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It might be possible to shoe-horn the foam from the old filter into the new one in place of some of the new foam. Without having both filters in front of me I can't say for sure if it is possible. But, if you can do this then effectively the new filter becomes as matured as the old one.

take few grams of soil from your aquarium, add it in a clear cup/container and then add some H2SO4/HCL and see if it fizz, it may also entirely break down.

Look forward to seeing this!

So, here we are roughly 3 weeks later and we're planted. I have CO2 running from 14:00 - 20:00 and lighting on from 15:00 - 21:00. I'm currently doing approximately 30% water change daily which I plan to do for the first week then every other day week 2. I'm relatively happy with the planting...

Have you considered Riccardia Chamedryfolia or Fissidens Fontanus at all?

Just an update. I purchased a new filter, different to the one I had planned on getting (this is what I got). I didn’t have space to run it along side the old filter so is this likely to put me back to square one with regardless to cycling my tank? The new filter has twice as much media space...

That's pretty tasty mate, I missed it on insta. As nice as this one is the original was so pleasing as a real Amano esc nature aquarium, I'd be happy to have either in the lounge though. 👍

Once upon a time I did a speed run of this exact situation by accidentally dosing too much micro, I manually overrode the timer on the 1ml/min dosing pump for three minutes to replace the traces after waterchange then immediately got distracted and forgot to turn it off, noticed a few hours...

Thank you I managed to find a few today.

If those are the parameters you get all year long with very little fluctuations I would go tap! If you're in an area with little to no Mg in the tap water (which is likely) - you need to add that (MgSO4 / Epsom Salt) - like 4-6 mg/l or so. My snails and shrimps are fine at ~0.25 dKH. and a pH...

...+ a handful of female platies. As for the new plants, they went in around 1-2 weeks go. Various Echinodirus sp. Various Anubias sp. Crypt wendtii * Staurogyne repens * Myriophyllum mattogrossense * Ludwigia repens “Rubin” * Bucephalandra sp.Red * * = cuttings or extras from my other tanks...

Looking at options to cleanup my water changing (and bathing water for family member with sensitive skin). I'm based in the North West (UK). So softish water from the peat filtered Lake District. Has anybody installed one and had good / bad experiences? Running costs etc? Postitive effect on tank?

In my limited experience, the bark decomposes more quickly and can be a trigger for algae. Once I removed the bark, things went back to normal.

I see the shadows are softer. But i was most curious about the amount of light reaching shadow side of the bodies. This difficult to judge. Maybe because your camera compensated for the total amount of light in the image. Can you make the pictures in the manual mode of your phone or camera...

So this has taken a lot longer than expected but it is finally ready! This tank now has 24/7 livestream! Here is the link to the stream Underwater Rainforest The main lights are on from 7am - 7pm CST/ 8am - 8pm EST/ 1pm - 1am BST. The tank has a night light but currently it is not great so I...

Thanks for the reply, totally hadn't thought of that. Hopefully won't last for too long, as I'm gutted it seems to have wrecked my sensitive plants

CO2 finally ran out after 10 mos running - I was going to get it filled and continue as normal, but here I go changing things around again. None of the plants I had growing under the water required CO2 anymore, so I decided to forgo the gas and see how it runs low tech. My expectations for...

Nothing in particular! Just was curious. When I set up my 90cm, I felt distribution could have been a bit better with two outflows. However, many other variables at play! Your hardscape is much easier to work around than mine was.

Oddly, thats exactly what I was doing this morning. It sounds very interesting and definitely something I will consider. Thanks for the recommendation.

Is there any updates on this ? The whole process by Killi69 looks such a beautiful water garden & very inspirational.

Does the tank have center braces? And how many if so? Rimmed or rimless? There is kind of an odd ball brand that carries a 60" (150-ish cm) light. It folds up a bit. More than likely to lower shipping costs. In all likely-hood you would be better off with puck style lights than trying to...

My plywood is at my work (off this week) but I'm back tomorrow so hopefully I can get them to cut it for me this week so I can crack on with the cabinet. Managed to stumble across some 6mm MDF in my attic which was left from previous homeowner, so I cut it to size so I have somewhere to practise...

Thanks, it’s one aspect I’ve appreciated more in recent times 😁 Thank you Gill 🙌🏻 Here goes…. Knowing I wanted a more colourful scape, and the challenge of stem management again i chose a variety of plants including many I have grown before, but also a number that were new to me just to keep...

Hi all, <"JBL Aquadur"> - <"so all right">, other than the sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) and all that <"for a mere"> £83 / kg ........... You just need to add a <"lot less remineraliser">, have a look at @Roland's <"Soft water tank">. Basically you are losing all the <"advantages of RO"> by...

