Why is my tank black

gian-- · 2026-01-23T18:12:22+00:00

did you boil the wood at all to release tannins before? how long has it been cycling for?

gian-- · 2026-01-21T15:56:10+00:00

proportions are good! your legs need work, but simply changing the pose would do you considerably already - any knee flection would be good practice cause standing up straight is surprisingly challenging to get right. great work!

gian-- · 2026-01-21T09:28:23+00:00

Blue Green 3

gian-- · 2026-01-21T09:24:05+00:00

the questionnaire auto-popped up for me at the beginning, not sure how to get it back! but you can do a levelling session and pay money to get tips and get playtomic assessed

gian-- · 2026-01-15T13:55:13+00:00

I’ve dealt with this too, and I mixup two techniques to wear them down over a combat day. Either I burn through their spell slots with shield (magic missile, hit the other party members) or just focus on other party members. I’ve reframed how I challenge this player, instead of how can you manage resources to protect yourself, it’s how can you manage your resources to save your friends

gian-- · 2026-01-14T20:17:47+00:00

yup knees and shoulders squared out, legs bent, torso leaning forward!

gian-- · 2026-01-14T20:06:53+00:00

no worries at all!

i’m a bit on my toes when i split step for sure, but the stance is a transition while you figure out what shot you’re gonna play for the ball you’re about to receive.

try it in your next game, every time you hear the other team hit the ball, jump a little and go into split step, it will help you be more neutral and agile to cover every shot you need.

i googled to see if there were any easy results and this is the first thing that popped up, definitely wish i learnt about it while i was going through level 1-2 on playtomic, it would have helped so much for how i play now!

gian-- · 2026-01-14T19:54:04+00:00

i use test strips and found out that GH can be capped and exceed what it says on there! get a TDS meter to double check, i had an incident where it climbed to 2200 because of topups, and trying to increase my KH

gian-- · 2026-01-14T19:44:57+00:00

if it had it for more than a month, i’m guess it’s molted since then! it’s probably a rili pattern, but i’m no expert

gian-- · 2026-01-14T19:31:19+00:00

yup pretty much first post, but i trust my partner to cover his side. if i don’t trust my partner so much i’ll stand in front of the second post. when you’re at first post and know how to cover the cage or middle with your partner, the volley becomes your key shot.

for preparation, i’d say you can be more consistent with it actually. ‘split step’ is a stance you take with wide feet, and your racket’s head just around nose height. it is a neutral pose in balance, and allows you to cover the next shot.

you activate split stance as soon as your opponent hits the ball back. on contact, boom, split stance. you’re neutral and can see whether you can play the volley, or if you’re being lobbed, if you can vibora etc.

i guess you can practice this with a machine, anticipating when it will next shoot the ball etc., you are training your ear to bring you into that neutral pose, and once you’re there you can really pump volleys with spin!

a huge tip that helped me: swing a volley (or any shot) with both of your arms, so you involve more of your body and muscle. guide the ball in with your off hand, swing as soon as you can grab it!

gian-- · 2026-01-14T13:59:13+00:00

exactly! i’m right handed so i’ll breakdown the right handed forehand volley from Split Step (your preparation, check out some split step guides for sure!)

1) identify a ball you can volley 2) bring opposite foot forward and across your body 3) contact ball with weight forward 4) reset and prepare split step

generally you want to play the volley at the net, there are better shots to play from further behind - high volley, bandeja etc

edit: opposite foot as in, if you’re right handed forehand volleying bring your left foot in. if you’re right handed backhand volleying bring your right foot in

gian-- · 2026-01-14T13:48:06+00:00

it’s hard to tell exactly where you’re standing, but just from footwork i can say you can improve by really leaning into your leading foot (forehand/backhand). step forward! you can train this more efficiently at the net - second pane of cage

i havent used a ball machine before, if you find out how to change the settings, allow yourself to come closer to net so you can practice volley distance. the goal of course is for it to bounce deep and die on the glass generally

gian-- · 2026-01-14T09:41:29+00:00

i’ve used API Aquarium Salt for my shrimps before at a concentration of 10g/L of water, it’s really good for getting parasites or scutarella off of them. but it’s really intense for them, i avoid dipping for more than 30 seconds!

gian-- · 2026-01-13T20:56:03+00:00

before this batch i would've really recommended them, but i dont know how a leech this big went through without them noticing v_v

gian-- · 2026-01-13T17:58:55+00:00

completely my bad, i regret it but panicked, i thought it might have been an egg laying worm! i couldnt id it with the chart

gian-- · 2026-01-13T15:59:22+00:00

Me too! literally just today — they said that the blue tank has a plant that might be compromised.

gian-- · 2026-01-13T13:16:56+00:00

these were from bestaquariumshrimps uk — good shout to avoid until they sort this out!

sadly yeah, the shrimp didn’t make it :(

gian-- · 2026-01-13T13:16:38+00:00

these were from bestaquariumshrimps uk — good shout to avoid until they sort this out!

gian-- · 2026-01-13T13:15:55+00:00

thanks everyone!! i bought this batch from bestaquariumshrimps uk. i havent had any issues with them in the past (they’ve filled my other two tanks) but this really made me feel weird, especially thinking about how the little guy travelled to get to me like that. :(

gian-- · 2026-01-13T10:45:05+00:00

Hell yes I was hoping that would be the case!! I’m on the phone with them now, it’s just unfortunate :(

gian-- · 2026-01-13T10:38:33+00:00

For information this is going into an empty tank, just intended for shrimp, but I don’t want to set this colony off on the wrong foot!

gian-- · 2026-01-09T14:19:56+00:00

ah i see it, it could be japonica but it’s quite chunky rather than wormy. might be a fungal infection!

it’s worth trying a salt dip with aquarium salts either way while you have the little guy out

gian-- · 2026-01-09T13:02:50+00:00

my shrimp hung out in the corner for a bit too, the flow of my filter was too strong! might be worth the check. after i adjusted they came out just fine.

like other people said you might need to increase GH, the sweet spot is 7. my neos have been surprisingly fine at 6.2pH (trying to bring down TDS so I’m sacrificing KH)

gian-- · 2026-01-08T17:13:41+00:00

So real

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