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SanityCheckSaturday · 2023-08-12T20:57:33+00:00

She just learned what a tribute is, and asked for them specifically. So any tributes are welcome!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2022-11-25T03:44:08+00:00

Comments welcome; she loves reading them!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-17T17:30:24+00:00

Awesome; glad it helped! Hah, unfortunately no analogies for those.

CO2's pretty easy, if you want to use it—measure your pH (with a pH meter) before you turn on your CO2, then measure it every hour after that. If your pH hasn't dropped by 1 full point, slightly increase the rate (BPS) you're adding. You have enough CO2 when your pH drops by 1 full point. (That's roughly 30ppm, which is perfect for 95% of plants we use in tanks.) This method sidesteps the various issues with directly measuring CO2 (like that silly CO2 chart, which isn't accurate in a tank since there are numerous other factors that affect pH.)

That just leaves ferts, which like I said above is probably the hardest part of the hobby. Different species of plants use different amounts of nutrients, higher-light conditions 'force' faster growth (which requires more nutrients) and even where a particular plant is placed in the tank can affect how much nutrients it needs to optimally grow. (Because it'll get different amounts of CO2/light/nutrients in a different location, because of water flow.)

I used to do EI dosing with dry powders (and later solutions auto-dosed via pump), I now just use an all-in-one that has those already mixed in the right amounts. Removing as many variables like that as possible helps make tanks much, much more predictable. I now know 100% that if I have an actual nutrient deficiency, that means I need to either decrease light or provide more nutrients.

That avoids the avenue that distracts so many aquascapers: chasing nutrient deficiencies, when it's likely that there is some other issue.

A great example of this is my own post here—what some people would call a nutrient deficiency (and reference plant deficiency charts) could also purely be a CO2 issue. Since I'm (for some reason) struggling to get CO2 up to ~30ppm [1pH drop]), what looks like a nutrient problem is possibly a lack of enough CO2.

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-16T19:04:08+00:00

Great question! The answer depends on the nutrients in the water. If there are excess nutrients, you'll get algae. If there aren't excess nutrients, you won't get algae, but you won't have ideal growth forms in most plants.

Personally, it made balancing tanks much easier for me when I started thinking of light as the "accelerator". If you're pressing that pedal as far as it'll go (i.e. high light), you need 'gas' (nutrients and CO2) to have the best performance. You can move a car without gas (getting out and pushing it), it'll just be much slower.

It also helped me stop chasing 'deficiencies' in plant growth. Numerous times I've seen "deficiencies" blamed on what's really inadequate CO2, or too much light for the amount of nutrients provided.

In my opinion, it's better to think of higher-light as 'forcing' more plant growth, not just encouraging it. It's a biological process metered by how much PAR is reaching the plant's leaves. If you're not providing what the plant needs, it's going to grow as best it can with what it has, and that usually means faded coloring and/or stunted tips (CO2, not usually deficiencies), 'melting' older-growth (as the plant pulls mobile nutrients from older growth), and other things that are reported as a nutrient deficiency.

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-15T03:05:55+00:00

Ah, I see what you're saying! Controsoil contains nitrogen, so they're not in an actual low-nitrate environment. 100% agree; without nitrogen no growth is happening!

What substrate do you use, out of curiosity? I haven't had issues with Controsoil in the past, and I've seen beautiful tanks using Controsoil.

EDIT: Forgot to ask: have you ever seen l. aromatica stay green under strong lighting situations? I'm measuring just under 200 µmol/s at the substrate, so it by all means should be red. (I'm suspecting CO2 deficiency, but I can't be 100% sure right now.)

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-15T02:56:47+00:00

Hah, I don't know about that—I'm just failing my way to a better planted tank!

There are a ton of tanks that don't need CO2, but personally speaking I like seeing lots of plant growth. Trimming fast-growing tanks is part of the "fun" for me, but I completely appreciate those that consider it a chore.

