Recent content by reignofcheese

blue actinic bulbs will not help your live plants.

The standard bulb that comes with the tank is good enugh to create a low light setup with very easy, low light plants. Depending on what came with the unit you may want to upgrade the bulb to a nice 6700k plant oriented one. My 20 gallon long tank has only 18 watts of standard light on it, and...

1.5 wpg is high light for T5 bulbs, they are extremely efficient.

Just remember that EI dosing should be altered based on your own needs - not everyone uses or needs the same amounts, and a lot of people end up with plant growth and/or algae issues by blindly following EI methods posted on the web, larglely because these methods are serious overkill for many...

I would not worry too much, any will do the job. I use the overpriced but functional red sea valve.

Cryptocoryne wendtii is really nce, bushy and makes a great refuge for livestock, slow growing but very easy to keep healthy under low light, unlike stem plants these are maintenance free with no need to be trimmed.

I don't know about "best", but fluorite is easy to use and my plants do fantastic in it. Dirt is great but not for people like me who do a lot of rearranging.

In 25 years of fishkeepng I've never heard of experienced such a thing.

if you are looking for a small bottom dweller other than corys look no further than the chain or zebra loaches- I'm partial to these guys at any rate. So I currently run the AC50 on my own 20 Long and it works fine, but I find the pourback renders part of the tank practically unusable because...

very nice. i have 4 in my 29g and just adore them

But kind of fluorescent? 2 wpg of T8 lighting is on the lower side pf medium,, while 2 wpg of T5 lighting is high light.

His concept is not wrong and I think some of these fish are underestimated by some. My female Ram lost her mate and afterward sulked in the plants for a few months and died within several months - I've heard of other fish over the years showing similar signs of "depression" after losing a...

I would not put two types of territorial fish into such a small aquarium.

The good news is ammonia goes nontoxic at low pH anyway keep the water changes small, the less sudden pH shift, the better for the fish. keep an eye on those levels, if it drops again even with regular water changes You'll need to buffer it.

A tank that small is very difficult to work with. Length is the most defining element of the tank in regards to stocking, more so then volume for small tanks, and 13" Just doesn't cut it for most fish as any sort of long term solution. Judging by the way my pygmy cory group gets around...