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So, the first step back into planted aquariums, something larger than I've had in 20 years, though still small compared to my future aims :) Juwel Primo 110 LED - 120 litres, 81cm width. Standard lighting, filter sponges replaced with generic sponge and filter wool. Substrate - Tetra Complete...

Hey again all, after a huge break of 5 or 6 years, my life now has space again for another aquarium :) Pretty much stemming from babysitting a neighbours goldfish in a 'lacking' plastic tank and the kids have loved it, I'll likely be going for a low-tech 80cm tank next week to set up with the...

Has anyone tried these two and has an opinion on which is 'better'?

I've been wondering for a while if my Hydor external ever does anything - it is hidden away in the cabinet and the thermometer always shows 22 c or as close as I can make out as it is a stick-on one. This evening I turned the dial right up and right down and I heard no click and saw no lights...

I got one of these rather cheaply on eBay - £6, plus £11 for a courier collection, then £10 for two T5 bulbs from LampSpecs - bargain! Anyhow, the seller messaged me as they were boxing it up to say that two of the T5 connections were cracked and did I still want it - I said yes, I'm not scared...

I couldn't find the answer to this on Google, so I wondered if anyone here knew if you can safely run a 14w T5 (549mm) in a luminaire designed to run 24w T5's?

There's something on eBay which I'm hoping to win later today, however it's collection only. It won't be heavy, and size wise is ~ 60cm x 20cm x 15cm, unboxed. It's in Thornbury and it is quite possibly a bargain - could anyone possibly pick it up for me, box it up and post it? I'd obviously...

I've just fitted the original inlet and outlet to my TetraTec EX600 to try and improve flow - when turning the CO2 on, the bubbles only end up coming out of the first 2/3 of the spray bar holes - the last section doesn't put any out worth mentioning. Is this expected? I was looking to extend...

I have a TetraTec EX600 - it has baskets containing: Base - ceramic rings topped with sponge Middle - Tetra Bioballs Top - more sponge topped with filter floss I don't use carbon. Generally all I've ever done, approx. every 4 weeks, is take the filter away from the tank, gently squeeze the...

I noticed this in my LFS yesterday, never seen or heard of it before - I think it stays short, around 3" max height, however some websites suggest it can get very tall. It looked lovely and compact in the shop, very nice looking plant.

LED's appear to be becoming more mainstream and prices are dropping. At the moment I am using 2 x 15w T8's over my 60cm tank (54L). The Arcadia Eco Aqua Daylight LED has a single 14w 'tube' option - compared to the T8's I have now, would I still likely need to consider two of these or would a...

In light of finding a 60h x 45h x 30d (cm) tank in a skip at work, wanting to rescape completely, and having regretted not buying this dimension in the first place (prefer the height, I bought a 60x30x30 originally), here begins the saga of my next aquarium setup. Genera specs will be: * 70L...

I'm back :) To the point - I don't think I've ever managed to keep my tank algae free, or at least with minimal issues, in all the times it has been re-scaped. I'm going to re-scape again in the next week or two - I always regretted buying the 30cm height (54L) Juwel Rekord tank instead of the...

I think George Farmer had some a good few months ago but I cannot find anything when searching the forum :)

Has anyone else had issues with what I can only determine is BBA growing on FloraBase granules? For months now I've being trying to eradicate the stuff with no joy at all - it grows a little bit on a single granule, like a tiny mini beard really, like a little tuft of fine grass. However many...

Busy building this! Airfix 1/48 Spitfire MkVa (Douglas Bader) (A50030)

I know that the careers of people on here are rather varied so here goes :) I'm trying to source some rather specifically shaped 'flat oval' aluminium tube, initial estimates have an internal diameter of 41mm x 25mm. By flat oval, I mean that the internal shape of the tube is two semi-circles...

I noticed last night that one patch of p.helferi (which I have all around the tank) has got a strong white colour the leaf edges. All other plants including p.helferi elsewhere in the tank are fine. I've been dosing liquid carbon on top of full EI and TPN with pressurised CO2, the carbon to...

Okie dokie, 15UK gallon, 2x18w T8's on 6hrs per day (4-10pm). FloraBase substrate. Pressurised CO2 as high as the fish will let me (on from 10am in the morning until lights off), and full dosage EI using TPN as trace. TetraTec EX600 alongside Koralia Nano - all observations show the CO2...

I got some ludwigia arcuata off a member here a few weeks ago, turned up a lovely red/crimson colour. The new shoots are fairly green, and the original red colour has faded a bit too. I'm running 2wpg (2x15w T8's), full EI with pressurised CO2, using TPN as trace (2ml 3x per week). Substrate...

