it is very easy to remove). I was not...

For fish and bacteria and if you do spot treatment with H2O2 on some plants, you´ll burn them (Micranthemum Monte Carlo for example). What I normally do and it is just for prevention, it is to clean the tank on water change days. Clean hardscape, glass, etc, and then do the 1-2 punch. I do it...

Yes, you can. But it is much more dangerous and ineficient than 1-2 punch, in my experience.

Spot treatment is much more dangerous and ineficient than 1-2 punch. I do not do spotctreatment anymore so I have forgotten the dose. Maybe someonevelse around can help you there. Sorry.

You only need one bottle for 4 treatments. 90 ml each. Read the post I mentioned please.

It kills algae. It can be used a liquid CO2 but it is essentially glutaraldehyde which is used for sterilization of surgery material in hospitals. It kills microorganisms in general. Excel is the second punch. H2O2 is the first punch. That is why it is called one-two punch. Read the thread...

The one-two punch is done only on water change days. And be advised that the proportion of H2O2 indicated in the thread, although it is said to be 4 tbsp, it is later corrected by the method developer to 2 tbsp. Then, do everything as it is indicated in the thread. Most important is FLOW...

You have to do it exactly as it is said. At the end of the thread I quoted, there is a correction in the dose to 2 tbsp to each 10 gallons. I add 6 tbsp to my 30 gallon tank, so it is around 3 ml to each gallon approx. Maximum would be 1044 ml (4 tbsp per 10 gal) but in your case would be 522...

Hi. I would try the one-two punch method. Search on the web with this: One-two punch for algae. Do it exactly as it is indicated for 3-4 weeks. Clean hardscape with bleach. Increase CO2, EI, flow and oxygenation. Decrease light intensity and photoperiod and give it 3-4 weeks (yes, patience is...

Yes, I agree with you completely. Actually I would´t recommend people trying and willing to keep a planted aquarium with plants and fish and having a problem with plants to remove them. That is not a way to help that particular person. But the OP showed in one of his posts that he is not that...

I never said they were incompatible. Ever. I just said that if the OP is having trouble with algae and plants and his/her goal is to keep fishes and he/she is not into plant keeping, he/she should not go the planted aquarium route. There is the aquarium route. Perfectly acceptable and, although...

If you want to keep fish, do not waste your time with plants. Keep your fish and go for other artificial decor. Each aquarist must have clear in his/her mind what he/she wants and do not ovethink this hobby. Keep it simple... Cheers Pedro

I would keep surface agitation high and increase CO2 injection. To do that, I have suggested this in a couple of threads, I would buy a cheap permanent pH meter which you can find for 30-40 euros and I would aim for 1 unit pH drop from CO2 on to lights on. Normally you can achieve that with a...

The problem you have is light if you are not adding CO2 as gas. It is too much. You are not going to solve your problems as long as you keep "burning" your plants. Ian gave you the key here: You need to change that, the light. If you cannot, then you will have to move to high tech increasing...

Well, in that case, I would try to get into the habit as quickly as possible...;);););)

Yep, that is what I also said. ;);)

I would try. This is what I have found about TNC Complete here. Look at the Dosage tab 1ml per 10 litres of tank water per week. Dose can be increased to 2 or 3 times per week depending on plant growth, water changes etc. 1ml per 10 litres of tank water 3x per week will give a dose similar...

SAEs won´t be eating a lot of diatoms. If you cannot have Ottos, then it is elbow grease what you need :D. Sorry about your loaches, but when disturbing gravel etc, it is better to move fish to another container to avoid intoxication. If it looks like "ich", then it is not a problem of the...

Yes, micros = micronutrients. You are doing fine increasing bioload slowly to allow your bacteria colony to develop. When you say you are dosing at the recommended level, you mean according to manufacturer instructions or you are following Estimative Index?. If you are following the manufacturer...

Well, yes, it depends on the type of hairgrass, but the best way is to do it in patches. Trim a patch today and let it recover and grow more runners. Next week trim a different patch and let it recover and following week go back to the first patch, etc...

Ottocinclus (6-7 for a 180L, or more if you wish). This can be used to remove the diatoms you have now, but... I think your problem is water change. You are changing only around 20 % which contributes to an increasing level of organics every week, a nice and tasty soup for algae. You need to...

