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Sorry, but I just find this hilarious! Perhaps they'll ask scientists if there's a way to turn down the brightness and photoperiod of the sun.

Headline:

"Reflecting Pool woes: Trump administration turns to hydrogen peroxide in latest bid to beat back algae"​

I'm deep into planning my next tank, a 5.8-gallon Blackwater home for a betta and friends.

What brought me to this decision?

I've never had a betta; I've had all sorts of other aquatic creatures. Something new to me.
The small tank size fits my small space.
I have a nice light fixture that fits the tank, the space, and I believe is suited for the purpose.
And lastly, because you can't just have one tank.

I've jotted down a bunch of notes.

Theme

Dark and moody, brightly colored Half-Moon Betta.

Hardware
Lighting - ADA Solar Mini - New bulb needed - FPL27EX-N
UNS 5T - 14.17 x 8.66 x 11.02
OASE FiltoSmart Thermo 100
12/16 SS Lily Pipes w/Skimmer
12/16 Grey Silicone Hose
12/16 Shut of Valves
Kasa Smart Plug
Belkin 6 Outlet Strip
InkBird ITC-308 WiFi
ATO?
Lid?

Belkin Strip for filter and heater, mount so the switch is accessible.
Plug the Lamp w/Smart Plug, RCM, and LED light into the existing strip.

Stump in the left corner with roots spidering out, moss-covered rocks tucked between the roots with anubias and buce peeking out from crevices, leaf litter and pods over sand and small gravel substrate

Stump in the left corner with roots spidering out, rounded smooth rocks tucked between the roots with anubias and buce peeking out from crevices, leaf litter and pods over sand and small gravel substrate

Cascade of moss-covered lava rocks from the back left towards the front right with wood twisted within the rockwork, Dark and Moody, leaf litter and pods over sand and small gravel substrate. Anubias, moss, and buce as plants.

Hardscape possibilities:
Mangrove Stump - Peruse stumps and complementary rocks at Aqua Rocks Colorado
Driftwood Stump
Nano Spiderwood
Frilly Branching Wood
Betta Botanicals 10 Gallon Kit

Lava Rock - 20lb+ on hand
UNS Controsand Maui
UNS Controsand Kona

White background?
Black background?

Livestock
Betta - PNW Bettas
Ramshorn Snails
Neocardinia Shrimp
Kuhili Loach


Plants
Buce - Small varieties
Moss-covered rocks and wood
Anubias - Mini and Nano

Dark Start - Build easily removable hardscape, glue firmly. Dark cycle tank. Remove hardscape wrap moss to rocks and wood, Buce and Aubias planted, flood

Dry Start - Build easily removable hardscape, glue firmly.. Remove and coat with moss milkshake and grow out dry covering the tank with film. Plant Buce and Anubias, flood, cycle.

Plant Heavy Start - Moss Mats wrapped to rocks and wood, Buce and Aubias planted, flood and cycle

Critiques and comments welcome.

Era of AI slop is truly upon us. Firstly, no one holds the Oxyguard analyzer's probe as it takes 15-20mins to get a reading.
Size of the box is wrong and no shadows below the box, caps missing and a strap that goes nowhere. Aquarium looks fake as well. Real pic below for comparison.

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!

I know stainless isn't 100% impervious to rust, but I try to let my tools dry out after use and mine have a bit of rust.
I'm frustrated because.... you know.... we all want pretty tools.
I thought I had quality stuff, but now I'm not sure, or I didn't let them dry good a few times.
Do yours rust or do I have tools?

As I look at the topcis in the algae forum, it seems a lot of us battle this one.

1. Manual removal has mine back to minimal mostly in the crowns of a few plants and some spots on the substrate. I have an air stone running at night. It smells funky when I get close to the tank. I am taking it as a sign the emycin is working. What thinks you?

2. Something I read on using emycin said you must dose it at night. I think I saw it only in one place. Any ideas why someone might think that was the case? To me, antibiotics are going to work best when the algae is growing and active. That's how they work is by disrupting some process in the life cycle. My cyano contracts and almost disappears when the lights are off. Not a sign it is metabolically active. Am I missing something or is this just someone's questionable opinion?

3. I've increase aeration. I have lots of flow. I've manually removed most of it. I'm adding emycin. I try to keep my NO3 around 15. I'm going to test it before my weekly water change to make sure it isn't bottoming out, but for weeks, it's been fine. Is my NO3 high enough? Anything I'm missing?

Hello everyone,


Today I finally moved from my old aquarium, a Juwel Rio 180, to a new optiwhite tank built by Genesi Acquari.


I decided to make this change for two main reasons. First, I never really liked the aesthetics of the Rio 180, and its plastic frame made it somewhat limiting when it came to using lily pipes and other cleaner-looking hardware. Second, I had been dealing with persistent staghorn algae issues, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to start fresh.


