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Hi - looking for any advice please. I currently run 3 tanks, the oldest of which is a Fluval Roma 125l established 3 and a half years ago. My usual maintenance regime is a 25% water change and filter clean every 2 - 3 weeks. Last session being Sunday. Before each session I check the water. For...

Plottwist. Yesterday evening we noticed from the couch the tank became to much of a dark spot. I always enjoyed the moonlight reflecting from the sand in the evenings. But not any more. Every sparkle of light was absorbed. So this morning i got 30kg of JBL zanzibar 'river' with a new bucket of...

Yes, that might be the case. I've had crypts melt off all their leaves from merely being moved around in the same tank (while others would be fine) and then later bounce back and be just fine. I always considered crypts the snowflakes among the aquatic plants I've kept, but that might be a...

His general hardness is 18…

I think it's just as simple as a change in environmental conditions. Crypts exhibit an amazing degree phenotypic plasticity regarding leaf morphology in response to different environmental parameters. It's probably more energy efficient, as a longterm strategy, for them to shed old leaves and...

did you mean to type 18? Im confused, surely the ph isn't that high?? Thats gravel isn't it!! okay so maybe there isnt too much advantage for me to dilute mine if i am around 7ph. all the fun!

Because I live in Hertfordshire, my general hardness is around 18 so yes essentially I'm diluting it. I add the tap water so I don't have to add anything to my soft water. TDS of spotless water is 0 so I add tap and it's sitting at around 6degrees of hardness (in the smallest tank). I fill up a...

Maybe start with the basics of "constant voltage" design. https://www.homemade-circuits.com/how-to-calculate-and-connect-leds-in/ And understand the 2 ways to run leds.. Constant Voltage v.s. Constant Current LED Drivers - uPowerTek I picked the constant voltage method because controller s...

Thats interesting. I have one of those Spotless water places near me. Because it is essentially pure water?? do you not have to add anything to it or is that the job of the tap water? Are you basically diluting tap water if you see what i mean? What is the main reason for using Spotless Water...

This is a great YT clip but i found it way to fast. Also it looks like two tanks are being setup which was a bit confusing. Thanks for posting though! You mention ramp down. I didnt realise that, or remember setting it up but apparently i did as my light was doing so last night. Si

It's my understanding Flourite is a baked clay substrate like Safe-T-Sorb or Turface - little to no nutrient value itself, so you need to fertilize your plants like you would with gravel or sand. I have never used it myself though.

Thank you 😊

Hi all, A tea towel out of the drawer, then put it on the hook to dry, hoping that my wife doesn't notice that I've spilled water everywhere. Cheers Darrel

Hi all, It honestly looks OK. Moss carpet? It looks like Bristlenose (Ancistrus) damage to Anubias & Bucephalandra. Cheers Darrel

Hi all, That is very different from the water that most of us in the UK would get. No nitrate (NO3-) and very variable conductivity. I'm guessing that it is mainly from desalination plants? Cheers Darrel

Okay it is been a while. Got RO device, going to mix ro and tap water today hope finally it will grow. Also got chihiros wrgb2 pro.

Yes seen both in a short time frame , UKAPS had an event at Aquarium Gardens. Aquarium Gardens is very good but Green Aqua was at another level IMO the main difference was all Green Aquas tanks get remineralized RO water. When I was at Aquarium Gardens they was having the same issue that myself...

Thank you :)

Thank you. I'm just a little worried about the number of fish actually and how messy they are when eating. And I say I very likely won't add any more of them, but I still want some Corydoras concolor and Corydoras eversi if I can get my hands on them. Also one of my favourite LFS also recently...

I have had a few in my tank over the last couple of months. Most of the nymphs I’ve been able to catch and take out. Have seen a couple of adult damsels in the house but I’m hoping these have not bred and relaid eggs. I have soooo many cherry shrimp in the tank at the moment (I rescued about 100...

Really? Have you seen the @Aquarium Gardens showroom? They use tapwater and I'm super impressed with their tanks. (disclosure: I haven't visited Green Aqua)

I wouldn't have thought you need any more filtration, if it's more flow you require the use of small powerhead would suffice and they're certainly no more obtrusive than a HOB. But maybe that's not what you're after so take it with a pinch of salt.

Looks beautiful!

