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I just popped into MA Weybridge today, got talking to the staff in there and they mentioned that Tony had 'scaped their tank a quick search and I've found this journal. It's looking pretty different now, less nature aquarium, more jungle-based, but I rather like it. The tank has a large swathe...

Oh blimey, I thought it was a case of modding the Reg, not the Cylinder! :) Yep, I think they would probably reject it as soon as you went for a refil, although mine would need to be pressure-tested again anyway before it was refilled as I think it's just ticked-over the 10yr mark (providing...

Hi Guys, I've got a JBL Profi Set 2 and I'm just getting back into planted tanks after a 2 year absence having moved and done a lot of work on our house and it's led me back to a problem I was working on shortly before I moved. I wanted to convert to using a Fire Extinguisher from the standard...

Hmm, well most conditioners do say they remove copper although what amounts of copper I don't know. (I use a Tetra product (the name escapes me right now), not the cheapest (actually it's a bit of a rip-off when doing EI and weekly 50% changes), but it's what I've always used and seems to be...

The only reason I can see to use boiled cold water vs water from the hot tap is that the hot water has potentially sat around in your hot water system for a while, so could have a higher copper content from the pipes (providing you have copper piping and hot water tank etc.). The cold water...

Yep, I know they leave a lot of dead standing wood in Richmond Park and it becomes home to all kinds of birds, typically Jays and Crows but sometimes you see the odd tree being inhabited by parakeets, quite surreal to see a bright-green bird pop it's head out of the hole and go screeching into...

Sorry to be a party-pooper regarding the Richmond Park idea but I think wood collection is actually banned there to allow the microfauna somewhere to live (I think there's quite a population of stag and other large beetles in the park that are endangered elsewhere due to a lack of dead wood)...

I "think" it might be some kind of dragon-fly or caddis-fly larva. (not an expert here). I base this on seeing similar beasts when in my early years I identified similar creatures whilst dipping in ponds when I was at school. I actually found something similar last year when I got my plants...

Hey Tim, That's looking really nice, I see the HC's filling out finally. Mine got algae (to the point there was more algae than HC :( ) and I had to uproot it. I need to get some moss for my wood too... I know what you mean about losing interest. I go through phases of being majorly into my...

Hey Stu, Yep, that's the next plan of action, just trying to minimise the algae as much as I can first, so far I've done the following to try and stabilise the situation: Reduce Lighting from 10hrs to 6hrs. Refill ferts doser and confirm dosing correctly (40ml DIY TPN+) Re-do CO2 hosing to...

Mid-Week Update Algae 1 - Matt 1 Well, the title says it all really, it's a bit of a draw so far, I've grabbed out a shed-load of Spyro, now using a toothbrush as I read in Stu Worral's journal that he had a bit of an issue with Spyro and used a toothbrush for extraction. Well, I promised some...

Yep, took a look on there last-time, there's one place out in Croydon, but it was too far away at the time to justify it, so I forgot to call and ask if they'd do it. Before I go I might get a third or fourth canister, then get all of them filled at the same time to make it worth my while...

Yup, it's a rip-off for sure... good old Maidenhead Aquatics.... :( Where was it that you heard that they'd refill fishtank CO2 cylinders? I live near Kingston, so anywhere within 30mins would be great, MAq in Weybridge is the only place around here that I know stocks "proper" CO2 equipment...

Well, those are the old pics, pre... "the incident"... :) It's not looking as bad as it was, but it doesn't look as good as the pics earlier in this thread by any standards, I'm a little bit ashamed of it at the moment as it looks pretty horrible, now clean... but still horrible. I've got a...

Nope, old-style JBL cylinders, they're perfectly refillable, but most fire extinguisher places won't refill them I think? They cost £16 a time, I think they're just refilled by JBL and shipped out again. I can't go to a fire extinguisher as I can't fit it in the cupboard and there will be...

An Update Well, it's been a while since I last updated the journal due to Wedding Prep the tank was a little neglected, I performed the water changes and that was about it, as a result I had a lot of growth of my stem-plants, so much so that I ended up with a massive knot of plant at the top of...

