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If you are in Edinburgh, presumably you are with Scottish Water? It's not straight forward finding hardness on their website, but if you can't find it I can talk you through :)

A bigger tank for your betta is a good idea, thank you for understanding my concerns about the 1 gallon tank. Even female bettas can be as aggressive as males and tank mates can be hit or miss with them. See how she settles into a bigger tank before buying any more fish; you may be able to...

I will be honest with you and say that 1 gallon is too small for any fish. In my opinion it is also too small for shrimps. But it could be made into a miniature planted tank with carefully chosen small plants Bettas need at least 5 gallons, with 10 being better. Guppies also need at least 10...

Never believe anything a shop tells you, especially about fish. Carbon was used decades ago as water changes were done infrequently (they were believed to be bad) and the water became tinted yellow after a while so carbon was used to remove the yellow colour. Now that we do weekly water changes...

According to what I can find on-line, the filter has a sponge and a cartridge. You don't need to run carbon full time. It's a hangover from decades ago. Carbon is useful for removing medication after treatment has finished if fish ever get sick, but that's about all. Keeping a new cartridge in...

I don't think 'real' shops have black Friday deals (Pets@Home, Maidenhead Aquatics). I know Swell has black Friday offers at the moment - I just got my replacement heater from there. Of course they may not sell the tank you want, but it's worth a look. They currently have Fluval, AquaEl, Juwel...

I do 50% water changes a week and my Bucephalandra biblis grows very well with that. Just a thought - is your buce planted in the substrate or attached to decor? Buce's need the rhizome above the substrate.

Congratulations :hooray:

Does the light have a brand and model number - that should be on the Amazon listing. 10 hours is still a long time; you'd know if you have plants which need a lot of light as those also need added CO2 and lots of fertiliser. Elodea is a low light plant; if you could find out what the others...

Our across the road neighbour has plane trees (2 of them) in his front garden, his wife wants to get rid of them as they grow far too large for a typical UK front garden, but he likes them. He is currently disposing of the leaves which cover his lawn on a daily basis. I wonder if he has any of...

Yes, Europe this time :)

10 hours is a long time unless you have plants which need a lot of light. I have low light plants and mine are on for 6 hours a day. Do the lights give the K rating? Some lights have a K rating over 7000; there is more blue the higher the K rating and this encourages algae to grow. Ideally the...

Has the level changed over the last few days or remained the same? If it's changed I would test every day. If the nitrite reading increases you'll need to add more salt, but only the amount for the increase not the the whole reading. If it's the same, test every couple of days to make sure it's...

Add salt. In this thread https://www.fishforums.net/threads/curious-question.495267 TwoTankAmin gave some good advice about dealing with nitrite. The amount to add is detailed in the second half of this (the first half is about ammonia)...

I wouldn't keep either of those tetras in a 45 cm/18 inch long tank. And pet stores are just about the worst source of advice as many workers are trained in how to make a sale without any real knowledge about the fish they are selling. Seriously Fish is not perfect but it's one of the best...

Cories are very social and are another type of fish which need more than 4 - again at least 10 of them. And sand on the bottom is better for them than gravel (you haven't said what substrate you have, but something to bear in mind). Besides the difficulties of tank mates for a betta, the...

Your hardness is 115 ppm/6.5 dH. You have soft water, the majority of soft water fish will be fine with that. Shrimps depend on the betta. I've had a betta which dismembered cherry shrimps, and another which didn't even eat baby shrimps. There's no way to tell until you buy a betta.

A couple of things - The tank may not actually hold 55 litres water. I once had a "54 litre" tank which actually held 45 litres water (I measured it in when I set it up) Kuhli loaches need a lot more than 3 I'm afraid. I wouldn't keep less than 10. When there aren't enough of them they hide...

It's not just nitrate. Don't forget that used water from other tanks will contain a lot of things that we do water changes to remove, things we can't measure. You need to remove them from this tank by removing water and adding new tap water (dechlorinated) not add more of them from another tank.