In response to your question about mixing water, I asked this many times a while back - on the advice of the forum I mix two of my tanks. One is as Darrel said, its spotless water (essentially RO but cheaper) with literally a splash of tap and the other tank is more like 70/30 RO/tap. I dont...

Hiya guys, Ive been away a while but im back nosing around the forum. I thought I would share some pictures of the tanks I have up and running at the moment especially as I spent last year asking endless questions on here and your knowledge has resulted in me being very happy with my tanks...

It’s probably best to use the Auto menu. This allows the schedule timer function to be used. You can then set the intensity of the light and the ramp up and ramp down times which are similar to sunrise and sunset. I use 2 light schedules per 24 hours. I’ll send my settings later. YouTube is good...

Welcome! :wave: Please do, and I look forward to seeing a few snaps.

Welcome to UKAPS

Good morning, Have you not added your water report parameters to the Core Settings along with ensuring the tag 'Planning to use RO Water' is set to 'No' under the 'Tank and Dosing tag, I know your water contains very little but it will give a more complete picture? Cheers!

All we know is Crypts are prone to melt ,especially. in early stages of the aquarium, or first planting ,probably transioning so keep trimming discarding old leafs and watch out for new green leafs, everything should improve

Those are the sorts of values a lot of people get. My "problem" is that it is all limestone where I live and dust from ploughing and quarrying ends up on all surfaces. Cheers Darrel

I've read that the blue is what causes algae I'm so confused 😂

Cheers I'll try to find the YouTube link👍

I’ve seen leaves go from healthy green to graying transparent mush over the course of a couple of days and I’ve seen leaves yellowing and withering over a couple of days as well. While I do think the former description is more what hobbyist refer to, I don’t think we have a firm definition of...

Crypts in the morning 😍 Aquarium is starting to look good! Rotala has settled and growing 2cm a day. Monte carlo took a heavy trim low at the front and was yellow behind the brown algae. Hopefully it will fill in soon with nice green leaves. Probably its to thick now and wants a full cut back.

A bunch of Corydoras were out and about yesterday evening so I decided to take a picture. Current fish list 1. Corydoras sterbai x 5 2. Corydoras caudimaculatus x 5 3. Corydoras CW51 x 5 (6th one in a hospital tank as he appears to be approaching the end of his life) 4. Corydoras CW27 x 3 5...

Also one of my lotus' is very stunted they are next to each other by about 6 inch apart. One has already reached surface level and the other is barely sending out any leaves 🍃 which is weird.

Sitting infront of the tank this morning while remunating with a big mug of Tea. I've ordered 25kg of sand to add to the foreground. I'll order more if needed. Ordered the V10 Hailea to see what's its like and for the price not too worried. I want the kind of outflow they have in the UGFs in...

Can make it easy for me with the spectrum thing.These are brod terms to catch upon. If you have time would u teach me more on those terms and i don't know how to use raycal 2.0. I just thought spectrum can be changed with use of Bluetooth controllers.Bt making a light jst like Chihiros vivid...

Well how I used watts in the above is a generalization with the assumption of equal efficiency across models. Holds fairly true for main stream "stick" lights. I could have easily said 1-$2 / 100 lumens. Except for the fact that RGB lights have a lumen count lower than its photon count since red...

Hello folks. Here again but this time with direct focus on my plant health. I am really at my whitsend now and just losing the fight. 330Ltr Tap Water (Manchester area) 24.5C 2 Filters, 1 with skimmer (Biomaster 600T & Eheim 600 Pro) Purigen and Carbon TMC Vectron UV Inline CO2 2 hr before...

APT Cheap? Maybe for small tanks. As example I have 800 liters tank, and 1 liter of apt 3 will last for me only 5 weeks. And price for a liter is 50 euro. For 50 euro I can get dry salts for 24 weeks at least.

Thanks, and sorry for delayed reply :) Seahorse id my to-go for ada stuff. They usually have what I need. :)

Christmas moss 😁

Welcome! :)

Darrel, a little off topic but coincidently I took a sample of our rain water earlier - runoff from our roof. I was quite astounded: TDS 6 ppm (EC 12 uS/cm) I should probably consider collecting rain water during spring and summer :) ... perhaps ship and sell it overseas ... with some...

@Ady34 which moss did you use for the moss wall?

Hi Due to the uncertainties with respect to the quality and output, it may be better in the longer term to purchase an aquarium specific light. The modern lights like the Chihiros are very customisable via their app: timers, intensity and colour. “Spend now to save later”

Welcome

Melting leaves go pale then translucent. If you touch it with something it will break off easily.

