Search results for query: *

Hi Chris. I believe I may have sold you some danios today! Tank looking great. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Hi xandro. I've moved this to the Plants sub-forum in the hope you might get a better response Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

I work in a fish shop, I swallow (sometimes really stinking) fish water on a daily basis. I'm still typing.

I'd be amazed if your local MA didn't do RO. It's normally about 10p/litre. Might be a bit cheaper from an independent. Worth checking the quality now and then (TDS meter).

Dragon stone isn't always totally inert, it's probably leaching a bit. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Your water is pretty soft, so it will take relatively little to move the pH around. I don't know what's in your 'mineral balls' but they might be contributing something that is pushing the pH up. In very soft water pH is inherently unstable and it's generally a waste of time chasing specific...

Thanks chaps. Troi, I started out using Waterlife Protozin which has always been effective in the past. 2 weeks of daily dosing didn't shift it, after which I did 9 days of Esha Exit. By this point things seemed to be getting better but that coincided with having already lost all the neons...

Right, so here's an update that I haven't been looking forward to writing. Things had been ticking along nicely for a long time... I'd added some really nice gold and ruby tetra and a group of orange Corydoras venezuelanus. The planting had been redone, mainly with Eichornia and everything was...

Not necessarily Mike. I'm in my phone at the moment so don't have links but there's plenty of evidence in the scientific literature for strains of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter that function well at low pH. Furthermore, there's also evidence that mature filters actually contain little in the way...

The advantage of the 'Original' stuff is that is doesn't contain loads of limestone which can greatly increase your pH and KH. I'm not sure what it does actually have mixed in, but all the other soils I've used have have pretty major impacts on water hardness, even the aquatic/pond soils. For...

'Original Aqua Soil' sold in blue bags at your local garden centre will cost you about a tenner, grows plants like crazy and won't mess with your water parameters too much. On the downside, it'll need a sand cap, is very messy if disturbed and will leach ammonia for a few weeks unless you...

Depending on the size of the wood, could you do a similar thing with magnets?

Thanks Darrel, mine just arrived alive and kicking :)

Or just cut your RO with an amount of tap water, depending on your local water hardness. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Almost all commercial plant growers grow their plants emersed. You'll probably only find the immersed growth buying from hobbyists or perhaps a seller who's kept it submerged for a few months. H. pinnatifada will lose all the leaves it comes with, but hopefully will have new submerged growth by...

Cyclops I think Bex. Kind of hard to tell from the photo though! Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Yes please Darrel, I've got a new tank set up with a built in refugium and my Hyalella seem to have all vanished. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Yup, lots of collected wood is fine to use. Good thread here - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/british-wood.27547/ The rule of thumb is that if it's fully dead and dry (not soft and rotting) then it's probably a good bet. Some will last longer than others. I wouldn't use driftwood as it'll...

Shock content update! I'll try and get some full tank shots later, but here's my bruiser A. hoignei alpha male. Still the boss after all this time, despite sharing the tank with 3 other equal sized males. In the process of creating what I think is probably his fourth spawn...

I gave up using caddies - instead I just build hardscape (normally wood) up to the surface and wedge the riparians in bare-rooted somewhere.

To echo what the others have said... I ran the old Bucket without water changes initially and had no algae. I then switched to regular water changes and still had no algae. No reason not to do them. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Really nice dimensions on these. We've got the reef version running as a display in work. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

I suspect most of those will be OK. RE: Aponogeton crispus red, mine went completely ballistic in the old Bucket of Mud, should be easy.

Can we keep it civil please chaps :) Lots of good discussion in this thread, let's keep it constructive! Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Good to see it available in the UK, but be aware that Java Plants order direct from Singapore so plants will have been in transit a long time and possibly also covered in pesticides (lethal to shrimp) so be sure to quarantine them first. I ordered from them once a few years ago and didn't have a...

Yeah, tap water should be fine. Not a great idea for a reef tank because even small amounts of nitrate and phosphate can annoy some trickier stony corals, but thats a non-issue for fish and shrimp assuming your water is within normal ranges. Commercial reef salt mixes will give you a KH or about...

Nice livestock choices! I'd probably still go with a reasonable quality marine salt from DnD or Red Sea or someone, but I'm not too hot on brackish stuff. Some of them have a basic 'fish only' version which is a little cheaper than the coral version. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Mine is in low tech with inert sand. I dose a little all-in-one fert most days so it probably doesn't go hungry. No carbon. I think I'll leave one or two stems to hit the surface and see what happens :)

PS, I've noticed that if you trim the stems, then the bottoms will sometimes produce 2 or 3 new stems from the cut, so very easy to propagate.

Hi Marcel, Are you still keeping this? My 2 stems are now about 10, it propagates very easily. Like you say, growth is incredibly fast, even without much light. Have you tried it outside or to transition it to floating form yet? Any ideas on the best way to do this? Cheers, Tom

Hi, yes it's a spammer in a subforum without an online moderator. We'll fix it as soon as we can. In the meantime, you an just click on the username and then click 'Ignore' and all their posts will disappear when you refresh.

