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This is not a rant or an attack on anyone, but are we becoming too obsessed with fertilizers and “optimal” conditions? Many algae problems seem to be caused by high nutrient levels themselves, so I don’t really understand why people often say, “Nutrients don’t cause algae.” If you look at research papers, many of them show that excessive nutrients in waterways are not a good thing. Maybe we rely on nutrients too much, and observing plants maybe better than dosing in access?

I’ve observed many natural habitats where plants grow really well, and I don’t think there are extremely high levels of dissolved nutrients in the water, as it is mostly in the substrate. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)

Also has anyone had experience using organic liquid fertilizers for aquarium plants? And is it really eco friendly as claimed?

Welcome to ScapeCrunch, @Dagor Bragollach!
We would love to get to know you. Please tell us about yourself. What tank do you have?

Anyone else here into fly fishing and tying?

Yesterday I was working on making moss walls and attaching some moss to driftwood, and a tool that very much came in handy was a fly tying bobbin holder.


The bobbin holder keeps tension and makes navigating the thread around wood a little easier. Give it a try if you have one. I've decided getting white residue everywhere from gel superglue is more annoying than doing thread wrapping.

Couple of fly boxes for summer fishing as well:

My confidence in answers obtained by AI is vanishingly small.

I tried several of them last night asking

Does Father Fish teach that water has memory…

All of them asserted no. None of them displayed any uncertainty.

Here is one typical response.



I then proceeded to supply a section of transcript from a video. And asked it to evaluate the transcript.. in essence it agreed that in the video Father Fish was claiming that water has memory.

I asked if going forward if asked if Father Fish taught water has memory would its initial response be different. It stated know because the transcript I provided, had Father fish state it was sort of like memory, not that it was memory…

By golly talk about wiggle room…

The above screenshot was asking the same question this morning and it is the same answer I initially got last night, so A+ for confidently giving incorrect answers consistently.

I then followed up asking if there are any Father Fish videos where be states that water has memory and I got the following reply.



So, the answer you get will be highlydependent on exactly how you ask..

Its like nailing jello to the wall..

I have had similar experiences with AI over many questions in areas that I have deep knowledge base in. I have vanishingly little confidence in its ability to give correct answers with nuance.

Hey Scapecrunch! I posted a journal of this tank on UKAPS but I wanted to share this tank here as well as I think this is a pretty cool build.

I got an amazing opportunity to turn a 1000 gallon tank into a high tech planted tank. I am in the planning phase right now so I wanted to share what I am thinking.

This is the tank currently. The turtle and the all of the fish will be moved to a different setup and a new stocking will be picked for this tank. Someone else will be in charge of fixing up the rock work to make it look nicer and cover the exposed/damaged areas. The tank is 96 in in length, 48 in front to back, and 48 in deep. The filtration on the tank is a sump that is about 200 gallons but it is only halfway full so it contributes about 100 gallons.

I am not sure on what to choose for lighting, but I am leaning towards 4 Chihiro's WRGB II 90 pro. 2 Rows of lights to cover the middle section (Maybe 3 rows of 2?). I wont be having plants near the front, mostly the back half to leave room for a diver to do maintenance. Would this be enough light with how deep the tank is? I am planning to elevate the back half of the substrate pretty high to make sure enough light gets to the plants.

The tank will be having CO2. I am thinking of doing 2 20lb tanks and dual CO2 reactors. I am just not sure how big I will need to make them. I'm aware it will be difficult to get 100% dissolution with how much CO2 I will be needing to inject, so I am okay with having a light mist. I'm sure it will be beneficial for the plants anyways as that's what I see in a lot of ADA tanks. Anyone have an idea of how big I should make these reactors for such a massive tank?

I will use lava rock in the bottom with gravel on top to create the height for the back half of the tank that will have the plants. It will be like a terraced island. The gravel will have a layer of aqua soil on top for the plants (probably ADA or tropica). Outside of the island will be a layer of sand since there wont be plants outside of the island.

Fertilization will be EI dosing, but not full EI because of how much fertilizer that would require. Likely half or a third EI, especially with the aqua soil releasing lots of nutrients anyways for the first months.

