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If it's 4 small plants, leave the CO2 off entirely, maybe use flourish excell occasionally. Using it is about balance - when the CO2 is on, the plants biochemistry accellerates (provided there's enough of everything else they need), and they release oxygen for the fish. When the lights are off...

Even if they can't burrow, they're amazing hiders. I had some in my 30 gallon for a long time after I thought they'd all died. Give him some time before you start to worry.

Rosey minnows. Not a terribly popular fish, and they're usually just sold as feeders (so you can get them for next to nothing, but healthy stock is tougher to come by), but they do have some interesting behavior in them if you've "done it all" otherwise. Very hardy, reasonably easy to breed...

A bit of basic science to help understand, if it helps: The amount of O2 and CO2 the water will hold is related to how much of each is in the air. The CO2 system increases the amount of CO2 in the water, but because atmospheric CO2 content is quite low (average around .04%), you continuously...

The ammonia strips are junk - I used them when I first started, and never got a reading other than .25 from them. The others are usually good for a 0/not 0 reading, but don't count on an accurate value. They get more expensive, though. A full set of strips to cover what you need runs $25 in my...

Exactly. A consistent temperature of 86 is bad for most fish - at that temperature, my liquid crystal thermometer might actually get up to the mid 70's. Going by it, I could easily set up a tank, stock it with fish, and wonder why I have a tank full of poached gourami in the morning. A...

At least in the US, very, very few mercury thermometers are still sold for consumer use. Most have a non toxic oil in them now, and aren't much less accurate. They're cheap, reliable, reasonably accurate (usually), and most aquarium thermometers have a glass or plastic housing around the...

Cycling (fish-in or otherwise) is the process of allowing a colony of bacteria to grow in the filter. These bacteria process ammonia, which fish release from their gills, and which is produced as fish poop, uneaten food, or any other organic waste in the tank breaks down. Ammonia is very deadly...

Processed foods are highly balanced for specific dietary needs, but as said above, it's all pretty much the same stuff in varying quantities. I've fed goldfish food in a pinch. Might not be ideal all the time, but I can't see it hurting occasionally. I also feed betta food to my community...

Really, the tank's nowhere near big enough for all those fish, and you aren't really talking about heavy duty filtration with 2000 lph (wchich is in the neighborhood of the filtration on my 55). But, anyway, it's generally not a good idea mixing cichlids from different regions. They're all...

I see a lot of deformed guppies. Anyway, get rid of the females if you want to bring an immediate stop to breeding. They're bigger, and generally not as pretty, and even without males they may continue to have babies. Without females around, you can stock male guppies fairly heavily because of...

They can clear up greenwater as well as a UV sterilizer with some current, but after that, they typically starve to death in an aquarium. This can take months, though, sometimes years. To keep them alive, you'd have to culture greenwater and move them into it occasionally so they can eat. A few...

I move ornaments that fish get under, but not all that often. Any decor that sits fairlysnugly on the bottom is fine, you won't get much under there.

Loading just fine for me.

I have valis against my heater and it doesn't bother it too much, they're pretty tough plants. They also grow nice in tight bunches, so you can put some around the heater to hide it, and use other plats throughout the tank.

Cryptocoryne is the full name. Edit: http://www.aquahobby.com/garden/e_cwgreen.php There's a nice picture of what I'm talking about. They also come in a red-leafed variety (not sure if it's the same species or a different one). They often come in a pot looking a lot like the one in this...

Depending on the tank size, the stocking density might help him out. With African cichlids, for example, 2 might be fine, 4 will kill each other, but 8 will stabilize again. With enough targets, aggression gets spread around, no single fish can establish dominance and become a bully, etc. I...

Tie it to some small rocks. After a while you can remove the string, since it will anchor to almost anything. From there it'll spread. It grows fairly slowly, so it might take a while to get the thick carpets some people have. If you want to cover the substrate quickly, get a big potted crypt...

Depends on the fish, too. Some instinctively dive for cover, others instinctively jump. Depends on a lot of factors in their habitat and natural predators. Lots of cover near the surface helps. Generally, happy and calm fish don't jump, but it's too easy to change that, even if the tank is fine...

Some people just put them in their tank as-is, which personally I always thought looked a but weird. But you can pull the ball apart somewhat. The moss will attach to just about anything given some time, so you can tie it to a rock or driftwood and later remove the string, and you'll have a nice...

