Caliban's AquaOpti 85L

[Caliban07]

Found a new pink wallichii stem growing from the centre of another stem. I'm so happy. Will not be throwing this plant out. It deserves a chance.

Also thinking of increasing my light again. So that I'll be up to 2 x A series on level 4 so looking at 100+ PAR.

Water change today and dosing macros. Dosed 0.5ppm urea yesterday and EI magnesium.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Sent u a pm when u get the chance bud [emoji106]

 

[Caliban07]

I followed in Berts footsteps because you know we have to do all the same things [emoji23] I swapped out my eco or as much as I could for black sand.

Now if my plants don't do well I can move on to something else. Just waiting for the tank to clear.

Funnily enough when I got the sand home I was pleasantly surprised at how the plants were looking but it was too late I'd already made up my mind.

Replaced the Monte Carlo and all the stunted plants for new. Kept a couple of old ones but time will tell now.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I followed in Berts footsteps because you know we have to do all the same things [emoji23] I swapped out my eco or as much as I could for black sand.

Now if my plants don't do well I can move on to something else. Just waiting for the tank to clear.

Funnily enough when I got the sand home I was pleasantly surprised at how the plants were looking but it was too late I'd already made up my mind.

Replaced the Monte Carlo and all the stunted plants for new. Kept a couple of old ones but time will tell now.

Haha good work! Your mc carpet will thank u for it! Should grow nice and thick now

I think u made the right call [emoji108]

 

[Caliban07]

Sorry I meant to say replaced it with dwarf hair grass [emoji16]

 

[Bert2oo1]

Sorry I meant to say replaced it with dwarf hair grass [emoji16]

Ooooh hair grass! I've been wanting to try a hairgrass carpet for ages! No room in the 60 tho

See why I need to convince the wife to clove oil all her gold fish and sell the tank so I can setup a low tech 120l! Then I can keep more plants! [emoji23] do you think I have a chance? [emoji16]

 

[Caliban07]

Ooooh hair grass! I've been wanting to try a hairgrass carpet for ages! No room in the 60 tho

See why I need to convince the wife to clove oil all her gold fish and sell the tank so I can setup a low tech 120l! Then I can keep more plants! [emoji23] do you think I have a chance? [emoji16]

Haha no way Jose!

Yeah I've tried hair grass a few times. I'm a bit more confident now.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Haha no way Jose!

Yeah I've tried hair grass a few times. I'm a bit more confident now.

I couldn't put up with all the thin floaters. After a trim it would be a nightmare to remove all the cuttings... They fly straight through a net lol

 

[Caliban07]

Surface skinmers are wonderful little things [emoji1]all the crap I had on the surface yesterday was gone in half an hour. I didn't even rinse the sand beforehand.

 

[Bert2oo1]

Surface skinmers are wonderful little things [emoji1]all the crap I had on the surface yesterday was gone in half an hour. I didn't even rinse the sand beforehand.

Ahh true! I didn't even think of that! I've still got all my sand scum floating around. Hopefully it will clear with the water change tomorrow [emoji16] growth is good with this sand, I've got crypts starting new leafs and it hasn't even been a week!

 

[Caliban07]

Nice one! The ehiem skim 350 is pretty cheap I'd definitely get one.

What PAR you running at?

 

[Bert2oo1]

Nice one! The ehiem skim 350 is pretty cheap I'd definitely get one.

What PAR you running at?

Back down at 80 (60%) I'll push it as things grow out more and need more light. I can't go too far tho as a lot of the plants in the tank are capable of going red lol I could end up with a full red tank!

 

[Caliban07]

When you tell everyone that you are more interested in plants than fish etc and decide to wreck their home because a certain plant/s are not doing well and you lose 3 horned nerite snails then you realise you couldn't care less about the plants.

I don't know what I've done. 1 of 3 possibilities or a combination.

1) I used a spray bottle to keep my plants damp whilst I did the change. It smells like zaflora. It was supposed to be just for my tank but turns out when the dog wee's on the carpet that's what was being used. I also used tap water to keep them moist.

2) I didn't use enough dechlorinator when I refilled the whole tank. Water is still cloudy after 4 days. I definitely nuked my bacteria colony and some plants just melted (mainly the ones I sprayed)

3) I was aiming to be quicker than I was when swapping out the eco for sand but I got sidetracked and failed to put a heater in the bucket where I put my fish and snail. So cool to warm may have seen off the snails yet shrimp and fish are ok.

Gonna be a while until this tank settles. I'm done with dechlorinator. I'm just gonna let it evaporate from now on.

 

[Caliban07]

I mean, the nerites were happy and going about their business one minute and then they're dead because of me.

Do snails hibernate or just go dormant? They don't smell and they still look pretty meaty.

 

[Bert2oo1]

I mean, the nerites were happy and going about their business one minute and then they're dead because of me.

Do snails hibernate or just go dormant? They don't smell and they still look pretty meaty.

I've never been able to keep snails alive lol. I was reading that when they sense winter they tend to come out only at night and stay dormant for days on end. Snails won't come out unless they sense food. Could be your tanks too clean [emoji106]

 

[TMaier]

Tsk tsk tsk. You have certainly had a day Mr. Caliban.

 

[Autumnsky]

Sometimes they shut up tight to protect themselves. Not too sure how tightly the Horned Nerites can close but that can be beneficial where they save themselves, or worst if they are covered in something and just stay in the bad liquid locked inside. My experience was giving an inadvertant salt bath concentration.

 

[Autumnsky]

Oops hit send before I was completely finished.

So one of mine died and a couple lived.

Hoping yours are saving themselves. It took a long time for them to open. The dead one flopped open as such obviously dead. If they remain closed, possibly they are still alive.

I would use an emergency amount/dose of Prime to help neutralize any thing left on them and hope for the best. I am so sorry to hear of the bad situation.

 

[Caliban07]

Tsk tsk tsk. You have certainly had a day Mr. Caliban.

I know. Not good.

 

[Caliban07]

Oops hit send before I was completely finished.

So one of mine died and a couple lived.

Hoping yours are saving themselves. It took a long time for them to open. The dead one flopped open as such obviously dead. If they remain closed, possibly they are still alive.

I would use an emergency amount/dose of Prime to help neutralize any thing left on them and hope for the best. I am so sorry to hear of the bad situation.

They could be closed up. I best put them back in the tank. I took them out to see if they would move. I hope they can survive out of water?

I have a cheapo dechlorinator to be honest because prime is expensive here and you don't get enough on all the others like tetra aquasafe.

I'm gonna chuck the dechlorinator and just change less water after degas