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Ta for the help guys :) But ugh! This has been one of those "wish I'd never started it" jobs... This is an old tank which I've had for yonks with an integrated light in the hood. To start with, the old bulb was dead. Then the screws were rusted and it took me a good hours worth of swearing to...

lol! Yes boss! Cheers guys, will have an experiment with that light. Hopefully going to get cracking one night this week and get the soil and sand in.

Hi guys, Need some help plz. Try as I might, lighting is one thing I can't get my head around!! I want to set up another walstead style tank. It's a 18" tall and works out to be 90 odd L. Would an 18" 15W interpet "tropical daylight" bulb do the job? I've got a modded 30L biorb set up with...

Lighting is the one thing I can't seem to get my head around for some reason :x I found a little light fitting in my cupboard, it's got a 15W bulb which is just a normal household one of some sort. The light's pretty cool, so I was wondering if I could use it over a 25L nano I want to set up...

Sorry guys, I don't think I've been all to clear. The algae isn't too much of an issue, the plants not growing as well as I'd like was the main problem. I'd set out to replicate (sort of) my biorb, which grows wonderfully, and thought I'd copied the aspects that have made it successful. Things...

Do you reckon they'd leave the guppies alone? They are lovely! :D

Personally, I make up a ton of RO about once every 3 weeks or so, and it seems to keep well for that length of time in my odd collection of bottles and tubs.

Ta very much guys! I'll have a fiddle with the tank next time I'm over there and let you all know how it goes. What do we reckon to the stocking? More fish be a good idea? I was wondering about something larger like rainbowfish, congo tetra or possibly dwarf gourami? My dad had his eye on one...

No, um, sort of managed to break the led light unit...so I can't comment on if it would have worked. There's an 18" tube mounted on the underneath of the shelf above the tank. The brown thing with the flower and diamonte on is my awesome DIY effort at a cover for it! :lol: It's a reflector...

Cheers guys. It was tap water diluted with RO which I used to set the tank up initially for him. About 1/3 RO if I remember rightly. Stocking is about 20 or so guppies, 2 clown loach, 8 neons, 2 or 3 bristlenose and I'm not sure how many cherry shrimp. We used John innes no2 underneath small...

Hi everyone, I set up an el natural tank for my dad a good few months ago, it had been going well, but I popped over yesterday and it's not so good now. Got a little bit of hair algae, but that's not the end of the world. Problem is the plants aren't growing as well as I'd like them to...

I've usually got cherry shrimp and a few celetsial pearl danios in there. But there's also a couple of ottos being babysat at the moment! Going to have great fun catching them when their other tank is ready and I've got to get them out, not looking forward to that...lol

That's my biorb: Super proud of it :D No co2, ferts or filter. Just soil, sand, plants and light :thumbup:

Can't comment on the lighting, but personally I think the mirror's quite a nice idea.

Personally, I have a walstad style tank which I just get in and clip about once a month. Just to add my 2p, I'd recommend her methods, it's worked nicely for me.

It's not those daft little black rings in the impellor causing the problem is it? I had great fun getting them to go back together properly the first time I cleaned the impellor!!

The shrimp or the puppy...? :lol: Hadn't thought of that, but I suppose there could have been a spike I missed. Cheers. At least I know it's not too common now, so I'll just have to be more careful at maintenence time. Every time I've been looking at the tank, I've been treading carefully...

Rechecked the params just in case and everything's as expected. No spikes etc. It's the weirdest thing! The lot of them seem fine this evening. Couldn't even say which one jumped. Mine tend to hang around in the lower half of the tank usually too. Guess it's just a freak accident. Think I'll...

Yep. Did all my maintenence a few hours before it happened, so I'm happy nothing had changed in those few hours. Will double check this eve anyway though, you never know. My reckoning is they were possibly spooked. The dog had not long jumped up onto the chair next to the tank and was nosing at...

Just for inspiration if you fancy a super-low tech and a bit of diy. I run a modded biorb without a filter. Good ol' ebay for most of the bits, including the tank itself for about 20 quid :D I love the look of biorbs, but not the limitations, so I pulled one apart to see if I could have it...

