Search results for query: *

New growth on my Anubias nana turning transparent... I’m wondering if the Excel is to blame. Maybe I should cut it back a little ... Ideas?

Looking forward to a video of that hyper spot in action over the aquarium!

Lovely crypts !

A backup bank is great and I used to have one with my reef tank...the only thing plugged into it was my Vortech powerhead; it was a life and death situation with the corals; if there’s no water movement the mucus build up chokes them up and die. That Costco UPS was running the powerhead for...

Being surrounded by tall trees in the woods in the PNW, power outages are too many to count between Sept-April. So you can see how this can get annoying fast..recipe for disaster if I’m out of town for days and this happens...Light will stay on 24/7 or until the next power outage haha; at least...

Well that was short lived. Plugging in the light into a timer essentially simulates a power outage when the timer is OFF...duh So now the light comes on full power instantly when the timer kicks in... Not good; I wanted the ramp up and down. So back it goes to the initial setup until I figure...

Honestly that’s the first time I’m hearing that. Could be under the fan cover? Really not sure but I’m assuming those batteries should last for years and not be something that need replacement on a fixture that came out in 2019. I’ll dig more into this....

For people considering the Chihiros RGB vivid 2, make sure it is connected to a timer and don’t trust the app too much. Here’s what happened when I simulated a power outage: if it’s plugged back in within a minute or so, it works perfectly and no errors or weird glitches happen. Last night we...

Everything was growing just fine in this one and required minimal to no attention...too many plants though. Quick 10 minute re-scape with leftover wood from the other tank. It’ll be a moss + shrimp only tank. Don’t feel too good about the scape but don’t care too much honestly... Moved this...

Reading all this at 2:00 AM and the only thing that comes to mind is: " Welcome to the beautiful world of aquascaping" 🤣

Loving the bloodworms even though he can’t chew them too well:)

Such a shame...maybe it’s a combination of too much light with not enough co2 and poor circulation... Since it’s a new light fixture its easy to misjudge how much light you’re actually putting out ; Try to save it....unfortunately the fish you need to clean up all that mess is called elbow...

I noticed new fish take a few days to acclimate to co2 levels... One or two always swim in circles, the others lay down low within the plant mass not moving much especially in the later hours of the photoperiod. If the “dizzy” ones are removed in time, put in fresh tap water they bounce back...

Added a group of six Venezuelan red sailfin cories.

Sorry I should have been more specific, I was referring to the ADA NA MH bulb. They also have the green one which is really nice for all green tanks. Mark Evans used the green bulb in quite a few of his scapes. I’m interested in the Skylight LED. Is it similar to Kessil? Cuz the Kessil shimmer...

The nice thing about the vivid is that you can make it look however you desire... You don’t “have” to jack up the reds or greens, take them way down or play with the Kelvin bar and get yourself the more natural look you’re after like the Twinstars or whatever:) It’s a different story with you...

The carpet was struggling same with the stems. That’s why they came out really;I blame the co2 from the in tank diffuser paired with the light on the high side...just not enough of the gas being distributed well and bubbles larger than I liked them... Another less probable reason could be plant...

Quick evening shot of the changes made. Nice and easy to keep clean now; stems definitely helped the first couple weeks to keep algae in check . I might put in a few more plants but don’t know what yet... Another benefit of the light screen or similar backlighting setup : you don’t really notice...

Jay, Cool tank man! Am I seeing things or your lights are running different spectrums? I notice it in all your FTS shots. One runs cooler than the other. It is 4:30 in the morning though so I wouldn’t trust my eyes too much at this time....ha

On a side note, all carpet and stems came out. White sand is going in all around the “tree”.:) That’ll be more in line with the initial vision I had with this scape!

Hi Nico, I think they’ll stay like this for now until they reach the bottom I’ll see how I feel about them after that:)

Just when I thought everything couldn’t go any better...Ive started to have some issues with the CO2 and plants suffered as a result. The Neo in tank diffuser was making some fine bubbles but also some large ones that shot straight to the surface. I tried placing it under the flow, opposite side...

Everything doing mostly well. Some stringy diatom algae started appearing on the most upper branch within the moss strands. Looks like light related. Turned the light down to 60% intensity. I need to start trimming the Rotala and the carpet . Getting too big and it’s shading the nearby plants.

Looks amazing . If you can, go for it ; there’s no way you’ll regret it ...and I thought about it 10 times before I spent the money. Even my wife (which was very hesitant of agreeing with the 300$ price tag) was impressed .