I don't precisely mix it, I used to use a conductivity datum range, but now I just use the size and colour of the Red Ramshorn snail shells. If they are all small and very pale I add a dash of tap. Our rainwater still has some carbonate buffering, so the pH is still over pH 7, but the hardness...

Getting there or to dark?

Hi all, I use the Daphnia bioassay, basically as long as the water butt has swimming Daphnia, the water is good. You are very unlikely to get any fish parasites, but you could potentially get Flatworms (Planaria). Cheers Darrel

My two Nano’s (60L and 37L) are both rimless but I still use glass covers. They are held in place with small clear plastic clips. My two tanks are a lot easier to keep clean than the braced 200L tank I had years ago. I’m still considering getting another 200+ L tank and would like to go...

Thread 'Adding purchased plants into a New Set-up aquarium!' Adding purchased plants into a New Set-up aquarium!

Or someone with a 3D printer could try make you the bracket!

If its the app you are trying to reconnect, try clearing the cashe on the app and then restart your phone, double check you are on latest version of the app too.

Dark substrate is in the house.

If in the wrong location, please move - apologies. I've had a Chihiros dosing pump (4 head) running for about 6 mos now. No problems with it at all - a few days ago it must have randomly disconnected and for the life of me, I cannot get it to reconnect. The app does not locate the doser. I have...

Welcome :) Starting a journal is a good idea, then we can follow your journey, and if needed offer advice along the way.

Test spot with Dupla 'ground colour black star' 1 / 2mm. Think it looks nice and the fish seem to like it also. Only thing its a b*tch to rinse since in the beginning almost everything floats.

I guess this is the essence of my questioning. Is there room for a 50% higher efficiency in 6500K white LEDs? Are the numbers for both models believable, or is someone lying? I remember you saying 1~2 US$/W for fixtures with more or with less features, but that third model is less than 0,20 US$/W.

I give you full permission for as much spam as you like

I collect rainwater from a large shed with a rubber roof. I clean out the 210L water butt every now and then to keep it fairly clean. The lid on the butt is sealed to stop bugs getting in. I also clean the gutter that feeds it from time to time and there’s also a coarse sponge at the top of...

Time for another spam :D Trimed it recently, so a bit ugly Flowers are from Echinodorus Uruguay ensis

Hello 👋, welcome.

This forum is a great resource! I have been keeping aquariums on and off for 40 years - mostly small planted community tanks that I could move around with me during my itinerant years as a junior doctor. I am in the process of setting up a EA Reef Pro 1500 I came across second hand as a planted...

Up until my most recent build I had run EI on every single tank - I had come into the hobby about the same time that Tom Barr started with EI and I kind of latched onto it. I did also try PPS for a short while and found it cumbersome. To me, there are very few cons to EI, and maybe only one...

Simplist would be to use the multi chips. RGB or rgb6500kw. Controls color blending. As to controllers cheapest is if you design it to be run at constant voltage not current. That is what's used to control those 5m ribbons of LEDs ect. Designing around it is a bit of hit and miss as to the size...

Well worth a visit and does a good city break at the same time

What the wattage actually is is really secondary to how efficient it is.. You count photons not watts Yes the Chinese get creative in labelling. Like the reef tank common " black box " led that has the TITLE of " 165w" while actually consuming at 100% 110 watts. And also has ( or had) poor...

I recon that taking home a tank from green aqua would be like having your garden re-turfed. Looks great for a month or two and then turns into the crap you had before. Saying that i would really like to go! Thanks!

They don't say how many LEDs are used, but there are images. Option 1 looks like it has only 12 LEDs and Option 2 has 48. I just found a third option that has exactly the same specs as Option 2, but is even cheaper, 45 BRL... Thank you for your analysis. My biggest concern was that the...

There you go i have these ones in my locality for sale. Could you sort me out which one to use and can i go for a rgb Bluetooth controllers .

Exactly the same with me, planted it almost 3 weeks ago and it is still completely free of algae but hasnt changed one bit! Although the amanos seem to have eaten some from the tips of the leaves, but wouldn't that just encourage new growth the same as if I trimmed it?

