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I noticed that clay does separate from water over time - if not agitated it creates one of those higher and lower density liquid viewy things - I think you just need to do a lot of water changes. Run a secondary filter stuffed with high density filter pads. Should clear up. Just re-read you...

You are very welcome :) Don't worry, it's the sort of hobby where you will always have more things you can learn - whether you've been doing it 2 months or 20 years. I don't tire of people like you, I only personally tire of the people who put lots of live fish in a tank and then start asking...

Thanks, i appreciate the fact you have taken your time and given some reassurance. I’m located in Herne Bay, Kent, which i know we have hard water? The thing is, I’m not the brightest spark out there 😁, so it’ll take me some time to even make sense of it all. Currently my planted tank is looking...

Thanks for your reassurance, and please excuse my ignorance.i know for you more experienced people, it must be tiring for people the likes of me that go head first into something without properly understanding the process, then coming onto places like this and asking the most basic of questions.

Thanks. I’m sorry for not really putting my point across properly here, I was in kind of a rush yesterday 😅. From how i interpreted it was, that using aqua soil was a no no when it comes to hard tap water? and that to get the best out of it would be to use RO instead. Something to do with...

As Bradders has said, there are many variables and most manufacturers list canister flow rates without any restrictions (tubing/head height/filter media etc). There are ways to maximise flow if your filter is slightly underpowered, by fine tuning the placement in relation to your scape, using a...

Plenty of people with harder water use aqua soil, if it does hinder the CEC of the soil, it wouldn't mean you're going to have a disaster with your new setup, just that it may not be able to buffer excess nutrients as well, there are of course ways to lower PH if you feel the need to go that route.

Sorry I didn’t quite get my point out there. So I was doing a general google search and aqua soil and tap water, it came up with discussion on here about hard water blocking the exchange capacity. There’s me thinking straight away, I’ve made a huge mistake etc. really i should have took a bit...

Could you send us a picture of the tank and algae please @Riley ?

The general rule is that the filters don't output the top rate published - and between 50-66% of the advertised rate is the rule. This is not simply because of 'manufacturer tricks' but because every environment is different - longer hose runs, installation head height, etc. Only Fluval seems...

Degassing needs some time, I usually had to aerate the water for 30-60 minutes to get close to equilibrium. Also, the equilibrium is a moving target, there is no constant CO2 level indoors. The outdoor CO2 is more stable but the equilibrium with that CO2 is around 0.6 ppm in water. A drop of 1...

I would consider the same brand but probably a newer model. Just not sure the advertised flow rates are what I will get. I was looking at the Pro 4+ but it would need to output 64% of advertised. Does this seem realistic?

Leaking is not good but not sure how anyone can find cleaning a Biomaster hard? Were you doing something incorrect perhaps? Fluval 07’s are great, not doing the same job since one of the main appeals of the Biomaster is the integrated heating, thus adding complication.

People recommend cleaning algae with a toothbrush (see these tips) but I agree with hypnogogia :)

Hi James. Welcome to the forum. Could you link us to the articles you’ve read that have lead you to think you’ve made a mistake? How hard is your water? You can get a water report from your local utility. If you’re not sure who that is, let us know where in the country you are and we can...

Shaking the sample is the method @X3NiTH uses, and if good enough for 'The Half Blood Prince ' its a valid method for me. The shaking just speeds up the equilibrium with the atmosphere, just need to take sure the air gets refreshed if using test tube.

Thanks Murray, they're brilliant little fish and are great fun to watch. I never thought I'd be mesmerised by small catfish sifting through sand but it's happened! I'd like a bigger tank eventually with a few types of Cory in as they're definitely a firm favourite for me. Thanks Luke

15 years is going to be hard to beat! Eheim Pro 3 are still out there, would you consider rolling the dice on the same brand/model?

Hi @Julii - if could be septicemia, which is caused by bacteria. As a result, it's hard to treat, which may be why MA gave you the worst-case scenario. I don't personally know of any effective medicines that treat this faster than the bacteria can kill. Perhaps others can chime in with there...

The wood is all staying, as are most of the plants and the filter so really I shouldn’t lose much bacteria replacing the sand. However, I agree with you. Probably won’t hurt to leave a bag of old sand in with the new stuff until it’s ready to go in.

