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You need to remove Guildford Calor Gas from this list. It changed hands in July and is now run directly by Calor Gas. They do not do Co2. Unfortunately, if you already have a bottle from here and were charged a hefty deposit, as I was earlier this year, you have lost it.

I've discovered a good side to having poor co2 and loads of algae in a new tank - my otos have started breeding! They are about 3 weeks old now, although we saw some newly hatched ones a couple of days ago too. At the last water change, we counted 22! On leaf: On glass: It makes cleaning...

Update: Calor Gas Guildford Deposited now required for 6.35kg bottles: £50 Refills: £18.98

I want to build an inline reactor after one of my Eheim 2217s but am having trouble finding something to connect the eheim 12/16 tubing to it. I ordered a pair of bulkhead fittings off fleabay but the dimensions in the description were wrong and I have to sent them back. So I need some sort of...

Yes, I remember reading that thread. I shall still feed this failure back to NA though. The tank has only been in operation for 4 weeks so I am a bit disappointed.

Was that the NA ones too?

I cut strips from a brown plastic punnet from Sainsburys that came filled with mushrooms. It worked really well. The mushrooms were good too.

A minor disaster! I came home from work today to the news that three of the clips for the glass lid had sheered off when my daughter was putting the lid back on, plunging the sheet of glass into the tank! :o Fortunately, the bits of wood stopped it from hitting the rocks and she managed to grab...

I have the Movel Wide in the matt oak finish - beautiful finish. The Elite is nice but you can only have the filter on one side so was too restrictive for me since I have two filters. Here's mine. It's a shorter, non-standard height though:

You can get Wormer Plus (flubendazole based) in some Maidenhead Aquatics stores, especially the ones that sell Discus. I've used it successfully with dwarf puffers, new fish and as a regular de-wormer.

So stick with it then? I had another thought after posting. I have lots of little shards of granite from the sledgehammer sessions. They're a bit razor sharp but we have an old kids rock tumbler in the garage that could be used to take the sharp edges off. If I sprinkle those round the bases...

This is getting tiresome. :grumpy: Five plants floating today. I'm considering removing the top inch or so of cat litter and capping it with something heavier. It will be a bit of a pain, especially with the disturbance to the glossostigma and the hemianthemum but probably easier now than...

The hole in my cabinet is level with the top of my filter so the shortest route would have been horizontal. I just used a longer bit of tube to loop down and then back up so that the heater is vertical next to the filter.

Or this could just confirm that home test kits are rubbish... There's plenty of fresh rainwater about. See what result you get off that.

I agree with fox fish. It looks like a light/co2 imbalance. It may well be contributing to the problem. Not the amount of flow but the direction(s). You seem to have a very confused flow pattern with outlets pointing in all directions. You need to position the outlets so that the water either...

Now 9 days post-flood. I screwed the wood to some pieces of slate to keep them in position but then had to completely rebuild the right hand end of the tank to get them in place. The cat litter has been a nightmare and I would not use it again out of choice. It is too light to hold anything...

I use an Eheim 1000 compact pump for all my water changes. It's my favorite bit of kit.

Hi Jon, welcome. I agree with Big Clown. The JBL is expensive up front and will cost you a fortune in refills. To give you an idea, my local lfs charges £40 for JBL refills. There is lots of helpful advice in the forums and if need further help, just ask. There are lots of very helpful people here.

When I was more of a beginner I got very stressed over all the maths, chemistry and ppm. I read so many threads about them that I strongly believed it was something I needed to know and understand fully otherwise I might poison my fish. The calculators didn't help and just confused me more. I...

Well, here it is, at its best before flooding. At its best before everything started to go wrong. :( So what went wrong I hear you ask. Surprisingly, forgetting to rinse the cat litter didn't cause a problem. I had thought that the wood was quite secure, but no. As soon as the cat litter...

That is just so wrong. I keep expecting him to start karate chopping the rocks in half.

I ordered the silicone rod from Polymax. The acrylic tube came from The Plastic Shop.

I read that somewhere too. So I keep my mixed trace solution in the fridge and not had a problem with it.

Welcome to the Aquanano Club! It's a great little tank. Before you add any shrimps make sure you put some sort of mesh just inside the filter inlet grill; I didn't. They love going in there, particularly the babies, if they breed. I had 50+ babies living in the black sponge the last time I...

I did have a practice by making some new pipework for my puffer tank first. The trick is patience. Heat slowly but always keep the heat moving. If you stay still and heat an area too quickly, it blisters. Keep heating until it becomes quite flexible because if you try to force it you end up with...