One of my celestial pearl danios made a bid for freedom yesterday :shock: Scooped him up and got him back in the tank quick enough luckily. I know a lot of people on here have CPDs, just wondered if anyone else had found them to be jumpers? I've got them in an open top tank and I'm trying to...

It's the same wattage as the old bulb. I'll give it a go :) ta!

10 points to me...managed to smash a fluorescent tube this evening :shock: I can't get out to get a new one until the end of the week, but I've got a spare 2.0 UV Reptile Bulb that fits. Is that likely to cause any harm as a temporary solution? I've just pruned the tank right back so I didn't...

Just to add, I've recently changed the sand in my puffer's tank to the homebase one and can reccomend it. Really happy with it, it was so clean already, and it's a nice colour, quite light but not unnatural looking. (Just a thought, this has got to be the only place you can mention a certain...

I'm on that one, cheers. The tank gets sort of indirect sunlight for a bit of the day, and I can never work out if that's a help or a hindrance. It grows better than the tank I have set up in a similar manner in another room, so I'm leaning towards help. I've cut down the amount of time the tube...

Before I go ahead and do it, just wanted to make sure I've got things right! The tank in question is my 30L biorb. El naturel, with no filter. Just an airstone. The algae came in on some vallis, and has now spread nicely for me :( Had no bloomin problems with this tank before that! Residents...

It's not that, it's an article about breeding them which I've heard of, but I could only find it on this website that wants me to log in :-S

I did consider them actually, because the beardie has them occasionally, so I sometimes have them at home. Only thing that put me off, and it might be totally wrong, is I remember reading somewhere not to give them to the beardie too often since they can be hard to digest. No idea how Dimmi's...

I'm after some inspiration please! :D I really fancy redoing one of my tanks for Angelfish. But I'm a bit stuck on ideas. I want to go low-tech, but that's about as far as I've got!! So, if you were going to scape a low tech 3ft tank for a few angels, how would you do it? What would you put...

Mine's a bit boring. No important qualifications to speak of, worked in a family business all my life. I've got a little art and craft shop now and I teach cardmaking in the evenings. I do do my own motorcycle maintenence for the most part though, as long as it's the easy bits! Which is sort of...

Re: Thinking of a planted puffer tank next... Got no experience with south american puffers, I've always avoided them because of the teeth issues. As far as I know, they're supposed to have the fastest growing teeth, which can be difficult to keep trimmed. Although they are supposed to be the...

Lol!! I have visions of a little fish with something tied round his head wielding a mini machete hacking his way through the jungles of the tank on a hunting spree...!

It is true, that's what I love about betta. :D They have such individual little personalities. Some of them are wet weekends, some of them seem to think they're miniture sharks out to take on and destroy the world! :lol:

Imo, depends on the betta. Some can be so stroppy. I wouldn't chance gouramis personally. Shrimps are a possibility, just be prepared they might end up being dinner! Cardinals I've never tried, but I did have a particularly aggressive betta bite the tail off a neon once!! Ottos should be a...

That is worrying. Have filled in the questionaire.

Ah, know what you mean about that. Think I've just got used to it! lol Didn't even think of that.

I got my unit off ebay, bout 60 quid or so. It's only a dinky one, but it does about 5-10L an hour depending how warm the weather is. With a big enough tub, I can leave it running overnight. My o/h did the fiddling to get it to hook up to the kitchen tap, but I think it was a hosepipe connector...

American Flag Fish are too big really I reckon. Gotta stay with small and slim bodied for it to work, and not too many of them, so they're not producing more waste than the plants can handle. Didn't know if there was something like a coldwater dwarf bristlenose that I didn't know existed or...

I have a super low tech tank on the windowsill. No lights, heater or filter etc, just uses sunlight. I'm after some ideas for fish for it. Temps don't drop below 16 (or if they ever do, a heater will go in) The idea with this tank was to almost treat it like a natural pond, and it's sort of...

If the water's going straight from the unit to the tank, and you're not changing a huge amount of water, I'd reckon it'll be fine. A 50% change probably not so good though. Doing more regular smaller changes might be the way to go. I do top ups straight from the RO unit into my brackish tank...