Hi Afroturf, I really would recommend a 480 min for the fact that you'll probably outgrow a 220 too quickly as it's very limited and of fairly low power. I'm afraid I don't know too much about the 3rd party ones, but the fact that I've not seen anyone using one to my knowledge tells me...

nice tips Bugs! I might just try some of those! :)

Hi Afroturf, Regarding the flash, I'd been asking myself the same question over the last few weeks as to what flash to get for my DSLR (I was increasingly fed-up with my on-camera pop-up flash spoiling photos and burning out pictures). Unfortunately I came to the conclusion that good-quality...

Yow, things certainly have gone up! I think I also picked it up for about £55 last year. Canon keep that lens around and cheap for the photography students, but it's pretty much the only way you'll get below f2.8 for anything less than serious cash. It's plasticy as hell, but it does take...

Blimey nice pic! I've seen things like this on Wildlife documentaries where early African explorers reported on lakes that seemed to be on fire and the "smoke" they saw was actually millions of flies hatching and taking off but I never thought it'd happen in proportions great enough in the UK...

Thanks Ceg, Hmm, I did think that might be the case... but I couldn't think of why I thought it worked initially but now I'm seeing this issue. I think it may well have been because I was using higher CO2 levels earlier and was expecting a yellow dropchecker (DOH). Hmm, guess I'll have to...

Agh, cheers for this... I've got a little algae infestation resulting from this little problem in my tank, do you know if there's any care advice regarding storing the 4DkH solution? My solution is in the tank cupboard which gets a little hot (broadband router and cordless phone base station...

Hi Ashton, I've been successfully using one over my 25l cube for quite some time, it's primarily Crypts with some HC, a Red Tiger Lily and a small Amazon sword plant (leftovers from an old aquascape in my main tank). And it all seems to be growing away nicely (apart from the HC, but a clump of...

Re: Tonsers 14L Nano Rouge Hi Tony, Don't dispair, my little nano was looking like that around the time I started looking at this forum! :) (mainly due to a lack of maintainance, and infrequent water changes, and lack of fertilisation and co2) I tried some of the techniques on here such as...

Hi Mark, Cheers for that, I had a feeling the thread would be the same for FE's and the mini bottles. I'll check with the Croydon contact in the sticky at the top of the CO2 section, but good tip on the welding supplies idea, I didn't think of that, that reminds me, one of my friends parents...

Hi Mark, No, I'm 99% sure they're refillable, the question is will I be able to get them refilled locally? Or is it strictly a return to manufacturer thing as the new one (which was definitely refilled, paint has flecked off a bit, and the stamping on the test data on the cylinder indicates...

Hi Guys, I've recently had to get a replacement 500g CO2 cylinder for my JBL ProFlora refillable CO2 kit after it ran out on me last week. I went and bought a new one, but I've still got the old one which I want to use as a spare, is the thread on the JBL refillable regulator the same as a...

Hi Guys, sorry about that... turned into a fun afternoon involving looking over a friend's personal statement and doing all manner bits and pieces, then I had to do another water change on the tank :) As promised, here are the pics, the algae's better than it was, but there's a fair bit of...

Tank Update - A Couple of Weeks Along Well, it's all up and running, I've been dosing CO2 enough to maintain a yellow dropchecker whilst the plants settle in, I've recieved the needle-valves for each diffuser and I've now been able to balance the flow better between them. Algae has been...

hmm, well on my 304 they prevent the hose from popping off by clamping it down to the aqua-stop, I think you might be able to do something similar with a couple of jubilee clips though providing you've done the smooth hose mod, I'm not sure if they'd work well on the ribbed hose that's supplied...

Day Two - Yet More Water Changes Nothing too much to report, the tank is algae free so far (but it's only been 2 days), everything's pearling away, but the HC's looking a little ropey, some pieces aren't very well attached to the bottom. There's a lot of dead HC on there, but there are some...

Hi Nick, Yeah, I expected something like 3-5 leaves per rhizome but most of them are individual leaves with the tiniest bit of rhizome on them :( The thing that's a bit misleading is that they don't measure in bunches, but in stems, they order in lots of 5 though so it's not totally bad but it...

