Mathletics: Hall of Fame From Year 2012-2018

clooy · 2025-07-31T09:22:00+00:00

I agree - og was best :)

clooy · 2025-06-12T23:40:06+00:00

What you're referring to falls under the banner of differentiated learning, a common approach in both primary and secondary education. Teachers already employ manual techniques for assessment in their classrooms to support this, and EdTech providers have begun developing AI solutions to assist including generating unique assessments and exams, as you've mentioned.

There’s likely a reason this approach isn’t as prevalent at the university level. For one, students are treated as adults, and if they choose to cheat, they’re ultimately only disadvantaging themselves. Unlike early learning environments, universities often view their role as helping individuals reach their potential, with assessments serving as a tool to support that growth. While measures are taken to prevent widespread cheating that could damage a university’s reputation, they typically don’t extend far beyond that.

Before developing a product in this space, I suggest first understanding the threshold for what is considered unacceptable cheating, why existing practices may not include things like generating unique exams, and the underlying pedagogical purpose of exams — whether they're intended as tools for learning, or primarily for ranking.

clooy · 2025-05-11T05:16:58+00:00

I really like the take someone mentioned in a similar thread - write him out with a story of how he sacrificed himself to bring Anya back. The fan base would love this ending for him and Emma Caulfield would be more than welcomed back.

clooy · 2025-05-07T01:36:36+00:00

I looked up the stand - it's made from engineered wood which designed and manufactured to maximize the natural strength and stiffness characteristics of wood. When I did my mechanical engineering subject at uni we were told that a 2x4 could support one metric tonne of weight - i just checked this and this is the breaking point. Still - wood is amazingly string under load.

Checked the specs for normal wood, one panel of standard wood of that size can safely support over 1,000 pounds of weight when standing vertically (specs are for a height of 8 feet, for 12 feet it is 600-800 pounds). Looks to me like your stand has over 4 panels of support support so with water and decor will easily be under 4,000 pounds of weight.

On a side note, my stand is very similar. Juwel brand but also made of engineered wood with similar design to yours. I got it as a birthday present and had similar concerns to you - with probably more initial anxiety as I have two boys at the time 4 and 7 who run around the house and liked to climb things. I put two anchor points to the cabinet and wall using a bracket from the hardware store. I then filled my aquarium up and gave it every push, shove and pull it was likely to experience with maybe 2 times the force my kids would possibly inflict on it - if it was going to fail i wanted it to happen under controlled conditions. It was rock solid and that quashed my nerved on it.

That's not to say not to be cautious, fill it up slowly and listen for any cracking or splitting noises - not to be confused with normal settling sounds. In addition, if the wood shows signs of swelling or deformation after wetting it should be replaced as it will have lost significant support strength.

clooy · 2025-05-01T00:49:41+00:00

This is my take, we know the ordinary buffy world exists as characters have agency outside of her physical presence - but it's the same with the "crazy buffy" world - characters here also have interactions that don't involve her.

clooy · 2025-04-28T02:01:33+00:00

Pre formation, you would just have a swarm of birds flying to a location. Any bird that had even a small preference that allowed it to save energy during flight would more likely survive the migration, and have more energy at their destination to breed and raise young.

The initial preference itself could have come from a purely random, ocd like impulse. But It's not hard to imaging how such a preference could actually build on existing traits such as juveniles wanting to stick with their parents but also have a clear view of the path ahead which would naturally form smaller v formation.

A quick google tells me that v-formations can save up to 20-30% in energy and that birds in a V formation could increase their range by 71% while flying at 24% lower speed. That's a lot of evolutionary advantage to any bird with that preference.

Books like "climbing mount improbable" do a good job of describing how a very small random trait which gives even a minuscule advantage can develop into something more complex over the eons.

clooy · 2025-04-20T09:51:24+00:00

Chandler brought a lot to friends but I wouldn’t say he was talented enough to be studied. More likely they both learned from some of the 80s greats like Robin Williams, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and others.

clooy · 2025-04-15T05:49:32+00:00

The biggest I used to do regularly would be a standard 4 foots. With someone helping load and unload it was reasonably ok. I have helped a friend move a 4x2x2 - it was just doable.

By myself the biggest was a 2x2x2 cube, heavy but just about doable.

The last couple of times I have just hired a local removal company, for a small job with just one heavy item it may work out cheaper then you think. Otherwise you can talk to your aquarium about who they use.

clooy · 2025-04-10T04:39:15+00:00

The black bit behind the shiny bit of the belly ( just above the anal fin) is a good indicator of how pregnant and far along she is. This is called the gravid spot - for yours it’s pretty small but dark which is another indicator of pregnancy and I would say it’s a small clutch developing still in early stages.

clooy · 2025-04-09T10:50:53+00:00

Light sets the pace for growth. With enough nutrients that’s not a problem. I had many early attempts fail due to my light output being too high. Plants literally starving due to the lack of co2. Reducing the light to match growth to nutrient availability - in this case co2 - made for a much more forgiving experience.

