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Aponogeton crispus red - does this flower? Mine appears to have sprouted a 1cm thick stem which is growing at 3 inches per day... Expect this will turn into a flower. The Anubias have two flowers now. But contrast, the Vesuvius never made it, and the crossocheilus have more or less eaten the...

Jeez! If you had that in your house you'd never leave! Awesome, just the sheer scale, the ridiculous number of fish, the perfection.... (the outrageous cost!!!!) Having said that it would never have got past the HSE assessment in this country - I swear I thought someone was going to lose an...

Small update: will follow up with some pics later. Have mostly cracked the algae problem with stable co2 and patience. Plus frequent 40%water changes. Plus 6 amano shrimp. Plus 2 crossocheilus reticulatus (nice fish). Also, the stems growth rate is such that they are now shadowing larger areas...

Hmmm, yes, six 6" fish might be pushing it. However I do want something a bit bigger than two inches.... That wont eat all the smaller fish. Or dig everything up. Every time I go to the lfs I send half my time googling the fish to check!

So many fish to choose from!! My LFS had a new delivery of plecos this week so spent about an hour browsing. They had a decent range from queen arabesque (ouch on the price), long tailed royal plec (serious ouch on the price) and so on. Anyway I ended up with a small starlight plec, which as...

If I was going to get apistos, are they not broadly a similar type of fish to the nannacara? Similarly, the rams?

I'm pretty sure the extensions without holes do exist and are used to extend the inlet kits. The eheim website might help you find the part number or try aquacadabra as they often have a decent selection, or call eheim uk.....

I was browsing my LFS today, looking for a slightly larger fish to be a centrepiece. I have. A 330l planted tank mainly populated with smaller fish, so I need one that is friendly, won't eat small fish, won't dig up or eat plants, and looks great. The chap in the shop suggested some kind of...

I would avoid matogrossense as it grows v fast and is huge..... I.e. a weed! The hygrophila by contrast is nice looking and sensibly sized, and fairly slow growing. Not sure about the others in this sized tank.

I think moss is ok as long as u stay away from java moss, but fissidens is very nice. My pogostemon erectus has mostly not made it largely because it is slow growing and has been eaten (by platiesmim guessing) faster than it grows.... Course it might be because its panted low down at the back...

Excellent. like it. Are you confident it will stay there? Are you relying on water dosing to feed the HC? It may get better CO2 there. Reckong this will look good without stems actually. Nice open spaces and a carpet of stauro will be great. Two thoughts: 1. the area top left has the...

Hope you've booked a day off!! And remove all the rock wool especially from the cuba else you will be forever removing it from the chunks that end up floating on the surface...... Reckon this will be very nice once it grows in. No stems?

For £80, get it , leave it in the garage, and if you decide you can't use it, you can probably make a profit flogging it on.....

And barely any visible flow! (Unless you turned it down for the vid?). On the face of it the combination of lighting, flow, co2 , planting etc is really complex - one man's beautiful tank (like this one!) is another man's algae factory!

I have the AM1000, and while its ok, it has its issues: 1. Its designed actually for fairly low rate filters, and comes with 12mm hose connections. Perversely most users fit it to larger tanks with more powerful filters. This causes problems as these usually have 16mm hoses so your hoses dont...

Second that. My sand is invisible due to the slope, and more importantly the need for powerheads in a tank of this size to get flow down to the substrate. So rocks/ graded gravels will help at the transition, plus eventually carpeting plants assuming you can get them rooted before all your...

Am not an expert as havent chopped mine yet! Looks about right to me, though I would guess lower down than that, just above the set of leaves the stalk grew out of. By the way, from the limited field of view, your tank looks v clean, the plants look grat, clear water and nice pearling ! Must...

Tweaked up the co2 last night, with the reactor now containing some media to stop the gas getting blown out by the flow, and came home tonight to some pearling in the tank and a nearly yellow drop checker. Fish ok, though I might assert they are moving less than usual, so am probably at or near...

Examples?

I'm assuming you can get your spray bar in the centre of the back wall? If you could I would put the koralia underneath or above it pointing the same way. the 2800 kicks out a lot of flow in an expanding cone. This means if you have it near the surface it will cause significant vortices etc...

