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I've had 12 hour power outages in the past with no Ill effects, what I tend to do though is wrap the tank in a duvet and manually pour water through the filter every few hours. Your biggest enemies during a power outage are the temperature dropping and your filter bacteria starving and dying...

I can't see as there is any need to keep them on-hand personally. Most if not all of these products have a shelf life and maybe I'm just lucky but in all my years of fish keeping I can't recall one instance of needing to medicate one of my fish. To me it'd just be a waste if they sat there never...

There are lots of factors that affect the growth of fry, increased temperature will speed up the fishes metabolism and make them grow quicker but will shorten their lifespan. Regular water changes and a decent diet will ensure fry grow quickly, I have a single 3-4 week old platy fry that is...

Copper from plant fertilisers shouldn't be of a high enough concentration to kill shrimp. Your tap water could be the problem here and to rule it out you could always test for copper, what state are you in may I ask? Only most have a legal limit for copper of 1.3mg/L similar to us in the UK. Has...

Just a small update, 6 Panda Corydoras added. Diatoms are starting to recede now too.

Nothing looks out of the ordinary to me, unless the fish are showing signs of respiratory distress? There's no real need to be using CO2 with the lighting you have, it's not intense enough and if it were DIY CO2 wouldn't cut the mustard anyway, there aren't many non-pressurised systems that can...

Plus one for building your own rig! I have done so in the past with excellent results, for as little as £15-20 you can rig yourself a decent set up with some 3W 6500K LED'S if you can solder. I have read through the thread and apologies if I missed it but what are the tank dimensions and volume?

Personally I love keyhole cichlids, they are so underated, generally very peaceful and a decent specimen will have beautiful fins, great personalities and whilst timid I think they make great pets, I will definitely be getting another pair once my latest set up has matured a little

Take a cup of tank water and give it a squeeze in there, job done. Can't see the point in washing it in tap water, not that it will be of any detriment but you may as well use the safest method which would be the one described in my first sentence.

Are you dosing any fertilisers?

Please could you provide details of your CO2 injection? What kind of system are you using and how are you measuring the dissolved CO2? Does the system turn on and off in line with the lighting? The last thing you should do in a high energy setup is limit nutrients to the extent that your plants...

Aye as above really, wrap the tank in a duvet, basically insulate it as much as possible until your power is restored. Fish are generally quite good at tolerating gradual short term changes in temperature, think day and night in the wild, also rain etc.

Hi all Just a small update, I have added 6 flame tetras, these guys have coloured up real nice since leaving the shop, beautiful red and lilac hues. Bit of a prune and some replanting also, having a small dusting of diatoms but other than that algae free at the moment. Not sure what to add...

Apple's and oranges, we're not comparing the same thing. Left over food is a different subject entirely. I'd be more worried about the ammonia from left over food.

Some Fungi are beneficial in our aquaria, many types have symbiotic relationships, particularly with plants. Though not entirely related to what we are discussing here.

To suggest that any wood that produces fungus will give you problems is not a statement I agree with. The OP is using redmoor wood, widely used in the hobby. Manzanita, mopani, red moor plus various others I've used over the years most have produced some kind of fungus at first soaking. All of...

It's mould/fungus, pretty normal on wood that has dried out and recently been submerged, you can suck it off with a baster or syringe. Despite being unsightly it usually poses no harm, I don't like leaving it personally as it looks unsightly so I tend to remove it with the method mentioned above.

+1 for the unipac Limpopo sand, barely needs washing, leaches silicates like any sand but it is what it is, might get diatoms for a few weeks... I use the fine stuff, easy to keep clean and good for bottom dwelling catfish, loaches and earth eaters as it's fine enough to be sifted.

I have a lot of experience with Juwel tanks and whilst their filters are very good in how they work the factory supplied pumps are under whelming. Ultimately the choice is yours, I have the exact same tank as yours and I upgraded to the 1000lph pump. Properly diffused the output is not too...

The intensity of light on the Juwel tanks is overkill in most situations unless you're running a hi-tech set up. Whilst wasteful you could clip a reflector upside down to one tube to halve the lighting and add floating plants to reduce the intensity. Alternately look to replace the lighting all...

Hopefully this image is better quality from tonight

Hi all It's certainly been a while, a lot has happened in my life during my various times away from the forums, good to see a few friendly faces are still knocking around. For those of you that have been here since before 2010 you may remember me as Truck, thankfully for you I've grown up a...

hi all I'm looking for a good amount of amazon frogbit or similar, duck weed is no good as my fish decimate it every time I put some in. I can pay via PayPal Thanks

Fish need darkness in order to rest, I wouldn't add them personally as it would more than likely play havoc with the circadian rhythm of your fish which will stress them.

Frozen would always be my choice as most manfacturers blast their products with Gamma rays which kills any pathogens prior to freezing. There's always a risk of introducing parasites/pathogens/chemical pollutants when feeding live food, even more so if you're collecting them yourself, if you...

It boils down the lighting, if the lighting is so intense that the plants are utilising the CO2 faster than it can dissolve in water then they will be deficient - period - which means an additional CO2 source is required. A pressured system will always dissolve CO2 into water much faster and...

Sam from UKAPS posted a guide on here - it's in the PARC somewhere

If you want a cheaper method of objecting CO2 a lot of users opt to use a CO2 fire extinguisher - by simply removing the horn and installing a regulator and solenoid you can have a CO2 set up at a fraction of the cost of a system aimed at the aquarist.

DIN - dissolved inorganic nitrogen MH - metal halide RGB - red, green and blue SCWD - switching current water director Just to fill a few blanks

Livestock isn't very profitable - most retailers rely on dry goods to drive profits.

Hello Can you give us a bit more info please? What type of lighting is it? How powerful? What are the tank dimensions? CO2 injection is easy, keeping stable levels in a 15 gallon wouldn't be difficult st all with a decent regulator and solenoid.

Yes it's just a salt, you will need to do some large water changes once your cycle is complete however due to the ammonium source containing nitrate.

If you have a snail problem you must have a lot of detritus or left over food in the tank for them to eat, I've found that reducing feeding is the most effective way to reduce pest snails, personally though I don't mind them as long as there aren't thousands, they're a beneficial aspect to our...

You would use 34% less by mass for ammonium nitrate as you would ammonium chloride - for example if you were expected to dose 10g of ammonium chloride, you would only dose 6.62 grams of ammonium nitrate.