Author: VinzPhua

Lightweight Safe Unbreakable Monsterfish Tank Covers

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Stainless Steel Mesh Covers.

In this post, I will share about my Arowana tank covers which are safer, lightweight and do not block light and ventilation.

My criteria for tank covers are slightly more demanding than those for typical fish-only tanks as my tank is planted. Of course, the main reason for tank covers is to prevent our precious fish from jumping out. In addition, for planted tank purposes, I need to:

  • Minimise light blockage as the plants need light to grow well.
  • Minimise heat retention. Bright lights produce more heat, plus plants generally do better at lower temperatures (preferably 28 celsius and lower).
  • Maximise ventilation for evaporation. Evaporation helps water to lose some heat and not build up excessively under the lights.
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Easily Remove Algae with Hydrogen Peroxide

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Manually removing algae is usually a tedious process and it is really difficult to get every last bit. Let me share with you an easy method that uses Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) to get the rest of the harder-to-remove algae.

Before you begin, remember that removing algae is not the same as solving your algae issues. To solve your recurring algae issues, you need to tackle the root causes and that is another matter altogether. This method helps you remove the existing algae while you try to tackle the root causes.

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8 Years Old

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Chillaxing on a Sunday

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Am I getting a full CO2 refill?

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CO2 Regulator Gauges

There are a few ways to get CO2 for your aquarium. Some shops let you swap your empty cylinder for a filled cylinder, some refill your cylinder on the spot, and others help you send your cylinder to be refilled and let you collect it a few days later. Some hobbyists go to the gas suppliers directly for an on-the-spot or collect-later refill. Many of those who get their cylinder refilled wonder if they are getting back a full cylinder. This article will teach you how to tell.

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Aug 2018 Update

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Post Views: 28 Just an update on the tank and Arowana. After a long time, I think I’ve got a handle on the algae and plant growth issues. The plants are doing much better now and the annoying brown algae is retreating week by week. The only algae still persistent and hard to get rid […]

CO2 Flow Checker – More Precise than a Bubble Counter

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Post Views: 191 I’m very excited to share this with the Planted Tank community. For decades, we’ve been estimating our CO2 injection rates with bubble counters. Bubble counters are great at telling us whether our CO2 is flowing, but they are barely helpful when we need to adjust our CO2 flow rate. We usually start with […]

Removing Substrate from an Established Tank

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I’ve replied to this in Facebook groups a few times, so I decided to write this up to make it easier to share. Unfortunately, I am not planning on doing this soon, so there won’t be any videos or photos. But yes, I have done this before to remove a sand bank from my 600 litres (180 US gal ) planted tank.

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How to Add Substrate to an Existing Aquarium

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Post Views: 159 I created this video to show how I added new ADA Aquasoil to the tank. This method can be used for gravel and sand as well. It is a relatively mess-free method. Hardly any of the Aquasoil dust escaped. The bottle makes it easy to target where you want to lay the […]

How Efficient is a Cerges CO2 Reactor?

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I wrote this post some months ago (Feb 2017, I think), but never published it. The measurements will probably be different now, as I’ve made many changes to the tank since then. However, the general conclusion (for my tank) should be the same: CO2 levels remain pretty stable once they reach peak levels.

Since then, I have recently found extra information that explains why my CO2 is stable and not fluctuating (as far as I can tell). I’ll mention that at the end of the post. Everything in the quote block below was my original post.

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