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+1 for adding liquid carbon. I'm still fairly new to the hobby myself and found it really helpful to use a gluteraldehyde based supplement (Excel, EasyCarbo, ...) while experimenting to get the tank's equipment (reactor placement, circulation pumps, ...) and dosages in balance. In liquid form...

Great, I'll slightly OD ferts right before I leave, push in some root tabs and reduce light & CO2 to 6 hours! Must also not forget to take the RFI away, because I found out a while ago a grid failure will also trigger it... Thanks!

No need to involve the landlord... A small unit (e.g. 150l / 24h) can easily be mounted into e.g. a wooden wine box and with a simple adapter (e.g. something like on bottom of this page: http://www.buckeyefieldsupply.com/showproducts.asp?Category=187&Sub=133) you can easily hook it up to the...

Do you have a drop checker to estimate CO2 levels in your tank? Is there enough flow from your CO2 reactor/diffuser/... to where the little plants are?

Hi all, I'll be away on holiday with wife and kids as of next Fri for 8 days. My tank is heavily planted, medium stocked 50g/180l, with 1000l/h filtering, pressurized CO2 and 10h/day strong light (see pic). I was thinking of doing a 50% WC the day before I leave and fish should be fine with my...

I noticed that over about 4bps, the water flow can no longer deal with the frequency of 'burps' in my reactor (an old Sera reactor model without vent) so an air pocket forms at the top of the reactor. When I subsequently cut off CO2 flow, it takes forever to dissolve the air pocket because the...

Update: Since my last update I had a mild BBA outbreak so 2bps was clearly not enough. Decided to install a reactor, powered by a second small pump tucked away in the Bioflow filter column. I'm finally getting fast growth, a lot of pearling and algae now hardly grow anymore. I still don't...

My powerhead outflow is no longer agitating the surface and I turned CO2 down to about 2bps for now. The indicator is dark blue, as always. At 2bps and with daily fert dose, my plants are pearling though and covered in bubbles at the end of the day, so it can't be all bad. Perhaps I should...

When I was doing DIY CO2 I couldn't get a ceramic CO2 diffuser to work. The plastic bottles would become rock hard and eventually start leaking at the cap, the required pressure was just too high. Glad I didn't end up with a big mess. Inline worked for me though, a DIY reactor would be even...

Thanks everyone for your help! Fish: They all look fine. Leaks: none AFAIK (my ceramic diffuser has a built-in drop counter). Reagent: using pre-prepped solution so shouldn't have to worry about it. I was very careful as to not have any tank water get into it upon placement too. Diffuser...

I use this.

After a few days of experimenting my conclusion is that a bubble rate so high I can no longer count is needed to get CO2 to wanted levels. I think hard water could be the problem here (21dGH/12dKH), because I stopped mixing rain into tap water after a few fish got sick. Eliminating other...

Thanks for your replies! @Bshenanagins If my understanding is right, a reactor would in my case (using the internal Juwel bioflow filter) require installing an extra pump, which produces noise and takes up extra room -> Keeping that one as last resort. @Robby, Brian & Aqua_chem Increased...

Hello This weekend I switched from a DIY CO2 system connected to the powerhead output to a pressurized bottle based system, for convenience. I'm using a ceramic disc diffusor and currently run about 30 bpm as per Sera recommendations for their CO2 system on my 180l/50g tank. The fluid...

I would like to make a LED based smooth lighting solution for a moderately planted 50G aquarium, without breaking the bank and or having to solder onto a PCB from scratch. Right now I have the standard Juwel T5 lighting bar with reflectors. The idea would be to fade in reddish morning light...

How about a Tiger Hillstream Loach (Sewellia Linoleata)?

I'm using 2x 2l bottles each filled 3/4 with hot water and 2 cups of sugar dissolved, 1/4 tsp yeast (I also recycle some from depleted bottles) and 1/2 tsp baking soda. I get 2 bps for about 10 days. +1 for injecting straight into powerhead nozzle and avoiding co2 diffusors that require...

Mine loves algae wafers and usually loaches about on the back of the tank near the powerhead. Also made a spot for him under a rock where bigger fish (like RTS or my recently discovered surprise pleco) can't get to, he loves to sit there too. I run an aerator at night to keep oxygen supply high...

10" surprise fish?? Your story sounds better than mine, let's hear it!!

Thanks, yes sorry the surprise fish is indeed a pleco as far as I could tell. The tank is 50G, the shark is about the same size as the pleco. Will try to feed the pleco a zucchini, or as they say here feed the ancistrus a courgette ;)

Today I saw what looked like a tail of a 5" fish stick out of one of the holes in my rock decorations. I had seen this once before but it was gone by the time I got closer to it so I thought I was imagining things and that it probably was a leaf. Today I saw the same thing again and on very...

I tried hooking up DIY CO2 to a ceramic disc diffuser but the pressure required to push the bubbles through was simply too high, no matter which sealing method used (glue, silicon, ...) the bottles would be rock hard, bulge out and a leak would eventually develop somewhere due to the sheer...

Oh yes 1 red tail black shark 3 zebras 3 guppies (1m + 2f) 6 neons 4 gold dust mollies (1m + 3f), lost count of the babies 1 red phantom tetra 2 dwarf gourami (one is powder blue) 1 sewellia linoleata 3 assassin snails RTS and red phantom came with the tank I bought. Their colors have improved...

The hot salt bath did work. I reintroduced him in the main tank today and he's so happy he's been catching up for lost time with the females all day :)