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Old 16-06-2012, 09:44 PM   #61
Jon-san
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Bro JIG, are those PET bottles from Muji or Daiso? Looks familiar! Btw, why do you prefer these fertilizers instead of other brands? Also, are these enough for plants? A total noob here
Very easily available. Cost-wise is also quite fair. Dosage for a small tank setup is generally quite small, hence a smaller bottle can last a very long time. I'm still on my first bottle of Potassium, Phosphorus, Nitrogen. Just started using Flourish and Trace. In short, my tank is dosed with all of the above on a once a week dosage. The plants seem to love it. Pretty sure it's also shrimp-safe and oto-safe as well. My first choice for value for money, really.
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Old 17-06-2012, 01:37 PM   #62
cherabin
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Does the Muji bottle dispense an accurate 1mL per pump?
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Old 17-06-2012, 02:03 PM   #63
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Does the Muji bottle dispense an accurate 1mL per pump?
The old ones that I have used do, I don't know about these current ones. I will be doing a test on them shortly. Thanks for asking!
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Old 17-06-2012, 04:44 PM   #64
JadeIceGreen
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Stuff drop out from the sky today.

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Old 17-06-2012, 05:04 PM   #65
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Wow wow wow!!!!! All the 好料!!!
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Old 18-06-2012, 10:25 AM   #66
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Drop some to my house lay...
haha
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Old 18-06-2012, 09:18 PM   #67
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Wow wow wow!!!!! All the 好料!!!
You also can have Bro.


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Drop some to my house lay...
haha
No problem Bro, I can place an order on your behalf.
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Old 20-06-2012, 11:33 PM   #68
Jon-san
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You also can have Bro.




No problem Bro, I can place an order on your behalf.
Can you also pay on my behalf? Or I can use on your behalf, which ever way you want it... Seriously, bro... It's all the good stuff! OMG! I want! I'm looking at your pic and looking at my BW tools and just shaking my head.... Are you getting the Aquasky eventually then? Please say you will... Lol. Will look fantastic in your setup, I'm sure...
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Old 21-06-2012, 09:35 AM   #69
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Can you also pay on my behalf? Or I can use on your behalf, which ever way you want it... Seriously, bro... It's all the good stuff! OMG! I want! I'm looking at your pic and looking at my BW tools and just shaking my head....
Haha. Thanks Bro. BW is fine too! But ADA is really better. And since you're talking about tools, let me share this picture.



This is not mine, a friend loaned it to me. It's ADA smallest Pinsettes and after using it, I can only say I'm throwing all my normal tools away. There really is a great difference. The precision is amazing. Build quality is fantastic also. This Pinsettes has been with him for more than 10 years, I cannot spot any rust, spring tension is still almost too strong, grip is still aligned perfectly.


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Are you getting the Aquasky eventually then? Please say you will... Lol. Will look fantastic in your setup, I'm sure...
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Old 21-06-2012, 11:51 AM   #70
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13 days ago, we discussed my choice of filter for Nano I and why I chose the Eheim 2211. Although I did somewhat touch on the filtration media in that post, I was scant on the details. But fear not! All the details will be found here.



There will be three kinds of filtration media in the 2211. Mechanical media, biological media and chemical media. In my filter post, I mentioned that the 2211's 1 litre media capacity volume will not be an issue because I will be using filtration media that I've had the best results with. I will not go out on a limb and say that the media I'm using is the absolute best and is better than anything else out there, but what I can confirm is that they have worked really well for me thus far.

Mechanical Media - Eheim Mech Pro
Biological Media - ADA Bio Rio
Chemical Media - Seachem Purigen


Mechanical Media - Eheim Mech Pro




The first time I handled the Eheim Mech Pro, I was actually disappointed at how flimsy it felt, as compared to the usual thick Eheim plastics that I was so used to. However, the plastics used to construct the Mech Pro is actually of good quality, but it is so thin that there is almost no weight to it, giving the impression that it is flimsy. For a moment, I was wondering if it will be able to hold the weight of the heavy biological media that will be placed on top of it.