To my knowledge, you'll need to DIY one. Could possibly butcher the existing inlet? What's the issue with the fitted filter? I've got an edge and I love it to pieces, been running a couple of yrs now with no issues. But I do only keep a betta and my gold marble bristlenose in it, no planting...

Seconded on the p@h nano, I've got one and they're really nice. Only downside I can see is if you want to use the glass lid that comes with it a clippy light might not fit. I don't have one on mine so I'm not sure about that though, just doesn't look like there's enough room. Irrelevant if you...

On my windowsil I did have this; Which was an experiment to see how well plants would grow using just sunlight and soil with gravel over the top. It all went pretty well, apart from the cats insisting on drinking out of it!! The idea was to see if the sunlight would be enough (it is a soulth...

By the way, where did you get her? I may have impulse-bought a P@H nano the other day...which is sitting on my windowsil waiting for me to decide what to do with it, and something involving a statue might be nice, if you don't mind me pinching your idea! :)

Personally, I'd bring Bastet sort of forward so she can have something growing behind her. Would bring back that country garden look. Or maybe forward and left next to the wood. Might be worth having a fiddle to see if it looks good or not? It might look good in my head and awful in the tank...

Oh dear. That makes me rather glad I don't have a baby!! lol.

I've got the john innes and that works well for me. Can't comment on the others though since I haven't tried them.

I really like the look of this one; http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h231/ ... hoto-2.jpg I've already got the smaller edge, it's got no plants in at the moment. Did you do anything to the lighting? And were you using co2?

Thanks for your sympathy!! :lol:

Has anyone done one as a planted tank of any sort? I've been debating redoing my 23L edge, but I've only got the standard halogen lighting in it. I do fancy the idea of doing it as a non co2 tank, but I'm not sure what, if anything, to do about the lighting. Just wondered if anyone could chuck...

Mine's second hand sadly, although I was told it's still under warranty. However...please don't laugh at me but I think I might have found the problem. When I put my new FE in I moved the filter over, and having had another look at it this morning, the out hose now has a loop in it. And I feel...

For what it's worth, I solved my primer problem! So thought I'd share how I did it in case anyone else encounters the same problem. Um, I got a tad fed up with it, so unscrewed the whole primer unit and started poking around. Now this isn't the most technical solution in the world, but so far so...

Snap, my ZX6R was stolen at the end of 2010. :( I'm on my new one now though. Seemed to be a spate of it then, 2 of my friends zx6s went in the same week. Weathers picking up for riding now :D

Ooh, I have learnt a new word! I'll try to remember that one. Cheers, that's worth knowing :) Either way, he's ever so pretty!

I'm happily wasting an afternoon off nosing around the forum and I stumbled on this topic. Really made me chuckle :lol: I'm blessed with an o/h that's into marine, so I'm very lucky. But I can really hear my dad moaning about my mum in some of those posts! He's just bought a new tank, and...

aww he's lurrvly :D I've always wanted a snake, but the o/h doesn't do snakes. They're diurnal aren't they? I did look at kingsnakes a while back because of that. Much as I like cornsnakes and the fact that they're usually a really gentle nature, I'd rather one that wasn't asleep all day. One...

Not at the moment they're not, but yours has really inspired me! I've been debating setting one up without co2 for a while, but now I'm not so sure. Unfortunately, the spot on the computer desk where it would look really nice has been stolen and is now home to the o/h's marine pico... :evil...

That looks fantastic! I have a couple of these tanks (um, 3 actually, long story, don't ask! If anyone's looking to buy one please persuade me to sell you one of mine, I really don't need 3 identical tanks :-S) I've been umming and ahhing about setting one up as a planted nano for shrimp for...

Love these little guys :) That's what my maidenhead voucher got spent on for christmas! Got them sharing with my guppies, which is an odd combination, but with the amount of planting in that tank they get on pretty well. I've seen courting behaviour, but a spawn is a little unlikely with the...

