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Does this work? Yes. How well it works depends on flow and sponge. Large sponges, with fine texture with slow flow make excellent biofilters (like the hamburg mattenfilters), high flow rates turn more towards mechanical filters, and will need cleaning more often, but will be at least some...

Don't have any lying around, what are you planning on using them for though? I've been known to repurpose some tubs from work that would be fish safe after what we've done with them, but it depends what we've been up to and what you want to do with them.

no tips sadly, but good luck. I've not yet seen anyone succeed, although lots have done better than I expected. The ones I've know get furthest swore that it was to do with the rate of change to salt water that they had to get right, but I can't advise beyond that nugget as I've never actually...

Sponge filter won't do anything much about nitrates. They're mainly ways of removing the toxic ammonia and nitrite, with nitrate being the end product, much like the penguins you already have. Mainly those are removed by water changes. Plants will also take them out, otherwise you need somewhat...

OK, initial basics. Don't worry about the light for now, it's purely cosmetic as far as the fish are concerned, but important if you have plants. Don't buy a new filter cartridge, unless the one you have is literally disintegrating, and even then I'd think twice. So, to start, get into the...

Not sure that buckets will stay with the set up, but am definitely tempted by at least upgrading to a 20l.

We're all beginners at something. I've been keeping fish for many years, but have never kept marine (soon to be rectified once I finish renovating the room the tank is going in). To me, the biggest difference between a beginner, an established keeper, and an expert, is that the beginner doesn't...

So, the OH brought home the school goldfish for us to look after over the Christmas holiday. It's a tiny oranda, only about 4cm long and arrived in a 10l tank with a small internal filter (the sort that you can pick up in various shops with pictures of several goldfish on the packaging). Now...

I've had apistos really take a dislike to cories. Depends on the fish somewhat. Others have been fine with them.

I think he's talking about the cartridge filters that you get on RO units. Great for purpose, but, as you say, they can be too aggressive. As water polishers they're probably fine, but I can't see them replacing a normal filter for sheer biological grunt, but paired with the right piece of kit...

I've seen a similar set up, run as a side filter on a marine sump. They'd set it up originally as they'd wanted a reactor and the micron filter was tempting. They also had the filter cartridges already from their RO unit and an empty cartridge wasn't too hard to come by. Problem they found was...

If you want a dual outlet to be quieter then you can put a 180 degree bend (with an open topped vent at the top of the bend) on the higher tube and then throttle down the lower tube so that a tiny amount goes through the higher. That way the lower tube basically runs with a slow by silent syphon...

My tropical tank has a sump (well it does when I'm not changing the flooring in the room it's in, it's stripped down right now). Works well. Hides all of the kit nicely. Problems I've found. The clean up team in tropical aren't as effective at moving things around as the marine version, and...

It'll be fine. Two people on a couch weight far more than your tank. Beds can be worse and bookshelves don't bear thinking about. Most important thing is that it's stable and flat.

Things to consider. If you have a pair, and keep them in good condition, then they'll either breed, or hate each other. If they hate each other, then 24 inches isn't long enough. They're low level fish and territorial, so the height isn't going to help you. You might get away with 24 inches, if...

Agreed. I've experienced them to be great parents, until they breed again, then all bets are off.

I've had a few cyanoacrylate projects give way after time and exposure to water. Now drinking water safe solvent weld, that stuff is great underwater.

There are various invertebrates that can find their way into aquariums. I'm guessing you've got tropical freshwater, which would narrow things down somewhat. I've found dragonfly larvae in my tanks. Glassworms might fit the description, and are often found in batches of daphnia.

They've been annoying unavailable in the UK for some time now, so if we want one we end up importing them from the continent, which makes them uneconomical. Shame as they're good workhorse filters with the best media capacity I've seen on a hob.

You've got a good sized tank, but gouramis are quite territorial, and that opaline doesn't look like it's an adult. I strongly suspect that it'll turn into a more dominant fish as it gets older. Bettas will take out guppies. They don't really play well with things with flashy tails, probably...

