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Can you just add a stronger magnet behind the outside section? Mounted the right way around you should be able to beef up the grip that way.

Looking for advice on lighting options after a blow out on my T5 unit. Tank is an ND aquatics 36x24x18, with low tech plants at the moment. Mainly crypts and anubius with a bit of java fern. Liquid and gas CO2 are both possible (although it's a sumped tank, so I tend to stick to liquid as the...

Yeah, but they're a right pain to clean.

New tank or new scape?

I was referring to these people if you want budget. As I said, I've found them reliable, but noisy. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/All-Pond-Solutions-Submersible-Aquarium-Water-Pumps-NEW-/400330159563

I'd not recommend running a more powerful pump through an external, if you want more flow put it on another loop, unless you have big issues with head of water between the pump and the tank. If you overpower a filter then you risk issues with the pump driving harder than the flow through the...

I'm in the process (job for today) of replacing the lighting rig on one of my low techs. Growing mosses in abundance, with crypts and some cyperus growing beautifully. It's only when I went to change the bulb that I realised that I'd set up an old single T12 set. I appeared to have a ballast and...

There's the option to install a temperature mixer on the supply line, they can be set to all sorts of temperatures and will pull hot water and blend. They may not be financially viable though as I've not noticed them to be all that cheap.

For what it's worth, I wasn't calculating anything much. I was just going from experience that 3 T5's that close to the surface would make an algae fest in my high tech tanks. I'm pretty certain it could be done with careful tuning but I'm too often late home or absent for a couple of days to...

For me, that's BBA, as stated above, turn down the lights. I'd be shutting down one of the T5's and dropping the photoperiod to about 4-5 hours and then building back up again. For reference, for cyanobacteria, erythromycin will work, and will work well. There's a big however though...

Just remember to go for the biggest container you know the size of, gives better results once you've started multiplying.

Depends how hard you squeeze it.

Wide opening turkey baster or a trap for me. Same thing I use for catching fry.

Ohhh, I have a bush of that in my garden as well. Could make for a good leaf litter option.

Don't give him ideas! Lovely tank. Can't wait to see it evolving.

I was worried about dosing ferts, and how many spoons to use. Then someone pointed out that there is no spoon. Everyone I know who grows amazing plants.....doesn't follow the "rules", but they don't really break them either.

I've used cardinals as dithers for angels for about 25 years on and off (beggars never getting to be choosers). Fully grown I've never seen a P Scalare go for a cardinal, neons however seem just about the right size for a big one. Can't vouch for the others in the family though. As for...

I wonder if I could fit a 30 into my 3 footers hood. Should be plenty of room in there if I can mount it into the hood in some way.

I'll second the reactor option. Never had a problem with a reactor except for when I dropped a cylinder on one and broke a hose barb off it. I can't imagine a diffuser would have survived the same treatment either. As said, they also DIY easily.

Was about to suggest the same, I source it through work by the 5kg bag for next to nothing.

I certainly hope so, otherwise I have no idea what those are in one of my tanks. How good it is depends a whole lot on how fine it is. Really fine stuff is not ideal for rooting into, so things float away a lot.

I'd call that one a Rhizocolonium. I've struggled with that for a time, but good CO2 and flow cleared it.

I put osmocote into an ice cube tray, add some tank water and freeze. Again, you get a few minutes to work with it before it starts to misbehave but it's quicker than 2 days. Would probably work with Darrel's mix as well.

Truly the end of an era. You, and your tank, have been an inspiration, and I thank you. Looking forward to what you can come up with next.

Mine are living on a hair algae culture. Entirely inspired by sloth. Came back from a week away and a low tech had crashed into an algae fest while I was away. In the mess of unpacking the bucket full of water and hair algae got left on the side somewhere sunny. The tank had been fed with...

Temperature will affect your chemical reactions as well, although I suspect it'll be more linear.

Well the yeast systems, technically, get away with being topped up with just sugar. You can salvage the yeast for new cultures. Although a few extra nutrients don't hurt in the long term if you keep reusing the same yeast.

It'll work. The basic ingredients ramp up the ongoing price though, so it's not used much. There's a commercial kit that's based on this system but I've never seen it actually used on anything.

I use autodosers here as well for ferts. Allows me to go away for the weekend without worrying, also allows me to get stuck at work for 16 hours straight and not worry about the ferts.

The effect of depth is amazing too. Looks like it goes on for several meters, especially the way the wood seems to rest on the decking. I need to find me someone I can bag tanks from I think.

Clean water, by the gallon, otherwise, to be honest, my cupboard is bare (actually my cupboard is a mess, I'm a hoarder of things that may be useful, but they're not medications).