Nice setup! Reckon an ADA light screen is in order to make this setup POP.:)

R. Wayanad is such a fast grower, left the Ludwigia in the dust ...same with glosso...outperforms MC in both color and growth. I quite like it !

No one really knows. And if they tell you, how do you know it’s the truth? Sometimes I wish I picked my own fish out of their tanks...

So I talked to the LFS owner, apparently these particular fish are wild caught and the survival rate is hit or miss with them. He recommended going with some rasboras or other tetras that are hardier in the future. Espei / embers etc and not the delicate blue or chilli rasboras... Unfortunately...

It’s 1/4” thick but because of the mounting hooks it sits another 1/16” out so 5/16” total.

About as much light as I get when I start to fish the rivers:) All inhabitants are well at the moment. No more unfortunate incidents..

I guess co2 is trial and error and takes a bit of fiddling until you get the right amount for both fish and plants to be happy and sometimes there’s unfortunately casualties involved be it too much (dead fish)...too little (dead plants /algae or being limited to specific low tech plants only)...

Hi Darrel, When I noticed the dead fish, the damage was already done. So I turned down the co2 just a notch while aerating the tank with the lily pipe out of the water in hopes that it will resolve the issue. Had 2 other fish die in this time frame but things look to be back to normal for now...

That’s true and I thought of that; Amazonia does leech lots of Ammonia; I’ve done huge daily water changes for more than a week before adding the CUC, and had absolutely 0 issues with them. So days later, drew the conclusion that with a mature filter it should be no issues adding fish based on...

Hi wookii, I haven’t. There’s no way there’s ammonia with such robust plant growth and if there was even a minimal amount of it, the Amano shrimp would have died before anything else correct? That’s one of the reasons we don’t particularly pay attention to the nitrogen cycle in a heavily...

The co2 is on a timer, 9 hours on. Running 3 hours before lights on and off an hour before the lights go off. Fish show no sign of distress during the photoperiod. Only at night.

Lost another fish, from the same batch. No amanos or Ottos; those are doing fine! I see the killifish (some of them) gasping for air at the surface but only at night. During the day all is well like nothing’s wrong. What could be happening is plants are releasing oxygen during the day in enough...

Quite a turn of events... 11 of the 20 fish died overnight. They were all eating and being very active ever since I introduced them. Checked co2, same rate same schedule as before. The only thing I’ve done differently last night is lift the lily pipe out of the water and aerate the tank...

Since I’ve got a mature filter with a few pounds of Seachem matrix that’s half a year old at this point, I got the fish today. Poropanchax normani - lampeye killifish. 20 of them :) Their blue eyes are really stunning in person. I reckon even more so under the Vivid 2. Pictures to follow.

Sometimes the iPhone can be decent at taking pics:)

Blyxa is beautiful but has been a weed for me in the past . I’ll experiment with some crypts maybe.

How high up is your light mounted and how deep is your tank? My tank is only 14” deep and the light mounted around 12” or 30cm above the rim. I left it at the roughly 100watt intensity the “Buce” setting runs from the factory. I noticed Green Aqua mounted their ADA RGB which is 130 watt bond...

Thanks, I agree the pinnatifida is crazy once it takes off. I just love the vivid 2. The light is in a closet since this tank is in wall so I really can’t hear a peep, but even when messing around the tank I can’t hear the fan unless I’m right next to it looking into the tank. The colors are...

6 days of growth. Everything doing amazing; no algae..water change 60% every day still...running purigen and it works a treat removing tannins. I’ll probably add some carbon as well. 4 ml of Tropica premium fertilizer daily. Switching to Specialized once this bottle is over. Thinking of some AR...

The belly is proof he’s doing alright...:)

Chihiros RGB Vivid 2. If you’re in the US, eBay or Amazon. UK can buy directly from Chihiros from what I’ve been reading. Maybe the wait time is long with other retailers such as Alibaba but still worth a shot. ADA is insanely priced...

I had the 600S and didn’t like it. It still has that yellow tinge and for the price it doesn’t come with a dimmer..kinda ridiculous... If you’ve got sand , the LED’s will reflect on it...disco ball effect. Some people like the color rendition ...i don’t ; check out Green Aqua video on...

Rotala Wayanad pearling away...

Impressive that you’ve managed to run this for 2 years.:) Something like this for your next scape with black neon tetras would be awesome...

This is one of those rare setups you don’t see every day. Well done! If I was you, I would plant and flood the tank. I’ve tried dry start and while it works fine for HC there’s no reason to do it with the rest of the plants.

