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Hi guys Now I’m at a point when my new 5ft is setup and stable, I want to start building the bits I couldn’t afford to buy a few months ago. The first one is my fancy Aquarium Controller. I’ve always love GHL Profilux’s and yearned for one for a very long time. If I had a marine tank then I...

Hi, I use cheap white gravel from a builders merchants, Ocean rock ( as it helps buffer the pH) and an Eheim external filter. Lots of hiding places is key, caves, plants etc.

*** Just so you know what I’m aiming for ** This is basically what Im going to try and replicate using a raspberry pi as the controller. It will control the lights, powerheads, PH and temp. But I’m going to add a digital flow display for the external filter and power usage meter. Pretty cool..

**3rd November Update** My 2 cheap new powerheads seemed to have solved the fish gasping issue. Ive wired in some Smart LEDS as well to give me the following > Daylight 8am till 8 pm Blue Moonlight 8pm till midnight Weird Green Dusk effect midnight till 4am Ive also setup the TCP Smart...

+1 for doing something with the back of the tank - I painted mine with ’blackboard‘ paint.

I think the main lesson i learnt was to do lots of reading on the web and get as much info from people who have experience. I tried to find people with similar size tanks and read their build threads. I used to use the below as a cycle, but now I’m sticking with the little vials i was given ...

Thanks Mind you ive just had a mare and lost a juvenile cobalt blue cichlid tonight - looks like i had a problem with the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. I added a couple of powerheads to agitate the surface and its all good. But I’ve never had to worry about that in a small tank.

And thought id add a couple of pics i took earlier

Powerheads arrived today along with a Seachem Ammonia Alert.. Also wired in some more leds to the moonlight so i can blend the colours

I’m pretty sure that gravel is classed as chemically inert so anything you can smell or see on it will be washed off and will not have been absorbed

Your going to give it A really good wash anyway aren’t you? It may just be that it’s sat there for months. Ive bought various gravel from all sorts of shops and builders merchants and always been amazed by how much rubbish comes off it

You need to get the ammonia down to below 2.5 . Anything above is harmful to the bacteria your trying to cultivate

Agree with the big water changes - your basically diluting the amount of ammonia and giving the helpful bacteria chance to catch up. Carefull changing the filter media unless your just giving it a quick rinse in tank water

In regards to your worms have a look at this site - it might help Worm ID site ( I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post external links ? Sorry if not I’m new )

But yes, keep adding ammonia whenever it drops to zero to feed the nitrite forming bacteria. When Nitrates start being read by your test and the ammonia and nitrites are zero then the cycle is effectively complete.

Ive never used the ammonia method so don’t take my word as gospel but its pretty much the same as using fish flake or anything to ‘feed‘ the bacteria. You just need to make sure your adding the correct concentration of ammonia based on your volume of water

I’ve been converted into a fan of the additives in vials. If you want a bit more info check out my build thread - but it pretty much cycled my tank in 8 hours

Hi mate What levels are your nitrates? Are the worms white? If so they are probably ‘detritus’ worms. Unless you are literally plagued by them and they are coming out of the gravel all the time then it’s not a huge problem. Regular gravel cleaning and maintenance will keep them at bay. If the...

He’s been told...

I’m sure there’s more experienced people who might have a different view, but i always go by water quality being spot on and the fish having plenty of space without any aggression. If those 3 things are being met then you cant ask for much more

Hi all After spending so much time either on the web researching fishy info or being elbow deep in my tank the dog gets jealous - so here‘s his chance to be famous ... This is Trevor - he’s 5 months old, a shar pei cross bull mastif.

I moved from a 100 litre Malawi Cichlid tank to a 450 litre whilst the fish were still only 1 - 2 inches long. In my opinion the sooner you can start planning for and then buy the bigger tank the better, I did find it useful having a smaller tank as i was able to learn what to do and any...

Hi all Ive got a 450l cichlid tank and ive got x2 small powerheads coming tomorrow. Nothing fancy like Vortechs just cheap Chinese ones. Is there a best place for them ? Ive read that positioning at the rear of the tank so it bounces of the front glass is good? Thanks James

Just a couple of pics after a water change - Kermit The frog has made an appearance : And some colourful fishes :