Miscellaneous Questions/Rambling: Dec 16

[Koan]

Filter Intake/outtake placement

And this!

Flow Setup

As plants do not move (unlike animals), they depend on flow to bring air and nutrients to them. Good flow is hugely impactful, yet challengingly 'invisible'.

www.2hraquarist.com

 

[JayP]

@Dennis Wong has an article on this

Messy aerial roots?

“Aerial roots” refer to roots that often grow out of the internodes of stem plants midway up the stem, above the substrate. Why do these roots appear? Are they cause for concern? What can we do if we find them unsightly?

www.2hraquarist.com

I get a lot of air roots on my ludwigia and rotala for the "not dense enough planting" reason mentioned in that article.

 

[Koan]

Comment: baby brine shrimp is stupid easy to grow at home. Really.

This super cool invention is definitely next on my gadgets list!

 

[Jeff Miotke]

So here is a detailed explanation of a mathematical formula for a close approximation. He asked me, but then figured it out himself, lol!

I looked into this too since my previous PAR meter was way off, and I didn’t want a repeat issue—it’s one of those “set and forget” things. I did some hands-on testing with my iPhone 15 Pro and the official Photone diffuser, using the full LED spectrum setting and an underwater phone case to measure PAR in the water.

Because my lights are suspended from the ceiling, I was able to swing them out of the way and compare readings in air vs. underwater. The two values were essentially the same, both fluctuating in the same range (for example, 60–70 at substrate level). I repeated the test on both tanks and couldn’t see any difference between the air and underwater readings.

So take that for what it’s worth—my water is crystal clear, which might make a difference. Hope that helps!

 

[Jeff Miotke]

This super cool invention is definitely next on my gadgets list!

View attachment 12434

Ive used this for a few years. For most part like it. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold up, lid cracked in half. But the duct tape Im using to fix it is!

 

[Kwyet]

I looked into this too since my previous PAR meter was way off, and I didn’t want a repeat issue—it’s one of those “set and forget” things. I did some hands-on testing with my iPhone 15 Pro and the official Photone diffuser, using the full LED spectrum setting and an underwater phone case to measure PAR in the water.

Because my lights are suspended from the ceiling, I was able to swing them out of the way and compare readings in air vs. underwater. The two values were essentially the same, both fluctuating in the same range (for example, 60–70 at substrate level). I repeated the test on both tanks and couldn’t see any difference between the air and underwater readings.

So take that for what it’s worth—my water is crystal clear, which might make a difference. Hope that helps!

Good news! Thanks!

 

[Sulla]

And this!

Flow Setup

As plants do not move (unlike animals), they depend on flow to bring air and nutrients to them. Good flow is hugely impactful, yet challengingly 'invisible'.

www.2hraquarist.com

Yes this is what I think is intuitive. Just strange to see people putting the inflow and.outflow on opposite sides of the tank

 

[Aquajack]

I don't disagree at all that it is better to obtain a reading inside the tank. I only used that mathematical formula as I wasn't keen/confident on my phone surviving a dip. I use android pixel phones and my last one didn't survive an accidental dip in the pool lol. This one has a crack in the screen.

Its only an approximation and the result seems to be in the ball park to what I expected. The example I used was on my actual tank. I was only after an approximation which is the best I could hope for.

On other matters:

• Flow has been mentioned - specifically for my purpose the distribution of CO2 inside a tank. I can now see how important this is and not as often talked about. I currently have an inline diffuser hooked up to a canister filter. For a good while I had a spray bar on the outlet (on a 4ft tank). It went about half way along the tank, along the back. What occurred of course was the plants on that half of the tank had crazy growth and really healthy (the blyxa even turned purple), due at least partly to direct and constant access to the "CO2 blast". However this of course didn't quite correspond throughout the whole tank. A LFS owner who has amazing tanks suggested a couple things. First put the inlet and outlet together, they were on opposite sides of the tank, get rid of the spray bar and instead add a wave maker near the filter outlet to "push" the CO2 around. So that is what I've done. Its on oscillating mode as its too powerful to have on constant, even at the lowest setting. I'm still not convinced this is a good setup but maybe an improvement? I don't know. Also, of course, any taller plants near that side get smashed around by the current. So after all that, I'd be interested on how others treat the flow of CO2 to try and get maximum circulation.
• More of a fun question. If you were setting up a high tech tank from scratch, say a 75g for argument sake, what are the essential "tech tools/equipment" you would include in the build? Everything from dosers to controllers to skimmers etc. I've seen lots of great equipment lists for builds on here and would like to start planning in advance for my next tank.

