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Ive reorganized the order of my tanks so I can better keep track of them ie. Tank 2 moss tank is now tank 3. This helps in any confusion I had when tracking tanks they are in a sort of order now. Rather than taking time editing my old journal id rather create a new thread. Pics will be current (for the most part) as they are posted. I am not aquascaping. I am just farming.

Growth keeps stalling in my 150, with intermittent algae issues, and the dosing pumps appear to be a large part of the problem. I have a 4-head Chihiros dosing pump on this tank. All four channels are currently set to dose daily. I have repeatedly re-calibrated all four channels, and the calibration runs fine. When I recalibrated the APT 3 pump on Saturday it was clogged, but the level was also low in the bottle. I cleared the clog, refilled all four dosing bottles to their 450 ml marks, and updated those volumes in the app. I recalibrated all four channels as I am leaving town next weekend. Manual dosing via the app, for each channel, works. The volume is dispensed, and the level in the dosing bottle decreases accordingly. However, pumps 1 and 2 (APT1 and APT3 respectively, as I am transitioning...or trying to...from 1 to 3 in this tank now it is mature enough), are repeatedly failing to daily dose via the app with the set programmed schedule. I am at the point of just binning these pumps, and maybe trying the Aqua Vitro Sentia pumps. Has anyone had issues with the Chihiros dosing pump scheduling, and resolved it? I can't tell if this is an app issue, or a pump head problem. Channels 3 and 4 are running fine, but 1 and 2 are failing to dose at all unless I dose manually (both still have 450 ml in the bottle, the app says the volume was dosed, but volume hasn't changed all week in the bottle, and it's Thursday...so no ferts in the tank all week AGAIN!). I cleaned the inflow hose, and dosing pump adapter this weekend during a tank deep clean. Is this a pump head failure to recognize the scheduled app command? Not really sure how to trouble-shoot this further.

OK, we may have a few borderline OCD folks here, but I'm not sure if anyone can top this.

Aquarium Stand Organization On Steroids

Made a massively stupid late night mistake. I needed to reset the soil in my buce collection tank and tapped the edge of the tank with a glass pyrex measuring cup (I'm getting a plastic one today).

I started working around 11pm after my mom duties were done for the evening, and work continued well into the early morning so I was pulling an all-nighter to get this done. In the heat of my exhaustion, I was absentmindedly going through the motions of refilling the tank when it happened.

Now I have a pretty sizeable scallop chip in the top front panel of a tank that is only a few months old. This is the first time I've ever chipped one of my tanks. Thankfully it's smack dab in the middle of the panel, so i'm not terribly worried as scallop chips rarely splinter or spread into a crack. I have the water level an inch below it to reduce any pressure stress, and am going to buy a windshield repair kit and attempt to fix it since the shard came off in a mostly solid piece that I was able to recover.

Once I get the kit and free time, I'll post pictures of the repair process to document here. I know this is probably a somewhat controversial idea, but luckily this tank is in my tiled floor basement which has an adjacent unfinished room with a floor drain. Of course I would rather not have the tank spontaneously spring a leak, but taking that into consideration and the fact that the glass is 10mm thick for 40 gallons of water, it's not worth the money or hassle to replace right now.

I feel i need to do a journal so I have a internet calendar on what's happened or Ill forget lol! This is now 4 months back into the planted tank world and I'm happy to be back yet lost on true aquascapingI I have a current 29g as a farm tank for future builds going. zrdr 4l co2 bought locally full setup for 40.00, 29g free. A 20long I just bought with metal stand, hygger decent new led light.new heater. few foam bubble filters, ar a nice dual air pump. some new stratum about 16lbs , tons of good food, etc etc and 6 live plants crypts, swords, anubis about 30 stems of rotundifolia 12" tall for 85,00 it was a decent deal with what is came with , I thought!
Original plans was a 29 and 20 long. Well 3 weeks forward to 3 days ago picked up a free 36 bow front with stand, foods.heater, some dragon stone, bubbler all working freeby deal of the year for sure! The tanks pretty clean, some light hard water stains lll razor blade off very clean. Did come with about 35lbs stratum and blk rocks mix.

I threw substrate in tank after light rinse. LOL it went to pitch blk even after 2 big filters with filter floss still blk water after 36 hours later its muck now the stratum is crap imo other than deeper substrate to cover up with build. I have no clue on any age of the stratum 2 months or 5 years no info was free on side of road literally. I decided today to dump the stratum its a dam mess! may strain the stratum with my several size buckets to strain out small materials away from the blk gravel and use it with eco!? Just got 2 20lb bags of eco complete for 55 shipped my 2005 go to, easy no breakdown and same cost as bulk gravel from pet stores in the end.
I Would do the blk blasting sand its cheaper but don't want all sand and in end as I still do some gravel clean monthly oops.. The eco complete last imo forever I have 20 year old eco now in tank. Yeah its inert but still whole rocks. I"Ill be posting many pics of the my dry scapes holy hell! And more as it goes. Its been 19 years since I've done a planted tank def not a newbie just don't remember as much as I did and things have changed any help appreciated for sure! Joe burr has been help sure thanks dutchscape god!

Posted few pics of old tanks 19 years ago when I didn't know what an aquascape was lol no co2 just dry ferts, metride 14 and power compacts it worked! algae was very null. Im calling my new tanks the cheap skape 20 and now 36g the freebie. I usually try to go cheapo as I can get Im not rich rather spend 30.00 on steaks at home than 30.00 on stems lol. I'm mr diy I only buy what I cant build usually.

THE official "what did you do to your tank(s) today" thread!​

Let's keep it real by sharing our daily routine. Post daily if you want. It's nice to check in with fellow aquatic gardeners.

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.

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

Hey all, I'm Jack.
After 50 years I'm trying to get back aquariums again but sooo much has changed. I did purchase a standard 20 gallon aquarium on a whim only to discover there's so much I need to know.
I'm very interested in aquascaping and hoping I can learn from you all.

Received this email this morning, 9/2/2026

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Dear Customer,

After several years of serving aquarium hobbyists around the world, ChihirosAquaticStudio.com will officially close on September 6, 2026.

Before we close, we’re offering one final storewide promotion.

FINAL CLOSING SALE — 30% OFF

Use code:

FINAL30

at checkout to receive 30% off your order.

This is the final opportunity to shop at ChihirosAquaticStudio.com before the store closes. Stock is limited, and some products may sell out before the final day.

Store closes September 6, 2026.

Thank you for your support over the years and for being part of our journey.

----

This brings up a lot of questions.

Is it just the site ChihirosAquaticStudio.com that's closing?

What about Chihiros.com? Is that going away as well?

What about support, warranty, ongoing app updates, etc?