Even in the UK, which is well known for its damp climate, I'm not sure a dehumidifier would produce enough water for a weekly water change. Ours certainly wouldn't. And having seen what's in the water I empty out, I wouldn't use it in my steam iron, let alone a fish tank.

An air stone won't cause more oxygen to dissolve, just replace what the fish and plants use more quickly. Water at any given temperature and pressure holds a certain amount of any gas. When there's something in the water either using a gas or making a gas, that gas will enter or leave the water...

It's the swimming length that is important to fish and yours is just 24 inches/60 cm long. Acaras need at least twice that length, as do congo tetras.

You describe the tank as a cube, which means it will have a smaller footprint than a rectangular tank. Can you give us the dimensions of the tank, please.

Yes rain water is good. But there are things to consider before going down that route - contaminated roof water, as you have mentioned; contaminated rain from industrial pollution and also agricultural pollution (eg crop spraying) and last but not least, can you guarantee having rain water...

A lot of people opt for having their own RO equipment, many also using it for cooking and preparing drinks for themselves.

Mixing your tap water with pure water such as RO water. Because your GH is so high other methods will have little impact. A 50:50 mix would reduce your GH to ~206 ppm/12 dH. 25% RO: 75% tap would give you ~310 ppm/17.6 dH 75% RO : 25% tap would give ~103 ppm/5.8 dH.

Clove oil is the best way. https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/fishkeeping-news/painful-fish-deaths-you-might-be-guilty

That could be why your fish did not live long - they are all soft water fish. If the hardness is outside their range fish find it stressful, which reduces their immunity so they get sick easier. Soft water fish can also develop calcium deposits in their kidneys in hard water. Going forwards you...

GH should be available as 'hardness' on your water company's website. If you live in Brigg, I assume it's Anglian Water? If it is, enter your postcode on this page https://waterquality.anglianwater.com/map.aspx That should give a map with a box of text overlaying the map. The box should contain...

20 % may not be enough. Though as long as it is every week without fail, it may well be OK. I started keeping fish before we had broadband and my only source of info was library books. Those were out of date and said water changes were bad, so I did small water changes once every 3 to 4 weeks...

There are three ways to use RO. Mix it with tap water. Using this method, there is always some GH in the mixture depending on the ratio of tap:RO used. Use all RO and add remineralisation salts. This removes just about everything but the remineralisation salts add back some hardness, the level...

I have not personally used an electronic GH device, I suspect it's actually a TDS meter. That's total dissolved solids and it measures everything dissolved in water, not just GH. GH is a measure of the amount of divalent metal ions. The most abundant are calcium and magnesium but there are tiny...

Assuming the water is suitable for them there should be a lot of interesting fry from that assortment :)

I've been lucky, when my heaters have failed they've just stopped working, they haven't stuck in the on position like so many seem to. I do need heaters as we don't keep the rooms with the tanks very warm in middle of winter. I have to admit that I don't check the new water temp very often...

The heater in my main aquarium stopped working and the replacement arrived yesterday afternoon. I also bought a digital thermometer, the kind with a probe which sits inside the tank and the display outside the tank. I've always used the ones with the liquid inside that stick to the inside of...

I'll let Byron present the other side of the coin. Byron was one of our most knowledgeable members who sadly passed away earlier this year. But we still have his wealth of knowledge available on this forum...

Members are reminded that the forum has a zero tolerance policy regarding politics. Any post containing anything referring to politics, politicians, political parties or any political-related issues WILL be deleted.

277 ppm = 15.5 dH. , With the API tester, 1 drop = 1 dH so in theory it should have changed to the end point colour at 16 drops. My KH average on my water company's website is 51 ppm or 3 dH. Years ago I did 25% water changes every 3 to 4 weeks as the books I read said water changes were bad...

It took 3 weeks for me to see a drop in ammonia, and nitrite appear.