Picked up what I perhaps incorrectly thought was a small crypt, labelled 'Cryptocoryne Costata' which looks really small in the pot. Is this going to grow a bit large long term?

Cleaned my filter out last night and this afternoon I noticed it was leaking slightly, a little pool of water in the base of the cabinet and a little bit of wet carpet - filter was dripping slowly from what I can only assume was either the motorhead or the pipe connector. I stripped and cleaned...

Any reason why stopping liquid carbon and adding a Koralia would bring on a staghorn infestation? I upped CO2 a few days after the Koralia went in, though I'll admit to not owning or using a drop checker, I've always just turned CO2 up to the level just before the fish begin to gasp. BBA...

There's been a small growth in non-aquarium related Japanese 'hobbies' on here recently such as bonsai etc. Do you feel your interest in such things has been partly driven by your interest or awareness of Japanese aquascaping (e.g. Amano etc.) which has lead you to discover other Japanese...

Has anyone got any experience of doing this? Since moving to my current job where I'm on the same site all week and also work all year round I've wondered on involving the kids in setting up and maintaining what I assume would ideally a low tech planted tank, I'd not fancy the 50% weekly water...

Is there any way of reducing the flow rate of a Koralia (Nano Evo 900 in this case)? It is very powerful and I'd say is a touch overkill for my 60cmx30x30 tank. Are there any things along the lines of inline resistors or equivalent that would let me turn it down a touch?

Say there were only 5 plants in a single Tropica pot, would this be considered acceptable? The one I bought a few years back had loads of plants, at least 15, however the one I got today only has 5 plants in, and typically one of those didn't far well in transit for 4 days (delayed due to the...

Typical and perhaps my own impatient fault, but TGM shipped a pot of vallis mini twister on Tuesday, 1st class, no sign yet and the post has been...here's hoping it's with the Parcel Force/Royal Mail van being a small parcel otherwise I'm not sure how it'll be on Monday!

I got the Resun 2000 in the tank last night, and yeah, huge improvement in flow, but it is rather noisy. It gives off quite a vibration, which in the living room is a touch distracting. I've seen others here mention the Koralia can be a bit noisy and that a short bit of airline hose on the...

My eBay Resun pump has finally turned up :) Do I set it up on the same timer as the CO2 solenoid so it is on with CO2 only, ot have it on all the time? It came with a foreign plug - am I safe to cut this off and wire on a normal 3-pin plug, or must I use an adapter?

Thought one of my cherry shrimp had passed on last night - it was lying upside down and was laden with bright yellow eggs. As I watched, the cardinals (only small little things!) were all beginning to gang up on the shrimp, nipping at the eggs. I tapped the glass and they all went, then came...

Okies, current picture: The r.green in the centre was put in to get some plant mass in there. Rocks get a nice algae covering every 3-4 weeks but this scrubs off easy enough and seems to be something I have to live with as many others here do the same :) I've got a cheap koralia nano copy...

Random Google search for 'glass spraybar' only shows up one, 21" in length, perhaps asking to be snapped, but none in stock and none anywhere else I can find after a short search: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquili-Glass-Sp ... 904&sr=1-3

I'm beginning to assume the marginal algae issues in my 15UKG tank (60x30x30) are down to poor flow. I used to get a noticeable coat on the front glass between weekly water changes and the rocks and wood have slowly got covered with what I can only assume is BBA or similar. A few weeks back I...

I'll be starting a new job next week and, whilst it isn't first on my list of office mods, I have toyed with the idea of using my redundant PFK cube on my desk once I've settled in. My only concern is holidays - it's a school, and whilst I am working all year round, the place is closed for...

My local Maidenhead had some cardinals in which were lovely, very small and almost black with a stripe, however they were labelled as something like sudanese cardinal or similar, however as I didn't write the name down I can't find anything online about them. I'm going to try and call past in...

I had zillions of shrimp in my old scape, enough that they were worse than snails to be honest. I never had a single one get stuck to the lily pipe intake (to filter), which is cut to prevent shrimps being caught. Put 6 cherry shrimp in 3 weeks ago and within the past fortnight 3 of them have...

Pretty sure I want to go for a group of these now - the tank will house nothing but 3 oto's, possibly a handful of bee shrimp, and then a shoal of some dwarf fish. Maidenheads have loads of ember in and they look lovely in the planted tank in store, and I like them from George's nano from a...

I know AE sell them, however I am looking for some bumble bee shrimp and can't find any at the moment? Had some shrimp off eBay years ago but they were a real mixed bag and I doubt they were what they were sold as.

Okies, I have a seedling growing in my FloraBase :) It isn't anywhere near anything I've planted and the first few leaves look nothing like anything I've planted. Anyone else had this? Going to let it grow on and see what becomes!