Hi, I filled the tank last night and ‘mossed’ up the wabi mats. I’ll plant a bit more of the emersed areas and leave the underwater planting for a few weeks to allow the fungus wood phase to pass… Hardscape completed: Filled and operational: Cheerio,

Hi everyone, this may sound like such a simple question, but what does crypt melt actually look like? Do the leaves go yellow at first with signs of deficiencies before melting away? or do they just straight away melt. Hopefully that makes sense. I just set up my second scape a few weeks ago...

Thank you! Yeah, I just need to decide what I like more. It is currently growing on me actually. I'm not sure if the Corydoras appreciated the right being a little more shaded though. Will probably need just a bit of tweaking. 20240529_192737 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

If its approximately the same Volumes of each the parameters will remain reasonably constant. Tap water does vary its parameters over the seasons also, eg. Nitrates go up if water source is near farming land as the farmer fertilise the land, water companies blend the water also to meet...

Hi there I have Oase Styleline which has sliding panels instead of flaps. During the summer I keep them slightly open as the temp diff between water and room gets by 2C! Cheers

I closed down a 700lt marine tank and got 6 shrimp tanks all different species. An my son has a 45cm cube that I have just loaded with plants that has took off like mad but not the monte . That is a good idea to split it didn't even think of that lol for now I'll just let it do it's thing see...

Like some kind of fish-priest. I like it. They should make towels deliberately that shape for this

I have two and started very low, like 20% on each bar. Then I bump it up 5% every two or so weeks. Then I stopped increasing and kept blue at 65, red and green at a bit more - personal taste. I tried setting everything higher, but plants just grow too fast I CBA cutting them every week. Here's...

@dw1305 do you treat or process the rainwater with anything, e.g. to kill parasites or similar that may have 'come along for the ride', or do you just dump it in and it's all good?

Two large towels which I wash twice per year maybe. One for the floor, one I wear like a scarf when doing maintenance lol

Hi. Really interesting this one and brings up a few questions that could possibly be asked in another thread? If you used a mix of Rain and Tap Water, would that have to be precisely mixed each week on a water change. Could it effect the tank if it fluctuated, like in the summer when it never...

hi. i had the same question yesterday pretty much. its only intuitive if you know how! just select a colour range, say red and then slide the percentage of each colour back. i imagine you will need to start dimmer. think that people dont worry too much about K now adays as it is said you can...

Thank you, but I'm old enough to know better... :rolleyes: Will do, but it makes me sad, knowing animals are suffering. Greetz Richard

Hi all, You are good. The problem isn't you, it is that most sellers of aquarium "products", just care about a sale. They don't really care about anything else. I'd try some green leafy veg and cuttle bone, eggshells or shell grit etc. and that will delay the inevitable. Cheers Darrel

From my point of view, it is very popular in The Netherlands, because there is company planted-box, they send salts and instructions how many spoons of what to use to make your own solutions. Personally I also use EI, quite happy for now, but grow rate just crazy.

Just got my chihiros WRGB2 10th edition and now awaiting delivery of my plants Can some one help on the app settings for the tank, I don't want it to start bad as will end up being empty I know people say start low and slowly ramp it up but which slider and colours etc Many thanks

Thank you for the information.

Well I have learnt something there! They say you are never too old to learn. Well, I have always agreed with that. In my 75 years I did not know that ESP was an abbreviation. The reason I asked what ESP meant was because I thought it was short for something to do with aquascaping. This example...

My first planted tank i always had big fish but ive changed to planted tank and smaller fish love it

Warranty is a partial judge of quality. 5yr vs 1... Of course you could buy the 1yr one every year for 385 brl total. The 160 lumens/watt is currently possible, though a bit unlikely, with low cri 6500k LEDs. Luxen C data. It is unlikely to have good cri. 9500 lumens may be " theoretical" so...

Got two microfiber cloths 2 dish towels never keep anything dry always washed with laundry (twice a week) Thank you for thread makes me feel good.

Got a microfibre on one side/toweling on the other cloth about a foot square that came with some grobeam lighting years back. Just about only use it to wipe the front glass after a water change. I was looking at it yesterday thinking a wash might be an idea.... handwash / gently sun dry maybe?

2nd option might be less efficient because it is using less quantity of physical LED's, thus putting more power through each one to a point where they work less efficiently. Would make sense given the difference in price and warranty length. Underdriven LED's last much longer and produce less...

for the small cube tanks, you could always try your hand at making your own