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The theme for this month's contest is: Best Stem Plant

Please take a picture of one of your stem plants. Be as artistic and creative as you like.

The rules:

• Submissions are allowed between May 9 and May 22.
• Voting will start on May 22 at 12:01 am Eastern time.
• Voting will end on May 31 at 11:30 pm Eastern time.

The prize:

A $25 store credit from BurrAqua thanks to @Burr740!


Please post your pictures in this thread starting now. Good luck!

I want to thank @Unexpected for introducing me to this new forum, but most importantly for him being the first ever to build the Horizontal CO2 Reactor. I feel honored that "Yugang Reactor" as he calls it (Yugang 鱼缸 means fish tank) is introduced in @Unexpected journal, but it would be a pity if that journal gets cluttered with too much reactor talk. So let me open a dedicated thread for discussions, questions and help on this Horizontal Reactor.

I have been experimenting for years with CO2, and at some time I took videos of my (modified) Aquamedic reactor to watch the bubbles in slow motion. To my surprise I found that the combined surface area of the bubbles was not very high for achieving a 1.5 pH drop in my 250 liter tank, and that CO2 absorbs so fast in water that the lifetime of bubbles is quite short. So .... we don't need to juggle bubbles at all, we can just create a very simple absorption interface between flowing water and a pocket of CO2 above it. The Horizontal reactor is surprisingly simple, and has some benefits that we won't find in diffusers or conventional Cerges / Griggs bubble reactors:

• Simple rules to find the correct dimensions for any tank, a small nano tank or a huge tank the size of a swimming pool.
• Very easy and cheap to build with plumbing materials. No fragile parts, low risk of leakage or malfunction.
• 100% CO2 absorption efficiency
• No need to experiment with vortices, venturis, diffusers, needles wheels, impellers / rotors, multi stage reactors - it is just a pipe with a gentle flow of water.
• No noise
• No mist in the tank
• No maintenance, and stable performance over time
• Virtually no reduction of flow from pump
• A purging valve is optional, as the reactor will purge itself from excessive trapped air.
• The reactor can be configured so that in the event of a failure, CO2 injection will not exceed a limit and fish cannot be gassed. Inherently safe.
• The reactor can be configured so that we do not need a precision regulator, because the reactor controls the CO2 injection rate

Or a multi stage version ...


A detailed thread can be found on UKAPS, linked with the kind permission from Scapecrunch forum moderators #1

I am happy to help new users to verify the calculations on reactor dimensions for their tank, please send me a PM.

Hi all,

You may have seen my posts about the benefits of our forum format versus the deluge of social media feeds. We learn and connect better with the ability to post longer posts that are archived and we can go back to in order to continue conversations. The constant stream of social media feeds makes this mostly impossible.

However, there are times when scrolling the never-ending social media feed is welcomed. For example, you're standing in the grocery checkout line and it's taking forever. You take out your phone to entertain yourself and you just want to scroll and see what's been posted to see if anything interesting catches your eye.

In this situation, a social media feed is better than the archival structure of a forum because there is less back and forth that you need to do. Simply use your thumb to scroll and pause on what is interesting to you.

I'm happy to announce that we now have a way to do both on ScapeCrunch. On your mobile device, if you click on the sandwich navigation icon at the bottom left, you will now find Social Feed towards the top. Click on it and it will take you to a feed of the newest posts made to the site. Simply scroll to see the list and click on whatever interests you.



If you do not like social feeds, forget about this post and that the option is there. Just don't use it and nothing changes for you. Our site structure remains as the homepage and you can use it like you've always done. The Social Feed is just an option for those that want to use it from time to time.

I hope this improves the ScapeCrunch experience for some of you, especially when you're bored in the grocery checkout line.

Thanks for being a valuable member of our growing community.

All the best,

Art

P.S., the Social Feed is only available on mobile devices.

