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Hey all,
A CO2 drop checker is on my procurement list this week with a new setup in the wings.
That tiny glass bobble we all focus on seems to range from a few bucks to close to $100 so my question is;

What drop checker and or solution would you recommend?

They haven’t changed much since my last tank well over a decade ago but there are several funny looking models out there.
These one’s look like they may be a PITA to change the solution.



Tips?

Well... thats it! Im tired of watching you guys have all the fun so figured it was time to start my own journal to document this new scape Im working on, and also to talk about other plant happenings. So here goes

For this year's AGA Id been planning on using the 75P again. Love the dimensions, 30"x18"18" about 37 gal. Its in the living room along with the 75 gal ex-Dutch.

I try to keep these two a little more display-worthy than the back room back tanks but it doesnt always happen. Here's the 75p currently. Plants closed up its the middle of the night, I just flipped two bulbs on to take a quick pic

Ive been tossing some ideas around but it nothing has really inspired me lately



So I decided to try a couple things in the 75 gal and see if the almighty elusive muse will show up

I rarely have a plan going in, usually just an idea or two like maybe a street or focal points, and from there I just start sticking things around and see how it looks. Usually with just whatever plants I have enough of, even stuff that I know I wont end up using just to plot out general areas and color

So here we go starting about two months ago, with basically two streets and a focal point. Pics are 3-4 weeks apart. I'll spare you the details of every little plant move, basically just adding/moving stuff around between then and now

*ignore the weird color filter on these first few pics




Couple weeks later



Trying to find a place to use this dynamite Blyxa sp Red. Not to be confused with the "sp Red" currently being offered by a couple larger retailers. Those are likely to be other aubertii variants that may or may not actually turn red. A good rule of thumb for blyxa (since most cant grow emersed) is if it aint red when you buy it, dont count on it turning red. This one is like a tall Novoguineensis, tops out around 12"-14" with good vertical leaf formation, and stays red under most light



Added Ludwigia white to the front right corner



Dont like the Blyxa in the focal spot either. It'd need a bright green behind it, which would make all the other background groups need repositioning based on color. Plus the Blyxa is too tall for what Im trying to do here, I want this focal spot low in the tank, not high


**Continued next post, image limit reached

Don’t know if anyone is doing a build right now and needs this much needle leaf but here’s the r/Aquaswap post

The seller is in Albany, OR and shipping anywhere in the US

Went to Amazon to order a few more of the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip, 6-Outlets | HS300, only to find they are not there anymore. Only the 3-outlet strip is available. Using the link in the previous order, the no longer available message appeared. Snooping around, it appears the line is possibly transitioning to the Tapo brand, with its own app. Kasa products are supported in the Tapo app.

The Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Power Strip appears to be the same as the Kasa with different branding, a different app, and a higher price.

I expect that over time the entire line will transition.

I did always end up having better results with plant growth by mixing substrates rather than using 1 solo by itself.
This even goes the same for using super rich substrates like APT-FEAST.

Even adding a very thin layer of foxfarm ocean forest potting soil or worm castings underneath (1-2cm MAX) always improved plant growth, vigor and size.
The only reason I've stopped doing this is because you cannot use a thick substrate with this method and the tank seems extremely prone to BBA overtime.


Laterite - seems to be another one that I'm not sure on. I do realize the iron probably isn't absorbed by plants just because its locked up in a form plants can't access, but the fact that using a substrate with such a high "magnetism" must change the tank ecosystem in some way no?

Time to get a new journal started. The start of this aquarium will eventually result in the total rescape of some and even final end to others.

So why is 75g in quotes? It seems that the budget pet store aquarium brands like to over state the volume of their tanks. This is a used Marineland tank and stand combo I purchased off marketplace. Marineland markets it as a 75 gallon tank. At best, it's only a 67 gallon tank. Filled with BDBS and including the volume of the filter, tubing, and reactor, real volume is just over 64 gallons. End of rant, now the details.

This tank has a number of purposes/goals:
1. Serve as a tank to grow many different plants.
2. Serve as a temporary holding tank for fish.
3. Serve as a testbed for my first fully inert substrate tank with water column dosing only, using separate macros and micros rather than an all-in-one fertilizer.
4. Try my hand at designing and maintaining a Garden/Hybrid Dutch style layout.

