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I’ve been doing that already and the shrimps still died out. I could add some Epsom salts I suppose but exactly how much and how often? I’d like to get some more shrimps as they’re great at helping to keep the tank clean, but I don’t want to risk harming the Corydoras. I’m not one for using...

The only people I know with an air heat pump hate it because it is loud enough to keep them awake at night. I think they had it moved further away from the house which was better but did not completely solve the problem. (They were doing a new build and could spec the increased diameter copper...

How full of plants is the tank?

Alternatively, just use magnesium sulphate and calcium sulphate. The fabulous IFC Fert calculator can help you calculate based on the ratios and GH you wish to achieve.

14 days later and the nitrites have gone down to just a shade of very light pink, but not white. I really expected the addition of the mature sponge to greatly decrease the nirtrites quickly! But its heading in the right direction.

That recipe sounds unnecessarily complicated, fiddly and expensive. I am sure it would work but it just seems to be making things more difficult for no practical benefit. Also, if you are already using a plant fertiliser with potassium, I wouldn't like to be introducing another 16ppm on top...

I mentioned this before and bought the chemicals some months back. http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/RO.htm Virtually all the shrimp in my 60L have now died off so I can start again soon with a single colour of my choice. I admit I don’t understand exactly how to go about remineralising the...

You can try macropodus species. The reason why the medakas died is probably because they could not breathe due to the ice on the water surface.

I’ve had them in no tech and they done extremely well. They had bred all through the summer and I had plenty by the winter. The golds were with a filter but were kept alongside the ranchus so didn’t have any fry survive.

It is boomerang style, I'm not happy with it really as I was when I first bought it. I'll take it out and try some others I have. Thanks

Is the big piece of bogwood basically boomerang-shaped or does it have any interesting bumpy bits on the inside? It appears to shadow the left hand back corner quite heavily & may cause problems for any plants you plan on putting there.

No, the higher the KH is, the higher the pH will be - both a higher and lower pH/KH will be about equally stable for most normal purposes. KH doesn't really change pH stability unless you are at really low levels (approaching zero) of KH. One less thing to worry about. You can also lower pH...

I'm starting to investigate an air heat pump and a limited number of solar panels (roof space is limited) and wondered if any friendly folk here had any experience or guidance (there is water involved). I think a lot of the advice online is fairly partial. A few of my initial observations and...

Ok, I've started my basic setup but still unsure on the final look. I'm happy with the rocks but the large piece of bogwood to the left has me puzzled. Forget the dirty glass and substrate, I'll deal with that later

Hi all, Absolutely perfect. This is why I hate <"price gouging"> by the less than entirely honest vendors of remineralising salts etc. Surely <"a bit of honesty"> all around would serve everybody better in the long run? A business model where you buy a cheap commodity and then "add" a huge...

It claims to be 100% pure so should be fine.

Hi all, You need <"Some handy facts about water"> & <"Confusion concerning 0dKH and nitrification">. All the derivations and descriptions are in <"Water Hardness">. One thing to note is that @_Maq_ referred to dGH as "hardness" and dKH as "alkalinity" to remove any confusion. It is a bit of a...

Is this stuff any good any good as a source of Magnesium Sulphate?

Hi all, just getting started with mixing RO water for my caridina shrimp and i'm trying to better understand water chemistry. What actually is the difference between KH and GH? I know that the higher the KH is, the more stable the ph will be? But I heard lots about needing to remineralize the RO...

Hi Conort2, I've always looked at White Cloud Minnows with interest, heard mixed reviews with outdoor year round keeping with them. For your WCMM, did you use a filter/pump to give a flow or just no technology & use plants for natural filtration etc. Thanks, R

Hello, For miniature orchids: Spice Plants | Essex United Kingdom | Spicesotic Plants For bromeliads: Shop – Fantastic Frogs Regards Nuno Silva

The Hygger lights should work well for your plant selection. Just keep an eye on their growth and adjust if needed.

Would be my guess too, can see eroded fins and barbels on them.

I’ve had medaka do perfectly fine under thick ice, could still see them moving around under a couple of inches. Had some standard white cloud mountain minnows also do well. Tried gold white clouds but these seemed to struggle with the cold. Also currently have ranchus. I was told they can’t be...

