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Wrapped up my AGA submittal a few weeks ago, and I just can't seem to bring myself to take care of my tank right now I think I'm experiencing burnout. I go through these cycles where my tank is all I can think about for a few weeks/months, and then I need a break, and I can't bring myself to do my usual water change and trim schedule. The good news is my tank has so much healthy plant mass that algae doesnt grow even after a few weeks of neglect.

Any tips on fighting this tendency? I think my first idea is to slow everything down, lower my nitrate to more of a zero-bound system and try to reduce my stem trimming frequency. My second idea is making my water change easier. Right now the hardest part is siphoning detritus into buckets that I walk to the toilet. After that I pump the tank down the rest of the way. How do you guys do this? I would siphon straight to the toilet but I'm bound to accidently send a shrimp to their doom that way.

Anybody else stay up late to watch the IAPLC rankings. As usual, my choices would have been different. Some scapes ranked in the 40s got picked by some judges as the best, so at least I'm not alone in that. Highest ranking by a U.S. contestant was Ryan Noel at, I believe, 31. Congrats to Ryan.

Hi all,

I recently got a second hand Kamoer F4 Pro dosing pump, but have some difficulty setting it up. The problem is the 'flow calibration'. Hopefully any of you has the same dosing pump and knows how to solve this issue.

As far as I can see, I installed all the hardware correctly and updated the firmware to the newest version. I replaced the in- and outlet hoses for new 3 (ID) - 5(OD) silicon hoses. Also did a factory reset in the app (two times already). The problem is when I calibrate a channel (already tried this with both channel 1 and 2), the calibration dose seems to high for the app to accept it. I tried both the 5 sec and 10 sec giving me accordingly a 10 and 20ml calibration dose. When I enter these doses, the app shows the message 'error setting parameter'.
When I filled in at 10 sec that it only 10ml (whereas it was 20ml), the calibration worked and saved successfully.

Edited later 11-10-26: I just tried the original hoses and the same problem occurs. Also get the exact same measures as with the new tubes

Do any of you know how to solve this?

I recently added a small adjustable powerhead/wavemaker that's set to constant flow mode to increase surface agitation, gas exchange, and overall circulation. The goal wasn't to reduce CO₂, but to use stronger gas exchange along with adequate injection to get CO₂ up quickly before lights-on and then reach a stable equilibrium instead of continuing to accumulate throughout the photoperiod

Big thanks to @Dennis Wong / 2Hr Aquarist for his articles explaining this approach. I've learned so much from them. It's completely changed how I look at CO₂ injection and surface agitation

For testing I'm using a freshly calibrated Apera PH60 for pH, Hanna Checktemp 1 for temperature, and the Hanna HI3818 CO₂ titration kit to check actual CO₂ concentration. CO₂ kicked on at 12 PM, lights came on at 3 PM, and CO₂ shut off at 8 PM

Tank/water parameters: UNS 60U, Controsoil, RO/DI remineralized with APT Sky, GH 5 to 6, KH 0. My best degassed pH reference is around 7.30, so I'm seeing roughly a 1.7 pH drop at plateau. With 0 KH the standard pH/KH chart doesn't apply, so I'm using the Hanna kit alongside pH to track the curve

Today's testing showed a really good trend. The tank was already at pH 5.60 by 2:30 PM, reached 5.59 at lights-on, and stayed essentially flat through 8 PM. Hanna measured approximately 44 ppm at lights-on and 44 to 45 ppm at the end of the injection period. Since I was essentially at plateau 30 minutes before lights-on, I now feel comfortable reducing my pre-light injection from 3 hours to 2½ hours and seeing if I can still reach the same level by lights-on

My original CO₂ target was around 40 ppm, but at this point I'm wondering if it's worth trying to make a microscopic needle-valve adjustment just to knock off ~4 ppm when the curve is this stable

Would you guys leave it around 44 ppm or bring it down slightly closer to 40?