To the left of the Ambulia Aquatica (big bushy plant at the back right behind the root)? That's a couple of Crypts (Nevilii and Wenditii I think?) and a stray Java Fern leaf. They're right next to the filter inlet and lefthand CO2 diffuser. They're basically holding there for now but I may...

Cheers Aaron! Well, that's the needle valves ordered, Aquatic Magic, £6.51 each, not too bad looking at the quality of them. I was VERY tempted to get some mosses at the same time, but I resisted for now, I'd better let it all grow it a bit! :) Hopefully they'll arrive in a few days. Matt

Yep, I'm inclined to believe it's down to the differing quality of the diffuser too, the right-hand one definitely produces larger bubbles than the left. Cheers Matt, I'll look into getting a couple of needle-valves for the hose. Currently it's not too big a problem, I'm overdosing CO2 as I've...

Cheers SteveUK and Steve2Tanks, I think it's looking ok so far, I think I'll need to do some tweaking depending on how the stems grow on the right, and I'm not entirely happy with the Java Fern still, although the fiancée loves it. Just spending all my time working on waterchanges at the...

Re: Tonsers 14L Nano Rouge Agh, good to know, I've got all my Harlequins from the main tank in my Nano cube at the moment! :shock: Sorry to hear about your losses, although I think their flighty nature is something to do with why they shoal so well, it probably also goes hand-in-hand with a...

That despite it's leaden weight (and rock-like resistance to my saw), the root wood I've got in my tank actually floats! It was pre-soaked at the shop, but I've been waiting with a dry tank for so long for my plants and looking at positioning that it dried out, a fact I'd forgotten until 50%...

I also think that sometimes you can (or could before the fire, not sure if they'd still nest there now?) see large flocks of starlings coming into roost like that out over the sea at Brighton and they'd then land on the old pier for the night, that'd make an excellent pic with the sun setting in...

The Setup - 24/03/2009 Hi Guys, As promised, sorry it's a bit later than expected, my fiancée had the lurgy so I had to look after her, then do a water change and re-plant the loose stems, but finally, after much waiting for plant orders to arrive over the last few weeks, here are all the...

Weelllll, it started to be a quick entry, then I fleshed it out a bit (it is a journal after all... :)) it's just a bit of a brain-dump really :) The tank might not be quite up to your exacting standards (liking the Nano btw!) after the rapid second un-planned replant some things have just been...

The Operation was a Success - 25/03/2009 Just a quick entry today, the plants finally arrived last night (in really good shape) and I spent from 8pm-1:30am putting them in and filling up the tank (didn't get my water-changer built in time, it's a tedious business with buckets!). Looks like I...

Hi Murphy, I've got one of these left over from my old tank before I tore it down ready to restart a new scape (not sure of the exact species, it was from Java Plants, think it was a Tiger Lily or something like that, this was before I paid attention to plant names too much). It used to grow...

The Mystery of the Missing Plants (Solved) Well after worrying that my plants order hadn't made it through the bowels of my office mail system, it turns out it never even got that far! :) I received this email yesterday evening: I can only assume Steve was one of the others affected by this...

Hi Steve, I expected it to take two weeks due to Java-plant's shipping cycle, it ensures you get good quality plants, but it's not too quick. I called Java-Plants at about 5ish after I couldn't find the post-boy, they were really helpful and confirmed that the order was dispatched Wednesday...

Worried About Plant Delivery Well, I haven't posted on here for a while, this being largely due to twiddling my thumbs waiting for my plants to arrive, by the timeline on Java-Plants website, they should have been dispatched on Wednesday, the timeline goes something like this: 03/03/09 -...

Cheers guys, sounds good, I've bought one. They're available here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BUDGET-PERISTALTIC-RINSE-AID-CHEMICAL-DOSER-FEED-PUMP_W0QQitemZ140306052766QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_BOI_Restaurant_RL?hash=item140306052766&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14 not exactly peanuts but a lot cheaper than the...

Any reason why one of these wouldn't be suitable for aquarium dosing? http://www.cateringparts.com/media/SEKO$20PR$20Peristaltic$20Pumps.pdf They come in a variety of sizes, down to 0.4l/h so that's a dosing of roughly 6.6ml/min and some are speed controllable as well for fine-tuning, I was...

