Search results for query: *

So I thought I'd post a little update on the s.repens in case anyone else has similar issues. Here is what has changed for the last two weeks. I've simplified my dosing after getting more detail from the water company. I'm dosing dry salts as a single front loaded dose straight after a water...

Hi Jack I'd remove/edit your link to TA as it contains all of your personal details.. Not great security from TA holding everything in plain text in a URL! If not prehaps an admin can remove it for you. I've not used a lot of their food though I know @rubadudbdub has..

It works well in live drive/excel online though which is free!

Yep, I agree with @ian_m. I forgot to mention this in my above post and you can see that's how my stand is constructed as well. This help brace, prevent racking and spreads the load.

Mainly because I work odd shifts away from home a lot for four day stretches. I have one dosing pump and my tap water already contains a reasonable amount of phosphate so I would just let the dosing pump add the rest. I'll probably just give it a try. For the last two weeks I've front loaded...

Images of the stand-in construction I have attached the cladding with industrial velcro, which sound weak, but is incredible and in 2 1/2 years, I've not needed to replace any of it in spite of taking the sides off every couple of days. Any questions feel free to ask!

Hi Epiphyte, Sorry for the slow reply! I'd much rather over than under engineer something like this. These are the two threads that I based my build on (one has some strain and deformation calculations in it, I found them really helpful. Wrasse retreat Frank the tank I used the deflection...

I e built a stand for a 400l tank and my light fitting out of it if you're still looking for details?

Ascorbic acid acidifies the solution making the chelates holding the micros more stable and less likely to release/exchange the ion in question. That should mean it can't react with phosphate and precipitate. The potassium sorbate inhibits mould and yeast growth.

If it is just phosphates (and I've just done a lot of hunting on UKAPS) I'm wondering if we could make an EI mix containing everything but phosphate (and then just dose phosphate as required) without interactions..

My impression is that the main issue is with phosphates and traces, essp Fe and Zn. I'd also be interested to know if the other macros have any interaction with the trace elements..

More frustrating 😂 I think can see why though. The soil/low energy tanks have much better controlled lighting, and far lower flow, though they're much shallower. I switched this tank to high energy in the hope it would help with the crazy amount of natural light it receives. As you can tell...

This what I find interesting about this hobby and why I mentioned you! There were and are flow issues in that area of the tank which I've addressed with a short-term wavemaker fix. Hopefully a pair of gyres such as those @Zeus. uses will be the long term solution. Turning over 400l in a deep...

I already have a blind for that side of the tank for the middle of summer, I'll deploy it early this year..

Thanks zenith, that explains it. I'm just looking for zinc with an alternative chelate to see if that helps as well as splitting the micro and macro, I use Fe eddha, but struggling to find anything other than edta.

I live in Kenilworth so you're spot on with that! This is supply zone ZWA13, more interestingly noted in the report -The supply to this area is from surface water treated at works in Worcestershire. P.S That geology link is a really interesting read!

With aquarium plant foods UK now shut I'd be interested to know how people are getting on with these mixes?

Interestingly I just got a reply from my water company for the last quarter average I probably don't need to add much other than potassium and trace... Given I do a 50-80% water change everyweek. (makes me wonder if if some people who lean dose just have quite rich water to begin with) pH 7.12...

And I think we have a winner... Tap phosphates Tank phosphate I'm guessing this is binding iron and zinc. Doesn't explain why the floaters are doing fine, though they're in the path of the fertilizer

Thanks Simon and Darrel for your input. I'm running high phosphates anyway, which has interestingly stopped all GSA. It may have complexed my zinc (and iron) though. I wonder how @LondonDragon avoids this as my aio is based on his recipe. I love it when people link evidence to my posts, makes...

Mycobacterium marinum infection in fish and man: epidemiology, pathophysiology and management; a review Occurrence of Mycobacterium spp. in ornamental fish Both of the above suggest around a 30-50% infection rate in ornamental fish which makes it hard to believe that most of us haven't exposed...

I really do feel for you. I don't think that there is an easy answer here. It seems like there are some main disease-causing (rapidly fatal) strains and some that are present all the time in the environment and only strike if a fish is weakened or stressed. I guess the better question is why one...

Interesting review article on MB in fish Microorganisms 2020, 8(9), 1368 Did the vet tell you what strain of MB your fish had?