Yeah sorry guys. We're getting spammed and don't have a moderator for that subforum online at the moment. As soon as we do they'll be terminated with extreme prejudice!

Hi Alex. Welcome to UKAPS! We love photos here, feel free to post some in one of the tank threads. Just a small thing - it's really hard to read this that are posted all in capital letters! You'll probably get more responses if you use lower case. Cheers, Tom Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09...

Having been working in a (pretty decent) LFS for the last 18 months I reckon I've got my eye in. As ever, it's a bit of a balancing act. Well decorated tanks or planted system tanks are much better for reducing stress, but easier to miss the odd dead fish tucked down the back. We run a very...

Yup, look like macmasteri to me. Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

You could always add some smaller floaters to diffuse the light. Phyllanthus fluitans would be my choice, looks great in small tanks and goes bright red with enough light on it.

(not my photo) Macro algae like Caulerpa spp. can make a difference, I filled by sump with a few different types and dropped my nitrates from 10ppm to 1ppm.

Anything but that! I'm away at the moment but I'll do an update when I get back... Looking a little sparse at the moment because it's slowly growing back in after I pulled out a lot of the planting (got fed up trimming the ludwigia every week). Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

^ Pretty thorough paper that. I've got a pdf if anyone wants it (pm with an email address). Interesting excerpt (SG = spore germination) -

I think you mean net oxygen producers Darrel :) Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

My two stems are doing really well Marcel :) All the old leaves died off but I have about 10cm of new growth, and rooting. I've just tried trimming one of the stems to see how it responds. Hoping to end up with both submerged and floating forms.

Would love to, unfortunately I work weekends and have all my holiday time already booked up for the year.

You-caps Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

That would be absolutely brilliant, thank you. I have actually ordered this several times from suppliers in NL but it has inevitably always been out of stock. Fingers crossed it does well for you! Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Been trying to get my hands on this in the UK for ages! Nice find, it's a lovely looking plant. Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Raising the temperature that high is going to be pretty hard on the plants and any livestock. I've had good results with Protozin in planted tanks, doesn't seem to do any harm and very effective at clearing whitespot.

Haha, thanks very much Martin, always nice to know that people enjoy the journals.

Or you could buy a bag of sodium thiosulphate crystals for a few quid which will last you probably the rest of your life! Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Any use as algae eaters Ed? I tried some reasonable size 'river' shrimp as a proxy for Amanos in my tank and the Guianacara demolished them in about a microsecond.

Haha, thanks for the review James! Really good to meet you, enthusiastic fish geeks always warmly received. Glad the holiday was a success. Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Bloody hell Ed, good work finding anything from SA. I'm jealous. Not worried about them being predatory? Or predated, hah.

Personally I never had an issue with soil/sand going anaerobic. There was often some gas bubbling up from the soil, but as far as I could tell it was always odourless and presumably largely CO2. Haven't tried MTS in a soil tank, I imagine it could get messy.

I'd probably stick them near the top, just so they don't get fouled by debris, but it probably doesn't matter much.

Does anyone else have to set up a drip to keep their Farlowella eggs wet during a water change?! Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Don't know who to support today! Japan played so well against SA that I'd love to see them go through, but after spending 13 years in Scotland it's hard to root against them. Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

I'll be behind England all the way but I'm expecting a Trinations rampage to be honest. Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

I do find the UKAPS search a bit unfriendly. Like Ed I normally just use google with site:ukaps.org as a modifier.

Some better photos of the I. adujai - And I. geisleri - And today one of the baby Apistos broke cover for the first time - I wonder how many made it? Getting overrun with baby twigs! Batches 4 and 5 have all hatched now and the male is taking a break - he's lost a lot of condition...

In this situation I'd simply move the old filter and fish straight across to the new tank. Same bioload and filtration capacity but a much larger volume of water. Although I understand your concern about getting the plants established. Otherwise as the others have said, get the plants...

Yeah it does sound like a lot of fish when you add it up! The large footprint means that it doesn't feel crowded though - lots of the fish have their own areas that they prefer to hang about it.

Ermmmm.... off the top of my head Guianacara stergiosi - 6 (2 adults, 4 subadult offspring) Apistogramma hoignei - 6 plus some juveniles Dicrossus filamentosus - 2 Chilodus punctatus - 6 Iguanodectes spilurus - 7 Iguanodectes adujai - 5 Iguanodectes geisleri - 6 Paracheirodon simulans - 50...

Had a bit of a find this week - ordered a few Iguanadectes spilurus at work, but were sent a rather tasty mix of both I. geisleri and I. adujai instead :) A little tatty and thin, but should turn into really lovely fish - Needless to say I've invested in a group of each.

