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Fair point! Top left has a small school of Corydoras pygmaeus breeding happily, top right has galaxy rasboras breeding away. Bottom left just has a few Ammano shrimp in it for now, bottom right has an ever growing shoal of white cloud minnows. I'm planning on stocking more fish next month...

Full intensity, about 50cm from substrate, cover glasses which are kept clean but diffuse light though condensation. This is definitely a low light setup. Other than floaters, growth is very slow, but there is very little algae too so it's very low maintenance, which is what I want.

There are screw on macro lenses for bridge camera, e.g. the Canon SX50 HS. Never used one so I don't know how good they are.

I got mine from Aquarium Plant Food - quick and pretty cheap for a huge bag. http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fertilisers/dry-chemicals/dry-salts.html

I've got my own invasive problem going on with Limnobium laevigatum shading everything else at the moment, but I found this quite interesting: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0098488

The bigger the tank, the easier to is. I kept shrimp (RCS, Ammano) for years in a large (120x60x60cm) palludarium stuffed full of plants. Very small volumes of water experience much bigger swings in temperature and chemistry so will be harder. Thermostatic heaters and filters level these swings out.

I fancy the olloclip lenses but I'm not really up for paying 60 quid, plus I use a number and they won't fit without taking the bumper off.

I reread Diana Walstad's book the other night and I'd forgotten how much she went on about allelopathy (Wikipedia is your friend here ;-) I wonder a) if much of here conviction was misplaced? b) if tannins and associated compounds could be having some sort of chemical effect on clearwater...

If the black has only just appeared it's more likely to be a neurological problem than a chimera.

I'm a huge fan of TMC GroBeam 600s, but they are a bit pricey. I've just taken delivery of two of these from eBay to go over low tech 60cm long by 25cm wide by 20cm high tanks: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121241246852 To be honest, I wasn't expecting too much but I've just plugged them in and...

Having spent a pile of money on aquatics so far this year I'm trying to resist the lure of a decent camera, and make do with my iPhone. So far, I've found out that for aquarium photography, camera phones are severely limiting. The Guardian had a useful article this weekend, 10 best photography...

Are you using glutaraldehyde such as EasyCarbo?

Thanks. They were pretty leggy when they arrived, grown emerged. I'll add some Osmocote to the substrate, thanks.

I planted Staurogyne repens in my new 90 litre low tech tank three weeks ago: Plain fine gravel Grobeam 600 photoperiod 10 hours 23C Good circulation EI dosing EasyCarbo daily Other plants in the tank (Echinodorus, Saggitaria) are growing away well, but the S. repens doesn't seem to have moved...

If only some of the eggs are affected by fungus it's likely that those were not fertilised.

Exposing the eggs too air isn't a problem as long as it's only for a few seconds as you move from one tank to the other.

You can leave them where they are and they'll probably hatch but the fry gout get eaten depending on what stock you have in the tank. If you want to rear some, you can roll the eggs gently off the glass with your finger and stick them on the glass of a rearing tank. Start the off on micro worms...

It's normal. Remove the excess and keep up the water changes.

Too much organic matter in general. Step up the water changes, remove all the milm and decaying plant matter.

Does he have any female company or is he lonely?

I've had vary variable results with point and shoots over the years. I get that a bridge camera is never going to be as good as a DSLR, but 99 quid is difficult to resist :-)

Any opinions on the Sony DSC H200 20MP 26x Zoom Bridge Camera specifically for aquarium photography (or generally). Price is currently right at Argos: http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5599279.htm

I like the idea that the red is there, just waiting to pounce :)

A little progress today, got some plants in! Clockwise from top left: 1: Ongoing 2: Christmas moss, Vesicularia montagnei Cryptocoryne beckettii Cryptocoryne undulatus Hygrophila corymbosa 3: Bolbitus heudelotii Moss balls, Cladophora aegagropila Spiky moss, Taxiphyllum sp. 4...

Progress is steady but slow. Still fiddling around with heaters and filters. Cycling and resisting the urge to start stocking :) Plants next week - don't get too excited, it's going to be low tech and fairly simple.

I like the moody biotope feel of some of the nanos in this video: (These aren't my tanks, so apologies is this is not the right forum.)

I'm impressed that you managed top bend the polystyrene pipette without it collapsing. Any tips?

I like your thinking Martin. I'm loosely planning on (clockwise from top left): 1. South America. 2. Asia. 3. Africa. 4. East Midlands ;) Filtration suggestions welcome. Needs to be easy to maintain and I'm not going for 4 separate externals.