Afternoon! At the moment I've got a 120cm / 42W LED balanced on the top of the glass panel lid of my 150cm x 45 x 60h 350l tank. I don't think the light is getting in to the corners and it's got dunked a couple of times as I've been moving things around. Should I rig something across the rim to...

Yeesh, I feel like Tropica would not be happy to see their products in such a state. I'm American, so humor me here - is Pets @ Home a big box pet store where quality is often a bit questionable?

Hi all, That was always going to be the potential issue <"with these sorts of plants">. They may have a long shelf life, but it isn't infinite. I'm going to say "not suitable", but <"who knows">? Cheers Darrel

Hello! Yes the big no-nos are in this post (Poisonous Plants to Avoid section). There's not that many, I think in local parks the main one to avoid would be Rhododendron. I don't find that btoanical leaves stain the water that much when I add them, even in big handfuls. Seedpods are a better...

Superfish dropped the ball with these filters, feel like they'd be a lot more popular if shrimp safe straight out of the box.

I'm going to give TNC complete a go. The nutrient calculator suggests 15.6ml/week for EI low light, I think I'll start by adding 1ml/day and see how I get on. Still need to setup my blackout experiment, life is getting in the way as usual!

If you are doing 50% water changes already you could also have a read up on the estimative index - that's another regime where you basically dose everything you might need and a bit more, knowing that the 50% water changes will keep things evened out and not allow excess to build up. That's as...

Morning! It's just spare hose, 16/22. I am holding it in place with suction clips and I've got a sponge on the inflow end of each one to dissuade travelling baby shrimp. I'm actually considering whether I should upgrade it to a larger diameter and try and boost the through flow a bit. I have a...

unfortunately I cant have shrimp in this tank because of the keyhole cichlids and mollies :/

Lovely post, thanks @bazz ; they look very healthy too. Part of the joy of unusual fish is the hunt for them, for me anyway - as soon as I see them on a list, I’ll start chasing shops to order. I used to have a lot of barbs as a kid, and I think this tank is slowly becoming a throwback to the...

You need a clean up crew I had 50+ amamos and thousands of RCS and snails in my 500 litre tank and never hair algae was never an issue. In my Pot scape I use to get hair algae on some plants and put them in bigger tank for 24hrs and it was all gone. Amamos and RCS had a feast on them.

A couple of observations some plants look slightly nutrient deficient ,this might be your flow needs improving or/ and look at your dosage, CO2 comes off as the light do ,try an hour before lights off ,maybe the lighting too high? You could add some floating plants and more fast growing stem...

Tank parameters: 1.5 years old ADA amazonia substrate 200 L filter: Oase Biomaster 600 thermo - loaded with 4L of seachem matrix and 200ml. of seachem purigen Eheim skimmer for added flow and surface agitation Chihiros wrgb2 slim set currently at 68/31/40 (r/g/b) Lights are on from 12:00 till...

Thanks. Yes I have been reading the threads on here about the Solufeed range of ferts, which are definately on my radar. I may have some specific questions about using them, but I guess they will be best suited to posting in the Fert Dosing forum section. Water change schedule is a religious...

Just give it a couple of weeks on the setting of your choice then if the plants aren't growing and you have no signs of algae you can afford to up it a notch and vice versa, remember though, plants take a short while to adapt to different conditions/parameters so stability is key and consistent...

Good advice. I used to run a dedicated skimmer in my shrimp tank back in the day. I used lemon wraps around the in-take to prevent the shrimps getting caught. The surface skimmer was there mainly to reduce surface film and help a bit with surface agitation. I removed the skimmer long time...

Hi, love the setup for the shrimp, what are you using for the siphons on your connected mini tanks? Is it a commercial aquarium product or a re-purposed item from elsewhere?

With 500l, I imagine the suggestions are going to be dry ferts as they'll be less expensive for a tank that volume. You might like to look at TNC complete if you want liquid. You don't have to pick one or the other though. It's quite common for people to alternate trace on some days an complete...

If you are using an active aquasoil type substrate in the tank then any carbonate hardness that it has absorbed over the year is now being released as the dosed ferts are preferentially being uptaken in place of the carbonates. Once the substrate has fully swapped out the carbonates for the...

These are dwarf kuhlis, only 2-3cm long fully grown. I think they might potentially eat the very smallest babies but shrimp manage to breed alongside them without problems so fingers crossed. I'm hoping the kuhlis might eventually breed so there is a lot of round gravel and pebbles of different...

Some little progress.

So probably one of the latest photos here, soon I will start to demolish this aquarium. I have ordered a new one 250x70x80.

