Loaches Online Forum

Emma,
I do not contend your points about Clowns, of course, but the last issue with a healthy planted tank is O2. With enough pearling, healthy plant mass, we can feel confident O2 is near or at saturation, otherwise plant output would be dissolving into the water column. We can only put so much O2 ...

CO2 does not displace O2 in water, so you can maintain high ppm of both. Airstone at night won't hurt, but consider turning off the pump to let the CO2 build up an hour or so before lights on. If you're still planning on a planted sump, you could light it with a reverse photoperiod (opposite the ...

For clarity, you're pumping 45gpd of RO, then using the sump's overflow to drain excess, right? It's like a constant water change system with regular RO input?

1) Your overflow box will determine the water line, so you just want it at the lip of the main tank.
if the sump was a 1m x 1m x 1m for ...

Attractive stand and nice, clean work.

Great tank.

Glad to help out. One 65w CF over 55gallons is good low light.

If you can, also float some Anacharis or Hornwort to help bring that ammonia down. These plants are like machines in how they consume ammonia. You shouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for a bunch, and they will grow fast. When there ...

Hey Shari. By the way, feel free to precede "In my opinion" and append "There are exceptions, of course" to anything I type. :)
Mts will eat diatoms?
Sure. MTS will often stray very far from the substrate in search of food, and they're one of the many animals that love to eat diatoms.
Will they ...

people say "... even though I have good water - I have alge" lets turn it around, "we have good water due to the biochemical action of algea"
They are very usefull. However sometimes we dont want them because they grow all over... but thea are theoretically valuable.
Well said and a valuable ...

Those look like diatoms (not really an algae), and indeed go away with some time. They are common to new tanks.

As said earlier, Otocinclus love the stuff. Your Hillie should munch a little on it. Snails eat it.

Trimming the Cabomba is good and is a great form of nutrient export. Just keep in mind a big healthy forest of Cambomba can take up more nutrients faster than a small amount of Cambomba. In a setup like yours, think of the plants and trimming as supplemental to the biofilter.

A suggestion: a nice ...

Hi Shari. Sorry to read about your Clown :(

In regards to your question off thread about your plants, the stuff on the plants looks like thread algae or diatoms with a bunch of detritus trapped in. The presence of algae could indicate an excess of available ammonia. Algae, like plants, capitalize ...

Awesome shop and community.

Beautiful fish and fantastic pictures.

ecitraro,

To avoid this and for peace of mind, you should still consider another prefilter at the intake. This could be a patch of pantyhose secured with a rubber band, a filter sponge cut to fit, or whatever you can think of. Such a prefilter will increase maintenence (you'll need to clean the ...

Hey, sorry for the very late reply, David. I am glad the tank pushed you over the edge :)

Last I posted I had 6 Blue teras, a female Cherry barb, the Hillie, 4 Kuhlii loaches, 4 Otocinclus, lots of "pest" snails, and a couple shrimp in there. Total volume (including paludarium/sump) is around ...