To answer your question as I was typing while you posted! I think I would immediately euthanase any obviously sick fish but I'd probably keep anything that looks ok for now. Truly sterilizing a tank and filter will mean stripping it cleaning it and then running it with diluted chlorine bleach...

Hi Rosie, I've just been catching up on your journal, I'm so sorry to hear about everything that has gone on, what an absolutely terrible time you've had. Like you, I have worried about fish TB in the past as fish gradually die from nonspecific symptoms. I have just never had it confirmed. I'm...

Zinc is not something I'd have even considered! It's an easy fix to switch from aio. I'll do a macro only batch on my dosing pump and then dry dose the micros for a few weeks and see ...

I hadn't, I've pretty much stopped all testing, good shout. Sadly I think it's safe to say nitrates are not the limiting factor.. If anything there's too much nitrate!

Nope, the floaters are at the opposite end of the tank and the repens is on the side of the tank facing into a very (annoyingly) bright kitchen so if anything is getting far more light than I'd like! I've just moved a powerhead for now, I'm hoping to pick up a pair of gyres if there's a good...

Hi all, I seem to have some deficiencies developing.. I'm using an all in one ei mix with nitrates at 25ppm, potassium 30ppm, phosphate 8ppm, magnesium 10ppm, iron 0.5 ppm (mix of buffers as my water has a GH of 9.8). Made with acidified DI water one litre lasts two weeks. Other thoughts, this...

Thanks, Tom that's exactly the twiggy look I was after! I can confirm that oak doesn't have quite the look that I want, I also would like the twiggy bits to still have bark on. I'm sure I can find some birch.

I was just wondering if anyone had a list of twiggy wood that is suitable for aquarium use? I'm after something like MD uses in his rio negro tank : I know there are plenty of safe leaves to use from the UK and I use a lot of oak for structure wood but I'm trying to go more biotopish so would...

Do either of you have a list of temperate aquascape friendly fish? The last two summers the temperate in my tanks has reached 32 deg in short bursts (yes in the UK!) and the fish suffered....

Looking great! Personally, I really like the overgrown look..

Thanks for the quick reply! That's a nice way to do it. I'm just noticing interveinal chlorosis on some of my new growth and trying to work out the cause.. I'm still loving this tank, I've just been back through the whole thread.

Thanks Paulo, I'm still using a recipe based on your earlier fertilizer mix, with the e=xception of more nitrates it's not far from this! I was just wondering what your source water report is like? Scott

An example for you.. excuse the rest of the tank!

It does drop the light a bit, mainly due to reflection and condensation. It's easy to make reflectors to bounce it back in. The polycarbonate is relatively cheap and easy to work, because of its construction it doesn't tend to sag with the heat either I'm away at the moment but I'll lake...

Polycarbonate roofing material is cheap, easy to cut to size and works really well..

So having moved the current inhabitants out of my tank ready for a rescape I'm looking for ideas. The issue I have are the tank dimensions: 36 inches long, 24 inches wide, 30 inches deep. This is the last layout: I'd like it have a bit more of a natural feel while making use of the height and...

Currently, buy one get one free and code WELCOME10 takes off a further 10% at lloyds.. Thanks again ukaps!

Any news on your barb? this is exactly what the lump on mine looked like, see here fish parasite identification

Hi all, Over the last year, I've been gradually losing fish. They either get bloat or get a small mass that then ruptures, I've never seen what was inside that mass until now.... I managed to get one of the barbs that has recently developed a mass in a bag as I thought I saw something poking...

It looks to be working great, I've copied your EI mix and I'm definitely getting less Green spot with good growth, hence me wondering if you've tweaked any further. I'd love some upto date shots!

Just wondering if you're still using this ei ratio and having success with it?

Thanks to the help of the kind people on ukaps I've now sorted out my fertilizer issues Issues with dry salts? I'm now looking to rescape my tank. It's quite an awkward size being 36inches long X 24inches wide X 30inches deep and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for scaping such a tank...

I think there are two competing ways of looking at this the low tech, filterless, 'traditional low tech' way and what we're considering here, which is a high energy filterless system with regular vac and water change. I do wonder if a more open substrate system might help with ammonia breakdown...

That's interesting, thank-you. I don't mind clearing out the mulm, though I suspect a simple sponge filter or even a fine mesh filter would deal with much of that and be easy to hide. I agree, then seeing the fish is a real treat. Though I do like the personality of some of the small ciclids...