Around a month ago I've swopped over to solufeed tec for my micro mix, and now lost nearly all my more sensitive plants, namely syngonanthus macrocaulon and ludwigia pantanal. It's a softwater set up that's been running for about a year dkh 1, dgh 6, po4 1, no3 10, co2 injected through reactor...

Thank you for your answer, Darrel :)

Yes, but probably that accounts for half of the improvement in flow. Now is one smooth curve instead of two sharp 90 degrees corners. Did they done anything else to the prefilter than the tube and sponge? I'm looking for small holes in head? For air drainage?

...ornatus 1 x Garra flavatus As for the new plants, they went in around 1-2 weeks go. Various Echinodirus sp. Various Anubias sp. Crypt wendtii * Staurogyne repens * Myriophyllum mattogrossense * Ludwigia repens “Rubin” * Bucephalandra sp.Red * * = cuttings or extras from my other tanks. I...

All high tech but relatively low energy.

Hi all, It should be fine. The layer below the bark might contain <"some sugar and protein"> (which is what the <"Plecs are after">), but just keep oxygen levels up and that should deal with the extra bioload. Cheers Darrel

Hi all, I assume if it froze solid it would kill them off, but I have had the <"same bucket"> outside for at least eight years. I bring a few inside as an insurance (in <"Keeping Frogbit out of main tank">), but I haven't needed them. Cheers Darrel

Thank you, I've got some nutrients you bury in the substrate, I'll put one in there now.

Cyanobacteria, siphon it off. BBA can be killed with hydrogen peroxide then siphoned off. Too much light, not enough light. Too much fertiliser, not enough fertiliser. Too much flow, not enough flow. Too much filtration, not enough filtration. Take your pick. If you want a better answer you’ll...

why did they come out?

And the bucket can be left out in the elements with no issue at all?

Hi - am posting this solution in case anyone else had the same problem. On my Superfish nano tank - which I use just for Cherry shrimps - I run the Superfish HOB 50 using the skimmer configuration. Shrimp-proofing the two grills on the main intake was not a problem but a (relatively) elegant...

Sorry for your losses. No, none of those readings are bad. In fact, I’d say your phosphate and nitrate could do with being higher as they’re important macro fertilisers, along with potassium.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this journal. Mainly as a result of the tank running through its dark start and life demanding attention elsewhere. Over the course of the past two weeks I’ve been tinkering with the cooling automations, and plumbed the water and electrical lines for the...

20241020_210453 by Lenny Lim, on Flickr

Hi all! I know it’s an old theead but I am hoping for some answers. It’s the first time I use hazel wood and I didn’t remove the bark because I noticed in an another aquarium I did for a kindergarten that plecos love to munch on the bark (in that case I used beech). Is it dangerous for the...

Not really. I’ve placed the lily pipes on the wall side, with in/ out on opposite sides of the hardscape. There appears to be quite a good level of flow around the aquarium. What thing should be fearful of in your experience? [emoji102] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To answer the title question: tap. Fellow Edinburgh resident.

@Conort2 I have been looking in to this over the last week or so as I wanted to be sure myself. It turns out I have two Trilineatus, three Julii and one Leopard Cory so quite the mix. Since some time has passed since the two new fish came home the two Trilineatus appear to stick in their pair...

I've had friends staying over this weekend so other than feeding the fish I haven't paid much attention to them. I've just fed them this evening and found a dead cherry shrimp and this poor lady has died too! I'm genuinely shocked as she appeared to be doing so well! I've just used my aqua...

I've got 3 year old nerites in 0.5 kh. In harder water they might live to 4 yrs. 1dkh is fine for snails and shrimp.

Won’t he need some kh for the nerites?

No, it contains ~ Calcium chloride, calcium sulfate, magnesium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, potassium bicarbonate. In no particular order. The kh and gh you have from the tap is perfect for the fish, and plants. Far better imo than RO water with an added tds of 200. BTW, ditch the Aquadur...

That tank with the serpae is gorgeous, as are the serpae. Is it high or low tech?

I’ve never had better water quality than when I used a trickle filter.

Your caridinia would be ok in low kh and GH of 4-6, but the nerites need harder alkaline water as their shells will otherwise erode. Aim for something like 8 for your kh and GH.

I’m really tempted to try and get some moss to grow on some areas of the rocks. Not sure what species will stay small enough to keep the scale though….

@Sanniejop, yes I have just take 2 pics, one with just the one full tank length light centrally over the 24" back to front span of the tank, and then one with the two identical lights. The effect is unsurprisingly much harder to see in the pics. The main thing to notice is that with 2 lights...

Looks promising so far! I think this will develop nicely, looking forward to it.

It's does all need a trim, but the fish are happy. And they like the overgrown guppy grass.

