Recent content by tam

I'm interested in this too. I was looking at the ubends, good to know the glass ones fit over the tubing. You can get acrylic ubends which seem longer. Most dosing fittings seem designed for multiple heads rather than one though.

Which deficiency is this? It' Hygrophila polysperma (I'm pretty sure) growing emersed with it's feet in the tank. I'm dosing TNC Complete 1ml a day, I've been using an autodoser to improve my dosing consistency for about a month now and I was expecting it to sort this out, but although it's...

I think you'd have to be careful with the RRF as light plays into the colour. I've had it growing packed densly (so much it didn't move) in a tank with the light about 1" above the surface and there was a very noticable line across the plant growth showing the extent of the light - red under the...

I use Esha Exit for ich - should be able to pick it up in your local fish shop or amazon. I know salt gets recommended a lot in the US, but I don't think it's that common to treat with salt and temperature increases in the UK. Have you got a photo of the fish?

I leave the courgette in the tank, never take it out. I pop a 7mm ish slice in a small bowl, pour boiling water over, when it's cool enough to fish out without burning my fingers pop it in a clip that sinks it to the bottom. They usually show interest initially, then ignore it for a bit and go...

I do too, but I'm also aware my aquarium is very lean - there is probably more nitrate in tap than tank. So don't just assume that aquairum water will have all the nutrients. Water from a fish only tank is probably much better, full of excess nutrients, where are planted tank water may have...

I would guess water height is the trick for the swords. My tank is 30cm deep, so maybe 20 cm of water above the substrate surface. I brought them with emersed leaves that were tall enough to break the surface and they've grown emersed leaves consistantly the whole time. I imagine if you start...

Eleocharis Acicularis (hairgrass) should be able to find it cheaper in the pond section rather than aquaiurm... although more likely to have hitchhikers. You could try soft rush, I have (I think) it growing and it stayed about 1' for ages, although over winter has decided to shoot up to closer...

There is no maths because there are too many variables. You could have a long shallow tank with lots of length to swim or a tall narrow tank that a larger fish couldn't turn around in and they'd both be the same volume. Tank length effects swimming area which is relevant in fish activity levels...

I don't have a bag to hand, but I'm pretty sure the gravel is meant to be a minimum depth of 4cm. That does seem unusal amount of ammonia - have you tried testing your tap water, both before and after adding declorinator, incase you are getting a false positive. Have you planted it? I've...

Have you tested your tank water for nitrates, just curious what reading you got if you had? I wonder if you are actually having the opposite problem to excess ammonia - not enough ammonia/nitrates for the plants to grow well. A lot of fertilisers don't include nitrate they are more like vitamins...

I think the main concern is that in a canister filter, the bacteria may run out of oxygen and die and/or if you've got a lot of 'goo' in your filter and you take away the oxygen then you end up with stinky sludge... turn it back on an you could be dumping ammonia back in the tank as it...

If it's a 27l tank, I'd be tempted just to go with a gh/kh remineraliser - a pot is going to last you a pretty long time.

If you wanted to use the tropica soil, you could stick it in a bucket for a few weeks with an airline and change the water regularly so any ammonia leached out before adding it to the tank. I guess it depends how much you were adding too - an entire substrate worth will obviously be more ammonia...

Which product do you actually have? Tropica Plant Growth Substrate is designed to be a 1cm layer at the bottom that's then capped with a couple of inches of gravel. It's like a fine powder that is mud when wet. Do you mean tropica soil? The soil can be used without capping it. If you've got an...