Hi all, Exactly that. I've sent them to quite a few people successfully like this, <"padded envelope, take-away container and damp moss">. Damp moss works for a lot of <"aquatic organisms">. cheers Darrel

@dw1305 that's an incredibly kind offer and definitely one that I would be very very interested in taking you up on down the line. Tank Janitors are definitely a great way to describe these, I am starting to see the signs of Hair Algae developing within the tank which I am excited about seeing...

Hi all, Two molecules of nitrate (NO3-) for every atom of calcium (Ca) or magnesium (Mg). You have to be really wary with this, and make sure you have the pure tetrahydrate (Ca(NO3)2.4H2O), because <"fertilizer grades"> often have ammonium (NH4+) present as well. I should have also said that...

Hi all, It is your tank and you can do what like. Personally I'm a great believer in <"if it ain't broke don't fix it">. I honestly think they are a lot more fundamentally important than being "interesting reading", for me these aren't like the views of internet gurus (or UKAPS experts) etc...

I have bogwood and lots of plants so no, the flow is not excessive.

Flow not too strong for your fish? I have to halve the flow on my Fluval 307 in my 54L as at full strength, it's a whirlpool for the chili rasboras.

I looked at using these for that very reason, but they do add a lot of NO3 - I think I worked out on the IFC Calc that if I used them in combination to get the Ca/Mg to just 4dGH, they added almost 90ppm NO3.

Welcome to the forum! Darrel is spot on above - loading ammonia to this level is completely counter productive to what you are trying to achieve in terms of establishing the correct microbial assemblage that the tank needs long term.You'd do much better water changing and diluting this down...

Thank you for the welcome and the links to those threads, while they were interesting reading (and I am fairly certain I have been linked to similar articles previously) I have decided that I would continue with Cycling my tank in the "traditional way" and one that I am comfortable with and have...

Dust is not likely to be an issue unless you have building work going on in the house or some other activity that causes a lot of dust. Evaporation will happen with an open top tank, but easy enough to top up a couple of times a week. As for jumpers, there are some fish that are very well known...

Hiya :)

There is also calcium nitrate and magnesium nitrate if you want to avoid adding both chlorides and sulphates to your water.

Just got the daphnia refugium setup. I'm just waiting for my daphnia to arrive now. I'm kind of curious though what size population the pond water could sustain in there without feeding the daphnia (the goldfish/turtles do make a lot of waste). But for now I'll just keep the flow acting as an...

To be fair @Courtneybst you’re probabaly right, I suspect it was either lack of oxygen or total freezing that got the colony I spoke of above. Medaka survive 0c (non frozen) so there is no reason they won’t survive that in our ponds.

The plants I have are doing well (I only have Limnophila, Staurogyne and Microsorum narrow). The spray bar points left to right (and slightly upwards) and although the surface is moving at the far right, it isn’t particularly vigorous. I find the hood a bit of a nuisance as to take out the...

...running on my two Nano’s at the moment. Neither is overkill in practice, although it may seem like it looking at the specs. My 60L has a Biomaster *350 on it, and my 37L has an Eheim Classic 350. I don’t use CO2 but plants grow well. *I recently changed the body to a 250 as I didn’t need...

Only if you’re running a high tech tank, I.e. injecting CO2. If no CO2, then your 380l/hr filter will be fine. So, as @castle suggests, put plants in feed them and see how you go.

Understood, high flow is recommended to get co2 to as much of the tank as possible, and we (some people) suggest 10x as most filters run at about half their state flow. As you’re a beginner, I’d invest in the plants and then see how the aquarium does over time. Externals aren’t the easiest...

As you say, it's amazing the manufacturers haven't created something to sell themselves. I've a mad inventor type friend with a 3D printer so I'll see what he can come up with. I'll post back here if he's successful! Thanks

Hmm, I do like the idea of a timer - should be enough to allow the poor trapped fish to escape. Thank you for the tip.

It a Ciano Aqua 60 tank which has CF80 filter. I like the spray bar. I’m a complete beginner but I read that a x10 flow rate of the tank size is recommended so a filter with a 500l/h would be better? I’m not sure a HOB filter would fit due to the hood.

Yes! Chiming in on what's already been said; I've kept Japanese Ricefish and Aphanius mento outside and all year round for about 2 years now. Contrary to @castle 's experience, even under a thick layer of ice (recorded temperature of -7c) or extreme 40c heat, they've done just fine. Not that...

What filter do you have? If you’re happy with the flow with it I wouldn’t change it. Externals for 60l tank are a bit overkill imo, a good HOB filter would suit you better?

I think if you buy 500ml it’s under £20. £7 for extra 250ml.

