Milan

I would suggest you a glass top. Many fish stores sell plastic hinge strips and back masking strips that you can tailor to your equipment, and any glass shop can cut two pieces of glass dirt cheap. The beauty about the glass top is that you can put any light on the top of it, as long as it doesn't exceed the footprint of your tank. Easy maintenance too ...

Depends what fertilization method you decide to go by. Nowadays, mostly in use among aquarists are PPS (Perpetual Preservation System), and EI (Estimative Index). Both work well, but have some differences in the approach. This is just a brief overview, but there is a lot more to it. PPS: Dosing based on periodically measured residual levels of NO3 and PO4. Water changes on per need basis. Fert sources KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4, and TE mix. EI: Dosing based on predetermined fert quantities. No need for testing (except KH and pH), but suggested weekly massive (50%) water changes. Fert sources KNO3, KH2PO4, and TE mix.

Considering the tank size and your reluctance to test , I would sugest you EI (Estimative Index) fertilization schedule. For ferts you will need KH2PO4, KNO3, and TE mix. This can be found at a hydroponic shop (ie. Bumper Crop in Calgary). However, you will still need some tests, namely KH and pH, to maintain the proper CO2 level.

I took a liberty of adding an AA link to the new directory of aquarium related sites called "Aquapalooza", hosted by APC, hoping that this will further promote our site. The link can be found under "Aquariums in general" category.

Not sure, but seems to me that it's one of those with fixed output. 60 PSI is too much for CO2 injection. I believe, it should be around 10 or less. BTW, what the flowmeter is for?

My point too ... :thumbs:

I've never had problems with AP, but suppose any is good if passes the KNO3 test. If not, simply take it back to the fish store as defective...

Here are some links to what may be related to Aquanerd's problem: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...read.php?t=7250 http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...read.php?t=6757 Anyhow, testing your tap water parameters would be the moment of truth, in my mind ...

I have no ideas ... I have come across some references about people complaining about Eco-Complete leaching some phosphates into the water column raising (buffering) the KH, but no reference as to how long the effects lasted. Keep adding as much as it takes to maintain the targets ... Make sure you don't dose KH2PO4 and TE's on the same day. Actually, few hours apart is fine ... This is because PO4 interferes with chelators, rendering Fe unavailable to plants.

This is where you can find out more about PPS: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumap...read.php?t=4241 In essence, these are the main differences in between PPS and EI: PPS: Dosing based on periodically measured residual levels of NO3 and PO4. Water changes on per need basis. Macros Sources: KNO3, K2SO4, KH2PO4. EI: Dosing based on estimated/predetermined fert quantities. No need for testing, but includes weekly massive (50%) water changes. Macros sources: KNO3, KH2PO4.

Your nitrates bottomed out, and this is the first thing you should take care of. Secondly, your CO2 calcs are dubious. Specially considering the hagen ladder you are using. Something is skewing them. I would label your Eco-Complete as a prime suspect. I have come across some threads (APC perhaps, can't remember ...) referring to the same thing. Apparently, they had a bad batch ... What are your tap water readings? BTW, no need for MgSO4 with your GH ...

It may look crazy, but the picture is actually very nice to show you all (labeled) components of a complete pressurized system, with all it's bells and whistles ... Most people shoot just for the cylinder with a pressure regulator/needle valve, and perhaps a solenoid valve, so that they can connect it to a timer.

Here is another one ...

It's been a couple of days since I soaked everything in PP, and it reappears AGAIN! This is convincing me it is really the yeast, or whatever comes out of the generator bottle together with CO2 ... I'll try to put a gas separator, and if that doesn't help, I guess I will have to live with it ...

I would advice against this. Do not combine your filtration with CO2 diffusion! Bringing enough gas into impeller chamber can stall the water flow, and you end up with two failures, no filtration being the worse one.

I don't see why would you need the ladder diffuser, if you have a power reactor. The last one, if properly designed, should be sufficient. Further, the required bubbling rate (CO2 production) varies from tank to tank (volume, plants bio mass, ...). You can't tell that a bubble every 2-3 sec is enough, unless you actually measured the CO2 level in your tank and. Accordingly, the reactor must be designed/sized to deal efficiently with the amount of gas produced. Just as an example, my bubbling rate is 2-3 bubbles/sec (as consistently as DIY can do), giving me about 25-30 ppm of CO2.

I do have an EHEIM Aquaball internal filter which passes the water through my CO2 reactor. Not too much of a circulation though.

I'm not sure what you meant by "backup", but no, ... nothing that would suggest restricted flow or elevated water level in the filter. BTW, I gained about 5 ppm of CO2 by doing this.

AC 50 has a maximum flow of 200g/hr, so it fits guidelines that Garhan mentioned. As far as surface agitation goes, I agree with Jvision about raising the water level in the tank, but there is also a simple trick to further reduce it, which I have done on my AC. All you need is a plastic plate, and a rubber band. Please, see the picture bellow: Not sure, if I should charge Hagen for the idea ... :hey:

No Garhan, there were no specs, as far as I could see. Seems like everybody, wherever I asked, is pointing at yeast as a culprit ...

You think it's the yeast in some form? It didn't look like that, as far as I can tell. I've seen yeast making whitish foam-like stuff, but not a jelly with a fish smell. But I may be wrong. Yes, I do use a DIY CO2 ...

It's been several weeks since I noticed some jelly-like whitish stuff which smells fishy inside my CO2 reactor. I kept washing it off, but it reappears after a couple of days again. Interesting thing is that it always happens around the nozzle (air stone) where CO2 bubbles enter the reactor chamber. The only thing that comes to my mind is that it is snail eggs. But why nowhere else but around the CO2 source? Could it be that snail eggs actually like CO2, and perhaps feed (breath, or whatever ...) on it? Last night I soaked the whole reactor in a strong solution of Potassium Permanganate for a good 30 minutes, and rinsed it thoroughly afterwards, just to make sure there are none left. Hope that will do the trick, but still it puzzles me if there is some connection between snail eggs and CO2. Anyone who experienced this too?

Your filter is fine. Hagen recommends it for up to 50g tanks. However, no filter is good in overstocked tanks. There is a rule of thumb how many fish you can put in there. I think it goes by total length of fish vs. tank volume. I can't remember the exact number. The density of plants plays a significant role as well. The bottom line is, that you don't want any amounts of NH3/NH4 present in your tank. Your best bet, if you want to add more fish, to add them slowly, a couple of them at the time, and hold off with further introductions until things stabilize ...

Also, on this site you can find comparison of different substrate materials. Although it is 6 years old (things change), it is interesting to know ...

Welcome to the board Mighty! There are many different choices you can go with substrate. You can use plain gravel, ... it will work. Granulation should be around 1-3mm. However, better choice would be to have a layer of kitty litter, Profile, and/or Latterite underneath the gravel. They have a capability of storing nutrients (high CEC) making them available to plant's roots. Some of them are rich in Fe. You can expand further and stick some tab ferts in there, but eventually, if you don't renew the source, every nutrient rich substrate will expire, defaulting to water column fertilization.