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Dear all, Any hints, or links to articles, on how to put new backing on a tank properly? Thanks, Mark

I'd suggest using a bucket big enough to take a heater as the temporary home. Drain most of the water out of current tank, so you can put some water from big bucket into tank to get fish acclimatised to new water before putting then in bucket. Maybe give the filter a good clean in fresh clean...

I was ill-advised and bought some of those a few years ago, they were very aggressive and actually sucked the sides of other fish in the tank.....

Long shot, but have you put new wood in there recently?

Nice article, and lovely photos!

I've seen some interesting recipes to make your own which could be a good use of discounted fish from supermarket if you can get away with lots of "fish food cubes" in the freezer!

I'm considering plumbing into my big tank a drop feed of water, say 20% per week, with an overflow. This is to keep nitrates down and conditions steady. Of course the bottom will need a clean. This amount per week will not be a problem for chlorine and bacteria in the filter. I was wondering if...

Good question, but yes I did!

The tank actually has 2 300W heaters, with the logic that if one fails (as on stops working rather than overheats) the other will cope. I don't think that having two will balance the load, however, unless both have the thermostats set at EXACTLY the same temperature (fairly impossible to...

Thanks for the response. No idea what the heater was doing before it broke!

Dear all, Last year a heater failed and I lost several fish who could not cope with the high temperatures. It's happened again, after rescaping a tank at the weekend, today I noticed all the glowlight tetras really struggling and it was soon obvious that it was too warm, and turned out to be...

I'm thinking about making it temperate, some small goldfish variety. Water hardness not an issue then? And agree that I may struggle to rehome krib fry, good point.

Thanks for the replies.   I live in London so the water is hard.....

I've had an 85 litre tank that was doing really well (compost under black gravel so plants growing fantastically), but have just had to remove 10 dead fish (2 small algea eaters, 2 corys, 5 neons and a couple of guppies).  Other fish have been put into my big tank and the fry put into a small...

Thanks for the replies, I'll investigate used Eheim,     M

Thank you!   Has anyone on here tried a Jeboa filter?     M

Hi Byron,   Yes lots of plants, and mostly tetras and guppies in the tank.  It has a sponge filter at the moment but it seems to get blocked very easily!  Lots of plants, I have soil with gravel on top so the plants grow really well.     M

Hi,   I'd like to get an external filter for a 84 litre tank, and was going to get an APS unit as I've had one on my larger tank which works very well, but looking on ebay there are some slightly cheaper alternatives:   1 Has anyone on here any experience of Jeboa units 2 Would anyone recommend...

Hi,   I've not been at work for 6 weeks, seen the tank again today and the brown algae is much worse.  What is the best algae eater suitable for a 190L coldwater tank - previous posters have mentioned hillstream loaches, is that the best option?     M

Hi,   After leaving the lights off a lot, the large clown is just starting to spend more time in the tank with the others.   Thanks for the advice,     M

  I agree - much easier, and more importantly, safer :)

5 days later.... the big new clown is still being incredibly shy and spending 95% of the time hiding - any other thoughts?   Thanks,       M

Thanks Byron, after the lights being off all day they are now out and about so I'll keep them off for a few more days and get some more shade in the tank.   One of the new ones is definitely the biggest in the tank now so hopefully the new hierarchy will be established soon.     M

  Hi there, I've only had them three days.   I'll keep the lights down for a bit (as I've been off work they had been on all day), and feed them late evening when it is darker.   Hopefully they'll settle in soon!     M

I've recently gained two clown loaches from a friend.  She only had the two in her tank and said that they were spending most of the time hiding in the tank ornaments rather than swimming around.  I thought that the problem may have been that there were only two of them in the tank, also the...

Thank you - won't move the pleco over, at the moment there's loads of space for it but I know he'll need to go when he's too big for my tank - unless I can convince my other half that a bigger tank is what our lounge really needs!   It's not a new tank, it had malawis and catfish in before, it's...

  The bulbs both seem to be fine - there are two, one is new, the other is several years old.  Presumably there's no issue rather than loss of light - they don't start giving off harmful frequencies of light after a while surely!?

  Hi,   Thanks for the response.   Tank is 190L corner unit.  Room temperature so may get cool in winter nights or breaks when work (school) not heated, doubt would get less than 10oC though.   Would one of these be OK in cold water?  I have a few in various warm tanks that I could move over...

bump - anyone interested in a male angel?  I have a couple to swap one of with a female.

Hi there,   I've set up a cold water tank at work, it looks great, but algea is starting to form.  It's brown algea appearing on the tops of white ornaments.   Is there a cold water version of a pleco, or a suitable alternative, that will keep this at bay?   Or would a better solution be just to...

Seems sensible :)

Just wondering  - did you use chlorinated or treated water?  Whilst a 20% water change can be done with untreated tap water, I believe that 30% is the maximum so 40% may have killed some of the bacteria in the media and started a mini cycle which some of the more sensitive fish could have been...

  Thank you!   Yes the filter does exactly that so I'll turn it off, presumably turn it on late March?     M

Hi,   Today I gave my pond a bit of a clean, mostly getting rid of leaves and sorting out the netting.  I was really surprised that there was no sign of the lillies, and a huge amount of Elodea.  It's the first winter that I've had a pond.  It is 1,500 litres with about 10 fish.   So: Can you...

Afternoon,   Four weeks ago I needed to put in a new filter, the new one draws in water from the sides.   I wedged the sponges from the old filter between the new filter and the side of the tank, and think that there should now be enough bacteria in the new media, which is of course exposed to...

Thank you - that report states that almost all species of fish cannot detect sounds above 1.5kHz, so I'm pretty safe with ultrasound (>20kHz)!   Let's hope that it does effect the mice though!!!

Thanks for the responses, I actually teach Physics and agree with Dr Rob that low frequencies travel better in water (which is why whales use infrasound), and that sound would be to a large extent reflected by the glass, but even if only say 5% of the ultrasound was in my tanks then the fish...

Hi all,   We're thinking of getting an ultrasound emitter to deter the field mice coming into our house - but would they be a source of discomfort to my fish?  I really have no idea what the answer to this will be!   Thanks,       Mark    

@Byron - thanks for the comments, I tend to agree, hence my original question, and why I queried the comment about a plec being 50% of the tank width!