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Well today has been a great day! Popped over to the local fish shop some 8 miles away to collect my Rasboras. Got around 40 Galaxy Rasboras & around 30 Chilli Rasboras for £100 which is a crazily good price. They are understandably very skittish so trying to take a photo with a potato phone is...

@Bradders, what products were you looking for from Swiss tropicals? Envobee shrimp sells most of the equivalent stuff in the UK including the Poret foam, airlifters, mattenfilter kits and foam block filters etc.... I mentioned above that stock availability is becoming patchy on their website...

I keep a couple of 5L containers of rainwater in a container near my Nano’s. If the temperature is too low I put one or two in the sink and fill it with hot water, either from the tap or the kettle. It soon warms them up.

Maybe 60x36x36?

Coming back from a 12 day holiday, I checked my tank. This beautiful view made me take a picture and it was so nice that I needed to share it with you guys. Have a nice day to.

Added a small ball of Riccia in an attempt to get a duckweed free sample . I also added about a 3 inch piece of hornwort . Just as an experiment to find out exactly how fast this stuff grows in my tanks . Fert. dosing has begun . Was going to wait another week , but decided to start now so...

Welcome! I've currently got a loose community planted tank and blackwater, also a 'Borstal' cube where I've had to put 3 idiot Endlers that manage to get themselves into trouble of all sorts in the main community tank (jumping, getting stuck, jumping into the HOB filter, winding up the otherwise...

Sorry I should have done some updates earlier but forgot so here's how the tank is today. Parameters still the same as above however now fully planted and livestock added. The tank has: 8 ember tetras 8 male guppies A bunch of cherry shrimp 1 nerirte snail Plants are: Limnophilia sessiflora...

I find a p60 a great versatile mid-sized tank, though ideally get one that's 40cm deep rather than the standard 30cm deep so you can get a bit mroe depth into the scape. It makes all the difference, and then have a bit more room for stocking some lovely fish too.

Tank was planted and cycled shortly after and I actually used the nitrico goop product for this and was pretty impressed. Within about 10 days and some large water changes all parameters seemed to have settled down and now sit at: Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 20 And have been this way for some...

Yes... for sure! Even for topping up say 5% in a 200 Liter tank (thats 10 Liters) adding 1L of near boiling water to a bucket of cold (16 C) water and stir it would take the temp to ~23 C... Cheers, Michael

Hi guys, so just a little update on the flex 34 I bought. The tank was set up on 23rd August and I went for black lava rock and some thin wood pieces all on a layer of Tropica aqua soil. I've never set up a tank this small and with my previous tank being a near 700 litre tank it was a bit of a...

Welcome happy 😊

Love your tank. Thanks for great topic and motivation 👍. Nature photos are great too. Thanks a lot for sharing 😊

Little off topic: do you think that p60 is ok size for more complex aquascape setups? I am planika to buy second tank, p90 and p120 aee to big for my taste and time. I had p120 before and i was doing great setups but didn't have enough time to manage it.

Thanks. Will find some nice rad flouting plants for sure. Rasboras are great for small tanks, but anything bigger would be a problem. As you see i have a great filter, to strong and huge for this tank so that halps. I was putting bacterias every day and i am doing daily tests. Tank was ready at...

Thanks. It will be one nice nano. Radiatoe was my concernt too. Now is on 3, have nore radiators in the room i will probably turn it off if it want crazy 🤪

I find this plant tough to sustain for more than a year or two, it gets tired, it needs the top 6 inches cut and replanted regularly. Iron is needed in even moderately hard water, and it likes intense light, I have found intense light with less blue works but water hardness does need...

I was unable to find the fish I wanted so I’ve placed an order for them online. They should arrive on Tuesday. I have a 20 gallon long and a standard 10 gallon tank with loads of plant trimmings. Frogbit on the surface along with hornwort, anacharis, Java ferns, small Amazon swords, etc. The...

Tank looks absolutely fantastic. One little concern, proximity to a radiator. Algae thrives when water gets a bit hot.

Nice job! For a small tank like this Salvinia minima is a good floating plant - not too big, looks neat, nice shade of green, grows well, easy to maintain, shrimp like clinging to the undersides of it. The usual advice is that 14 days is too soon to be adding livestock, but I'm glad it's...

Small update after second triming of Rotala that grows overnight. I am using trimmed part for background behind the wood. Everything is good for now, no algae ( snails and shrimps are doing a great job). Monto carlo will be trimmed next week. Cant wait for lily pipe to come.

thank you for this thread of inspiration! so many great pics of the mesmerizing Rio Xingú biotope 😉 I only wonder if any aquarist dares to replicate this so complicated river ecosystem in a home aquarium. River rapids are one of the hardest biotopes to replicate. And I think this post is...

