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18 months ago I decided to change a 5 yr old heater which I thought was probably due for retirement. I went for an Ehiem as I wanted top quality, and I took it the Ehiem reputation would be undoubted. I bought online as my LFS stocked only cheaper brands, as well as an own brand. Regrettably...

Actually the picture won't upload but it was called Aerocol No Blue Algae.

Normal household LED's can be mounted in fittings either way up so it never occurred to me that there might be an issue in flipping the tubes over and I have tried this myself without any problems occuring. I only had BGA once and none if the recommended solutions worked for me until I found a...

Oh, I missed a few entries... ..

Fork (you probably need to be in the UK to get that one!)

I think tiger barbs would be asking for trouble as they are notorious fin nippers and I think the mollies would be a target. I agree that you could add a shoal of neons or other peaceful tetras such as lemon tetras or glowlights. As msnow09 said, the inch of fish to a gallon is a good rule of...

I would just add that when you use the established filter media you must add at least some fish straight away otherwise the bacteria in the media will die off as they need the fish waste for food. Won't cause any harm as such, it just means your tank will revert to un-cycled.

This is picture of the cabinet that my 260lt came with. The wood is half inch thick and the weight is spread across 4 vertical pieces. There are then 4 wooden feet, two under each vertical, which ultimately take all of the weight. Mine will weigh twice what yours will. Although the wood feels...

I would think it will be fine because the load is actually being taken by the vertical boards. If I look at the cabinet that came with my 360lt tank, the boards are thinner than what yours appear to be, but the same applies. If there was a long span between the vertical boards and the tank sat...

New year

Vision

Withdrawn! I missed schwing!

Actor

River

My first thought was snail eggs as they appear to be in a jelly like substance, so that would be my guess.

I have no Garra or loaches other than the Pygmy Chain Loaches, I think what you saw was a Siamese Algae Eater. The fish hanging near the surface is actually the Red Scissortail (they grow much larger than Common Scissortails). I didn't think the old Barb appeared at all but in fact part of him...

My African Long Finned Tetras (Alestes Tetra) were spawning again today. I tried to capture it on film - difficult because I had to do it from a distance with the camera on maximum zoom to avoid disturbing them! Video uploaded to YouTube with link below as none of the formats available to me...

Yeah, the bigger it is the more stable the water conditions are likely to be, so easier to maintain, though water changes will be bigger of course. The depth thing is a good point as well. Deep tanks can look great but maintenance can be a pain - I knew someone with a deep marine tank which he...

30% water change daily sounds excessive when your water parameters look fine and I think that is likely to be adding to his stress. Not sure how big the tank is or whether there are any other tank mates but it looks a reasonable size and he looks alone. If I'm right I would change no more than...

Platies only live for about 2 years max, so its quite likely she is just coming to the end of her life. Fancy varieties in particular can be quite weak as they are often overbred. Everything else looks OK. Stressing her with treatments or excessive water changes is more likely to make things...

Ha ha, sounds like your girlfriend is a keeper! I only moved mine across the lounge but my wife was unable to complete the final lift to get the tank back up onto its new cabinet, so I had to enlist a neighbour's help. I was lucky enough to have a spare 12 gallon tank to park the fish in and I...

Mine used to breed like crazy on my 260lt community tank. I had fish such a Denisoni barbs and Congo tetras, so quite large, and many fry survived. With plenty of plants, Rick and wood, they seemed to keep well hidden. I had no other bottom dwellers. Every few months I would go fishing and take...

I agree. Obviously we don't know what he looked like before but I don't see anything wrong. Try searching online for images of male Bettas and you will see plenty that look like this. As such I would avoid adding any chemicals, including salt, as these always stress your fish so should only be...

A part of a fish's natural defence against parasites and other organisms is to produce lots more slime than usual in order to flush these away. Chemicals and pollutants can also cause this and some medications are specifically designed to promote this effect. I'm not sure from the pictures...

Mollies are less prone to eating their fry than other livebearers, but still s good idea to provide hiding places. Some floating plant stems are good. But are you sure she is pregnant? The picture looks like a balloon Molly and they are pretty much that shape and size to start with.

Moving a tank with anything in it will stress the glass especially the joints so I wouldn't recommend it. Also it could slip when placed on a board which could be dangerous. I recently moved my 260lt and thought I could move some crypt thickets, but it didn't work. I had to pull them all up and...

I am surprised that nobody picked up on an opinion expressed ages ago about water changes being made too frequently. I agree that in an established, well maintained tank, water changes of about 10% a week are enough. In a well planted tank plants will absorb nitrate and a mature filter will also...

I use a simple DIY CO2 system and since I started that 5 yes ago, most simple plants grow fine for me e.g. Vallis, Hygrophila and Ludwigia. However, these grow rapidly so do take some looking after and I have to prune or thin once or twice a week. Plants that should take less looking after but...

To be honest you won't always find skeletons, particularly in a densely planted tank. I had a ailing large Congo tetra. One day he was missing and I assumed he had finally died, but despite an exhaustive search I never found the body. The tank only contained small fish so that was a mystery. A...

My side (pygmy chain loaches) are highly entertaining with their antics. Marine fish have more personality than freshwater. Tropicals get excited when someone walks by the tank thinking they are about to be fed, but my marines used to specifically recognise me. They didn't react to the rest of...

Hi, just following on from something Utar said earlier - I find the APU Leaf Zone is the only fert that works for me! My plants grew well enough but I read that Leaf Zone didn't contain much, so I switched to Flourish but immediately had a massive algae problem. I tried varying the dosage but...

I recently had a similar problem. My cabinet had 8 feet on it so I packed out each one as necessary to make it level. I used a spirit level to start and monitored it as I filled it. My flooring is LVT and I used LVT offcuts to pack it. If your cabinet doesn't have feet then you need to make...

No need to remove the gravel, just use a gravel cleaner when you do your partial water change to get as much muck out as you can. Use one of these every time you change water, they're brilliant. I agree, hold off on any other chemicals or remedies unless you are 100% positive that you have a...

Yeah, eco drive for me too! I carry a phone but never use it for the time as it's much easier to simply glance at my wrist. Funny story - in my job I had to date things all day long and every time I would glance at my watch for the date, even though I knew what the date was, and even though it...

Be careful about taking water from a pond. Diseases are nearly always present in outside water, and whilst the fish there might be resistent to them, aquarium tropicals might not be. You might also introduce other nasties such as insect larvae or leeches. I've never heard of it as a way of kick...

Yeah, as I said I haven't seen it since I bought it and that was some years ago now. Luckily I haven't needed it again! I'm sure I have seen alternatives on the shelves from time to time so hopefully you will find something even though it doesn't seem to be a particularly common remedy. When I...

Under certain conditions inexpensive nitrite test kits can be inaccurate. The cloudy water means 100% this us a water quality issue. The NT kit is a good one so trust the result - your problem is excess nitrite! The symptoms are also consistent with this, so your rank is not properly cycled. I...

I had this once and it drove mad. One day I saw medicine in a shop that was supposed to cure it - ordinary algaecide won't do it, you need one for blue green algae which as mentioned by ColinT is actually a bacteria. It worked! I also cut down on lighting and ferts, reduced feeding and upped...