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My short answer is it depends on what you want to achieve. My slightly longer answer is my advice would be to go back to first principles. if you have a hexagonal aquarium and want a nature style aquarium I would treat it as a cube and scape it accordingly. I use natural lanscape features for...

You can also use leaf cuttings to propagate java fern varieties very quickly and produce huge numbers of plantlets to fill out a space.

If l plant Java Fern on wood it spreads fairly evenly in a month or so , it's one plant that does well for me ,soon impossible to see the rhyzone. Maybe it's the soft water. I do have to take off leaves every so often

From my own tank, Ray's scape looks to be around 2 years growth. Though thats probably highly influenced by lighting levels and Co2. My own tank has around 25 to 30 lumens/l and I can split that scape into 5 pots that would turn into that in a couple of years. Thats running with 30ppm of co2.

You could look at the easy plant range such as Tropica and in a tank like yours plant ,foreground, middle and your right stems at back and something like hygro.polysperma in a small 4 or 5 to a bunch, along the back, trim regular should look good

I used to really like those overhead filters as favoured by early aqua_one ( aquariums) Quite surprised they haven't been marketed for all aquarium general sizes, but could be done with a little DIY. You could do your mantainence in 10 or 15 minutes

You won't find that on UKAPS. I don't agree with some; some don't agree with me. But the commonality between all of us is fish, plants and nature. I am a technology and fish man on a forum who loves and promotes plants. 😀 I have never felt more welcome and have learnt so much in the process.

I would say the dirty brown wins! 😀 My HEL-X13 goes in white, and gets brown over time. I took some out before summer (consolidation from 2 x 250 to 1 x 350) left in my wfies greenhouse and it went white again.

Is that high tech MrClock Off?

Hello bazz :) Thank you for taking the time to comment on my ramblings. I really appreciate the input! We are going down to see the monster in law at the end of October :( I may be able to squeeze in a trip to Horizon so it may not be all bad news :D Hello richardcunliffe :) Thank you for the...

It truly does. I personally explain to people who are new, who wish to research on their own rather than being mentored, is to become successful with one guide they find the most comfortable to start with, and understand why and how that one guide works before attempting exploring other ideas. I...

This is true, one of my ideas was that no aquarium needs to be setup by only utilizing brand new elements. They can be seeded easily beforehand, which is extremely common. The most common being the already seasoned sponges from other aquariums, or plants that have already adapted to the water it...

I’d say this probably will take a year with single buce and anubias plant in optimal conditions? I’m just comparing with my tank where I used two pots of each. I found that if you are on the budget then if you cut off a plantlet once in a month or two and replant the cuttings. This is after a year

A piezo air pump should be fine for that if you're just supplying some additional water movement. I've got 2 of these though they've nearly doubled in price so might be worth having a look around. The pumps themselves are practically silent, you only hear the bubbles breaking at the surface.

I have red the information and watched some videos, but I am struggling. Have 60L hexagonal 23-24C. I want it to look nice but it’s not because I put one plant here and one plant there. I think I should have put bunches together… But how many plants is a bunch and how many is too many?? Because...

Update: I think I have had luck from River Park Aquatics. Before purchase I asked if they had male and female and they advised they thought so. I ordered 6 scarlet badis and asked for a mixture of male and female. I think out of the 6 I received 1 female, 3 Sub-dom males and 2 dominant males...

It’s a 60L hexagonal and I have a filter and some java fern, duck weed, anubias and a few more plants. I do use the air pump as often as I can, but it makes that silly buzzing.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give estimates on the spread rate of a plant you’ve attached to a rock, or wood etc The reason why I asked this is because I have anubias that are years old, but while they have created plenty of new leaves and roots their rhizome is almost as it was when I...

Do you miss the smell? 😄 I visit a few waste sites with work (was at a landfill the other week) and they’re often surprised that I’m not bothered by the smell. After a couple of years working on sewage treatment, most everything else smells pretty good.

Needed a bit of life, and 10 Serpae tetras have definitely added it! Rarely seen such feisty wee fish! 😂👍 unfortunately they don’t stay still for long and the lights are dim so all a bit blurry… Cheers

We’re a nice community here. We have some ‘lively’ discussions at time but generally, the discussion here is open and thoughtful. Animal welfare is a subject which may get heated and have a difference of opinions but at the heart of it, everyone just wants our pets to have the best life we can...

I haven’t at present. They seem to have settled down a bit. I think as someone else has commented, they’re just happy.

