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Thanks for the likes and comments. I'll try for some better photos when I get a chance but 10 month old daughter taking up lots of my time! Need to clean the glass and get rid of some of the snails... Plants: Background left to right; Amazon sword (will probably pull these in time but...

Just realised it's been 3 months since I planted and no update. Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

Snake oil in bottles... this hobby is full of it.

Generally (and I do mean generally), hobbyists cycling their tanks want to build an effective bio filter as quickly as possible so that they can get on with stocking their tank. Fishless cycling with an added ammonia source has been proven time and again as a reliable method of doing this...

The purpose of raising the pH and adding buffering capacity to the water is to safe-guard against bio-acidification caused by nitrate spikes during the cycle that can crash the pH of soft acidic water below the threshold where nitrospira sp. and nitrosoma sp. bacteria will multiply and be active.

This is just not true and in no way supported by the evidence of hundreds of successful fishless cycles. I can point you to dozens of cases of people raising their pH to 8 to cycle then dropping down to 6.5 with a 100% water change after the cycle completes. The tank cycled at pH 8 will still...

The issue is a cycling tank will generate spikes of nitrite and nitrate. If your water is pretty soft and acidic to start with, these spikes can cause the pH to crash and stall the development of nitrospira bacteria (the ones that eat nitrite and turn it into nitrate) Optimum pH range for the...

nomnomnomnomn

Used one on my last marine tank - loud but great ability to control flow and create waves.

no - was just looking at it as an option. Trying to stay low-tech for my new tank if possible. From reading the instructions the interval just sets the frequency of the pump delivering. If you set it to 1 it will deliver every day, so two pumps set to one will both deliver every day. Set the...

I was wondering this as well - from my reading of the instructions it may not be possible. Try setting one pump to interval 2 and one to interval 3 - this at least should get it dosing on different days

Issue....

Quick update. Picked up some dennerle quartz substrate cheap from amazon (£7.35 a bag) Mixed a bag of original aqua soil with John innes no. 3 about 50/50. Laid down a good layer of soil, put some greenhouse shading on top and capped with the quartz gravel. Flooding now. Will be letting...

Yup Aip - hot soldering iron for about 30 secs

I used to spend a lot of time over at ultimate reef when I was going through my salty phase - http://www.ultimatereef.net/ probably the most comprehensive resource around.

Just noticed this; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dennerle-Crystal-Quartz-Gravel-Brown/dp/B001N03Q20#productDetails Click the white option, 10kg bags are £7.35 each - quite a saving. Just ordered 20kg for £14.70 delivered!

I have an old lab grade mercury thermometer - it makes me nervous having it around. Mercury is very very nasty stuff when it gets out. I'd go for a spirit based one - brewing supply websites should be able to sell you one. They're about 30cm long which makes the scale less fine than the titchy...

I guess it's just Aquaone speak as it's a larger version of their other Aquanano style tanks. Little torn as to whether to pull the back out and have the extra footprint for DT and put a canister on it. Can't quite bring myself to do it as it's my first ever new new tank. Maybe for the rescape...

So, took a good fews years off planted tanks. Went salty for a couple of years and then stopped keeping tanks for a bit. Trying to resist going high tech again as my last planted tank was a salad factory! So here's the new tank; Scape is a big old chunk of bogwood from my old setup and some...

I've bred these successfully in the softest water imaginable and kept them with no problems.

The complete opposite of my water down here in Cornwall. Will be interesting to see how a similar setup works on my water...

this is a good resource - http://www.celestialpearldanio.com/forum

@Akwaskape What are your local water params out of the tap? Soft/Hard?

This is bad advice - rams don't do well in a trio at all; the third wheel, whether male or female will quickly get bullied to death.

Just gonna say wow. I'm just getting my head round a new low-tech tank I'm planning and this is exactly the kind of inspiration I needed.

I found CPDs (celestial pearl danios, galaxy rasbora is a misnomer) pretty easy to breed. Set up your planted tank and get a big initial shoal, 4 or 5 males and 7 or 8 females. Feed them up and make them happy. Meanwhile set up a little 15-30l tank with a mass of java moss in it. Take your...

Get some elbow joints and set up a spray bar on the back wall or the side glass. It'll help even out the flow loads. I'm just embarking on a similar mission on the 80cm 130L version of this tank.

I love the Ring Wraiths.... sorry I mean fish.