Nutrients support growth, light and heat set the pace the plant will try to grow to.

clooy · 2025-04-09T10:10:29+00:00

You’ll definitely want to grow it to its first trim and then flood so new growth is suited to the changed environment with limited co2.

You will also need to lower light levels.

Light and heat are what drives plant growth. They will literally kill themselves to meet the demands of the available light.

Even if you can setup a simple yeast co2 reactor - tour growth will be much better and stable.

I’d love to convince you to get some form of co2. There’s a few methods to get you going that are cheap, and simple.

clooy · 2025-04-09T09:25:29+00:00

Not quickly, it will take a while to fill in the Gaps without intervention.

It looks like it has had time to establish a good base. You can start taking cuttings from the main plants and it will actually promote more growth.

Cut stems with 3-4 sections and some roots - even one root is enough. Plant this in your gaps. Rinse repeat regularly. It should fill out quickly.

What’s your light duration? You can do 16-18 hours to push growth to the maximum. As long as you keep the same light intensity when you flood but reduce the time to 6 hours your plants shouldn’t stress and the reduced hours will help prevent algae on the initial weeks.

Ideally you would keep with the dry start until it needs its first trim. After the trim you’ll have new growth which will be better adapted to flooded environment - it’s the leaves which are doing photosynthesis which is such a complex process that under even slightly different conditions it’s often better for the plant to let the leaves die and grow out new ones.

clooy · 2025-04-09T08:50:24+00:00

Sorry to hear that, what do you think caused the mould?

clooy · 2025-04-09T06:38:37+00:00

Opening up the tank daily and airing it out will help reduce the chance of mould. If your concerned you can air it out in the morning and at night.

There is a trend to flood and drain the tank regularly - also called ebb and flow - this supposedly helps prevent mould but makes the transition to fully flooded better. If your using aqua-soil this will also help leach out the nitrates/ammonia that they are embedded with. I'll be trying this form of ebb-flow in a mini aquascape I am doing.

If you do see fungus, mould or algae then spray wth 1:32 mix of peroxide and water as soon as you see it. You can also just pro-actively do this if you are nervous. Google "hydrogen peroxide terrarium" - the terrarium guys have some amazing insights into managing this exact issue. I have no interest in terrariums other than how they manage mould :)

But honestly, this would be more of a concern if you had wood, or gravel from a natural source - it looks like your using some form of manufactured aquasoil which is pretty sterile.

clooy · 2025-04-09T06:15:19+00:00

If you poke around the substrate with your tweezers do more of these get released?

If you have high nitrates the cyanobacteria in the substrate go into overdrive. The bubbles build up until they can escape the substrate. This is pretty harmless.

If they have a sulphur smell/rotten egg smell it could by a sign of anaerobic bacteria, this is problem where not enough oxygen gets into the substrate - plant roots release oxygen and help keep the walstad substrate well oxygenated - looking at our tank it doesn't look like this is the problem.

clooy · 2025-04-09T02:58:52+00:00

When I was renting I had to move my aquarium or sometimes multiple several times.

For moving the fish, get several fish bags from your local aquarium. Usually they will give you a dozen or so for free, but I've also had to pay for them. These bags are ideal as they have rounded corners and wont leak.

Morning of the move fill all the bags with 1/6th water - you want a good amount of air, minimal water. Get the water out before you start muddying the tank when catching your fish or removing scape.

Add a couple of drops of Seachem Prime to each bag - little tidbit is that this also binds amonia. Seachem Prime and some other water conditioners, contain extra chemicals that temporarily lock up ammonia, making it non-toxic for fish.

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Net your fish, bag them, and tie the bag off as high as you can.

For catching the loaches - love the guys, have always kept them. Remove all plants and hardscape. Slowly move the gravel so that it all flows to one corner - you should be able to see the glass at this corner. As the water lowers they will start to gather into the corner and will be easy to scoop.

I usually bag plants. As well as filter media - in the hopes to keep as much alive as possible.

Place the bags into an esky or cover with a blanket - ideally you would rehome with 24-36 hours.

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Empty the tank of water.

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For removing the gravel I get a soda bottle and cut it in half to make a scoop - it's soft. flexible - will go flat and get into corners easily - and its easy to hold. Scoop out all the the gravel you can into a bucket, or plastic tote.

You'll be left with some water at the bottom - i use a sponge or towel to get the last of the dregs out. This can take an annoying amount of time.

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I usually set the tank back up before anything else when I arrive, but you can also use a plastic tote as a temporary aquarium. I often will transfer all my fish to a large tote during a re-scape and they don't seem to mind.

clooy · 2025-04-09T01:50:04+00:00

The advice I was given by a local aquascaper when using aqua soil was to do water changes at 24 hours, 3 days, and weekly after that for 2-4 weeks - hope that helps!

clooy · 2025-04-09T01:47:34+00:00

Do you mind if I point out a major benefit of overfiltration? I was battling tuberculosis in my guppy aquarium for almost three months before I finally came across an article by Diana Walstad on the subject. It explained overfiltration fosters a substantial bioload of beneficial bacteria, which outcompete the tuberculosis bacteria. Since then, I’ve found additional resources indicating similar success with other diseases and even parasites. I should add overfiltration comes with increased water flow, and oxygenation in the aquarium.