No problem! The longest piece is about 1m in length and I bought the 1.5m Eheim cleaning brush which goes through easily. I've already had to clean them all to get the olive oil out.

Over the past couple of days I've been making the acrylic inflow pipes and spray bar. My aim was to be as minimalist as possible. Which meant no suckers, a single full length spray bar to serve both filters and no flexible tubing outside of the cabinet. In the end I did use two small pieces of...

If you are close enough, pop down to Guildford Calor Gas for a 6.35kg pub co2 bottle. Not sure of the current price but last year they were £18. That will last you all year.

I think this is about as far as I want to progress outside of the tank now that I have the basic framework and know which bits of wood to de-bark.

You shouldn't see too much of those 4 rocks once they have plants and moss around them. There will be sand Infront of them. All the rocks along the front will be raised off the bottom slightly because I have 2 stiphodons and it won't matter how much I tell them not to, they WILL burrow under them!

Work in progress.

I use oak and beech leaves, as I have both in my garden. I would use alder cones if I had them too.

I am 20cm/8 inches shorter than you. I get the light in my eyes when I am sat in my chair in the evening, not standing. This is also why NA made me a smaller cabinet. The big curved bit of wood was originally my inspiration but now that I have made a cardboard practice tank and put the rocks...

If you are using undemanding plants and low light then you will have less trouble if you avoid the diy co2 altogether. I, too, started out with yeast based co2. Never again. I must have got every type of algae under the sun at some point. I had much more success with liquid carbon. It's not as...

They are all seasoned oak. It takes ages to strip the bark.

They go out of date. You cannot ask them questions. Very often they have not been peer-reviewed so could be complete rubbish. Just because a publisher has agreed to print something, doesn't make it right. At least if someone says something stupid on here there will be someone else to tell them so.

I've managed to reduce the glare from the light by modifying it slightly. I used the spare wire tail to hook up the back corners to tilt the light backwards. The main beam still goes into the tank but no longer into my eyes where I sit. The rocks have now been reduced in size in a very...

From Reviews and expert advice from Which?: "If your goods are faulty and you don't have the receipt, you still have the same rights to a repair, refund or replacement as under the Sale of Goods Act. " You need to take it up with the company you bought it from rather than Hydor though.

I use Miracle Gro All Purpose Continuous Release Plant Food, which is widely available. I got mine from B&Q.

I had one like that. It was a pain because I couldn't stop it growing across the surface and it blocked the light to much. Removing leaves doesn't stop the others from growing long and cutting them just makes it look tatty. I pulled it all out in the end.

There is a BOC 8500 Multi-Stage co2 regulator on ebay for £54.50 at the moment. It's second hand but is still boxed and has never been used. These are very good laboratory grade regulators.

Caddisfly? (Not the creature on the bed)

Good point. I didn't think of it in terms of using two lower wattage heaters.

EI That way I know that my plants will have all the nutrients they need and I never get fooled into thinking that any problems with my plants are caused by any nutrient deficiency.

Art is always subjective and always evolving. It is good to see new ideas even if we don't like them all. It would be boring otherwise. However, I have no intention of going the Tracy Emin route; my tank is just not big enough for a shopping trolley and an old car tyre.

Looking at a couple of leaves on the plant just below the middle of the picture, it looks more like a bit of melting going on. It looks exactly like what happened to mine. A little bit of melting which the snails take advantage of, just eating the decaying tissue. This then leaves a smooth curve...

As Michael says, if you are going to dose excel, dose it every day or not at all. I think I've calculated right from inches to cm to litres - your tank is about 228 litres? This means that your filter will not be providing enough flow. It's ok for an unplanted tank but to get anywhere near the...

Unless my calculations are wrong, you have about 2.9wpg of light, which is high. You do not have insufficient light. Certainly, to the eye, your new bulbs may not look as bright as the ones they replaced but your plants will be getting just as much light. All you have changed is the colour...

Those results are weird. The Ph should be dropping when the co2 is on, not rising. Are they definitely the right way round?

I finally got my solenoid attached to the regulator yesterday thanks to a very helpful man in Reading. It has been a long and boring saga to get to this point and I eventually ended up at the BOC retail place in Reading. They didn't have an easy method of attaching the solenoid but directed me...

I think you get what you pay for. The one you are looking at advertises the same level of accuracy as all the others on the market. I also changed my opinion of my heaters when I bought and accurate digital thermometer (feature of my TDS pen). It doesn't really matter if a heater is a couple of...

