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What are your full water parameters? What size is the tank and what other animals are in it?

Hi Steve, you can leave the plants in the tank if they move will be relatively quick. It is ok to treat the whole tank instead of by the bucket as long as the tap water does not come into contact with the filter (in other words, remove internal filter or switch external filter taps to "off") and...

Aye, something seems to have done some good. For the moment, I recommend that you leave two weeks before adding any new fish (so as to decrease the likelihood of a mini cycle) and slowly aim the feeding pattern at that should be normal (1-2 times per day, 6 days per week). It is quite important...

Is this not what you were asking? Such as…? It would be really nice to have some solid numbers to consider :) The link you gave doesn't specify if the aggression is con-specific or cross-species, nor what sort of territories the males should have.

Take cuttings as normal; it will encourage bushing. Stems that are 6+ inches long do sell and trade well, in my experience.

Just to be clear, are you referring to other species? In what size tank and groups was this behaviour noted? My research tells me that Danio sp. 'hikari' is another one like zebras: active and on the larger side of things.

I would not want to keep zebra or leopard danios in that tank. I recommend that you look at Danio choprae, D. margaritatus and D. erythromicron, but my personal top choice would be Danio tinwini (assuming they're suitable for mixing with existing stock).

+1, and current stock as active danios are not compatible with all fish because of their level of activity. Basically, a zebra danio can easily cross a 4-5 ft tank in under a second. What would it do in a smaller tank? Go around in circles, which gets boring for fish and owner alike. Also, they...

Hygrophila corymbosa?

How are you getting along with the food, Jay?

Awesome! I found that the best way to cycle is to dose and wait for double zeros before redosing again.. slow start, but quicker and safer overall! It's a shame, but most retailers care more about the short term cash than long term loyalty from customers.

I should have 25 sometime next week, although I can recommend that you go for 4 or 5 large plants (£4.80 or £5.30 inc. postage) instead as they'll be producing chunkier/more robust offspring quicker. and actually are quite likely to cover the same area as smaller plants.

Not necessarily :) In fact, I would say that it is unusual to see spikes if one has taken care to prepare for the new fish. For example, one can gently increase the feeding in the weeks leading up to new fish to provide more ammonia for the filter bacteria and drop feeding after the new fish are...

Much better! As mentioned above, keep ammonia and nitrite as close to 0 ppm as possible (very small amounts are enough to cycle the filter) and never let either go above 0.25 ppm :good: Melting? That's something that Crypts do more often than anything else.. if it's a Cryptocoryne, then it will...

I've only got large plants for the next week, all the smaller ones are gone!

It could also be tap water nitrite or their tap water could have a higher-than-is-usual concentration of bacteria :good:

Great, the water changes will help your fish a lot :good: I mean more the long term leaching, rather than short term. If your wood really is driftwood, then it won't leach. Have you tried comparing photos online? Driftwood is usually grey and smooth, while bogwood is usually brown. Can you post...

These usually do not work, so I strongly recommend that you do not rely on them. Waiting does not do anything at all, in this case :) if the bacteria in a bottle worked, than by the end of the week they would have starved to death, but if they did not work (as I suspect), then by the end of the...

Pretty bad. You should be up to around 75-90% daily water changes by now. Fish in cycles are difficult and costly (both in terms of your time and the health of the fish). Ammonia over 0.25 ppm will cause long term harm to your pets, so your aim should be to keep it as close to 0 ppm as possible...

The gender of the fish does not matter for when you get the new fish. I do strongly recommend that, if the tank will take it, you aim to increase each school up to 10 fish or even more, which is especially important for the rummy nose teteras. Adult females are fuller, rounder and larger, while...

There is no legal obligation to report an offence, but apparently there is a moral duty to do so. On the other hand, if the person keeping a fish illegally got caught and taken to court (the fine in the first case brought under the ILFA was £1650 + £2000 in fees), then anyone asked to help with...

Great!

Assuming that the filter was fully cycled, then that would be correct. My point was that 50% of the sponges were being replaced every two weeks, so they were not "fully cycled" at the time when they were removed. That is a good point, and is a common problem in an average community tank when...

There are actually very few fish that are banned outright. In fact, most species are covered by Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 (section 14), which pretty much just says "releasing non-native species is an offence". It is free to apply for a licence for those species that cannot be kept...

I completely agree that *anything* from an established aquarium is more useful than nothing when cycling a new tank as anything from an established tank will contain larger numbers of bacteria than tap water. Even tank water or pond water is very likely to contain more useful bacteria than...

Loads: if I take out half the water lettuce, within a couple of days it's all back again! How much are you after?

Both posted! :good:

Doesn't anyone around here ever change their light bulbs? ;)

The collective noun for all the bacteria that do the ammonia to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate conversions is "nitrifying bacteria". They will live on any surface that they can get access to, which includes both sponges and ceramic media. The second filter would not have increased the rate at...

I haven't tried the Tetra test kits, but the API liquid kits are accurate enough for most hobbyists, as long as one follows all the instructions. The most effective way to deal with ammonia and nitrite is to have a cycled filter. I assume that the tank has fish in it, as you keep talking about...

Your filter is not fully cycled right now. I am yet to see any quick start product that actually works, and the best option for speeding up a cycle is to pick up some mature media from someone. Were the carbon sponges really just carbon? Some sponges are able to absorb ammonia and nitrite. So...

Can you post your email address or quickly get up to 10 posts so that your PM feature is enabled? If we can sort out payment before 3 pm, I can send the plants today; otherwise I'll need to wait until Monday to send them out. PM sent.

Bump, anyone else?

Quite a bit or work if you value every scrap of useable meat. I usually get around 250 grams out of a 450 gram piece, and I'm not *that* careful about keeping all the meat, but the butchers that I use make a pretty good job of it to start with anyway. I chop it up roughly first, then put it into...

Because the water hardness in your tank can drift from that of the tap water quite a bit over time, which is also why one would want to test the hardness too, as hardness is what one normally wants to know anyway, not the pH. If you want to know why hardness is important to fish, read about...

Hikari algae wafers are the best that I have tried. One normal sized wafer every other day should keep two plecos happy, although I would have been feeding them a staple food all along, even when there was algae. If you like, I can send you some of the Hikari pellets to try out

Could you point me to some research to back this up? My searches have only come up with Repashy saying anything negative about it… and it would be very useful to know for sure. In terms of binding, I find that it works reliably well: I use approximately 10 grams per 500 grams of food, which is...

This is a really personal preference thing, so I'd stock Corys, then some dwarf tetras rainbows, then rams and finally Betta girls (I'm not a fan of Betta girls any more). After because the more water you keep, the less changes there are of problems from parameter changes. Pretty much! I...

Sounds good :) I've made up two mixes, the only difference between them is that one has blackworm added to it, and the other one does not. Most of the slabs are between 50 and 60 grams, I can offer the first for £1.20 per 50 grams and the blackworm one for £1.40 per 50 grams. The blackworms are...

I'd be a bit careful about going for that many fish in an 80*35 cm tank, but basically, I'd stock species by species and in order of priority, then see how the tank feels after each species is complete. What is your current water hardness? Also, keep in mind that when upgrading tank, you should...