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IIRC , those old bulbs which WalMart carried (I used them too) were mostly in the Aponogeton family. Like this :
Amazon product ASIN B01739980S
Amazon product ASIN B01739980S
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Aquarists unite: fish are friends, and food
- Thread starter Siliconemelons
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I love it man, it's so natural looking. I always loved those kinds of tanks but filled with like 100 neon tetras, I know that's stupid but oh well
I think that guy Amano (whatever his name was) would do that!
Aazrael
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We try to do water changes once a week, 30-60% change. Water out and new water in. No moving fish or vaccuming the substrate etc, we got filters that should take care of all that. And maybe once a month we check the filters and clean them if needed.
Aamry
Blackwing Lair Raider
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Left the fish in, it was planted. Full clean was never a thing, just scraped the sides before I drained so I'd get a good portion of the gunk out, I would vacuum substrate like once a month with a filter media change.
a c i d.f l y
ಠ_ಠ
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I don't take fish out for any cleaning.
Normally I pull out about 10-15g (20-25%) every month and otherwise keep it topped off. If you're heavily planted, a lot of the cleaning is done by the plant's absorption of nitrate. If you have enough plants and very few fish, you basically never have to do shit to it except add a little water. If you're heavily stocked with fish, with a heavy nitrate load, you have to purge out some of the nitrates or it starts to burn the fish's scales/eyes and turn the water green with bad algae growth.
I just use one of these to keep the glass clean.
Amazon product ASIN B0002568ZO
Sometimes I'll clean the bottom, but corydoras keep my black Tahitian sand pretty clean. Also pretty hard to suck anything up with the vacuum with all the plants in the way.
I clean out my canister filter about once every 3-6 months, or when I notice the water flow rate has reduced noticeably. Replace the filter material, rinse the Seachem Matrix and bio balls in dechlorinated water, swap out bags for bleach bags of Purigen. I went over a year this last time, which meant the water wasn't the clearest and I started having some algae growth that 6 siamese algae eaters couldn't keep up with. Probably go back to every 3 months or so.
It's really unnecessary to change out your water every week. Ideally about one a month. 25-50%.
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OK, here's where I get called a bad aquarium guy....
When I was running my heavily planted, CO2 injected freshwater 100G setup, I removed water MAYBE once or twice a year. In Texas, and with AC and Heat in a house evaporation was a constant lowering of the water level. The saving grace was that the plant load soaked up just about every single nutrient and trace element in the water. Once I started CO2 injection, and with a small algae eating squad (one siamese algae eater, and around half a dozen Amano Algae Eating Shrimp) I never saw enough algae to want to deal with cleaning the glass.
The trick is that you keep the plants sucking up all the traces, nutrients, and such. That means giving them enough C02 to superchage their growth (look for when they start bubbling O2 into the water). Now, on the other hand, I was hauling a bucket of plant clippings and bits out every week. Although many I would get to take root in a side tank, then take to the fish store I used to hit. They'd give me a pittance for them, and that would fund a lot of the tank.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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I do a 40ish percent water change every 2 weeks in theory. In practice it's probably closer to every 3 weeks on average. I just vacuum the gravel, scrape the glass, and change the filter media if it looks too gross. Never take the fish out of the tank for any reason.
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a c i d.f l y
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And this is where I say you were doing it right. You'd only really want/need to change the water if you were dosing with chems so you don't end up with an excess of one nutrient causing an algal bloom. No fertilzers, no excess nutrients.
Gator
Trakanon Raider
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I would say the opposite. You created the perfect ecosystem where you didn't have to balance/remove anything with water changes.
Once my lights turn on, I'll post some pics of my 2g and 10g tank. They aren't award-winning by any means but I proud of them for my first attempt at aquascaping. I had no idea that I could order so much online because deep South Florida has barely anything when it comes to freshwater fish stores. I use to help my parents keep a 30g community (no live plants) back in the day but once I moved out I never wanted to spend the time or money for a tank because how much my dad used to complain about it. I'm actually kicking myself because my parents asked me a few years ago if I wanted the 30g but I had no interest at the time. I'm shocked those fish lived so long because we did so many things wrong by today's standards. Anyways, aquascaping and shrimp have renewed my interest in the hobby. Plus, my kids love them.
a c i d.f l y
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I like shrimp, and I knew a guy who was breeding em (crazy blues, speckled, purples, yellows, oranges), they're just pretty temperamental and my red line sharks, even as passive as they are, would eat the shit out of them.
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Yeah, that is one of my concerns. In the 20G I have now the only fish I worry about is a red and blue Gourami I have who is an asshole. He will nip at and chase other fish. On the other hand he's never gone after the one ammano algae eating shrimp I have in the tank. I'm debating getting him a little 2-3 gallon tank on my desk and putting him in solitary.
Aazrael
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This is the same tank with the grass earlier. GF wanted to try some aquascaping and redid it all. Finished today so plants need time to spread and grow a bit. But I think it looks nice with the rocks and roots we had at home.
About water changes. Some never do them and it works fine but there will be a buildup overtime with bad stuff if you just top it up. Got too much money invested in fish and plants myself to take that chance so we do water changes every 2-3 weeks.
About water changes. Some never do them and it works fine but there will be a buildup overtime with bad stuff if you just top it up. Got too much money invested in fish and plants myself to take that chance so we do water changes every 2-3 weeks.
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The biggest water issue I've had living in Dallas is that the water from the tap is really high in dissolved solids. Specifically magnesium salts IIRC. This ended up not negatively impacting any tank I've had too badly. It did make it hard to purposefully lower the PH in the water (it seemed to be a built in buffering agent or something), which I did once for a 55 gallon I was running with a pair of green severums in it.
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Aazrael
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Water quality makes a big difference for sure. We have very clean tap water in Sweden so I guess we are a bit spoiled by that.