Afternoon folks. I'm after a bit of advice/reassurance if anyone has a moment. I am currently using TNC Complete at the recommended dose of 1ml/10l/week in all my tanks. However as the budget conscious aquarist that I am, I would like to swap to @Happi self-mixed Solufeed concoction (not the...

Nope. Not that much, to be honest. I have a personal color setup in rgb, and I don't see any difference between 0% and 100% when using UVA. Maybe other users have different experiences with this function?

Sadly, I cant get him to ship to the UK. 🙁

Yep, thought so. Does it actually produce the intense colours? i.e. it it really worth it?

This. Plant conservation is complicated. It's not just more plants grown = better. There are issues of genetic diversity and fitness to consider, as a ton of genetically similar or identical plants are not necessarily valuable from a conservation standpoint. We can make a bigger impact by buying...

100% I’ve emailed him back and forth MANY times about filtration and he’s very responsive, knowledgeable, and isn’t trying to sell you anything. The product speaks for itself without him trying to market it out.

It's interesting topic. I think you have to be careful not to think of yourself as doing good by default and delve a bit deeper. There have been cases where fish keepers have helped in species preservation - there are some species that now have much bigger hobby populations than wild and some...

This is not UV which we usefor example against 'green water'. This UVA function has a cosmetic function and gives slightly more intense colours

5. PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY goes hand-in-hand with contest aquascaping. At the end of the day, the only part of an aquascape which is judged in a contest is the FINAL PHOTO 📸 A good photo is therefore the platform used to showcase your work to the judges. It is also very much a separate skill...

When I need to add cold tap water to one of my Nano’s I heat a jug of it up in the microwave if needed. Not so much an option though if you have a large tank!

All commercial ferts/AIO are based in recipes that have been around for long time, with each product having slight tweaks/differences. So if your after tweaking what you have been using Just set the targets slightly higher/lower and the IFC will do all the maths. We added the compare next to...

Hi Zeus, thank you so much for pointing that out. Great to see the CSM is there, that makes things a lot easier. I picked APT not due to any particular reason. When used the way I used it, it doesn't work wonders 😅 I wasn't very keen on burning $26+/Mo so I used to add it maybe once or twice...

Simply having an interest or activity in your life that you are totally passionate about that might also engender a 'flow'* state is a pretty good place to be. Works for all. * See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi rather than fluid dynamics.

What does everyone think of the UV addition this these lights? Its stated to help plant growth and also bring out fish colour. Anyone had any experience of a UV light?

My neighbours fish house had Discus with every colour of the rainbow,they looked so good,but nothing was better than his huge Wild Discus tank, guessing it was 5 or 6 feet with the natural subdued colouration

Think however niche a hobby we are perceived as l think the aquarists have a lot to offer as long as it's done properly. I think it was MD Fish Tanks who visited a chap who had a vast amount of natural aquariums with many fish breeding that are really scarce and at risk in the wild,that's got...

You just missed it 😉 we added many a trace element Most of the CSM-B are very similar in composition so little differences between them all If you go into 'DIYtraceCalculator' you can compare the trace side of all the AIO ferts and CSM-B traces, With the dry trace salts we compared them by...

I bought it myself via Ali express, because it was cheaper. Indeed no guarantee, but I took that chanche Week Aqua has a separate website for sales and there you do have to pay for extra guarantee. And you also have to pay shipping costs: WEEK AQUA INTERNATIONAL

I'm not so sure about that, there are plenty of threatened species swimming around in our tanks. White clouds and red-tailed black sharks are pretty much extinct in the wild, then there are plenty of endangered blue-eyes, goodeids, rainbowfish (including boesmani), and of course numerous...

Aquarium keepers will barely be a factor in that equation - we are simply too scarce. We can certainly raise awareness and promote preservation for sure, and we should. 😇 No idea what the Law is in the UK, but its worth keeping in mind that in some countries, such as the US, its against the...

Welcome, I would initially set some goals, try and define what you want to achieve, talk about it and the people here will help. Me I keep goldfish, and have dreams LOL There is lots of good information within this site, lots of late nights reading.. , but you need to ask, then clever folk will...

I've been wondering why more people don't make tanks like this. More original than CO2 and mass bred fish that are delicate and inbred and die quickly. This is the sort of thing that inspires me to keep fish. Biotope tanks can lend themselves to endangered species and learning more about...

