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I think it helps, but my experience is statistically insignificant :)

Tizer for president! :)

no, it's rubbish. water has to cool down to 0C before it can freeze. a fish will freeze from the outside in, same as an ice cube (if you've ever poked an ice cube before it's fully solidified, the middle is still liquid). If your fish can survive its outer surface being 0C then you have a...

spray bar distributes the pressure, you want strong circulation to stir the poo up - BUT only do this if your fish don't mind a good current. i think keeping enough of a current to shift poo might be too much for your fish. personally i would add a few bottom dwellers if they'd be compatible...

FYI chinese algae eaters and siamese algae eaters are different species. the cleaning effectiveness and temperament towards other tankmates varies depending on whether you have CAE or SAE.

Diatom algae. It's normal, although not desirable, usually a function of how much light the fish tank gets. If your tank gets direct sunlight diatoms can be a significant problem, but even with fluorescent lights it can still occur. I know I'll get crucified for saying it but Siamese Algae...

overstocking is more fish than your tank OR filter can handle, whichever is lower. if you put too many territorial fish in a small area they will be continually fighting and stressed, and be vulnerable to diseases. if you mix peaceful species in a community tank then you can fit more in. so...

1. would not use garden centre peat as who knows what other chemicals are in it 2. put it near the end of the filter flow path. you're using it to chemically change the water not filter out particles. 3. eventually the effect will be exhausted and your pH will start to rise again. when that...

siamese algae eaters and bristlenose catfish are good algae eaters. both may eat less algae as they get older and have a preference for normal fish food, but they do a good job when they're younger.

in a 125L I would stick with 4 (2xM 2xF), and make sure that the tank has distinct territories where pairs can set up shop without being able to see the others. You can add some other attractive dither fish as well that are non-aggressive.

I have a juvenile in an AR620 (same footprint just not as tall, 25G), and at the moment it is fine. He is small enough in proportion to the tank and gets great exercise chasing my serpae tetras around. He leaves the other fish well enough alone - I have 2 juvenile SAEs as well and he ignores...

did you think they'd spawn out in the open in full view of predators? (humans must look like an exceptionally large fish 'swimming' past). of course they would pick somewhere secluded! my germans did the same. good luck! don't worry if they eat the eggs.. rams are known to do that until they...

it's nice to think you're "saving" a fish but in reality you are only saving 1 fish and enabling the suffering of many more. why? because you've just given positive reinforcement to bad LFS habits by buying their product. a sale is a sale, the reason behind it doesn't matter. when shipping...

Carbon won't do anything to "keep on top of the metal situation"... you are planning on doing water changes aren't you? Dissolved metals go down the drain when you change the water.. Carbon's only useful for removing medicines etc from the water on a short term basis. Besides that, forget...

Most of the bacteria live in the filter, not the substrate. At a minimum you need to fill the new tank with suitable temperature dechlorinated water, move your filter to the new tank and move your fish. I would transfer all the existing water as well, that way you have a mix of aged water and...

As you've heard, carbon is useless unless you are using it to remove medications on a temporary basis. For normal use you shouldn't have any carbon in the filter. Matrix, by all accounts, is an excellent biomedia and I would definitely use it. Seachem recommend that your filter media be in...

you could put a male/female pair of rams in the 29g with the existing fish, in that size tank you can't have more than a pair though. 10g would be too small, really.

Personal preference, but I didn't like blue moonlighting it makes the tank very dim and impossible to see colours. I used a single white CCFL tube and have my timers set so that in the evening the CCFL comes on just before the main lights turn off, and then the CCFL turns off an hour later...

Bristlenose Catfish (Ancistrus) are great for tanks this size.

driftwood lowers pH. Don't fight your water chemistry unless you're keeping expensive and/or sensitive fish and really know what you're doing. Most fish will happily live outside their natural pH zone as long as the other parameters are correct, I have kept German Blue Rams in pH 8 water and...

