Social Feed

I am working on my mistakes…. The next one will be huge.

Instead of continuing the old build thread, I wanted to make a new one. This build might go just as terrible, but I want to put the old one behind me. I really wish I had given myself a month or two break because I feel like I have algae PTSD. I’m pretty burned out, and I sort of dread trying again. Oh well, too late now.

I wanted to try 2Hr Aquarist stuff, but already had the Controlsoil. I bought it a year prior (see previous journal) and decided to go ahead and use it. Hopefully I’ll make a successful transition to nutrient depleted aquasoil, and then restart with the 2Hr stuff later.

I didn't plan on starting a new journal until about a month in, but since my aquasoil is already starting to give out of ammonia, I need to get it going to get help making the transition to full NPK dosing.

With that said…..

Ben’s Plant Pharm 2.0
(BTW, in case you were wondering, I’m a pharmacist. Hence the pharm)

Setup Date
8-11-25 (Day 0)

Goals
Enjoying some farming.
Successfully navigate the different stages of aqusoil nutrient release and subsequent depletion.

Tank
ADA 60p

Light
Chihiros WRGB Pro II
Starting out at 40% of the Fish setting
Red 53, Blue 34, Green 55, White 23
PAR 105 under the light (estimated)

Substrate
UNS Extra Fine Black 1 x 10L bag

Plants
From Previous Build
Xiris Red from S21 Aquatics
Eriocaulon quinguangulare from Cherries Nature Aquarium

TC plants from Buce Plant
Cryptocoryne parva, Pogostemon helferi, Rotala Sunset
Came in in questionable shape despite paying extra for insulated box. Were very jumbled.

TC from The Fish Room
Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’, Rotala macrandra, Gratiola viscidula, Rotala wallichi, Lobelia Cardinalis ‘Mini’

From S21 Aquatics
Synogonthas Vichada, Centrolepis drummondiana (Blood Vomit)

From Aquatic Plants Factory
Pogostemon stellatus Dassen and Rotala Florida? (TBD)

Fertilizer
Micros: Burr Aquatic Trace (BurrFertz)
Macros: DIY- dosages to be determined
PO, K, Mg at the beginning. Been adding about 2-3ppm PO4 daily
Transition to the addition of NO3 as aquasoil depletes

Filter
Oase HOB BioStyle

CO2
Injected via GLA regulator
Bar type diffuser placed inside the HOB filter

Livestock
None

Notes

• The Alternanthera reineckii ‘Mini’ was in bad shape when I opened the container. Might have been bad when I got it and then it was a week before I used it.
• 8-15-25: Added Synogonthas Vichada and Blood Vomit. Checked NO3 for the first time. It was 40. Started making twice weekly water changes.
• 8-18-25: Increased light to 45% of the full “Fish” setting. PAR should be just about 114
• 8-23-25: Pogostemon stellatus Dassen and Rotala Florida added
• 8-29-25: Discovered my NO3 was 0. Aquasoil is giving out way earlier than I expected
• Had a short diatom period, but it seems to be resolving
• I had planned to increase my light to 50% of full "Fish" setting which would be a (tested) PAR of 126, but right now, things are going so good, I don't want to mess it up. We'll hold off for now.
• 8-31-25: Starting to dose my own mixture of NPK and Mg. I really need to determine my actual water volume. What I am trying to dose, and what it tests as after I dose it are a good bit off.

Day 0






Day 1


Week 1


Week 2


Week 3






Here you can see the older Rotala Sunset on the left. On the right is supposed to be Rotala Florida, but it is looking a lot like the Sunset did at the same stage. Argh!


Pogostemon stellatas Dassen changing from emersed to submersed form


Syn Vichada is doing pretty good. It is growing slow. The new growth is all green and the old growth is dying off. I want to cut old leaves and clean it up a little, but right now, I don't really want to disturb it. I watch it every minute. I loving having it.

Some of the other terrestrial projects I’m working on. Slowly building towards the halo project, an ebb and flow Florida wetland biotope utilizing a bell siphon for tidal management. These are almost all in my office. The bog biotopes are experiments for emersed growing species that are sensitive to shipping in fully submersed form (Sclerolepis unifloria, for example).

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.

There are several threads discussing the new Aquael Hypermax 4500BT. I'm sure many would like some reports on it's performance over time. We have a thread discussing nano canister filters. We're all waiting for one of @Naturescapes_Rocco in depth write-ups discussing his filtration set-up. @Pepere and @*Ci* have unique set-ups as well, @Kwyet has used a matten filter, and we have several other members running sumps. That doesn't even include all those running sponge and HOB filters.

