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I agree, Aquatic Design Centre is a good place to look for plants.

I would not bother soaking it either. But lots of water changes and a mature filter will help.

That is amazing growth. Really impressed, but don't envy your pruning sessions over the coming weeks.

That is looking really good. Pseudomugil gertrudae will look lovely in there.

Wow, that's a fast reply to my question!

I agree, I would really love to see a section on biotopes.

That is a lovely stone. What does it look like submerged in water?

The aquatic design centre in central London is well worth a look when you are in town. In fact, it is worth a trip to town just to go there.

This looks great. Cannot wait to see it when it is grown in.

Good choice of camera

Both Canon and Nikon make fine kit and there is little to choose between them. The choice comes down to price (especially of any extra lenses or flashes you want) and their ergonomics. They have different button layouts etc, so I suggest you have a play with both and see which you prefer...

Sounds like a great deal from your LFS, Pinkmummy. Pity Zooplus are still out of stock. The CO2 and heat will mix well if you set-up as Lurch has mentioned.

I agree that JBL would be better. They are well made and the newer greenline filters use less electricity. Good luck with getting one from Zooplus though, they have not had any JBL filters in stock since early December.

It is looking great, George. I have got to give the Dry start approach a go with mosses in future, looks like your moss took really well.

Resistance is futile, George.

That is looking really great, George. Can't wait to see it flooded.

I have planted into Amazonia immediately with a mature filter and it all went well. As Ady says, water changes are vital. I did daily large water changes for a week, then every 2 days for a week, then twice a week for a week or two.

In my experience it is best to take the yoghurt out of the fridge for a few mins before taking the blob, if the yoghurt is too cold the blob can easily be twice this size.

Ferts can be dosed at any time. Liquid carbon breaks down in the water column, so it is best dosed just before lights on to give the highest concentration. Otherwise the only advantage to a set time is to aid memory.

I do not know anywhere near you but your best bet is a trip to London for the Aquatic Design Centre or to Croydon for Living Waters. Both are fantastic.

In a tank that size I am a fan of a couple of filters, often you get more flow that way and there is some redundancy built in if a filter fails.

With bleaching the media it depends on the type of media and the concentration of bleach. Sponges can fall apart so are better sterilised with boiling water; I think ceramic media fares better with bleach. Certainly sounds like a good idea to run some bleach through the empty filter though...

Some folk seem to like putting clay into their soil substrates but I don't think it is necessary. John Innes 3 is quite a rich soil if I remember rightly so you don't really need root tabs.

Why use jugs? I pour directly into the tank from a bucket, it doesn't disturb the substrate if you pour it over your hand at the waterline.

Congrats, guys

Love the tank, Sanj. How do you get the filter pipes out for cleaning? They look wedged in through the stair rails.

I wouldn't stop the CO2. Why not put extra ferts in the tank before you go and ask your wife to top up the ferts once in the week? That way you could keep the lighting and CO2 stable all week.

They are lovely fish, Sanj.

My thoughts too. I have an ancient hot water tank and dread to think what is in there so fill with mains cold and lots of boiled water.

And expensive

Yes you can connect the solenoid to the reg with some CO2 tubing. As to the order, you need to place the check valve after the needle valve so that the needle valve does not get tank water coming back into it.

Yes, I've had my eye on Ed's too; looks like nice food, but I cannot see how much he charges for shipping.

Thanks for all the hard work. It looks great.

Don't see why not. The smaller grain sizes of Ada might be nicer for getting a carpet going, but Akadama would be ok as long as there is lots of fertiliser in the water column.

ADA Aquasoil Africana is great stuff, as Is Malaya. Far less release of ammonia than Amazonia. With a mature filter, lots of plants and the usual daily water changes they should be fine and not give a spike in ammonia.

If you want carpeting plants then I strongly suggest that you use some sort of active substrate, the problem with most of these aquarium soils is that they dump ammonia for about 3 weeks; not all do. Otherwise think about a coarse sand or small gravel; not as good for a carpet but no ammonia...

If you are thinking about getting SAE I recommend that you read this thread of Sanj's: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19176 SAE is not really a single species and certain types are better at eating algae than others.

Three bits! What is the secret? I can get far more than that!

Lots of people selling starter cultures on eBay.

I re-scaped my tank a couple of months ago and thought that I would try a carpet of Staurogyne. I have had success with Tropica S. Repens before, but over 2 months I have had almost no growth from Aquafleur S. Rubescens. I have never had to prune them, something I had to do regularly with the...

If you are still looking you may find that the space in the Rio 180 cabinet could well dictate your choice.

Have you thought about used cameras? You can get a very good DSLR that is one or two models old for a very good price. If you need store finance then look at camera stores which sell second hand gear: Mifsuds is not too far from where you live.

Yeah, not too hard. Does ok in my easycarbo tank without CO2.