Is that the dimensions of the hose or the original spray bar/lily pipe? It's the dimensions of the rigid plastic spraybar and outlet in the tank you are trying to replace that I was after to see what the internal diameter on those is because that is the important bit. For example: My hose is...

You might get more inspiration when they are on a bed of substrate, then you can play about with the angles of the rocks a little more easily. The flat rock, for example, doesn't have to be laid flat. The largest rock is a bit of a strange shape though. Hold each of them up in the air and keep...

Lee, I've just been through all this with my Ehiem 2217s. What are the internal dimensions on the intake/outlet that come with your filter? The intake on mine that went with the 22/16 tubing measured at 17/14 (so 14mm internal diameter). I spent a long time trying to match this without success...

Because 24w t5ho bulbs are usually that length, unless you have the shorter 55cm ones. You need to look at how you intend mounting your lights as it is this that may well dictate the length of your tank. The flow from your filter needs to be about 10x the size of your tank, hence the Martin's...

I missed this on Friday! Welcome, great to see you here. I was very pleased with my recent order from you and impressed at the speed of delivery. Thanks.

From Tropica's website: 'Tip! 1-2-GROW! products are slower starters as they have a smaller "meal package" from the nursery compared to normal pot plants. This is why they require more care - you should start using small amounts of fertilizer already after they have been in the aquarium for a...

They arrive in a small pot growing in gel. The pots look quite small but there are masses of small plantlettes packed in them. There have been grown in a lab so are free from algae, snails and pesticides. They will also not have been handled by your lfs! However, if new plants often die in...

If you want the tubing to make it yourself, I've just bought some from The Clear Plastic Shop, Acrylic Tube, Plastic Rod, Perspex Profile. Quick delivery but expensive postage.

To get both brightness and good colour I would combine two bulbs. The Gro-lux bulbs pick out reds beautifully but on their own can look too pink and a bit dull but combined with a bright white bulb at 6500k-8000k can look stunning.

Ditto. Doesn't work on my Ipad.

Submerging the plants for 24hrs in water with washing up liquid did not get rid of the greenfly and I couldn't find any ladybirds. So I've just blended up a mix of water, garlic and a really potent onion. I added it bit of washing liquid and have sprayed all the plants with it. Let's see if this...

I don't agree. I would always use a dechlorinator. Not just get rid rid of chlorine but also to remove chloramine which is increasingly being used by water companies. We have old pipes around here and the water company frequently make repairs. When they do the water goes brown and smells very...

These photos are with half the bulbs being used. I'm not sure I'll ever need to use all of them. I haven't tried removing bulbs but it wouldn't alter the spill of the light anyway. It's like someone shining a torch in your eyes. It doesn't matter whether it's three torches or one, it's still...

Ooh look! My staurogyne repens is fruiting! The stuffed doorstop is naturally faded. We don't seem to have many red things.

Ady, what size Maui sand is that? Coarse or fine?

We put a strip of 5mm thick board under one in the end that seems to have levelled it. We're now looking at how to modify the light to reduce the light spill onto my chair. I put the propagator in there with some of the emersed plants but within the first hour it had given me a light induced...

Getting closer to setting up. I now have my rocks! I didn't want to spend silly money on them so went down my local landscaper's and bought some big chunks of green granite for 30p/kg. So for just over a tenner I have: Sledgehammer time!

It would help to cycle the tank! :grin:

I'm not that far from you and my standard red cherry shrimps are fine and breeding like crazy in normal tap water. I don't know if the blue cherry shrimps are more sensitive though. I might be more wary about our tap water if they are. I bought a Cheap TDS pen to better understand the water...

An Eheim 2213 for a 35l tank is more than enough filtration. Cherry shrimps have a very small bio load so I doubt that is contributing to the really high TDS. I switched to using Seachem Prime after reading about when I wanted to start keeping cherry shrimps. It appears to be used successfully...

That doesn't sound good. Something must be pushing the TDS up. We're going to need a bit more info to get to the bottom of it though. How often are your water changes? How much water do you change? When you say lean EI, how much exactly are you dosing? What filter are you using? How often do...

I could have a look for some tomorrow if its not too late in the season. We get a lot of harlequin ladybirds here.

I've added a small drop of washing-up liquid. I'd try bleach if the plants were going straight into a tank and could be rinsed but I think getting bleach in the potting soil might be a problem.

Just try them and see. I picked up 4 mosses from a stream while on holiday. The giant willow moss I could identify and is doing fine. Two died in my low tech tank and the last is barely hanging on. However, the samples in a shallow tub on the windowsill are all surviving.