Starting a journal on my 40 gallon breeder farm tank. I originally threw together a 20 gallon farm tank to hold cuttings from my first scape but found I was quickly running out of space for new plants and a quickly growing population of Neocaridina shrimp, not to mention, the tank had become overwhelmed with bladder snails (yes, I know they can be beneficial). I had plenty of space for the plants I already had but wanted more for future plants for upcoming scapes. I planned to also use the tank as a temp home for fish. The new tank completed cycling about 7/20/25 and I began transferring the following week. Setup details are as follows:
Tank: Imagitarium 40 Gallon Breeder (half-off Petco special)
Filter: Oase Biomaster Thermo 350 (Only because it was sitting unused at the time)
Light: Week Aqua M900
CO2: Yes, inline diffuser
Skimmer: Oase Crystalskim 350
Substrate: ADA Amazonia 2

I purchased a used tank around the beginning of March that was fully scaped with a few fish and shrimp. I tore down the scape and moved the shrimp to the 20 gallon farm. I thought all I had were a few Amanos which I moved to my main display tank and about 7 Yellow Golden Back Neocaridina. The yellows quickly began breeding but I ended up with a lot of wild offspring so one of the original must not have been a yellow. I now have about 100 shrimp but really don't want to use them in an aquascape as mixed wild, so I will start to rehome them to keep the population in check. I've also moved Painted Platys from my display scape to the farm, as they were breeding as much as bladder snails. There are about 15 in the farm tank now and 2 still in the display tank (I think they're both female). I'll be rehoming the Platys as well. I have no interest in being a fish breeder so no more Livebearers for me.

I wasn't sure about wasting space in the farm tank with hardscape but went ahead and put in a few pieces for now. I figured I could use it for epiphytes and hiding places for livestock. Eventually, I'll probably install some 3D printed grates for the epiphytes. Things are a little disorganized to start. I welcome ideas on farm tank organization.

I am the proud new owner of a pair of Laetacara (probably L.dorsigera). About 2" TL currently. They don't seem to be common in the hobby. Does anyone else have any ? Or experience of keeping them ?

This isn't exactly a Journal, although it may become one. I am relatively new member here and thought I should introduce my tanks.

THis 150 x 60 x 60 cm tank has been running for at least a decade with the same inert fine gravel media and Eheim CLassic filters. However, it had never had real plants in it until around a year ago, when I decided to try my hand at converting it to a planted aquarium and getting rid of all the plastic plants. I had been having some success with low tech planted smaller shrimp aquaria but this was a whole new challenge.


THe big main difference was 60cm depth ot the aquarium which creates just enormous differences in PAR a different points in the aquarium, and PAR levels at the substrate are not high. I have not been able to afford expensive lights yet so am simply running a pair of 120cm Hygger 36W luminaires. Two lights minimum were needed to cover the 60cm depth of the aquarium.
I struggled a lot with most species for a long time and the game changer was deciding to take the plunge with CO2, and I added a fire extinguisher system around 4 months ago. Now injected into a Horizontal Yugang reactor for nice clear water. THings became a lot easier with 30 ppm of CO2. Another significant improvement was adding boluses of aquatic compost and, more recently, a high nutrient aquasoil underneath the gravel using a "sawn-off-10ml syringe"
I have been through a number of different fertilizing schemes and products and have recently (2 weeks ago) settled on adding my own DIY dry salts in a daily EI scheme as water column ferts.

So ........
lights - 2 x 120cm 42W Hygger luminaires.
filtration - 3 x Eheim Classic 2217 ecternal filters,
substrate - inert fine gravel with injected compost and aquasoil boluses for root nutrition.
water column ferts - dry salts , daily EI scheme. One 50% weekly water change.
Water - RO, remineralised to 5 dGH with Salty Shrimp Bee Minerals GH+. Zero dKH.
CO2 - fire extinguisher cylinder system injected via a Yugang reactor. 30 ppm CO2 achieved throughout lighting period.
Oase Crystalskim 600 surface skimmer.

CUrrent plants. .........
Alternanthera reineckii rosaefolia
Bacopa amplexicaulis Aquafleur
Blyxa japonica
Cryptocoryne balansae
Cryptocoryne Wendtii Red
Eriocaulon sp vietnam
Hygrophila corymbosa
Hygrophila polysperma
Hygrophila polysperma Rosanervig
Hygrophila triflora
Limnophila heterophylla
Limnophila rugosa
Ludwigia palustris “super red”
Pogostemon helferi
Pogostemon samsonii
Rotala Bossii
Rotala Colorata

FIsh ...........
6" electric blue acara
Golden gourami
SAE
10 x Congo tetras
4 x scissortail rasboras
12 x harlequins
4 x cherry barbs
4 x Corydorus sterbai
1 x Stiphodon ornatus (at least 12 years old).
6 x Otocinclus
8 x Whitefin bentosi tetras
2 x amano shrimp
probably plus a few I've forgotten. basically the fish load is pretty high and fish poop/food waste contributes very significantly to the N & P input into the tank.