Aquaessentials have it

Lots of water changes in a new set up is a good idea anyway

If it is aquagro nutrasoil then I think it does cause a spike in ammonia.

You do get what you pay for and the quality of their plants is excellent. Otherwise try another of the forum sponsors, Aquaessentials.

Aquatic design centre in central London sells them. I bit out of your way, I realise.

Glad you got it moved ok. It looks fantastic, Sanj. I know what you mean about Hairgrass, one of my female bows has a real taste for it and uproots loads of it.

As Hinch said. Aquasoil let's out huge amounts of ammonia for up to 3 weeks so you will need lots of water changes (or else the plants will suffer and you could get algae). I recommend daily 50% changes for a week, alternate day 50% for a week, and 2X a week for a week or two. You are using...

Try Aquagreen (aquagreen.com.au) especially if you want to populate the tank with Aussie plants and fish. Lots of folk rave about this place.

Maybe, maybe not. A couple of weeks is not long, and once it is announced the 5D2 will become cheap on the used market.

Hold on! Nikon D800 is brand new and the Canon 5DII a couple of years old; the rumour mill thinks that the 5DIII could well be announced at the end of the month so why not hold on and see what Canon have in store.

I have not seen any Stiphodon Simoni where I have been looking in the UK. Good find, and sounds like a good buy.

Good question. I have no carpeting plants in the tank they are in so cannot say from experience. My guess is that a well established carpet would be ok because they probably wouldn't choose to bury there; maybe Viktor knows.

Lovely fish. Where did you get them?

I've got some Stiphodons too, wonderful fish and great fun to watch. They have a habit of burrowing into the substrate though and creating clouds of dirt from the aquasoil.

Stu, with that tank you have almost made my mind up! It looks fantastic. Hoggie, that is thinking outside the box for me! I will have a look at it though.

Do they? Well that was simple. I will try my local chemist. Thanks.

It is not the biotope, so an SAE or two might be an idea. I saw your thead on them and it was quite enlightening. I would sooner get the CO2 delivery sorted out and keep BBA at bay that way though.

Thanks for that, Sam. That is a useful tip. I was looking for a cheaper way to get H2O2 if possible, just trying to weigh cost up. Bleach is dirt cheap (and I do not use that much prime) so H2O2 might prove too much of a luxury to save little effort.

Just the usual: rinse in water and then soak in water with prime; the only pain is rinsing inside the diffuser with a syringe, something I am keen on doing to stop a squirt of chlorine into the tank when reconnected. It is not a big deal, and I have happily done it for a while but I thought H2O2...

Thanks, it was the Malaya that I had heard things about, so good to know Africana is fine. I might well go for Africana: I am just deciding if I want red soil.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a cheap supply of hydrogen peroxide? I am not sure of the strength that I need (3%, 6% etc) and how much it can be diluted so I am not sure where to start looking. I have had enough of cleaning my ceramic diffusers with chlorinated bleach (or had enough of...

I am just contemplating soils for a rescape of my high-tech tank and thinking about trying something different to my usual Amazonia. I want something that lasts a year or so without going too crumbly (as this scape needs to last for a bit), and which does not release too much ammonia on set-up...

I am trying to reconfigure how I distribute CO2 in my 180 litre and wondered about placing the diffuser under one filter inlet. I run two Eheim 2217s with spray bars (each filter covering a half of the tank) and wondered if anyone else has tried CO2 into the inlet of one filter only. Did you get...

Thanks both of you. That thread and Hotweldfire's comments seem to confirm my suspicions. That is an interesting thought about using another circulation pump in addition, and it might be worth experimenting with directing flow elsewhere. I will think about that. What I did not tell you is that...

I have been containing BBA for a few months now; there has not been lots of it, but because it is on leaves I am concerned. I have spraybars from a pair of Eheim 2217s across the back of a 180 litre tank, and a Koralia 1600 between them pushing the CO2 forward from a diffuser just below it...

That isn't cheap. I soak mine in bleach and thoroughly rinse (inside and out) with water and prime. Hydrogen peroxide is an alternative.

Yes, the commercially available mass-bred Rainbowfish can have health problems, and their colours are not as good as pure bred fish. There are several rarer small Rainbows that you could look at and several shops in the UK are worth keeping an eye on for more unusual species (including Sweet...

To decide on the best lens it always helps to do two things. First, to be clear about how your current camera and lens limits your photography. Second, to define exactly what you want to photograph. You say nature, but insects, large mammals, birds and scenery all require different lenses. If...

Yes, I got a lot of information from Adrian at rainbowfish.info too, his lists are very helpful. A couple of other resources that I found are these: http://ramsar.wetlands.org/Portals/15/Papua.pdf http://www.pngplants.org/search.htm As far as availability goes, the shops which import from the...

