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Did a water change last Wednesday with dechlorinator. Tank was great until Monday/Tuesday. Will check it again tonight and carry out a water change. Then dose it to 2ppm and see if that goes by morning. As a side note. In the Juwell type filters there is a white thin filter placed at the top...

Nope, fishless for the last three weeks. Won't get any until its stable. Plenty of planaria, cyclops, hydra and snails though.

Unfortunately they are S American and I am trying to keep it West African, or at the least African. Looks like I'm gonna have to forget it and just go with BNs and loaches. Oh well

Ammonia is hovering around the 3ppm level. Last added my usual amount on Monday evening. It has been shifting it down to 0 in 24 hrs no problem, until yesterday. Worried that it will go into a mini cycle again

Well I thought I was getting towards the end of my fishless cycle, ammonia was clearing from 4ppm down to 0 in 18 hours. Nitrite had dropped right down as well to 0.3ppm. Things were looking good. Now I currently have a snail population explosion in my tank, they seem to be producing lots of...

Kidnap the cat and then perform an experiment on it. i.e. Spread a good layer of fresh butter onto its back and then drop it from a 1st storey window. The two opposing laws of the universe (butter side down/cat lands on its feet) will cause the cat to disappear in a puff of smoke so as not to...

You can pick it up in Homebase. White bottle, blue writing. "Household Ammonia" Its about £1.99 for 500ml which is more than enough. You can use it to clean the cooker as well, although it stinks your house out.

Thanks Dino. My fave plant isn't really visible yet. I have a nice Tiger Lotus bulb just behind the left hand coconut shell. Its shot out lots of leaves but they are just beginning to get above the height of the coconut. Will perform another water change tonight and carry out a bit of pruning.

Moi

Do they look like this if so then they are Hydra, a type of freshwater anemone. The pic is from my tank, cycling at the moment but hopefully will become fish food soon.

Ok a week further on. The cycling process is nearly over. My nitrites have dropped considerably in the last two days, down to 0.3ppm now. Coverting 4ppm ammonia in 18 hours. The plants are going well (a little too well maybe) I have an abundance of snails, lots of planaria, hydra, cyclops and...

They are only really meant for coldwater, needs to be well oxygenated as well I think.

I am leaning towards setting up a West African riverine biotope and need some help choosing fish to carry out certain roles. Main fish will be a pair of Pelvicachromis Taeniatus, with some Yello tail Congo Tetras acting as dithers. The tank is a 180l rio with lots of plants and bogwood. PH is...

Preston, Lancs. of searching for more lfs this afternoon

Greenline do ferts in bags that can be placed in your tank or filter. www.aquaticplants.eu.com

Oval shaped son't sound like worms. Might be some small crustacean such as cyclops. I have a few in my tank as well and once my fish get put in I'm sure they will provide a tasty snack. I did have some nemotodes but these have now pretty much disappeared as the ammonia levels dropped.

You could purchase some R/O water from a local lfs if they supply iy. I know some of the ones around here sell the 10 gallon containers to transport it in.

I agree about the rock thing. I would move the left hand rock 90 degrees through the vertical axis and then twist it 180 degrees through the horizontal. I would then twist the middle rock 180 degrees through the horizontal as well. Just feel this would give a good flow from left to right.

I still don't trust any of the claims of the dried bacteria companies. The necessary bacteria cannot be stored in dried form. Nitrospira isn't even sold in the UK as yet so I still fail to see how Bactozym makes any difference. They even claim that Bactozym contains no bacteria, it just aids...

You could dose a lot of tanks with CO2 from that :D You could potentially get rid of the smells via a water filter system surely, same principle as a bong.

Has anyone tried combining wine or beer making with supplying CO2 to their tank? Thinking about this the other day and it should work. Not really sure how much CO2 is produced during the process of making homebrew beer, but then if your plants start to die at least you can console yourself with...

Does this really work? I'm doing a fishless cycle and added the Bactozym to my tank to help it along with some used media. I'm now on day 13 Ammonia is 0ppm (converting 4ppm in 24hrs) Nitrite is about 4ppm and not budging. Nitrates are shooting up (currently around 120ppm) Hard to tell if...

Well I'm getting another one this weekend which should sort me out.

Its been set up for about 12 days now, and in that time the plants have been growing. Doing a fishless cycle and so the snails are multiplying at the moment and have a bit of algae growing. Once the cycle is finished then the BNs, shrimps and Botias will be going in to clean it up. Here are...

It might be worth having a look at some Pelvicachromis Taeniatus (wild kribs) Some of the colour forms are stunning and some reckon they are slightly more peaceful than common kribs.

Buellar?

Thoughts are turning to stocking. Ok I have a Rio 180 planted tank with two nice bits of bogwood and a couple of coconut half shells. So far I am thinking of getting 1 pair of Pelvicachromis Taeniatus (either Dehane, Bipindi or Moliwe) 1 pair of Bristle nose ancistrus 3 or 4 Botia striata (or...

Not sure about the coconuts, just felt they were more natural caves then terracotta plant pots. Also a lot easier to add the riccia to as the hairnet sticks to it very easily. I expect the coconut will soften the water in the same way that bogwwod will. We will see. (was a pain in the arse...

Thanks bloozoo It is going to take a lot of care, but I much prefer the look of planted tanks. More stable in the long run. I want to create an environment suited to the Taeniatus, but I need some snail eaters and algae eaters so will have to look outside of a West African biotope, unles...

Latest pic Added some riccia to the top of one of the coconut shells and also boosted my lighting. The plants are growing and a bulb I planted that is some type of lily is going great guns. About halfway through the cycle now. Its clearing 5ppm of ammonia in 16hrs Nitrites have spiked and...

Ok, I am currently fishless cycling. I have added some used filter media and used planted bogwood. The last few days I have noticed a few critters taking up residence. The snails aren't a problem as yet, they will be taken care of when I add some Botias. However some other things I'm not sure...

I got mine from Homebase. It will be in the household cleaner section. White bottle, blue writing with "Household Ammonia" written on it. One 500ml bottle is more than adequate.

Tank has been running 6 days now. Nitrites are at 0.8, and I threw in two large filter sponges yesterday from a friends tank.

I have a Juwel Rio 180. I will at some point be installing some custom metal halide lighting but in the meantime I have a question. What is the highest wattage bulbs I can get for the standard Juwel lighting system? Nevermind just found the answer. Doh!

Buy the biggest tank you can afford and support. The larger the tank the easier it is to keep stable. 20 litres will not hold very many fish and its very easy to overstock it. There are loads of useful topics on here regarding cycling your tank, in particular fishless cycling (getting the tank...

I really want to get my hand on a Pelvicachromis Taeniatus "Dehane", but am having trouble sourcing them around Lancashire. I have found the Makoure and Moliwe, but as yet no luck on Dehanes. If anyone knows where I might get some then please let me know. cheers

Just standard childrens playsand from Homebase in Preston

Didn't bother with the slate, found another piece of bogwood I liked that is riddled with holes and hiding places. LAtest pic. Now just have to wait for the tank to cycly and then try and find some Pelvicachromis Taeniatus "Dehane"

Cheers Its gone to snail heaven.