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I am not sure what the different colors are but as long as it is labeled. CO2 resistant. This is what is claimed on Green Leaf Aquariums: "CO2 Resistant tubing is the best way to transport and deliver CO2 to the planted aquarium. We do not sell silicone tubing which is highly permeable to CO2. With our CO2 resistant tubing, CO2 will not escape and every last drop of CO2 will be put to efficient use." I'm sure Big A's sells it.

Is it possible the shrimp could have been exposed to some copper? Shrimp are very sensitive to copper and it will kill them. Did you by chance medicate the tank with something containing copper? Perhaps an ich med?

That second bottle is to prevent anything from spilling from the bottle into the tank. I used to use one of those Hagen DIY co2 kits and I would always get a yeasty foam creep through the tube into the tank little bits at a time. So the foamy yeast stuff falls into this little jar or bottle while the co2 continues into the tank. Make sure you get co2 resistant air line tubing! I think the drop checker idea for DIY is a good idea. They are cheap and you can find em on ebay for about 10 bucks. lt will let you know when you have fluctuations and you can learn to fine tune exactly when your co2 supply is running out. With a HOB filter you should be fine. I keep my pressurized running 24/7 with just a bit of surface agitation from a spraybar and I never have problems. Hope this helps. Oh they also sell tiny little tubes of aquarium safe silicone at big als. Should save ya a couple bucks maybe you could put towards the drop checker instead of lots of silicone that you don't need.

Good question! TO be honest I don't know the answer. I just kinda let it go and do it's thing. I haven't done anything to stretch my CO2 dollar as it is not nearly as expensive here in Edmonton then it is in Medicine Hat. My crap solenoid from the Milwaukee MA-957 broke when I raised the psi to 20 because I couldn't keep a steady bubble count otherwise so I am stuck running it 24/7.

A good place to start would be to check youtube. There are plenty of videos on there of people making DIY backgrounds. You can use cement, grout and different colored grout dyes to get desired effects. I am not too sure of what kind of paint or dyes to use but I know if you check youtube you will get plenty of ideas.

I agree with cale262. Unless the tank is under 10g I would go with T5HO. Led's can be quite expensive! I also run a dual lamp fixture on my 20g and it seems to be going great so far.

Thanks for the links Werner! That setup is amazing and much more advanced then what I had in my mind LOL. I never would have guessed there were plans already made for this. I think this will make my project much easier. Jayba I would have never known. Does the vinyl dye give a nicer finish then the paint? I was scared that the paint would look painted.

A couple of months ago I was taking out the trash and I found this little old Macintosh Classic sitting by the dumpster. This was actually the first computer I had ever used as we had these in elementary school probably right around the time they came out. Instantly the idea to use it for a nano aquarium came to mind. So I brought it in, gutted it for the better part and cleaned it up a bit and this is what I have. I think either making my own little tank or getting one custom made should be really easy. There is even an area for the tank to sit on in there if I don't completely gut it. My biggest problem will be making this thing openable from the top as it only opens from the front. On top of it all I am not much of a DIY'er but this thing was a special gift from the aqua gods that said I just have to do it! I am considering maybe trying to install a sliding drawer system but I don't know if that will be easy or practical. My only other option would be to somehow nicely remove the top area without butchering it and making it so it can come on and off with ease. Another problem I see is the handle area on the top is depressed into the unit and I would like to somehow raise that up to a flat surface. I have no idea how to do this because I have never done anything like but IT WILL BE DONE! lol. Anyone have any advice or ideas for this? If I cannot do this it will also pose a problem with the lighting. There won't be much room. If I can pull this off I should be able to use roughly the same amount of lighting from 2 of the lights for the Dymax unit. It will be roughly an 8-9 inch cube. Not sure exactly how much room I will have to work with. I am thinking of using LED's to light it and building an all in one tank unit back wall filtration thingy(i have no idea what these are called) similar to what is in the Dymax IQ3 or the Fluval Spec. I think this will be the easiest and most space efficient. I am also thinking I will have to paint it black so it doesn't look like a computer from the stone ages. Won't look very nice next to my Samsung monitor. Anyways I just wanted to share that with you all as I am extremely excited about this project and I think it would be the perfect replacement or addition to my current desktop. I would love to hear comments and suggestions on how I can pull this off.

It probably would be ok inside the canopy as t5's don't put out all that much heat and like you said is well ventilated. I think the safety note is on there just so AquaticLife doesn't have to take responsibility in the worst case scenario. DO you have a nice wooden canopy on there or something? Maybe you could do like I do and just run it open topped? Or even buy one of those Perfecto hinged glass tops? As for minimum distance it would have to be from a glass top I am not too sure maybe just 1 inch? I have a Coralife Mini PC on a 2.5g emersed tank and it just sits right on top of the glass top. The pc's get much much hotter then t5's so I think you should be fine.

Here is a pic of the nano diffuser. Believe it or not it is working fine for the 20g. I didn't want to dip my hands in the aquarium as I just washed them so I didn't take a pic of the old one. I will when I feel my hands are safe.

Welcome to AA popcorncherryshrimp! Don't go wastin a tank on a nano now!

Cool yeah I had been looking at those but am a little skeptical. I'm not too sure about running it at 30 psi. Plus I don't know how that would use less co2. I'm a little baffled on that claim. However the in line diffuser is a great idea. Less stuff in the tank the better.

Great light! I have 3 of these. 2 36" ones and a 24". I am not sure about shortening the legs and I believe it says on the box or on the little yellow note attached to the splash guard that it is not to be used inside a hood. What size is yours. I have 2 36" ones for sale ;)

http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item4155800c09 I believe they come from http://www.aqmagic.com/store/

I'll get some pics up tomorrow of both.

They do plug up a bit i'd say about every few months but it's pretty simple I just take it out and put it in a glass of hydrogen peroxide and the next day it is really clean.

So I bought a couple 3 dollar glass diffusers off ebay and they work better then the 40 dollar one I bought a year ago from GreenLeaf Aquariums. They produce a much much finer mist then the previous one I had. I just thought I'd share this with you all so you don't waste your money like I did. Cheers!

Are you sure? I had a bunch of cherry's before and they were all red. I doubt I had all females. Even all the babies were red. I think it might be due to weak genetics. Maybe you will need to introduce some new genes into the pool.

You can purchase the dry form from AquaFlora Nurseries or AquariumFertilizer.com for about $5 a lb. AquaFlora is in country so it would be a tad bit easier from them.

Wow those are some good deals! I wonder how many of us asked for that for Christmas. I know I did!

Hi lisar! Welcome to AA!

Beauties! Apistos are by far my favorite fish. I would really like to get some again one day when I have more room.

I keep mine set to 20 psi. Some regulators come with a bubble counter attached and some don't. I would really buy an all in one unit if it is your first time working with pressurized. You will also need a good quality check valve. It's just a simple 1 way valve to prevent water from coming back up the hose into the regulator and possibly damaging it. I would also invest in a drop checker so you know that you have your recommended 30 ppm of co2 in the water.

Did the price go up in the last 5-6 months?

$50 BUCKS zOMG!!! That's insane! Is that the only place that refills CO2 in medicine hat?