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I've been contacted by a new plant supplier which looks quite promising. If anybody wishes to give them a try I'd like to hear back on your views. Website is http://www.plantedtanks.co.uk There is a 10% discount off your order. Use UKAPS1 as the checkout code. This will only be available for UK...

There are lots of posts around how to make your own 4dKH solution and how important it is to be accurate, but does it really matter? When you add a couple of mls to your drop checker and then add some drops of bromothymol blue you are in effect diluting the 4dKH solution. I've seen it...

Hard to believe but I've taken up skateboarding again after a 30 break. My 9 year old son brought a skateboard with his xmas money and so I dug out my old boards from the garage. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed from before so have now treated myself to a new board. Things have come a long way...

Have just purchased one of these Azoo regulators off eBay and thought I'd share my view and experience with using it. The eBay seller is called goaqua88 and is based in Taiwan. This is the actual item - AZOO-CO2-Pressure-Regulator-With-Magnetic-Valve-plant. I paid £37.91 with £11.50 P&P...

As you may or may not have noticed Aqua Essentials have changed their Trace mixture. Some have been asking for a comparrison so I have posted up a table showing the differences between them along with Plantex CSM+B and Garden Direct's Chempak Trace mix. Plantex CSM+B is IMHO by far the best...

Just stumbled across this website where a couple interview people. The latest podcast is with Tom Barr and is really worth listening to. Website is http://www.theplantedaquariumpodcast.com/. James

I don't know what is used in AE's carbon or Easycarbo but I know for sure that Seachem's Excel is not a solution of glutaraldehyde. It is a solution containg Polycycloglutaracetal which is safer to use than Glutaraldehyde and acording to Seachem is more easily utilised by the plants...

We now have a newsletter that will be sent out periodically - http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5219 If you have any questions or problems regarding subscribing, etc, could you please post up here. Thanks James

Being a Merlin annual pass holder I've got exclusive tickets to the preview opening of 'Saw - The Ride' this Friday 13th at Thorpe Park. Should be great fun. I'm just a big kid really. Anyone else from here going? http://www.thorpepark.com/photos-saw.php James

Been thinking about this recently from another thread where someone decided that tap water was full of 'nasties' and shouldn't be used to reconstitute reverse osmosis (RO) water. I've always added tap water to my RO water as I believe that tap water contains lots of 'goodies' that are required...

I have a 120cm Arcadia Luminaire which holds 4x 54W T5 tubes, two banks of two switched independently. The other day much to my sadness one of the banks stopped working so is now only running on half power. I've removed the luminaire and hooked up some old T8's for the time being. As there is...

Just come across this about the leaking problems with the Tetratec range of external filters. James

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/suffolk/7829380.stm James

Been playing with my calculator again and come up with an almost exact match for Tropica's TPN+. Rather than use potassium nitrate for a source of nitrogen I have used ammonium nitrate which is what I'm led to believe is what is in TPN+. Using ammonium nitrate seems to tie all the figures in...

Microsoft seem to have gone overboard on their Hotmail accounts. I'm unable to send email to any Hotmail accounts which is a right royal pain. Anyone else here getting the same problem? Did a Google and found a large number of other people having exactly the same problem. James

Decided to give Google's new Chrome browser a whirl and am extremely impressed with it. Still in beta so has a few things to iron out but IMHO it is the way to go with it's simplicity. I now use it all the time. Have used a few browsers in my time and so far this is the one I like most. Started...

I've been using RO water with a bit of tap water added for some years now as I have found I always had problems with using Thames water straight from the tap. Now that my RO unit needs to be changed as it's getting a bit ancient I have decided to try fresh spring water. I am rather lucky in the...

Anybody here been on Stealth at Thorpe Park? For those that have no idea what I'm on about - http://www.themeparks-uk.com/thorpe_park_stealth.html. It's the highest roller coaster in Europe. I'm addicted to it. The new improved Stealth accelerates you from 0 to 80 mph in 1.8 seconds and then...

There's been a bit of talk about Aqua Essentials and Garden Direct chelated traces recently so I thought I'd compare the concentrations of the different elements with Tropica Plant Nutrition. I've always made up solutions from the traces I've brought using 15g of trace added to 250g of water...

I think it's always great to put a face to a name so now is your chance. I'll start the ball rolling with a photo of my son Philip and myself on the Big Wheel at Windsor. Don't be shy. James

When posting try and be descriptive in the subject line. A simple 'Please Help' is not at all very helpfull and will most likely be passed over or ignored. When posting try and see where the best place to post is. This not only helps you in getting your question answered quickly, but also all...

Decided to open a new thread on this very interesting subject rather than carry it on in the Good Algae Article thread - http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=905 Here's what been said so far: I'm going to look into this a bit more and I might even test with dosing some urea to see how it...

After the success of my 25 litre PFK tank using Akadama as a substrate I decided it was time to change the 3.5 year old silica sand in my 200 litre Rena tank over to Akadama. The planned day arrived and the rest of the family went to Bluewater to give me some space :D Tank Details: 200 litre...

Seems people have been having problems with Utricularia graminifolia or UG so I thought I post my setup and parameters. Just over a month ago I decided to give it a go to see how I'd get on with it. I planted a little bit in my test tank tank. Most of what I had went into my main tank but...

Introduction Having decided that it was time I changed my silica sand substrate for something better I looked around at the options available. For my 200 litre tank I was going to need a fair amount of substrate and all the commercially available ones would cost me a fortune for the amount...

As I keep on being asked about the 'All In One' solution I make I thought I'd post some details of it. After Tropica released their Plant Nutrition Plus, which is an 'All In One' dosing solution, I became interested in doing the same to make life easier for myself. Normally it is advised to...

This is an update to a thread I posted earlier about HO T5 tubes I brought from the Lamp Specs website. This is the thread - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=523. Since I posted the earlier thread I have also purchased some Grolux's. Decided to have a bit of fun tonight and took some...

Having decided to upgrade my lighting from T8 to T5 I treated myself to a secondhand 120cm T5 Arcadia Luminaire off ebay. It came with used marine tubes so I ditched those. Next was to purchase four 54 watt T5 tubes for it. Looking at the £15 plus for a single tube from online aquarium shops...

Take a read of this on the PFK website - http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=127 James

I seem to have had this surface scum for a little while now which I couldn't seem able to shift. I was also sure that it was also causing problems with low O2 levels in the tank due to little gaseous exchange at the water surface. Did a bit of hunting around and ended up buying a surface skimmer...