Sprucegruve

Sounds like it's going to work nicely,do you mind if I bug you in a couple months and ask how it's running?

In my experience,as soon as I switched from gravel to sand my plants did a lot better,but as you saw my tanks are not any beautiful amano designs or anything to brag about, I have seen very nicely planted tanks with gravel,but they were very experienced aquatic gardeners,I can't seem to do it though Also I add seachem root-tab fertilizers occasionally, I would recommend a couple in each tank. Someone was saying there is a safe miracle grow root tab you can use that is slightly cheaper,I can't remember who....gleen? Also if you have small tanks I would recommend buying a couple seachem liquid ferts,if you have large tanks(like the 70,75) then I would recommend maybe doing some research into bulk powder ferts from a garden center or hydroponics store. Other than that,only other tips I have is do some reading on each plant you buy,some need to be trimmed, and some will be damaged if you cut the leaves ect,ect Easy plants Pigmy chain sword/dwarf chain sword Wendilit? Spelling Val's Hornwort Najas grass Cabomba Sword plants

thank you for the tip,ill check regularly

i assume its too cold up here around edmonton to start looking right? or should i pull out the old rubber boots and go trudging through some marshes?......once it stops lightly snowing....

if that doesent work for you, i can sell you some lev

i have had to leave some plants in a 5g pail for 2 weeks. i setup a 25Wheater,a airstone,added half dose of ferts once-twice a week,i also had a small growlight above the pail. i may have over killed it,but no plants died or looked really bad at the end of 2 weeks.

im thinking monsterfishkeepers.com

are these hydor heaters the type of thing that you could keep discus with? or would you need two for good measure?

ewwwww corn fed beef......are we in the states? you gotta feed that monster AAA alberta beef(not corn fed) :rofl: seriously cool fish tho,good score

im sorry i have no experience with those. only the 3 i mentioned,im actually going to try one of those hydor inline heaters for canister filters in the future.

i used to use elite submersible heaters with no problems. also the fluval E series submersible heater is nice(works great and has lcd screen),but over priced. now i use ebo jager submersible heaters,very accurate,and it has the thickest glass out of all the heaters. but your choice,just dont use a $5 heater.....i wouldn't risk it

Good to see you kicking around the forum again,it's been awhile

i read the same thing,i think any of the smaller hardy shrimp would do great,(red,yellow,orange,green,blue) but i wouldent risk putting in big shrimp like amano

yes that would be good,he cleared up my questions about reprashy when i was researching it.

Did anyone read the original post? yep read the OP ''i was using normal ballasts from rona or home depot for a while with good results. they are like 21$ for a 48inch dual bulb T8 fixture''....

I just buy my sand from Home Depot. It's kind-of dirty but if you have access to a garden hose it's only 10-15 mins of steady rinsing and it looks very natural. +1 +jvision speaks from experience so id trust whatever he says about planted tanks

welcome to aa. if you get some time maybe post some pictures of your setups in the photo section

Are you willing to share you food recipie? I have tried home made foods befoe and haven't found one that I like yet. The fish like it, but I find it too messy in the tank. id prefer to keep it private untill i get my recipe perfect,,,pm sent with what i have so far

i just bought a half pound,i havent used any yet,but ill keep you posted once i make my next batch of food

when your in spruce next time stop by dan. ill give you some rotifers and copepods for the fry

i was using normal ballasts from rona or home depot for a while with good results. they are like 21$ for a 48inch dual bulb fixture but if you want to spend slightly more, i would do some research into sunblaster brand t5 fixtures they are efficent and good price

i would appreciate it j ^^

wow congrats fisher,now you can say you have had catfish spawn for you lol

ah good idea jvision ^^ val, im just really clumsy so even in perfect conditions i would still suck up some shrimp every week, but i find in my sand tanks all the poop and garbage still settles into certant parts of the tank so it is quite easy to clean

at the moment i am only keeping easy species of shimp(red cherry,yellow,green,lowgrade CBS,and lowgrade CRS) in the past i had fancyer shrimp(SS CBS)but one of 15 died,i got worried and sold them quickly. i used to use just playground sand with great success,each tank was heavily planted with the same plants(random moss's,najas grass,hornwort,and dwarf chain sword) now i use 50%black florite sand on the bottom and 50% playground sand on top,just to give the plants a lil boost. although i have always added a small amount of ferts every 2 weeks in my shrimp tanks. i have never used gravel in shrimp tanks because i feed alot of different powder foods to my shrimp,i believe it would all just fall thought the gravel and dirty the water. i have always done a 25%-50% water change on my shrimp tanks each week,i get the water to the right hardness and ph before it is added to the tank...just thought i would add that.....frank in bc is very adamant about that. i have spoken to frank in the past,he suggests using ADA products,because some lower ph,and they are dark so it shows off the colors of bright shrimp better. i have never personally wanted to try a bare bottom shrimp tank because i think i would suck up alot of baby shimp siphoning the bottom every week. anyways thats my experience with shimps so far,hope it helps. steve