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I'm going out tommorrow for the (the rest of the) parts needed for a homemade CO2 system. I'm currently sterilising 3 x 2L pop bottles with a weak Milton solution and have plenty of air stones and air line sitting around. My question is: where am I going to be able to get the connectors for...

If I understand it correctly, it can take 24 hours to get going. Someone advised me to use warm water and then leave the bottles in warm place for 24 hours, before hooking them up to the tank.

Ahhh the long winter nights in Denmark! :P I'll let you know how I get on at the weekend...

I plan to try this out at the weekend. I don't mean to be picky, but i want to get it right: when you says 2 cups, do you mean mugs or tea cups? How much space to you leave at the top of a 3L bottle? Thanks

I've bought some white sugar and yeast yesterday and plan to try setting up a homemade CO2 system at the weekend. What ratio of water/sugar/yeast would you use per 2 litre bottle? I was thinking of 1.5L/1 mug/2 teaspoons?

Did you try the Green-X as I suggested? I use it in my external filter as the last stage and don't get much algea at all! Test your (tap and tank) water for phosphate content.

Not always. I tend to vacuum the gravel every 2 or 3 water changes and it makes no difference - I get a spike whether I've vacuumed or not. :dunno: Any other ideas anyone?

Well, today was that time again... I took your advice and bought a large water container... About 6 days ago I filled it with water and added dechlorinator. 48 hrs prior to this morning I added a couple of air stones and started aerating it. And guess what? Nitrite spike (up to about 0.4...

That's why I was trying to find an email address for Intrepet...

Thanks, it turns out Seachem Flourish contains no free nitrate or phosphate either...

Any details of how you made your own CO2 generator?

Not sure what's causing it, but Hagen make a product called Green-X which can be put in a filter or straight in the tank. It's an ion exchange resin that targets nitrate, phosphate and nitrite. Give it a whirl - it helped me overcome a long algae bloom :thumbs:

But that means you: a. have to have room for a hospital tank (=HT?) b. have to run 2 tanks so that you don't kill your fish through stress/ammonia spikes! and c. have increased expenditure and I already send a fortune in my LFS!! I couldn't find an email address for Intrepet anywhere so I...

Obviously I'm the only one then.... :sad:

Aha :thumbs: Thanks for that, I appreciate your time. I'll have to go looking for a water container tommorrow capable of holding 3 buckets full then.... At least I have a spare air pump and air stone.

You're right - maybe feed it into the outlet instead?

I understand that argument, but not why I'm getting a nitrite spike...

But where am I going to keep all that water - it equates to 3 buckets full!! Surely the job of the dechlorinator is to neutralise all the harmful chemicals and heavy metals within minutes? Will leaving the water overnight stop the nitrite spike? I'm not so sure.... :unsure:

I'd stop adding CO2 (you must be able to turn it off?) and look for a proprietry additive that targets this type of algea. Add some activated carbon to your filter for a week to remove the remnants of any fertiliser and some Green-X to remove phosphates and excess nitrates. I've also heard...

Firstly, let me say that after going through the initial cycling process about 6 months ago, day to day my tank never has ammonia of nitrite readings above zero. However, I've started to notice that about 2 hours after weekly water changes (I change 20-30%) my fish all exhibit rapid gill...

I lost a red platy about 10 days ago to fin rot and a few of my other fish were exhibiting signs so I bought some Intrepet Aquarium Treatment No. 8 Anti Fungus & Finrot. I added the correct amount for my tank, raised the temp to 30C and turned my bubble wall on 24/7 (all as directed by the...

Some of my plants do suffer from yellowing leaves - I'll give the iron addative a try :thumbs: I just hope it doesn't also contain a plot of phosphate. I've used some Seachem pH adjuster in the past and it was full of free phosphates :crazy: caused an algea bloom that took 4 weeks to get rid...

Good point about the reflectors - I have those too. I'd disagree about the liquid fertiliser though - it's not selective enough (all or nothing). With root tabs you can choose which plant to fertilize.

It does seem a lot. However it also depends on the type of plants and the depth of your tank. I have a 140L tank with 3 x 25 W tubes which do very nicely. I heard 2W/gal minimum (not that it makes all that much difference). When I was having problems growing my plants I added some liquid...

Nobody else seen this in red platys?

I like my silver hatchets - very easy to keep. You can usually get marbled hatches quite easily too. :thumbs:

6 inches in an aquarium I think. Mine tripled in size in about 6 weeks but have stopped at 3.5 inches roughly. Although I put cucumber in my tank, my silver shark and blue ram seem to attack it the most. I catch my silver dollers eating catfish pellets the most, but they're incredibly quick...

It doesn't protrude at all but it has a slight sheen to it. No salt - corys, plec, catfish and clown loaches..... Anybody else seen similar simptoms?

I thought I caught one of my red platys swimming oddly the other day (like a child learning to ride a bike - a bit wobbly). Just taken a really close look at her and she's got a feint silver/white patch on one side and small parts of her tail fin are missing. Are these signs of fin and body...

Tetratec 02 Test Kit - £3 ish. After my air pump has been on a few hours, the dissolved 02 at the bottom of the tank goes up from 2 to 5 mg/l so maybe it's worth leaving the bubbles on 24/7? Oh, well, another trip to my LFS for a new air pump tommorrow...

Tetra make a test kit.

I'm a little concerned that my tank isn't letting enough CO2 out/02 in and is therefore preventing efficient gas exchange. My tank is glass and measures (LxHxD) 92x47x38 cm. It has a glass condensation tray with sliding glass doors (which can be completely removed leaving a 62x23 cm hole)...

I was thinking of getting 2 apple snails - do they breed like mad or can I safely add "a couple"?

I use Green-X by Hagen that removes nitrates, nitrites and phosphates. If you have high nitrates in your tap water, maybe there's a chance you'll have high phosphates too? I put Green-X in my external filter as the last stage to prevent depriving my filter bacteria of nitrite. It comes in a...

Go for an external filter and stuff some filter gloss in there. I had this problem with just plain UGF - the addition of a Fluval 104 worked wonders. Final stage of filtration is through 3 cms of fliter gloss (filter wool you may call it...).

Don't know really. Maybe increase fish and feeding more slowly? Over filter your tank?

Excellent, but have you tested it for nitrates etc before you use it?

Maybe it was just shock or stress or even a bad fish - it happens... :( Keep persevering - corys are great fish!

There will certainly be less O2 downthere, check all your parameters... How old was it?

At the moment, for your tank I wouldn't think 20%/week is necessary, but as you add more fish it will become so. Buy a nitrate test kit and monitor the levels twice weekly. When you start adding more fish it'll start to climb more rapidly and you really want to do a water change when you're in...