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After a couple of years struggling to get plants to grow, I seem to have had a breakthrough. Following advice here I have started adding co2 (yeast type), and monitoring with the tester filled with 4DKH water. I have also increased the water hardness from 1 to 6 by adding a net bag of crushed...

My local fish shop suggested keeping 3 Odessa Barbs in the tank. Does anyone have any view on this?

Truckasauras, Now you've confused me! The JBL instructions are not exactly clear, but they do say fill the unit with 1.5ml of aquarium water. Do you mean that the instructions for the JBL unit do not apply when the water is too soft?

Many thanks for those comments, Bobtastic. Perhaps I should just try adding co2 and make sure the fish don't object! If I decide to try crushed coral, is that the same as coral sand, which is all that I have managed to find in local shops. Pete

I use the JBL co2 test set. I don't know what it is filled with - just the liquid indicator supplied mixed with a little aquarium water.

Thanks for the comments. I don't want to just kill any excess fry, but thought the only real long term solution was to try to replicate nature by having a natural predator. In a natural environment only a few percent of fry are likely to survive. When I bought just 5 platy I assumed most of the...

Many thanks for that. I did try adding co2 (yeast type), but the co2 monitor I have very quickly said there was too much co2. Hence my worry about soft water.

I have a tropical planted community tank. The water in this area (Manchester) is very soft (KH about 2, with PH of 7). I would like to add co2 to improve plant growth, but I read that this is pointless with such soft water. I was wondering whether it would be practical to add a bag of limestone...

I have a planted tank, with a few platy, platinum tetras, zebra danios, amano shrimps and one bulldog pleco. No problems except that the tank is being taken over by platy fry, large numbers of which survive and grow. I can't decide how to control this growth in numbers, and was wondering...

Thanks for your replies. The only thing added to the tank recently were 4 moss balls a couple of weeks ago, as well as some plant fertiliser (Tetra Plantamin) added yesterday just after a partial water change. I kept the venturi air on full overnight, and this morning the shrimps appear to be...

I came to do a partial water change this morning, and found 2 amano shrimps huddled in the corner with their heads out of the water. I completed the water change, and a couple of hours later found all 5 of my shrimps huddled together, half out of the water. It appears something is upsetting...

Many thanks for that. I think that is the answer I really wanted to hear! I will experiment to see what looks best.

Presumably you mean fish can't see red light. Would it have any effect on algae?

I would like to make my planted tropical tank look more interesting when the main lighting is off. I was thinking of fitting some some low level lighting to come on during this time. Does anyone know what the best colour of lighting would be to reduce the chance of algae becoming a problem. I...