To be honest that's not a bad price for a pumped unit, however vyair have some deals on with the storage tanks thrown in for only slightly more than that, but you're still £20-30 quid shy of a pumped unit for most of the prices I've seen. I saw someone selling some display stock recently, which...

I like them. I have one, but for value for money, do bear in mind that they're power hungry for what they do, and the cost adds up considerably compared to some of the economical filters you can get if you're paying the electricity bill. After crunching some numbers I worked out that some of the...

Although my golden barbs destroy any hydrocotyle that they can find. I'd probably still put money on the SAE.

Congrats. Well deserved appointment and a smart move by TMC.

It should, in theory, be easy enough to replicate. The parts are readily available for water ionoisers and jewellery plating devices. Getting hold of the electrodes and then controlling them simply if you don't already have a source could make the DIY non viable to start with though as water...

You'd think that, but in my experience, tanks can run at pH's of around 5 with no great trouble. I used to breed angels in similar conditions with foam internals or undergravel filters. Stocking density wasn't too bad and water changes were regular weekly and good sized, but at the time I never...

I have a sump filter. Works very well and replaces the external nicely. Great for hiding kit, although my pipework is a bit ugly and could probably do with a bit of tidying up, which I'm sure I'll get around to eventually. The pro is that you can hide kit and have huge filter capacity and...

Welcome Pete, good to see more people from the West Country.

They're back today. Same computer, same settings, gotta love technology. Looking good.

I'm missing out, I see no pictures......

It does diffuse the light very effectively though.

I've got a simple eheim classic 2213 running on my 30l. Mainly because I had one lying around admittedly, rather than any particularly thought out plan.

Tropic Marin do various salts. Seachem do equilibrium. Various shrimp places have their mixes that they sell. Personally I make my own, but it sounds like you want an out of the bottle solution. What are you keeping?

How much dechlorinator did you use? I cheat and rinse it off in RO and then throw in a lump of sodium thiosulphate crystals until it stops smelling.

A democratic poll - a decision making system where only a wooden stick gets to have an opinion, and those in power interpret for the stick? I feel like I've missed out, I have no idea what you're talking about, but it sounded fun.

It rained briefly here. It was epic.

Basically, it's as likely to soften your water as the magnetic field driving your filter impeller is.

What ND filter do you use Tom?

I was just looking for that link.

How good are your DIY skills? The pumps themselves can be picked up from places like farnell and they'll simply need a box to put them in and relatively simple wiring. Those that are simple pumps with no controllers will run off timers, yes. You can make them a lot more complicated, and I picked...

They teach useful things.

GP partner. Most hated of the daily mail. One of these days I'll see some of the money they think I earn and I'll be able to buy another tank.

Mine's quieter than my eheim was, but that needed a new impeller. It's certainly got a motor hum too it, but I don't notice too much as it's in the utility.

Takes me a while to get the water out of the intake, despite the priming mechanism. Probably got a lot to do with the wide bore pipes, but also wasn't helped when I first started when I realised that one of the joints on the intake was above the water line and was sucking in air.

There's also the issue with the narrow pipes. Your 15mm copper has a fair amount of water in it at 3 bar. It doesn't take much to get the pressure up to 9 bar when you're measuring in 1/8 inch RO pipe.

Depends if anyone is using the shower while you're pumping RO. Also will depend hugely on the local pipework. 1/8 inch is a real pain for pressure drop offs.

UV, at the right intensity, can kill algae cells but only the ones in the water passing through it, although it tends to be used in ponds to make green water flocculate so that the filter can take it out of the water, in aquaria it tends to run at higher intensities, intended to kill...

600g disposables aren't too big, you can pick them up in Halfords, although I believe that they're cheaper online, although that may depend on bulk buying to offset shipping. They are indeed disposables.

I like the control that RO gives me, and have a box full of random salts to show for it. I did look at the top of the stump and think that it needed something to break the surface with it, that was where my comment about growing in was aimed at.

No water meter -> way forward. Although sadly you can't go back. I do use a lot of rainwater for stuff around the house though, so I'm not destroying the planet too badly, and the RO waste goes on the garden. I look forward to seeing this one develop, I like the overall structure but grown...

Essentially yes. The simplest way to reduce TDS is to replace water with lower TDS water. Always worth checking out why the TDS is rising, although it may simply be ongoing tank running and evaporation.

What I can imagine is that it may be useful on slow growing plants like anubius that tend to algae up. Faster growers would do well with no algae on the leaves but would lose the coating as they grow.

No, they won't. It claims to not interfere with gas exchange, not change it. The difference in conditions, CO2 to say the least, is huge.

So long as it sinks, drop it where you want it.

