Recent content by CMOS

I have some of that mesh from when this was a salt water setup. Just need to be able to hide it under my driftwood. CMOS

oops... Update 4-7-19: Well, water tested good so yesterday I put in 6 White Cloud tetras. Today, there are only 3. It seems these ungrateful little b***ards are going over the glass divider that leads to the sump port on the bottom of the tank. Managed to save one that was caught in the...

goat, The API Master kits doesn't cover GH and Kh. Individual kits for these I suspect? Also, what is a TD's pen? Thanks for your replies. CMOS

Weekend Update: Got the waterfall placed and functional. It's got a nice trickle over several inches of the rock face. LED light fixture (one 30W High Output) is up and running. Tomorrow I will place some terrarium moss base over the pebbles I have over the Poret foam that is covering the...

ZxC, Can you expand on that red text please? CMOS

goat, I'll try the one light to start with. I do want to have one or two species of "miniature" plants (Hairgrass, etc.?) as ground cover in the "lagoon". Most of the other plants will be semi-aquatic. You can't see it in the pic of my tank but I do have a wall-mounted light fixture...

goat, Thanks for the reply. One thing I didn't consider until your post is that since this tank will only have about 4-5" of water, I don't need to penetrate all 24" of the tank's depth (if filled with water). Your thoughts on ONE of these 30W fixtures for my application? CMOS

Loki, How tall do those micro Swords get? CMOS

All, What kind of test kits do you recommend I get to properly care for the semi-aquatic and aquatic plants? I'll be adding quite a few rock piles, and various drift-woods this weekend. Hope to get the new LED light fixture done also. Thoughts on the test kits? CMOS

Howdy All, I'm converting my freshwater fish tank into a semi-aquatic Rain Forest tank that will have partial "land" and a "lagoon" with aquatic plants. This is a custom 45 gallon tank, 36 x 12 x 24H with about a 12 gallon sump inside the stand. I'll attach some pics of the project start...

TM, What your substrate material please? CMOS

14 hours should not kill your fish unless you are overboard on the bio-load. Fire up the filters, turn off the lights to let the fish settle, then go have a Pint. Check them in the morning. Betcha they do better than you think.... CMOS

On occasion, yes. If you have a good bio media load it's not necessary, but it's nice to have a place in the sump to do it, if you need to. In general, most folks use Carbon AFTER a chemical treatment for some disease to remove the chemical from the water volume. CMOS

I would suggest using Poret Foam as your media. You'll get a LOT more surface area with this as compared to almost any other media. Swiss Tropicals sells the Poret Foam on their web site. CMOS

I'm a big fan of (properly designed) sumps for the following reasons: 1. Keeping the BIO media in the sump keeps the tank sleek and natural looking (absent of all those icky hoses, etc.) 2. Heaters (I like 2 so one will always be there as a backup) can be placed inside for the same reason -...