Welcome to UKAPS

Welcome! :)

My error (edited post above), opps . Looks like its not the cheapest any more or maybe I got it a a good price

Evening, I recently (three weeks ago) set up a 58ltr planted tank and only plan to have one or two fish and maybe some inverts. The filter that came with the tank has a 380l/h apparently and I’m currently using the spray bar (which I do like). However, the filter itself does seem a little...

Something is off with the Seachem part. With that dosing concentration, 250ml should treat 10,000 litres only.

I have an excess of cash. 😀

£10.99 for 473ml 3ml per 60litres 473 ml treats 9,460 litres £1.00 treats 861 litres Seachem prime £13.80 for 250ml 5ml treats 200l 250ml treats 10,000 litres £1.00 treats 750 Litres Edit - correct to error 😱 seachem prime use to work out the cheapest water conditioner

This is all a plant consideration: K is a an essential macro nutrient (which should be dosed separately instead of relying on collateral from a re-mineralizer - sachem equilibrium being the absolute worst product in that department). Cl on the other hand, is a micronutrient (plants only need...

The only time my 350 expels air is after maintenance. I sometimes get the odd expulsion up to 48 hours later then that’s it until maintenance time again. I don’t use CO2 but I do use a Lime Wood Air Diffuser which produces lots of very fine bubbles.

Hello there!

No problems at all. Keep us posted on progress. We have everything crossed for you.

@Bradders thank you so much for this! Haha you aren’t sad, just precise I’d say, and very helpful! Thanks for spotting the carbon - I’d removed the other filter because it had carbon in it so HOPEFULLY I’d have double checked before adding it to my tank but at this point I’m just like AAAAGH...

Pleasure. Anytime. Also, I have been using this de-chlorinator for years, and never had any problems. I am just a fan of Sodium Thiosulfate for dechlorination. 😀 https://www.amazon.co.uk/API-CONDITIONER-Aquarium-Conditioner-Bottle/dp/B004LO9KSY?th=1

Excellent! We have visuals! 😀 OK, so you are maximising your chances there, so great news. Stay strong and ride it out. OK, so you have a new filter coming. I just had a look at the U2, and here are my thoughts on the media. 2 Foam Pads - good, although I am unsure what PPI they are. 2...

Hi all, Welcome to UKAPS, nice tank and fish choice. You can actually stop adding ammonia (NH3 / NH4). The traditional view of cycling, that it is performed by limited range of bacteria requiring high ammonia loading and carbonate hardness, isn't true. In a planted tank you are never entirely...

I’ve just checked and it expires Oct 2024! Many thanks for pointing this out as otherwise I wouldn’t have even thought to check!

@Bradders yes of course- I’ve moved my aquael filter over and put the crappy swell one in the shrimp tank as I was concerned they had no surface movement. I’ve got two air stones at full blast and the aquael filter has a great bubble output so 3 lots of aeration in the problem tank (55litre in...

Just throwing it out there (I have never come across this before), but could that be Gass Bubble disease?

I've never seen this in freshwater fish so it's a bit of a guess but seahorses do suffer with these lumps and it's caused by a few different things. My educated guess would be the cories are suffering from a bacterial infection, external gas bubble disease. The barbels looked rubbed down (and...

Great stuff - OK, you are maximising your chances by doing all these things. If you dont mind, could you send us a complete tank shot from the front? Would be good to get a visual of things as they stand.

Hello :wave:, welcome to UKaps.

Thanks! Nope! I keep lids on both of my Terra bases. I just turn it 45 degrees to keep the air moving by convection. Thank you! That is Lepanthes calodycton. :) It has been a long time since I updated this thread: In the past few months I have moved to a new house and am trying to set up a...

Hi all, That's it, you just need to take into account the <"water of crystallization"> when you <"work out the percentage of the nutrient"> that you are interested in. It is worth noting that CaSO4.H2O has very limited solubility (2.6 g in 1 litre of water at 20oC), which is why remineralising...

I use some wavemakers like this in my marine tank. I had a bubbletip anemone get sucked into the filter inlet of my marine tank and it killed the majority of my beautiful creatures :') Very traumatic Now, the filter and the wavemakers all have black polyester tulle wrapped around them with a...

I vaccuum what I can at water change but to be honest, I just get used to the dirt. Really light sand wasn’t a great idea as it shows the dirt very clearly but I just gave up and got used to seeing the dirt after a while. YouTube level perfection requires a lot of maintenance and I don’t have...

