blackout

Hi, We will have a blackout in the building today for 1.5 hours during some maintenance stuff. My normal planted aquarium will probably be ok, but what to do with the external filter? Do I have a bucket full of dead bacterial mass causing problems if I do not do anything? How fast the bacteria...

Has anyone here ever tried a fishless cycle (w ammonia) in blackout to avoid algae? I saw a passing reference to it on one post for starting a low tech planted tank, but found no further details on it. I did, however, read that the desired nitrifying bacteria are photosensitive, so might...

A beginner's guide to making and learning from every mistake possible. [EDIT Feb 2013 Here are a few shots of the tank in it's journey... so you can see where you're going. END OF EDIT] Right, I'm taking the plunge, after reading lots of journals and articles on this site. And I'm...