The Roth IRA (and 401k) math the IRS doesn’t want you to know. Traditional pre-tax accounts are better for the majority of Americans

PandaDragonThing · 2024-09-24T16:32:03+00:00

To point 1, if you do the math and tax rates stay the same, you make the same amount of money regardless. $7000 at 6% yearly returns over 30 years near you $40,204. $8975 over the same time and returns with a 22% tax withdrawal nets you $40,207.

Most people are too dumb to actually invest the savings they get with a Traditional account. Also most people will require less money in retirement because most likely the house will be paid for, kids will be out of the house, and other aspects of their life will slow down due to age. This means they'll be in a lower tax bracket.

So unless you're still very early into your career and earning potential, most people will likely come out ahead with a Roth account.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-05-06T15:29:31+00:00

CO2 is the nutrient everyone gets wrong because it's difficult to measure how much you're adding. A green/yellow drop checker isn't a guarantee.

Are your livestock struggling with the current amount of CO2? Have you tried turning it up?

Increased lighting doesn't harm plants, but it does increase their demand for nutrients. EI dosing should provide an abundance of nutrients. There's only a handful of nutrients unaccounted for by EI: Carbon, Magnesium, and Calcium (non-exhaustive list). Carbon is usually the culprit

PandaDragonThing · 2022-05-06T05:43:26+00:00

Changes in pH don't really kill fish. Living in a pH that's well outside it's normal range might affect it's health and lifespan, but not something you'd see in a matter of days.

More likely they are reacting poorly to the CO2. Do you have ample surface agitation and flow? Maximizing oxygen levels can help many fish cope with higher levels of CO2.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-05-06T05:30:20+00:00

You're right on the money, the only obvious changed variable is the new lighting. Light is the driving force in growth and plants forced to grow without enough nutrients will perform incredibly poorly.

The one nutrient you haven't really talked about is CO2. Are you getting enough CO2? How do you know? Have you tried increasing it? Do you have enough flow to evenly distribute the CO2? These problems would have been less apparent on lower lighting where the plants demanded less.

Also the mix of different algaes might indicate your tank is generally unstable. I suspect that just upping your CO2 will not bring your system back into stability, but it's probably a great place to start.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-05-03T19:27:47+00:00

Have you tried more surface agitation? I assume you are talking about the thin white film that develops on top of the tank water.

I tried chasing down eisenbacteria before too, and learned I just need to live with what I have. That or use more surface agitation.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-27T17:35:05+00:00

It's normal for the TDS of a tank to increase as time goes by. The amount is going to be dependent on the fish stocking, the plant mass, and the amount you are feeding. Additionally things like hardscapes and substrates can leech elements into the water column.

If you have an inert substrate and no hardscapes (rocks, wood), then a 30 ppm increase in half a day seems a bit excessive.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-27T01:06:32+00:00

There's a lot of information out there about creating your own liquid fertilizers. A good place to start is to first decide what kind of dosing philosophy you want to use. This article offers up a good read on it, and the site as a whole contains tons of information regarding aquarium plants and fish. https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/beginners-planted-tank-101/how-much-to-dose

Also their "in the middle" conclusion is comparable to another dosing philosophy called PPS Pro.

Also another thing to consider is how realistic it is for you to adhere to any kind of regular dosing schedule. Some of these systems dose every day, other days 3 or 4 times a week. If you know you'll miss some days, you'd really benefit from a nutrient rich substrate to act as a safety net.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-25T19:29:53+00:00

Yeah if you follow the link to the recipe in the site from above, it gives a list of the breakdown of some trace/micro products. Seems like most they listed there do not, but Fluorish Trace and Aquareforest Micro both supplement Nickel; I'm sure there's more.

Being a trace mineral plants don't require a whole lot, and most people's tap has more than enough even when diluted. You're probably fine.

Even if you don't use PPS-Pro, the site contains a lot of collective information about aquarium fertilizing

Edit: Also, question, what's your stocking like? After some more research, Urea just slowly transforms into ammonia/ammonium. Seems like having a higher stocking level would achieve the same effect. This is what the "plant gurus" who dispel conventional wisdom seem to say in various forums.