Thanks mate. I think the substrate in my tank is probably mostly expired by now so the nutrients will be coming from the soluble ferts I add. I can plant it in some of the left over substrate from the tank to prevent shock. I may be able to keep it near the tank for a little while too as it...

Hi all. Does anyone have any information of the real life flow of filters. I have been running an Eheim Pro 3e for nearly 15 years and it seems to be giving up, the lights are just scrolling and its running at best 50% of its normal output. I am therefore in the market for a replacement...

That’s looking great - I’ll try what you’ve done. I’m getting side plate sized leaves every week on mine. It’s flowering for the third time and I get about 6 plantlets on each one. I want to keep it going as it’s a very happy plant but it can’t stay in the tank much longer, it’s huge. 😄

O, sorry, I thought there was one when people were requesting help for fish issues. My apologies. I must be going mad!

If you mean the one about tank information, that’s really only for algae help and plant health help, which it’s why it’s a sticky in the algae forum.

Hello Julii and welcome to UKAPS 😊 Hope you enjoy you’re stay and thank you for sharing the photos! I love the Corydora photo! I need to get some of them they look cute. Best Wishes, Murray

Does anyone know where the link is to share Julli with the information needed for the post? I looked for the sticky and cannot find it anywhere!

Good luck

You’d be better off treating the cause of the algae. Treating with algexit is only a short term solution as your algae will invariably return until you treat the cause.

I have small amount of stringy algae in my tank, I have used my tank tweezers to twist it around and remove it, should I use a treatment , I have used easy life algexit previously. Any other thoughts would help Thanks

Hello 👋, welcome to UKAPS.

A quick Sunday update: The substrate system is done. For this I’m using the Dennerle substrate system (Scapers soil and Deponit mix). I’ve also added some ADA Bacter100 and Tourmaline because why not. And now we wait for the dark start to do its thing. [emoji1365]

The tank is due a clean tomorrow BTW so excuse the dirty glass etc, the snails aren't as thorough at cleaning as I'd hoped 😂

New scape incoming …

I forgot to say I'm new to fish keeping and the tank has been going for nearly three months without issues until now.

Hi all I had 6 Julii Corydoras until four days ago, I found one dead with what appeared to be a big red wound on the side, I didn't take a photo but it looked just like this Panda Cory https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/4274-panda-cory-dead-red-blotch-or-injury-on-its-side/ So I went to...

Hi all I'm new here, I found this forum a few days ago when looking at red spot disease online and it looked like a decent forum so I thought I'd join. I've got a 56L tank with the following fish 4x Zebra Nerite Snails 5x red cherry shrimp 7x Cardinal Tetra (I asked for 6 and paid for 6 but...

Oops wasn't aware of this method. Apologies for misleading info.

Hi Elle, I had a similar cloudy water issue starting with Argos play sand and corbo catfish wood. Tannins and particulates galore! In the end, I had to take all the substrate out and rewash it until the water ran clear using both a bucket and a bowl in my bath 🙃. I didn't clean it initially as I...

I agree. I am not an expert but I don't see what the big mistake is. I don't think you have done anything wrong. There will be some plants that wont do so well in harder water but in general you should be fine in my opinion.

Those are good values. Then we can rule out too much pollution when solving the plants problem For me personally the limit is around 200. At higher values there are too many organic and inorganic substances in the water, which can cause problems.

Welcome! Looking forward to seeing some of your photos.

I had two 850 thermals. Apart from the benefit of having the heater in the filter, I didn't really get on with them. I found them overly complicated, and a lot of work to clean out. They both started leaking in the same way from the prefilter when they weren't that old. I sold them and now have...

@Ernesto that's so cool! I'd love to give it a go :) Your tank looks gorgeous Simon. I'm certainly less experienced than you, but it can't hurt to add some of the old substrate - I imagine the seasoned filter media etc will do the heavy lifting though.

Sorry, I’m not clear as to what your big mistake is.

Due to dinner constraints, I had to finish early, but you can see the increase throughout the photoperiod. (Worth noting - if relevant - I am currently only running lights for 6 hours and 25%). The lights turn off at 20:00, so I guess the question now is what will the DO level be at 08:00...

