u all ah... play nice... come back to the main topic...

dun play police n thief in this thread....

varial + syafiq, its possible to keep 24/7 but like syafiq said, its a waste of co2 when the plants are not using it.

FYI, i'm on 24/7 co2 becoz i'm using a manual regulator. i haven't got a chance to monitor using the solenoid valve coz it takes too long to reduce my 4ft tank water from normal no co2 to enriched co2 (yellowish green to light green in the co2 drop checker). end up, i kept the co2 24/7 at about 2bps. its been good until now. plants r happy, fishes are happy... my wallet, probably lighter once every 2-3 mths. its a 5 or 6 kg tank i think... never weigh it...


estage : i think go for ramshorn snail. just introduce a small population first. onus is that if u don't overfeed, the snails will control itself. i got some nerites in my tank but sadly, most of them didn't survive long enough... probably my water parameters not right for them...

jiejian : tats a very clean looking tank. i'd think the rock is a bit too large for that size but its also extrude its strong presence in the tank. is that jhg in the foreground? and the background long stem is HM?

pai sheh la, not trying to police u guys, no offense.


the nerite shell not corroded. just they seem to hate my water. they shrunk internally until only empty shell left. so sad....

bp also hot last night. chiller keep turn on, more frequent than usual.

varial , I refilled mine for rm30 per bottle no matter what size. I think SG besi in kl got refill by kg weight.

kiminha : haven tested / use ur nitrate yet. so kh n gh haven check. last i know my kh is 7. gh long time no check liao... haha

kytz : i lean towards the PAR value as well like kiminha. however, due to the par meter is expensive, its not feasible to buy, measure then leave it there to rot... so for my case, i bought 2 spotlights of 50w 4500lms++, so tats 9000lms @ 6500K lights and hang them on top of my 4ft tank about 6" high. overall, i'm happy with the results.

a few changes i've tested :

1)removing the front glass panel that protects the unit from water splashing, result is brighter light.

2)lowering the unit to 3" from water surface, this narrows the lighted area but still covers entire aquarium. very minimal effect but the echinodorus is showing stress symptoms such as the leaves are bending downwards. i'm, assuming the light intensity is too much causing this effect. this is within 2 weeks from lowering down..

kimimaro : ur tank got bottom dwellers like pleco or digging fishes? might be the cause of the hm floating...

my rotala nanjenshan is uprooted due to my pleco plowing through + my molly biting on the soft bits of the stem... so i'm constantly replanting... haha

i got confused with neon tetra n cardinal tetra... both are very similar but priced very differently... rm1.50 for cardinal and rm0.60 for neon... whew!

sorry everyone, i think i blurr already. i last saw it at xian leng bp outlet a month ago. but recently went there no more cardinal. only neon tetra.

it was also 1 small tank only. now they got like 3 tanks full with neon tetras.

i know how to differentiate now after googling them. and the price also a tell tale of the difference.

everyone upgrading liao... hehehe

i'm a slow cultivator la... also learning all the way. the real sifus all keeping quiet... hehehe

mr macrusin's tank is no way u can fail. its got all the goodness of planted tank in there. i would say its a plug n play unit

it depends very much on your budget. some build them from basic up to high standards over time. some go in with a higher budget and get all the good stuff.

depends on your budget really...

light and co2 need to be balanced for good growth and beautiful tank. so start with a good light and tank. co2 can do DIY and later migrate to compressed co2

kytz : discuss for installment... hehehe

ier : underwater lawnmover required?

actually different ppl have different thinking. so we will let the new aquascaper decide.

varial : rm250 will get u one good one....

might be disease/infection. i'd recommend you to quarantine it. scare it spread to others in the tank....

btw, ur plants seems like mainly from xian leng, am i right? coz i got nearly all the same of plants u got there...

xian leng is another LFS. got one in KL area.. just forgot the new place name already... haha..

quarantine the fish just for precautions.