This confirms it. I played with the photo a bit to accentuate the source of the light on this panel. You can clearly see the bottom LED’s, nothing on the side and top. Somebody needs to come up with something similar at a much more attractive price point.

Just because....

Yes it’s very easy to just re-apply a coat or two on top of existing down the road. No need to strip down the finish. The nicest thing about it is no fumes or nasty smell while applying. It has a faint smell of “something” but at least you know you’re not damaging your brain cells:) I’ve had my...

6 ottos and 10 amanos have gone in tonight! The bulk of the fish in about a week...still deciding which way to go. I was thinking embers but I still have a soft spot for green neons.

A quart will do 👍🏻 Yes shipping stuff across the pond isn’t exactly cheap:) ...limited availability from retailers drive the price up as well.

There’s a product out of Germany that just recently made its way into the US called Osmo Poly-x oil. It’s an oil/wax combo that’s easily applied by hand with a pad and just gives the wood a really rich look after buffing it out. Oil goes in the wood while the wax stays on top as a protective...

I’m in the wood finishing trade; I’ve seen quite a few solid wood tables warp from absorbing moisture over time through the unfinished side(usually underneath). Wood , especially one exposed to moisture, should be sealed and finished with a solvent or water base finish on all sides to prevent...

I realized there’s maybe another benefit of the light screen beside the pretty look and helping with photography; This picture was taken with the main lights off; only the light screen is on. Given the tank is in a closet that is dark, there’s no ambient light so it’s solely lit by the light...

The suspended walkway? I’m getting dizzy just thinking about it...

Looks cool. Can you attach some weeping moss on the background ledges ? Maybe even some pinnatifida? It would make it come alive, like a jagged cliff face with some vegetation growing here and there:

Talking from my past experience, you’ll be wishing you spent the money at the LFS after hours on end looking for suitable aquarium wood outdoors. I thought I found great dried up roots on my previous scape from a fallen maple tree the year before; unfortunately I think they contributed to my...

Your substrate is too thick up front. You don’t need it that deep plus it takes away from the height. Take some inspiration from your wall art. See the near and the far away rock? It looks like they’re miles away from each other... Move the big rocks to the front and the smaller ones behind them...

To make your life miserable, at least for the time being, I have another idea:) Take everything out and arrange the stones first on a steep slope towards the front glass then flip the wood upside down and place it on top of the rocks like it hugs them. You will gain room in the back and like...

I tried to inspect the edges with a flashlight in the dark and I could be wrong but the sides don’t seem to have any LED’s . The bottom has a U shaped aluminum track where I suspect LED’s are mounted and pointed upwards to illuminate the panel. So you could be right..

ADA light screen installed...:) I need more plants...

Removed all of the Eheim mechanical media from the filter except the Seachem Matrix. Added some sponges/ filter floss + a bag of Purigen. The flow improved big time! Here’s the vortex created by the lily pipe outflow.:)

Well after multiple delays with the shipment the RGB Vivid 2 finally got here today and wow....it is better than my previous Twinstar 600S in every aspect. The colors are unreal . I’m planting the tank at the moment with some fine leaf stem plants I’ve never used before like Ludwigia arcuata and...

I agree. Will go with some ember tetras or something similar perhaps...

Ever had moments as a kid when you were so excited about something only to get really disappointed moments later? I guess we get that as adults too; Amazon damaged the light fixture in transit. 😖 Only one vendor on Amazon sells this light so I have to order another one through them. Delivery...

Yes the water in Seattle is very soft. The only thing holding me back is the price... I’ll think about it..

A small nature aquarium store that I just stumbled upon in my town sells these Tucano tetras that I’ve never seen before. Fully mature they measure between 0.5” - 1” long but they’re 20$/each. Big ouch!!!...never seen a tetra go for this amount before. So expensive yet so beautiful...the...

You know...I was thinking something different such as UG would be pretty crazy looking...in a good way! I’m debating if I should fill the branches with HC Cuba or not to make it look like a tree then have open grassland down below except upper corners where I’d like some stems. Maybe I’ll go...

11/29/2020 11/05/2020 10/29/2020 Fall air and relentless rain has made me fall in love once again with the tank and everything related to it. My wife says I’m so predictable... As for the name of this journal, this aquascape gave me a sense of somberness ; burnt trees , empty branches etc...

This tank has been taken down. A new 60P replaced it to get rid of the scratches and the sump...:)Journal to follow soon!

No worries:) Just thought I’d mention it; Anubias in perfect shape is a beautiful thing :cool: Again, congrats on a great looking tank !