Yep, that's a good plan, but I'm not sure if anyone would find a use for a moss-ball, I imagine it'd look out of place anywhere (at least in any of the tanks I've seen they've looked pretty odd) :) I think at least some of the cuttings will be going to refurbish my small cube tank first once...

When I built my hood for my old marine tank, I inside I used a fibreglass kit and coated the inside with the epoxy resin that comes with the kit (I only used the fibreglass on the joints), not only did it make the whole thing rock solid, it also acted as a good waterproofing tool. I didn't...

Re: Tonsers Nano Rouge - planted ! :shock: Arrrgh, ok looks like it's going to be a while till I get a carpet in my tank! I'm just going to have to spread it about as thinly as I can and hope it grows... I know the HC in my tank grew from it's original clump (1 Tropica pot) into an area about...

Re: Tonsers Nano Rouge Wow, looking really nice, you've gone with a look similar to the one I'm planning in my tank's foreground! :) Can I ask you, how many pots of pogo and HC did you use? I'm trying to get an idea if I've ordered enough :). Thanks, Matt

Initial Plant Order Well, I decided to go ahead with a plant order from Java Plants last night, I priced up what I thought I'd need from Tropica with mAQ's price list and with AE and GreenMachine, all WAY too pricey... I ended up going with Java Plants, they did well with my last order, here's...

Re: Tonsers Nano Rouge Hi Tony, Nice tank! I've been meaning to do something similar for my desk at work when I can afford it! (it'll have to be small to avoid facilities kicking up a stink :)) I like the look of the Tungsten light, but I'd wonder if it'd output enough of the wavelengths...

Thanks Tony, I'm a lot happier with it now, and I'm glad it looks (at least slightly) convincingly natural, it was worth the cursing and the bloodshed in the end! (cut myself with a screwdriver a bit whilst trying to force a split to break open to make a more convincing natural cut in the root...

Cheers Paulo, I'm looking forward to the day I'll be able to be so kind to others, when I had my old setup, I was literally throwing away tons of plants every month or so as I had noone else who'd like them. It'll be nice to pass them on to good homes (providing I can keep them Algae free! :D)...

Possible Use of More Moss in Aquascape After Stu's comments about using Moss on wood, I've been doing some thinking and after I just saw how Dan Crawford's used moss in this Aquascape on branches/roots in this aquascape (http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/featured_aquascaper/Dan_Crawford.html)...

Regarding plastic tube, yep, total rip off! I've just had to spend about £30 on a new inlet and outlet and another £4.90 per meter for tubing when I switched to smooth tubing on my filter! :( (granted probably not the cheapest place in the world, my local fish shop, not mAQ, but they're not...

Cheers Thomas! :) Yep, I think I might put some moss on the wood, but I think Java Fern might look pretty effective as well as-per David Airey's tank design (which my Missus approves of and we seem to be leaning towards something similar at present). I might try a combination of both ideas, I...

Cheers Sam, I've removed the large clump of rocks to the right (as was visible in my first set of photos prior to pruning the wood), but I was still planning on having a few smaller rocks leading down to the sandy area front-right (I haven't put the sand in yet as I'm still fine-tuning the...

Post-Surgery - Tank Hardscape Pics (take 2) Well, here's my latest re-hash of the hardscape with the trimming of the wood, I've also shifted the wood right slightly to move it more towards the focal point to make it a little more balanced and I've got rid of the large rocks on the right...

The Patient is Out of Surgery Well, after looking at the root stump all day I finally decided it did need a trim, I've taken roughly 5cm off the back of the root (as-per the green line on my earlier top-down pic), and I also shortened the two longest branches in as natural a manner as I could...

Inspiration and Ideas (AKA: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery) When I got the wood, I knew that the idea reminded me of a few of my favourite tanks, I thought I'd post the links to these pages so that people knew where I'm coming from with my ideas: David Airey's creation, really...

Heh, true! :) The guy in the shop didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned redmoor wood, this was JBL Mangrove Wood, but I noticed that they had a variety of different types of wood in there under the same brand name, one of which looked suspiciously similar to redmoor wood, and a...