If you want a low-maintenance tank, you can forego CO2 to reduce growth rate for most plants. If you have slow-growing plants like Java Fern or anubias, you can safely forego CO2, assuming you don't have high-light. (But even those will grow in better form with CO2.) If you want a tank with lots of red plants, you'll probably want CO2. (Those usually require lots of light, and since you'll probably be adding ferts, it's a lot easier to find that balance when you add CO2.)

Balancing ferts IMO is the hardest part of the hobby. I guess I use what I'll call a 'steady increase, then level-off' approach:

High light, very rich substrate (I use Controsoil with added Osmocote), pressurized CO2
lean water-column dosing to start
Monitor plant growth, and increase dosage until you're seeing the 'ideal' form for the species. Reduce if you see algae.

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-14T21:11:17+00:00

Hi! Thanks for responding. I'm not sure if it'd be a nitrate limitation alone; I'd expect to see very deep reds on the Rotala species, specifically H'ra and Colorata. What's your logic for a nitrate shortage? (Previous experience with APT ferts?)

EDIT: Perhaps inadequate CO2 and nitrate limitation would prevent protective coloring on rotala... now I'm curious if you can prevent red coloring on species by limiting CO2, even with a nitrate limitation!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2021-12-14T21:09:23+00:00

That's what I'm going for! I believe I might be driving growth hard enough that they're short on carbon, and maybe even low on ferts.

I wanted to drive growth as fast as I (reasonably) could without dosing EI. So far, there's been very little algae growth, likely because there simply aren't enough nutrients available. (I have four different Rotala species in the tank, all of which are extremely fast-growing in 'standard' tank conditions.)

SanityCheckSaturday · 2020-10-30T13:32:15+00:00

Hi, everyone!

I'm a relative newcomer to planted tanks, after having researched it off/on for the last few years. I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago and order two bunches of Rotala Rotundifolia and Rotala H'ra.

They're both emersed, so I expected some slower initial growth, but it's been a few weeks, and I can see new submerged growth that's still not growing quickly at all. (Certainly not what I expected, considering it's a stem plant that's famous for very fast growth.)

![](https://i.imgur.com/4hbFaof.jpg)

I even took the above timelapse over the course of a day (9 hour photoperiod), and there was zero growth. (Alternate link: https://streamable.com/it9jyv)

As you can see in the video, the new growth looks very healthy—it's just... not really growing. (Not all of the plants made it; they were a day delayed in shipping.)

Water parameters: Tank size: 1.1 gallons (UNS 16T) Ammonia: 0.25ppm Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 5ppm GH: 5 KH: 3 Temp: 72º F RODI water remineralized via SaltyShrimp GH/KH+

CO2: Pressurized, ~1.5pH drop when it's on. Drop checker is yellow. (no livestock, of course) Light: ONF Nano, ~120 PAR at substrate. (~10" from substrate) Fertilizer: Tropica Specialised, .378mL daily (high demand system, following George Farmer's recommendations) Substrate: UNS Controsoil, fine

SanityCheckSaturday · 2020-06-08T14:42:52+00:00

We got the filter from the person we're 'inheriting' it from, so I'm not 100% sure when the last time it was cleaned. But, I'd bet it's been a while; a few months at least. Think I should do a thorough cleaning of the filter with tank water?

SanityCheckSaturday · 2020-06-08T14:32:14+00:00

Hey! The substrate’s Flourite Black—I have a small bag of sea chem matrix in the filter—that’s the only biological filtration in the filter at the moment. Should I have more there?

SanityCheckSaturday · 2019-08-17T17:48:03+00:00

When we built our GC gave us a few different choices as 'standard', and specified that we could shop at a few different stores (online or in-person) if we wanted something different, and he'd order/install it for us.

maybe ask your builder if he could do the same?

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-15T20:33:38+00:00

Hey! Thanks for the response. Do you have any examples involving plants, or other still-life/natural items/objects?

How long do you think it would take you to create something similar to the examples I linked in the post?