The idea is that we can consolidate a lot of filter information in one place making it easier to find rather than searching through so many threads. Maybe this won't work but I thought it was worth giving it a try. Perhaps it may be better listed as an article at some point.

I'm going to get things started by discussing factors I feel are most important to me when choosing a filter.

1) Filtration Performance: This goes without saying. The filter’s primary job is to keep our water clean and free of anything that harms the inhabitants. Of course, there are multiple factors that play into this. Some say flow is most critical, while others claim media volume is most important. Are there other factors? I still have limited experience, but my view, having done considerable reading, is that flow tends to be a bit overblown. You’ll see recommendations of anywhere from 4 to 10 times turnover rate with most leaning toward the higher end of that. I don’t think turnover rate is really the detail to be concerned about, at least with heavily planted tanks like are the norm here. I think the focus should be simply on ensuring flow achieves the goal of effectively moving water through the system to remove toxins/waste, delivering nutrients, and aiding gas (oxygen/CO2) transfer. If a turnover rate of 3 or 4 does that without dead spots in the tank, you should be good. After all, most of us here are plant focused and therefore, the fish we generally have are smaller community species that typically don’t care for high flow (there are, of course, exceptions).

I think there’s a simpler answer regarding media volume; more is better. Obviously, there must be a balance between internal volume and overall size of the filter. Real estate in and around our aquarium stands is precious. Filters like the Fluval FX6 and the newest Aquael Hypermax are huge. If you’re going for one of those, you’re likely putting it on a large tank with plenty of space underneath but again, it’s a matter of finding the right balance that provides the performance you need in a manageable size.

2) Reliability/Durability: This is where solid reviews come in handy and why getting feedback from users here is invaluable. Filtration performance becomes moot if the filter isn’t running, or worse yet, just flooded your house. Being able to easily source spare parts is also valuable, which is why sticking to the top well-known brands is often a safe route. It’s also why many aquarists place canister filters in protective containers, something else to consider when taking into account, size of filter. (this is something I should really do as I’ve had to clean up a few significant spills after filter maintenance and not getting the top secured in place properly )

3) Tie – Maintenance/Noise Level: These two factors are equally important to me. If the filter is a pain to maintain, I’m going to put it off, and that’s bad. It affects the performance. But equally important to me is how noisy it is. I tend to be sensitive to annoying little sounds regardless of where I am; at home, in the car, at work, you name it. If the aquarium is in a part of the house I spend a lot of time in, well then, it’s even more important.
I don’t know if Oase was first to do it, but the idea of the prefilter was, I think, a game changer for many. I imagine it was derived from people installing foam filters on the intake pipes. Having an easily removable section with foam filters that catch a lot of large particles before entering the primary filter chamber is a great idea, resulting in expanded intervals between main filter head removals for cleaning.
Another aspect of maintenance is ease of priming. This could also be an aspect of performance but I don’t think it is quite as important. I’m not sure there is a canister filter that is truly or consistently easy to prime. Some may start out that way, but over time, become less and less so. This is an area I’d really like to see product designers put more serious thought. My experience so far is with Oase and the Fluval 07 series. Hated the Fuval priming and I’m just so-so with the Oase. Let me know your experience with priming other brands.

As for noise, I don’t mind the slight hum of an impeller as long as it’s steady and consistent, much the same way some people, including myself when I was younger, like the smooth steady sound of a fan at night to help them sleep. It’s when the sound becomes inconsistent, I’m bothered. I also don’t care for the sound of splashing/trickling water while I’m focused on other things. Only when I’m camping near the banks of a creek or other body of water is this OK . This is one of the main reasons I’m not a fan of HOB filters. I’m also tweaking my CO2 reactor designs to minimize the bubble sounds of CO2 entering the reactor.

4) Cost: Let’s be clear, the cost doesn’t stop when you pay the retail price for the filter. There’s the cost of media and spare parts plus the cost of electricity. What’s the rated wattage of the filter. I see the Aquael filters claim to consume lower power and are therefore cheaper to run. What about special filter cartridges or foam. Is it easy to cut foam filters from inexpensive bulk material? How often are gasket replacements necessary, or are there common issues with parts failing over time. Of two Fluval 07 filters I’ve used, both needed replacement impeller shafts. Oase Biomaster filters seem to have an issue with the input/output head often needing replaced.
I admit cost isn’t a critical factor for me, but I know it is for many others, so this is another instance where finding the right balance is key, in this case, the balance between price and performance.