Cheers Tourney, I think you might have something there about the rocks. But I'm a little worried that if I don't have something that side it'll start to look a little too lopsided? I know some people like their aquascapes to go be heavier one side than the other, but I think it might look a...

Hi Jack, I've only got the one lighting bar, I swapped the T8 Lighting bar that came with my tank for a T5 High-Lite lighting bar. The flaps fit exactly on the new lighting bar as it's a drop-in replacement. I'dve liked to have got a luminaire but for the sake of keeping things civil at home...

Hardscaping Connundrums Well, as promised, I've been taking a look at hardscaping my tank. I managed to get some wood from mAQ in West Horsley, they were fairly helpful, although they didn't have much wood in, I did get a really nice piece, but I had size issues, and it's a little bit bigger...

Wow cheers Paulo, I'll definately take you up on that if I haven't managed to get it with my plant order! :) Speaking of which, I'm still planning, I haven't really had much time to think, let alone actually sit down and look at pics of plants, wedding stuff has reared it's head which needed...

Just seen this thread (http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1690&start=50) about Limnophilia Aromatica, I think I'm definately going to try and get this in my tank if I can, looks amazing! :)

Aha, cheers for that advice, I shall rummage through their larger tanks cupboards at the weekend! :) I was kind of hoping that they were going to do something more with planted tanks when I saw the shrimp tanks they'd just put in, but I was a bit disappointed by the lack of choice in...

Wow, it is getting quite heated over on the PFK forums! Personally, I can see the benefits of both, particularly in the "artier" planted tanks where the equipment would be visible. I'm paranoid about breaking any of my glassware, so far I've only put the diffusers in too, but whilst it's...

Hi Tony, Yep West Horsley's my "local" mAQ store for most day to day things. I didn't see much when I popped in there a couple of weeks ago (was looking at substrate prices, but they only had Red-Sea Florabase, which turns to claylike mud over time (I've got it in my cube tank)). They've just...

I'm thinking about a hard-scape, they're definately effective, but I can't decide on one at the moment. I think I'll need to see some wood and rocks in my hands before I can decide, so I'll be popping to Maidenhead Aquatics at the weekend to take a look, but I don't think I can get any of that...

Well, that's good to hear, it doesn't help when most local fish shops are giving terrible advice to people regarding planted tanks. I've removed the extra T8 and concentrated on getting the reflectors set right, should've gone with my Gut instinct rather than the WPG ratings. Regarding the WPG...

Glassware in the Tank Well, the clear hose arrived and I've added the two diffusers in each back corner of the tank under the koralia powerheads. Luckily the hose went on to the diffusers without any casualties and minimal cursing once it had the hot-water treatment. I think they'll look...

Hmm, definately good to remember, I didn't think about that, but I would imagine this would only be within certain limits though (eg adding an extra hour or two to the lighting schedule). You couldn't say for example leave an 18w T8 on for twice as long and expect it to be as good as 2x18w T8's...

Cheers John, fingers crossed I'm not having a clumsy day when I put it in! :)

Hi Ceg, Thanks for that, but I'd thought that I'd hopefully addressed the CO2, nutrient and flow issues satisfactorily already (I guess I find out when I finally get the plants in), so the light was the only factor I wasn't quite happy with in my new setup. However now I've had assurance that...

Thanks, I think I might try and heat up the hose a little bit so that it goes on a bit more easily. I was already a bit worried about that bit anyway. It would be more than a little annoying to have them travel all the way from Hong Kong to the UK and survive, and then end up breaking it...

Ok, I've spoken with Ed Seeley who says he's happily got Glosso, HC and Hairgrass growing under the same lighting conditions with just the standard High-Lite system, so that's put my mind at ease. I've had a chance to look at the glassware now I've got home, it all looks really good, I've not...

Hi Ed, That's exactly what I was hoping to hear! I knew that the WPG rating method is misleading, and I definitely think it could be adjusted to account for the increased efficiency of T5HO bulbs based upon what you're saying. I remember reading in a few places that Glosso is typically...

Lighting Ponderings Well, I spent the whole commute this morning wondering what to do about my lighting... The problem is that the centre brace means my T8's have to be pushed closer to the centre next to the T5's which means they clash with the reflectors, which in turn reduces the reflected...