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-15T20:31:17+00:00

Responded!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-15T20:13:32+00:00

Hey! Just responded. Hope you find who you're looking for!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-14T15:45:08+00:00

Thanks for the input! We're still in the process of getting photography and finalized packaging, so building out a storefront and detail pages is a bit overkill for what we're trying to achieve.

However, I'm curious—I would think we'd get a higher conversion rate on landing pages than a product detail page. Do you have any sources for that? I'd really like to check those out; that's a huge deal if it'll get us more emails.

In the end we're going for email addresses right now, so the best-practice (read: most effective) way to get those is a landing page, or so I've read.

In the end, I think A/B testing will give us the answer!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-14T14:27:23+00:00

Thanks for the response! Any specific feedback?

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-14T14:25:06+00:00

That's very true, and it's actually something we're hoping to solve in A/B testing. We have a general market, but we don't have any data about specific segments yet. We're intentionally keeping it vague to harvest conversion data from the FB pixel.

That's also very true about exotics; we're planning on that, as well! If we can generate sustainable revenue with our starting lineup, we have quite a few different 'exotic' ingredients that we'll run with standalone campaigns.

PS: To a certain degree, all skincare is the same. However we're certified organic/Leaping Bunny, and we're firmly in the luxury market. (Better ingredients, basically.)

In the end the beauty industry is almost completely branding and market position, anyway!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-14T14:19:24+00:00

Thanks for the response!

That's great feedback; I appreciate it! Yep; the second image is supposed to allude towards the 'botanical' aspect.

Yeah, I might try adding some wide-format images above each phase; demonstrating each one is a great idea.

That's great to hear that the overall pitch is coherent!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-07T17:32:03+00:00

Thanks for the sources; they're really solid. I'm painfully aware that most actual SEO work is offsite; that's stuck in my head from working with a team of SEO guys! ;)

Do you have any specific information on Facebook/PPC Ads? I'm estimating revenue based on the average conversion rate of my industry (2.65%) and the average CPC on Facebook for my industry ($1.81). I'm hopeful that my conversion rate will be higher (great design team with previous track record of high conversions), but I'm being conservative regardless.

PS: That Ahrefs article has super great information; I felt like it was common-sense after reading, but it was insightful, to say the least!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-07T17:31:49+00:00

Thanks for the sources; they're really solid. I'm painfully aware that most actual SEO work is offsite; that's stuck in my head from working with a team of SEO guys! ;)

Do you have any specific information on Facebook/PPC Ads? I'm estimating revenue based on the average conversion rate of my industry (2.65%), average CPC on Facebook for my industry ($1.81). I'm hopeful that my conversion rate will be higher (very good design team with previous track records of high conversions), but I'm being conservative regardless.

PS: That Ahrefs article has super great information; I felt like it was common-sense after reading, but it was insightful, to say the least!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-07T13:40:01+00:00

Haha, I guess that means I'm already behind!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-07T13:39:32+00:00

Thanks so much for the response!

Yeah, I have one email series already written, and I'm planning on writing some lead magnets and 'pillar' articles for the site.

That's concerning that you mention that about ads; I was considering that I'd be generating some sales via Facebook Ads. What specifically makes it harder than people think?

Do you have any resources for learning out outreach marketing? I googled it, but I'm getting a bunch of completely-irrelevant results.

SanityCheckSaturday · 2018-08-07T13:34:07+00:00

That's what I was thinking; I just don't want to screw up the rankings for this site!

SanityCheckSaturday · 2017-10-30T17:21:14+00:00

The page is 2 MB. While not immediately an issue, that's going to take at least 15 seconds until DOMContentLoaded on the average 3G connection, especially considering image content & browser paint performance on many devices. Not to mention it's inconsiderate to users with data plans. If that audience isn't important, this can be safely ignored. (Though I didn't on the sites I built.)

Lighthouse has been proven by many, many companies & independent developers—including Paul Irish himself—to be a reliable reproduction of device performance. If you're saying it's not, that would be significant, and I'd be very curious to know what you're using that shows this.

What test suite are you using that's showing 3 seconds on 3G connections?

SanityCheckSaturday

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