gBOYsc2

The tank is lookin great. I love your apistos man. They are beautiful.

Yes, I would replace with a different substrate. If you want a plant substrate I would look into eco complete or different types of flourite. Those are probably your 2 best bets for easily available plant substrates with no ammonia.

I would think the most effective thing would be to remove the substrate completely and do a water change every day. werner has a really good point though about the pH shift and Ron has a good idea with the Prime.

I would do a 50% water change every day. Possibly even up to 75%. Anyone else? I

I get mine filled at Oxypro. Just let them know that you don't want to swap and they'll give it back to you as is.... might have to stick around for 5-10 mins though.

Hmm..... that seems it might be a little low. I just checked my 5 lb which has been going strong for a few months now and still reads 1000 psi. Is it possible you have a leak or need some new seals?

FOr such a tiny CO2 system you would probably benefit from turning it off at night so you don't waste any. Those things can be pricey. Do you have the Fluval 20 or Fluval 88? I leave my CO2 running 24/7 but it's from a 5 lb tank and that is a whole different story. If you are serious about growing plants I would go ahead and invest in a 5 or even 10 lb tank and regulator. If you are running the Fluval 88 it will cost over 300 bucks for a years supply of refill cartriges if you are aiming for target CO2 which is around 30 ppm. You could easily have a brand new CO2 setup and tank for 300 bucks and pay ~20 bucks for refills on that as opposed to 20 bucks for refills on the 88g cartridge. Also 1 bubble every 5 seconds isn't nearly enough as jvision has stated. On a 55 you should need around 3 bubbles per second to get 30 ppm CO2. It actually is as simple as adding CO2, light, ferts and plants and voila! You have a lush growing planted tank.

From what I have read the pH swing caused by CO2 is not harmful to fish. Some people run no CO2 and an airstone at night and pump CO2 about an hour before lights which would cause a swing in pH, but apparently it doesn't affect the fish. Not sure if it's the CO2.

I got it from Paradise Pets or Pet Paradise(can't remember what it's called) in St. Albert. They usually have pretty good plants there. I just gave away some clippings on Sunday but I can save my next clippings for you if you'd like. THe one thing I like about it most is it's ease of trimming. No replanting required just snip snip snip into the shape you want.

Was the snail still alive or was it dead? I think the Amano's will eat almost anything. I have found mine eating dead fish and trying to eat other dead shrimp as well, but never snails so far.

So yesterday I found 1 dead shrimp and 1 dead rainbow and today I found another dead rainbow. No ammonia so I'm not sure why. I am going to start dosing half what I was previously......

I would go with the 2217 as it's rated at 264 gph compared to the 2215 is only 164 gph. You want to aim for around 10x per hour but I think 264 would be close enough. I keep my in/outflow pipes together but some keep them apart. I couldn't tell you which is better though.

True enough Blake. Sierra - I bought the 2 kg bag of stratum. I think it should give you close to a 2" layer maybe 1 1/2 to 1 3/4"? On the back of the bag there is a formula to figure out how much to use but it isn't very specific. It only shows 1 dimension of the tanks which is really wierd.

Very interesting. I have never heard of this before. It makes me think my filter on the 20g is too small now :P

I don't understand this. What is the HPTA? and 10% filter/display ratio. Forgive my n00bness please.

I did a good trim yesterday. Everything except the Diplis diandra and the helferi. Might get around to parting up the helferi today. I'm lovin the trimmed look of the HM.

Haha I like the drawings! I would really recommend checking out a PAR 30 or 38 LED bulb. They are quite pricey around 75-80 bucks but have 50,000 hour bulb life(iirc), and will simply screw into a regular old light socket, which should make a retrofit fairly easy..... I think LOL. Your stock lighting will definitely be insufficient. It will have trouble reaching out outer edges of the tank so look into one that has a wide spread angle. I would also recommend checkin out the Planted Tank website and Aquatic Plant Central site for other ideas on upgrading your lighting. You will be able to find a TON of fluval edge mods on those sights.

If the CO2 builds up inside the filter causing too much "air" it will cause the filter to dysfunction. Most filters aren't made to run dry at all. I'm not saying it will happen for sure but it can and has happened to people.

I use flourite black in my 20g tank, but I am going to be trying out the Fluval Plant Stratum in my 3.5g tank. I can't tell you how the Fluval substrate is yet though because the tank is in idle stage and not planted yet. I think you can plant as soon as the substrate is in. I guess the HC should start growing immediately as long as it is provided with good lighting. And it's up to you, the HC will grow fine either submerged or emersed but many people on TPT and APC like to do the 'dry start' method as it seems to spread a little quicker. It's really up to you.

I got almost all the stuff from AFA.

Sure, when I win the lotto. I'm sure it's comin this year LOL.

The tank is still in idle stage but I thought I'd share this wonderful story hahahaha...... So 2011 has been extremely lucky for me. I have randomly found money in public 3 times this year! I found 30 dollars the first time, 10 dollars the second time and a whopping 120 bucks today!!!! LOL So I went ahead and ordered some nice Do!aqua lily pipes today! Can't wait............... I am also waiting to find some plants but I have been lazy on the hunt this week. I'm trying to locate an aqua flora tub or 2 of dwarf hairgrass so I can get to heavily planting soon!

You can find them at any pj's pets and also can order directly from their website. AquaFlora Nurseries.

Wow what a beautiful fish. And amazing photo quality! Does he grow into a monster? He looks pretty small right now.

Yeah it was an aquaflora tub. I only ended up using about 15% of the tub and gave the rest away to nautilus with some other trimmings. They give an amazing amount of plants for 10 bucks. The downoi in my tank is only about half of a tub worth.