I think this is the key, balanced stocking and dense planting. I don't like heavily stocked tanks so I suspect it'd work well for me. I also change 80-100% of the water weekly so I doubt there's much accumulation of toxic metabolites. Filter bacteria are almost entirely aerobic so a tank with...

Yes I think i'd start by stepping down to one filter and keeping the other for spare parts -I already own them anyway. I'm thinking that using one of these hmf foams might do the trick in a heavily planted tank.

I often go 3 months as well, cleaning the filters is a pain and there is always a risk of breakage/leakage/seals air entrainment etc. I think if I tried I'd be looking at putting a small powerhead driven fine sponge filter in a hidden position to catch all that rubbish. I use modified aquael...

So following a bit of a discussion with @Zeus. in another thread I thought I'd start a topic here and see what people thoughts are. Do we actually need a big leaky expensive fault-prone canister filter to run our tanks? Reading the threads here people have issues with every make all the time...

I feel this may warrant it's own thread? Would you considering going filterless?

I guess the question is what proportion of our filtration is actually done by the filter media. I guess very little. If that's the case the filter basically just becomes a heating and co2 injection loop..

I wish I'd gone longer, but it was what I could fit in as a room divider... It's 36 long X 24 wide X 30 deep so about 400l. I know exactly what you mean about looking crowded with few fish inspire of alot of displacement. The other issue is flow, it's alot of water to keep moving. Because the...

I absolutely love these tanks, I'd really like to see more similar setups. I'm about to embark on a rescape of a very deep tank. I'm feeling inspired and I'm wondering if I should consider something biotopish...

Any chance of some photos of the Wapoga rainbows?

So doing a bit more homework it looks like delivering co2 in series like the pro elite can be hard to balance. I'd ideally have liked the oxyturbo duel stage reg with solenoid and splitter but aquasabi are no longer shipping to the uk. The next best option would seem to be the co2 art pro-se...

I'm looking for a twin output duel stage co2 regulator and was looking at the ultimate-pro or pro elite (co2 supermaket/co2 art). This is so I can run one Co2 line to a qanvee diffuser on each filter return. Is there a more affordable way to do this splitting a pro-se - adding up two bubble...

That looks interesting. @Zeus. What modifications would you make?

I always enjoy biotope tanks, I worry there'd be algae struggles with such low plant mass? But prehaps that's compensated for by low light..

A4L are excellent I have a 400l tank from them. Good customer service, lovely silicon, polished edges. Worth the wait. I also have three 90l superfish scapers tanks. For a budget tank I'm very impressed. The filter is a bit pants, I'd plan on replacing if you're stocking heavily or want 10x...

Thanks for the advice @Tim Harrison I'll wait until I'm off next! Would you still recommend a soil substrate? I noticed from your recent journals you've switched mainly to tropical AS and CO2.

Tim Thanks for the tutorial, it's great. So I have a bag of this Multi-Purpose Compost with John Innes sat in the garden and two tanks waiting to set up, would this work or am I better getting aquatic compost and peat moss and waiting a bit longer? I'm considering putting the compost into filter...

I agree they much prefer it cooler though I've never taken the tank below 18 deg, I'd say they hold colour well up to about 24 deg. They were very unhappy last summer when there was nothing that I could do to keep the tank cool.

Damn it, Amazon is out of stock again, can't even preorder...

Oddly I'm planning to get some! Prehaps some spotted blue eyes as well! If I manage to find some locally I'll pop some photos up.

They're about an inch long. The males are currently sparing.. they're facinating to watch and beg for food. https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pethia-padamya/ I wish my water was soft, it opens so many options!

None are great, my phone camera isn't upto it! But hopefully you get the idea... They prefer slightly cooler temps and like a bit if hardness in the water.

Neither photo really does them justice. Bright red to dark black, yellow fins and a blue spot behind the eye tin foil on the lower half. I'll see if I can get a better photo!

The s2pro dimmer from the bay should do what you want...

I too have a really deep tank so find this thread interesting! I was looking for something more in keeping height wise. At the moment I have Odessa barbs (which look stunning!) And danios in there.. What about bleeding hearts, they get deep and look great. It's a bit bigger but shorter at...