In my experience, hair grass, due to its low growth rate, tends to be a magnet for any type of algae. Trim and trim again, that is the solution. Do not let the algae take over the whole hair grass carpet. As soon as you see some algae, trim it. When the carpet is well developed, growth will be...

Have you tried the One-Two punch?. Have a look at the methodology and do it 3 or 4 times. It has worked for many people and even Tom Barr has recommended it. Bear in mind that this will remove algae, but not the cause of it. If that is not tacked then you´ll run into problems again... H2O2 is...

It is useless to try to set a certain bubble rate. Besides, 1 bps is like injecting no CO2. Better use EasyCarbo or Excel, instead if the tank is small. Unless the bubble size is like about 5 mm radius... Better use a cheap pH meter and aim for a 1 unit pH drop before and after CO2 injection...

Knowing about your uncertainties with CO2, I guess CO2 is the culprit. Most likely not enough. You´ll be surprised how deceiving is using bps to account for CO2. I need about 7 bps to achieve a 1 unit pH drop with my bubble counter, but if I were to use a different bubble counter it could be...

You can buy for around 30-40 euros a permanent pH meter (have a look at this one, actually the one I have). I did not set my CO2 right until I had one of those. Then you can test your pH before and after CO2 injection and you´ll know whether your CO2 levels are OK or not by simply aiming for a 1...

I think some red around the stones would be a great addition. Thanks Paulo, great idea

This is my scape. It has a road of HC, a carpet of Staurogyne repens and at the back Pogostemon erectus which I will trim in a few weeks to give it a V shape. What would you guys do to improve the scape? Cheers

I am very much on the opposite side. I think we give them much more credit than they deserve. They are just fish. They have my credit because they have been on Earth millions of years before us, but that is all

Well, what I meant was not to use Mg to combat algae. I meant that Mg deficiency may contribute to sub-optimal plant performance, giving room for algae growth. And it is GDA who takes advantage of that situation. By the way, I have been adding Mg for a couple of weeks and I can confirm that GDA...

I agree completely. The size of the brain of a fish is just enough for their instincts and that is all. No room for emotions or fear or love...They do not recognize their own being as a fish. They are just little machines whose purpose is to contribute to the entropy increase of the environment...

Well, I would say YES, if the question is if it can help reduce the BOD, as it is Carbon removes organic waste. Less organic waste involves less microorganisms (as they may starve). Less micoorganism consume less oxygen, so there is less oxygen demand and there will be more oxygen available...

For me this site is a fountain of knowledge where, every now and again, I come back to drink a sip ;););)

As ian has pointed out, you are way high on lights. How about disconnecting one bulb?. That would give you theoretically around 60-70 umol photons at substrate. Decreasing you photoperiod, upping your CO2 a little and prunning infected leaves would improve things a lot. Don't forget ferts. Go...

I always start analyzing algae problems in this order; light, CO2 and flow. As you comment on BBA and hair... I bet you are not doing ok with CO2. Dissolution method, delivery (flow), amount (bubble rate), etc... I would check that first.

What about Mg?. I am not dosing that and my tap water contains 2 ppm (water company report). Is that enough or might this be the problem...? I comment on that as Darrel just asked me in other thread if I added Mg or not and he make me think about it...

Nope. I though that the values in water for traces after water change + what it is contained in Trace mix (Aquarium Plant Food UK) would be enough. I have seen my water company analysis and it contains 2 ppm of Mg and 65 ug/L iron. Why?. Is it not enough?... Here it is my water analysis. Let...

Sorry double post

I have 6 otos, 6 nerite snails and 20+ red cherrys (and breeding) as cleanup crew. I have read Tom talk about brittlenose plecos or ancistrus, but I would need a really small ancistrus species, probably around 6 cm max. However, I have also read that they are actually good at cleaning when...

Have a look at this post in the Barreport

What I do on holidays when I know I will be at least 15 days away is to disconnect 2 out of my 3 LED bulbs keeping everything constant except that I dose 1 week equivalent EI at once. Normally when I get back, there is a little GDA on the glasses, but that is all. CO2 is normally untouched.

