I am waiting on a CO2 reactor to become available again, as I don't care for an in tank ceramic disc or an inline diffusor going to a lily pipe. Although I use CO2 and target a PH drop of 1 point. ![]() So perhaps I have too high a fertilizer level. So this idea of 50% weekly water changes is foreign to me. I came from a saltwater background, and water changes were always bi weekly or even monthly and at a 10% change. One thing I did not realize is that the Aquarium Co-Op fertilizing schedule is based on EI philosophy, so i was not doing a large water change at the end of the week. So I have Aquarium Co-Op Easy Root tabs and Easy Green along with some SeaChem flourish root tabs. I have been told people have been successful with planted aquariums with only a substrate such as Ecocomplete, but plants will have to be fertilized. In retrospect I would have used a plant substrate like Aqua Soil or Stratum. When I did this tank I was told all I would need is a substrate like Ecocomplete, so I bought 4 bags. Had a small canister of some sort, a power head as a water mover, and T-18 full spectrum 18 watt mini flourscents in a hood. 20 years ago I had what was considered a low tech tank(quality high intensity lighting was scarce then) with a substrate of Fluval Stratum and small pea style gravel over it. There are a few things I did that I would change if at all possible after going through this set up and doing a bit more research. That turned the corner on the algae problem and the clean up crew in the tank took care of those issues. I brought the blue and pink settings down to 15%, and have cold and pure white at 90% and warm white at 70%. Anyways I bought a Fluval Plant 3.0 light, and after setting things up and having an algae bloom I did research and found tutorials on light settings. I returned to this hobby after a 20 year hiatus and lots of things have changed. Do you suppose there is a way to step down voltage or any other option to find a way to reduce output? I do like this kind of water mover as I can get it low in the tank and hide it, with the magnetic mounting and directional head it seems pretty versatile.Ĭlick to expand.Do I know that my previous algea issues are flow related? Well a good portion of them were light related. I had hoped there was 4 blades so I could remove two and reduce output. I did remove the front cover and its a small two blade impeller design. I had hoped to remove the HOB filter and use this in its place, but position it at the bottom of the tank and aim it across the back and towards the swords. Its rated output is 530 GPH, which looks to be too great if I were to use it with the canister. I have bought it, but never installed it. I looked for the smallest one I could find and this is what I came up with. ![]() ![]() ![]() When I was exploring my water circulation issues I thought about using a small wavemaker head lower in the tank. The problem is the majority of the water movement is directed at the same part of the tank. I also installed a lily pipe and a surface skimmer intake on the canister, and in the process I found that I had not fully moved a lever on the valve assembly for the input/output fittings, and when I moved it I gained a lot of output from the canister. So I was having algae issues on plants due to low water movement, and I ended up adding a HOB filter that came with the tank, and that did improve water movement. I also had it set up incorrectly, more on that in a moment. I installed a Marineland C220 canister and thought this should provide me enough water flow, but I discovered it did not. I had been away from aquariums for 20 years, so when the wife got me this for Christmas I ended up setting it up based on memories of past experience. The tank is a 39 gallon bow face that is somewhat tall.
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