5th Farlowella spawn... Are they ever going to stop? Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

One of the juvenile Farlowella enjoying the flow form the wavemaker :)

They mainly just graze on all the biofilm to be honest, I also feed New Era catfish and cichlid pellets for the larger fish, which they seem to enjoy as well.

My kind of dimensions! How's the parlour palm doing? I had no luck keeping mine as a riparian.

I just asked for that because I thought it would look nice :p It's supported on 3 sides and isn't very wide so not much sag to worry about.

Posting from my mobile, please excuse brevity!

Nice - I haven't seen the a160s in the flesh but we've got the a360s on the plant sales tank at work and they're lovely. The tank has a mini-lid at the front just to stop jumpers (I need to get one cut for the back corner too) - I had problems with the Iguanadectes jumping at night when they...

1 male and 3 females (adults). Make sure they have nice bellies on them and have been in a while and you should be OK I think. I lost 3 out of 4 from a previous group which were very skinny when I bought them and they all died within 24 hours. My water is soft and presumably fairly acidic...

6mm here too... cheap but sturdy enough that I'm not too worried about bashing them about.

Cheers Hoggie. I'm a big fan of the light the Kessils put out, and once modded the old a150s aren't too bad for noise - no more jet engine whine!

Fourth Farlowella spawn last night. They're machines. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

All the wood does generate a fair amount of 'soil', which collects in the back corners and the filter presponge. The bottom of the filter is also probably full of it but I never empty it because the efx600 weighs more than I care to lift when full! The headstanders and bandit cichlids turn the...

Yeah the corals in the marine nano next to it seem to enjoy it too!

Yeah just 2 old Kessil a150s. This time of year it gets a pretty strong shaft of direct sunlight for a few hours in the afternoon, although it sort of roams around the tank and doesn't settle for too long in one place. I have recently had a few tufts of BBA sprouting up on the wood where it...

As you wish! Apologies for hit and miss white balance, I haven't the patience to balance room and tank consistently between shots... Looking slightly lopsided at the moment because I trimmed the right hand side pretty hard a couple of days ago. The stems and floaters need chopping back...

Third batch of eggs are now hatching. The adult male has been guarding this spot on the glass for exactly a month now, while the three females have taken it in turns to spawn with him. And at least some of the previous batches seem to be surviving - The female Apisto is still in parenting...

No idea if it's truly an adaptive response but I quite often see this behaviour when catching neons in the shop - they'll bob about like gonners for a few moments in the bag before righting themselves and continuing as normal. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

I'd go with male, but to be honest I seem to get these wrong as often as I'm right.

Not enough flow, should be more like this -

I have the equivalent TMC branded version and that remembers your last used settings when the power is off. Presumably the Jeboa version is the same? Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

Is all the vertical planting Hydrocleys? Looks awesome.

I would hope so Ed, but might remove some just in case. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

Hehe, little fatties.

Male with two batches of eggs - 5 days old on the left, 10 days old on the right... ...the latter of which began hatching overnight. ~9mm TL fry -

A second spawn now underway - these are definitely hybrids (compare scute patterns).

As far as I know they're just the same as the standard aquabars but with some of the white LEDs swapped out for blue and red ones. As for spectrum I have no idea, but they look nice enough when running.

Heh. They're filmed on the kit lens of my E-M5, but with a Raynox macro adapter in place. Working distance is less than 2cm so it's a good job they're on the front glass! The eggs are roughly 3.5mm long, so quite large. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

I'd probably take the TMC Aquabars over these if you need something long and flat to hide away.

We have these over the plant sales tank in work... they're OK I guess but not adjustable, a bit out-dated and I much prefer the look you get from dense matrix LEDs like Kessils. You'd probably want a couple of the Aqua Lifes to replace your T5s, and for that money I'd much rather buy a pair of...

Getting in some early swimming practice...

Haha I'll leave that to the vet I think...

Cheers James - got a little video uploading now to show the wriggling. Nice big eggs (~3.5mm across) right on the front glass, you can see loads.

Lost a few of the eggs to fungus, but three quarters of them have nice active wriggly embryos!

I think much better photos would help a lot here buddy, given that they don't seem to be easily recognisable. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

Definitely hybrids... both parents are on the eggs now and although I can't remember my previous IDs they definitely have obviously different scute patterns. Bit of a shame but still going to give them a chance. EDIT - maybe not. The third female I was never sure about an ID and she's hanging...

Water changes are a bit erratic to be honest, probably about 30 per cent every couple of weeks on average. Rain water in winter, tap in summer. The rain water is actually harder than out the tap down here in Cornwall! 3kh vs less than 1. I haven't checked the tank parameters in over 6 months...

Hah, just came down for my usual cup of tea in front of the tank before work and spotted my male Farlowella with a clutch of precisely 50 eggs on the front glass. Which is awesome, although I have a suspicion they might be hybrids as I rather thought I didn't have any females that were the same...

Like this! http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/japanese-balcony-rice-paddy-final-harvest.23151/