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  Out of curiosity, did they give you that in writing, or verbally?

Lid situation is that there is no lid. I do also need to work out where to put it, which could effect it's final use.

Not something I've encountered before those wee beasties. They sound almost edible though.   Planted seems obvious. Not sure it's big enough for a betta.

Well, a few distractions aside, and being kept busy sorting tortoise enclosures for the summer, leaves me back with some time to start playing again.   I've got a lot of tidying up to do in the main display which lacks feature fish after some old age die offs, and the shrimp tank is an overgrown...

Baccus posted a picture of one a little while back, fairly classical water lily flowers, but they only do it when they get surface leaves.

I think, so long as it has leaves and roots, then it'll be fine. From what I've understood it's post flowering that they throw lots of new bulblets around.

I think it's TTA that uses rooibos tea for the same purpose, there are plenty of ways of making blackwater that are probably cheaper, but you do get the convenience with a bottle.

Still doesn't change the fact that waste water from a water change can be used for things that would otherwise have drawn water from the mains, cutting drains considerably. Mixtures of carbon, or purigen, excellent mechanical titration and things like anaerobic filters can drop back water...

Just to warn you Charlie, they do grow rather fast once they get started, it won't stay small and demure for any length of time at all.   Sadly no Akasha, it doesn't apply to all bulbs. My experience of tigers is that they do best just sitting on the surface and rot like crazy if you try to bury...

Trim off the longer roots, clear off the worst of the brown layers, plant in the substrate but imagine that they're onions, you want to be able to see a good portion of the bulb, probably around half, if not a little more.   If you can get the substrate to cover a well spread out root system...

I left strict instructions with the people feeding the cats and tortoises that they were to leave the fish tanks alone. No problems at all after 11 days. Water change before I went and no food the day before either and a change with a feed when I got back. There were actually a couple of baby...

I always, at this point, question why you're using a carbon filter in the first place.   They have their uses, but a lot of the time you're better off just replacing them with more biofilter material.

Thing to remember to do is to hide the rest of the food. In case they think that the fish still look hungry......

I've seen one go. Was older than yours. Owner hadn't spotted the problem until I pointed it out. Whole thing went boom while we were talking about the repair.   I've also replaced a couple of old broken plastic braces (picked them up really cheap on ebay because the brace was broken) with a...

They do have their uses. Battery powered ones can be tank savers in a prolonged power cut and old school undergravel units can work well with them. Otherwise, they're largely decorative in many tanks.

Mini landscape rocks. Beloved of Takashi Amano, although he tends to use larger ones. They're also known as Seiryu stone and I believe that they're a form of limestone. They certainly look like limestone.

Depends a whole lot on all sorts of things. Tank depth is a starting point, as well as the height on the lighting unit above the water. You've already mooted that plant type has an impact, as does planting density. Sunlight exposure is also part of the consideration.   There's nothing...

  Yes, this. I'm sure you already knew that though. I've largely given up with MDF for tank stands, pine board seems to be getting cheaper, and there are enough wooden kitchen worktops selling now that you can get some really nice offcuts for very little if you ask in the right places that make...

I seem to have a few of these tanks lying around. One has shrimp in it and some plants jungling nicely. I'll keep an eye on this one as I have an empty one and pretty pictures may get the other half interested in one more tank.

Ohhhh, better get a huge tank and quickly, those are tankbusters, they grow rapidly and will end up needing something in the 250 gallon category minimum, which is quite the serious undertaking.

Indeed, most of the piranhas you see are from the schoaling groups, so they'll be far more comfortable in a group. They can be kept with other fish occasionally. They're often seen in tank with the larger plecs, but I've also seen them take large gibbiceps plecs to pieces when the mood (or...

Simple answer is that you don't. There's nothing to stop you running a tank with a classical external. The general issue is that corals and marine inverts tend to be more intolerant of nitrates, which build up with normal external filters, the Berlin method with live rock gives a degree of...

  What do you mean by filter changes? Did you switch out all of the cartridges in the filter for new ones? Or wash them under chlorinated tap water?   Whilst waiting for answers, best advice I can give is lots of clean water. I suspect that you're dealing with something toxic, either from new...

It's not unusual. Chloramine is one of commonest forms of chlorine treatment now, and it's very effective at getting the chlorine to the tap with the least fuss, so the water companies are unlikely to change in the near future.   With regards to ammonia poisoning, even a large water change at...

The water boards have been slowly hunting down and replacing lead pipes for a while now. Most of them are done, but not all of them are clearly documented as being lead, so they still find them occasionally when doing other work and replace what they find.   As said, there are a few older houses...

I've got plants growing in water harder than that. CO2 requirement depends on plant growth and how well it dissolves, as well as how much evaporates away, water parameters will effect the solubility of the CO2 but won't have too much effect on the other bits, so overall it shouldn't make too...

No reason you can't grow most plants in hard water. Some plants really don't like soft water (vallis springs to mind). If anything, the pH shift that you get in soft water from adding CO2 tends to be less of a problem in hard water tanks.   No idea about the drop checks, all the ones I've used...

Looking nice. Shrimp will love it in there, if you get one of the cherry subtypes then you can start with enough for a breeding colony for genetic diversity (or a berried female or two) and they'll fill the space rapidly. I started with about 10 cherries, but have swapped a few out for diversity...

They're good filters, but all of them will go the same way if they clog up. Often the culprit is mulmed up media, usually the fine floss stuff, or, as Charlie says, gunk in the impeller housing.

Oddly enough, so did mine.

I hope that doesn't get too close to the house.   I have shed envy now, mines about a quarter of that size. I'm also more into masonry and plasterwork, but then my house was built in 1756.

Add together the cost of 4 digital timers, plus a 6 way extension block, and you're not really all that far off anyway. I tend to use blocks with switches, which makes for wider gaps.

That's the only multi channel digital I've seen. I've seen some with built in mechanical ones. I just use a power block with a series of cheap digital timers, but it does get messy.

I've blown up one APS filter (my own fault I let it suck up some air and burned the motor). Nice enough piece of kit, remember to overpower them a bit as they're not wonderful for the flow rate that they sell as once they're full of media.   Apart from agreeing with pretty much everything above...

No intention of that Daize, was just away on holiday for a couple of weeks. All critters accounted for apart from the cat, who'll likely not show up until it rains.   It's been fun being a mod, but time pressures were always an issue for me and they're getting worse rather than better, so I need...

There are 2 things I've seen that work, one is to put a syphon break (essentially a small hole that'll let air in) into the intake pipe, that way, if the water level drops then the filter will start to suck on air. Alternatively you can simply terminate the pipe higher in the tank, but that'd...

I recognise that, but can't remember where from.   It's a speech bubble with quotes inside it. I have a feeling it's a third party thingamy to do with a plug in, but I'll admit it's been a while since I've seen one.