Share your thoughts. Do these factors seem to align with yours or do you think I’m way off base. Tell us what types and brands of filters you prefer and why.

​

I’m excited to see how this grows and changes. It’s my first scape and setup that’s high tech. I’m hoping to get rid of the ugly filter intake and outage but haven’t found good info on what lily pipes to get and tubing and how to install them on my fluval 107 canister filter so that is next on my list. Stocking right now is 12 green neon tetras, 10 emerald dwarf rasboras and 6 amano shrimp. I’m currently not fertilizing because I’m struggling with high nitrates.

Hi all,

First of all thanks so much for the amazing threads and input from all the super knowledgeable and experienced scapers on here.

My question and apologies if this has been specifically discussed previously, but I'm wondering if an RO system would be a worthwhile investment for a high tech planted tank.

My town water which I currently use is not on the grid with the main city water supply that I used to access. Our town water is sourced from a creek, not a huge reservoir, and can vary from time to time, more than I would like. For example, the PH can be anywhere from 7-8, KH when measured some months ago was 4dKH, is now 6. GH 7dGH.
I know they are still within reasonable bounds though.

I could look at ways to just lower KH using HCL for an example but that doesn't fix the stability of the water supply for the other elements.

I'm also not able to obtain a water report.

I've just put in a plant order for my new scape (which I think I'll start a journal on soon) that includes plants like Syngonanthus macrocaulon which prefers lower KH.

Ro a good investment or am I over thinking it?

A discussion yesterday HERE, made me think to create this post about small canister filters for nano tanks. In this case, I would say nano includes any tank under 10 gallons. Some of us just don't care for HOBs for various reasons and honestly, I'd rather not use any other internal filter, although, I have a couple Oase internal filters on the shelf.

What are the smallest canister filters you've tried and what were your thoughts?

While researching the UNS Bliss filters and the one @gnatster found, sold by Aquascape Guide, I came across other ADA Super Jet knockoffs made in China, like THIS ONE. My concern would be, like other knockoff items on Aliexpress, the stainless steel used is subpar quality and will rust, or the pump will fail prematurely or get really loud compared to the real ADA filters. The one linked is an ES150 copy but I also saw some even smaller versions for as small as 2 gallon tanks.

Lowdown on the Low Tech side:

Fancy goldfish - easy plants. No C02, no fertilization, no heater, natural sunlight.
Goldies have always been my first love, paving the way to both my pond and aquarium obsessions : ) Time to get back to my roots!

Delicate negotiations with spouse were successful, including where such a tank would be located in our small, shared house and how much money I can spend (he doesn’t care as long as he can buy some boat stuff, as well).

The chosen spot in the dining room, now officially labeled “The Fish Room”:
Before:



After:



That’s better! Room for a 6 footer, if you ask me …
I’ll leave a space behind the tank for a wide sill and fill the window with houseplants. Maybe some household pendant fixtures from the ceiling with low wattage grow bulbs over both the plants and the tank.
No background on the tank, seeing through to the greenery and the outdoors.

An AI virtual (close but I couldn’t get it to make the tank a little taller):



Highlights of the Hi Tech side:

A virtually no maintenance, self cleaning system consisting of drilled overflows to a 100g basement sump with an RDF* (rotary drum filter), a 50g barrel k1 moving bed biofilter, oversized UV, constant drip water change and robotic algae cleaners**.

* https://ninjasieve.com/products/rotary-drum-filter-10000-l-h
** MOAI | Advanced Aquarium Cleaning Robot

The plan thus far:
I need to have the tank custom built. 72”L x 18”W x 24”T = 130g.
I live on Vancouver Island (4hr. + over $200 ferry travel to get off and on again), so my choices are limited without adding a lot of extra expense. There is a tank fabrication company on the island and we are in talks right now. I’ve never had a sump, so I am thoroughly researching overflow configurations and how they will work with the RDF.

The NinjaSieve RDF is already purchased. Rotary drum filters have been state-of-the-art in koi ponds for the last decade, but only recently have been available in smaller, less expensive sizes. I have only been able to find 3 instances on the entire internet (!) where one is in operation in an aquarium sump. They filter to 74 microns, and self clean using jetted water when the drum starts to clog, flushing the waste out of the system.
Clean water then goes to the moving bed barrel, which will have a valved drain on the bottom, in case any debris settles over time, then to a second 50g barrel housing the return pump and UV lamp. Total water in system = 230g (unless I decide to add a third barrel!)