Most of the current plant species are doing well. The Rotala colorata is growing like a weed and has to be trimmed heavily weekly. The Limnophila heterophylla I want to phase out as it grows 12" per week and has been useful to serve a purpose as other plants have established but I am becoming fed up of cutting it back 3-4 times a week. Thankfully there are only a couple of small patches remaining and I think I will be able to phase them out within a few weeks.

The main problem I have had is, of course, algae. I admit I have constantly changed multiple things in quick succession so I think I have generallly been causing quite a bit of plant stress and have been reaping the consequences of this with GDA mostly. The front glass has needed cleaning twice weekly until very recently.
THankfully I have managed to achive rather more of a settled state over the last 2 weeks and foresee only slow and occasional changes from this point. I have my long term fert scheme sorted out and steady. Daily dosing gives me nice and steady levels. NO3 now really only changes within roughly a 6-7 ppm range during the week. LIghting is steady and now seems appropriate. PAR is around 20 on the substrate, up to around 100 near the surface, so its a relatively low/medium light set up. PLant growth is now generally fast enough for me and I hope that I am approaching having the plant mass to see then end of the constant GDA conflict.

I am sure there will be further evolution to come but thats where we are at the moment.
Heres a couple more pics. The angle makes it look as if there is a large swathe of unplanted gravel at the front of the tank but in reality its only about 5cm I like to maintain a bit of a space for front glass maintenance and to create a bit of a clearer space on the substrate for me to view fish doing their thing. the substrate is also much deeper than it appears as the tank is at least 1" deeper than the wooden front part of the stand.

It is really weird when a Dutch tank has this particular problem. My friend faced this problem for some weird reason.

Here is tank info

• 40*35*35
• 1.4 W/L ( using mostly red/blue light) 8 hours lighting continously,
• CO2 "green" ( it is not possible to measure CO2 level but the indicator is lime green, m
• pH is 6.5, kH is 3.4
• Temp in avg is 27
• Nitrate level unknow (Probably low). Ammonia 0

Doses EI at 1/3 rec doses daily ( the bottle recommend weekly dose of 2,)
- Water changes in Sunday, 30% with RO

Except Elatine Triandra, ALL of his plant is developing really well meanwhile ET develops serious sign of nitrate deficiency despite everything else, so i am very confused.

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Primecuts!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

A discussion yesterday HERE, made me think to create this post about small canister filters for nano tanks. In this case, I would say nano includes any tank under 10 gallons. Some of us just don't care for HOBs for various reasons and honestly, I'd rather not use any other internal filter, although, I have a couple Oase internal filters on the shelf.

What are the smallest canister filters you've tried and what were your thoughts?

While researching the UNS Bliss filters and the one @gnatster found, sold by Aquascape Guide, I came across other ADA Super Jet knockoffs made in China, like THIS ONE. My concern would be, like other knockoff items on Aliexpress, the stainless steel used is subpar quality and will rust, or the pump will fail prematurely or get really loud compared to the real ADA filters. The one linked is an ES150 copy but I also saw some even smaller versions for as small as 2 gallon tanks.

This tank is really hitting its stride. I drained it for almost a year as life got busy, but things are more routine now, and I started this up right after the new year.

- This is a 120cm x 60cm x 50cm rimless aquarium.

- The substrate is inert Black Diamond Blasting Sand (BDBS).

- I live in an area where our water is liquid rock, so I use Reverse Osmosis water reconstituted with APT Sky.

- I use the Estimative Index (EI) for my fertilizer routine using dry salts, with macros added on water change day, and a little extra mid week. Micros (CSMB) are added every other day.

- The tank gets weekly 90% water changes and carefully vacuum up and debris from the surface of the sand. At this time I do basic plant trimming and management. Large water changes keep a lot of the excess organics low, which helps to keep this tank balanced and free of algae. It takes about an hour a week.

‐ Every few months, every single stem gets removed, the BDBS substrate is stirred lightly, along with a 90% water change and then replanted with 2 or 3 stems of each plant I want to keep.

- I use a canister filter that is connected to a CO2 reactor that I inject pressurized CO2 into through a regulator. This helps the CO2 to dissolve in the water completely and be evenly distributed around the tank.

- Lighting is provided by 2 x Chihiros LED pendant lights. They have an app that is nice to use, and I have it set for 10,000K color rendition (gives a nice balanced white look to the light) at 75% power. I sometimes wish I thought through lighting options better. Im convinced modern LED lights from companies like this are way too much for almost all of us out there.