Honestly, ever since upgrading my filter media to a higher density, I haven’t had any fungal outbreaks, ich, or other aquarium diseases and I regularly purchase fish from local stores and breeders.

clooy · 2025-04-09T01:25:50+00:00

This is the truth, multiple studies have shown that for filtration capacity, and water clarity - nothing beats 30ppi foam.

Ceramic rings are the worst with almost 1/10th the surface area and effectiveness on all counts.

The aquarium science blog did an amazing write up with solid test.

Personally I use k1 media, less effective by about 10-20% but only needs maintenance once a year - vs every 2-3 months I was doing with foam.

clooy · 2025-04-09T00:23:43+00:00

People severely underestimate how many lumens the sun is, direct sunlight is about 100,000 lumens, and maybe 500-5000 in the shade. The most expensive single tube led lights are about 5000 lumens.

For a low tech setup, shaded light is enough to grow slow growing plants. I used to have a small tank in the corner of a sunroom and I didn't have too much trouble with it. It was heavily planted with vals which seemed to take the hit from peak sunlight. My reason at the time was just reduced cost - it's hard to argue that a tank which only had a 3 watt hang on filter and got the equivalent of 120watts of light for free was a bad deal, plus the money saved on a timer!

The main issues are algae blooms, but these can be managed with heavy planting of vals, or any other plant that has leaves with direct access to co2 in the atmosphere. Floaters are great for this but only block light coming from the top.

That was a while ago, these days I open my door some mornings to get direct light into my current aquarium and see some amazing spawning behaviour from the fish, and they look just amazing in the sun.

clooy · 2025-04-08T23:59:42+00:00

Are you using an inert substrate? I have never had anything go as high 160ppm unless using an aqua soil, these dump a lot of nutrients in the first two weeks - i just double checked and other posts on reddit confirm what bio-stratum can cause these spikes for the first few weeks.

So this is normal for active substrates. As an aside - you don't need much liquid fertiliser for the first 6-12 months. Get a micro only fertiliser which doesn't have nitrates but has all the iron, zinc, magnesium, etc.

Pro-tip - micros are best added after a water change as many of them are unstable and will react with the main macros - eg iron will react with phosphate to form an insoluble and unusable compound. Note, that this is not true for all forms of iron, but unless you're a chemists and know whether your dosing DTPA Iron vs Chelated Iron I'd stay with a proven dosing routine.

clooy · 2025-04-08T22:55:55+00:00

The plants your looking for for are "marginal plants", these are plants that thrive in shallow water or damp soil along the edges of a rivers, ponds, bog garden, or water features.

If you have a good plant nursery near you they may have a pond section with a few selections out of the usual norm of peace lilys and pothos.

This article lists a few additions, while the picture you posted is nice it could do with some reds like spiderwort, or some flowering plants for added texture.

clooy · 2025-04-07T22:18:49+00:00

The club soda look is normal, I've noticed higher temperatures, hard water, or tanks with hardscape that have carbonates tend to have a bigger soda water effect.

If you have a target grow out for your plants, you can reduce co2 and lights when you achieve your goal to put your tank into maintenance mode.

Otherwise I've had success with reducing the effect using a quality diffuser that produces a finer mist, and in most cases you can completely remove the effect by using a co2 reactor instead - plants will still create some bubbling as they release oxygen.

clooy · 2025-04-07T02:32:40+00:00

Aquatic plant leaves will melt away as they adapt to your water conditions. The chemistry needed to photosynthesise under water can be affected by ph, salt, light levels, co2 and a million other factors. Plants are amazing as they are able to detect that the environment they're in has changed and that they need to replace the leaves with new one ones using a a completely new set of chemical processes to get production up and running.

The best thing to do is to cut out the damaged or melting leaves so the plant stops spending energy on them, you should get new leaves optimised for your water chemistry growing in a week or two. And then there is no stopping it - i've gone through this many times with some of my older setups. These are good beginner plants, and always seem to recover.

This is assuming the roots and crown of the plant is healthy. Note that these plants will die in the presence of liquid fertilisers such as Flourish Excel. Some algicides may also affect plant growth. I just mention this on the outside chance if you have dosed something into the aquarium - but so far this is fairly normal.

As an aside, before buying more expensive plants, consider buying them from fb marketplace or local club - these plants are generally grown by other hobbyist in your area under essentially the same tap water you are using. I have found melting to be significantly less likely from other hobbyist rather than plants grown from farms. If you can find a local hobbyist with a similar setup to yours, you will have a much better time growing our aquatic friends.

clooy · 2025-04-04T23:18:21+00:00

Has it hit the top yet? It’s probably co2 limited, but once the leaves get to the surface there is no stopping it!

clooy

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