So, I'm starting out again after a small interlude of no tanks. I've just picked up an 80cm Aqua Nano 130L and it came with a nondescript LED fixture. The diodes have the name Niko on them... so I did some googling. There are 56 diodes in a single strip down the middle of the fixture which...

Is there not enough room for the heater and the atomizer on the outflow, this is how I have mine? The problem with using the heater on the inlet is all the gunk gets caught in it which can lead to heater failures. If you must use it like this be sure to clean out the heater regularly. Sent...

it's just the noise of the co2 pushing through the ceramic. its normal.

mineralize your own soil.

you don't really need to reduce the flow on the 2213, its perfect for that tank size. If you want to tweak it a little you can use a set of double taps and just close one off slightly. I do this when I have fry growing on in the tank (and sponge on the intake)

i use an eheim 2213 classic.

I'd say your basic hygiene routine when doing any job with a risk of picking up bugs. Wash your hands and arms with hot water and plenty of soap. There are alcohol gels for the more OCD among us. Avoid working in the tank if you have cuts, sores open wounds on your hands or arms. For the more...

The whole point of EI is that you provide substantially more of everything than the plants could possibly need. I don't think over-filteration would impact on dosing at all.

In my experience it makes no difference. I think a lot of people clean out their filters a lot more often than they need to. The filter manufacturers have done a good job in spreading the myth that it needs to be done all the time and that we need to buy new media each time. Mine go months...

Over-filteration is more a side effect of wanting good flow and turnover in planted tanks. The actual over-filteration has very little impact on the tank eco-system.

Not sure. Just have a bucket of tank water handy to keep it in while you do your cleaning. I guess it would be fine for some time as long as it stays damp. People post mature media to each other to help cycle new tanks.

You have an exemplary maintenance regime already. The bacteria live all over the filter, up the pipes on the glass in the gravel; they just live in higher concentration on the bio media. A large amount still live in the sponge. Purigen and carbon can go wherever they fit. Sponge before...

I'd say that's skating on the edge of overstocked. You'd get away with it as long as your filteration and WC routine is spot on and feeding is kept to the minimum. Another posibility is that you have a disease problem. Especially as you say you had to remove a fish with dropsy. Tetra from the...

You can use either some buckets or even better large plastic containers from the supermarket as a tempoary tank. As long as there is a cycled filter and heater in there - they'll be ok for a few days. A lot of people use those large plastic containers as grow out and breeding tanks. Aqua soil...

I'd be most interested to know how many fish you are stocking. (Before the deaths) When an established tank has nitrite readings and you haven't done anything funky to the filter - it usually points to an overstocking.

Sounds more like moldy food to me. Algae attaches itself firmly to plants, gravel, ornaments or glass (unless its green water). Post a pic and we can tell for sure.

heh this should be posted in the 'from this to this' thread.

Welcome. Good Maidenhead Aquatics in Plymouth and Homeleigh Garden Centre in Launceston is good too. Good luck with your tanks.

Try some silicone spray in the impeller housing. It could just be (most likely is) the new pump running in.

Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation - both great android phones and the android apps market is growing faster than apple in sales and content now. Iphone still has some apps I wish I could get on android but I'm not going to pay the premium to own one with its associated poor signal. Maybe Iphone 5...?

How old is the filter? Impeller and shaft in good clean condition? Always worth cleaning and silicone spraying these and the inside of the impeller housing. Also, what is the filter standing on? Try placing it on a towel to dampen any vibrations going through the bottom.

Re: External filters - help! The flow will be greater with the filter up on the worktop as there is less head (distance travelled vertically). I see no problem with placing a filter like that. You might want to consider a HOB filter so its not on show. (Hang on back) Sent from my HTC Desire...

Don't you struggle keeping the little plantlets planted with your corys running about? Mine uproot everything looking for snacks. I had to plant my glosso and hc in fairly large clumps still in the rock wool to keep it planted.

My echinodorus harbii is growing really large leaves very close to the floor instead of growing up. It's a pain in the butt because I put it in the back of the tank and in the middle to be a background plant. I've got high light, high ferts and high CO2. I guess this is why it is growing so low...

I had heard that too high a temperature (mid 20s and above) impeeds the plant's ability to take on nutrients and can actually make it harder for them to grow. I could be wrong.

Re: Re: UP inline co2 or the new super mist diffuser Its only been running 2 days. Its a DIY special. 1.5 litre tall plastic container with an eheim pump in it. It's connected to a timer to run for 1 minute a day. The container holds 12 one minute doses so I add 12 days worth of ferts to it...