Yes.. :)

Hi, any tip for plant pot wall for bucephalandras? I have spare 40x40x40mm aquarium and I would like to add there walls with pots to grow bucephalandras. Something like UNS foresta holding plant system. Thank you for tips.

TDS is 245

Do you check the quality of the water using a TDS meter? I suspect that it is way too high.

Update so far on the readings. (17:00 was late, sorry). 08:30 - 4.80 mg/l 14:00 - 5.34 mg/l [Lights on] 18:00 - 6.25 mg/l 20:00 - TBC

100x50x50 cm.

Hi all, Yes. Is it a deep tank in relation to its length and breadth? Cheers Darrel

Your dosing looks more then sufficient, maybe a flow/CO2 related issue is all I can think about.

I'm curious, does anyone have longer experience with this type of aquarium? can you have such an aquarium for more than 2-3 years?

After a busy summer I think my journal is due an update! As you can see from the photo, the tank is currently very overgrown and the vallisneria is taking over somewhat, so I'm overdue some tank maintenance. (Though I'm sure the fish love it!). I think I've now lost my remaining cherry shrimp...

Great to see the forum back up! 🎉 I am here again seeking advice for my low tech tank (full details here - My first adventure into aquascaping - Aquael 125L Walstad). About 6 months ago I added a marimo moss ball I was given by someone online which unfortunately I now believe introduced...

Hi all. So I’ve stumbled across a couple of threads on here whilst having a general read about substrates. I have two tanks currently running, one of which I’m doing a dark start with and isn’t quite ready yet, and both tanks I’m using ADA Amazonia V2, with powersand advanced under this, as...

Yes, but that was at 08:30 in the morning, 5.5 hours before the photo period! In summary, it was olive green over night and was that way at 08:30. Not sure if that is saying the new tank is having a gass exchange issue......

Yeah the selection he brought to the show was really good.

Thanks, I’ll look into that, really appreciate all of your help. My tanks are fairly new so want to make sure I’m getting things right.

Hi all, That looks <"about right">, but you can actually <"check for yourself"> using the Rotala Butterfly nutrient calculator <"Nutrient Dosing Calculator">. I'd probably aim for 5 mg / L (ppm) Mg. If we went with @John q quantities, you can just do some mental arithmetic, it is all just...

I keep meaning to pop in there. Rumour has it they've a good selection of wood/plants to pick from?

Hi all, That is what I meant. I think that is the real issue, I really want to know what the tank water pH is, but I'm very wary of the values given by <"any single pH meter">. A drop checker, or a conductivity meter, doesn't give you fine scale resolution, but it does give you a value that...

Totally agree this. For the chemistry piece, this goes the other way... large differences in acid/base water chemistry make small differences in pH. This is true at all pH values (there's nothing special about pH 7). You don't have to worry about running out of alkalinity with CO2 injection...

It did concern me somewhat, too. I was expecting 5mg/l plus - so to get under that value WITH lots of plants AND CO2 injection AND no stocking was very odd. This is a new tank with new filters and fresh water. I need to look at this more closely. My photo period is currently set from 14:00 to...

Yes, but they can be a bit finicky at first, so give it a warm, bright and humid location until it starts putting out new leaves. I would also use sand rather than soil; it doesn't want a lot of nutrients until the roots have recovered, and big plants risk falling over in a too light substrate...

I would just declare victory right here.

After running good for a few months, my tank has started showing issues for the past few weeks. See my H. Siamensis and L. SuperRed. Two weeks ago, I drastically thinned and trimmed the tank, but it now seems like the resilience is gone. Weekly, I dose the following according to EI: NO3 20 ppm...

Hi all, That would concern me a bit especially combined with your CO2 drop checker <"not fully degassing overnight">. They do, but they are <"massively net oxygen producers">, so without the oxygen from photosynthesis things are actually likely to have been worse. It depends a little bit on...

Hi all, "Epsom Salts" are only 10% magnesium (Mg), because of the "<"water of crystallization"> the "7H2O" in MgSO4.7H2O. Cheers Darrel

my guess if it gets some light theres no need for an airstone since the roots still create O2. Took mine out 6 weeks ago, still growing.