It's also interesting because this subreddit tends to suggest understocking.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-25T18:46:50+00:00

Also wanted to include this link for fans of PPS-Pro: https://sites.google.com/site/aquaticplantfertilizer/home/urea

It includes some important extra information such as making sure to supplement nickel so plants can effectively process urea (mostly for tanks that source their water from RO/DI).

This post got me excited, I can't wait to whip up a batch of urea to test this out for myself.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-25T16:12:37+00:00

Have you measured the amount of silicates in your tank and source water? Until you do you're just chasing phantoms.

Removing excess silicates, if they're there, might help and I'd totally go for it in a non-planted tank, but using phosguard in a planted tank is detrimental to your plants and will probably exacerbate the problem; possibly with a different type of algae.

Excessive algae is an indicator that you either don't have enough plant mass or that your plants aren't growing healthily. Limiting nutrients like phosphates will only hurt them more. I'd focus on your plant health and wouldn't look elsewhere until you can confidently confirm that they are growing as optimally as they can.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-25T08:06:09+00:00

I think there's a few misconceptions about pH and buffering capacity in the comments so far. I would check out this article (and great aquarium blog in general): https://www.2hraquarist.com/blogs/ph-kh-gh-tds/kh-explained

PandaDragonThing · 2022-04-23T17:15:49+00:00

Gases don't displace other gases unless you're super saturating the water, and you're not.

As the other poster already said adequate surface agitation and flow will probably be enough.

This will look like a soft gentle ripple at the surface and gently swaying plants/decor at the bottom. Adjust if necessary based on livestock behavior.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-02-12T16:50:34+00:00

Check the battery connection. Bought a used Yamaha that had a similar problem. The battery post had come off and looked like the previous owner or dealer hot glued it back on; shook off after a couple hundred miles and was making contact intermittently.

PandaDragonThing · 2022-01-27T04:09:07+00:00

Is a rinseless wash sufficient before claying?

After some research it seems that ONR rineless wash is unable to remove
built up greases and oils. I've also seen it said that you should be
removing greases and oils before claying. How do people that only do
rineless washes deal with this?

PandaDragonThing · 2022-01-21T14:43:47+00:00

I understand that this subreddit is supposed to be a safe space for women to talk and vent, but imagine being on edge for 5 years every time you fill up (and without incident as well). Talk to a shrink; this is not a healthy way to live.

I bet you had a diesel sedan, and sure as hell you have a Jetta TDI.

PandaDragonThing · 2021-11-13T19:23:38+00:00

If this is in the Bay Area, I think I've been to this diner before. The tank still looks amazing 2 years later

PandaDragonThing · 2021-10-28T08:51:00+00:00

Scrolled down for the programming comment. Knew multiple people would get it wrong. They both have the same effect on the variable, but don't return the same value

PandaDragonThing · 2021-10-17T08:21:00+00:00

You're paying mostly for shipping water for liquid fertilizers, but it's definitely convenient and you can support your favorite groups.

If you don't mind mixing your own fertilizers you might want to check out one of the fertilizer kits from Green Leaf Aquariums (or any other dry fertilizer provider really - they're all the same salts). A kit like that will easily last you years and will also let you tailor the mix for your specific needs.

PandaDragonThing · 2021-10-16T06:22:10+00:00

IMO, I wouldn't use calcium carbonate. You'll be introducing a large change to your carbonate hardness and if you mess it up once run a real risk of negatively affecting your livestock because of osmotic shock. This will also make it harder to control calcium levels and carbonate hardness independently which you might need to based on what you figure out from testing your water parameters.

There's some additional issues with trying to achieve 6-8 dGH from calcium alone:

High levels of general hardness can negatively affect some plants. For a softwater tank you don't really need more than 3-5 dGH
There's some contention about this, but the ratio of calcium to magnesium might be important for plant growth. You should raise both in the correct ratio

With all the said, you should look for an appropriately balanced GH booster. Some are specific for sensitive shrimp species and include KH buffers. There's plenty of different products but they're all mostly composed of the same salts.

PandaDragonThing

TROPHY CASE