Fisshy Poop

[kev]

Yeah its about 8.5 (i use a colour test kit so its about that.) My nitrate has never been that low though. Its always been quite high and I had a bit of algea growing on my rocks buy my plec takes care of that now and since I added plants it come down from about 40 - to 30.

I don't think the PH is a problem. I added some bog wood but it didn't change.

 

[Lithril]

Heya Kev and CJK good to see some locals on here, I live in Chandlers Ford

Plecos will take care of algae and also make a good clean up grew for waste food (at least my bristlenose does) but I don't think there is any fish that'll actually clean up waste debris. I've just bought a £10 battery operated gravel vac with a bag attachement so you don't have to change water to clean the vac (mainly cos with puffers you're cleaning the sand/gravel ever other day) its still fairly gutless until you take off all attachments on the end and just use the tube...works wonders now, gotta make sure I leave some sand in the tank

 

[CJK]

Hi again Its funny you should mention algea!!! We have had nightmares with hair algea just lately. We got rid of our large peice of bogwood cos it was such a pain to clean the algea off it. It didn't lower our ph either!! We've cut down or rooted up plants cos we can't get it off the leaves. When trips to lfs we mentioned this prob...apparently they've had loads of complaints about hair algea in the tank in this area!!!!! I know its due to phosphates but do u think we can get the balance right so we don't get hair algea??? NO we can't RO water the last resort to see if we can clear it totally.

Hi Lithril...do u have this prob too

Sharon

 

[kev]

I don't think mine is a problem it would have been but adding other more established plants seems to have slowed thier growth. and the plec is often munching on the one rock it does grow on.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Get catfish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Um... catfish do not eat poop, they scavange the bottom for food and contribute to poop.

 

[kev]

Thats what my Plec does

 

[Lithril]

Yup I'm having a nightmare of a time with hair algae and also getting black hair algae now, cut back some plants today and also trimmed off a lot of leaves with it on, not actually sure what I'm going to do about it at the moment. Scraping if off the leaves usually wrecks the leaves and then if you're not quick you lose into the tank anyway. Let me know how it goes with the RO definatley interested.

Where do you normally shop for fish etc, I usually use Creature Comforts in Totton but alway open to more suggestions???

 

[CJK]

Hi Lithril

To say I'm interested that you have a hair algea problem too is an understatement!! Why in this area are we all prone to it?? I haven't a clue. We have taken out so many plants because its impossible to clean them...I'm really fed up with it We noticed that when we had a red plant in the tank (no idea what it was) it was really bad...just on this one plant. We thought that getting rid of this plant would solve the probs, but it hasn't!! It just now grows on the others. The tank was looking fab until we encounted this damn problem.

The RO water we are going to be doing our water changes with is RO with minerals, NOT just RO water that we use for the marine. The RO without minerals is totally unsuitable for freshwater tanks and will eventually cause a ph crash. Just in case you decide to try it I thought I'd better point this out We will be doing roughly 40% change with this water on Saturday and a good thorough clean of the tank. I will definately keep you posted on any difference or not it makes on the tank.

The fish shops we use for fish are as follows...Aquajardin (Allington Lane), Maidenhead Aquatics (Fair Oak) and just last weekend we brought some Flying Foxes from Tropical Paradise, in Boyatt Wood. I would highly recomend Tropical Paradise...its under new ownership and they are brill. Tanks are spotless and not a bad selection either. They are very helpful and seem to really care about fish and always have the time to explain things to you. This is where we will be purchasing the RO water from (they sell for 50p cheaper per gallon than Maidenhead!!). We have also just purchased some new equipment from them for our marine tank (£120 cheaper thean MA!!!) Well worth a look in my opinion.

Sharon

 

[Lithril]

Kewl cheers for the info, didn't even realise there was a LFS in Boyatt Wood, should cut down some of the travelling time going to Totton couple of times a week (mind you they do have a Massive selection )

Yeah definately keep me informed on how the RO goes as I may be able to get some from work and just add the mins back in. How you going to cope with the pH change as RO will be neutral and the pH around here is quite high (waters damn hard too as I'm sure you've found out with most of your heating, showers, kettles etc )

Must admit the puffers seem happier now they can swim across the tank without a barricade of plants to force ther way through Still need to trim of some of the hair algae - the normal stuff isn't a problem as it just pulls off, its the black stuff that seems to weld itself to the leaves like small tufts.