For reference, this was the Rio 180 before I dismantled it today:





Most of the plants in this new setup were taken from the Rio 180 before dismantling it today. I trimmed healthy tops from the old plants and replanted them in this aquarium, hoping they will establish themselves properly and grow much better under the new conditions.


And here is the new tank on day one:

Tank Specifications​

• Tank: Optiwhite aquarium by Genesi Acquari
• Dimensions: 100 × 40 × 40 cm
• Volume: 160 L
• Lighting: Chihiros WRGB II Pro 90
• CO₂: Inline diffuser with refillable cylinder
• Filter: Oase BioMaster 2 Thermo 600
• Substrate: Dennerle Black Gravel 1–2 mm
• 
  
• Additional equipment:
• OaseSkim (which I will likely remove soon and replace with glass lily pipes featuring an integrated surface skimmer),
• Neo Flow Reliever
• Hanna's digital testers For no3 po4 and fe

Water Parameters​

• pH: 7.1 → 5.8 with CO₂ running
• KH: 0
• GH: 5–7
• TDS: 120 ppm
• NO₃: 6–7 ppm
• PO₄: 1.25 ppm

Setup Date​

June 3rd, 2026


Some additional shots of the new setup:

Questions​

What do you think of the setup so far?


At the moment, the Monte Carlo looks a bit "lifted" rather than hugging the substrate. Is this something I should be concerned about, or will it naturally settle and develop into a proper carpet as it adapts and produces new growth?


As mentioned above, most of the plants were transferred from the Rio 180 that I dismantled today, so they may need some time to adjust.


Thank you all for stopping by, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts and suggestions!

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

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.

This journal documents my thought process and design decisions for building mini yugang reactors for tanks below 20 gallons/60P.



If this is your first time learning about a yugang reactor, head over to this article:



Yugang CO2 Reactor - A Guide



One of the challenges with the yugang reactor is that they are tough to build for smaller tanks due to material availability. But that issue was solved in this thread below:


Yugang Reactors for Smaller Tanks



After reading the thread above, I thought that the PC cooling reservoir would be a great idea for three reasons:

1. You will be able to disassemble it for cleanup
2. It’s see-through, so you can adjust flow as required, as the flow will decrease over time from filter clog-up. This is sort of important for mini yugangs as significant flow reductions could lead to a slower rate of pH drop. This is discussed in detail later in the journal.
3. Its outflow is off-centre and the cylinder is rotatable as shown in the photo below, thus you can increase or decrease pH drop based on your tank size. This feature is particularly important as the PC cooling reservoirs come in fixed sizes, so the only real way to adjust pH drop is by rotating the cylinder to increase or decrease CO2 absorption.

Challenges with the mini yugang and how to resolve them:

1. Low volume: I have used a 310 mm PC cooling reservoir, with a usable diameter of 40mm. This means that during operation at full capacity the volume of water in the reactor is pretty low; about 185ml. This is a little problematic as the low mass flow rate requirement of the mini yugang coupled with the low volume means that only a small amount of water gets injected with CO2 at any point in time. This leads to the pH drop being very slow for a tank size of 20 gallons. I had designed my yugang for a pH drop of 1.4 and it takes me about 5-6 hours to achieve this. The way to resolve this issue would be by using a reactor with a great length (to be able to afford larger mass flow rates) and a larger volume, but this would mean that you would have a tough time running the reactor in overflow mode as the CO2 gas pocket would have to be very small due to the bigger reactor size. The other solution is to start injecting early like I do. So to conclude, the “rate of pH drop” is dependent on reactor volume, mass flow rate and the size of the fish tank. So keep this in mind if you’re trying to use a mini yugang for tanks bigger than 20 gallons.
2. Usually small volumes of air being purged into the reactor isn’t an issue as yugang points out in his article but if the filter is purging out massive bubbles of air frequently then this most certainly will affect reactor operation. If you own one of the older biomasters one of the issues you’d encounter is the filter purging air into the reactor. This happens in two cases; if you don’t have a bypass or if the tee joint at the bypass is oriented incorrectly. This is why my suggestion would be to install a bypass, as it just gives you more control over the situation. So, what is then the correct tee joint orientation? If you look at the photo below, you’ll see how the bull head of the tee joint is pointing upwards against gravity and that the bypass is connected to the bull head while the reactor inflow is connected to the parallel down-flow. This is key because the bypass being connected to the upwards facing bull head ensures that any bubbles being purged from the filter is not entering the reactor; this happens as bubbles have an affinity to move upwards. In this case, the filter purges air and the bubbles shoot straight into the bypass and out into the tank without entering the reactor and disrupting reactor performance.

I hope the reader will find my experience helpful in designing their own mini yugang. Thank you for reading.