Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @StephenP2003!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?
Welcome to ScapeCrunch
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Hello Welcome, StephenP2003
- Thread starter Art
- Start date
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That looks like an awfully familiar user name….
Welcome.
Welcome.
Ha! Likewise, sir! And thanks for the welcome! I've been reading so much here for so long that I figured I might as well make an account, as I'm sure eventually I'll have a question or feel compelled to join in the discussion!
So I currently have 20 tanks, all planted, 8 of which are CO2-injected - but only a couple of them being high light systems. Been learning what I can and can't achieve in my tap water, slacking on maintenance from time to time, keeping heavily stocked tanks, just general tinkering.
My tap water has 7 dKH , 0 dGH (I am on an aquifer system in south Louisiana that goes through a ton of clay, cation exchange resulting in very clean sodium bicarbonate water. I just mineralize with sulfates every water change).
Here's my 40 breeder problem child at the moment as I dial in the light/CO2 and deal with green dust algae (10 rainbows 3 zebra loaches, an angelfish, and a gaggle of brochis/osteogaster tend to dial up the difficulty a little I think.) Trimmed a good bit of it off and wiped the glass.
And a few "jungles" that I'm doing relatively OK with right now:
90 Gallon:
7 gallon low light:
50 gallon Crypt Jungle with a duckweed problem:
15 gallon random "let me try this plant" tank:
2.5 gallon bowl of buce, ready for a trim.. Now all of the above tanks are with my 7 dKH tap water, but this bowl is RO, with 6 dGH, 0 dKH
I am assuming you are saying that you raise GH with CaSO4 and MgSO4…
I add a bit of that to raise my 2DGH 2DKH water to around 5DGH.
I have also played around lowering my KH by the addition of a wee bit of vinegar when I did a water change but never noticed enough of a difference to bother keeping up with it…
For a difference to be a difference, it needs to make a difference…
I found your comment about 1 tank having a bit of a green dust issue…
I have 2 tanks in the same room. Both are the same size, same equipment, same water and co 2. Same substrate and keeper tending to them, same fertilization schedule…. 1 tank has been doing great, the other struggling along with continued brown diatoms, green dust and green spot algae. It seems to be resolving on its own right now, but I just marvel how two tanks within 5 feet of each other set up so similarly with one having a chronic issue despite weekly attention to rid it and the other shrugging it off…
Impressive looking tanks.
- Thread starter
- #5
20 tanks?? WOW!
Welcome from a fellow Louisianian! Love the jungle tanks.
Yes to the sulfate question. I just use the NilocG GH boost powder, which also has some K2SO4. It's crazy how many unknown variables there are that would lead to two seemingly identical tanks having very different outcomes!
Absolutely beautiful tanks.
I am in awe of people like you who have water like this out of the tap, I know its reversed of what you want but still. What does your pH look like?
Out of the tap it's about 8.2. It's kind of annoying because I have to add the calcium and magnesium but deal with that bit of buffer. It could be so much worse though, I don't envy folks who have to deal with super hard water.
AlexxPlants
New Member
Nice to see you here! Been watching the Wet Your Plants stream for a while now, great place to hang and talk about plants.
