Hi everyone, Carrie. Nice to meet you all, I am a newbie to this forum. Im from NJ and I hope to meet you all ..read more

Hi. Thank you in advance for your help. I have been battling black algae for years and have posted many times. Nothing seems to work! I have bought algae eaters and that doesn't help. I take out ornaments and other removable equipment and treat with hydrogen peroxide and that does kill the algae on those items - but it comes back. I try treating the plants but they do not handle it well. it seems impossible. Theoretically,I would think the black algae is in the gravel too. I tried black out... Read more ..read more

Hey everyone. My first tank, I researched for several weeks and went with kind of a hybrid idea: father fish inspired fertilized 1inch substrate and bogart inspired 3 inch deep UGF. The unifying goal here is to get a more natural style ecosystem tank going, with the minimum amount of water changes and maintenance. For the substrate, I used NPK enriched low pH peat-based blueberry soil, mineralized lake bed soil, chelated iron and magnesium enriched lime, blood- and bone meal... Read more ..read more

Hey everyone! New to the hobby, found this link on Bogart's page. I've got a 40 gallon hybrid tank that is doing OK after 4 weeks. I'll post more details in the tank section. Anyhow it's my first tank and my family LOVES it. We stopped watching television. So glad we decided to get some fish ..read more

Hi Aquarium Hobbyists: I have been in the hobby for the second time since 2010. I have easy growing plants in my four aquariums. Now I want some color. So I'm using CO2 injection in one of my 40 gal tanks. I have it running for a week now. I have questions about it. I have a CO2 checker, a solution is put in the vial and flipped around". I read that the color of solution should be lime green. It's dark green now. I inject more and still dark green. I read about 5-6 bubbles should be... Read more ..read more

I don't have any automatic dosing except for CO2 and lighting. The health of my planted tank depends on my daily dosing of nutrients and excel. There is always a set back when I returned from travel, like BBA popped up here and there, and plant debris clogged intakes. My travel plan for my fish only tanks is to do a large WC, clean the filter and top the tank before I leave. I don't feed my fish during my absence. What do you do to minimize impact on your planted tank in your absence... Read more ..read more

I've had aquariums as a hobby for several years now. I'm working on building a beautiful planted tank. I can't wait to get advice and expertise from this forum!! Nice to meet you all ..read more

Hello everyone, I have a broken(?) dual stage regulator by Ocean Free. I say it's broken because both pressure gauges read 0 always even though the CO2 cylinder is full. When I first hooked it up a few weeks ago, it showed pressure, not much by the look of it but a few days later it went to 0 on both gauges. Been using it for a few weeks now because I had the CO2 cylinder in storage for a few years but it was full, still sealed from my local gas store. I had thought that maybe the cylinder... Read more ..read more

So anyone new to the aquascape world and even the old are bound to come face to face with some algae issues. It is true that some are quite easy to remove and some are a real pain in the behind. This is my first ever thread that im writing right now and i thought that from my experience i really wanted to share it with you all. So I am no expert in the aquarium hobby, in fact, I'm still rather new. However, I have been experiencing extremely severe Black Beard Algae in my first tank that i... Read more ..read more

I inherited this lovely and *enormous* plant on the left here when a friend tore down their tank. I had no idea it would grow into a monster! For scale, this is a 65 gallon. I love it and I'd love to be able to get more of it in the future but I have absolutely no idea what it is! It seems to be some kind of sword but other than that I'm at a loss! Please help ..read more