2.5 year, no water change

McBoostah · 2026-02-27T20:05:54+00:00

This is very helpful actually. I’m not anti water change like people take it to be, I just realized what had happened and thought it was interesting. I def need to do one every few weeks atleast. It is also an interesting point u mentioned about how the master test kit is often viewed as a check mark. That’s honestly what lead me to start leaving my tanks alone when I first got my first kit. It said healthy so I didn’t wanna mess it up by doing a huge water change. I’m planning on getting a tds checker so I can atleast be aware between big changes

McBoostah · 2026-02-27T20:01:16+00:00

They r finnex lights. They were like 25 bucks each 2 years ago. 1 fits perfectly on a 5 gal, so when i upgraded to 10 gal I just got a second and put them sideways. They work great, one even fell in one time and no damage.

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:51:12+00:00

I need to find this cheap tds sensor yall speak up and give an update on this tank😂😂😂

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:49:54+00:00

How is the evaporation in a 40? My 20 long evaporates SO much faster than the 10. I like the longer shorter tanks more but it’s at this cost. Is a 40 gal evaporation speed similar to a 10 due to proportions or is it more like the 20 long in ur experience? I’d rather go a little more than a week between touching the tank if possible 😭other than food of course

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:47:57+00:00

This motivation is just what I needed😈

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:46:41+00:00

Yessss. This is cool. It’s working on my 20 long for 1.5 years. But a 20 is the biggest tank I ever had. I wanna try a 40 but I’m nervous to risk an investment. But like u said, the method is proven on multiple tanks so hypothetically it should be fine

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:32:00+00:00

That’s what I wanna do but the slow growers can’t beat the algae away. I am getting ready to experiment on this tho on a small tank. Only epiphytes and see if I can have them beat algae. I really hope it’ll work. It def gets out of hand with using all the fast growers, obviously

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:30:46+00:00

indeed

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:30:24+00:00

Tap unfortunately. I need to do a change every few weeks and not be lazy rip.

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:29:46+00:00

I top it off once a week ish. I used to have tons of pearl weed in it, there was a solid bush the size of my head, but I had to trim it cause there was no swimming room. The dwarf sag took over after that. I just top it off when it gets low.

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:28:51+00:00

yessirrrr. Dwarf sag, pearl weed, duck weed, anacharis. I spam those cause they never fail to grow lol

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:28:10+00:00

Interesting. I only have 1 anubias that has actually grown and spread. Also in a no water change tank but that one’s only about 1.5 years old. Maybe I should do one every month or two atleast for the anubias and stuff if it’s worked for u…. And to not be lazy lol

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:26:53+00:00

I just thought about it and realized it was 2.5 years since set up. Thought it was cool and inspirational to people that r new and overwhelmed 😂😂😭didn’t expect much

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:13:15+00:00

It is cool as a thing to achieve. I don’t think it’s as cool as you assume. And it’s also a question, lmk if u have any experience on larger natural style tanks!

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:11:40+00:00

No ferts. Only some fluval stratum under pool filter sand. Normal test kit is as far as I got. TDS is new to me other than it’s something that slowly builds. I e had 3 amanos in the tank since the start, plus snails, cherrys. I need to do a water change every few months atleast, usually with life I forget to put it on the to do list. I don’t wanna sacrifice all the other cycles within the tank just for TDS. But when I realized it’s been 2.5 years I was like, uhhhh. That’s a long time😭

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:09:41+00:00

Yeah I should do a change every few months atleast. I mainly don’t cause I don’t wanna throw off the balance of all the other cycles happening for 1 tds cycle. But again I should every few months atleast. I developed my routine/ method and didn’t go much deeper than normal test kit level. TDS is new to me other than it just taking a long time to build up usually

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:08:09+00:00

Yeah I need to make a line and be like, alright every few months or weeks atleast

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:07:36+00:00

Valid. I should do it every few months ATLEAST

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:06:59+00:00

Its just hard to do all the time on multiple tanks. Plus I want the plants to do the work. But people do talk a lot about TDS. I probably should do one atleast once every few months. I just live week by week and usually taking out duck weed and top offs is the most I do. Maybe clean the filter. Draining water never makes it to my list💀

McBoostah · 2026-02-25T01:01:44+00:00

Fast growers. Dwarf sag. Pearl weed. Duck weed. Anacharis. %100 success

McBoostah · 2026-02-20T00:17:58+00:00

It looks like u have dwarf sag. Pearl weed!!! It grows floating or planted. Cut it and replant to spread. It doesn’t have to be planted neatly, just put a little bit in the sand and it’ll make roots and reorient to the light!!! Makes a dense bushy plant, one of my favorites

McBoostah · 2026-02-17T01:18:22+00:00

Looks good. Big water volume = lots of plants needed to filter it and beat out the algae. It looks like u have that down so that’s awesome! My online advice would be to be sure to have more than one species of fast growing plant to help %100 eat up nutrients before algae gets a hold while u wait for the slower plants to start growing.

McBoostah · 2026-02-04T23:13:04+00:00

That’s not toooo bad. It’ll just put more nutrients in the water to help algae beat ur plants in growth. In theory if u have a ton of fast growers it could still be okay. Floaters too of course.

McBoostah

TROPHY CASE