I began getting this tank and stand ready quite some time ago but other projects got in the way. Like my current 40g farm tank, this is setup on the "work" side of my basement. The other side of the basement was finished when I purchased the house but it was done rather poorly and has been in mid demo mode for some time. It will eventually be remodeled to be the aquarium "gallery". Once that happens, this tank may simply become a farm/quarantine tank. My basement floor is far from level so I had to add leveling feet to the stand. I soon realized however, the bottom of the cheap stand is only 1/2" wood?? and with the resulting gap underneath, the weight of an Oase 850 filter and 10lb CO2 tank caused the bottom to flex a good amount. I decided I needed to make some mods to provide a little more support. I added a sheet of 3/4" plywood across the entire bottom including the finishing strips. I used a lot of wood glue and brads to secure it and then upgraded to some heavier duty leveling feet.. That did the trick as it's much more solid now. While I had the stand up on the saw horses I also made a few changes to the inside build. I swapped out the dosing bottle holder to a powered stirrer courtesy of a great deal from @Naturescapes_Rocco, mounted the Dwyer flow meter where it can be easily read, mounted the new Jebao return pump controller to the door, and cleaned up the wiring.

Build and Hardware Details
Oase Biomaster Thermo 850 (internal impeller disabled)
Oase stock In/Out pipes using spraybar
Oase Crystalskim 350 Skimmer
Jebao MDP-3500 Return Pump
10lb CO2 tank with DIY "Bettatail" regulator and Dwyer RMA-151 Flow Meter
Aqua Rocks Colorado Small Acrylic Yugang CO2 Reactor
Chihiros 4 Channel Doser plus Stirrer
Inkbird ITC-306A Temp Controller
Week Aqua L1200 Light

Substrate and Fertilization
Black Diamond Blasting Sand (no root tabs or other material under the BDBS)
Burr Aqua Macros and Micros

There were a couple of gotchas in the last 2 days getting things finalized so the tank can start cycling. Yesterday while calibrating the doser, I couldn't get any channel to prime. This doser has been sitting on the shelf for quite some time but had been used before. I had to take apart the pump heads and pinch and stretch the tubing, and after putting it back together, everything worked fine and calibration was right on the first time.

The worse gotcha was today on the first turn on and leak test. It's always the nervous time, and for good reason. Priming the system went fine, no leaks, but as soon as I turned the pump on, I heard spraying ! Problem was with the ARC reactor. I purchased the reactor a long time ago but realized it was too large for my 49g tank, so It's been sitting on the shelf waiting for one of these 120cm tanks. Unfortunately, I never even leak tested it. I wish I had, because I might have returned it to ARC. The problem is with the CO2 input. There is the push-to-fit part that screws in, and then the permanent mounted insert the fitting screws into. That permanent insert was actually the cause of the leak. After pulling everything back out of the cabinet and taking the reactor apart, I could see that the insert was cracked. For now, I've bypassed the reactor so the tank cycling can commence. This was important because several trays of matrix in the filter came from my other established tanks and I also seeded the tank with a sponge from one of the established filters. Over the next couple week, I'll get the ARC reactor fixed and back in place.

Also in the next couple weeks I'll do some flow testing and provide results for those curious as to how combining the Jebao pump with the Oase filter works out. I can tell you this already, in a 120cm tank, 100% power is far too much. Pulling water through the fully setup 850 doesn't faze the MDP-3500. I have it set at 55% right now and even with a spraybar, will probably need to turn it down once planted. I think the MDP-2500 would be more than enough for this setup. In fact, I may add a bypass to the ARC reactor while I have it out. Of course, it's also very quiet, even at the 100% power level.

I expect the tank to cycle fairly quickly and may start planting in a couple weeks. Most plants will come from my farm and other tanks for now, but I'll be thinking about what other plants I need to fill in for a proper Dutch look. The current 40g farm tank will be shutting down and going by-by once this tank is cycled. Also, my first aquascape, the 49g, will be getting torn down for a full rescape shortly after and the fish in it will be getting rehomed to this tank for the immediate future.

I do enjoy the Green Aqua videos, but sometimes they are costly. A recent subject was terrariums. The dry desert-inspired design inspired me. With a couple of shallow 2ish gallon cubes collecting dust and too much time on my hands, there is a section of cacti and succulents on the way towards me in the barely capable hands of the USPS.

It finally happened!

I've been away for work for a few months, during which I got really into the idea of getting a nice aquarium. While I'd already begun planning out a 125 L / ~30 gal tank, expectations had to be tempered because I'll be gone again for a while soon, and my partner would have to take care of the tank alone during that time. So we chose to settle for a 45 L / 12 gal shrimp tank first to test the waters, with me getting to take care of the 125 L tank after returning from my last long trip some time next year. We already got some of the equipment for the larger tank, which is why some of the things here are somewhat oversized.

Things then happened quite quickly when I found a great deal on our shrimp-tank-to-be in a local group. Initially, we'd planned a dark start and to use that time to settle on a plant list, but this used tank came with some plants already, so I'd appreciate any help with plant IDs and input on how to go forward from here.

This tank is intended to be a medium energy setup that allows for some flexibility in care, such as reducing water changes to every two or three weeks when needed. We're looking at slow and medium speed growers, with only very few if any fast growers. We really like bucephalandra and want a few nice ones!

