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Active carbon will use up it adsorbing properties within ~7 days of adding to a filter, after that it just becomes another surface for bacterial colonies to grow on. I have treated fish with medication using both of my U4s and the meds did its job. Do give the U4 filter pads a squeeze in...

Yes, Juwel impellers are interchangeable to a greater extent, so you could take the impellor from a 280 pump and put it in a 1000 pump if you really wanted. However, like my Aqua One 620T, the Juwel Lido is a relatively high volume tank for the size of its base. Not only does this reduce the...

How did you cycle the tank? What is the hardness of your tank water? This tank is heavily overstocked, causing stress/fights/disease/death. In addition, some social fish are being kept in unsuitable numbers, that will often cause social fish to be horribly spiteful to tankmates. I would put...

I don't see the need for six 10-15cm giant poop machines in a 180l tank to get BNs breeding, a single pair would be far more appropriate and produce far less waste. On a suitable vegearian diet including food like courgette; carrot; brocolli etc. these catfish will be producing masses of poop...

Tank dimensions? Full stocking list? "Fine" water test results are no use to you or anybody else, test kits give numbers from a colourmetric kit. Your LFS ought to be doing the test in front of you (but you really ought to get a kit yourself), giving you the exact readings for ammonia; nitrite...

All of your fish except the unknown mystery 4" plec need a far bigger tank than a 55g, a 6x2x2 (180 US g) would be a minimum starting point... A fully gown Bala Shark should be 30-40cm, they are active skittish fish that must be kept in schools of 6+, I would not personally put them in anything...

Are these fish breathing heavily, looking up while at the water surface? If so, that is a classic nitrite poisoning sign, in which case a ~95% water change is in order ASAP. Has a bonded pair or even several pairs formed in the tank, which are now giving the "batchelors" grief? How big are...

Out of your list I would only consider Tiger Barbs and Cherry Barbs for anything less than a 4-foot tank, the former would be far safer to have in a 12+ group to reduce the odds of nasty aggression within the group and with any tankmates. Cherries are far more community friendly fish, a group of...

Without seeing the actual 3 loaches in question it is hard to say, but could it not be that these fish have simply been heavily underfed until you bought them? My first approach would be to get them eating and try to feed them upto 6 small portions a day of good quality food with a high protein...

Giving you the exact species will not be possible from those photos, but I can give you a decent ballpark, as I used to own something very similar until last February, until I passed the group on to "MartinS"... Opsarius (formerly Barilius) canarensis or Opsarius sp. "2" Mine reached ~15cm TL...

Glass Catfish should not be kept in small schools, they are known to pine away and starve to death. Like my African miniture "Debauwi Catfish" (Pareutropius mandevillei), if you are going to get them, buy 15+ and place them in a suitably sized sized tank with suitably mild manored/feeding...

Sometimes fish will have their growth rate reduced as a result of stress from conspecifics, especially submissive males of fiesty-agressive species, almost as if they are trying to stay "under the radar" of the alpha male. It can also be other factors like an internal infection, being...

I currently have a 22mm plumping elbow hooked up to my FX5, using the rubber connector that would normally hold the standard double nossle in place. I've had a 22mm pipe down in the garage for months with one end sealed with a speedfit stopper, with the plan of cutting it to length and drilling...

Even an APS2000EF would not throw your fish around as if they were in a washing machine, mine do ~1200lph with no spraybar modules attached. With spraybars, the output drops to a pitiful ~800lph! I have two of these currently on my 48x17x22 (~280l) with a Biopro 2200 mechanical filter/powerhead...

If I found any sort of positive nitrite reading, I would be doing an "emergency water change" of ~95% ASAP.

My 8 made full use of my 150g, please do not cramp them up in a tiny 35! They often hang out in shady spots under soft sand with just their head poking out, but come the evening they did lap after lap midwater. My ones reached ~15cm within eight months and they ought to grow to something close...

Use a wet cotton bud to clean inside the impeller cavity and around the impeller itself if caked up. A gentle squeeze of the filter sponges or rinse of the filter media in removed tank water will help too. If the filter is an internal, dunk the filter casing a few times in removed tank water.

pH 8.2 is not out of the question as being the standard tap water pH in the London area, asit is here in Southampton. Sadly not all areas of the UK are blessed with soft acidic water, as that found in parts of Scotland.

After several months of being dry, the filter media would almost certainly contain no appreciable living bacteria colonies. Can your fiend look after your fish while you "fishless cycle?" Or can they give you ~25% of their in-use filter media to give your filter a much needed boost? Short...

The only fish vaguely compatable with your 10 (US?) g or ~38litre tank is your Dwarf Gourami. Albino (often Bronze) Corydoras should reach ~5cm SL, need a far bigger tank footprint (75x30cm is the absolute minimum IMO) but importtantly also need at least a group of 6+ (ideally more). You do not...