I'm working on some sketches of how the layout will be. I am really excited for this project!

If you've been in the aquarium hobby for a while, I'm sure you've created or picked up so valuable hacks that fall into the tips, tricks and time-savers categories. So, in an effort to compile and share them, let's post them here.

This site is about sharing knowledge and experiences so don't be shy, no hack is too small or silly.

Please post yours.

Tank: ADA 60F (60 cm x 30 cm x 25 cm) - 10.8 gallons

Lighting: Chihiros WRGB II Slim

Hardscape: Sensei Stone (Magura sandstone, with quartz and feldspar). GH, KH, pH neutral

Substrate: Crushed lava stone (to support hardscape), AF Lava Soil, and maybe Controsoil Extra fine? Still deciding

Filter: Oase Filtosmart 100 with Jardli 12/16 glass lily pipes (modified intake for shrimp)

CO2: GLA GRO Cartridge (once it is in stock)

Primary plants:


Livestock: Neocaridina Ocean Blue; maybe +/- a few Least Rasbora (Boraras urophthalmoides)

Still in the idea/planning stage of this tank. For a challenge I am pushing myself outside of my own comfort zone here, so this will be entirely new territory for me. Modern Iwagumi/diorama is not something I thought I would want to try, but my interest has grown in recent months, so why not give it a try? It will work, or it won’t. If it doesn’t work it’s always an excuse to rescape.

I have an ADA 60F tank sitting on my kitchen counter.



It was the first tank I purchased when I dunked my toes back into the hobby last year, that I scaped with some Ancient stone and driftwood for a few shrimp.




Once it was planted I quickly got in over my head on too many stems in the back, and moss growing too well on the rocks to maintain in a short, cramped space, and had some persistent CO2 related algae courtesy of a drifting needle valve. Thinking about rescaping the tank I had started to tear it down last week, removing most of the stems, and then found myself needing a temporary grow-out tank for some minnow fry, so the tank won’t be fully torn down and scaped for a few more weeks yet, but that gives me time to play around.

So, with an eye toward some sort of modern Iwagumi/diorama, I needed some hardscape. Without the luxury of walking into a store that caters to aquascapers, I am usually stuck with buying hardscape sight unseen. Rather than have a plan, and then try to find the materials, I ordered some rock to see what I would end up with, and let the hardscape inspire me.

Enter 55 lbs of Sensei stone in assorted shapes and sizes.



Why Sensei stone? I didn’t want to use Seiryu. It’s beautiful, easy to work with, and readily available, but I really needed this rock to be inert. Something in this tank’s original build sent GH and KH through the roof, and it had to be either the Controsand, or the or the ‘Ancient stone’ or both. I should have tested it in water first, and I learned that lesson the hard way. The 60F is a small and shallow tank, and shrimp loathe parameter swings, so this time I want to be able to control the water parameters a little more easily (especially the Ca/Mg ratios), so I am starting with inert rocks. Also, in case I wasn’t thrilled with the stones sent to me, I still wanted rocks that were easy to break into usable pieces, so no Hakkai stone this time. I did consider Frodo stone, but would like to use that in at least a 90P. So, hammer and cold chisel at the ready, Sensei turns out to have been a good choice.

The majority of the rocks were interesting either in color or texture, and reasonable in scale for a tank this size.

I did a quick speed-scape on Saturday afternoon with the majority of the larger stones, more for fit, and quickly ruled out some particularly chonky rocks. Thankfully, I saved the lid from the 60F tank when I ordered it, so it is currently my temporary dojo for now. I seriously need to build a real one, it is difficult to get much height in a cardboard lid!



My phone doesn't do it justice here, but Sensei has some interesting character, with neutral greys, and warmer tones that run throughout the rock due to insoluble iron deposits. I think it’s pretty flexible in that it is easy to pair with a variety of sands or soils quite easily. I could use something like WIO Rocket sand to bring out the greys, or Colorado sand to accentuate the warm reddish brown tones. For playing around purposes I just opened an extra bag of La Plata from the 150 build.



