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what a major downer, first your tank breaks and then Kitty takes a big steaming dump on you :lol: how about replanting the tank, cheap sponge filter + air pump and light stocking until you get the external sorted? Plants will help keep the waste products in check a bit.

I have been trying live plants for a few months, and have some plants that are surviving but not looking as nice as they did in the store. I have a 90L tank, pH 8.0 no ammonia/nitrites and nitrates < 20ppm doing weekly 50%-70% water changes. I have a crypt that displays brownish leaves...

yeah the dorsal fins aren't 100% reliable, my female's 2nd and 3rd are slightly longer than the others but my male's 2nd and 3rd are highly exaggerated. pink spot on the belly and several blue sparkles in the black spot = female. also the male has longer pectoral fins, they generally extend...

I had one donated to me and while I haven't used it yet, it looks well constructed.

My corys dig into the sand until it's up to their eyeballs, and copious quantities of sand comes spilling out of their gills after they have sifted it. My other fish (esp German Blue Rams and Red Tailed Black Shark) pick at the sand and spit it out again and are all doing great. So I can only...

it's normal and it usually passes after a week or two.

I have 2 x GBRs and 3 x bronze corys in a community tank with some others, and there's no fighting :good:

ahahha @ how he comes back to the surface "I lost it!!"

that was cool. i have no problem with fish doing what comes naturally. quick ending for the goldy too :good:

The tricky part with fluorescents is that they don't output a smooth colour spectrum like an incandescent. In an incandescent if you run the filament much below its rated power you will get a very warm spectrum, like 2000K-3000K. If you run it at a normal level you'll get say 3500K and if you...

The colours shouldn't change much over the life of the bulb, if anything it's your eyes adjusting to how the tank now looks. The higher the colour temperature the more "blue" the light should look - a 9000K light source is very blue. Daylight is about 5700K-6500K, and incandescent light is...

I just got some bottom feeders. They don't eat poo of course, but they love sand and are forever rooting around in it. I have white sand and I never see fish poo, so I can only guess that they keep stirring it up until it ends up in the filter :good: An additional benefit, since getting...

It'll be around as long as the hobby is around. The reason is that idiots breed faster, and there is a continual supply of them to perpetuate these myths. The rate of idiots spreading myths is greater than the rate intelligent people are able to educate them. .. yes my ivory tower is...

I use play sand and have no problem keeping crypts, amazon swords and java fern in place. They do move easily if you pull on them but since you don't have to disturb the substrate when doing water changes I just keep clear of the plants.

I was getting frustrated with frequent water changes to keep a fish-in cycle under control and had just hit the nitrite peak when I added Stability to my tank. The nitrite converted into Nitrate within a few days, cycle complete. That's not to say the tank would have done that on its own...

assuming the sand is inert (ie play sand or silica sand or pool sand) then it's not a bad idea. it sounds like you just added the sand to an existing tank? the stress could be caused by the change in environment. if the other corys are playing in it then it sounds like this guy is just...

very cool, i'm a fan of bronze corys the others are too small :) kinda like a miniature version of clown loaches, the way they behave!

14 foot fibreglass runabout with a 90HP motor.. top speed 38 knots old boaties think we're crazy :hyper: great for getting out inshore for fishing, due to the size it doesn't handle chop well and top speed is only when the water is glassy. haven't used it in a couple of months cos it's...

Those fish tanks encourage AC Slatering. how irresponsible :P

chihuahua dogs are the most aggressive, because they are small and "cute" owners let their bad attitude go unchecked. they have no fear and will go for a dog or human of ANY size. if they were larger and more powerful they would be banned. an aggressive dog is 100% the creation of the owner...

but you're still using an algae magnet now and again.. sooo....... how's that different to a wipe with a chux now and then? i get a little bit of light green spot algae, if i played with my light settings and reduced feeding/ferts then sure I could probably achieve less algae but a quick wipe...

here in Oz we have a product called Chux super wipe, it's a light synthetic cloth that is ideal for wiping down the inside of the tank glass and it removes algae quite effectively. #29### the biofilm, i want to see my fish! i don't bother wiping the back of the tank so it is free to collect...

