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Is there a magic number of fert to give after a what change? Is it 3x the amount that I give during any day of the week?
Example: I give 1ml every day then after a 50% water change should I give 3x (so 3ml?)

I'm having quite a bit of trouble with the subtle shade differences in the Nitrate test kits. I've tried API, NT, and Salifert to no avail; I'm guessing most of the time. As much as I'd like a Hanna HI97728, the $525 price doesn't fit the budget. I've seen a few anecdotal reports that the HI782 Marine Nitrate High Range Checker is viable in freshwater. Any firsthand experience?

I'm already using the Hanna PO4 Checker; for me, it's been a game-changer for readability.

Tank: Waterbox 20 AIO
Return pump: AI Axis 40
Lighting: (2) AI Blade Fresh 12”
Dosing pump: Ecotech Marine
CO2 injected

The purpose of this tank is to maintain a healthy planted tank for at least 1 year. There is a stipulation that I must be able to do this using my tap water for water changes.

This thread is for the general discussion of the classified ad Cryptocoryne Pink Flamingo. Please add to the discussion here.

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.

Hello everybody im new here and wanted to introduce my tank,

The tank is a 350 liter Juwel rio (120x50x60)
Pretty high tank but wanted to have 50 cm wide

Lights: 3 daytime onex (1x plant 2x colour)
Good for 180 par at the bottom, 1.5 hour build up/5 hours full and 1.5 hour build off

Co2 by Inline with a co2art series pro dual stage regulator dropping 1.4 in ph

Filtration: 2 external filters (1x crystal profi 900, 1x tetra ex 1500 on a spraybar) and a eheim skim 350

Substrate: mastersoil black powder with masterline root tabs

Fertilizer: apt e

Fish: cherry barbels, siamese algae eaters, kuhli, ottociclus and some bloody mary shrimps

Plants: rotala macandra, anubias tinto, reineckii mini, reineckki rosenarvig, rotala blood red, ludwigia repens super red, bacopa carolinia, lobelia cardinalis, crypto flamingo, crypto rosen maiden, staurogene repens, spiralus tiger, ludwigia inclinata meta, samolus parvifloris red.
Might have forgotten something

Currently battling algae and unhappy plants due to nutrient inbalances and a no3 tester that was not correct.

Under a pic of the current state and the state it was a little better in balance (not as it should tho)

I came into some Hygrophila polysperma "white" by Tropica recently. Grew it out and it seems to be able to be shaped into good midground bushes so I decided to create a layout to showcase it. Contemplated whether to use it as the only white plant in the tank, but decided to use some Anubias white petite as well so that the white polysperma doesn't stand out awkwardly.

Looking for some advice on an algae issue that seems to be escalating pretty quickly. The algae I scraped off the glass was noticeably back within 24 hours, and I’m now seeing more of it on newer plant growth as well, not just older leaves. I recently installed lily pipes and an inline diffuser, so flow and CO2 distribution should theoretically be improved, but I’m wondering if I’m missing something balance-wise.

Tank is a UNS 60U with an exact water volume of 16.6 gallons.

Current lighting schedule:
• Sunrise starts at 7:30 AM and ramps for 45 minutes
• 100% intensity from 8:15 AM–4:15 PM
• Sunset from 4:15 PM–5:00 PM
• Total photoperiod: 9.5 hours
• 8 hours at full intensity

CO2:
• On at 5:30 AM
• Off at 4:00 PM
• Drop checker is nearly yellow
• Hanna CO2 test previously read around 25 ppm, though I’m not fully confident I tested at the ideal time


Thursday I did a 10 gallon water change, which should be about a 60% water change on this system.

Parameters before water change (5/21):
• pH: 7.0
• NH3/NH4: 0
• NO2: 0
• NO3: ~20 ppm
• TDS: 250

Parameters after water change / next day (5/22):
• pH: 6.8
• NH3/NH4: 0
• NO2: 0
• NO3: ~20 ppm
• TDS: 215
• GH: 7 drops
• KH: 3 drops

Before testing on 5/22, I added about 1 gallon of RO/DI water to replace evaporation, along with 1 pump of APT 3 and a small amount of shrimp mineral.

I’m trying to figure out whether this seems more likely related to:
• too much light
• unstable CO2
• excess organics
• nutrient imbalance
• tank adjustment period after changing flow/diffusion
• or something else entirely

Would especially appreciate input from anyone who has dealt with algae increasing rapidly. This is my first high tech setup and I never dealt with algae in my other planted tanks.

For 95% of people in this hobby, running an aquarium appears to be guess work, casual observations and not a lot of data driven applications.
That's where scapecrunch is amazing and so many like minded people here.

I love the tech side of it too which I'm only just starting to get into to help me progress the hobby further.
I was thinking about this as I was in our big box hardware store today just to pick up a minor plumbing item and ended up walking out the door with 90% of the material required for a Yugang reactor lol. Don't ask me how that happened! That will be another thread in the future I'm sure.

For now, my point is that when I get around to implementing the reactor, I don't want to rely only on CO2 kits to let me know what is happening.
I've seen some of you showing the PH charts which I think would be super helpful. Atleast to me as that is how my brain works best.

Which brings me to the equipment discussion. I was thinking about a PH probe (but not really as much to control CO2, just as a fail safe for that). More to log the PH data. Most stand alone PH controllers like Milwaukee do not log the data far as I can see.

Also, will be looking at fert dosing. For this I was considering something like the chihiros system.

I have a decent regulator to start with. Well I think it is lol. Also a flow meter (which i still haven't tested yet) so that side should be ok.

I also don't want to spend a fortune on an aquarium computer if I don't really need it. Most are starting at around $1,500 AUD here.

Do I just find a stand alone PH probe that will do what I want and the doser and call it a day?

What monitoring/automation systems do you use?