I just bought an Up Inline - I also condsidered a DIY inline venturi like the aqua medic one but decided i was running out of room under the tank (2kg FE, 2 external filters, 2l auto dosing system...) Currently I have an internal venturi reactor but I don't like equipment in the tank.

They hold just over 300g of CO2 i think and they are just under £9 in Asda. You can get 600g disposable welding gas cans for about £12. A 2kg FE is about £20-25 Your local independant drinks supplier will have 3.2Kg bottles that are about £70 to buy and then £10 to refill. You do the maths...

I'm a writer and would gladly help with that side of things. Whether actually writing the copy or in a proofing and editing capacity. Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I've ordered my powders so I guess we'll find out. Would still appreciate someone with more expertise than me verifying my numbers.

It's been nearly 12 months and I've still not found anywhere in Cornwall to refill my 2kg fire extinguishers. Anyone know of anywhere?

I've just upgraded my Romo 90 to T5 lights and went out and bought a pair of Juwel tubes; Colour and Nature. These are supposed to have a colour temp of 6800 and 4100 respectively. I though this mix would look quite natural but it has a very yellowy cast to it. Juwel also do a Day bulb at 9000...

Not enough spare cash to get a peristaltic pump and they are prone to failure.I have spare submersibles lying around and have seen good reliable results from them in other's setups (one guy has been using his without problems for over 2 years). So let's say my setup has enough capacity for 10...

I grow plants that don't respond well to low light and I like the high growth. The current lighting is only about 2wpg.

I'm running a high tech 90 litre (Fluval Roma). Lighting is 2 x T5 @ 24 watts (I upgraded the stock T8 system). CO2 is pressurized and my drop checker is green @ lights on and limey green by gas off at the end of the day. I don't manage to get to the tank more than about 2 times a week, so I am...

they seem to be out of stock... I may well tap you up in a month or 2. I've been looking for ages.

I get those 99p + £13 p&p FEs off ebay. I've had 4 so far and they've all been fine. I imagine the guy gets them free when doing refits or testing etc. But can't knock the price. Takes a while to deliver though - so order the next one before the old one runs out.

I've just bought the parts for this. The needle valve from luna pets; is perfect. Well worth the extra couple of pounds. Now looking for a cheap solenoid.

Riccia grows really broad and weird out of water. Not sure how it would fare when submerged.

I have been having great fun with Riccia Fluitans in my tank but I'd like to get hold of the dwarf variety. Does anyone know where I can get some here in the UK or does anyone have a small amount they could send me?

I've got a 24G (90 litre) Nano Cube (its about 15" deep and 18" square) with 2 36W T5 Compacts in the hood. I run proper CO2 at 30ppm (at least) during the photoperiod. I dose 4ml TPN+ daily and do 50% WCs every week. The filter is rated at 800lph (so just under x10) I have; Amazon swords...

I've ended up with a T5 24W Compact over it. Not adding any kind of CO2 at the moment coz its currently full of 1 week old Celestial Pearl Danios. I've planted with dwarf hair grass, pygmy chains and a little anubias for now. Got some glosso and HC coming soon so might try one of those in there...

Just FYI; Not sure what the packaging looks like on the Tesco litter at the moment, they may have changed it, either way I found it hard to find. I eventually settled on Sophisticat Pink (stocked at Pets @ home among others) Same as Tesco's - has odour control but the smell of it dissipated...

Nope, more CO2 doesn't mean less O2 - this is a myth. With good surface movement and high injection it is easy to maintain high O2 and CO2 at the same time.

I've been reading the tutorial in the guides section on setting up 'higher tech' tanks. It says that you need to have lower stocking than a standard tank. I was just wondering why and what is the result of a heavily stocked high tech?

In an effort to avoid doing my PGCE assignments I went ahead on a whim and built this; I'm just thinking about lighting and have a couple of questions. The tank is 38cm x 30 x 25. I'm planning low tech dense planting (Iwagumi style). Questions are; What lighting do I need for reasonable...

mixing different air mixes

I'm sorry to post another one of these but I'm desparately trying to find somewhere to get 2kg fire extinguishers or 2kg & 500g tapped canisters refilled in the Cornwall area. I can pick them up full for about £20 but I don't like the waste of having to dispose of empty canisters every few...