What's the current demand like for high street planted aquarium stores? Lets just say 'Up north' for now, Cumbria to be slightly more precise. Often wondered on something like this, 11 years of my current job, would much prefer to work for myself, but I am aware of the risk of leaving stable...

Anyone know the main rules for this competition? Did some Googling but didn't find much - when is the 2010 comp?

It seems that the branded plants (Tropica/AquaFleur) are very hard to get hold of now unless you want the common varieties or 6 pots. What online shops don't have these limitations?

First play, 60x30x30cm Seiryu Stone Manzanita wood Black FloraBase (only added 5L for now) Cheers to the guys from the PlantedBox for sorting all this for me! With something like the current layout I'd stick a nice tall bushy crypt in the gap left by the larger/rear rocks. Not sure on...

Are there any small shrimp that won't breed in the aquarium? I ended up having to frequently cull the mixed batch which were sold as Amano (via eBay) as they bred like rabbits, had more shrimp than the usual snail pests! I like the bumble bee shrimp but they appear to breed easily too - I know...

I've always gone for a plant substrate topped with sand/gravel in the past but have wondered on some of the all-in-one products like FloraBase etc. which I noticed on PlantedBox. The easiness appeals, chuck one bag in and away you go, but how do they fare over time? FloraBase mentions it...

We're changing the living room carpet in ~1 month so the tank has to come out. I've ran it for a good while now, and it hasn't done bad. I'm just about happy with it now though I've been battling spirogyra for months now - it never gets bad, but even stripping all I can see each week results...

My car dragged me away from my aquarium a bit, 143,000 miles and so far still going strong with a few performance, audio and style tweaks too: I'm one of two Cumbrian Regional Organiser for the Astra Owners Club too, keeps me busy when I'm not doing 50% water changes :)

I've got one patch of the tank where spirogyra loves to grow - it is quite a small amount, but it grows quite quickly. If I remove the 2 or 3 threads I can see at the water change each week then within a few days you can see it growing back again. I think it reared its head when I ran out of...

Ok, I'm slowly toying with thoughts on the PFK cube stuck up on top of a wardrobe unused for months. I don't want anything high maintenance which leaves low light (likely the original 11w) and minimal water changes if possible. Can this size of tank survive with a water change every 3 or 4...

I subsrcribed to PFK for 2 years - the AquaCube freebie was the main prompt initially, that and I had just got back into aquariums so it helped me get a bit up to date on things. I cancelled the subscription last year - I found I was getting little of interest from the magazine relevant to my...

Okies, well it seems to work well enough - my guess is it would also work well with DIY CO2 as it needs little pressure to push CO2 bubbles into the filter tubing. I get a steady mist of tiny bubbles into the aquarium even at a massively low 1bpm. I admit to having no drop checker on the tank...

I have just received my new dual-gauge regulator from eBay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0319528256 It is very well made to my eyes, but I can only see a needle valve and not the extra knob for controlling the pressure from the FE? The green bit on the picture looks initially...

Our electricity is off today from 8:30am this morning through until 4pm this afternoon. I borrowed a whacking great UPS from work which keeps a 700w server running for 20 minutes and I figured this would run my teeny 10w TetraTec EX600 for most of the power-off period - it seems this may not...

Are there any recommendations on 13mm filter hose/pipe? I have a TetraTec EX600 but I noticed some ribbed Fluval hose - would this be less likely to kink on bends than normal tubing?

Okies, enough is enough - my cabinet is just too small. I have some ideas on tidying it all up, but I figured I should ask advice first before buying anything that maybe isn't the best for pipework routing etc. I have a Juwel Rekord60/70 cabinet so it isn't the full width of the tank. I have...

I knocked the (insert swear words here) outflow pipe when fitting it all back together so it's now in 4 peices... How on earth do people manage to keep pipework tidy in the smaller tanks? I think my problem is trying to squeeze a Boyu diffuser and external heater all onto the inflow tubing...

I bought a cleaning brush from AE thinking it would do for my 13mm lily pipes but it isn't flexible enough at the brush end for me to even debate risking the glassware. It's more for cleaning filter piping it seems. Are there any 'cheap' brushes for cleaning the lily pipes or are there other...

I'm debating switching to using liquid carbon instead of pressurised CO2. My regulator seal has gone and a replacement is likely going to be costly (still researching new seal washers). I'm running 2wpg via T8's over a 54litre/15 US gallon tank. If I use liquid carbon (currently have an...

I seem to find I go shop at e.g. AE, buy some plants, then a week or so later think 'hmm, I reckon plantx would be nice there' and wish they'd ordered it the week before... I wonder sometimes if AE etc get some people like me who seem to order a new plant or two every week or so and wonder why...

