Recent content by brendenscott

Sometimes it takes a min to get going. Your temp is good. Just test in a few days. First test for nitrites. You will be good in a bit.

How long have you been cycling? What is your GH and KH? I noticed with low or no KH the cycle will stall. Also add some fert traces.

Completely normal and up to you if you want to trim the roots or not. Just like a beard more will just keep growing. Also don’t matter if you put the trimmings in front or back. Up to you again. Typically they get redder the closer to the light they are.

It turning red is actually a good thing. That usually means it’s dead. Just scrape the dead off.

That is GDA green dust algae. Too much light or not enough co2 possibly. Actually good to let it go like you did. Best to wait a good 3 weeks then scrape all off at once then do large water change. If you just keep scraping it off, it just goes back in the water column to find another part of...

Up to you as you did not seem to have issues when the doses was higher. One thing to keep in mind about dosing excel is algae can develope a tolerance for excel and the like. So if you find yourself with an algae outbreak you will need to up whatever your dose is. Typically double the amount. So...

And remember excel and the like are not actually liquid carbon. They are a different source that the plants uptake that up their energy so to say like actual co2 but in different form. So since you lowered their energy a bit that explains why not as much o2 saturation.

Then with lower liquid carbon supplement you just aren’t getting enough o2 saturation to see pearling. Remember the most co2 you will have in the tank without addition is 3ppm from the atmosphere.

After having a glass heater overheat and crack in my tank I will never go without a temperature controller again. I use and really like the inkbird controllers and love the assurance that I will not have that issue again. $30 is well worth it IMO

Yup very true that because the o2 levels are higher after a water change it gives the impression of excess pearling. You are spot on.

Did you happen to add more surface movement to the tank? Just because they are not pearling does not mean they are not healthy. A simple thing like raising the temp and or adding more surface agitation could create such an effect. The visual effects of pearling has no effect on the health of...

I use a powerhead that moves the surface 24/7. This does three things for me and more than any airstone or the like will be able to do. It creates good flow in the tank that is important for the plants. It helps to distribute the co2 better through the whole tank. It also creates so much o2 that...

My understanding is airstones do not dissolve o2 directly in the water but like I said allows o2 in by disturbing the surface. I will do research on o2 diffusers. But my thinking is same concept as typical airstone and not directly dissolving o2 in the water. I could be wrong.

If you are wanting the most o2 what I use is a powerhead that hits the surface. The more the water on the surface is disturbed the more o2. So it all depends on what your goal is. If you like the way it looks by all means.

I do not think it would be better but probably not worse. I do not think a co2 diffuser dissolves o2 the same way it does co2. As you can see the bubbles just go straight to the surface not dissolving in water. So you are getting o2 the same way an airstone does by causing surface movement.