Posts by Avery

I personally have painted a few of those particleboard-based stands, and I would honestly highly recommend it for a few reasons;

1) You can ensure the stand doesn't have the cheap, thin, and sometimes not wholly covered paint on the stand

2) You can add multiple coats, or even add a primer/more durable layer of paint so that if it gets wet from water, it doesn't peel or soak in and instead would use evaporate off (if dry enough).

3) You can let the tank match either the trim (if not black), or even match other things in the same room (since for whatever reason, the colors many stands come in are either black, a hard-to-match brown, or now slate grey).

Microsoft has finally responded to our request for additional information and has approved our request to be unblocked. Please let us know if this occurs again by using the Contact Us form if you don't receive your activation email.

Looks like the sale has started today and is going on for a bit. Shocked that they are doing that far more frequently than in prior years.

We have received word back from Microsoft, that they have denied our initial request from our ISP. They have requested Microsoft provide reasons why, and to look into this further since we have not been used as sending spam (but someone that is our IP neighbor has been). They noted that the initial denial is not uncommon, and they will update us as they hear back on their follow-up request.

Like always, we will be manually approving all Microsoft accounts created until this issue has been resolved.

We still have not heard back from Microsoft yet, but will keep you posted when we hear anything back!

They have submitted a request to Microsoft on our behalf (since we are not able to get through, each request we've sent resulted in them stating "No Action Taken") to get our emails unblocked. There wasn't any ETA from our ISP as to when we would hear an answer back, but I would expect to know something new within the next 72 hours.

If we have any other updates we will share them here. As noted we are manually approving all accounts in the meantime until this is fully resolved.

We have added in a new estimated date range, based on the prior years. We will update as we get more information that can confirm a date soon!

We are still working with them to resolve this issue. Right now we have confirmed that only North American based Microsoft email addresses are being blocked by them (others such as live.co.uk or others are not being blocked and are being received and accepted by Microsoft).

If we have any other updates we will share them here. As noted we are manually approving all accounts in the meantime until this is fully resolved.

Good luck to everyone who enters, I'd love to see some super unique amphibian setups done with this to whoever the winner is!

I would say it depends on if you have a hood, open top, or have an actual wooden top that hides your lighting equipment.

If you don’t mind the look of more lights, I would go with multiple lighting fixtures to make sure you cover all of the spectrums for enough time (you can even have lights on various schedules so it's not super bright when they first turn on, and not jet black when they all turn off). Otherwise, you can get one lighting fixture but make sure it covers corals primarily if you have any, since lighting for the fish is a secondary aspect (only benefits the owner, outside of letting the fish have a day/night cycle).

100% - although we are still working on other content, I can go through what we have again first in order to add such documentation (more than likely in a Wikipedia reference style where we will indent with numbers, that will correlate to references at the bottom of each page/article).

This will take some time since I need to dig up the studies/reference we used prior, but I'll keep you posted once we have everything marked up that we currently have now. Additionally, we'll be adding photos to those articles and pages as well in order to decrease the blocks of text, and add insights that many would find helpful in being able to compare/contrast.

I think they are generically helpful, but do not share a species matrix as sub-species can be wildly different than a general species level (ex; there is some community-level aggression of African cichlids and then super aggressive African cichlids).

I can create a general one is you think that would be helpful?

I’ve seen that a few times, normally the snail will give up on the hermit crab shell or the hermit crab will change shells if it gets annoyed enough (make sure to have similar shells in the tank near it). Normally you don’t have to pull the snail off unless it's completely blocking the hermit crab from moving/entering/exiting it's own shell.

Due to how the light can shine into the tank and how it makes any corals or fish inside, do you use a single light fixture or multiple that has different light colorations? This can help make the tank look less overall blue (if you want specific corals to shine) but also allow for other species to still pop when they swim by or move around within the tank. This can include smaller lights such as those that can be hidden underneath the tank's trim, or lights that are even placed inside of the aquarium water under the substrate, between rocks, etc.

What are some of the alternative soil substrates that you have heard of for planted tanks? I know that commonly, organic gardening soil can be used along with root tabs, or you can purchase online other forms of planted tank soil that are known to keep its shape (and more importantly), make sure that you do not have to sift through the dirt to remove excess containments (wood pieces, extra fertilizers added for plants but not safe for aquarium usage).

Has anyone tried to use other methods or substrates for planted tanks that are very similar to soil (such as peat moss with some type of layers or so)?

As the thread states, do you use a single heater (or multiple that are just enough to get the right wattage per gallon of aquarium water), or do you use multiple that can (if a single one went out) keep the wattage well above the gallon requirement to make the water temperature correct?

What does the clean-up crew inside of your tank look like, and how effect are they in making sure that everything is kept in a good clean manner?

Whether it is upgrading your current tank or adding another tank, are you hoping to add a new tank in 2023? Tell us if you are thinking about another tank, and if not, let us know if that could possibly change with a free tank (that isn't broken) near you.

A lot of the time when you are adding the substrate to your new marine tank, you can think of using a specific brand or grain size and then once the tank is fully established, it might not look or be what you are looking for. Other times, you might need to change it in order to have the substrate act as a better buffer when it comes to water parameter issues. Although it might not be ideal, how often have you come across this issue with your own tanks, and do you end up actually changing the substrate around, or do you just add onto the current substrate with whatever you wanted that might be more ideal?

Since chillers can tend to be rather pricey depending on the unit and manufacture you are looking for, where do you find some of the better-used units that aren't just beaten apart or on their last leg for a good decent price? Do you tend to make sure that you go with an online store that might have a warranty in case it is defective, or do you tend to find those selling in the local area that you live in to pick it up from (and make sure that it's either working in person before buying it)?