Hi all, I mainly play with <"clean water now">. I miss the wastewater work (mainly <"landfill leachate">), although some of it <"was pretty horrible">. cheers Darrel

Ah, understood, then I will retract a few statements. I am quite used to being immediately shut down on certain... other communities within the hobby when it comes to presenting alternative advice. I may have taken your reply as knee jerk retaliation, so I apologize. Yes you are absolutely...

@dw1305, you would have enjoyed playing with the system! Ferric chloride was precisely the flocculant we used, and we brought the water from pH 3 to at least 9.5 to get rid of Ni2+ before discharge. We designed the process thinking we were going to have a lot of Ni2+ in the effluent, but the...

This is what i planted: 601 -> c. Ferruginea Sekadauensis (bit clueless about this plant) 78 -> c. Green Gecko between 78 and 975 behind them is 267 975 -> c. Yujii 267 -> echinodorus reni (you can't really see it in this picture) 180 -> echinodorus big bear (it is a large plant in the very...

Hi all, It is. cheers Darrel

I also think that mqtt would be the biggest obstacle for most. Maybe a local webserver on the NodeMCU could work, I have no experience with that. But it shouldn't be difficult to do. An SD card could be used to store the data. The display can be also added. I have some D091-12832-I2C/BL displays...

Hi all, That is it, wastewater treatments tend to rely heavily on using sodium hydroxide (or "caustic soda" - (NaOH)) for pH correction, mainly to counteract the drop in pH when using ferric (or aluminium) based coagulants. We have some bits on <"ferric compounds"> as precipitants for...

Hi all, They use <"limestone in the catchments"> sometimes, but it has gone a bit out of fashion recently. I'm pretty sure they aren't using it in water treatment, although sodium carbonate (Na(CO3)2) would be an option. Any carbonate compound would add dKH and CaCO3 isn't really soluble enough...

Is it Tradescantia Spathacea?

Hello guys, I need help id-ing this terrestrial plant please Thank you Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

I hadn't thought about that. In my previous job we treated the effluent water from a process line with caustic soda precisely to precipitate heavy metals (which we would coagulate, sediment and then filtrate). I was thinking the high pH in the treatment plant might be from treating it with...

In my experience, red means happy and pale means stressed with these guys.

Hi all, What do you mean <"starting to believe ..........">. Honestly it is the truth, and the <"bigger the better">. Starting using the 12" x 4" x 4" Koi sponges was one of the best things I ever did. I only started because <"Rainbow Koi"> is 10 minutes down the road, you get <"a lot of...

Piezo air pumps are probably the quietest small air pump, certainly that I've used. What dimensions are the tank and is it your only form of filtration or additional?

Yes on the Siporax. The last time I looked it was still quite white in the Eheim and dirty brown in the Biomaster.

... or they are just happy to have new friends.... ;) I am very happy with my Rummy-nose tetras - I've had a school for several years. They never seem to bother about other fish in the tank - but of course the newly introduced bottom dwellers might have spooked them a bit if you didn't have...

I bought a cheap air pump from The Range. Please, please, please let me know what can I buy that won’t be as noisy. I know they make noise, but this sounds bad. It makes buzzing sound at times and I don’t think thats safe to use.

Hello - do you have a picture you can provide?

As long as the water you add contains no chlorine and roughly the same amount of Calcium/Magnesium (GH) and measures roughly the same EC (TDS) as the water you replace you can change as much water as you want. EC/TDS directly influences osmoregulation. Shrimps are quite sensitive to EC/TDS...

I want everyone to remember that this was my idea, and licenses are available on www.makebradveryrich.com. 😆

Hi all, Scroll over on the "dw1305" user name on any of my messages and "send direct message" should come up as an option. cheers Darrel

My view from experimentation is its a good idea to have some mechanical filtration (intake pipe, pre-filter) but if you have a low bio-demand to high bio-media ratio then it becomes even less important. But, overall, I support mechanical filtration and Darrel's view. I assume you have Siporax...

🤣🤣 you will need to help me how to private message you? I’m not the sharpest tool in the toolbox so to speak when it comes to technology. Thanks mate, you’re a diamond James

I’m starting to believe what Darrel has been saying all along. The best solution is a sponge on the intake pipe. I personally am not particularly impressed with the pre filter on my Biomaster. There’s bypass going on somewhere resulting in debris covering my bio media (Siporax). The water in my...

Hi. I have a small number of RN tetras in my aquarium. I introduced some new fish today and all seems calm and all happy. The only noticeable change is the noses of the RNT have visibly gone very very red - vibrant - which I haven’t seen before. I’m assuming this is just a reaction to the new...