This is my first attempt at an iwagumi style layout. Specs -UNS 5N (36x22x22cm) -Chihiros A361 -Generic pressurized CO2 system -DIY external filter Hardscape -ADA Amazonia V2 -Seiryu stone Plants -Eleocharis pusilla ‘mini’ -Cryptocoryne parva -Helanthium tenellum ‘green’ -Cryptocoryne...

Hi All I've only just come across this thread so apologies if this has been asked already, but is there anything that is a definite no no to use? I've recently set up a shallow tank with some wood which is partially submerged that I have put a couple of house plants on top, tannins from the...

Hi all, Useful to know, I would have bet on any Loaches being particularly efficient predators of them. I wonder if it is because they are both black-water fish, and these water conditions don't support any crustaceans in their native state? Cheers Darrel

I've mostly seen his stuff on George Farmer's Youtube channel, he has some of my favourite tanks, would love to see them in person, I love his mad heavy planting.

They will no doubt create something good, they helped me with two of my scape's previously, great company :)

Stunning tanks. I’m genuinely envy his Serpaes. Mine were never coloured up like this and that is first and the only fish I struggle to keep healthy in my tank. Mine just getting weird white semitransparent plaque over their bodies like cotton mouth 😟

Popped in to see Tai today and as always he has an array of spectacular tanks in his converted garage gallery. Tai has 5 tanks on the go which he rescapes continuously in a beautifully deliberate chaotic style which reflects his obsession with plant and fish varieties which are both always in...

I do have a couple of nertite snails plus neocardinia and amano shrimp. Aside from the molluscs/crustaceans, isn't a kH of 1 just a bit too low to stabilize the pH?

Back in the day (early 1980’s) Trickle filters were the thing. I seriously considered it but apart from the cost, there were a couple of issues that put me off. Space, noise, evaporation and convenience. Sumps have similar issues so unless something different comes along I’m hooked on the...

What livestock do you have? Your tap water is good and you won’t need to increase GH or KH unless you have shrimp and/or snails, or livebearers who seem to enjoy harder water as well. If you do end up using your tap water, you just need to fertilise micros and potassium and nitrogen.

The ones I got from you have been in a tank with dwarf kuhli loaches and sundanio axelrodi and I've seen no indiciation that either fish is eating them. I can still spot some whenever I look in the tank. Sundanio seem to be much more specific in what they will eat than similar small boraras...

Thanks everyone for responding and sorry if I haven't made myself clear. Also - I didn't want to get too much into fertilization, as this isn't the forum, but all things are related anyway. I am using RO water with Aquadur, which adds just kH and gH - no macros or micros. I have been relying on...

Sorry for your losses and situation but you have really tried remember that, as far as treatments go ,sometimes it's not easy dealing with them directly ,l much prefer commercial laboratory ones, l use esha products as l have had some success with and less problems with aquarium and you can...

Hi all, Mine have been in with a low stocking of <"Corydoras (Gastrodermus) pygmaeus"> and <"Axelrodia riesei"> and they've managed to remove them, so I'm guessing that nearly all fish will extirpate them. They have fairly low water quality requirements, so it is easy to retain a breeding...

Are you adding fertiliser? I wonder if it's just your tap is so light on everything, that remineralising is adding some nutrients your plants need so it seems like it's better than tap, where as tap+fertiliser would work the same.

Hi all, @Wookii says it will <"Tropica soil on top of sand">, so that is probably your nitrite (NO2-) source, via the oxidation of ammonia. The advice is still the same, keep changing some water, ensure plant growth is good and keep dissolved oxygen levels high and after six weeks you should...

Does Aquadur contain phosphate? Anyway, I’d use the tap water you have.

ok, thanks. I do like it with just the adjustable led set to 90% (both inbuilt turned off) as it is more atmospheric if that makes sense - I’m just wary about the light levels not been enough for the plants.

Whichever looks the best to your eyes, I personally wouldn't get bogged down worrying about PAR at this stage, just having the intensity not too high though will help nullify some problems.

I think (if I had the space!!) I would go for a sump in the end with a mix of foam and a moving bed of plastic media. Not only does it take away some of the risks of a closed system (BB DO starvation in a power outage, for one), I could really keep everything outside and massively aerate the...

@hamfist do you have picture with one and two lights?

Hi, I think I can kind of see where you are going with this and really look forward to seeing it's progression. I am aiming to do something similar when I eventually get moved and can have a larger tank (mine, not yours). I've not kept Barbs since my very early days believing all of them to be...

I’ve been looking into the lighting of my tank this morning as I initially thought the inbuilt ones were not good enough. I’ve done a little bit of reading and it seems the having the right PAR is important. Although probably not entirely accurate, I used an app via my smart phone to measure...