Tanks are 60x42x42 cm, each with a GroBeam 600. Filtration ... not sure about that yet. Looking for a nice piece of Redmoor for the top left.

Just leak testing at the moment. Now, what shall I do with 'em? :)

One of the earliest lessons I learned in fish keeping was that big angels and small cardinals ... shouldn't be mixed. Adult cardinals will be fine with angels however.

Most commercial users have gone over to resin filtration from RO. If you're only using small amounts of water it may be OK but you need to test regularly to make sure the resin is not exhausted (get yourself a TDS meter). If you use much water, you may find resins become an expensive chore...

Thanks for picking me up on my poorly expressed post. So plants absorb the glutaraldehyde even in the dark?

Apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but if I'm running an 8 or 10 hour photoperiod, when is the best time to add liquid carbon - just before the lights go on or later in the photoperiod when CO2 levels have dropped? How rapidly does glutaraldehyde break down to release the CO2?

FWIW, it's just taken Seapets a month to deliver 4 LED lights to me. Avoid them.

As we know, the DSM is quite hard on plants - lots of lovely CO2 but don't expect them to look good in an environment they're not designed to function in. This scientific papers looks at the cost to plants of adaption to and from aquatic to emerged growth: Biomechanical responses of aquatic...

Thanks for asking this. I'm currently setting up a low tech coldwater tank (15-20C), so suggestions for low tech plants would be welcome too.

Most specialist places that sell perspex/acrylic would probably cut it for you, and likely flame polish the edges too. You could probably get it done via online outlets if you sent the measurements. Getting the inlet/outlet pipes in/out doesn't have to be complicated - just cut off a triangle...

Hmm, run into a problem mounting the lights. May have to think again about how to do that.

Sadly it's going to take a while to get things looking interesting due to life being complicated at the moment, but pics later, yes. Target for this weekend is leak testing (new tanks), get the lights on, start cycling.

After 10 years out, the first water has just gone into the first tank on the new rack. Feels good to be "back" :)

The Grobeam 600s are great. You don't have to have a controller for them - could always add on elater if you wanted to.

The point is, it doesn't really matter. Both are harmless, but if you want to reduce their numbers, cut back on their food supply.

Those look like mites rather than springtails. Still harmless and the cure is the same - reduce their food supply and the numbers will decline.

Star Trek: The Wrath of Clive. More CO2 Scottie!

Years ago a I bought a roll of fine black fibreglass window screen mesh in B&Q and it's come in handy for all sorts of things. Don't know if they still sell it, but even though it would cut out a small amount of light, it's pretty unobtrusive and would be ideal for this.

I've got nothing but praise for the GroBeam 600's, although neither I nor anyone else has had chance to test them for the full 10 year plus lifespan yet, but the build and the power saving gives me full confidence that they are a good investment.

That one's OK, it's the ones with the complete minature "trees" I don't like because they look like nothing in nature. Doesn't have to be a fully accurate biotope, just something reasonably resembling reality.

Not underwater they're not.

Me too. But not in aquascapes. I'm pro-tree. I'm even pro-bonsai. But there are limits.

Roughly how many litres capacity? My last ultra-nano effort (sweet jar) for shrimp crashed and burned :-(

OK, it's a matter of personal taste, but personally, I trend for aquascapes containing underwater trees (you know, wood with plants on the top to mimic branches) ... distasteful. Where's it all going to end? Underwater skyscrapers? Underwater rubbish dumps? Personally, I can't see the point...

Occasionally, it is sadly necessary to euthanise fish which are suffering. New research suggest that the standard "professional" method, MS222, may not be the best: Fish-kill method questioned : Nature News & Comment Clove oil looks like the best alternative, but if it is necessary...

Personally I'd tape the heat mat to the back or side of the tank rather than place it underneath as the substrate will be a problem for heat transfer. The alternative would be substrate heating cables, but I'd regard that as overkill in a nano. It's been a few years since I last had a planted...

What are CPDs?

I hate those programs, and the other similar one that's on. I suppose we see it as reality TV rather than a show about aquarium design and husbandry.

What's the best way to anchor Anubias - substrate or attached to something?

Maybe it was the rosé :-) As the previous poster said though, worth a try. I've bought quite a few totally neglected and discarded orchids back from the "dead".

How long has the tank been set up - is it fully mature or relatively new?