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Where can you buy silver sand? I'm not aware of that product. In reading about it I've heard a LOT about the dangers of anoxic substrate releasing hydrogen sulfide gas and wiping out everything in the tank. But then I've also realized, and as someone else had pointed out, that nobody had ever...

Well if not other options then should I go play sand? And where might be a good source for a nice cream coloured one? The one my kids have is kind of puke colored...

Almost, unfortunately I hear a lot of comments about playsand that the grain size is too small. As a result it gets blown around, caught in filters, makes a mess, and can easily go anoxic. That's why everyone says pool filter sand is better, which is larger at about 1 mm grain size and therefore...

I'm trying to find a decent medium size/pool filter size quartz/silica sand which is a cream colour/nice light tan colour. I've seen pure white sand, but that seems a little much, and the other sand I've seen a bit too dark or are not inert and would raise the PH. Does anyone know where to...

I happened to find this volcanic black sand, which is presumably composed of black quartz/silica glass. http://www.specialistaggregates.com/san ... p-214.html http://www.specialistaggregates.com/san ... p-215.html They however don't seem to have a medium grade of that, which is what I'd ideally...

However, if for instance you're running a low-light tank as I am, then you're likely not having intense plant growth which requires pruning all the time. Accordingly, if you're not removing lots of plant mass frequently, then that nitrogen in the plants is still going to remain in the tank's...

Gotcha, so consensus is that their microgravel is appropriately inert, while their other stuff is apparently not. I would have preferred something a little smaller in the 1-2 mm size perhaps, but I guess that might be okay in case I can't obtain anything finer. Maybe I should pick some up and...

Are you serious? Can you explain please? Did you initially have it lose a little dye or is that a continuing thing to the extent that the sand eventually changes colour? And are you talking about an extensive amount of dye rinsing off or just a little? Just a little initially I might be able...

Thanks, I spoke to the Unipac sales rep who said that their black sand is silica sand which has a natural vegetable dye colouring. And their gravel has an epoxy coating as well. He assured that both are fully reacted and inert in any case. Their sand is 0.5-1 mm in size. And they have a micro...

Which colour did that turn out to be? Was it the Granite Black by chance? Is it a very black sand? And do you happen to know what it actually consists of?

That was my second potential question, which alfagrog grain size would be best. For anaerobic bacteria I don't believe the flow rate and the oxygenation are that critical. Flow will happen at the lump surface, but the anaerobic bacteria would be residing deep within the lump where the flow...

Does Alfagrog have an appropriate porosity for growing decent amounts of anaerobic bacteria, in order to remove nitrates? (Just as live rock does in reef aquariums, or media such as Seachem Matrix do). I'm guessing it perhaps does, but it would be good to have some confirmation of this before...

I'll try to if I do, but I'm not going to need any for at least a good while still from the look of things.

Thanks! They seem to have some gravel type Estes substrates listed online, so likely they could get the sands through their same distributor as well!

Many thanks. Not being familiar with many of these it took me a little searching to find some of their full names and more about them. But as a result I'll now be adding the following to my list of plants to keep an eye out for! Ludwigia palustris sp "red" Rotala wallichii Erio cinereum...

Would it be possible for you to tell us the plant species used here? I haven't been able to figure it out from the photos!

Okay, I quit. My tanks will never look as good as this! I'm done with the hobby, you win. ; ) Seriously though, I'm giving up at least on trying to figure out what the species of plants that you have here. Can you help us out by giving us a list so that I can look them up and to check what's...

http://www.fishlore.com/Articles/Diseas ... Humans.htm Check out this somewhat concerning article, and watch out for Mad Fish Disease! There is one species of Hawaiian Coral that is extremely toxic to the extent that native warriors rubbed it on their weapons, unless I'm now slightly...

Update, picked up some Azolla yesterday, which I got for free at World of Water where it was growing invasively in their outdoor troughs of pond plants. And it came with quite a load of Daphnia and other fast little guys, so it seems I don't need any seed stock after all, but thanks for the offer!

Re: Tom's Bucket O' Mud - Licorice gourami pics page 14 Thanks for the responses, very helpful! I suppose there would have been room to hide a refugium sump underneath the tank in the stand (stack of pallets), but I suppose that would have detracted from the simple beauty of the system, that...

I'd never seen carboys before, despite searching Ebay extensively for large glass containers. It seems they're between 5 and 15 gallons. I saw a number of new ones online for about £30 for a 6 gallon container, and I'm not sure how many gallons the vintage style ones hold. Thanks for the tip...

This initial thread was a bit old anyway, with the owner moving to a new journal. So I think I'll be a squatter here with this discussion unless told to bugger off! ;) I actually tried such a one gallon eco-vessel for the first time in my junior high science class, but I didn't then have access...

Estes Permacolor Quarz or Ceramquartz is what many aquarists seem to be using instead of the 3M stuff now in the States, but I'm yet to find a source here for that either.