There's no livestock yet, so I'm taking advantage of this time to get everything dialed in. Plants are doing great. Planned livestock is cardinal tetras, pygmy cories, Amano shrimp, and eventually Caridina, and I'm planning to start stoc
king next week

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

I mention this plant on occasion, but no one ever comments. So I thought I'd make a post for others and me for future reference.
It is my favorite Erio. It is a darker green, doesn't get too big, and for me it has never sent up any seed stalks.

I find it easy to grow. I have high light but nothing crazy at 124PAR and high CO2, 50+ppm. It gets about max 3-4" and makes side daughter plants when large. I'm not sure my dosing scheme is. Sort of an EI daily dosing kind of thing.

What gets me is every autumn, it starts to melt. I'm not sure how it knows it's autumn with consistent light and a heater, but it must get a little cooler in the tank or something. The plant starts to turn brown and sends up (I'm not sure of the correct term) vegetative stalks with little plantlets on the ends. I've found you can plant these stalks into the substrate with the plantlet on top, and it will grow into a new plant. They've been easy to grow. This is the third year this has happened to me.
Pic of plantlets below. I'll try to get a better one sometime. All I had time for tonight was a crappy phone pic.

This year I divided one of the mother plants in hopes that it wouldn't fully melt and would regrow. That is still in progress.

Anyone else's experiences are welcome.



This plant is the same plant as the one on the right above.

Got on the tree build kick in past 2 weeks to make somthing I like for 36g freebie build to replace the huge tree turd #2 in there. I got 6 stumps ready today to get built for smaller tanks, 3 done today 3 waiting. Built the larger 17 tall 16 wide tree pics added other day to journal but gonna a build 2-3 more larger trees and the 6 smaller. Sell the ones off on eBay and etsy I don't want.
The larger stump 2nd post pic s 16" tall 15 wide plan to use in future scapes smaller. I've been using Amazon branch packs 15.00 for 25-35 pieces and amazon spiderwood 6-8" 5 for 12.00 for small trees. The large tree I made was a 10.99 piece I tore apart and used the 3 larger branches and built onto them to get the large tree in added pics cost me in end around 22.00 .... I have 10 pieces coming in mail Friday 5 large and 5 medium all spiderwood to make larger trees with this weekend.
Bought a ton of Amazon wood on Amazon lol 2 for 17.00 10-14" so I glued some of them together for larger usable pieces. some came out cool and well worth the 17.00 for the pieces glued together.The 1 has natural plant pots on top. The v shape last 2 pics 12" deep and 16" wide
After literally glueing a finger to a rock today Imao I quit! I ended up used all the accelerator I had anyway so Friday or sat before I can finish my smaller trees. will update as it goes, It will be a forest of trees when its done.

Ludwigia repens, hairgrass "eleocharis palustris" and ludwigia glandulosa all found locally growing emersed beside water and all growing submerged in water. Nice freebys if they survive the transition theres 20,000 stems in this tiny little pond. all clean no bugs put in tank with no fish to be safe will peroxide dip it before moving into other tank. 1 bunch l repens last pic I picked 8 days ago grown 2" and top turning more red with no melt at all. Well see how it goes. All found beside my local Lincoln dealer parking lot lol.
I've got local emersed plants before I know where theres a storm of lemon bacopa and anacharis is. Seems it always melted badly to mush. These plants are growing emersed for a week then submersed for days when water levels go up. Maybe they are more hardy being grown above and below water over and over? They may all melt to turds in weeks lol.

I follow several of my native Brit aquascapers, and Fish Shop Matt dropped this announcement via my Youtube feed yesterday, so just thought I would put it out there for those that haven't seen it. Apparently designed for tanks up to 40 gallons, and there has certainly been a void in Oase's Biomaster lineup for smaller tanks. Not sure when it will be available in the US. I do get hits on the Oase website, but no actual product availability yet, so I presume coming soon? Interesting, though, especially for those trying to save space in tight spaces with the prefilter and heater built in. Or just wanting something easier to open and maintain than the Filtosmarts, and more powerful than a small HOB. Of course my questions would be flow, and noise? We'll see.

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