The problem for heaters is they need a lot of energy (relatively speaking) to heat a tank. My aquarium pump is about 8 watts. My heater is 100 watts. Even at 50% duty that is a lot more power being used. Take for example a 6V lantern battery (the big square ones). They have a capacity of...

plastic plants are horrible. if getting fake ones, buy silk plants. nothing can compete with the aesthetics of live plants but they take some caring for.

if you're testing tap water parameters then you don't need to dechlorinate, that's only for protecting your fish and bio filter. the reason people let water sit is because tap water often has a lot of dissolved CO2 to reduce corrosion in the water pipes. CO2 forms carbonic acid which lowers pH...

+1 on the large whiskey there's a saying "there's no such thing as easy, only hard" and I think it applies here :P

yep, got a couple of aqua one heaters and they're not too bad in the middle of the range but with the thermostats set to 34C my tanks are around 28C. Big difference.

Plants grown for sale are often grown emersed (out of the water) as the concentration of CO2 in the air is many times that under water. As a result plants will often suffer when you first bring them home as they adapt to immersed life. Plants need three things to grow - light, CO2, and...

It is and it isn't. It's a useful guide for people starting out in the hobby so they don't get themselves in a mess. Once you're more experienced you can start breaking rules. Overstocking a tank is fine for the fish themselves IF you provide enough vegetation and other hidey holes (eg caves)...

Wouldn't trust an italian.. have you seen they way they build cars? :P I don't think fish have any knowledge of what the world is supposed to look like, certainly not what the typical loungeroom environment is like anyway.

Rams are just slow eaters, I have serpae tetras that eat really quickly and when I fed enough for the rams to have a decent share the tetras looked like they were ready to explode. Sometimes you can change the feeding location and the tetras will take a while to cotton on.

RIP Mrs Sparkles :( After a week in a breeding net fighting her infection she passed away yesterday. Nothing I added to the tank seemed to help, she was a real fighter though. The boy's still alive and healthy:

A few days isn't anywhere near enough time for a bacterial colony to establish in a new filter. I have an AR620 and the built in filtration keeps the water crystal clear. I have a friend who has used both and he says cleaning canisters is a pain, the top filter system makes maintenance super...

are their fins clamped to the side of the body? if so then it's an indicator that they are stressed for some reason. rams don't tolerate salt well at all so don't use it when treating them. if you have salted the tank then you will need to do a majority water change to lower the salt level as...

Well the wound keeps growing.. The spot under her mouth is also red on that side which probably means an infection or something. She ate this morning but has lost a bit of colour since lunch so instead of the bath (which would just cause more stress) I have dosed the whole aquarium with Multi...

nobody? really? Pimafix hasn't been doing much even after 5 days or so, the growth is bigger now. I gave my GBR a bath in malachite green/methylene blue for about half an hour.. maybe a touch long as she came out of it with clamped fins but after a while in the normal tank she recovered. I...

A 20gallon tank is 75 litres, or 75kg of water. Plus substrate, ornaments etc you are at 100kg easy. The tank itself probably weighs at least 25kg. Your stand has to support approx 125kg with *no* bowing in the middle. If the middle section sags then the tank is unevenly supported and will...

I have also heard the garden hose = bad theory, garden hoses are made from PVC which often has other impurities in it. Considering garden hoses are intended for watering plants they don't need to be foodsafe, although the dangers may well be exaggerated. The other danger is stagnant water left...

superglue (cyanoacrylate) is safe in tanks and will bond very quickly.

I have bronze corys, they are a bit larger than the other kinds which I like. I also have sand and plants, and while the cories do root around in the substrate especially overnight (in the morning everything is dimpled!!) my plants stay put. If you are keeping plants just make sure they are...

GBR developed a cottony sort of growth just behind one of her eyes, behaviour and appetite unaffected. Possibly related to adding new fish, they did come from a trusted source although I neglected to quarantine them. I have been treating with 30C water temp and Pimafix, is this the correct...