I found this which isn't priced too bad, http://www.harrogateaquatic.co.uk/store ... ductId=212 though at 2-3 mm grain size it seems to be larger than the Dennerle quartz sand - http://dennerle.com/de/index.php?option ... Itemid=120

I appreciate that the 'eco-vessels' would need a proportional flora density to support fauna. As invertebrates seem to have a lower metabolism compared to say fish, I thought a small few might nevertheless be well fed in a reasonable sized vessel given enough nutrients to start with. I was...

Hi Matt, thanks for the input. Were your vessels receiving direct sunlight? I'd perhaps prefer to put mine in a north facing window to avoid direct light and so to not cook the thing, but almost all my windows face east/west. I wasn't sure quite how much light would be best though and maybe some...

It seems we're going to conclude in disagreement on this topic. For while I believe I do see more where you're coming from now, I still think the comparison is in gross terms valid. And not to be argumentative, but I do happen to enjoy this topic as well as testing the philosophies of it. Your...

Sigh... okay, so why and how? Your opinion is that this doesn't work, but I'm finding the reasoning rather dubious. A specific thermodynamic property is a very different thing from a universal thing applicable to everything, and entropy in ecological terms refers just to the aspect that the...

I found this black volcanic sand, http://www.specialistaggregates.com/mor ... bb80f71e62 which appears to be the desirable grain size, and it's less than £0.33/kg, which is an eight the price of Tahitian Moon Sand, although that price is for buying it in one tonne quantities, which even for a 2...

I'd read that about the Ecospheres, but that seems to be as a result of such a limited food/biomass supply which they set those up with initially. I expect they have to do it that way to keep algae from quickly covering every surface and becoming unsightly, so you'd have to control for that in a...

Re: Tom's Bucket O' Mud - Licorice gourami pics page 14 Great tank, great journal, very inspiring! I just love the idea of a more or less self-sufficent ecosystem in miniature. And I read through everything in a disjointed fashion, including the other links, and would like to hear a bit more...

Hi Tom, I noticed your post on plantedtank.net, which is quite an active forum as well. One of the links provided in that thread had been one for this store http://www.aquaculturestore.com/fwinverts.html which have different invertebrate species available, including a Freshwater Plankton mix...

Here is a similar thread which had some good feedback. http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/gener ... sible.html Do you have a source for the small invertebrates you'll be adding, such as daphnia and cyclops? I'm looking for some myself for a slightly similar tried, and just tried growing a sample...

Pelia moss and I believe Elodea should do okay, that's what I'm trying out in mine, until I get a spare heater.

Thanks, um, He-Man, Manure isn't recommended at all for various reasons, including it being far too labile (will undergo too much change), it will eat up a lot of oxygen while changing, it can release a lot of ammonia, etc. However, if you boil it for 10-15 minutes which is one way of...

I'm looking at making up my own underlay soil mix, and am planning on using either worm castings, or a mix of composted manure and mineral garden soil, or possibly all three together. I'd be boiling the mix for 15 minutes (outdoors) once I add the other ingredients so I'm not worried about the...

The Caribsea Tahitian Moon Sand is still over four times the price that I'd been seeing for 3M Colorquartz, or Spectra Quartz, and I'd seen a few complaints about the Moon Sand as well. And Black Beauty sand which some use is far more inexpensive than that, but I don't really trust it. Pool...

Is there a UK source for good black sand? I'd like some to use as a cap atop a mineralized top soil base, but I'm having trouble sourcing it here as all the source I found seem to be in the US. All I've found is products such as Flourite Black Sand which is decent and which I use in a tank...

Endlers are specifically known for not eating their fry, in constrast to other livebearers. So if it becomes a problem you either need to separate the sexes or other fish in the tank which will keep things in check...

The inch rule is I'm afraid kind of idiotically oversimplified. Obviously an 8 inch discus is going to weigh a lot more and impact your tank's parameters more than two kuhli loaches. http://aqadvisor.com/ generally seems like a knowledgeable tool for calculating stocking, though in my densely...

Tom Barr recommended it when he was answering a question I'd asked, and said this was a good group.

Welcome, do goldfish eat plants though? Mine aren't doing enough on my pond's duckweed unfortunately...

Welcome!I'm in SW London as well, btw, where do you find the best place to be to buy shrimp? I'm setting up a dedicated shrimp tank myself shortly.

From reading about such things, it seems that plants devise strategies to cope with low CO2, so you might taper it off to give them time to gear up their coping mechanisms.

Does anyone sell prepared MTS though?

My black flourite sand didn't seem much more difficult to wash than any other gravel I've had before. I did a quarter bucket a time under the kitchen tap and it was completely clean before long and I didn't even have much cloudiness at all though I wasn't careful about putting the sand or the...

They'll sell you expensive substrates because you'll buy them. I'm switching to MTS from now on and am about to prepare some myself soon. But will boil it instead of going through the lengthy mineralization.