What I meant is to lower light intensity . Anubias curl because of too much light.;)

Big trim and water change last night. Had some diatom issues so lowered the light intensity and spent a few hours to clean the tank, including rubbing most of the plant leaves to remove the diatoms. Removed a lot of the twigs as well; they were turning mushy... Getting quite some rain the next...

Nice growth! Can you lower light even more or maybe raise it? Your Anubias are curling on the edges.

You know you’ve been slacking when your water change/trim looks like this:

This 2ft tall reactor used to be really silent at lower infusion rates and only getting a little noisy towards the end of the day when gas would build up enough to require degassing via the side valve ; since my sump degasses a lot of the co2 and really can’t cover it, I need to inject a lot...

Pinnatifida sending side shoots like crazy... Need to trim this soon!

Mark, I really wish you the best luck with it. Not my intention to start a fight here; my advice is as good as my experience and I’ve never had good luck with high fish loads in small tanks because at some point in our hobby most of us get lazy / busy with life and behind with the maintenance...

Mark, not to take anything away from your past experience with fish or even the trip to whatever place but no single “experience” or poor practice will disprove all the other recommendations. If you kept tanks and bred fish just like or close to what a fish store does, then how does that make it...

Just awesome! Still not 100% perfect. I would toss the TV and move the tank in the middle with the light hung from the ceiling haha I really like the look of that metal:)

I see...mine started throwing shoots to the sides which is what I was after. Not really sure what the secret is with this plant ; so far high flow and co2 along with EI dosing has suited it well! Didn’t really bother with high light to get it red since I’m catering to the whole tank not just a...

Are you talking about the pinnatifida being slow to grow?

Thanks guys! @alto yes I’m much happier with the soil than the sand. Will definitely trim the MC at the next water change. @CooKieS , do you trim just the bulk of it that’s growing on top of itself or the trailing bits hanging down as well? I don’t have the vivid I’ve got the Twinstar 600s hung...

Pinnatifida has been trimmed once already since it grows super fast. Need to keep it in check or else it’ll shadow everything underneath... MC carpet started to fill in nicely...the one on the rocks is out of control. Needle leaf hygro put out large root system and now really took off... Had a...

The fact that you have so many plants from the start will help big time. The advice Tropica gives in general is great...having said that, in a high tech co2 injected tank I always dose full dose from the get go; I feel like while the soil releases a lot of ammonia, it doesn’t release the...

Moved all the H. Tripartita mini from my tank to this. Daily 100% water changes... Although the moss from the stream still looks fine, some parts are getting a bit yellow even though it gets misted about 5 times a day. I’m wondering if the indoor warmth is too much for it and it rather prefers...

Why not DIY a reactor? Very easy and inexpensive. The best route with a sump/wet dry for sure!

Proof they’re both hands on and changing the water haha They also use a spray bottle to keep the moss moist throughout the day:)

Unfortunately it was too much work keeping the Aquasoil out of the sand with the high flow and all the amano shrimp digging and moving it left and right. Sand came out, filled in with new Amazonia and dwarf hairgrass , Monte Carlo , mini pellia on the rocks and more pinnatifida on the wood...

I wouldn’t up the light intensity to cater to a specific plant. It’ll have to either live or die . Plants are quite adaptable except those rare cases. Also if stems are brown on lower half just cut and replant the nice looking tops. Unfortunately it’s the way it is when light is blocked to reach...

I totally agree with everything you said lol Although in my defense they really enjoy this little one .:) My 60P is 5ft up in the wall ...They usually just stop for a second, look at the fish and move on. My 6 year old has been bugging me for a while now to get her a tank and the quarantine has...

It’ll probably take a long time but I’m in no rush:)

This one is for my kids. DOOA neo glass air 30cm x 18cm x 12cm. Light : ONF flat nano+ No filter No water circulation Substrate : Amazonia 2 Sand: Colorado sand Wood: Manzanita Plants: Eleocharis vivipara Dwarf hair grass Monte Carlo Hygrophila pinnatifida UK Some unknown moss from my...

DOOA neo glass air is in...kids are excited:) Will start a new journal. This will be interesting...

I like it a lot! The grass at the back especially ...amazing! It’s crazy how the Monte Carlo grew in between the grass strands and out of the tank. Well done!

Lowered the water level to feed the fish and thought I’d snap a pic. The moss is the only one collecting dirt and has to be vacuumed every time at water change ...all other plants look great. Added some of the MC later on so it still has to transition...it seems to me (although not 100% sure)...

That’s good info thank you zozo!