If it was any other brand, I would come to the simple conclusion that the Mech Pro was made this way so that the company saves on material costs. But because it is Eheim, I gave some thought into it.

1. The thin plastics used in the Mech Pro gives it some measure of flexibility. When the heavy biological media rests on the Mech Pro, it will be compressed, creating a tighter knit. This should translate to a more effective trapping of large detritus, while still allowing significant water volume to pass through. Also, the compression of the Mech Pro allows me to fit even more biological media into the 2211.

2. The thin plastics used allows the Mech Pro to fit into each other in numerous angles, creating a totally random net. This will effectively diffuse the flow of water before it enters the biological media.

I will not be utilising a thick layer of Mech Pro as I do want to save as much space as I can for the biological media. A common mistake that some make is to use too much mechanical media. The purpose of the mechanical media is to trap large detritus that will otherwise clog up the much finer biological media and to diffuse water flow. Adding just enough Mech Pro to achieve these two aims will be sufficient.


Biological Media - ADA Bio Rio




The ADA Bio Rio is quite the enigma to me as it is primarily made up of just pumice stone. It is not a specially engineered biological media, created in a laboratory to maximise space for bacterial colonisation, nor created specially to sport a surface that encourages the propagation of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. If so, why does it polishes water to a degree I've not witness in any other biological media?

I can only speculate here as ADA has not release any scientific data for the Bio Rio. Of all the biological media I've been exposed to, the Bio Rio is the densest. Being so dense as compared to the competition, it traps detritus very easily. The stones are packed so tight that only minute detritus and water should be able to pass through. This for me explains the water clarity I achieve when using Bio Rio.

Bio Rio is designed by ADA and they are an aquascaping company. In a well-balanced aquascape, the load placed on the filter is not as high as to a similar tank that is not aquascaped. Flora in the aquascape do assist in the filtration of the aquascaped tank. As such, I will not recommend Bio Rio to be the biological media in a highly polluting environment, say a goldfish tank. For such an environment, I have found Seachem's Matrix to be much better than Bio Rio in coping with the high amounts of ammonia and nitrite.

One interesting thing about the Bio Rio is that it comes adhered with live bacteria. Upon opening up the bag of moist Bio Rio and giving it a whiff, it does smell strongly of a matured tank, so ADA's claim is true. The live bacteria will certainly speed up the process of cycling the tank.


Chemical Media - Seachem Purigen




I do not usually use chemical filtration. But when I do use them, it was mainly high grade activated carbon but that has stopped because of Purigen. The most appealing aspect of Purigen is that it is rechargeable, unlike activated carbon which is not, and therefore has to be thrown away and replaced with a new purchase.

Purigen is a macro-porous synthetic polymer, a synthetic adsorbent that controls ammonia, nitrites and nitrates by removing nitrogenous organic waste. But the reason I'm including Purigen in the 2211 is not so much of the removal of organic waste as I've confidence that Bio Rio, the aquascape and weekly water changes will keep that under good control. My main motivation for using Purigen is to polish water to the ultimate clarity. With Bio Rio and Purigen working together, I want the aquascape to shine, doing justice to the glass clarity of the ADA Mini S.

It is known that Purigen is one of the best chemical absorbers in the market. Handling it by hand, its absorption powers seemed apparent as there is a static energy that exist between the beads, pulling them together.




So here we have it, Eheim Mech Pro, ADA Bio Rio and Seachem Purigen, my choices to filter Nano I. To properly observe the performance of these media, I will be using an accurate aquarium monitor that will provide me a constant data overview. I will release more information on this monitor when its turn has come.

The next post will be on the filtration hoses, lily pipes and double taps, look forward to that. Thank you for viewing and please do comment! All comments are very much welcomed.
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