Five hours into Operation Greenfly and a surprising lack of success. They just won't drown! I can still see them crawling about on the plants under the water! It's going to take more than a few hours. The water also flushed out some thrips that I hadn't been aware of. No wonder my poor plants...

All your tadpoles will have been eaten by the goldfish. It could be something to do with the water parameters. If a couple of the new fish had died in there, along with the increased bio load of 5 new fish? Are you sure there are no predators? A heron will clear out a pond very quickly if not...

Approximately half a pint of beer a month. :D Don't worry about it and enjoy your beer nano!

Thanks. I'll give that a go.

Looking good. The water looks lovely and clear. The anubias need tying or gluing to the rocks rather than being planted in the substrate though, otherwise their roots can rot. Are you getting enough flow around the tank from the spraybar being that short? I can see you having problems with...

I have greenfly all over my emersed plants. Any ideas on how to get rid of them? The only pesticide I have has big warnings about long term danger to aquatic environments so I can't use it. The plants probably aren't in good enough condition to be submerged yet. They were doing well until I...

It reminds me of the Alec Guinness film "The Man in the White Suit." He invents a cloth that never gets dirty but then has the whole establishment and unions trying to bring him down because it will put so many people out of work. Looking at the manufacturer's claims on liquid glass it...

Yep. And under mine I put a sprinkling of Miracle Gro All Purpose Continuous Release Plant Food, a handful or two of peat and some activated carbon. I can't remember exactly why I put the carbon in; it obviously seemed a good idea at the time!

The New Threads section lists new threads that YOU haven't read yet. You write your own messages, therefore you have also read them. So since you've already read them, they won't appear. They will appear in other people's new threads list though. This message will not appear in my new threads...

Hopefully just the lighting then. Escapees can be a bit of a worry. We once found a flying fox six foot from the tank that had managed to launch itself through the 5mm gap between the tank and lid.

I had to hunt for that on the Eheim website: "Exact temperature adjustment 18-34 °C (or optionally 65-93 °F – only 1200XLT)" I can understand your frustration!

You can only change it to Fahrenheit on the 1200XLT.

It's nice to see something different. I'd level up the top 5 or 6 steps though. I wouldn't like to walk down those on a dark night, pub or not!

Nah, not enough to convince me. Still looks a bit tacky. It also looks like they filled it with water to get that last shot? I'd bet that the inside is usually misted up. Who has an emersed setup without moisture on the inside of the glass?

It will be a combination of light and co2 - too much light for the amount of co2 getting to the plants. Reducing the light will definitely help but look at getting the best distribution of flow also. You could move the filter intake to the same end as the lily pipe. That way the flow should go...

It depends what look you are after. If you don't like the look of the akadama then cover it. Otherwise, don't bother. I'd be concerned about the finer grain sand working its way down through the akadama. If you want an area of sand, like the front, then I would do that full depth sand. I agree...

BOC 8500 10 bar regulator. It's not set up yet because the new tank only arrived on Friday. I won't know about the pressure until I try it. It will only be going to 3 tanks though. I ordered a 3-way but they sent me a 4-way.

It is now confirmed - you can have 3 led bulbs/strips or all 6. And yes, it does look like a supernova! This is with 3 bulbs: With 6 bulbs: None: But sometimes I hate my house. We moved the tank after this photo and thought we'd got it level but filling it up to test for leaks proved...

I've just seen that Charterhouse Aquatics are opening a new East London showroom. They are having an open day on Sunday 3rd November and The Green Machine will be there planting up their display. Charterhouse have also just started stocking ADA products. It's a shame I don't live close enough...

I don't think Clive is really slating it. He is just being brutally honest about its properties! I bought this one Wattston Bonsai - Akadama POSTAGE FREE - (Powered by CubeCart) for £16 inc postage. Although he doesn't send the one in the picture, he sends the Iberaki akadama. I have had it in...

It's arrived! We're really impressed with the quality and we still can't tell if the veneer is real oak or not. I can't set it up until we have moved the other tank and its inhabitants out of the way. It will have to wait for the weekend as it involves moving 5 pieces of furniture, 3 tanks and a...

I have a new 4-way one of these. All the joints on mine came pre-sealed with thread sealant.

That's a pity. I was considering getting that. :sad:

Up? As Clive says, it needs to be higher and pointing across the tank. You could always take the sting out by making the holes a little bigger. Another thing - where is the inlet? I can't see one on the same side as the spraybar. If it is on the opposite side of the tank then there may be very...

Outlets on the same side as the spraybar so that it creates circular flow - across the top, down the wall and then returns along the bottom.