Miscellaneous Questions/Rambling: Dec 16

[Koan]

Is there a “guaranteed “ way to clean snails/snail eggs off of plants before they go into your tank?

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

Post in thread 'Dipping your newly acquired plants to prevent unwanted hitchhikers - still a thing?'

Oct 13, 2025

I loathe snails.

(Mystery snails excepted, which unfortunately I have yet to successfully keep alive in my low KH water with CO2 )

I dipped all my plants religiously for a very long time, using this recipe



based on this experiment



It was a spectacular and complete success.

Just as long as you remember to do it, don't get too busy, or too excited and drop a big batch of plants directly in the farm tank right after work without thinking..

Then it's all for nought

Fortunately Stevie the Betta thinks they are a fun tasty treat. Not enough to...

• Koan

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[BenB]

Here’s a question—Is there a formula to convert a Photone reading taken in air to one taken underwater so we don’t have to submerge our phones in plastic bags? The only thing I found in posts was that the refractive index of air is 1.00 and the refractive index of water is 1.33. Does that mean we can measure it in air and then decrease it by 1/3 to get the underwater par?

I was never good at physics, but I don't think it would work because you'd have to take into account things like the distance and turbidity of the water. But it might get you close enough? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along.

 

[Koan]

I only run mine at night to cut the noise

Okay here's my question: I just installed an Oasis 300 and it's dead silent.. until I add on the fish / shrimp excluder.

I mean, I've never heard someone being waterboarded, but this could be very well be what that sounds like

It makes that feature unusable

So, what am I doing wrong?

 

[Kwyet]

Okay here's my question: I just installed an Oasis 300 and it's dead silent.. until I add on the fish / shrimp excluder.

I mean, I've never heard someone being water boarded, but this could be very well be what that sounds like It makes that feature unusable

So, what am I doing wrong?

If you push it down a little further into the water, it’ll get quiet. I don’t like it much because I don’t have an ATO on any tank, so I’m constantly having to adjust the position of the Oase skimmer.

 

[techman81]

Okay here's my question: I just installed an Oasis 300 and it's dead silent.. until I add on the fish / shrimp excluder.

I mean, I've never heard someone being water boarded, but this could be very well be what that sounds like It makes that feature unusable

So, what am I doing wrong?

Getting it mounted at just the right level is important to prevent that. It just takes some tweaking. However, it'll still occasionally get loud again if it gets a lot of debris around it or the water level drops too much.

Kwyet beat me to it!

 

[techman81]

I don’t like it much because I don’t have an ATO on any tank, so I’m constantly having to adjust the position of the Oase skimmer.

That's why I'm shifting back to lily pipes with skimmers. I've realized though, that I really prefer the skimmer on the outflow pipe rather than the inflow. Having it on the inflow is leading to air getting sucked into the filter.

 

[Koan]

I don’t have an ATO on any tank, so I’m constantly having to adjust

For some reason I find this idea really entertaining



Picked up a nice vintage 32 Oz Coke bottle on eBay to use with one I'll let you know how it works out

 

[Koan]

push it down a little further into the water

Really? With the floating excluder? I wrestled with the damn thing for half an hour, to no avail I'll monkey with it some more

 

[Kwyet]

For some reason I find this idea really entertaining

View attachment 12428

Picked up a nice vintage 32 Oz Coke bottle on eBay to use with one I'll let you know how it works out

I have a few of those. They work okay, but I wasn’t a fan of the look.

 

[Naturescapes_Rocco]

Really? With the floating excluder? I wrestled with the damn thing for half an hour, to no avail I'll monkey with it some more

You can both push it lower in the water, or twist the top part to rotate/adjust the flow. It has a rotation of about 30 degrees or so, righty-tight etc.

 

[techman81]

For some reason I find this idea really entertaining

View attachment 12428

Picked up a nice vintage 32 Oz Coke bottle on eBay to use with one I'll let you know how it works out

Ha! I bought a couple of those when I was setting up my first tank and have never taken them out of their packaging. I just keep gallon jugs of RO water handy. This time of year, I have to top off a lot though with the heat on and fireplace going. Maybe it's time to start using those.

 

[Sulla]

Great thread! Love it.

