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I've used willow whips in the past to suck up excess nutrients.. works well albeit look a tad odd sticking out the top! They'll take root from a cutting in no time and grow like the proverbial. Easy to remove with no disturbance to the tank. Just shove 4 or 5 x 6 inch whips in the top of the...

... well... maybe not smart but smarter than I have the credit. For the 4 weeks i have had pest snails EVERYWHRE - on the glass, in the moss, on every plant ... everywhere and visible all day with all the lights on. So I just got 2x dwarf puffer to try to make a dent. Within 5 minutes of the...

Hahah!

Watcha all. Got a bit of a snail outbreak - what would you all suggest as a bait for a trap? Thanks

Just popped into a garden centre .. saw a tank of amano and enquired to price.. £1.25 each.. Needless to say I cleaned them out! BAAAARGAIN.

Thanks guys! Guessed as much - I've not bothered with any testing for over a year as there seemed so little point but thought it would be an idea to try them again after blitzing the BG algae. Insidently very impressed with the h2o2 - did a full tank treatment which nuked 99% of it and now...

Hello group. So I bought a King British 6 in 1 test strip kit. To put it bluntly I am not impressed at all. The ammonia test especially appears to be a pile of c**p - was showing dangerous levels (deep blue/green) of ammonia which freaked me out but then checked it against plain tap water...

i set up a fire extinguisher based system for about 90 quid - money well spent.

Heads up for CO2 refills. Had my 5kg fire extinguisher refilled at cellar gas in Hereford. Great guys and cost a fiver.

It was new wood, yeah. Looked similar though.

Yeah man! I've had them a few time after reshuffled etc! Was just hoping that (yet again!) There was a non existent Sort out for it! If you fancy any of the riccia foc just ping me pm.

I had that in a nano tank I did. Diatoms I went with but it cleared up when I upped the Co2. Bloody stank as well. Has it all over the bogwood.

@Chubbs that would be Riccia Fluitans - grows really well. Yup, just that old waiting game. Oh well.

Some pics.. obviously there will be a lot of sorting out over the next few months while I decide what I would like where! I won't start pruning and serious gardening until the diatom issue has worn itself out.

Haven't posted for a while... Having recently moved house I did the old save filter material, 200ltr of water and asap swap over (took 3 days to get it all done and set up but fish and plants were in 150ltr holding tubs with the filter and all medium was saved and reused). Pretty happy with the...

i had/have the same problem - dropping ferts completely (the soil will have a load of neutrients in that will leach out over the next few months anyway) and lowering lighting did wonders. Coupled with algae eating critters seems to have it under control.

Just a quick update in the hope that it helps others.. dropped lighting down to 2xt5 tube active for 7hrs a day and introduced 5x SAE. remarkable. The SAE are polishing off what algae/diatoms are present and the drop of lighting seems to have stopped/slowed the growth of more.

thanks for the reply! it's throughout the tank, especially in amongst the plants.

not the answer i was hoping for!!!!! good luck with it!

ok, sorry about late reply.. lights on for 8hrs.. knocked down to 6 for time being and raised up higher above the tank.. fish feeding - probably too much tbh! i have 8 amanos and about 20 various versions (!) of cherry shrimps. also have some green hair algae going on.. i expect that it's just...

My large tank (350ltr) has now been set up for over 2 months. I have been doing one 50% water change at least once a week and 20% changes every few days with a rinse of filter material (in treated water (as in aquasafed)) at the same time and the Diatoms are getting worse! I know I know.. be...

I had a not too severe green water algae bloom last week and having had a look on 't interweb I found a few posts about putting live willow branches in the tank. So I tried it and 2 day later gin clear water. Pretty impressed actually! Thought I would share.

thanks mate! there is some weeping and christmas moss attached actually - great minds and all that..

0 osmosis water. Just treated tap water, and 20%water changes every 3 days for now. This will go down to 30-35% changes every week when diatoms have gone.

This it my tank after 6 weeks of growing in. Bit of a diatom issue but that will go with time! The silver tip testras may get rehomed due to their hollaganastic tendencies... I popped two willow whips in there as I was suffering a mild green water issue. Cleared in 2 days. Very impressed with...

ahhh.. sorry, It should have read CaCO3 -calcium carbonate - what makes water hard! Thanks for the reply! Makes good reading. I may look for a paired up couple in a few weeks/months. I like the look of the bolivian rams as well, if not more. Thanks.

