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You can do anything you want with the hood as long as you're happy with it and it doesn't fall into the tank.

I am from West Chester, PA and am taking a 125 gallon tank from a friend but I do not want to keep his stocking of fish, so I am giving these away from free. There are about 8 tinfoil barbs, roughly 8" each, 1 silver dollar about 6", and one large common pleco that is 18" or more. This is not...

A reverse osmosis type filter is your best bet, there is no other "silver bullet" for softening water other than removing the minerals. RO itself is not good for your fish, so you would need to add back certain minerals to make it work. If you NEED soft water, you can do that, or try to find...

Zero

As long as there are no chemicals on the wood, it should be fine. It is essentially the same as the activated carbon people use to filter their water, but the carbon you buy commercially is simply wood burned in a controlled process to make it more absorptive. If you want to remove it, you...

Neither tank appears to be cycled, so the answer would be no. You listed two readings for nitrate for each tank - is one of those supposed to be nitrite?

Change a lot more of your water...you want to keep the nitrite waaaaaaaay lower than that while you have fish in there. You should do another water change of 80%.

The are simply pumps....used for water circulation, aeration, and/or filtration depending on how you set them up. They can be very useful if you need them for one of those things, but if you don't need any of things then don't buy one. If you end up with "dead spots" in your aquarium where...

I think it would be useful to have a tool to be able to log information on a timeline, to start with the tank cycle and continue on with the ongoing maintenance and fish growth, etc. If you could plug in a date and time and attached current water parameters, light timing, water change...

Sounds like a good plan. 2 ppm of ammonia in your tap water? Ouch!

Everything else looks like a good stock list. It should make for a nice setup!

I use that on one of my tanks and feel it is accurate and quick at reporting temperature changes. I use this one in my other tank and it also works just as well: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/251264/product.web

Just be careful being so close to the window, make sure you avoid direct sunlight.

Looks great!

The nitrite portion of the cycle generally takes longer than the ammonia portion. If you are getting ammonia = 0, that is good and you are progressing, but any measurable nitrite means your tank is still cycling and you can expect it to be days or weeks before you consistently get 0 nitrite...

No, you want the tank running perpendicular to the direction of the floor joists. ........(tank)............ -----------| |----------------- <- floor joist -----------| |----------------- <- floor joist -----------| |----------------- <- floor joist -----------| |----------------- <-...

1. No comment 2. Sand! Sand! Sand! 3. Yes, its where I found my tank. 4. Definitely, even if its just for the cycle, buy you'll need it anyway if you go tropical 5. Most of the time, but it depends. Chances are you'll find good usable equipment for cheap on Craigslist along with a tank.

Honestly I wouldn't bother pulling muscles in your arm to test for nitrate. At this point in your fish-in cycle you will be doing water changes daily so the only levels you need to worry about are ammonia and nitrite. Test the Ph once a week to make sure it stays above 7 and keep up with...

Your tank is about 250l or 55 US gallons. I use a Rena XP4 in my 75 US gallon tank and would highly recommend the brand. For your size tank an XP3 would work well. I can't know anything about those particular fish so I can't help there.

My tanks are dark at night too, I've never had these problems.

It sounds like what happened was your tank was cycled for the amount of fish that were in there, but you added at least double the bioload with the new fish and you started cycling again. Any level above 0 for ammonia means that you tank is still cycling and if you have fish in it, you should be...

NO ONE can deny that a fishless cycle using ammonia from a bottle works to establish a bio-filter for a home aquarium. If a fishless cycle using household ammonia didn't work to establish the right kind of bacteria, then every member here that did a fishless cycle including me, cycled their...

You can carefully cut/rip the filter pad from the plastic, dump the carbon out of the plastic, then re-attach the pads to the plastic with some thread, string or staples.

Yeah, I use the Caribsea Tahitian Moon, which looks the same as this. It's perfect black.

Leaving it is not a good idea, you'll end up more frustrated because your fish will be dead. You need to check the information here on cycling: http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/277264-beginners-resource-center/ If you are getting advice that conflicts with what you're reading here...

Sand is better IMO for these reasons: (1) It looks way better, no question (2) Bottom dwelling fish will be more comfortable on it because it is softer (3) No building of gunk in between and under gravel (dirt stays on top of the sand) If you have enough water movement, the dirt doesn't sit...

I edited your post a little to make it easier to read. You should rinse your filter pads in dechlorinated water (or old tank water from a water change) to get the loose gunk off of it, then replace it where it was in your filter. Your filter pads grow important bacteria, so you don't want to...

That is not true, the bacteria will be fine. Go ahead and use the bacteria from the cooler tank and get your tank up to 29 degrees and continue with your cycle.

Did you test your ammonia? Did you ever fully cycle the tank? You need to change 90% of your water and test again. If you are still getting the same readings then your test is giving false readings. If the large water change brings the levels down then you need to change 50% daily until you...

Is there any direct sunlight on the tank?

All those fish ultimately grow too large for a 20l tank. If you plan on keeping these fish you need a much larger tank, and a 40l won't do. I will defer to goldfish experts here, but I think you need at least a 220l to house all of them, maybe even 300l+. You also need a powerful filter...

I wouldn't bother keeping the old water unless you are having trouble matching the temp and Ph with fresh water. You're old water has nothing in it worth saving. Move as much old filter media as possible to the new filter and if you have room, it can't hurt to add new ceramic media for future...

I have a sailfin L083 and I enjoy having him in my tank. Nice patterns, pretty active and is often out and about. If he is messy I can't tell, maybe because the Rena XP4 really does a great job on the 75 gallons. I wish he stayed at his current size of about 8 or 9" but I know he'll outgrow...

+1

Check you pH to make sure it's not too low (8.0 is ideal). If it is low, do a water change and bring it back up then resume your ammonia doses. I found that a water change kicked the nitrite portion of my cycle into high gear. I believe it was mostly because the pH had dropped to 6.5 and the...

http://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm

The statement is not necessarily false, as if you are referring to a disease such as ich that is caused by a parasite, taking filter media from a ich infected tank and doing a proper fishless cycle with water temperature at least 86 F for 3 weeks, all of the stages of the parasite would have...

Letting your guppies die off is not really something that anyone here is going to recommend. If their environment isn't allowing them to be healthy and thrive, they shouldn't be in that environment, and keeping them their until they suffer and die is cruel. It's not good for your tank to have...

Are you sure it's white cloudiness and not green at all? I could have sworn I was having a month long bacteria bloom with white cloudiness until I switched to using a white bucket for water changes and I noticed that the water actually had a slight green tint to it. It turned out to be algae...