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Hello 633, I have a Marineland 450 w/ Sponge over the intake, both sides currently have replaceable media filter cartridges that I fill with small bioballs, ceramic bio rings and filter floss. It's in a 40 gal bowfront tank - fish- load is 3 angels, a rather large pleco, 6 small loaches, 6...

I was in the same conundrum, I used disposable filter cartridges for a long time. But then decide to go bio ball/rings. what changed my mind was that I have plants. Activated charcoal will remove nutrients that plant could use. Depending on your tanks I don't think it can hurt, why not just...

Great Replies and thinking all...I guess I was just wishfully think....as always looking for a simple lazy way of doingMaybe we can get someon things...oh wait that's why we have test strips...;-) LOL....May be we can get someone on Kickstarter to make an easy to use and run an N cycle...

Funny thing, after absence of some time when I returned to the hobby a few years ago I bought into the bio wheel concepts. I got the 450's and they worked great initially. But over time, I too, found that the wheels would slow and only turn occasionally then the wheels stop turning completely...

So we are all about bio cycling, having enough good bacteria to take care of our ammonia/nito cycle... We all go through lots of work and expense: bio balls, bio rings, bio wheels, bacteria starters via the bottle...etc...and the only way we know it things are working is via test strips/ water...

Thanks for sharing...kinda reminds me of all the house remodeling stories...what started out as one way is nott what things end up us....LOL...

Just a quick note, I love your kind and reasoned responses...if memory serves me right you were once a moderator...well your moderator skills show up...keep up the great responses...cheers...DanC

Tank looks great, but I was wondering how do you expect to the keep the hills? over time wouldn't the black hills just erode to level? will you be using rocks etc...to keep the hills?

What a great thread...just goes to show the variety of experiences we all have...alas what works for one doesn't necessarily it works for all. LIke any hobby, one has to distilled, organize, and try something to see what works for them. This particular thread is like quantum physics to many...

instead of a number of smaller tanks every thought about get 1 large one ie. 40g 55, or even 100, just a thought good luck...DanC

Wow, filtration built in, now that's fancy, I hope you plan to show your project when its done. I envision a tank where there's a built in bioball filter box on one side getting its intake water from the tank then pushing the out flow to the terrarium side for eventually return to the...

What a great looking tank, but before you load it w/water may I suggest that you move the tank forward away from the wall to create working space bwt the tank and wall, 4-5 inches. This will allow for things like tubing, hoses, HOB filters and electrical wiring. Oh and since you have such nice...

Utar thanks for the info ...as it turns out Frogbit cannot be shipped to Ca oh well that's okay and yup you are quite right plants can be a hit or miss affair.....I also looking for a floating plants that I can use in my 100 gal to remove nitrates...currently using plain old duck weed....;-)

Thank you for the replies, great suggestion about using Ambulia, I happen to have lots....Hey Viking can you send a picture of "frog bite" not sure what plant that is.

Yes you can do that, I know I'm in the process of swapping over from cartridges. But there's the thing from the looks of your current situation you don't have any live plants. A purely biological system using sponge filters and bio ball...etc are the way to go if you have plants or a few fish...

ONly when they are small as they grow they decide to skip algae for real food...;-)

But they grow on you "literally" I got my at a tiny 2" now 'Pete' is a 10", his compatriot 'Pan' is at a slight 8" They remind me of a SSBN, especially Pete in his 100 gal home.

Time was when the only Corys you could get was a plain old bronze cory. Way back in the day if you had a tank you had to get 1 Cory for clean up duty. But now many eons forward we've learned a lot more and the varieties of corys are vast...so hence their popularity....

This looks like an old Tetra HOB that I had....it was horribly over engineered. My suggestion ois to get rid of it and pick up a simpler HOB. and replaceing the started filter cartridges with just bio alls and filter floss/sponge.

Hello, Welcome to the nuances of fish keeping...among which is cycling tanks, and methods to remove ammonia. For some situations, you can remove ammonia via mechanical/chem (i.e. filter cartridges w/activated charcoal)., or you can go all biological route, and to make it all the more confusing...

Golly life was so simple in the past, when we didn't know anything...here's a great video that I found about test kits and ammonia levels...

Hello All, Well I finally got my CV DIY 55 gal repurpose project ready for water. I doing something different to get it cycled and would appreciate any observations/comments. First I divided my tank into a 18 gal aquarium /terrarium. I am using a powered internal hanging sponge filter. Tank...

LOl, or having the fish kill you.....

I wonder what it is that clouds the glass. I'm beginning to think is the minerals of the water that is left on the hoods and that those minerals eventually etch into the glass.

Good luck it's gonna be heavy especially since you plan on moving it with the substrate. But saving the original water is good idea as well as having some seasoned water on hand. But regardless I would take my time and think really hard about the move especially if you have stairs to deal...

Thanks Colin I'll give that a try.

In my rearrangement of living quarters for my various fish...I moved a 6 inch horse face loach to my 100 gal tank. I haven't seen him for over a week now I know that he dived deep in the substrate, 2 -3 inches of black diamond sand. I wondering if anybody have seen their Horseface loaches...

Has anybody na idea on how to clean glass aquarium hoods. I have two hoods from my 55 gal tank and over the years the glass portion has developed a cloudiness to them. I've scrub them, used CLR, on them, and when wet they are clear, but after they dry there a cloudiness to them that I can...

A pond that another on my wish list and a dream of mine, is to have a 3 ft deep pond. How do you keep your pond from becoming a buffet for the locals? and are you keeping koi?

Well then you get to the point of saying why bother with lots of small tanks I'll just get one big one....kinda like moving from a studio apartment to a McMansion here in sunny Calif.:p

Thanks to all who took the time to share, as much as I love all the various hobby forums I'm a part of. I really like discussion like these cuz it's personal and by shariing it helps all of us as we are shut in during this CV time. Alas there's no pub time to saddle up and say "How ya doing"...

Bath tub? I too had a bathtub...at my parents house we had an unused cast iron tub in the back yard and it was something I always wanted to turn into a pond....alas it never happened probably cus there weren't enough neighborhood kids to move the darn thing.

the sad part is it's our ineptitude that keeps the fish breeders and LFS in business...I know Sun Lee loved seeing me come into his store.

Yup ain't life great, it's that circle of life thing....looks like you got MTS disease, Multiple Tank Syndrome, especially after you start reading all the various forum topics...take care and thanks for sharing. PS let me know when you get the 100 g LOL

What a great forum, so much knowledge and help. But I'm curious as what got ya all into the hobby? And as a new member I'll start, just to get the discussion rolling? 4th grade at Cabrillo ES, my teacher, Ms Barnum had simple 20 gal saltwater tanks with a few anemones and crabs. Everyone in...

What you mean the Web is not all that truthful? Oh yea I forgot all those tweets from 1600....:eek:

What a great forum...thanks gents for the clarification about the layers and in what order....I guess the previous user was a bit off in his layering...but that's ok now to correct everything....