Yeah... well. Although I was hoping for a "yes, you can do it changing this or that", I knew in my mind what the answer was...unfortunately. I use the floss, because I tried once with it and realized that it was enough with it. Why use something that may scratch the glass when one can use...

I prepare the macro and micro separated in tap water. If, according to my tank size and the recipe I must add: 1/4 tsp KNO3 1/16 tsp K2PO4 1/16 tsp Trace. I prepare it for 8 weeks in 480 ml. 1/4 tsp 3x per week = 3/4 tsp x 8 weeks = 24/4 tsp = 6 tsp = 2 tbsp Same for K2PO4 and Trace. So I...

Well I have to disagree with many of the answers the OP has received. No problem in having doses of 90 ppm of whatever fertilizing inorganic compound. That is not the problem. I has been proven by Clive or Tom that NO3 or PO4 in very high doses do not become toxic for fauna. The problem with...

Hi Well, I think I have already read all possible information on how to get rid of GDA. But most of the posts here and in other forums refer to GDA blooms or big problems. That is not my case. I have a little GDA on the glasses at the end of the week. Actually, I guess it is just at the end of...

Well, yes you are wright, but intentionally or unintentionally the final effect is that they are stressed. Actually the fact of having them in a cube stresses them. My point is that if we all have schooling fish, we should search for the cause that made them school and when finding it, correct...

Well, I am not an expert, and I am not really sure why that would be. I cannot see the science behind it. Only thing that comes to my mind would be the salinity increase that the the counterpart ions would provide. Na+, Ca+2, K+. As I metioned before, for each HCO3- ion there must (usually) be...

Well, as you can see there are not a lot of places to hide as I wanted open space just for that.. to increase schooling or shoaling chances. But if, as you say, they will tend to hide, then that is not a viable solution for me. The rams usually stay close to the bottom which, in theory will...

Hi I have a 112L (80x40x35 cm) tank with white cloud mountain minnows (18) that wander around on their own but do not school. I had read that they are good schoolers, but they seem to be really happy in my tank and do not care about each other. They only group and school when the lights go off...

Well, obviously not. Adding the same amount of acid to a solution with different buffer capacity will generate different pH drop. But, I think, that is exactly what Darrel is saying here... No and Yes. No to the sentence where you say that kH reading has nothing to do with solid salts...

Yes I do use CO2. And KH is around 5 (crappy test kit...). OK thanks. I thought that wouldn´t make any difference, but just to make sure Thanks again

Hi Quick question and maybe a silly one. I had my ADA Aquasoil decreasing my pH during about 7-8 moths from 7.8 (tap water) to around 6.6-6.8 at the beginning. That is, as you all know, quite normal. That value started to go up 2 or 3 months ago and now my pH is 7.8 (same as tap water). The...

Hi all Well, this idea is something that has just came to my mind inspired by a post here (from Clive/ceg4048) . I am not talking about light "siesta" but CO2 "siesta". I have read many times here that high CO2 levels at the beginning of photoperiod is paramount for plant photosynthetic...

Yeah, the airpump will not be able to overcome the back pressure, I guess. I suggested a fan, because when I blow air using my mouth to the surface of the tank, the ammount of ripples generated is on par to those generated by the koralia (maybe even more). The only difference is that the koralia...

Thanks Wisey, but I do not want to introduce any more tubing or equipment inside the tank. I have an airpump and airstone. For some time I was using it but again, too many things already inside the tank. Thanks anyway for the suggestion

Do not forget pressure. A tank in Bolivia will degass quicker than a tank in New York. Or, in other words, to achieve the same CO2 ppm in these two situations, you will need to inject much more CO2 to the tank in Bolivia than to the tank in New York. Taking into account the rest of the...

Hi I have a 80longx40widex35deep cm tank which is now quite OK. I use an Eheim 2213 without the impeller and a Hydor Seltz 30 pump (1200 lph) attached to the outflow. I inject CO2 and control it using a pHmeter (7.2 degassed and 6.1-6.2 at peak). I have also a Hydor Koralia nano (900 lph)...

Hi This is not a problem (for now), just out of curiosity. I planted some Staurogyne repens 3 weeks ago. They took some time (up to last week) to start sprouting new leaves that are light green. They arrived in a sub-optimal condition, I must say. They look now really healthy. But the old...