1. My ludwigia (narrow leaf) and rotala indicate green aggressively grow air roots...tank is about 6 months old with amazonia v2, 10cm+ depth. Thinking it might be depleted I added a bunch of tabs (that came with the soil)...but not really seeing an improvement. Is this the nature of the plant or is something else going on?
2. Filter Intake/outtake placement. I've seen quite a few videos explaining that these should be placed on opposite ends of a tank (sometimes directly across and sometimes diagonally)...this makes no sense to me. If they are across each other then there must be dead spots...I believe that having them on the same side forces the water to move in a circular way - across the tank and back to the intake. Thoughts?
3. Comment: baby brine shrimp is stupid easy to grow at home. Really.
4. Reflection: I'm constantly torn from wanting a beautiful tank (which may be unattainable but I strive) and a low maintenance that is nice and can live with. Haven't found the balance yet - but I'm pretty new to the game - my first aquascape was this year so...
5. I've been playing around since the summer with amano shrimp breeding. Luckily I have a very productive set of females (and a very high libido male) and that's allowed me to experiment a lot. My most recent brood looks like will give me 100 or so - the most successful by FAR. After months of playing with salts etc..I decided to just try sea water (I live by the sea - Persian Gulf) - and other than adding ro to adjust salinity to 35ppt - I did nothing. The larvae have grown to juveniles and I didn't do a single water change other than top offs with ro. Testing constantly and 0 across the board - ammonia, nitrite, nitrates. I am flabbergasted still by whatever nature is doing here.

 

[Kwyet]

I was never good at physics, but I don't think it would work because you'd have to take into account things like the distance and turbidity of the water. But it might get you close enough? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will come along.

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

 

[hamfist]

Here’s a question—Is there a formula to convert a Photone reading taken in air to one taken underwater so we don’t have to submerge our phones in plastic bags? The only thing I found in posts was that the refractive index of air is 1.00 and the refractive index of water is 1.33. Does that mean we can measure it in air and then decrease it by 1/3 to get the underwater par?

Most phones are waterproof these days. Just check the specs to make sure and then be brave ! My iphone is supposedly waterproof down to 1m. However, there are all sort of underwater videos online, taken with the same model in swimming pools etc. In truth I expect it is waterproof beyond 1m . Apple clearly need to be cautious in their quoted specs though. In the end I was brave and stuck my unprotected iphone down to the bottom of my tank, no problem. I guess it could all go badly wrong though.

SKimmers - I have found filter inlet skimmers really effective in the past - the Eheim one in particular. However, I repeatedly forget to turn them off for fish feeding time and this sends a whole load of food straight into the filter each time. My memory was so bad at this that I gave up on using them. I am currently experimenting with an Oase 600 in my 150 g. Personally I have not had any problems finding a good level to avoid noise. Maybe its more of a problem with the 300 model ?? I have taken the foam out of my 600 though. My large tank produces a lot of leaf debris and the foam needed daily cleaning to avoid clogging. I am relying on it simply recyling surface scum components back into the water column and into my filters. It helps a bit, but I am not convinced it is enormously effective. Of course the tank is large and I am asking a lot of it. It is silent though and is on a timer to switch off during fish feeding times, so is fairly easy to live with at the moment.

 

[Yugang]

Here’s a question—Is there a formula to convert a Photone reading taken in air to one taken underwater so we don’t have to submerge our phones in plastic bags? The only thing I found in posts was that the refractive index of air is 1.00 and the refractive index of water is 1.33. Does that mean we can measure it in air and then decrease it by 1/3 to get the underwater par?

Please note that for Photone app using an iPhone it is essential to use a diffuser, for example a piece of paper. The paper getting wet is probably not a good idea, so if not for the phone then for the paper a plastic bag would be recommended. Without diffuser, the measurement may be far off as I explained in the Photone thread.

 

[Kwyet]

Please note that for Photone app using an iPhone it is essential to use a diffuser, for example a piece of paper. The paper getting wet is probably not a good idea, so if not for the phone then for the paper a plastic bag would be recommended. Without diffuser, the measurement may be far off as I explained in the Photone thread.

Thanks, yes, I use a diffuser and a plastic bag. I have the actual Photone diffuser, so I’m not sure a bag is necessary for that, but I use it out of caution. @Aquajack came up with a formula to get a good approximation without submersing it all, which I linked a few posts back (#33).