I think its very likely this is CO2. The symptoms are fairly indicative. Plus you admit yourself you had stability problems - and you know from my journal I had the same and there's an almost immediate effect on the plants, which can take weeks to slowly correct. My tank is 330l, and even...

Once am more confident I've addressed what seems to still be problematical Co2, I think I will. But clearly, I don't want to chop through the stems right? And these are mostly an inch above the substrate, so do I just them back into the soil?

Update with pics: Here's the latest full tank shot: End on shot: All in all the growth has been substantial from the start. I haven't really done enough pruning except the manic stems at the back (largely hygro polysperman and myriophyllum matogrossense). Also, if you look closer you can...

Re: Calzone's 120x60x45 optiwhite tank build I've noticed a few threads on the forum recently discussing problems getting consistent CO2 with the AM1000 reactor. I confess I am finding the same problems. As you can read in this journal, I had a problem with flow and leaking, which turned out...

Yes. But on the other hand things growing, fish happy, new job on the way..... Could be worse, eh?

Discovered tonight that my koralia wasn't running..... Whipped it out, nothing obvious - turns out its plugged into a two way socket on a timer with the solenoid. For some reason, no power. Works ok in a different socket. How a two way socket with no electronics can break I simply don't...

or just tights tied on..... works fine. or the eheim prefilter...... but its massive.

in the past yes, but not yet in this tank. I will do so shortly as obviously need to get stuck in for maintenance soon!

Staghorn.... think that's what this is. Question: if I remove most of it by hand, will it go away if I get CO2 and flow sorted out and steady, or am I stuck with it? Re vesuvius - I have some in the tank already. But its not clear to me that its going to survive. Most of it has melted, and...

always look on the bright side of life eh?!!? true. Hopefully, fixing the causes that I think I know, should give improvement. The algae also tells me something. it only appears on vallis especially where the ends are cut, java fern (which are recovering from drying out during planting)...

Quick Update... Been very busy lately at work on away at weekends, been difficult to work on the tank. Growth is good, think I am finally getting the CO2 back into shape after the last month of trials with the poor flow etc. Over the weekend, I was away. Before I went I adjusted the...

in a tnak of your size, provided they are at the top and not point down, probably not. though 2800lph will probably cause some reshaping of the substrate, less once your plants are in. Certainly I have reall trouble keeping my aquasoil off the sand.... But on the flip side, the plants like...

will send you a pm as dont want to offend the sites' sponsors!! (thought it might have been one of them....)

Use the following link - I can vouch for it and it was safe for fish and shrimp when I did it. http://www.planetinverts.com/killing_planaria_and_hydra.html

Little white worms are most likely planaria. Harmless but ugly and will multiply. Usually worse if you overfeed. Only way to get rid of them is to use dog-deworming powder, containing fenbendazole. I can vouch that it works and is fish and shrimp safe at the concentrations described. see...

well basically its a filter without the filter bit. ie a pump connected to your tank via hoses.

I bought a new car with mine, though technically the car was slightly more than the payday amount..... Well, I say slightly.....

Jeez, that sounds both cool, and triffid-ish. Having seen one of George's tanks (or was it oliver knott?) with this having gone nuts, bit wary of filling my tank with it. If I chop just below the two leaves and remove them, instead of growing into shoots, those leaf buds grow under the...

Did you want one in the tank or external attached to a spray bar? I have a Koralia Evolution 2800 lph, and a nano 900. For your tank size you will need at least the 2800lph. Its quite big (say 10cm deep by 6-7 wide.) but moves a lot of water with a reasonably diffuse pattern. And only uses...

I have 4 clumps of this hygro. Its growing well, after about 6 weeks, but mainly upwards in a single stem. What's the best way of pruning this? Will it get bushier if pruned? Do I prune just above a set of leaves and plants the top bit deep down so the next set of leaves are just above the...

Apologies for the double post - iPad playing up with tapatalk

Don't know what your price range is, but if you buy from the zooplus website in Germany (zooplus.de) as a first time customer (5-10% discount) it will probably land in the uk less than £100 and includes media. You will struggle to find a better deal for any filter of tHat capacity and flow for...