Aye, too young to say. They're not that easy to sex. Even the experts have been caught out by "males" laying eggs. As Colin says, they're shoaling, but territorial when breeding, so they're best in a pair, or shoal. You can, in theory, keep one, but they're happier in a group. I wouldn't add a...

Pressurised is superior to homebrew, although I have a friend who drinks the product of his homebrew system and would probably disagree. Pressurised is also easier to control with needle valves, although it is also capable of dumping far more CO2 at once if you get things wrong. Homebrew is...

They'll still prefer being gradually acclimatised to hard water, and may well survive better if other conditions aren't perfect. The other option if you're into more diy is evaporative cooling, same principle as a swamp cooler. You could rig up some form of waterfall arrangement outside the...

No, not really. Yes. As ever, you're after surface area, and the area of the media may be huge for the volume taken, but you have far more gravel, so it's surface area is still pretty good. Get a gravel cleaner for your syphon, UGF's deliberately attract all of the debris, so will need to be...

They're ok. I've found their flow rates to be less than expected, media volume huge and plastic bits can be a bit flimsy. I always advice people to have a look at the power consumption on these things as well. Cheaper filters are great, but can end up more expensive within a couple of years...

Welcome back. Down to one tank at the moment, life has been hectic, but ticking along, and finding more time now.

You may have picked up a vibe on the thread. Biorbs are pretty tanks, but not hugely practical, or all that easy to look after compared to more traditional tanks. If you've not bought it yet then we'd counsel you to think again. If you have, then, kept to low stocking levels, and planted well...

It's been known, but most people have bouts of tanks looking good and bouts of....not, and not everyone goes for aquascapes, some are into fairly bare tanks with big fish, depends what you're into. Plus they'll worry that, if they win, people might complain.

You've also got to watch spray contamination, depending on where you are. We have a rainwater tank but are fully aware that the local farmers spray near our roof at certain times of the year. The daphnia tests works for us for this. Add daphnia to the water, wait, if they survive then it's good...

They're a fairly territorial group. You don't say what type of gouramis you have, but most of them behave similarly. Males are invariably territorial towards each other and a lack of cover can be an issue even with an opposite sex pair.

I'm a serial filter oversizer. I also tend to run low stocking densities. For me it's all about best possible conditions and the greatest chance to compensate for changes in the environment. In theory, you could overstock a tank and keep the water parameters right with an oversized filter and...

I mean adding the dose you started with to the water that you're adding. Say, if you're doing a 10 litre water change, then you dose the water you're adding as per the instructions that you followed when you dosed the tank earlier for the 10 litres (so 1 drop per litre - 10 drops in the bucket...

Simplest approach to water changes is to dose the incoming water to the right level. I'd try to avoid double dosing, cupramine is a copper treatment and it does have a toxic level, albeit better than plain old copper sulphate that we used to use. I've treated velvet in the past and, to be...

Yeah, sadly I'm with Byron on this one, they're not sociable creatures particularly and are generally best kept in their own company unless you've got a group of females or are actively breeding them.

Generally not worth bothering, as you get the replacement tubes at a discount for purchasing as a block and you'll have to replace them eventually. If price is an issue then replacing the driver might be an option, if your wiring is good. Are you sure it isn't the bulbs that have gone? I...

Bubbly sealant sounds like a too rapid cure. Happens in damp/hot conditions. Where's the tank from?

An agreement, and a tweak, to Byron's suggestion. If you can keep the airflow over the water surface good, ideally with turbulence, then that can also help during the heat treatment, as warmer water holds less oxygen and you can occasionally run into problems in a well stocked tank, especially...

Not convinced that those are Hi fin sharks. They look more like iridescent sharks to me, but the photos are a bit blurry. We've seen similar pictures on the forum before, mostly relating to them bumping against things as they want more space, can't see all that well and seem to be prone to...

Nice hardscape and planting. Looking forward to seeing it grow out. Also nice to see that lighting rig still in action, have you changed anything on that at all over time or is it still in its original configuration?

I'm with flutter, your angels are too big for the tank, by a large amount. This is the cause of the enhanced aggression (although they're not big fans of guppies at the best of times in my experience).