decorate this tank

[jaws7777]

Looks like some dose a couple days before and some at time of water change. Which do you do? And do you put it in a mesh bag and hang in the tank or dissolve in water and dose the water?

Check the vids in post #76 of this thread thats how i do it. Im sure there is no right or wrong way or time that it has to sit in the tank. Just like polladict said you wanna queeze the crap out of it get the wster as cloudy as possible lol.

I do it on wc day. After wc i either hand the bag in the tank or sump squeeze it like crazy and through out the day if im near the tank i'll give it a few more squeezes. Either that night or the next morning i remove it.

At first the water stay cloudy for a few days but after a while its clears up over night.

Best way incan describe what it did for me is like this. I had an eheim 2262 fill with poret foam for mech its really dense..great stuff btw i ise it in all my filters hob's too. Anyway it would take say 4 or 5 buckets of tank water to get them clean) a few weeks on the ridx and it went down to 1 or 2 buckets to wrinsr clean.

Cool, thanks!

I'm going to replace my Eheim spray bar. Once I get that I plan on cleaning the Eheim, replacing the spray bar, and then I'll dose with the Rid-X. I read that you should do it with a clean canister for the first dose. Even if that's not true I'm due for a cleaning anyway so might as well. Do you notice any cloudiness in the water like some mention or not really?

Hell yeah lol it turns white...if i have time i'll dose tonight and take a pic for you so you know what to expect.

it outcompetes harmful bacterias and helps safeguard your fish against those kinds of infections

I think that was rd's main goal and the maintenance aspect was just a pleasant add on.

I really dont think it affects nitrates atleast that ive noticed.

 

[jaws7777]

thanks for the read. Have you tried the Earthworm or septa bacteria and found similar results to Rid-X? I know my LFS sells Rid-X, so just might give it a try! I also put some polyfil in the filter yesterday to help with the cloudiness.

Ive only used ridx but im almost certain others in that thread used earthworm.

Buy whatevers cheaper and more readily available

 

[jaws7777]

Btw i would say give it a good solid month maybe more before judging its effectiveness. At first i didnt notice any changes

 

[clm08k]

Yep, for low light low maintenance ones I'd recommend anubias / java fern also. There are different shapes and sizes of anubias. Neither one needs to be actually planted.

You could also try Amazon swords, Vallisneria, and cryptocernes for plants that you actually put in the substrate. And floating plants look cool too - I like water lettuce, because I like how the hanging roots look.

I do like the water lettuce. Can see the polys skirting through the roots! Although the Brazilian pennywort looks cool too!

after seeing Vancouver_98683 's tank, I think I am going to go with Anubias. I'll try to do the suction cup thing with one of the bigger anubias plants. I think he did barteri(sp?) Might get some a. nana to put on the driftwood.

Any particular crypts you'd recommend? those are carpeting plants, right?
Maybe I'll just start with the anubias.

 

[clm08k]

oh wait. I just remembered that my phosphates are always through the roof(at like 9)/dark black when I test. Won't this dissolve the plants?

 

[Vancouver_98683]

I do like the water lettuce. Can see the polys skirting through the roots! Although the Brazilian pennywort looks cool too!

after seeing Vancouver_98683 's tank, I think I am going to go with Anubias. I'll try to do the suction cup thing with one of the bigger anubias plants. I think he did barteri(sp?) Might get some a. nana to put on the driftwood.

Any particular crypts you'd recommend? those are carpeting plants, right?
Maybe I'll just start with the anubias.

Thats the fun thing about planted tanks. You can pretty much select any plant type and let your creativity flow. Most of these were from percolating, pets mart and some from craigslist. My fave because it's the easiest is the dwarf lettuce. You can let them float or in the substrate. Here's a 75g I had that was easy to maintain.

 

[magpie]

Crypts aren't what I think of as carpet - they are just lower growing bushier things typically.

I've never planted the water lettuce. Interesting!

 

[magpie]

Are your phosphates high out of the tap? Do you have any problems with algae currently?

The plants we're recommending are pretty low maintenance. I'd just try them and see how it goes personally.

 

[jaws7777]

magpie tomorrow is wc day will get a pic for you then

 

[Zilch]

Last thread crash! I sent RD. a message re: turtles with Rid-X, and he linked me to a product by exo-terra that does the same thing as evidence that it would be fine. I mean logically I was pretty sure it would work, considering people use these types of probiotics in ponds, and you know, turtles like living in those, but it was good to get some confirmation!