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If you have a garden that you water then your water usage for it will vastly use more water than your fish tank water change for most people keeping 1 to 3 tanks of reasonable size (ie 30 to 75 gallons). I estimate each water change event for me uses 5 cubic feet of water resulting in 260 cubic...

Why not play it safe, collect your substrate and simply put it in a 5 gallon bucket with a 20 to 1 bleach solution for a few days. To rinse the substrate just put about 2 quarts or litres into a norm bucket and rinse with a high water flow. I have probably treated more than 50 cubic feet of...

I personally feel the risk is low, but for the effort I usually dose my field collected substrates in bleach. My wife was a teacher and I used to collect planaria in the creeks in the Kootenays for her classes use, those creeks were clean enough that I would drink the water untreated. You...

I like the green ones better :)

Beautiful fish.

Cleaning day, jungle vals in my tanks with a cheap Top Fin light on one tank and a cheap Nicrew G2 on the large tank. I came back from vacation so it was nearly 2.5 weeks without a water change.

Napkin calcs (Canadian currency): Don't know your tank setup but consider 2 55 gallon tanks. Heating 2 X 300 watts with a 6 hour duty cycle - 3600 watt hours (this is a guess on the duty cycle) Lighting 2 x 45 watts with a 10 hour duty cycle - 900 watt hours Pump/Filter 2 X 40 watts with a 24...

I have not had much luck with hornwort, or Eloda but have had great success with the various Vallisnerias. They take a bit to get established but then grow quite rapidly.

I lived for years without ever getting an occurrence of Cyanobacteria, but in my current location it is much more frequent. My treatment involved reducing artificial light to 7.5 hours, 1330 hours to 2200 hours on two of the tanks (PAR at mid point in tank at approx 60). The other thing I did...

https://www.jointas-chemical.com/article/acetic-cure-silicone-vs-neutral-cure-silicone.html. https://content.interlinebrands.com/product/document/53/317805100_SDS_E.pdf Anything that produces vapours of some sort and make you dizzy will be inhaled by someone looking for a high somewhere, hence...

On my 407 I put the end of the hose into a bucket when I service the canister. If the hose after being disconnected is leaking the shutoff valve might not have been fully closed especially if you used the locking mechanism to push the valve closed. The hoses will siphon, as long as the drip...

Most water pumps do not pump right to the floor. Basements in Canada typically have a drain in the low spot of the floor, with a 3 or 4" pipe going to the drain. Can you put the pump there? Alternatively you could use the wet dry to vacuum up the water but then use the water pump to pump it...

Hate to say this but I have had to euthanize fish I cannot find homes for. Most of the time you can find someone who wants a fish but sometimes there is no home to be found. Typically only fish like the old pleco type, random guppies etc are a problem but I stopped breeding Angels because I...

I use whatever wood I find in the forest, as long as it is dry and has been dead for a while. This includes Douglas Fir, Western Cedar, Lodgepole Pine. I haven't used very resinous wood like Ponderosa pine, Balsams (true firs but honestly I think they would be OK. I would be cautious with...

I am pretty sure it is a cyanobacteria and very close to what I have had to deal with in the past. I haven't encountered a green algae with the same sort of presentation on the surface of the gravel closest being diatoms. I would expect it is from the genus Oscillatoria, which could be...

This is from my personal experience and may differ from other advice you get. I have had a major fight with cyanobacteria recently in one of my aquariums. The tank was very clean, and had low nutrient loading but for some reason the cyanobacteria kept coming back. I thought the issue might...

I use a gravel vac on my sand but I also use a siphon with nearly 12' of hose below the water level, I have to constrict the flow slightly to prevent sucking up too much sand.

The oldest tank I re-siliconed was the tank my father had from the late 60s when we moved to Canada. The tank had been stored for years outside in a cold climate and most of the original plastic top and base was very brittle, and the silicone was definitely questionable. I resealed in two...

I ignore the haziness caused by suspended silt. If you simply start cycling the tank the haziness will eventually clear up. In my experience the tanks follow the same progression when new substrate is added. Assuming weekly 50% water changes. Timeframe is highly subjective and dependent of...

Thanks for the clear explanation.

Why are they called split fins.

That looks identical to an issue I had with a betta. I don't have any help because I never found out what it was, even after examining the growth in a microscope. In my case the growth was soft and pliable, would sometimes disappear then return. I will be watching this thread.

Poor little red squirrel. Glad he tasted good. I know they eat gray squirrels further east and south from Wyoming but I never got a chance to try them. My bow shooting at this time would not be up to hitting a squirrel, even at close range, without a lot of luck. What kind of point do you...

From your comment it seems like you think there is something in the tank that is causing the issue. Have you looked outside the tank for an issue, may something that is continuously stressing the inhabitants, food not meeting their needs... Just thoughts no advice.

I have had good luck with 50 to 70% weekly to bi weekly water changes on my tanks where I can use un-adjusted water. In my shrimp tank I do 25% weekly but I push the GH up to 150 to 180 ppm on that tank. I mostly keep angelfish and my water has very low KH 10 ppm and GH 0 by test kit. The...

Landscaping fabric might not be safe for use if it has added compounds like anti fungal treatment, but I believe most are not treated. Laguna uses landscaping fabric for their float pond pots see https://www.lagunaponds.com/product-category/planting-2/ I have a couple of these in my outdoor...

Why not use landscaping fabric. You will need a large surface area under the sand the UGFs I am familiar with would not have enough holes in the plates. Also if you use a meshed/sieved/sorted sand like pool filter or silica blasting sand then the water flow would be higher. Pool filter sand...

Fathead minnows work for me. Temps from 85 to freezing, I have a self maintaining population for over 20 years. Smaller than goldfish larger than guppies.

I got some ramshorns from a local store that have red bodies and very light shells. They interbreed with the normal grey/brown bodies and shells and I get a few different variations.

Totally agree with previous posters. I have some tall tanks I bought on a whim, they are harder to maintain ie 70cm tall. For a smaller tank I would prefer a 30cm height 12in, for tanks > 50 gallons I prefer 45 cm or 18 inch tall tank.

I use the API tests only. I find I don't test for Ammonia or Nitrite or Nitrate anymore, typically only test for those on a new tank or if the inhabitants don't seem to be behaving normally. I am mixing water now for one tank on that one I am targeting 160 to 180 ppm of general hardness...

Sure looks like a leach in terms of form but I haven't seen one that small.

You really have two choices for organisms like snails and plants. You can do the sterile method where all introductions are quarantined and or treated (bleach dip for plants). Or you can take the approach of introducing these types of critters into your tank without quarantine or treatment...

I would say the fish would be able to see it, we did a research project with hatchery lake trout during my training where we looked at the response trout had to various colors, primarily to determine what colors to use with the enclosures, but we also looked at what colors the lure's should be...

Well said. Individually we are all very intelligent. I don't believe any creature yet is as intelligent as humans, some come close (looking at intelligence not knowledge) but we have gone past the phase where we have to individually pass on information to future generations, we have learned to...

Well... poop! I was looking for garnet a couple of years ago. I could have sworn that tractor supply stocked 20 mesh sub angular alluvial garnet but I cannot find it at all anymore. I was going to pick some up next time I crossed into the states. It is used water cutting, sand blasting, and...

Assuming you put in on the outside of the tank, I don't think the texture will matter, I would expect the glass surface to be the "surface" which would always be somewhat glossy in appearance. Not speaking from experience, so I could definitely be wrong. You can paint the tank or you can use...