Love the look of these and the way they behave but have read many horror stories about how fussy and hard they are to keep. 350 ltr tank jungle/heavy planted area. Water is relatively high CaCo2. Any advice and experience is really appreciated. I am slowly slowly starting to stock the tank...

syphoned hosepipe into the bath for me! then mixer tap to refill while dosing with aquasafe..

yeah! we should have a race to see who can grow the largest of a species of plant!!

lovely tank mate! i didn't mask it but wish i had - took ages to clean the crap off!

that's a great story! thanks! They sound brilliant, but deffo going off my hit lists - little fekkers!

it went well mate! left it a week to cure then filled it incrementally over a week (don't want it bursting!), let it sit for a week and then did a proper fill! no leaks, nothing thank god!

This is my new (free old tank - resealed) tank planted up. Early, early day and will get fiddled with big time while the plant grow in. I'm going for jungle sections with open sandy areas and nooks and crannys (which will get added to over time with mossy 'roots' etc). I was going to go for a...

gotta say.. I ordered an advanced Co2 kit. It turned up the next day, well packaged and having linked it up to a 5kg fire extinguisher it works veeer well. 10/10.

my trimming skills will probably be rather good - rather neurotic! i'm liking the idea of lilies atm. flow is medium - enough to gently flutter foliage (eheim classic 350) with spray bar central.

As title.. 350ltr open top tanks (4ftx2ft floor) Choosing plants now and... I definitely want some surface flowering plants - no more than 3 species/plant. I love the idea of lilies but do worry that they will over-run the tank. Your thoughts are really appreciated!

very true! in fact i've just been eyeing up my nano with rasboras and amanos in it......!

thanks lindy! that kind of reinforces (sadly) what i thought - that they would turn into PITA's... oh well! I want shoals and shrimp more than i do PP's... !

So i have set up my big tank and about to plant up - pic's will follow when i am happy with it!! After the initial amano/cherry shrimp fortnight post fishless cycle i will be looking at fish and (unsurprisingly i guess) love the idea of a couple of pea puffers. I will have shoaling fish -...

brilliant mate, thanks. i'm avoiding bots with calcite veins in so i think all will be good!

I have access to some really lovely limestone from the Monnow where i fish and would like to use it as hardscape - but already having hard water is this likely to throw the kh/ph through the roof? It's a 350ltr tank. I have read some conflicting reports on the use of limestone and was wondering...

Thanks guys!

Thanks mate! Essentially to make Co2 dosing more effective. I am not overly concerned to be honest as the payoff of hard water appears to be more stable water chemistry.. however I expect It will lead to a more limited choice of plants in the large tank I am setting up. S'all good!

thanks for the replies. buy hard water i mean that the kh levels are super high - the test srips that i use are off the chart (indigo for kh). I have free water as it's borehole/spring fed (i live in a country estate property).

lovely.

Yup, that's this sort of thing. With a swap about for the tubes the saving is looking pretty good.

Yeah, for sure, but surely just a swap out of the tubes used is all that is needed yeah?

Thank you! I have been looking at 6 tube t5's actually. Has anyone used one's designed for hydroponics? I have seen a susspended system that is significantly cheeper than and aqua-specific one?

Hello! Advice required please! I am doing a slow set up on this tank as it's my first proper tank - as in i'm doing it slowly and getting it right! I want to have the tank up and running and plants/fish happy within 3-4 months. I am obviously new to this size set up. I am supposing that i will...

I have pretty hard water (bore hole - not mains) and was wondering what a wedge of peat would do in the filter system? thoughts anyone..?

It's really good - 5 minutes from my office!

Well that was quicker than i expected! Searching facebook market place and i just found a 4ft x 2ft (d) x 18.5'' (h) tank in excellent condition FOR FREE! Picking it up tomorrow. Brilliant! This is good as i can now slowly but surely get it all set up and lovely over the next month or two. Was...

Actually i am loving the low tech idea! I have an .. errrmmm... heath robinson streak. My Diy Co2 setup on the lads nano is working bloody, bloody well! Roll up cigarette filter poked into the end of the tube as a diffuser has worked so well compared to the ceramic one it is laughable. low...

that is stunning! the tank looks far bigger than it is!

Hi there! So I am baby new to aquascaping and fish keeping but have a pretty good background in ecology, water chemistry, biology etc! Having recently been blown away by amano's and green machines' creations this has quickly become the subject of continuous research! I work from home 3-4 days...