I received a glass lily pipe which unfortunatelly was broken. I used several channels to communicate with CO2art and the chat line solved the problem in less that 10 seconds. I will definitelly purchase again as the problem was not their fault, but the courier instead.

Great service at CO2art. Used the chat line to explain the situation and they are sending the product again free of charge. I hope this time everything is fine (fingers crossed)

I received my order today (actually at 11:35 Spain). It was a glass Lily Pipe that, unfortunatelly arrived broken into pieces. What is the procedure now?. I do not want a refund but the Lily pipe... I contacted CO2art support team but I post also here to try to speed up things. Thanks Pedro

Hi Miroslav Thanks for your answer. Yes, I understand it may take that long, but hopefully not to Spain. I would understand that a shipping to Australia or Thailand may take as long as 40 days, but I would think that shipping to Spain would be, as you said, around a week. Thans again for your...

I placed an order yesterday using the free international shipping method. Order has to be delivered to Spain, but this type of shipping shows that it will take between... 7 to 40 days!!!!. I guess it depends on the country. But how long does it take for the order to be delivered to Spain from...

From my point of view it is simple. If plants grow healthy, there is less decaying matter as they do not rot. Decaying matter is decomposed by heterotrophic bacteria to different products but the most relevant here is ammonia. Ammonia spikes are one of the main factors for algae blooms (light...

Finally I have ordered a 80x40x35 cm with 6 mm glass for just 102 euros including delivery (76 euros manufacturing). Great price I think. The only drawback is that it will take around a month to get it. Well, no big deal as I emptied my current tank and as I started it as DSM, it will be DSM for...

Yes alto, that´s another idea that I have. I asked the guy if he can do it this size (he makes tanks ad-hoc), because it is not as high as 40 but not as low as 30. Just in-between. That size might be just what I want Waiting for his answer... Cheers Pedro

Thank you all guys. Andy, thanks a lot, I have already done that but I was not convinced. I know fish do not care about height, my idea is to use harlequin rasbora and maybe in a shallow tank they don´t look very good. Well I can always go for an even samller fish like rasbora briggittae or...

Hi all I realised this morning that I must have a leak in my tank. Not very important, but I may end up with a flooded floor and I am sure I don´t want that (and neither does my wife for sure). So I am thinking on buying a new tank (she, my wife, has seen the small puddle on the aquarium table...

Thanks to both. I'll keep on doing the large WC for now.

If you do that, what would be the recommended turnover?. I guess the 10x rule does not apply anymore in such case. Is it back to 3x or 5x or what? Cheers Pedro

Hi all Well, I have a doubt. After reading many forum pages, I have some concerns. I had a DSM tank running for 8 weeks with Eleocharis sp mini. I just flooded it last monday (November 2nd 2015). The substrate is ADA Amazonia. My tap water pH is 7.65 (data from water company report and...

I would agree with Smells Fishy. 10x flow rule already accounts for non-real flow. So 106 would be OK as it is rated at 550 lph or the Eco Pro 130 (500 lph). If money is not an issue, go for the 200 (600 lph). Better too much than too little. There are always ways to decrease flow, but much less...

Hi all I have a question before I buy this pump (Hydor Seltz L30). My tank is a 60x30x45 cm on its 8th week DSM. I will flood it probably next week, I´ll attach an Eheim 2213 filter that I currently have attached to a box to keep my fish. It is just 1/3 full with foam and still the flow is...

Thanks Darrel. They look like those, but smaller (1 mm max), so I guess you´re right ( and also was I supposing what I did). Reading your link, they do not seem dangerous to well stablished plants. So I do not worry (actually I wasn´t) Thanks a lot Pedro

Thank you guys. Likes for everyone ;);););););)

Hi I am in my 7th week of a DSM with Eleocharis sp mini. In the past 1-2 weeks I have started to see really small flies (about 4-5 of about 1 mm or less in size) flying around inside the tank. Yesterday I saw a really small worm (not an earthworm) on top of a dead leaf of eleocharis. Kind of...

Hi everyone My real name is Pedro but I go by the name "herezor". I am from the Basque Country, a city called Durango to be more precise. Joined some time ago but just reading for now until I decided today to introduce myself. I have a 60x30x45 cm tank doing DSM at the moment with Eleocharis...