 

[CJK]

Hi

As we are only going to be doing RO changes every other week and the next with tap water so, one RO water change a month for a while to see if has any effect, the PH change will only be very small and gradual (we hope) so that the fish will adapt slowly. You are right about the hardness of our water....kettle we got for xmas last year, needs replacing already as so scaled up. I give up descaling things now...they need to be done too often, would rather just buy new stuff, lazy or what??

I'm not really that clued up on all this water hardness stuff, thats my hubbies domain more than mine...I just do as advised lol

We have been don to creature comforts a few times, although I quite like their freshwater section even if I do think its a little overstocked. You know that big tank as you go up the step into the tank area...its got HUGE fish in it, could be oscars I don't know, on the right hand side....does that look overstocked to you?? I'm only a novice but was quite shocked at how many huge fish were in it. We only normally go to this shop when we are looking for equipment or marine stuff. Hubby has marine tank I have freshwater.

Check out Tropical Paradise...open til 6pm each night I believe and all day Sundays.

Oh and I too have noticed the fish swimming alot faster and chasing more since we cut down loads of plants. Doesn't look as nice though
Sharon

 

[Lithril]

Doesn't look quite as good with the plants cut back but they're growing back already, gotta say that hagen CO2 diffuser really works well.

Yup those fish are tiger oscars, don't think that tanks too over stocked as its pretty huge. The tank that gets me is the big marine one with that massive Moray Eel..mmmmm, would love a set up like that. Don't tend to get any hardware from Totton as you can buy it MUCH cheaper online.

Where bouts in Boyatt Wood is Tropical Paradise (is it the parade of shops behind B&Q??)

So what marine setup have you got?

 

[Sinuhe]

About the vacuum problem: How high is your aquarium placed, and how low do you place the bucket (or similar) when syphoning? Try putting the bucket as low as possible, that causes more suction for the vacuum. I have sometimes trouble vacuuming a QT tank that's placed on a lower self on the aquarium stand, because the distance between the tank and the bucket is so low. But when the aquarium is a on a "regular" level, it should suck up most of the bigger pieces of poop, as well .

 

[CJK]

Lithril, yes Tropical Paradise is in the line of shops behind B&Q.

Our marine st up is a 55gallon (Ithink). We will be upgrading it to twice as big sometime after christmas. It has only been running for about 5 months so it is still relatively new. We have two baby clowns (of course) one yellow tang, two yellow cheeked gobies and two cleaner shrimp and some turbo snails. Corals, we have one hammerhead, three different types of mushroom coral and a long tentacled plate coral. Live rock, I have no idea how much we have but it cost over £200 We went up to STM in Kent to get it as there is no places local to us that sells it (or at least none worth buying). It has been a very costly business in setting it all up, but as my hubby is a carp fisherman and has been for the past 30 yrs we had plenty of tackle to sell to finance the tank. He is still fishing but not on a regular basis like before.

My opinion on marine tanks are...expensive but worth it, I love it. We will probably end up converting the freshwater tank over to marine eventually

Sharon

 

[Lithril]

You're marine tank sounds great, you got any pics for it ??? Going to have to have a go at that one day, but for the moment there's too many tropical setups that I want to try

Going to try and go out to Tropical Paradise tomorrow, if not then definatley Saturday although it would be nice to have a look around without it getting too busy.

Have you tested the tap waters locally for phosphates??? I havent got a kit yet so no clue as to what levels they're at?

 

[CJK]

No test kit here either.

Kev I just realised we highjacked your thread talking about hair algea!!! When the thread was fishy poop!!! I'm so sorry about that, in my excitement of finding someone close to where I live with the same problem as me I got a bit carried away ) ) )

Apologies

Sharon