Please forget the Redtail Catfish, these >5foot giants should stay in the wild waters of South America, unless you have a spare swimming pool. Jeremy Wade caught specimens almost as long as him, virtually every time he did an episode of River Monsters in South American waters. One example of...

South American Puffers are lovely looking fish, but there are a few things you need to know when taking them on including... They can work in a community, but it is still a risk. Tankmates must be zippy tropical fish that also enjoy a strong current, that do not have tempting long fins. They...

Any sort of positive nitrite reading is a bad thing and should be dealt with doing an "emergency water change," while ammonia readings are dangerous depending upon the pH and temp of your water. Time for another ~95% water change IMO... How big is this tank, BTW?

Have you tested water from just above the sand floor? Some tanks can suffer water quality variances caused by poor flow. Have you changed dechlorinator? Some fish find a change in prducts irritating. Have you been adding excess dechlorinator? My Beckford Pencilfish in particular do not like it...

It might be tempted by smaller specimens being a predator, but the catfish will lock out its pectoral and dorsal spines, inject its poison and almost certainly kill hunter and prey. Chunky Brochis spp. would be a far safer choice, just ensure they are not bite sized to an existing Ropefish.

Blimey, the Mbu has grown somewahat since I last saw him/her, I'm amazed it is not tearing chunks out of the tankmates! Any idea what happened to the Ctenopoma witht the damage between its eyes? I saw two specimens, you have got more in there, haven't you (I have 4)? Any idea why the...

They are quite tolerant, but it might be help[ful if you told us the kH and gH hardness so we can comment, because alkaline pH does not always mean hard water. ;) My first fish were a group of Pearl Danios in spring 2010, which bred and I managed to raise ~9 youngsters, in pH 8; kH 11; gH 13/14...

Hopefully you have done another big water change by now, if keeping Mollies in suitable conditions, they are very prone to illness if not kept in hard water (which makes ammonia readings more dangerous). Some fish will be more sensitive to environamental issues than others, just like us, so you...

None of my currently fish active tanks (5 of 7) have lights turned on, as they have no real plants in them. A seperate tank that does have some Anubias in gets 6-8 hours per day. Many fish do not appreciate the modern bright T5s or the higher wattage T8s. Your solution: Keep the lights off, or...

Well what do the instructions say? Turning UV off and removing <7 day old carbon pads is normally standard practise while medicating, most meds instruct such things on teh bottle/packaging. Ich meds are only able to kill the free swimmiig stage of the parasite, not the ones on the fish and not...

The photo is not clear enough to tell what is going on there. How big is the tank? A Black Ghost Knife Fish should reach ~50cm in a suitable setup and fish should always have at least 4Lx2Lx2L (where L is the fish's size) comfortably, this is a minimum and larger is far better for the fish...

Hardness and pH do not have to be in sync with each other, you can get soft alkaline water or hard acidic water. Many common livebearers like Guppies thrive in hard water, so you have no problem to solve. Soft water fish like those from the Amazon area would not do too well in such setups, in...

Did you get a nitrite test kit too? This is the other common killer in new or badly maintained tanks, it is part of the nitrogen cycle the happens in tanks (ammonia>nitrite>nitrate when the correct bacteria are present). While 0.5g/l ammonia is not that dangerous at all in cool acidic water...

I would just go for 10-12 of one of the miniture Corydoras species, they do far better in groups bigger than the minimum six and they do not just stick to the tank floor, they spend a lot of time midwater too. 55l tanks are tiny and being a cube shaped one, yours has even less room for fish to...

Staying a a corner, often a top corner, is a classic submissive sign when another fish is bullying it. The heavy breathing is another sign of stress. Did you buy both the Angelfish recently, or add a random one to an established one? Either is not a good idea, Angelfish should either be bought...

A rough teaspoon is far less accurate than a weight used by borrowing the kitchen cooking scales. ;) The meds you have used would not touch finrot as far as I'm aware, you need a broad spectrum anti-bacterial, I swear on Esha 2000 and Myxazin.

Sorry, but this does not sound like proper fishless cycling, where you need a test kit to maintain 2-5ppm of ammonia while testing for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate each day. Cycling typically takes 6 weeks or more, whereby you ensure 2-5ppm ammonia is processed within 12 hours to give zero ammonia...

That ragged white/grey edge to the pectoral fin suggests fin rot to me, I would treat it with Myxazin or Esha 2000. Synos are often amazingly hardy and will pull through from states of illnesses far beyond the average hobby fish. Your syno looks to be a hybrid with some S. decora parentage, the...

6 more Emperor Tetras sounds goods, making sure no more than one of the newcomers is a male, so you have two females per male in a group of 12. Things should be good after the quarantining period for the newcomers.

Great to hear there were few casualties and the survivors are looking more healthy with vivid colours. :)