Hi all, After posting a while back about the seal inside my D-D regulator splitting, then using (as suggested by someone here) some rubber o-rings to seal it again, it's turning out to be very unreliable. I went to change the bottle today and I just could not get the seal to hold, so basically...

I put a good handful of crypt. Wendtii in my tank recently, and already had 2 plants in, but I'm wondering if they'll end up a big big for the layout as they all grow in. I perhaps should have bought some crypt. parva instead or perhaps as well as, to put around the foreground of the layout...

Moving on from my previous journal: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=438 I figured this was time to change things, with luck for the better! Tank details: 60x30x30cm Juwel Rekord60 with internal filter removed Original Juwel hood stripped and fitted with 2x15w T8's = 2wpg D-D Pressurised CO2 with...

It's a good while since the current 15w 2xT8's went into my hood, they're both Arcadia with one freshwater (whiter) and one of the more red-coloured tubes (can't recall the name now). I always liked the Interpet Daylight tubes but I believe these are now replaced. Any suggestions on what tubes...

I have a feeling George Farmer mentioned this idea donkeys ago - in order to clean lily pipes etc it would be really good if I had a pipe join before the pipe so I could loosen it, remove the pipe, then screw it all back together again. However I can't find anywhere that sells them, can anyone...

Hi all, Long time no see! The tank has been muddling through new babies and sleepless nights for a good while now but it is still going if a bit neglected! I did a big strip of the foreground around a month or so back as it was getting really overgrown, the lilaeopsis brasiliensis had pretty...

Hi all, Long time no see! Still going with the CO2/EI stuff on my aquarium :) The D-D CO2 set I have has got a problem - the clear rubber seal that sits inside the regulator where the CO2 bottle screws in has split. I've tried using a cut down rubber washer instead but it just won't seal...

If, like me, it is easier for you to dose your NPK by mixing it with water in advance (useful for those of us with smaller tanks, anyone else here struggle to visualise 1/32 of a teaspoon?!) here is what I believe is a teaspoon based measurement for 500ml water mixing: KNO3 - add 6.25 level...

Is it a case of ripping it up and replanting or is it a case of amazing patience, small scissors and lots of time?

I've found that unless I have my lily pipe outlet breaking the waterline significantly I still get a build up of surface scum (like that which hangs around lampposts at night but easier to get rid of) - moving it beneath the surface does give a vortex but this doesn't help much to clear the...

So, say my shrimp are soo randy they breed worse than tiny ramshorn snails. A 15 gallon tank has at least 3 batches of young from age in days to weeks, with more eggs visible on the female adults. I had 6 adults ~3 months ago and I probably have in excess of 50 shrimp in the tank now - a tad...

Fitration...hmm. Is that, like, only having so much exercise per week?

And typical, just won some HC on eBay and AE have some in stock for cheaper plus I have £10 of points to use! Pah!

OK - turn my filter off (TetraTec EX600) to clean it. Put it all back together, connect pipes etc and start to prime filter. Jaqno fills with air from the empty filter and at this stage water is no longer pumped into the filter, not entirely sure why. With the Jaqno full of air it is then...

What do I do with old/empty non-refillable CO2 cannisters? Are they safe to throw in the bin or do I need to take them somewhere specific?

I have an e-mail from Sky - if i refer a new customer to them who signs up by Dec14th then the person and me both get a free Sky+ box which is normally £49 upwards depending on your package. Don't care about the M&S vouchers incase people think I am out to make money, I just can't afford Sky+...

I'm taking as many pictures as possible during the full re-scape of my 15-gallon with the aim of producing a full write-up to put here (and in the occasional other place!). I have a fair idea of how I will put it together but does anyone has any suggestions on what they would like to see included?

For anyone interested here is a photo of some Hagen Black River Sand (Extra Fine) and some Tropica Plant Substrate against a 1" lined ruler and a GBP £1 coin: The larger Tropica chunks do break up under pressure.

I stripped down my 15-gallon tank last night, taking out all the substrate ready for new stuff. I noticed a ~6 inch sq. area which was pretty dark and a bit ponky - I assume this was an anaerobic area. I had a similar thing when I stripped down my PFK Cube a while ago. In a heavily planted...

Not sure where this belongs, but on other phpBB forums it is really nice to see a list at the bottom of the main page of the top 10 most recent posts/threads as you can easily see the current popular threads and read them etc....is this an option in the future?

Hi all, Below is an image of my current tank layout etc, though I need to sort a new one out, I cannot believe the growth in the past 7 weeks! I am changing this tank (Juwel Rekord60) pretty much entirely. Current and forthcoming plans: Current: * Juwel internal filter (no carbon, added...