I’ve been using JBL filter floss for 20 odd years, never had an issue.

Indeed!

nice work, all my questions I wanted to ask, are covered in your Github page instructions. I don't have any experience with development boards, this is an exceptional good opportunity to get some ;-) I'm moderately skilled in physics and computer science/programming, so your instructions don't...

Hi all, PM me your address, £5 (to cover p&p) for as much as I can stuff in a takeaway container. cheers Darrel

I appreciate that very much, so kind of you to offer. I’m hoping to re scape my 60p over the weekend, and that would come in handy for sure.

Hi all, If you want some of my <"moss mountain">? You are more than welcome. cheers Darrel

Thanks for the info @Wookii

Thanks for your help. Interesting to know about all this. I honestly didn’t realise that moss was a “thing” and people liked to grow it etc. I’ve got a lot of learning to do haha 😅 appreciate you help darrel James

Hi all, Unfortunately it is paddling job normally (possibly train the dog, a bit like a truffle dog?). There are plenty of aquatic UK mosses that you can find <"Quick growing moss for low tech">, bizarrely ones that often sell for <"serious money"> or are <"commercially unobtainable">...

Swap those out for live ones - it'll be better for your tank, and more interesting for you as an aquarist. Shrimp only for a tank at that size - it's too small for any fish.

Yes, thats fine. You might find it easier making up a liquid solution to dose with, as the raw salt can talk a little while to dissolve. It will be completely fine - folks have been dosing these to shrimp tanks for decades without issue, as long as you don't dump half the bottle in, the...

That’s great to know, and I’ll have my eyes open next time we’re out walking the dogs. I wonder if they’ll be any down in Canterbury adjacent to the beautiful rivers running through the town.

I did notice that on the sale/swap page. But with it in such demand, there’s a quite the queue for it. With me being me ( extremely impatient ) i just went ahead and bought some.

Hi all, I'll have a look out for it if I'm doing any stream surveys <"Fissidens fontanus - British Bryological Society">. It isn't actually that uncommon in the UK (but only in clean streams) and you can sometimes find it on rocks under bridges etc. cheers Darrel

thanks for the info that’s good to know. What a shame to know that the stuff we had bought initially could well have been revived? You’ll have to excuse my ignorance with this, because it’s all new to me.

Sometimes it's put up for Sale or Donation in this case below! It is so slow growing therefore that reflects on the price. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/fissidens-fontanus.75304/

Stopped being produced commercially, but does come back time to time. Doesn’t do well in gel Lovely fern like fronds Invasive in tanks, as in most people who have it are like “how do I get rid of it” Also know to survive being dried out in storage for years…

Hi all. So what is it that’s so special about this moss? A while back, when me and the wife paid a visit to aquarium gardens, we were casually browsing at all the beautiful scapes they have, We noticed this moss in one of their tanks. We both instantly fell in love with it ( I know that sounds...

Agreed. You can get some beautiful nano fish but in that tank, I’d keep some shrimp. They are very easy to look after and come in a few different colours.

You have no nitrate export other than by doing water changes. If you put real plants in (even just floating ones) they will consume some of the nitrate as food so it will reduce on its own. Regular water changes is the key if you are going for a setup without any real plants as that’s the only...

Hi all, Thank-you for <"some details">, The Fritz 7 probably hasn't done any harm, I'm not personally keen on gravel or <"fake plants">. I'm also not a fan of making decisions <"based on test kit results">. <"Cycling is a divisive term">, unfortunately there is no way of knowing. I'd guess...

Hi all, Consider me enraged. That is really the important thing. As long as the filter media is: Being bathed in dissolved oxygen rich water, and the water flowing out of the filter is still oxygenated? That is all that matters, it doesn't really matter what the journey was. cheers Darrel

Interesting, I don't really use filter floss anymore and luckily I haven't experienced the issue. I'd advise anyone who did to get straight in touch with the manufacturer, may be able to help others from suffering the same fate.

Hi all, I can't go, but it would be a good gig. cheers Darrel

Really sorry everyone, I forgot to continue and come back to this!! OK, so what have I don't in that time? (One thing is for sure, and that is enrage @dw1305 by using my filter as a syphon! 😛 ) Without the scientific approach to record this, here is what I done (+reminders) and my views: I...

A local breeder was looking to get rid of his Hoplisoma knaacki so two friends and I decided to take them off his hands. I bought three of them: 20241001_170218 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr 20241001_170346 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

There have still been issues after washing this filter media, going by one poster!