Heh, yep, rimless would be nice someday. But I've been tempted to get rid of my centre brace to sort out this d*mn lighting problem, it would make the issue of getting lights in there a heck of a lot easier, but then again, I would like to make sure my tank stays in one piece so I'm really not...

I agree it is a pain, that's why I was seriously thinking about only adding one extra bulb in at the back in this way for my new setup, it's easy enough to unclip and lift out of the way and you can then shove the i-bar back to allow better access to the tank, you can do the same with the front...

Hi Guys, I've already pondered this one in my journal but rather than getting into a big conversation there, I thought I should bring it where it belonged... the lighting section. I'm in the process of upgrading and restarting my Rio 125. My fiancee won't let me have a luminaire or an...

Hi Vito, Well, I can't really give you full answer, but I'm in a similar situation, I have a Rio 125 and despite my best efforts I've been unable to convince my fiancee that we should put a luminaire on the tank, so I'm stuck with what I can fit under the lid of the tank. Until recently I was...

Cheers Tourney! :) I'll let you know my preliminary plant list and see what you guys think. I think I remember reading somewhere that it's better to plant with fast-growing stem plants initially and then replace them with your plants of choice? Is that true or will I be ok starting with the...

22/02/2009 - A Busy Weekend Tidying and Organising Well, it's been a busy weekend! I had a nice alarm-call at 9am on Saturday by the postman, my second Koralia Nano had arrived and I only ordered it at 3pm the day before, I must say Charterhouse Aquatics are amazingly quick with their...

Well, I carried out the switch-over yesterday, and so far so good! :) I went with the Eheim spray-bar and inlet pipe, I managed to use the strainer from the Eheim kit by using the rubber-bit from the old Fluval hose to connect it and I've modded the spray-bar inlet to help me position it how I...

Well, another item on the list has just been delivered, the light has arrived! I've also ordered the second Koralia Nano pump so we should have about 16x flow and some extra sintered glass filter media for the filter. And that's the absolute end of the spending, the bank account can't take...

Ah yep, luckily (touch wood) the longest I've ever left a heater out of the water has been for a couple of minutes, then it's normally "oh c**p!" and I shove it down into the tank water to cool it down again and switch it off (but it normally hasn't got to the "doing an impression of a cooling...

Hi Stu, Yep, I'd agree, I'm not going to have to get a new heater for now, I've found my backup heater and I'll use that for now, the Juwel one will go in the bits box as a backup as the thermostat seems to be a little flaky (it seems stable, but not accurate anymore). Well, that frees up a...

Hi again, getting a little trigger-happy with the posts at the moment, probably because work isn't too interesting at the moment, still, I have to pay for all this somehow! :) As I am aiming for a jungle-style tank along the same vein as Paulo's tank, I am now quite concerned that I might not...

Hi James, hmm, yes, I am concerned about that, but the budget won't stretch to a new filter for now, I might be able to stretch to another Koralia Nano or Koralia 1 as I discussed with Paulo earlier, it's not a perfect solution but that should help with moving nutrients and CO2 around the tank...

It was cheap (the deciding factor). I got a bit worried I wouldn't have enough light for a carpet of plants on the bottom and my fiancee doesn't want an open top on the tank or any equipment visible outside the cabinet or tank. So that means no CO2 canister standing beside the tank, or hanging...

Well, it's not exactly a case of being able to buy everything, I just don't want to jeopardise the tank's success for the want of another £20, but I'm going to have to draw the line at getting another new filter as I can't justify it at the moment (only got that one a little while ago! :) )...

Woohoo: The light and bulbs are on their way! :)

Well, quick update, my first order has (partially arrived), we've got the following: Fluorite (2x7kg bags) Hydor Koralia Nano Pump (now thought to be a little too weedy, might need to get another at some point). Tropica Plant Nutrition Plus Fertilizer Still waiting on: New Lights (Juwel...

Hi Paulo, Argh, erm, I wasn't planning on upgrading the 205 at present, in fact I'd only just got it about 3 months ago! :( I haven't got room for another filter at present in there at the moment, the fish-load will only be light for now, so I might replace it in a couple of months depending on...