Recent content by WarEagleNR88

I agree. Been super busy. Plants are looking good and the tank is a little overgrown and algae has been getting a foothold. Nothing to get scared of though. Snails are multiplying like crazy. Somewhere I got some Ramshorns? Travis? I'll try to get some pics up soon. :D

I'm not even kidding, this was my first time at finish work. At first I was just thinking of building it with 2x4s and plywood and "making it work" with some cheap stain/paint. But then "CinC-House" mentioned that it would look better if it was stained/painted and clear coated with some nice...

Thanks. Yes, I've been using my Milwaukee Regulator for over a year now and nothing but praise for it. It works pretty well once you get it tuned up correctly. I try to keep my tuned to about the 6-8 psi on the low pressure gauge and then dial up the bubble counter for the bubbles. I find it...

Can you trim those high spots down with a sander? It will take a little while but keeping everything as level as possible will be better. Or you could take the screws out of those particular vertical supports and cut 1/16" off of the end that needs it. Mark it with a pencil so you get the cut...

Ah, looking good so far. And Chuck Gadd's website is a good one to go. I'll sometimes frequent it when I have a question about a nutrient deficiency problem. His articles are pretty good to along with Steve Hampton's. I see about the stem plants and what you mean now. What type of light do...

Oh and HD is a VERY fun place to go. It's kinda like a huge department store where all you do is window shop. You may not always have the money to buy anything, but wow is it fun to look and pretend you do. :D Typical banter in a HD store from a young couple: "I'd like one of those, and...

For the screws, I used the dark gray coated ones and not the galvanized. Galv-ed are sure to work, though. If you can, I'd recommend finishing the stand almost completely before putting the tank on it. It is so much easier to have nothing else to do but put the tank on and add water. And ah...

Sorry, I forgot about excess phosphate. That may be a very critical algae factor as well. Repeated water changes should take care of it fairly easily. I know you said your test kit said 2 ppm, but who knows if it is accurate or not?

Here are a few of my thoughts: 1. Do a water change with dechlor-ed tap water every day until nitrates get down to 10-20. 2. Increase CO2 to 20-30 ppm if you are adding it (you didn't say if you were). 3. No more root tabs and don't add any more flourish products (My opinion, they...

Check out my new stand here for my 20G long. I took the DIY route and did it full up. Stain, trim and even polyurethane. I like the results and it just took a little time. You can do the basic stand out of 2x4s if you want. A 2x4 held together at each joint by some beefy screws is hard to...

Just think of it like a very earthy tea. Put a little lemon juice in or something. Maybe a few leaves of mint. lol :D Then fill you up a cup. YUM! j/k

Thanks so much everyone. Actually the stain has a little too much red for what I had in mind, but it looks nice so I'm fine with it. Putting polyurethane on it really brought out the look of the wood grain and darkened it up a little. Hopefully soon I can get some green in it and starting...

:D... I thought this was funny from someone with a child's picture as the avatar. I take it your own child and if so, how is that not more stressful?

If you want to grow plants, you might want to get a better substrate. The colored enamel gravel doesn't have too many nutrients that plants like--it may not have any if there is no mulm or detritus in it. I'd pull out that colored gravel and put a healthy scoop of Eco-Complete or any of the...

UPDATE The project is coming together. After my stellar CO2 growth in my 10G, I'm finally getting back to the 20G project--still have to get that replacement 5# bottle of CO2. The stand was actually dry--at least the stain--a couple of weeks ago, but this past Sunday I decided to start more...