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Hi Hoskins, I'm not massively experienced at all but I have set up a planted tank with and without a pH controller for several months each. Using a pH controller has made no perceptible difference in my aquarium, although I can see how a pH controller could be useful in a different set up. In...

I'll give it a try, thanks.

Thanks, I picked up the four of them for £50, seemed like a good deal because the slightly larger ones were £40 each! Only downside is that they're refusing to eat anything but frozen bloodworm at the moment, frustrating! Especially as I watched them taking granules before I bought therm. In...

I don't think they're called amazon swords, but I don't know what their name is. If I find out I'll let you know.

Grateful for suggestions, thanks for the input, I was actually thinking the same myself. I positioned those two plants when they were alot smaller, and wouldn't actually grow very well at the ends, I think they've over grown their space now so there's gonna be some moving around. Their roots are...

Nice start, haven't read all the comments but just wanted to add my experience of making a diy stand. For the frame I copied the structure from the diy stand on this webpage: http://www.aquariumlife.net/projects/diy-aquarium-stand/56.asp I glued the pieces of wood together, fixing them with...

Discus and cardinals still watching each other carefully, no losses yet touch wood.

Where are the angels?! Are there some lurking in the photos which I haven't spotted?!!! Only joking, I'm sure little bright blue and red things will fit into the diet of even the most discerning discus, however so far I think they've got that "on holiday" feeling so are giving the cardinals an...

Just an update on my tank, removed quite a few species of plants as they were growing out of control and grew tired of cutting them back / wanted a low maintenence set up. Also finally bought some discus today (which was the idea when I bought the tank 1 year ago). I'm really pleased with them...

Would like to add my vote for pencilfishes, I've got 10 beckford's pencilfish and think they look great! I love their distinctive hovering swimming style, and mine are constantly breeding and the males spar all the time aswell. Just my 50 pence!

Just one intake and output pipe on the filter, but also got a put a T junction on the intake so I can drain off water easily, and also plumbed in a UV filter and there's a bypass going round it to reduce the flow going through the UV.

Just an update on the tank. I've made a few changes... The vallis was growing like crazy and I got fed up of cutting it back so I pulled it all up. Moved around the other plants abit as you can see. My water became very soft and acidic for some reason, pH 5.8 to 6.0 (despite water changes with...

Yeah, makes you have a think about trying it, but realistically don't have time / resources at the moment. They looked very beautiful whilst spawning. At first I just noticed that they were racing around the tank in an unusual way, and then I realised that they were actually spawning. One...

Have been watching the pH in my aquarium very slowly dropping day by and trying to figure out why and whether I should be doing anything about it until I came home late last night having accidentally left the light on and found my cardinals rushing around laying eggs! My tapwater is quite soft...

Some pictures... The male is about double the size of the females, I don't know if they will grow any more or not. The first female in the photo is the one the other two chase around. Gonna try a day without any food.

The aquarium is at 26 degrees, and I feed them everyday, flake food, sinking pellets for catfish, live daphnia/ mosquito larvae (about every other day), and bloodworm. Haven't tried leaving them for a day without feeding.

Well most of the predictions are ringing true, including Ed's comments: Took the less dominant male back to fish shop due to bullying from the other male. I optimistically hoped harmony would ensue but was disappointed... The main problem seems to be feeding, none of the remaining three are...

Bit the bullet and bought four a week ago, 2 males, 2 females. They seem happy enough at the moment. The only problem is that they have a bit of a limited diet at the moment. At the shop I was told they'd take flake food (which is what i feed my fish most of the time), but so far they've just...

2 pairs would be just fine, my main worry is whether they'll eat / bully my cardinals and pencilfishes (had to get rid of troublesome angelfish previously).

Just checked my sum and I exagerrated a bit, the actual flow rate was 680 lph. I calculated it using an 8L bucket (lph = (60*60*8)/time to fill to 8L in seconds). The filter was full of media at the time and had a UV filter and inline heater attached, I took a while figuring out a low resistance...

In my 200L aquarium I allow the CO2 to bubble into the intake tube of my external canister filter. I only use about 10 bubbles per minute and only very occasionally do very small bubbles come out of the outflow of the filter. This is sufficient to turn my drop checker lime green. The advantage...

My LFS had some of these in recently, thought they would look great in my tank. Have tried looking for info online without too much success. Anyone got any experience of keeping this fish? Are they difficult to keep? Thanks for replies, Will

Good to hear different views, my tubes are only 6 months old, can't see any blackening out yet. I'll keep an eye on the ends for blackening out but hopefully they'll last me a little while yet.