Welcome! :)

Hi all, I'm trying to make a 'clone' of APT/Zero for lean dosing. My tank is mostly epiphytes (ferns, anubias, crypts*), while my other tank is Monte Carlo, with various rotalas (macarandra, h'ra, wallichi. I am running CO2 in all tanks along with the ADA Amazonia substrate (except for my 180l...

Ticking along

Back to this again. MTS has well and truly kicked in. The irony being this thread started with 2 small cubes 3 months ago.... My Superfish Scaper 90 has grown in nicely, and looks good thanks to the sterling efforts of my CUC, the Amanos are tireless and the often overlooked Nerites would have...

Many scientists call useful projects ‘fun hobbies’ because they don’t make money or get funding. So the question is. Should hobbyists play a big part in preserving nature?

Wonderful info guys. You have confirmed that what I was initially doing was right - ample aeration & surface agitation. I have recently read a load of rather confusing stuff and so had recently been questioning my original decisions. Its good to now get it straighter in my head. Over the...

I like the detail and thought that goes into the info on Home - Shrimp and Snail Breeder

I don’t know if you can find much it’s an uncommon plant. But nice if more people had it. I genuinely don’t think it’s one you can buy anymore these days

@JMorgan interesting. How did they measure the time differences between ‘mental’ vs ‘emotional’ processing? (Deliberately in quotes as they are both arguably mental processes). Interestingly, other research that I’m aware of shows that emotional responses are far quicker and use less energy than...

Thank you so much, seeing how there are quite a few amazing tanks on here that's very high praise indeed. I'm more than willing to give it a go if you'd like, although I would want to do a little reading on it first if you don't mind? And yes the weather has certainly been a bit chillier...

Hello and welcome :)

Hello 👋, welcome to UKaps.

Where did you order it from mate? I can see it on the week aqua website and aliexpress only. Just have a fear of Ali express and about having to ship back if I have any problems etc. They are the a really nice looking light

I would be up for this. Could become a fun experiment.

Right... Looking at shallow natural slow flowing water ways the temperature can vary quite a bit just between banks - depending on whether the water is exposed to sun vs. shade, speed of flow etc. being worried about a +/- ~2 C degree flux is unnecessary - of course in nature the fish can more...

I'm not talking about 'rare' species that are considered 'fancy' but rather actually endangered plants. What if people would start growing more of these and sharing them around as a method of conservation...? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldrovanda_vesiculosa Just one example. But an...

Hi we just bought a biomaster thermo 250 29/10/24 and it was the old type didn’t know there was a newer model coming but i just bought the upgrade parts to fit myself hopefully it all goes well

I use hot water from the tap to bring my rainwater (stored outside) up to a closer temp (and add some gh), no issues. I dose with prime for the tap chloramine. I only change a bucket full though so pre-mix in a bucket. Mines a combi boiler though, some people will have hot water storage tanks...

This is my favourite tank on UKAPS. Would you want to try growing a rare Lagenandra species? I can send you some Lagenandra nairii but I'm not sure how confident I am sending tropical rare plants this time of year... I've always been interested to know whether they grow under water but my...

So got me a little Tank Janitors delivery from @dw1305. Of course the kids are up and about and wanting annoying things like food and attention when I want beer and to play with my tank. so have literally thrown the box in the tank as it is for now to sort later.

Keep in mind that you can get after market riser kits.

I have the previous model on my tank on my 35 liter scapers tank, and it's indeed overkill. (Z200 PRO RGB+UVA - 5850 lumens) But you can adjust the intensity to the desired level you need. Another advantage with so much power is that you can make any kind of scape you want: low-light til...

I had Aquael Leddy lights on my 35 scaper - 2 I think at times. Plants grew a treat :) Love this tank - I am still very sad that I cracked it (tip: don’t do water changes with an old ceramic jug…)

Welcome to the UKaps! :thumbup:

Hello all I’m new to the forum. I have kept reef tanks for 10 plus years now but I am selling up and going to be buying a freshwater setup in the new year. Im wanting a 4 ft planted tank and any advice will be appreciated as I have never had a planted tank or freshwater fish before. Thanks

This does make me wonder how life will change in the next 50-100 years or so. Will we go back partially to the old ways while still retaining modern technology? seems to me thats the only answer I agree about the nature thing. I personally want to go back to farming but my family is telling me...

Keeping water temperature lower will sequester more CO2 as well... ... why the warming of the oceans is a double whammy when it comes to atmospheric CO2 levels. Cheers, Michael

Main problems is when it comes to drinking water standards in the US, is that some (predominantly low-income) communities, totally lack regular testing and enforcement. Right. If you have elevated levels you really only can get rid of it safely with an RO system or similar. Yes, an alternative...