Totally torn between this one, because I love how it captures the movement of the fish! He looks like he wants to swim off the screen :D Celestial pearl danio celestial by George Farmer, on Flickr And this one because of the angle and the way he's looking at you! Discus discus by George...

Yep, he's already done that!! The taking apart that is. On the bright side, he's happy to change the mechanical cartridge for me when it needs cleaning (I have 2) on the down side, I still have to clean the old one myself!! I'm dreading what will happen when I've finally got the FE going...

Ah, thanks. Thought it might be something like that, but I've only heard of skimmers used for marine tanks.

Hope you don't mind me asking a silly question, but what's one of those for?

Hello! I need some help please :) Do I need a certain kind of airline for a FE? I was hoping I could just plug my FE into the old airline and diffuser from my yeast kit, but the airline keeps popping off the no return valve :? Is it possibly my valve which is wrong or do I need a stronger...

My o/h is brilliant :D he takes an interest and gives me a hand with things, but unfortunatley that interest leads to him fiddling with the tanks when I'm out... Mainly, he keeps changing the flipping settings on my G6!!

I'd have to agree it probs wouldn't go too well I'm afraid. You'd be amazed at what a dp can take on. When they're babies they're usually good as gold, but as soon as they mature you've had it :-s They can take chunks out of much bigger fish, and if the crabs move quite slowly, I'd reckon it...

All sorted now, ta for the advice peeps. I've cheated :D A member on here has sold me a FE kit with the scary bit where you unscrew things already done!

Ta for that conductivity info a few pages back! Very helpful :) Am having more problems with my g6 though :( Been away for the weekend and came back to the filter telling me low flow already! So cleaned the mech. filter. But the prime just isn't having any of it today. Goes down, gets stuck and...

I really do like that. Makes me think of a hidden corner of a country garden :)

So it actually works? Just not too well. How wierd. What will they think of next?! :lol:

I'd feel too mean freezing them! Death by freezer can't be too pleasant. The fig 8 chomped it down in no time, seemed quite happy about it! Didn't know you could get frozen locusts, where have you seen them? Could be worth a go. Just as long as nothing's been added to them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Aqua ... 519d6b0b5a Just been doing a spot of shopping :D and I came across this gizmo. Never seen one before. I'm just so confused! How could something like that possibly work?? :? (I think the answer may well be "it doesn't" :lol: but I'm open to the...

Um, he bit its bum off. Which isn't as funny to see as it sounds! He didn't kill it. Had to whip it out quick and feed it to the fig 8, who is a murderous sod anyway, so it got put out of it's misery quick enough. Sadly, no one sells frozen locusts, and I'm not brave enough to bop them on the...

Discovered it totally by accident, but mine seem to enjoy tetra baby food. That stays floating around for a fair while.

Feeding's a bit of a pain with the puff, he has to have thaimanese-free foods for the most part. I give him cockles as his staple, always soaked in vitazin vitamins first. He also gets the odd mussel and bloodworms, but pretty rarely. Nutritionally, from what I can tell, Locusts would be an...

This is my special little man: Not the best photo, but you can see his markings in this one. When he's out of the sand, he's rarely still enough for a decent pic! He's called Mushroom and he's a Takifugu Ocellatus. Care is a bit of guesswork really! He's not the easiest fish in the world to...

My other hobby's always been crafts. Grew up in a family business, so it's always been around me. Cardmaking, scrapbooking knitting and sewing. I've been teaching cardmaking workshops in the shop for about the last 5 years now too. Also love my instruments, play piano and guitar and a teeny bit...

Ah, that makes sense. Mine was constantly flashing alerts when I first got it, before I'd figured how to set the various settings, so maybe that's what cured it. Incidently, does anyone have a link to an idiot's guide to figuring out conductivity? :lol:

My screen was like that initially, but it seems to have almost gone away now. I figured it was because I got it wet, and it was going as it dried, might be wrong though.

Ooh, that looks good ta :D Got to get to work now, but I'll have a proper nose later. George, I would like to go with a FE eventually, but I'd be more confident doing so once I've tried something that comes with all the bits, and got used to using all the bits, first. Hence wanting something...