Hi all, I think we have a <"Mineralised Top Soil"> (MTS) thread that <"caused some confusion">. The there is also "Multiple Tank Syndrome" (MTS) <"help with translation 'MTS'">. I'm thinking of a new post something along the lines of....... As clear as mud (or non-mineralised top soil)...

Alternanthera Reineckii. Maybe the Rosanervig variety, but unsure

Hey Bradders, Any updates on your experiment? I have cleaned mine once since then. The10 ppm sponge was OK, only the last 30 ppm sponge was "clogged" with the collected mulm. I give it a quick squeeze. It was still brown, not blue as the original colour and just a quick shake to the 10 ppm...

Hi all, It is because of the water company using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) injection for <"control of plumbosolvency">. The reason the values are so strange is that NaOH is a "strong base", so only need a small volume addition to raise the pH. Because it is a "strong base" <"strong and weak...

Here is the GitHub page with instructions. Note that building the monitor requires some skills like soldering, programming of development boards, and data handling. The monitor now connects to mqtt broker and sends mqtt messages that need to be caught and stored somehow. I use Home Assistant for...

Welcome to UKAPS

As Picard said to the Borg Queen.

I guess the network between the plant and our home. I am going to let the tap water standing and then do another test... And probably check our neighbours' water in case we need a plumber!

Hi all, That is the problem with FB etc., if it is a "members only" group you may get informed discussion, but it is hidden away from most punters. If you have an open group? Then you better be pretty thick skinned <"Facebook Planted Tank Groups">. I've <"had to apologise a few times">, but...

Hi all, I think we would all be interested. I have a <"quarantine tank"> that doesn't have any permanent residents, and therefore no ammonia source, but it is mature and planted and I have absolutely no compunction in <"adding fish to it">. That is why I come back to probability all the time...

I have seen products come and go from both sides as End Consumer and Retailer. When these Bacteria Products 1st started appearing in the early 2000's even i was sceptical about them, and the spiel the reps gave about them. Since then I have tried and tested many of these and found the ones...

I am still perplexed why the 44 water supplier tests done up to June this year, never had tap water lower than a pH of 7.8. But you are getting much lower! How weird is that?! I know these things are never totally bang on, but still.......

I think I might try the 25% once a week. Thanks both. Would stirring in Prime to the bucket of new water before adding it to the tank be an adequate substitute for leaving out for 24hrs (particularly as I don't have a spare means of aeration/agitation)? I like the idea of adding the Epsom to...

I've got the older model and it has been running for 3 1/2 years without any problems, now I don't think I could live without it.

Morning update... Tank water test results with JBL strips: NO3 = 10 ppm NO2 = 0 ppm GH = 4 - 7 degrees KH = 0 degrees pH = 6.4 (or lower?) Cl2 = 0 ppm Tank water test results with Aqua are Master Test Kit: NO3 = 5 - 10 ppm (very weak, but progressively growing) NO2 = 0 ppm NH3 = 0 ppm KH = 0...

25% once a week will fine for low tech if you don't really want to go through with two. As long as you are replacing the old water with new from the same source and if you prepare your water prior to the change i.e. leave for 24 hours to off-gas (Chlorine) preferably with agitation, bring it up...

Hello everybody, I am a new member and I have a question and I hope I can get some answers please: I am in the 3rd week of cycling a new Nano Tank. I have used fritz 7 to boost the cycling process, I have a Tetra 250 filter system Gravel substrate Ph 7.5 with fake plants. I am also using a...

This kind of informed & measured debate in an online forum is so rare, and one of the reasons why I like this site so much 🙂

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/please-read-the-guidelines-for-plant-help.60671/

Looking great @Spartacus, and text book start up. As a low tech tank, 5 hours of lighting is a little too low I'd say (I start all mine on 12 hours out of the gate). I'd start stretching it out if I were you, bump it up to 8 hours, and gradually increase it to 12. You can always dial the Vivid...

I think that’s everyone outside the home countries.

Ah I think you misunderstood me. The British expression “call it a day” just means to do nothing further. So in my context I’m saying that placing a fish in a bowl with no further research, effort or interest is objectively bad. I agree with you, you can maintain a healthy environment from the...

I feel that we have to be over cautious when giving advice to newbies and always err on the side of taking things very slow/safe. The average person doesn't seem to do basic research, nor do they seem to overly care about the fish much as they are "just fish", although I would argue that a...

Welcome, nice looking cubes you have there :)

Hi!

Hello there!