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Cool, sounding very good! Lookin' forward to pics.   £6.00 seems a lot for blue jelly and I can't imagine what a £10 Blue Fantasy would look like. Get pics, please!!! :)

Yeah that looks a lot like a common plec, hopefully an expert can confirm, but those are the ones that get very big... Here's a link http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/pleco/common.php

Most welcome.   That sand will not change the water chemistry at all. It's silica based so no worries there.

It might depend what type of pleco you have whether it will grow to be far too big for that tank. There are some that will get to 10cm and it will be alright in there.    That sounds like quite a boisterous tank you have there and as those fish get older and bigger and stronger they'll get more...

Yup, 7.4 is totally fine for lots of fish and play sand is also perfect. I have the play sand from Argos so can testify that it's absolutely fine. Especially suited to corys as they like to sift through it all the time.   Just as a test, leave some tap water out over night and test it again at...

I have a couple of GBRs and some head and tail light tetras that eat my guppy fry no problem. The guppys also eat them, which is weird.   So rams, maybe dwarf gourami and some of the larger type of tetras will help control the population. I'd wager that there'll be tons of different types that...

Why don't you just test it, TTA?   You have a theory and while it sounds sound (excuse the expression) the best way is surely to do the test.    Perhaps you could make up a few solutions of known amounts/concentrations of NH3/4 and then see what happens when you double either the water or the...

They'll certainly produce some ammonia which will keep some bacteria going, yes. It's the same amount of fish and therefore waste so the filter will already have reached an equilibrium with the ammonia production versus how much bacteria is need to deal with that amount.    You'll need to add...

Well, you can buy it first and see how you get on... 

Hmm, interesting...never heard of that stuff before. I've seen various products on the site I use for health and colour etc but not that stuff.   It does appear to be totally natural...http://www.naturose.com/index.html   It sure would be worth a try, however, it seems like a temporary measure...

Ooo, latin, I'm impressed!   I believe the phantoms should be much more blue than the normal blue jelly ones but when they come in, which will be tomorrow I think, I'll post a wee pic to compare to yours! I don't want to hijack your already extensive thread.   I'm getting them from a different...

Plants certainly won't do any harm and you're better having them than not right from the get go, but they won't really hurry the cycle along, I'm afraid. To an extent they'll help to control Nitrate levels but that's at the end of the cycling process anyway.   A betta should be fine with neons...

You've made me do it... I too have ordered some blue jelly shrimp and it's all your fault!   We'll have to compare notes/pics once they arrive. Is it the phantom ones you're getting?

Ideally a filter that is suited to the tank size or larger is always the way to go.    Have you had a good read at the cycling article?

Apologies if I misunderstood. Typical man, I only hear/read what I want to hear/read! :)   Yes, you will be able to have some corys if you go with 60L, some get quite big but there are several species that don't get much bigger than 5cm (panda, false bandit). There's a great resource...

Corys would be too big for the 30L, I'm afraid. They need to be in groups of 6 at least and even the pygmy corys need about 40/50L. You might be better looking into nano setups. There's a thread on here about them.

There doesn't seem to be any indication that that particular substrate causes any kind of pH rise. The fact that it's advertised as sand might suggest that it's silicon based and therefore not likely to affect water chemistry. Also, and this may be a very tenuous note, the single review on that...

Hi Filth, welcome to the forum. You've sure come to the right place for any questions you have. Glad to see you're planning on cycling first, well done!   I started with a 60L tank as well (Juwel Rekord 600), it's not huge but it's a good size to start with as it's easy to maintain if you're...

Hehe, yeah, I gave him the benefit of the doubt on that one as I presumed he was using some poetic licence for comedy value!

Yes, Happy Birthday USA, thank you so much for looking after the world for us so we don't have to! 

Yeah, that sounds about right. I've got 4 left from 6 about a year ago and the biggest is around 1.5 inches as well. I'd hazard a guess that it's probably a female you're seeing that's a bit bigger and darker than the rest. Can't really recall just how to tell the difference between male and...

Can't see any harm in that at all...   Alternatively, you could save some electricity and stick it right next to a window for some direct sunlight action.

One step at a time I suppose, eh?!   Best of luck and let us know how they are with some lovely pictures, too!

They are beautifully coloured wee creatures, I can see why you want more. Surely you can squeeze in more than 4 even in a micro tank!!! 8-10 would be more like a breeding group. Then when they start breeding, you can send the babies to meeeee!   Seriously though, it'd be interesting to find out...

Phew!   Did he mention anything about replacing ones that didn't make it?

Like Ch4rlie, I had the API kit and was quite happy with it, until the pain started... Now I use this one http://fishkeeper.co.uk/product/maidenhead-aquatics-aquarium-master-test-kit and considering the extra few tests I think it's excellent value.

  Hehe, I'm glad you got that off your chest! I didn't even notice that, so good spot. It's going to get way too big for a 10gal tank, whatever it is!

This is the reason I quite quickly changed from the API kit to another. Not that it wasn't accurate or anything, not at all, it's quite good but I started looking like an idiot when my neighbours saw me whacking a wee white bottle off various walls throughout my house. I began to think there...

Sounds like this is a fish-in cycle and it will indeed be a bacterial bloom, very common, if not nigh on guaranteed with a new tank.   It's also not going to go away very quickly (in my experience). A fish in cycle will take way longer than fishless and you have far less control over things. As...

I do not mind in the slightest!   I just use a TDS meter I got from here - http://easishrimp.co.uk/33-digital-tds-meter.html. I don't want to seem to be favouring any one particular supplier but that is where I get all of my shrimp paraphernalia and whenever I have a question the chap is usually...

I've heard this before as well. The guy I get my shrimpy bits from also told me this is the way he kept his more prized specimens - starting with RO (TDS 0) and then using a mineral like Salty Shrimp Bee Shrimp Mineral GH+ to get the TDS just right.   In this case I don't think it was a...

When you make a change and then something weird happens right after the change, it's usually the simplest explanation that's the right one.   In your case you may have released into the water loads of trapped Nitrate during the hoovering up all your sand. So, after a few more water changes it'll...

I hope he's just been daized, ahem, by the water flow... Good luck!

Yes, clove oil is a suitable method. AJ from easishrimp says it will put it to sleep.

Plants certainly make carbohydrates like glucose and then starch and cellulose so I suppose it could follow that if a plant breaks down through lack of nutrients some of those carbohydrates could be 'released' back to the aquarium...interesting idea, maybe TTA will be able to say?

Och, I'm sorry, I don't know what to suggest. It doesn't sound great, to be fair. Not sure about Clove oil, but I've sent an email to the guy I get my shrimp (easishrimp) from and I'll let you know what he says as soon as he replies!

Very interesting indeed!   I'll be watching this space patiently...   What sort of life will be going into this biotope?

    I was just going to say that, basically, the OP is doing well with his Nitrate level where it is!

  Oh dear...I've never owned Cichlids, except rams, but surely when you get fish called red DEVILS and green TERRORS, doesn't that ring any alarms? I don't mean any disrespect to you EJE, please don't take this comment the wrong way, I mean it in a general sense...why do these fish have such...