 

[*Ci*]

I was impressed with this experiment, so far I have found this to work beautifully

Thank you, this looks worth a try. The plants I want to move are large leaf anubias and crinum, so they won’t be too hard to visually inspect after the treatment and also maybe to carefully wipe down every individual leaf for stuck on eggs.
I also thought I could put them into a quarantine tank for a while with some snail bait to see if anything hatches out.

 

[BenB]

My question is:

Is there a “guaranteed “ way to clean snails/snail eggs off of plants before they go into your tank?

I know you received some replies, and I haven't read everything yet. Just by chance, I saw this ad on Instagram today. It might help you. I don't know anything about this product. Never tried it. Maybe if you have an empty tank you could pre-treat this way.



Has anyone tried it? In my head I wonder if they are just alum tablets

 

[*Ci*]

I know you received some replies, and I haven't read everything yet. Just by chance, I saw this ad on Instagram today. It might help you. I don't know anything about this product. Never tried it. Maybe if you have an empty tank you could pre-treat this way.

Has anyone tried it? In my head I wonder if they are just alum tablets

I found them at Glass Aqua, as well, but not available to me anywhere in Canada. The bottle only lists “Snail paralysis agent” and “Snail stimulate agent”, and I can’t find an msds sheet on the product. It says they are not 100% effective, in any case. Thank you for the suggestion, though. If it were available, it might be worth it in a quarantine tank.

 

[BenB]

I found them at Glass Aqua, as well, but not available to me anywhere in Canada.

I found them on Amazon here, but yeah, still might not help you. Worth a look though.

 

[Koan]

but I wasn’t a fan of the look

I kind of dig it!

 

[Kwyet]

I kind of dig it!

View attachment 12445

Well, that’s certainly better than the plastic soda bottles I was using.

 

[TRyan]

The files are shared online but this seems to be a popular option from an Etsy seller.


Seachem Tidal HOBs have a built in skimmer. Might be worth an upgrade. I used one on my short lived 20G farm tank and it was a good filter, what I would stick with if I didn't prefer canisters.

I have an Eheim 350 skimmer and use these aftermarket parts on mine. The intake guard keeps tank inhabitants out (except tiny snails) and the outflow really diffuses the strong current to keep plants from bending over.

I'll add that I cut my own foam filters for dirt cheap.

 

[TRyan]

I read somewhere on here that measuring dry fertilizers using teaspoons was quite a bit off compared to measuring weight with a gram scale, so I pulled out my scale to compare and was shocked at just how far off! Particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium.

Teaspoon measurement for Ca was adding way more than gram weight and Mg was about half is what it should be. KH2P04 was a lot less than what it should be, too. Actually, none of the teaspoon measurements were accurate. I'm using Rotalla Butterfly.

I'll be measuring everything using a gram scale from now on.

 

[BigWave]

Along that note, It makes a big difference what your storing your dry powders in. Quite alot of them are hydroscopic meaning they absorb water from the surrounding air. After a whie the actual weight my vary significantly. Never tried drying them out in the oven yet

 

[TRyan]

I keep mine in sealed Tupperware containers. Never thought about them absorbing moisture before, but makes perfect sense.

 

[BenB]

My dad would call you Fred Sanford for this. It was a great show.

I kind of dig it!
View attachment 12442

 

[BenB]

I have an Eheim 350 skimmer and use these aftermarket parts on mine. The intake guard keeps tank inhabitants out (except tiny snails) and the outflow really diffuses the strong current to keep plants from bending over.

I'll add that I cut my own foam filters for dirt cheap.

Been meaning to get something clarified from @techman81 . Do you know where the 3D printers files are for these parts or is my only option to buy these already made?

@TRyan Yeah, somewhere else I complain about making my own filters. I was doing it, but the material had small pores. So I was having to replace them about every 2 weeks. Cheap, but I was getting sick of it. I have something new now with big pores... HERE. So far it's been much better. It has been about a week. This sheet has given me enough to last a couple years I feel like.