Hi all, after light ideas for my dennerle scapers tank which is 40cm wide. I’d normally go for a standard LED with legs that sit on the rim of the tank however my hardscape protrudes a fair amount so won’t work. I’ve looked at onf flat nano+ and my only worry is if the light will come foward...

I read an interesting book many years ago called Time Shifting by Stephan Rechtschaffen where he talks about the difference in how we process thoughts vs feelings over time. Mental processes being incredibly fast compared to emotional processes. Feelings take time to well up, to be felt and...

One advantage of using the stuff you are already using is that it will already be populated by beneficial bacteria.

Indeed, I agree (when looking at my water report at least) that heavy metals are very much not present.

Hi all, So a water conditioner that contained EDTA could potentially complex lead (Pb++), zinc (Zn++) and copper (Cu++) ions <"Sodium calcium edetate - Wikipedia">. Whether it actually does, or not, will depend on all <"sorts of factors"> &...

Thank you. I have changed to an AIO tank, but this will definitely be of use when I use the HOB again.

Hi all, Certainly it was the <"food element in my case">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, You can use either, it honestly doesn't <"make a whole amount of difference"> - <"Is expensive bio media worth it?"> & <"HELX-13/K1 verse Foam in Canister Filters">. cheers Darrel

Hi also is the HELX-13 plastic media a good choice or should i use the (cant remember the name) stuff were using at the moment its like a gravel

Welcome. Very cool frogs!

Hello and welcome.

Not sure your thoughts on paying but Mark Peggy of 'Marksshrimptanks' on youtube recently released an e-book i believe, could be worth checking out. Conversely, I find trawling through threads and youtube videos are a really good source, especially Mark's channel

Hard to pin down at the moment, as the new models are sporadically available in the UK but in Euros in like for like at Green Aqua.

Hi i paid £224.95 how much is the upgraded model i can get the new type tube and cover plate for £23

Hi all, Perfect. cheers Darrel

Is there a comprehensive online source of information on aquarium shrimp anyone would like to share?

My concern isn't the mixed temperature, I usually use a jug for top up and pour it through a sponge so it doesn't disturb the substrate later. Initally pouring it in you can see the denser cold water sink to the bottom and hitting some fish and shrimp, was worried incase it could cause...

I’m currently carving the bark off a piece of Prunus spinosa that is definitely dead wood (and it sinks) so I’m hoping it fits and looks good once in!

It depends how much you paid for it. If it’s priced to reflect it’s the old model then that’s fine. I saw the new model in my LFS the other day and it seemed expensive.

Hi all. We have just bought a Oase bioMaster Thermo 250 and have had a look and it’s the “old” type so should i take it back and get a new upgraded one? what do you think 🤔 many thanks 🙏

There was an article in The Times this morning about personality type and career. For example, they found estate agents to be more disagreeable. Problem was their sample size was only 268 per career. They also had massively overlapping distribution curves (not reported in The Times, but...

I do know that. Something can be both statistically true and a stereotype. Sometimes those are the worse stereotypes because people use science to justify themselves (good old lies, damned lies, and statistics). I would certainly encourage you to reference your sources, but they won't stop...

Hi all, You still need to <"let it grow in">, personally I'd suggest at least another month, but that maybe too cautious*. I'm pretty sure it isn't right. This why I prefer plant growth as a <"measure of the nutrient content">, simply put the <"plants can't lie">. *"Too long" is never as...

Hi all, <"Flint water crisis - Wikipedia"> It is because they have <"no effective environmental legislation in USA">, meaning that it is more <"cost effective"> to supply water full of faecal coliforms and heavy metals, rather than <"wasting money"> by actually making the water safe to drink...

There are some conflicting schools of thought about this, so I'll just give my current thinking. If you have a substrate with organic material (aquasoil, soil), CO2 from bacterial respiration decomposing the organic matter can greatly surpass atmospheric CO2. This decomposition requires oxygen...

Hi all, I usually just leave bits of wood with bark outside until it falls off. This also ensures that <"any sap"> has <"also gone">. I think a lot of the <"spider wood"> etc. imported from SE Asia is fresh wood that has had its bark stripped and it is the sap that causes the bloom of fungi...

Hi all, Edit: What @Andy Pierce says in the <"previous post">. Other way around. If you are low tech the larger the gas exchange surface area is the more gas exchange you will have. More surface agitation means that more CO2 will diffuse into the tank water along the concentration gradient...