Glad I could help. Apposite timing. I always run my filter fully open, and as I understand it you should never run less than half open. To me seems silly to buy the biggest filter in the market and run it half. Anyway my tank is large and deep and I need the flow as have a long spray bar...

Also, is there any water in your outlet pipe before you switch on and after priming? How long does priming take? More than 30 sec I presume.

If its primed properly, and when you switch on it hums and doesn't grind, then most likely you have the problem I have namely that the white rubber outlet duct is not seated properly in the slots by and held down by the impeller cover. Suggest you google John Allan aquariums and phone them. I...

I went with Eheim installation set for the spray bars. Quite like them - smoky grey and very convenient. On the inlets, they're mostly hidden so far so not a big deal. I might go installation kits there too as cleaning hoses much easier.....

I have replied in detail to your post in the filters subforum. Long and short of it - make sure the filter is empty, completely. Inlets under water, outlet above water with no spraybar fitted. Open valve and pump the primer as hard and fast as you can. It can take a lot of effort but will...

You can find a lot of details in my journal on this!!! This is a fiddly filter. 1. Assuming you have set it up correctly, and all bits fitted right 2. Have the whole filter empty, or at least half empty 3. Absolutely have the prefilter tray completely empty, and not sitting in water 4. Know...

If the stems are trimmed from the tops of the plants, I'm removing the first 2-3 sets of leaves, and putting them in 2-3 stems in a bunch about 1-2 inches into the substrate. The problem is these are smooth stems only about a mm wide, so there's really not much holding them in, and I have...

I've taken the scrunchy out. I reckon its not needed. Plus its just a dirt magnet. Re the HC, good idea, I might try that one more time before binning the idea. I also tried replanting various stems which is very awkward in a 60cm deep tank, but the damn things just kept coming right back...

Finally, fixed my problem. Turns out the small amount of scrunchy I'd put in the AM1000 had got sucked into the outlet, presumably when it drained as it was fine before the maintenance session. It's invisible down there. When I opened it was sucked in about half a centimetre but quite densely...

259L bookcase tank - planted up! 20 zebra danios?!?!!! Wow! That is going to be one seriously active tank. I only have 3 left now, and they're nuts!

Nope....

Here's the thing. It was working fine before I cleaned it, with maybe not even 20% reduction. Now its 90% in line. Something must have changed. I haven't had a chance to fiddle today. Maybe there's some sort of airlock effect going on, as I know it WAS working fine. I will try taking the...

Seems it did. Removed it, cleaned it, refitted it, removed it again as couldn't remember which way up the grey attachment bit went in, checked the manual, sussed it out, refitted it, took AM1000 reactor out of the circuit as it can make priming fiddly, primed, turned on: Flow! Great. So...

Re: Help with non-functioning eheim 2180 after impeller clea Ah, yes, the white one. Think that might be it, because although it wasnt loose, i could move it where it attached to the impeller housing and see a small gap - I assume this need to be very snug? I spoke to Allan at John Allan...

I don't have it open in front of me, but I can't picture the square pipe u mean.....?

Re: Help with non-functioning eheim 2180 after impeller clea The issue turned out to be a priming issue. My inlet hoses were still full of water, so when i connected the hoses and opened the valve, water poured in immediately, and filled up the prefilter tray. But not, for some reason, the...

alright, let me know, and dont cock up your priming !!!!!!!! Although won't be a problem for you as your pipes will by definition be empty.

Re flow, I think ditry pipes do reduce flow a lot. Especially when they're 1.3 m long like mine - last time I cleaned them it made a lot difference. And all I can say is I have a clean filter, and its flow is probably less than half what it was 6 weeks ago. Nothing else changed..... Figure...

OK. Turns out it was a priming issue. When I clicked the outlet head back in and opened the valve, the filter started filling with water. But unbeknownst to me, it was only filling the prefilter tray (should have known as it didn't go on for 2 minutes like usual, but it was midnight by this...

so you guys think that noise is probably an airlock? Will try as you suggest. I have no diffuser as I broke the last one trying to pull the tube off it. Here's hoping it is a priming issue, as I just can't see how it can be broken. As you say, pretty sure the bushings are still in there...