I feel better for my fishies after I've done it, so it's more towards the "love" side than the "loathe" side.

you need to check if that LED light is a) producing enough light (wattage) and b) producing the right spectrum of light. plants don't use green light at all, that's why it gets reflected and we perceive the leaves as green. all other wavelengths are absorbed but red and blue light is the most...

got a spare PC? set up a webcam, recording to the computer.. even a series of stills using a program like Yawcam will let you see enough. Set the webcam up and then you won't miss a thing!

suggestions as above, also put them in a dark bag so they go to sleep. that will minimised the stress and the amount of ammonia they're producing. if you already have fish on hold then ask the LFS not to feed them for 24 hours before you pick them up. this will also minimise ammonia excretion.

well they used to use Ambergris (whale vomit) in perfumes! Yes, fish tanks *can* harbour some very nasty bacteria.. the guy 2 doors down from my parents cut himself cleaning their fishtank and got quite sick for a while because of it. But in general terms it's very rare. You also hear of...

Set the original heater 2C higher then monitor the temperature. If your 76 degree minimum moves up to 78 then the heater's calibration is just a bit off. It really doesn't matter what the heater's dial says if it is cycling on and off and keeping the temp you want. I set my heater to 30C...

Quartz sand is fine. Quartz is an exceptionally hard, inert material and is the same stuff your tank glass is made from! Bottom dwellers will love fine sand. When I put bronze corys into my sand-based tank they went ballistic, they were burying their nose in it until their eyes were covered...

As a general rule you can't have more than one RTBS unless your tank is huge. RTBS are territorial and aggressive towards their own species and sometimes fish that look similar. Therefore "similar looking fish in the same tank" is also a risk, not as much as a second RTBS but still a risk. As...

Carbon will suck a lot of trace elements out of the water that are beneficial, so only use it if you are medicating the tank. It's not essential to fishkeeping by any means when your tank is healthy, as Big says above replace it with a second filter pad to increase your filtering and biological...

that is a true SAE - the black band extends through the tail and along the body it has a "hatched" pattern rather than completely smooth line. They don't usually chase other fish but they will eat normal food if available. The juveniles should eat plenty of algae, maybe try feeding a bit less...

I have had my tank as low as 25C for a couple of weeks and my GBRs have been happy during that time.

first suitable response in the thread.. :good: matt I feel sorry for you if your wife doesn't get excited by wood!!

Also, 10-20% changes are useless for lowering nitrate levels. A few larger water changes will do much better than dozens of little ones. Change 70% of the water at a time, if it is possible without disturbing the rest of the tank.

29g will be fine for a single red tail that is still growing, adult size you'd want a larger tank. RTBS are aggressive towards their own species so you need a BIG tank to house more than 1. I currently have a juvenile RTBS with serpae tetras, german blue rams, BN catfish, siamese algae eaters...

Gravel is horrible stuff, the waste falls between the cracks and you are horrified when you gravel vac. So does a lot of uneaten food, and then the fish can't get to it. With sand, and a few bottom feeders, I never have a problem. The bottom feeders keep shifting the fish waste until the...

Any pure sand is silicon dioxide (SiO2) and this is one of the most inert materials you can get. It's the same thing as glass, which is used in test tubes and beakers and so on for its non-reactive properties (not just because chemists like to see their reactions ok!). You have a bigger chance...

I appreciate that DIY things take time but in 6 months time when someone searches for "DIY tank stand" do you think they'll want to read through 3 pages of "i'm going to do it soon" before any plans or photos materialise? I'm not trying to discourage you, DO IT!! :) DIY is awesome. Post some...

So some of my plants seem to be doing quite well - I have a crypt that I depotted and it seems fairly happy (leaves a bit brownish but I believe that's normal, it looks happy otherwise). I have some that were sold to me as a Brazil Sword (Spathiphyllum) that aren't faring so well though. I...