I should be more precise about Crypt Dewitii: I was told by someone that he had trouble growing it submersed but do not know if this was simply a problem with CO2 or whether the plant was difficult submersed even with the right nutrients.

Hi. Glad to hear there is another PNG enthusiast out there. Have you got a PNG tank running at present? Crypt Dewitii is not commercially available, though there are a few individuals who grow it. I think that some european crypt enthusiasts are selling or swapping it, but it is hard to get of...

Ditto for the 100-400 lens, it is very good for wildlife, and it should be capable enough for motorsport too. I would sooner have a first rate lens on an old body than a newer body. While a new body will give lots of helpful features (e.g. bigger rear screen, live-view, movies) the 20d remains a...

I am having trouble with the filter in my low tech tank and need to upgrade it and thought that the Eheim Biopower looked a good option. I like the idea of being able to get some bio media in there (as well as some purigen) and if the short integral spraybar works then that could be a bonus for...

I don't think that I got any appreciable ammonia leech from the soil either. The ammonia/nitrite levels were my mistake: I suspect my normal tests over a few days after set-up were because of minimal leech, and not the plants and filter dealing with it (as I thought). This, and a heater failure...

Thanks, Sanj. Yes, at the moment I am needing a few water changes until the filter gets up to speed on the ammonia/nitrite load. When that set-up period is over I plan on top-ups only.

I am in the early stages of running a non-CO2 enriched tank and having to do fairly frequent water changes in order to control the water parameters, but I am concerned about the potential for CO2 fluctuations and the risk of BBA (I have read that tap water contains a relatively higher...

I agree, you are handling the loss very well indeed. Sorry to hear about it. Ghostsword, I have also bought from this supplier (if it is who i think it is), but for me cost was not the reason: they get hold of plants that tropica do not grow, and when planting a biotope this is important.

Have you tried Wildwoods or Sweet Knowle Aquatics mail order?

Just finished planting this morning and I was surprised how clear the water was on first filling: I assumed that there would be more washout from the soil. It could do with a few more plants, but it has a mature filter. I will see how parameters are over the next 48hours.

Thanks for the advice, I will watch things closely and take things slowly. I am going to set up and plant at the end of the week and am looking forward to it. There is nothing like getting to do a new scape!

Thanks; I guess I was a bit optimistic in hoping for a spike lasting a few days only. I will plant densely and throw in some floating plants, if I use a mature filter and daily 50% changes I hope that I can get to stock the tank in a couple of weeks. I have had aquasoil prepared quickly in this...

Thanks for that info. Anyone know how badly John Innes 3 leeches ammonia?

I am about to set up my soil based tank in a few days, but as I have not taken this approach before I wondered if others could advise how long it takes things to settle enough for fish to be put in the aquarium. Ideally I want to introduce them asap as I am temporarily re-housing the fish for...

blyxa japonica & easy carbo How much light have you got in these tanks? I have some Blyxa in an Easycarbo tank and it is growing, but it does like reasonable light.

I use tank water- full if remaining EI ferts and all that.

Thanks for the input, but a lot of time has passed since I posted this thread. I have had Amanos for almost 4 months and they are doing a good job; I also had to replace the HC as it was failing, prob through a lack of ferts (though I did not realise that at the time).

Yes Dave, you are right that getting exposure correct in camera is important, but sometimes post-processing can give a hand. It is, after all, such an integral part of photography for most people now. The problem for me lies in the sensors in crop cameras which while they have come a long way...

TGM. Not that near but would be worth every mile.

Thanks, Troi. That is a very helpful article. It looks like soil is the way to go if I want it as low maintenance as possible, I had not appreciated its benefits over aquasoil in terms of CO2 release. Would tropica plant substrate be a better choice than plain compost? Finally, lighting. 9w...

Agreed. ADC is the best place for plants in London, and they stock ADA stuff too.

I have a spare 45cm (approx 50 litre) tank and think I may give a low-tech tank a go—I quite fancy the idea of less water changes and lower maintenance on this tank. I will plant with low demand plants (Anubias, Crypts, Swords etc) and not use liquid carbon (it will be maximally stocked with...

Exactly! Any idea where I can get one or how I DIY one?

Large pan of water on the cooker then.

OK, I know this topic comes up from time to time, but I wondered whether anyone had any new ideas for autodosing liquid carbon; I have not seen anything satisfactory yet. I have a tank which I dose every day, but am looking for options when I leave it for a few days. The difficulty is in dosing...

You could always put a bagful of Tropica Plant Substrate under the gravel if you wanted something nutritious on the bottom

Yeah, I do it straight from the cold tap in the summer. With winter temps a 50% water change from mains water can drop the tank temp quite a bit. I add just enough boiling water to take the edge off the cold, I do not try to match tank temp with each bucket.

Oh. Get a Canon!