Rethe eheim ceramic shaft - the eheim parts book shows them with bushings at either end.... Mine is just a white stick. No bushings. Have I inadvertently removed and lost these? How would they go back on? Will go ahead a pond buy a replacement in case and hope for the best.

I have posted this in my journal thread too, but it's urgent so thought I would post here too... Apologies for the double posting Did some pruning tonight and took the opportunity to clean the eheim 2180. took out the impeller, cleaned that, sprayed with eheim maintenance spray, replaced...

NIGHTMARE!!! Did some pruning tonight and took the opportunity to clean the eheim 2180. It was fairly murky in there though the media was in ok shape. Anyway, took out the impeller, cleaned that, sprayed with eheim maintenance spray, replaced. Fitted. Primed. Turned on. Grunk grunk. No...

What is this? One fish, no big deal. If it continues, different story.....

they most certainly do. Definitely wouldn't add it to a populated tank, or add fish after installing it until I'd seen nh3 free water for a while.

What is this? In my experience columnaris shows as a white patch on the back under the fin, one of its common names is saddleback. It apparently comes in more than one strain, most have very high mortality and dont necessarily give the saddleback, but when I've had it the saddleback version...

So far so good - think I might even have to start trimming soon! Some very generous friends bought me 6 very plump otos for my birthday. They looked to be in great shape - sharp fins, active, plump. In 12 hours they appear to have cleaned up the diatoms from the back glass completely...

I didn't. the slopes are such that with planting and the flow and the fish and the replanting the blasted floaters, the aquasoil has colonised the sandy areas. I will, at some point, address this. however, if you've ever tried to pick up aquasoil 60cm down in a tank you will know that its...

Pretty sure that in solution, all phosphate ions are equivalent. Phosphates coming from organic sources are still phosphates, but they may come with other less desirable organics. Rowaphos is manly used in marine tanks to take po4 levels down to very low levels. Not sure if it will do much to...

sounds like you've answered your own questions! If they were going to react, physical colocation in the same bag would make no difference - they would do so by dissolving in water, which they clearly dont. One bag might improve flow especially if it meant 1/3 the amount of bag material vs...

Quick photo update. Added 20 cardinals today. One didnt make it out the bag, somehow got caught up in the plastic. Looked ok when I let him out and drip acclimatised for 2 hours but lasted about a minute in the main tank. Also found 1 dried harlequin husk and one dried zebra danio behind the...

Back to day one!! If you've got good enough filtration, enough oxygen and keep on top of maintenance reckon you could get a lot more fish in 300litres no problem. If it was me I'd look to get more Corys (min 6, pref more), probably a decent school of small dither fish to contrast the barbs...

Right. Had a minor problem last night where some water dripped down a hose, into the cabinet, where it dripped onto the 6 gang sockets and tripped the house leccy. Oops. Anyway, have left it over night to dry off and will test it later to see if it's ok when 'puter and tv are off. Means am...

HC too. The gap came from some thread I read arguing it didn't harm plants but hindered algae. Admittedly with little scientific evidence! I've seen a lot of advice that to start a shorter photoperiod helps keep algae at bay. So far I only have a little diatoms on the glass.

I planted my tank about 2 weeks ago with a carpet of glosso and HC. I am running a 330l tank, with 2x54W T5. Have CO2 injection, currently via diffuser but moving to external reactor when I get the plumbing working without large flow reduction. Drop checker is lime green albeit about a foot...

sounds good. I would guess that getting shallow to look good is harder, but like all expert things, if it works its stunning.

I have 6 harlequins and 6 copper harlequins. But the coppers are mostly tiny so far. I got 7 for a fiver with the baby platy credit. When they grow up (assuming they make it) it will look fab. When they school, which they do occasionally its very nice, especially under the reddish lights...

Curefan, I do remember your plans, awaiting your journal!! Re the OT2. THe legs are a bit flimsy but clearly strong enough to hold the unit. What is important is making sure the legs are screwed tightly on to your tank. This means you need two people to put it on (especially at 5 foot), and...