With an undergravel filter, the bacteria live in the gravel, which does make it difficult to seed a new tank. You can take a cup of it, put it in a filter bag or nylon sock, and put it in the filter of the new tank, but I'd proceed with a fishless cycle from there, rather than moving the fish...

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=113861 Read this thread. Just leaving it set doesn't do anything, no matter how long. If you do a fishless cycle, the water stats will tell you when it's ready, but generally about a month, give or take. Edit: Was a bit confused there on the two...

Usually you don't need ammonia when using mature media, but you do have to keep in mind that you can't add quite so much, especially when seeding from a smaller tank. It should be able to safely support a third to a half as much fish as the tank you're seeding from, though, and you can increase...

Not sure how much force the fin itself can handle, but fish can regrow pretty serious fin damage, so if it does come to excising part of the fin, just make sure to use a very sharp, sterile blade, and keep the water quality pristine for a couple weeks as it heals.

I get this sometimes, never causes me a problem, though most of it does seem to settle in the tank rather than get sucked back into the filter. Edit: Did you actually remove the pad with the bacterial growth on it, or a replaceable media like carbon? You should never remove all of the mature...

Says the video's listed as private, it won't let me bring it up.

I'd say 2-4 for basic freshwater stuff, provided you get a good start - a bad start bumps it up pretty quick. After the basics, which can really be covered in a few pages of reading, there are reams of research, but you don't really need to know all of it yourself, just what's necessary for your...

The Petsmart in my area has a nice 120 gallon tank with an oak stand for $650, but that doesn't include any of the additional hardware.

IMO, ghost shrimp are almost always worth a shot unless you're entirely sure they'll get eaten quickly. Petsmart sells them 3 for $1, and some LFS in my area sell them even cheaper as feeders, so they aren't a high priced gamble if they get eaten. If they survive for a long time and only get...

Basically sounds like somebody who kept fish in the 60's or so, or has been taught by somebody who did, and resists everything understood since. For that matter, most of it was understood before then, but a good chunk of the hobby was stuck (and some still are) in ramshackle play-science built...

20 gallons should be good, I'd think - get lots of females and fewer males so you get the most drops. Could easily go smaller, since it doesn't sound like these are a staple food source for the cichlids. Alternately, since the tank's also for enjoyment and not just food, if you get just males...

Do the water change now - right now more is being produced than is being used by the bacteria, so it's more likely to go up than down, if 1 ppm is the result of 14 hours without water changes, then in another 12 it could be approaching lethal levels. Do about a 75% change to get it below .25...

An additional filter might eventually help clear up the nitrIte, but the nitrate won't go anywhere unless you do water changes. If it weren't for the number of livebearers, I might suggest increasing water changes to 50% twice a week until you could upgrade, but in this case, I'd suggest trying...

I have black skirt tetras with angelfish and gouramis, and they don't cause any problem. Get a good sized group (I have 6), and have a plan B in place in case things go south (despite my experience and other success, they are confirmed nippers, like many of the big bodied tetras).

Rosey minnows. Pretty interesting little guys. Behavior-wise, they seem closer to cichlids than other minnows. They're usually sold as feeders, so on one hand getting a few dirt cheap should be no problem, but on the other getting healthy ones is a crapshoot.

Eheim filters are considered among the best, but aren't generally sold in the US. For food, Hikari is the most expensive available in my area, and nobody seems to carry the whole line for some bizarre reason - I have to get the algae wafers at Wal Mart, the flake at Meijer, and the pellets at...

In this case, we can. The OP has several times said he can type just fine (proved it once), but refuses because slang is superior for internet communication.

Most fish don't need much food to survive, since they're cold blooded. It might be enough if he were getting the whole wafer, but as it is, probably not. For my algae eaters, I put a leaf of lettuce or a slice of zucchini in the tank overnight every night (lettuce you can weigh down with a...

To make sure it's sterile doesn't take long. If you want to get as much of the tanin out as you can, replace the water as it turns dark until it stays clear. How long that takes depends on the size. I've been done with small pieces inside of a couple hours, but I have a friend who's had a big...

I'd tend to lean towards the rasboras. With the rummynose, you'd probably want to wait until the tank had been running a while before adding them, but rasboras could be part of the early stocking. Also, since you mention pearl danios, I think they'd be a bit more distinct from them than the...