Much as I'd love to, having just bought the g6, if I spend that much the o/h will have kittens! :shock: So would the fluval or tmc not last 5 minutes then? I really wanted something fairly idiot-proof to start with, so I didn't want to get bits seperately ideally in case I go wrong. But I...

Hello everyone :D I've decided I'd like to get rid of my bottle of co2-producing smelly stuff! :sick: So I'm looking for a nice all-in-one co2 kit for one of my tanks to start off having a go using it, and wondered if anyone had any recommendations on which one to go for? I've never used...

That sounds familiar!! That's pretty much what I ended up doing. "allow 45-60 minutes for setup" indeed! I was up till about 2am :shock: You can buy a whole replacement primer, could that be the bit? Might have missed it, but I can't see what else could be replaced on it :?: I guess I'll...

Thought I'd ask on this thread since it's full of useful tips about the G6. (Hope no one minds!) Just got myself one, and had a bit of a job with setting up yesterday. I have bought second hand, so I'm slightly worried I've got a dodgy one, although the seller assured me it was nearly new...

Don't know what the filtration is like in one of those tanks, but just to warn you, for such a titchy fish they don't half make an enormous mess! So the filters got to be up to it :) They are incredibly cute :) I used to keep one in a converted biorb. Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using...

Betta? I have one in a 30L at the moment and its a pretty good size for just him and his nerite :) Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk - so if my post makes no sense you know why!!

It's not a pretty sight! But the nutritional content is actually really good. If I can dig out the link anywhere once I have my computer back I'll share it :) Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk - so if my post makes no sense you know why!!

Ooh, never seen those for sale. Love the little face! My fugu is hard work! He's very worth it, but complicated lol. I've had him nearly 6 months now though, and so far so good he's in pretty good condition. I keep him in a 4x1x1 tank with external filter and lots of water movement at 20...

Hello stranger!! *waves* Not seen any of your dart frog vivs, so looking forward to seeing that :) Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk - so if my post makes no sense you know why!!

Aww bless him. What kind of puffer is he? He looks sooo cute! Do love my puffs :) I've got a takifugu ocellatus and a fig 8 at the moment. Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk - so if my post makes no sense you know why!!

Ah, works like that with pufferfish. Never thought it would be the same with frogs. Still wouldn't want to give one a kiss on the nose!! lol

I'm glad I'm not the only one that does that! I've got a craft shop, so I usually offer them bright orange wool and tell them it will match their eyes! Although I had a great one recently, eco friendly energy of some sort, trying to sell me solar panels which I neither want or can afford! Told...

Scuse my ignorance! But tricolour poison dart frogs? Very pretty, but a bit scary if it is! lol

They won't fit though :( I'll pick him up a second tube then. I thought it would need it to be honest! Cheers.

Can I ask what lives in the vivarium?

Hi, thanks for the help guys! The tank has a wooden lid, it's one of the Maidenhead aquatics tanks they do to order if anyone recognises those. So being a 4ft tank the biggest light which will fit is a 42". It's actually my dads new tank, and I agreed to come round and help him set up a low...

In an 18" deep 4ft tank, I'm trying to figure out what kind of lighting would be best for low tech? According to my book (Diana Walstad) I'm looking at 1-3 watts per US gallon 5000-7000K. So, going straight down the middle, I worked that out to be 64gallons, therefore 128watts. She also...

I defo see your point, but what about little bikes being more forgiving? (Maybe not as applicable to rs125s! lol.) But something like a cg125 isn't as likely to chuck you off if you muck up your gearchanges, or throttle control or even braking as something like my ninja is. Muck up your clutch...

:shock: :shock: That is terrifying!!! Amazing, but terrifying!! When it snows, my ninja hides it the garage cowering under a bike cover! :lol: Can't imagine being brave enough to do something like that! Experience on a 125 is so sensible :) I did 6 months on my little 125 cruiser before...

A yoga mat? I feel better! :lol: Shan't crack any jokes about your fishies spiritual well-being... :silent: Seems to have worked a treat, so far so good, no leaks! The 2ft only has 2 layers under it if I remember rightly, although it could possibly be 3. The hard part's cutting off the...