My platies have never touched the plants, except the odd nibble on leaves here and there, but then they are well fed. On stocking, so I have maybe 4-5 platies, 4 zebra danios from the old tank. I will probably just keep these until they die of happy old age (and will keep extracting the...

.... Take 'em back to the shop. Besides, at 29 babies a month, I get decent credit towards new fish. Oh, I also got a betta for the old tank. Sky blue body, golden fins and tail. Stunning fish. Very interesting cat like personality. Might have to thin out the plants though as he's not a...

Ha ha! I know it's not cool, but they were in the old tank which was originally a kids tank, and I don't have the heart to

Update: finally got some new hosetails for the reactor. Had a job getting the old ones out but managed eventually. Also got the eheim jubilee clips to tighten the hoses on, and these are a superior design it has to be said. Also invested (ouch) in the eheim double taps, as this will make life...

So really a filter is just a badly designed reactor without the ability to bleed undissolved gas or see what's going on? I do agree that being see through is a nice feature of the commercial reactors. On this topic, and I know I've asked this before, but why do aquamedic design a reactor for...

but seriously, if feeding into the filter is just as effective, why do we bother with reactors?

For backlighting, has anyone used colour-changing RGB LED strips with a colour controller? Seems like these would be bright enough to backlight, and can change colour at will (albeit the colours are a bit in your face). Probably not the cheapest solution (hard pressed to do this for less than...

well, there's only one way to find out!! I just have this image of a big bubble staying intact until it gets tot he impeller. But you're right, even if it survives passage through the hose, it then has to pass through a prefilter foam, then 3 inches of ehfimech, then three inches of eheim...

TRying that, but still most of the bubbles not getting sucked in. part of the problem is that the 2180 eheim has two inlets, so each doesn't suck that hard. am considering just shoving the co2 tube into the inlet and not using the diffuser. However, this will be a lot of big bubbles in the...

I have done so, with very hard tap water. Strangely it melted initially, then took many weeks before recovering, and becoming an unstoppable weed! So patience can pay off. Oh, and it doesn't like liquid carbon at all in my experience. Calzone

Stupid is as stupid does ( blasted filters) Glad am not the only one who just can't help flooding his house! Take solace - you are not alone....

Its the pre-mixed stuff from aquaessentials. It turned back to blue overnight, but its a very pale blue. maybe they have overdiluted it, but it makes it very hard to tell the colours. I will try moving it to the back of the tank where the frosted background might help with the colour check...

Few pics. First off the HC, pearling... Drop checker turned colourless - dont know what that means, except perhaps maybe it got some tank water in it? Planted glosso underneath. With sharp eyes you can see teh R. Wallichito the immediate left of the wood. The anubia - apologies for...

that's what I meant - might be a bit OTT for the fish. For example, my drop checker is not colourless. Not blue, not green or yellow. what does this mean? I never noticed it going through any of the colours enroute..... it just might be vary pale blue and moving towards lime green. Course...

PLanted the remaining plants from TGM which arrived Friday as they got a delivery thursday. 1 pot rotala wallichi, 1 pot hygro araguia, and 4 pots of glosso. Glosso goes in somewhat easier than HC it has to be said. the Wallichi did look a bit forlorn but its that kind of plant - delicate...

Aquamedic uk certainly won't talk to you unless you are a retailer for some reason. Worth a try though.

Day 2, 25% water change. Aggressive fight with various crypts about whether they were going to stay in the soil. I won. Cleaned up lots of plant bits. My word crypts melt fast! Most of them are halfway gone already! It's true that co2 distribution is poor due to the missing external...

1. Don't slope it quite as much as I did, especially in the first inch of aquasoil 2. Use substrate supports or dividers - kind of like any sort of bendable plastic, to just below the surface 3. smash up some larger rocks or get larger graded gravels and sprinkly these on the interface to act...

thanks! even my wife was "surprised"!!! Blimey.

Certainly hope so, its not cheap this hobby. Don't even want to think about how much I could blow on fish if the mood grabs! I'm going to leave the soil until the plants have grown some more robust roots. Otherwise its just an exercise in frustration with that slope. Plus am absolutely...