I have an aquariums4life tank, the silicon is flawless and the glass edges polished beautifully. Service was good and they'll build any size you want... I do wish I'd got them to do a sump as well.

For anyone else looking at this a free onedrive account allows you to use the calculator as long as you're online.. Thanks for such a great resource!

Any chance of adding champak sequestered iron as a trace source?

Thanks that's perfect, answers the amounts of polysorbate and ascorbic acid. I'll get on excel after work to do separate macro micro mix's.

Well I just finished getting all my new ferts. Then realised that the IFC calculator doesn't open in libra office or drive! How much potassium sorbate and ascorbic acid to people add to the mix? (using DI water) I'll update again when I can get it open calculate what potions to mix 🤣

Growth looks great, I can only hope to achieve something like that

Yes, I think that'd be doable, though I'd need to modify the cartridge as otherwise the water would bypass the media towards the bottom. Yes, I was looking a a corner hmf. I kind of like the keep everything in the tank approach. It'd also allow a more secure lid! Envrobee is just down the road...

Currently water is pumped in then pushed down through the thin end of the sponge. One of the worst designs I've seen. I'm thinking by fitting a divider after the first cassette then I could push water down through a stack of sponges as a prefilter and then back up through bio media. I think...

The bigger question for me is do I try and reuse the HOB filters, which I think I can modify so water runs down through sponges then back up through bio media. See photos. Or do I just fit an HMF which appears essentially maintenance free and keeps everything in the tank.

Hi you have alot of flexibility with the S2 pro.. Hinterfield aka s2pro S2 pro

I also found it interesting the difference rates of release from the different polymer coatings. They're not all the same thing! Some of the exact ranges have release graphs on the website. The graphs in the paper also raise the question if it's worth washing/soaking the osmocote to wash out the...

I used them under the swords and Lilly and have always seen a response... Found a couple of interesting papers on temp and water column release from a sand bed: The second one is more relevant as it covers newer generation products www.plantgrower.org › etdPDF Influence of Temperature and Time...

I'm looking at making some root tabs as I'm running out. Would you still recommend the preplant or is slower release always better? The 12-14 month osmocoat is available on the well known auction site!

Hope that helps, just dealing with a filter on a different tank entraining air but if you want any more info let me know!

You can get glass brackets on ebay/Amazon, I used this solution on an old tank with a sheet of perspex. There are a couple of other options I'm aware of. One us to have a net/mesh top made, I've seen these on reef tanks. MD aquatics uses twinwall polycarbonate roof sheets from the local DIY...

I have two of these waiting to setup. You need an external dimmer but they work very well with the cheap eBay s2-pro. The external filter is a silly design, I'm still considering how to modify it to not use the cartridge. Basically it pumps water upto the top of the plumbed cartridge and then...

Perfect. I'll get some spotless/ro water and some buffers and see if I can salvage anything from the starvation diet. Poor plants! Thanks so much for your help, will let you know how it goes, the floaters show changes pretty rapidly...

Thanks, I'm thinking it's down to making them with tap water and no buffer.. my only worry then is how long they're available in tank water. Brilliant I'll have a proper play when I get home from work.

Thanks. New leaves have been yellow with green veins. But they have greened up (or dropped off) with the shop bottle of all in one so I assume it's a mobile nutrient deficiency. I think I've lost most of the nkp and trace mixs (two different bottles) to precipitation likely with hardish water...

Two separate bottles one for trace and one for nkp. The only think I can assume is it's hard water causing the precipitate as the phosphate and iron went in alternate days...

Hi @Zeus. Thanks for the reply. Sorry it was neutro plus not T, just double checked the site. The bottle got thrown out ages ago when I switched to dry salts.. hence the confusion. I've been using dry salts from aquarium plant food for at least 8 months now. Do you think it's just the lack of...

Yep, that worked, thanks 👍

I just installed it on Android and I don't get the nice icon... Any reason it wouldn't come up?

I really need to start a journal as I need other advice, but for now, I think need some help with EI salts! This has taken a bit of time to post as I work in ITU and I've been a bit busy and miserable! This tank is my relaxation and I really need to get it back on track for my own sanity! So I...

Thanks you so much! That's awesome, external heater build is my next project.

That looks great! any chance you can give some more information on how you built it, where you got the components from etc?

Are you planning a black Friday event for this year?