Forgive me if these species are covered elsewhere (I haven't seen after looking & new to this) but are there any aquatic & marginal native Asian plants I could use in a Asian themed outdoors unheated pond that are hardy ? Thanks, Richard

I don't know this particular model, but my experience with similar wave makers is that only dying fish would get caught. At some point I had issues with snails getting trapped. I added a timer that would turn it off for 1 minute every half hour, and that seemed to help Maybe if a fish gets...

@Bradders that is it, I’m sure of it. It explains the rapid development of it and the deaths. I am hoping so much that it doesn’t spread to the others. Doing some research on what to do now, but I’ve got two filters in there now, two air stones and bubbles blasting in to the water and the...

Thanks. I’ll check the expiry date when I get home.

Sodium Hydroxymethane Sulfinate is the ingredient and has a shelf life of about 5 years if kept in a closed bottle, away from heat and extreme light. There should also be an expiry on the bottle somewhere?

Found the site while browsing for UK tank grown plants

Thank you, have set up a quick Journal entry start here

@Goldie Prawn - here is a great resource on epistylis. I think this could indeed be the smoking gun. https://aquariumscience.org/index.php/10-2-4-epistylis/

So this little slice of swamp was set up 18/09/2024 and I am currently cycling by dosing Ammonia up to 4ppm each day and testing until the tank can process this. Hardware Tank: Fluval Evo Tank (L60cm x W30cm x H30cm) Light: Stock LED Lighting on Nicrew Digital Controller Heater: 100w Mini...

Agreed, looking at them in the new picture would show they are raised and could indeed be epistylis. That is a much tougher disease to fix, but it explains the rapid deaths in comparison to something like ich. Still worth treating with the NT labs at current - as antibiotics are not available.

Welcome to UKAPS!

I'm no expert on fish diseases but isn't there one called epistylis? It has very similar symptoms to ich with white spots. I think you lower the temperature for treatment but I don't know if there are any specific medications to use.

There's no seal. You just open it.

Greetings All Long time aquarium owner, coming back to the hobby after a long hiatus. Present on a few of the more well known international forums but wanted to join a UK Based forum for potential trades/purchases down the line. Will be setting up a Journal shortly as I am currently waiting on...

A good idea to check the flow. I think it's on the lowest already. If so, I might need to downsize...

Yep - powerful, possibly too much, but does create a good flow! 300L tank (Jewel bow fronted). Cannot remember which pump version but I think @FrozenShivers has found it :-)

Just pricing it up on Ebay, 1kg of APC pure CaSO4. 2H20 is £16.64 delivered. 500g of MgSO4.7H20 is £6.55 delivered. Those 2 mixed together, adjusting for molecular weights etc, gives very close to a 3:1 mix of Ca:Mg. That'll give you 1.5kg of remineraliser. It would be no surprise if that is...

Ok I think I’ll move my other filter over and some of the decor that’s been in the mature tank for ages and I won’t clean anything. Thanks for that. I have managed to get a few clearer pictures - I think the bumps look raised but I am under the understanding ich is flush to the skin? Temp...

Hello Probably a silly question but would anyone know if Tetra Aquasafe should have a sealed bottle? I purchased some online and upon opening it, it is just an open bottle - I would assume it would have had a seal on like a milk bottle? Many thanks.

If you can add mature biomedia into the tank then it can only help with addressing the pathogens. The more mature biomedia you have, the better your chances. And do NOT clean any current media to avoid removing any of the good stuff. I am not sure how you will do that (or if you have a local...

My take on this is that Tim's original post was a much needed stimulus for change. Staying the same isn't an option. Moving forward it is clear that if we want a society that will accept money and spend it there are rules and processes we need to follow. Not HSBC but enough to satisy HMRC if...

Hi everyone, thanks for getting back to me. The green neons are fairly new - a couple of weeks in the tank. I look in my tank a lot and only saw the spots on Sunday and immediately ordered the treatment. It does seem to be rapid, it’s awful watching them suffer. I’ve been looking closely at my...

Just checked online, three variants, 3500/6500/9500lph however they are adjustable. How fast are you running it in relation to your tank size? I would run it at lesser flow until another solution/cage is figured out.

I think I got mine from APC Pure, but you'll probably find them on eBay as well.

Where are you getting these from ?

Wow! That is powerful looking at the debris! How many litres per minute is that thing putting out? And how big is your aquairum?