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where did you order from?

my gravel is supposed to get here today and i ordered it yesterday with standard ups shipping. that is fast. normally shipments from other places take 5 days.

Did you select lower 48 states when you added the bags to the cart? Then after putting in your zipcode did you change it off the default shipping and hit update?

That's expensive.

No believe it or not that was economy (4 to 10 days)

My Scapes

I got 3 bags for $51.49 shipped to MN. you bprobably have 2 day air selected that was the default.

Hi,
Just back from a mimi-vacation.
"Brown algae" is actually an outbreak of diatoms.
These critters have silica shells and in a NEWLY set
up tank are the result of low light, silica gravel, and
excess nutrients. Increasing the light (watts per gallon),
good house keeping, including partial water changes, will
resolve the problem.
In an aged tank check for excessive phosphate levels.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

AquariumPlants.com wants over $120 with shipping for 3 bags to New York (4 to 10 days). This is much more expensive than big als even through they are selling the product for $9.95.

My Scapes

It's around $57 to get 3 bags sent to Iowa. $29 for the bags and $28 for shipping. Shipping is the same from 1-3 bags. I believe it's shipping out of South Dakota. To know the shipping for certain you'd have to go to http://www.aquariumplants.com select how many bags you want and put in your zip code.

Bigals is $75 for the same amount to here.


Last edited by sham at 25-Jul-2005 23:49

Sham,

That's really cheap. Does that include shipping to New York?

My Scapes

i can get three bags shipped from petsolutions for $80.01 i will look into that. thanks does anyone know what it retails at. They don't carry it at any stores around me.

It's on sale for real cheap from aquariumplants.com. With shipping it came out to half the cost of bigals. The most cost effective and easiest to handle is to order 3 bags at once. Ordering more than that and the box falls apart on the way as well as it costing more per bag in shipping.

BigAlsOnline

My Scapes

which is better eco complete or flourite or would you reccomend something else.

I've had ec in my planted tank for about a year and a half and I really like it. I have the usual green algae breakouts on the glass, but it's never been a problem on the ec itself.

One think I did notice I purchased ec from my lfs and the grain size was pretty big, but when I ordered a bag online when it was delivered the grain size was small like sand.
I think it might have got crushed from storage and delivery.

My Scapes

You can't eliminate algae. It exists to use up excess nutrients. If you scrape it off it will just grow somewhere else. It's best to give it a less noticeable section of the tank like the back. The only way to lessen the algae for good is more plants or less nutrients. When you remove the algae the nutrient level goes up and the algae comes back even more numerous than before. Instead of fighting the algae try to control where it grows and let the tank balance itself.

yeah, i don't have a lot of plants in my tanks yet. i am waiting until i get the new gravel. that is probably why. on one of my tanks that is more heavily planted with regular gravel i get thick builup of green algae on the side and back (it's funny that it doesn'tgrow on the front) but i scraped it all off one day and my water is kind of turning green now.

My water is very bad for growing brown algae but except for 1 really bad outbreak in a tank without any plants yet I haven't noticed my EC turning brown or even green. I don't think whether you have gravel, eco complete, or flourite it's going to make a difference in the brown algae growing on it. My gravel in the other tank doesn't turn brown or green either unless I have a tank with no plants and not enough light for green algaes to grow on the glass. Then I get a ton of brown algae in strings over everything. Now silica sand with no plants and only .5wpg was a nightmare. I had columns of brown algae coming up out of the substrate and 2" strings hanging down off the cave and driftwood.

Here is a question for people using ecocomplete. how clean does the gravel stay. i assume that gravel vacum would be bad, so does it stay nice and clean.

i reread that iand it sounded confusing to me. i guess what i meant is, does it grow alot of brown algae on it like normal gravel.

Last edited by sonic2041 at 23-Jul-2005 18:06

Last edited by sonic2041 at 23-Jul-2005 22:17

You MIGHT end up with a mini cycle - but I've done this without even seeing any increase in ammonia or nitrite. Just make sure to watch in case it happens as a water change might save the lives of your fish. I used flourite with great results. The water was only cloudy for about 24 hrs, then became crystal clear. Especially if you rinse out your mechanical filter a few times during the first day so that some debris can get caught and rinsed out of the filter.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients