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yes, this is what i would do. it needs to be rinsed well (along with the new sand). but courser grains are better for root penetration than small fine grains.

Thank you! This is very helpful. :)

Out of curiosity, I've been thinking about searching out some local bodies of water in my area and testing them with my API Master kit...I just want to see what "natural" levels are out in the wild, has anyone else ever done this?

I found this brief article pretty helpful: https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/5-4-safe-nitrate-levels/

Well it seems that there is conflicting info regarding this, but I can tell you that I have several fish tanks with fish not dying or seeming to be stressed or anything at all, with nitrates above zero and below 40. So based on my experience, I am not worried about these levels of nitrate.

Yeah those look like they're built for speed!

😁😆 meanwhile my gouramis and bettas swim right into the net.

For example, here's a 10 gal tank I have with female guppies, fry, and Java moss/subwassertang in it. NitrAtes are between 20-40, and I am nor worried about it because it's stable. I'm testing every couple days because of the feeding load of baby brine shrimp, plus trying to feed the females...

I dont worry about nitrAtes until they are over 40. With my heavy planted tanks, they never really seem to go over that because my plant babies are using the nitrAtes for food.

Mine...diamond tetras. Fast af.

I have a ramshorn snail that somehow got a broken shell. I thought he was dead or dying, and didn't want to pollute my community tank (but I also didn't want to just give up on him. So I moved him to a quarantine tank about two weeks ago. Well he's still kickin'...wondering if I should do more...

Oh sorry, just reread and saw you have some plants? Well, time (for bacteria to do their thing) and water changes will lower nitrites. Plants use the nitrates for food, but I don't think they lower nitrites.

The process you're describing is the natural flow of cycling. First ammonia is high, then ammonia starts dropping and nitrites climb, and then finally nitrates start climbing and when that happens your nitrites and ammonia should still be falling or at zero. Do you have anything (alive) in the...

Thanks for your replies! Yeah I don't claim to be an expert, but I like the idea of a low tech, low effort tank - so long as water quality is good. Question I wonder if the experts know...do those other allelo(?) hormones/chemicals whatever dissipate naturally over time, like some gases or when...

This last picture just showing how deep the substrate is on this new tank.

This is my 50 gal that isn't through cycling yet. Sorry it's cloudy, but not done with set up anyway.

I have 4 female bettas, I don't know how many qualify as a sorority. But I really like the colorful, koi type markings they have.

Okay finally had time to upload some pictures, these above are all from my 75 gal community tank. Just want to mention that this tank was set up before I decided to do deeper substrate, and I haven't added more to it yet, but plan to at some point in the future. I'll add some more of other tanks...

No, I don't think so...if you watch the video (it's been a while since I have) I believe they say the store is in San Fransisco CA and I think it's called Ocean something....which is funny because he transitioned to only freshwater at some point, but he didn't change the name of the store. And...

Okay I hear ya! But this shop owner says he hasn't been changing water for over 20 years, and his tanks are beautiful and his fish look very healthy...just saying, deep substrate + lots of plants, watch the video with open mind and let me know what ya think. As far as I go, I am testing water...

Last night I was doing a head count of my fish, and I couldn't find one of my angelfish...I swear multiple minutes went by when I was starting to panic. Where could it be?? It wasn't floating at the top, it's too big to be hidden....then suddenly it turned. It was directly in front of me the...

I'm sorry that you never got an answer, how did it turn out? My understanding is they are just fine on the lower end of salinity, like 1.005-1.008.

Hello fellow fish freaks, My name is Vickie and I live in Council Bluffs, Iowa (United States). I have kept fish on and off for 25 years. Mostly freshwater, although I did have an awesome reef tank about 20 years ago....it died when moving across country despite my best efforts to keep...

As close as that is to the surface, I don't believe that could be the case. You usually only see that in quite deep substrate. What you probably have is just some regular algae or a disintegrating algae wafer as you suggested.

I like to have a minimum of 4 inches substrate in the front and higher in the back. My main tank goes 7 inches deep in the back. Sorry don't have pics available as I am on my work computer.

I love your diamond tetras! I have nine (LFS bought) juveniles that are just starting to color up and I just love watching their behaviors as they are starting to establish pecking order and approaching breeding age. Your pictures make me excited for how they are going to look soon!