Which is normal for must tanks which are injected with CO2 for the time of day. Takes longer than you think for tank to fully degas. So the tank may have 10 -15ppm CO2 when you start the CO2 injection. So trying to get a 1.0pH drop from CO2 on till lights on will lead to too much CO2 in tank -...

My tank is coming up to its birthday in November and I have some annual leave to take. I’ve decided it’s time to do a full re-scape on the tank. I have an Amazon sword plant which is far too big for the tank now. I plan to remove it and replant some of the babies it’s given me this year. I am...

Thanks, I was adding just a pinch.

Yep - it works on firefox. I guess google products have a problem with google browser ;)

Using firefox here, thats maybe the issue ?

For a 20L water change add 1g of Epsom salt. For a 120L water change add 6g of epsom salt. The above additions will increase the incoming water Magnesium levels to 4.9 ppm + whatever is in your tap water.

desktop using chrome.

Can you post the url you used; also the oriignal link is being run through a translator but i can't find the original url.

It takes a minute or 2 for the language to change and translate, working perfectly fine for me when i click the link...are you trying on your phone and not a laptop ?

Works for me…

Translate Can't translate this page Back to previous page --- https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://heimbiotop-de.translate.goog/cryptocoryne.html?_x_tr_sl%3Dde%26_x_tr_tl%3Den%26_x_tr_hl%3Den%26_x_tr_pto%3Dsc&client=webapp

You can pop the URL into google translate and it will translate the page for you.

For me the 2nd link is showing as german and each species i click on left also shows a page in german.

No you will have to check each species yourself if it fits the criteria, the second link i posted should come up as a English translation, it does for me, theres more relevent information on that site.

Unfortunately i'm a bit of a dummy and only know english; are all the species listed on the right blackwater or does each one have their own growing conditions ? Acutally it looks like you translated this to german; but i can't figure out the original url

Hi, guys when I’m doing water change on my tanks I use 100L water butt. Two of my tanks are 270L and one is 60L, for 60L one I use bucket 20L all tanks get water change once a week. One is dutch style planted tank 270l with co2 dosing TS, one is like nature style 270L no co2 sometimes I dose...

Theres plenty of Blackwater Cryptocoryne but they tend to be the more difficult species to get hold of and grow long term, these 2 pages should help but it really depends on what is available in the Usa. https://www.cryptocoryneworld.org/alphabet.php...

I have my new aquarium and am just getting it right at the moment. I had a few issues with floating wood, so the many plants there are just waiting for me to fix the aesthetics after they got uprooted! Replanted and reattached in a mess for now. VERY rudimentary testing at this point. I am...

Depending on what you’re looking for, there are several good online retailers. Pier Aquatics, TropCo, for example.

Hi all, The "problem" is really the pH meter, you just don't know if any of those readings are correct or incorrect. Because of the log10 nature of the pH scale when you are around pH7 small differences in water chemistry make large differences in pH <"CO2 tuning - need help">. You need @Andy...

Hi all, Yes it is, the better meters have this <"two point calibration">. cheers Darrel

Thanks everyone. I’m in no rush so can afford to spend / waste time letting the new tank settle in first. I’m more tortoise than hare. I have also decided to not use aqua soil in the new tank being its epiphyte only and I use an auto doser fertiliser system anyway. I plan to do a journal...

If Aquasoil can reduce the dKH of hard water to zero for approximately 6 months would it not be feasible to estimate a similar length of time to reverse the process, I'm just talking ballpark figures here and not scientific calculations?

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/show-us-your-maintenance-cart.71742/

Get yourself one of the cocktail trolleys from BnM, its a game changer. Load all the shelves with the bits and pieces you use most often for scaping and feeding maintenance etc. I keep foods on the 1st Shelf, maintenance bits in 2nd etc etc. I can wheel it about the kitchen as needed and makes...

I sometimes read that the standard KH testst in our tanks can't really be reliable. That would be because our the standard test kits don't measure the KH but only alikinetics It seems that the presence of other substances in our water can influence the KH. Such as phosphate, nitrate, silicate...

Lots of claims about no water changes but IME 30 to 50% water changes at start of any type low energy high energy benefits the aquarium then regular weekly/ fortnightly if you can,, add fast growing stems at set up