Not the all stone was well suited for use in a tank this size, though. That large stone center top in the image above is at least as thick as it is wide, and WAY too beefy and blocky to be useful, even if this was a 90P. Too many like that, and there would be no need for plants at all. It’s always difficult wanting to smash something you just purchased, but this morning I took a deep breath, and unleashed a hammer and cold chisel (honestly just the hammer works pretty darned well with with the strata in this stone) to see what I would end up with. Worse case scenario, I will end up with some accent gravel, because Sensei is difficult to match in color and texture with the accent gravels I have see out there.



What do you know…smashing it worked pretty well, and I much prefer the shards that I broke off that blocky rock. Much more pointy potential there. There are a couple of other odd shaped stones I would be willing to resculpt into a more useable shape, too. It is actually quite fun bashing rocks with a hammer first thing on a Monday morning. I am now looking forward to playing around some more with these rocks, and seeing if I can up the drama a bit. We’ll see what I ultimately end up with. I don’t think the shrimp will mind too much regardless.

I wanted to share my experience so far with a cheap flow meter from Aliexpress.
I am generally a “you get what you pay for” aquarist, but I have taken a gamble due to circumstances. It is still early days, but it feels like it may have paid off.
Looking to add a flow meter to help tune my CO2 in a newly set up 130L tank, I searched far and wide for the different options. They were few and far between, most were for far larger flows than I needed and those that were appropriate were ridiculously expensive to get to Australia. So I went searching on the various Chinese discount sites and came across the LZB-3WB flow meters. They are cheap… real cheap. Less than $30 Australian landed, which made me nervous, but felt it was worth a shot at that price.
Not knowing what flow ranges I would need I ordered a 6-60ml/minute model.
After installing it, it was clearly too high of a range for my tank, but it did allow for some visibility while adjusting CO2. It was certainly better than a bubble counter.
Here is a picture of it action:

As you can see, the reading is below the scale of the meter, but with a marker I could at least set a starting point as I adjusted my CO2 higher. Also the adjustment valve was useless, a tiny turn would shut the flow off or open it to max out the meter.
I ordered the below as a replacement:


2.5-25ml/minute seems like a good range for my tank.
As a bonus the valve is better than most standard regulator needle valves. I can adjust the flow in increments of about 1ml/minute.
Below is the valve in action:


They have been in service for 2 months total now, 1 month each, so still an early review. It has been a solid upgrade though and was an easy install. They come with big 8mm barbed fittings but they can be unscrewed to reveal 1/8 female threads that standard needle valves for aquariums fit. I have also got some 1/8 to push fit fittings that I am yet to install as I am heading away on holiday for 2 weeks soon and don’t want to make any changes for the house-sitters to potentially have to fix!
Pros: adjusting my CO2 was made so much easier by being able to see exactly how much of an increase I was making with each adjustment. Monitoring that the valve isn’t drifting has been easy also, a quick check of the meter tells me it is steady.
Cons: I doubt that the reading is accurate. This means little to me, as I am not using it for a calculation or comparison between tanks. As long as the reading is consistent, even if it is wrong, I am fine with that. Also, the max pressure is listed as 40psi. I am unsure if that is a failure or accuracy maximum. Again, it doesn’t affect me as I run a low regulator pressure due to using a reactor. If I were using a diffuser that needed a high pressure, it may make me nervous.
As always, with any cheap gear, your mileage may vary. But, I thought it was worth sharing as it may help those with limited access to flow meters of appropriate sizes. So far it is proving to be the second best $25 I have spent on this tank, second only to the super red bristlenose I have in the tank.

Does anyone here have any experience with sourcing alternative hanging kits for the older Weekaqua P series lights? Would the Chihiros or other light brand hanging kits fit the screw holes of the P series?

I bought a used P600 Pro that is missing the accompanying hanging kit. I have tried ordering some generic hanging kits off AliExpress but they do not fit as the P series requires M4 sized screws.

I am currently using M4 eyelet screws as a workaround to attach the light to the wire cables, but it is less than ideal and is only a temporary fix at best.

This is the future home for the announcements when someone obtains an achievement badge. Let the games begin!