I need to get me a better camera (and the ability to use it, which may be more important). Nice shots. That doesn't look edible.

OK, I was asking as the UV in tanks tends to be for the last two and requires long slow exposures or higher power and the UV in ponds tends to be the first and doesn't require anything like the power.

Not used it, but I have to ask what you're hoping that the UV will do. Makes a difference with regards to the power levels required, although the flow past the UV may not be the whole flow from the filter, depends how they've got the insides set up

Nice piece of glass.

Does depend how dirty it is as well, took a couple of runs of bleach to recharge the bag I just did, but that had got very stained.

I use the EZ, simple to use, just remember to turn it off again.

Would one of these go round the bend on that? Flexible Grabber Tool | Toolmonger

You'd do better with a shotgun type effect, gets over the issues with inaccuracy.

Sumps don't have to be noisy, I have one in my living room, no trickling water, just the hum of the cheap pumps that I need to replace. The secret, as far as I'm concerned, is to make sure that most of the flow is on a full syphon (valve to allow a little to go down the wider overflow, but only...

Now this just has me having visions of some nutter wandering around with a 5kg FE and a paintball bazooka.

Personal opinion, the higher tech you run, the more organic turn over going on, the more you need to keep up with things. Main answer is larger, more frequent water changes, which I agree with entirely, but personally, given that the organic load building is the quoted reason in that situation I...

It all looks very neat. My tanks tend to look far more....rustic. Actually the word may be agricultural.

1) Yes, although you get better quantities if the unit is warmer. 2) Yes, although you'll want to wash the membranes every so often and it mustn't dry out. 3) Properly sealed, in theory indefinitely, in practice it'll always leech in contaminants eventually, but it'll stay good for a long time...

No problems with my shrimp finding food in my tank and there are snails in there.

There is that. Mine actually have snail track lines in their leaves at times.

Personally I find them annoying, but tolerate them as they're a good sign of overfeeding. My main display only have them in the sump, with makes me suspect that the inhabitants are using them as live food, but they're bigger than the average planted tank inhabitant. My shrimp tank has many, but...

You get about a seventh of the water in, the rest goes to waste. Pumps help the ratio, so do improve the cost in the long term. As for the rental issue, do you have an accessible washing machine point? If you do you can plumb from a splitter without messing with any pipes in any way that the...

Another vote for your own unit, the petrol costs on constantly picking up the bottles is an issue all in itself unless you're on the LFS's doorstep. Don't see why you can't cycle with tap water, although I'd slowly change the tank over to softer water rather than a sudden shift so you don't...

3 way valves are very expensive, a t-piece and 2 normal taps though......

It'll contain anything condensible from the air. That includes mainly water, but also any atmospheric pollutants that condense at sub zero temperatures as well. Personally I'd avoid, but it'd depend a lot on what the air was like in your flat.

Somehow I'd guessed that that was the one you'd been reading.

The principle is that there's enough mineral in the EI to keep the TDS up anyway, so extra mineralisation isn't necessary.

I was just reading this and wondering about the hozelock fittings until I reached the last post. They're not really designed to not leak, as they're intended for gardens. Is that where you got the leak from?

Is your water particularly soft? A sudden change in regime could have represented quite a percentage change I suppose.

I do recharge it in RO water. Can't remember where someone told me that it recharges better in soft water, and i have an RO unit.

I use sodium thiosulphate crystals after a soak in simple thin bleach.

Or something like this. EUROPEAN SCHUKO SOCKET -UK PLUG ADAPTOR LEAD CABLE FULLY MOULDED on eBay!

I've lost a couple of cherries in the heat, but no CRS.

I'm a goodly way into copying you Troi. I'll honestly say that the ebay seller wasn't the easiest to deal with, but they got it right in the end which is all that matters when all is told. I'm also now the proud owner of 2 boxes of wheels which I have no idea what to do with, but I'll think of...

Biggest problem I have with biofilters is them clogging. I can honestly say I've never had an issue where the filter wasn't man enough for the tank if the fish were stocked properly. As a result, unless I'm going for ultrasmall footprints in filter, which I've rarely ever had to do then I've...

Well the news just gets better and better. I thought I was already having a good week. Welcome.

I went for a fine scattering. I've had a few balls escape with digging cichlids being in the tank. They pick at them occasionally, but don't eat them. About 1 dessert spoon per square foot of tank base for me. First thing in, then the substrates.

I do it, haven't had any trouble from it.

Hope you've got a big garden, that's a 35m tree waiting to happen that is.

I have a similar green foam tube over my eheim 2213 intake on my smaller tank. Well I did until I took that tank down recently. It did gather mulm and fur up eventually, but it was easy enough to pull off and give a squeeze to to clear it out.