sculptor

In town today and picked up Nutri Max Spirulina Flakes in container at Tanks A Lot on corner of Elbow Drive and Heritage Drive S.W. to feed my Daphnia.

Thanks, the 5 minute mark is a close estimate, no digital timer, just the usual notches to push down. The LED light from HD is as great as I would expect it to be. I am a great fan of LED use for accent or mood- everything in Germany for those uses plus are LED, stunning applications throughout the whole house. I wish N.A. would get progressive and follow suite- and with wires that are as thin as pencil leads.

I have timid species of Pencilfish (Eques/Auritus) that 'jump' badly in their planted tank whenever the T5s come on or off. Solution was to buy an LED 16 light strip from Home Depot , slide it into a cut to size clear plastic tube which is sitting in 2 cut 'sadles' of tube for stability (antiroll). These are programed to come on 5 minutes before the T5s and go off 10 minutes after , hence giving the fish a chance to seek cover while it is still dawn or twilight. Seems to work well for them.

Thanks for the help- years ago I too used the regular 'clear' tubing with little trouble except some 'stiffening' with age and exposure. I cannot remember where I got the 'green' CO2 tubing, (maybe in a kit ?) , but I have heard that the silicone(both 'blue' and 'clear' ) does have problems with CO2 .Back to the original clear stuff I guess.

I cannot find this mentioned in the forums, so can anyone help me locate where I can buy some of this while I am in town this Thurs-Fri ? I have tried 4 of the bigger stores already with no luck. I have read that the tubing (green) is necesary for CO2, right??

LOL- I guess that I'm thanking you for that site link, and ALL the info that I am still trying to wrap my head arround- Chemestry in school never was my friend. I now have 9 pages of 'copy' and 'paste' in a Word doc. that I have to plow thru, and then see what I agree with. Asked what I thought was a simple question... lol Things that I never knew that I didn't know.

Thank you for your words- my last upgrade in aquarium technology was 20 years ago, when I said good bye to metal rim tanks, and a lot has changed in aqarium keeping since then ! I guess that I must let my plants 'talk' for me as to whether they are 'happy' or not-so I do need more light. Right now I have a dual T5, (my c f is having ballast problems), so I will take your advice and look for another dual T5 in the Want & Sell on this site. A 5 Lb. won't fit in cabinet, so DIY CO2 will have to do. I do use Red Sea CO2 indicator, and now find that I have to get a Chemistry Grad. degree to understand how it works and how to use it correctly -lol-( 9 pages of copy and paste into Word doc. from a forum dealing with 'must use 4dKH in non-tank H2O to reach truthful equilibrium point'-or not .) And this item in question looks so simple and inocent-as do its instructions. lol I have yet to re-read these notes and sort it out as to 'my' truth and understanding. For diffusing, one set-up is the plastic zigzag ladder affair, and the 2 lt. bottle is into the intake of my Eheim Pro 2026, and its spray bar is kept low enough below H2O to cause rippling only. When I did get pearling, it was (I think)with the bennifit of the additional c f light working for about an hour before its ballast gave up. I do restict the filter flow for about an hour each a.m. for feeding time, (pencil fish like it calm then) and have not noticed any change as in pearling, but maybe too short a time or too early in day. Melting (?) of some stem plants-Ludwigia especially, is probably combination of some rough handling during planting, and some over-shadowing now from other plants, so more light should help that part. And maybe my tank and I just cannot grow Ludwigia . I only used Fl. Excel once 2 weeks ago to answer a hair algae occurance on H2O surface leaves of Vals. , so that turned out mostly fine(small experience of Bacterial Bloom ) Am now going to check site for Dry Ferts.

Thanks for your information- on sites that I have now looked at, Kubotais seem to be the size that I have been thinking of if they do only grow to 2.5". I don't think that Kuhli Loaches will do if they don't keep the MTS 'at bay'.

Thanks for your reply & info. I have had a look at that site, the Zebras look nice, plus I found info on 2 other smaller ones- Striata 2" and Kubotai 2.5". As my tank is only a 67 gal, (36"x18") lots of plants and wood- and has 2 Sterbi Corys, 2 Elaganse Corys and a young male Bristlenose already as bottom population, I wonder which type if any ? The sites seem to all say minimum of 3 for company.

Thanks for the info- I have looked at some photos of Loaches now and quite like the looks of Zebra type- how large are yours?

Did I read somewhere that this indicator reading can be compromised due to a conflicting high chemical amount present in your tanks' water ? Concerned about trusting mine. lol- I am reading far too much from too many sources!

I have never owned any before, so I could do with some help please. Will they keep my MTS population under control, and which species are the smaller ones ? Are they compatable with Corys and B Pleco ?

If you travel to the Invermere area (Kootenays) for weekends like a lot of Calgarians do, this was built with 1/2" & 3/4 " Oak (good and strong and very well built), by a workmate of my Husband. No particle board here.

Thanks for your reply and help. From what I read about Compact Fluorescents in general , I think you are right about using the T5s. But due to space shortage, I have to stick with the DIY CO2s, even the paintball size CO2 tanks are too large. Do you think that the T5 HO are anywhere from one and one half to 2 times stronger than regular Fluorescent tubes (that the Watts/gal. rule is based on)? I will work on finding the dry ferts arround Calgary .

All in a muddle- I have recently ( 3 weeks ago)upgraded planted aquarium from 33 gal. to 67 gal.and am trying to upgrade my very dated knowledge at the same time. Tank's dimensions are 36" long, 18" deep, and 24" high, fish are Amazon types, plants are varied , using DIY CO2 bottles, Peat pelletts under Florite under smooth river pebbles. Fertilize Flourish and Flourish Trace once and twice weekly,(as well as Seachem Tabs) and 30 % H2O change weekly. Tap H2O pH is 7, PO4 is 0, aquarium H2O is : pH 6.6, NO2 0.1, PO4 5.0 . No algae problem. Advanced to 36" T5 HO ( 39 Watts x 2)lights resting on glass tank top. Pearling has only happened once right after this last H2O change, when I also tried adding a 36" compact fluorescent ( 96 Watts)fixture. Plant health is varied, some melt happening on a few Crypts, and lots of melt on another, stems of Ludwigia repens and Rotala rotundifolia mushing, but Limnophila sessiflora doing fine-maybe stretching a bit. Etc. So..... do I need to add 2 more T5 HO bulbs,(another dual fixture) or put $$ into new C.F. tube every time it needs replacement?