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Equipment, flora, fauna
Tank: SuperFish Scaper 45 (45x32x32 cm)
Light: SuperFish Scaper LED 64 (24 W, 16100 Lux, 269 PAR) (I also have a Week Aqua Z400 Pro lying about...), 8 hours a day
Filter: Tetra Ex 1000 Plus (1150 L/h canister filter with 30 ppi foam and some filter wool), surfrace scimmer on intake


Substrate: Tropica Aquarium Soil
Fertilizer: APT 3/Complete, APTe and DIY micros/macros,. Currently dosing 15 mL APT 3 after 50% weekly water change, this should stabilize to 20 ppm NO3 without accounting for uptake
CO2: Injection from 2 kg bottle with JBL Proflora CO2 Taifun Spiral 5 (though this will likely become an in-line diffuser) and an Fzone regulator, starts 2 hours before lights

Hardscape: Mangrove roots and millenium stone, not set up yet

Parameters

• RO/DI remineralized to 6 dGH (4:1 Ca:Mg using CaSO4 and MgSO4), 0 dKH
• pH: 6.2
• CO2: To be measured, 1 bubble every 4 s for now, fair amount of surface agitation (gentle, visible waves)
• NH4: undetectable
• NO2: undetectable
• NO3: 20 ppm

Flora:
There are 10 species in here right now (I think), as well as some Amazon Frogbit and Salvinia minima on top. I think they might be:

• 1 - ???
• 2 - Limnophila sessiliflora
• 3 - Amazon Sword (Echinodorus amazonicus)
• 4 - Echinodorus ?
• 5 - Rotala ?
• 6 - Ludwigia repens
• 7 - Anubias nana
• 8 - Anubias mini coin
• 9 - Hygrophila salicifolia
• 10 - Dwarf Hairgrass
• Hopefully no Duckweed

Fauna (planned):

• Red Rili Blue Body Neocaridina
• Possibly a school of nano fish

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Looking for advice

I really wanted this to be a journal about planning and setting up a tank and how well we eventually managed to translate our plan into reality, but thought it best to ask for advice on how to proceed from here first. Yesterday evening (it's now ~24 hours later), we got home with the aquarium and after a good cleaning, I filled it with aquasoil and water and planted the healthiest plants before heading to bed.

As you can see, these plants aren't doing too great, and some have quite a bit of algae on them. With live plants on our hands, we're skipping the originally planned dark start. I got the filter from the previous owner (asked him to not rinse it), and even though it's only a tiny HOB, we at least have some beneficial bacteria there. I'm running both filters right now in hopes of seeding the canister filter quickly.

I'd appreciate any help with plant IDs and care tips for the different species to help them grow in more healthy. Any recommended treatments to get rid of the algae? Especially the anubias have some small, black spots on them. The Amazon Sword has some pretty torn up leaves with brown and thin spots.

I'm considering hanging the Z400 Pro (rated at 120 W) quite high up, as it blinds surprisingly little for such a powerful light. Though I have noticed that its hue at the same RGB ratio changes quite drastically as you go down in power. Still, this would give me more control over the lighting, as the current light is fixed at 8 cm above the water surface and can't be adjusted.

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Future plans

I'm really happy about finally getting into this hobby. We're already super excited and don't even have the shrimps in yet!

For now, I think we'll let the plants recuperate a bit and adjust to the new environment. I think they came from harder water and no CO2. Since we're gone in the weekend, we'll set up the hardscape next week and do a short replant, hopefully that won't bother the plants too much.

Then we'll finalize our personal plant list and begin assembling those, replacing some of the current plants. If you have any favorite plants that would suit this type of environment, I'd love to hear about them!

And last, when we have some nice biofilm developing, we'll add the tiny little shrimps!

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Updates
Update 2026/07/09
Added some (slightly) nicer pictures of the plants before heading out for work. Have a camera, might as well use it! Hopefully I can post pictures of good looking plants soon. Update update: Well they were nice until the webp compression got to them. Good thing to learn about early on!

In another best and worst, what would you buy again or avoid when selecting Lilly pipes for a 45G tank?
Glass/stainless/perspex?
Skimmer or not?

Let’s hear what you love and hate about them from cleaning and fragility to dimensions and flow patterns.

I’m contemplating 2 sets on my 120x45x45 (48x18x18) to give better circulation and permit my FX4 a bit more flow.

What’s your favourite setup?

The existing connectors are seriously long, like 5-6" of added length, and at an angle that is either good or horrible for your setup.


If you want to just convert the reactor's connectors to standard 5/8" (aka 16/22mm aquarium tubing), all you need are these:



3/4" PVC Union Fittings, with a 3/4" female NPT thread.


Much better, WAY smaller! Easier to fit in my cabinet.