There are a lot of steps to this project, which I will be accomplishing all by myself, and could very well take me all winter. Now that I’ve cleared the space and settled on a tank size, I need to buy metal jack stands and wood to shore up the floor in the crawlspace. Then I will work on collecting the pieces need for the filtration set up, while I’m waiting for the tank to be built and delivered.

Thanks for following along, comments and suggestions are always welcome. I will get to the plant and aquascaping portion of the build, eventually … I promise!

So I've had this UNS 30C going for just over a month now and I understand why they say bigger tanks are easier. This has been a bit of a struggle. It was just my 2nd aquarium and was intended to be something simple and easy to care for. Thought I'd finally create a journal for it and chronical it's journey from the little nano that tried to hopefully, a shrimp paradise.


Tank: UNS 30C with a DIY stand.
Light: ONF Flat Nano
Original Filter: Oase Filtosmart 100 Thermo
Current Filter: Oase Biocompact 25
CO2: Fzone regulator on a Paintball CO2 tank. In-tank diffuser.
Substrate: UNS Controsoil (Fine) and ADA La Plata sand
Hardscape: Lava rock and unknown driftwood (probably spiderwood)
Testing out a cheap stainless steel skimmer I purchased off AliExpress

Plants
Multiple types of Anubias and Bucephalandra
Mini Bolbitis
AR mini (just added)
Staurogyne Repens (just added)
Pogostemon Helferi "Downoi" (just added)

Fauna
Sunkist Orange Shrimp
Planned on Chili Rasbora but that didn't go so well, so this will be a dedicated shrimp tank.



The first mistake I made with this was to plant immediately, rather than do a dark start as I did with my first scape. As you can still see in the current photo, I had a lot of Buce melt as a result of the high initial ammonia. I was hoping I would see more of a rebound by now but it's been a struggle. I also had different stem plants in the background and they struggled as well, even though they were already submersed grown plants. The current background plants were just placed in the last week and I've loaded the substrate up with more root tabs. They should be more durable but I may want to add something that gets a little taller. I also plan to fill in the melted Buce and some other bare areas with some additional Buce and Anubias. I'm dealing with some algae on the wood and the Anubias Nana Pinto, but nothing too serious.

I hoped that this would be home to Sunkist Orange shrimp and Chili Rasboras. Even though it's only 7 gallons, from previous experience with the Rasboras, I thought of school of 8 to 10 would be fine. I started with 8, but within 2 days, 5 decided to leave the tank (even with a lid covering 3/4 of the top). General water parameters were good, but I admit, CO2 may have been a little high. I moved the remaining Chilis to my larger tank were they are now happy and content. Hopefully the shrimp will begin breeding soon and I'll have plenty of tiny creatures to watch.



I generally don't like seeing equipment in the tank, so I started with a canister filter. Even adjusting valves to reduce flow, it was still too much and may even have been a contributing factor in the Chilis jumping out. Just this past weekend when replanting the background, I switched over to this tiny Oase Biocompact filter. It's only got a little course sponge wrapping a carbon sponge so the jury is still out on if it will provide enough filtration, but I imagine it will be fine with only plants and shrimp. I also added the in-tank heater (house can be a little cool in the winter) and switched from the inline CO2 diffuser to an in-tank diffuser. The skimmer is an experiment. I bought it on AliExpress to see how well it worked. My impression so far: Positive = I like the look and size, it seems to do a good job skimming, at least on this small tank. Negative = High pitched whine while running. I wouldn't run it all the time due to the sound, but if controlled to only run occasionally, it may work out well as long as it holds up.

I'll post updates as I add more plants and things mature.

Happy Friday, friends!
This is my first ever tank. It’s just an imagitarium 13.3 shallow tank. It has a fluval hob filter and currently a chihiros vivid2. I also have a skimmer on it. Originally it just had a betta in it and lots of low effor plants. It’s been one of my favorite tanks and it has changed soooo much since I first got it in January. I’m working on transitioning it to a more high tech setup and having an issue with c02 circulation. I read that putting it under the filter can help, I also positioned my skimmer so that the outflow could push around the bubbles but none of that is happening. I was hoping to avoid switching the filter on it if possible.

Video here!