 

[Yugang]

Thanks, yes, I use a diffuser and a plastic bag. I have the actual Photone diffuser, so I’m not sure a bag is necessary for that, but I use it out of caution. @Aquajack came up with a formula to get a good approximation without submersing it all, which I linked a few posts back (#33).

I just read the post on the planted tank forum. It suggests to measure the PAR just above the water, and have an approximation how much it would be under the water. While an approximation is better than nothing, I would suggest it it highly recommended to measure in the actual water filled tank to have a sufficiently reliable measurement.

I hope the below links help to illustrate the factors at play, and why it is not easy to take shortcuts with measurements without risking to be far off.

Post in thread 'PAR meter using iPhone / Android APP - does it work?'

Mar 17, 2024

For a light point source indeed the intensity goes down by the square of the distance between source and detector. But for a line source (long fluorescent tube or LED bar) this is NOT longer true, it goes down by the distance (rather than distance squared).

I hope it is helpful to elaborate on this again, as light and optics can be somewhat confusing, even counter intuitive and are often misunderstood. Take this thread on another forum where the OP asks:

Par

I've replaced my two t8 fluorescent tubes to two t8 LEDs . The LEDs say the par is 167 at 20cm. If the LEDs are around 50cm above the substrate level would the par drop off alot? There is two of them so they should be ok for a low tech?

www.ukaps.org

Spoiler alert, the correct answer it NOT that we apply the...

• Yugang

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Post in thread 'PAR meter using iPhone / Android APP - does it work?'

Dec 13, 2023

Note: I would prefer manufacturers to provide measured PAR data from real water filled tanks with commonly used tank dimensions. A graph, with the PAR data over the full bottom rectangle of the tank, without much room for misinterpretation, that would be great.

Another note to manufacturers....

Many years ago, as a physics student, I have actually written software to calculate optics with Monte Carlo methods, so I know what it takes. Modern day PC's are now so fast, that it is feasible to achieve reasonable accuracy for the calculations within acceptable CPU times.

How beautiful...

• Yugang

• 

 

[Kwyet]

I just read the post on the planted tank forum. It suggests to measure the PAR just above the water, and have an approximation how much it would be under the water. While an approximation is better than nothing, I would suggest it it highly recommended to measure in the actual water filled tank to have a sufficiently reliable measurement.

I hope the below links help to illustrate the factors at play, and why it is not easy to take shortcuts with measurements without risking to be far off.

Post in thread 'PAR meter using iPhone / Android APP - does it work?'

Mar 17, 2024

For a light point source indeed the intensity goes down by the square of the distance between source and detector. But for a line source (long fluorescent tube or LED bar) this is NOT longer true, it goes down by the distance (rather than distance squared).

I hope it is helpful to elaborate on this again, as light and optics can be somewhat confusing, even counter intuitive and are often misunderstood. Take this thread on another forum where the OP asks:

Par

I've replaced my two t8 fluorescent tubes to two t8 LEDs . The LEDs say the par is 167 at 20cm. If the LEDs are around 50cm above the substrate level would the par drop off alot? There is two of them so they should be ok for a low tech?

www.ukaps.org

Spoiler alert, the correct answer it NOT that we apply the...

• Yugang

• 

Post in thread 'PAR meter using iPhone / Android APP - does it work?'

Dec 13, 2023

Note: I would prefer manufacturers to provide measured PAR data from real water filled tanks with commonly used tank dimensions. A graph, with the PAR data over the full bottom rectangle of the tank, without much room for misinterpretation, that would be great.

Another note to manufacturers....

Many years ago, as a physics student, I have actually written software to calculate optics with Monte Carlo methods, so I know what it takes. Modern day PC's are now so fast, that it is feasible to achieve reasonable accuracy for the calculations within acceptable CPU times.

How beautiful...

• Yugang

• 

Thanks for the additional info.

 

[BenB]

I haven't read all the posts, so someone might have mentioned it, but if you put your phone in the tank, in a plastic bag, there is also a calibration you need to do. You might have already seen it, but I did a small write up on it months back. HERE

 

[Koan]

My ludwigia (narrow leaf) and rotala indicate green aggressively grow air roots..

@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