Pteronarcys

I personally like some reds. Rotala Macranda or alternanthera reineckii mini are good.

It's a blue fish

Yah directly on the leaves will cause chemical burns. Once emerged fertilize the water with the roots.

Maybe Lymnaeidae since the shell seems to spiral to the right

Regular pond snails of the planobidae variety. Also known as ramshorn. Eggs are clear and in clear gel. Easy to overlook. They are hermaphrodites so they will breed fast

Most mature neo females will get this strip. Still low grade neo though

It is more of a floating plant in nature. Similar to penny wort or horn wort. Take a aluminum weight strip and anchor it.

Site is almost unusable. Can't log on forever, think I am logged on but then says I don't have permission for that, loads page full of errors, or loads a blank page. Is there someone on this?

I discovered. Moving to Mackenzie Lake that my water chemistry is very different from downtown. Thus co2 and Ph values become different with injection to keep plants happy. Used to inject till water got to 7 pH but now I am around 6.2pH So it depends on hardness, kh, and other values

I have moved to Mackenzie Lake and previously filled my cylinders at recharge centre. Is this still my closest and cheapest solution to co2 refills?

I have 7 angels I have had for about 4 months. Yesterday one laid eggs (Koi angel). No idea the dad, I haven't had much time to find out. I don't really want to block off my 2 canister filters, separate the parents or fry if they hatch. I am going to assume some will get eaten,sucked up into the filter and have few survivors. Should I expect any to survive? It's a 65 gallon planted tank. First time with angels. I was told it is difficult to breed them. I just don't want to be over run with angels.

Contacted 311 and they are going to have a water service person call me back this week about which water treatment facility the water comes from and why my parameters are so different from downtown. I will update once I get that information. Might shed some light on why some people in the city have difficulty growing aquarium plants and others have much better luck. It may come down to differences in water parameters based on which facility is treating the water.

I have been running planted aquariums for nearly 20 years and have created some beautiful aquarium setups. I have done this in the several places I have lived, such as Ontario, Houston, and out here in Calgary. Setting up planted tanks in Calgary was a bit of a challenge at first since the water here is really hard and has a high KH and pH. I was previously living downtown and the tap water consistently tested at a KH of around 11 (with some fluctuations per season) and a pH of around 8. This meant that to get CO2 to dissolve in these conditions I would have to inject CO2 until I reached a pH of around 6.5 to 7 (depending if the KH was closer to 8 or 11). Weekly water tests helped me maintain the appropriate level of around 30ppm CO2. **** wish that OCO CO2 meter didn't fall through on kickstarter**** Things were fine and dandy for the 7 years I was living downtown. This summer I have moved to MacKenzie Lake to a house close to the lake itself. In setting up my tanks again and getting them ready for plants, I discovered that both with the rough KH test kit from API and my Hanna digital KH test kit, I am getting reading from the tap of 0.5 KH. Using a CO2 indicator with 4KH water, I have to bring my pH down to 6 or lower to get any colour change. After about a month of playing around I am starting to see better growth and less die off of my plants with a pH of around 6. Though based on charts, I am still insufficient in CO2 if my KH is 0.5. While I know my fish will adapt to lower pH, it presents a challenge to adding new fish that are at stores at pH of 8 and also to have invertebrates who need to maintain their shells which leach calcium in pH's less than 7. I am going to push the system a bit further to ph 5.8 to see if I can finally get pearling on my plants like I am used to them doing back at my old apt downtown. I have also been unsuccessful of transferring my bloody mary shrimp into the new planted aquariums with CO2 running even with hours of slowly adjusting them from such a change in pH. They seem fine for a few days then they die off. I am baffled as to why my KH is so low. We have a water softener, but it isn't running and water isn't even passing through it since the shut off valve is preventing water from flowing through it. Even if it did, there isn't any salt in the softener. I find that our water smells a bit swampy every time I shower. I could start adding baking soda or buy Calcium carbonate or potassium carbonate to add to the tank during water changes to raise the KH, but then there is the much added time during water changes of adjusting and testing the KH. I miss just doing a water change and letting the pH controller do its thing. I know MacKenzie lake is fed through city water supply, I wonder if they adjust the KH and other parameters in this community? Any incites into why the drastic water chemistry difference?

Anyone receive theirs yet? Last update was end of Dec. It's almost 6 months past the original shipping date. Thinking this isn't going to ever be available. Tim Burton (the creator of this) didn't reply to several of my emails. Not the best way to start a business: promise a product then have many months of delays, updates about delays come once a month or less, and emails go unanswered. Granted this is in the kickstarter phase and not mainstream. I can understand legitimate delays and issues with a new product and design tweaks, but keep your customer base updated frequently and reply to emails. Perhaps post pictures or youtube videos of issues that need to be addressed so the customer knows it is legit. His other company "aquaflora nurseries" has information that is out of date about the OCO. Last I heard from him he is still running aquaflora and selling plants. I was going to buy some plants from him to stock the tank I got for my grade 5 classroom back in Sept. He offered to donate a bunch of plants instead since it was going to a school. He said he would ship them out on a certain date. They never arrived and when I contacted him to ask for tracking number or if whether they shipped yet, I got no answer. Tried several times to contact him, but didn't hear back. Can't really be too upset for not getting something that I was going to get for free, but a bit disappointed when someone says they are going to do something then it doesn't happen. I figured he got super busy with the OCO and just forgot. If he had replied and gave a logical reason he couldn't do it anymore I would be fine with that, but not replying at all is a bit disheartening. My initial impression of him from communicating through emails (of which he used to reply back within a few days) was very positive. He answered my questions about the OCO, gave good advice and recommendations, joked around about stuff, was generous with the idea of donating plants, etc. What do you guys think?