Yep, should come together abit if the midground fills out abit. Did a bit of serious pruning recently to get rid of some plants which were getting out of control, so hopefully with a bit of "breathing room" they'll come through.

Cheers for the feedback. No I just had a couple of small vallis plants at the start, but they sent out runners and have grown pretty well. I have to chop the tops off every week otherwise they'd block out all the light!

Great, that's reassuring, I can avoid the expense of upgrading the lighting now. Thanks, plants do seem to be going ok, just getting a bit of the black hair algae, not easy to see in the pics, am hoping that as the plants thicken out, this may discourage the algae. Got the pH controller at the...

Here it is, not very professional compared to some of the amazing tanks you see on this site, but it definitely brightens up my dining room anyway! Tank specs as follows: Roma 240 (approx 40G), flourite substrate, 2 x 40W T8 tubes on 10 hours per day, Eheim pro II 2026 filter, CO2 approx 20ppm...

Probably a simple one, but just wondering how often it's recommended to replace your tubes when used for about 10 hours per day? Thankyou.

Have been dosing TPN+ for the last two weeks and plants are looking better in general. My question is how much TPN+ should I go for? I do 40% water changes every 1-2 weeks. I have 2 x 40W T8 tubes on 10 hours a day for a 200L aquarium. CO2 is injected and dropchecker is green colour using 4dKH...

Ok, thanks Ceg, I'm listening to the advice given, TPN+ arrived three days ago and just started dosing the aquarium. I think there's a fair bit of conflicting advice out there for the beginner, so I'm gradually figuring out who know's what they're talking about! I contacted a few of my LFS's...

Thanks for the replies and the suggestions. I forgot to add that I have checked the pH and it is not that low around 6.9. The KH is about 3, and CO2 is about 10 so I don't think the pH is abnormally low. Still getting a whiff of rotten eggs when I do water changes but bubbles seem to have...

Water has a hint of rotten eggs. Worried! The only thing I can think of is that when I'm moved some plants, I haven't necessarily pulled out the old roots. Perhaps these are now decaying anaerobically?

I've read some stuff on the internet about how centrifugal pumps work, and it seems they are far better at pushing water than pulling it. The problem arises when negative pressure causes cavitation and reduces the efficiency of the pump. This can also reduce the lifetime of a pump. I think that...

I have set up my first planted aquarium over the past 3 or 4 months. My set up is as follows: Roma 240 tank, 2x 40W T8's, substrate is seachem flourite (well washed initially), ehiem 2026, 8W UV unit and dosing with ferropol (TPN ordered and apparently on it's way). In the last few days I've...

Agreed. I think we are arguing the same point here. The solution that I have proposed is that by splitting the flow around the UV unit, you still get the benefit of the steriliser without the increased resistance and consequent loss of flow. Agreed again. However, my point is that points of...

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply, I would definitely be interested in hearing how you installed the T5 unit.

Thanks again for your advice ceg4048, and Ade. I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the biggest deficiency in my set up is fertilsation of my plants (some of them have now started turning white, I suspect because there aren't enough nutrients!). I've read the very informative article on...

Can you reccomend a fertiliser that contains nitrate and phosphate?

Yep, I did consider doing that way, but the syphon does seem to drain the tank ok, and the advantage of having this tap on the input side is that you can use the pump to suck water into the aquarium a bit (taking care not to strain the pump).

Thanks for your help guys, think I've finally got the hang of it! PS will use preview feature in the future!

Thanks, I've been meaning to do a bit more research on the nutrient side of things so I'll look into that. Have seen conflicting information about measuring CO2 levels, the consensus here seems to be that pH isn't very good, and the dropper method seems to be the way forward. Can you reccomend...

Just wanted to share my experience of setting up a planted aquarium with external filter, UV steriliser and in line CO2 and heater. Some of this may be obvious, but because I ran into a few problems, I thought I’d post my experiences here. Problem 1 – Reduced flow from canister filter I was...

Still trying, might get there in the end!

Ok, I'll give it another try! [/img]

I'm pretty new to planted tanks. My set up so far is as follows: T8 lighting 2 x 40W tubes, 10 hours a day, with reflectors supplied with the unit. Pressurised CO2 used to bring pH down from 7.4 to 6.9 Flourite substate and JBL Ferropol fertiliser (when I remember!). Growth seems a little on...

Thanks for the help. This is just a test run to see if it works!

Please can someone explain how to attach images to a post. I assume it has something to do with the "Img" button on the top of the posting box but all that does for me is this "[img][img]"! Probably a very simple question, but I'm totally new to this, so I'd be grateful if someone could explain...