Miscellaneous Questions/Rambling: Dec 16

[Koan]

Filter Intake/outtake placement

And this!

Flow Setup

As plants do not move (unlike animals), they depend on flow to bring air and nutrients to them. Good flow is hugely impactful, yet challengingly 'invisible'. We recommend a rated hourly flow rate of 6X to 10X the tank volume. So for a 50L tank, the listed filter flow rate should be at least...

www.2hraquarist.com

 

[techman81]

@Dennis Wong has an article on this

Messy aerial roots?

"Aerial roots are roots that often grow out of the internodes of stem plants midway up the stem, above the substrate. Why do these roots appear? Are they a cause for concern? What can we do if we find them unsightly? Territorial Instinct Aerial roots are most common in sparse tanks or where...

www.2hraquarist.com

I get a lot of air roots on my ludwigia and rotala for the "not dense enough planting" reason mentioned in that article.

 

[Koan]

Comment: baby brine shrimp is stupid easy to grow at home. Really.

This super cool invention is definitely next on my gadgets list!

 

[Jeff Miotke]

So here is a detailed explanation of a mathematical formula for a close approximation. He asked me, but then figured it out himself, lol!

I looked into this too since my previous PAR meter was way off, and I didn’t want a repeat issue—it’s one of those “set and forget” things. I did some hands-on testing with my iPhone 15 Pro and the official Photone diffuser, using the full LED spectrum setting and an underwater phone case to measure PAR in the water.

Because my lights are suspended from the ceiling, I was able to swing them out of the way and compare readings in air vs. underwater. The two values were essentially the same, both fluctuating in the same range (for example, 60–70 at substrate level). I repeated the test on both tanks and couldn’t see any difference between the air and underwater readings.

So take that for what it’s worth—my water is crystal clear, which might make a difference. Hope that helps!

 

[Jeff Miotke]

This super cool invention is definitely next on my gadgets list!

View attachment 12434

Ive used this for a few years. For most part like it. Unfortunately it doesn’t hold up, lid cracked in half. But the duct tape Im using to fix it is!

 

[Kwyet]

I looked into this too since my previous PAR meter was way off, and I didn’t want a repeat issue—it’s one of those “set and forget” things. I did some hands-on testing with my iPhone 15 Pro and the official Photone diffuser, using the full LED spectrum setting and an underwater phone case to measure PAR in the water.

Because my lights are suspended from the ceiling, I was able to swing them out of the way and compare readings in air vs. underwater. The two values were essentially the same, both fluctuating in the same range (for example, 60–70 at substrate level). I repeated the test on both tanks and couldn’t see any difference between the air and underwater readings.

So take that for what it’s worth—my water is crystal clear, which might make a difference. Hope that helps!

Good news! Thanks!

 

[Sulla]

And this!

Flow Setup

As plants do not move (unlike animals), they depend on flow to bring air and nutrients to them. Good flow is hugely impactful, yet challengingly 'invisible'. We recommend a rated hourly flow rate of 6X to 10X the tank volume. So for a 50L tank, the listed filter flow rate should be at least...

www.2hraquarist.com

Yes this is what I think is intuitive. Just strange to see people putting the inflow and.outflow on opposite sides of the tank

 

[Aquajack]

I don't disagree at all that it is better to obtain a reading inside the tank. I only used that mathematical formula as I wasn't keen/confident on my phone surviving a dip. I use android pixel phones and my last one didn't survive an accidental dip in the pool lol. This one has a crack in the screen.

Its only an approximation and the result seems to be in the ball park to what I expected. The example I used was on my actual tank. I was only after an approximation which is the best I could hope for.

On other matters:

• Flow has been mentioned - specifically for my purpose the distribution of CO2 inside a tank. I can now see how important this is and not as often talked about. I currently have an inline diffuser hooked up to a canister filter. For a good while I had a spray bar on the outlet (on a 4ft tank). It went about half way along the tank, along the back. What occurred of course was the plants on that half of the tank had crazy growth and really healthy (the blyxa even turned purple), due at least partly to direct and constant access to the "CO2 blast". However this of course didn't quite correspond throughout the whole tank. A LFS owner who has amazing tanks suggested a couple things. First put the inlet and outlet together, they were on opposite sides of the tank, get rid of the spray bar and instead add a wave maker near the filter outlet to "push" the CO2 around. So that is what I've done. Its on oscillating mode as its too powerful to have on constant, even at the lowest setting. I'm still not convinced this is a good setup but maybe an improvement? I don't know. Also, of course, any taller plants near that side get smashed around by the current. So after all that, I'd be interested on how others treat the flow of CO2 to try and get maximum circulation.
• More of a fun question. If you were setting up a high tech tank from scratch, say a 75g for argument sake, what are the essential "tech tools/equipment" you would include in the build? Everything from dosers to controllers to skimmers etc. I've seen lots of great equipment lists for builds on here and would like to start planning in advance for my next tank.

 

[*Ci*]

I was impressed with this experiment, so far I have found this to work beautifully

Thank you, this looks worth a try. The plants I want to move are large leaf anubias and crinum, so they won’t be too hard to visually inspect after the treatment and also maybe to carefully wipe down every individual leaf for stuck on eggs.
I also thought I could put them into a quarantine tank for a while with some snail bait to see if anything hatches out.