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I think much better photos would help a lot here buddy, given that they don't seem to be easily recognisable. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

I appear to have access to this. Haven't read it but if anyone wants a copy pm me and I'll send it across tomorrow. Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk

What Mick said.

My observations agree pretty closely with Darrel's - I have 12 otos in a 600l tank which is stuffed full of wood and leaf litter to graze on. I don't specifically feed anything else for the otos but they are outrageously fat from biofilm grazing and I see very little activity from them during...

Gradually if possible, but if you have enough plants and a well oxygenated filter you can get away with it... I dumped 50 odd fish into my tank in one go, but it is over 500l with enormous riparian plants, so a bit of a special case. As ever just stock at a rate that is sensible for your...

As you probably guess I'm totally with Troi and Darrel on this one. Plants all the way. I think the other thing that people really don't consider with ammonia cycling is that although you may end up with a microbial system able to deal with a relatively large amount of ammonia, that system is...

Oh yeah, I somehow glazed over the goldfish part! As Sarpijk said, probably best to stick to java fern and anubias. Maybe bolbitis. You could always test a few other plants and see how they get treated.

At 22 degrees pretty much any 'tropical' plants should be fine.

I suspect that the need for brackish water for BBGs is overstated, or at least variable between species. Several species are even found in soft-as-you-like blackwater habitats. I kept mine (which I think were probably doriae) as low as pH5.5 for a long time and they 'seemed' fine - they were...

Being called Tom helps also.

Long lasting leaves will provide tannins, a surface for biofilm growth (which shrimp/fry graze on) and cover for your fish/shrimp. Rapidly decaying leaves will also do this of course, but will add organic matter and detritus at a faster rate which is generally not desirable.

Yeah go for fully dead, dry, brown leaves. If you find a good spot with a reasonable depth of leaf litter then you can normally find collectable leaves right through to the early spring. They'll store for years if you dry them out thoroughly so worth collecting a few bag-fulls.

I'd say they break down and release tannins at a roughly comparable rate to Indian almond leaves. If you can find some beech leaves they last considerably longer.

Most people prefer to give them a good rinse before adding to the tank, although I have to admit I just bung mine in if I'm reasonably confident they've not come from anywhere too polluted. As for storage, get them nice and dry so they won't rot then they're fine just to sit in a bin bag or...

I would leave off all the additives in future - if the filter media has been transferred from a mature filter then it should have sufficient bacterial load to cope with a couple of small fish. Adding QuickStart, Liquid Filter, Voogel and whatever else is just going to introduce instability and...

Heh I was about to post that link Ed. Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

I generally seem to end up with custom built tanks so am not really in a position to recommend one particular tank or another, but I truly wouldn't be worried about smells or evaporation. I used to have 4 tanks totalling 12 square feet in an average sized bedroom and neither were ever an issue -...

'orrible.

I don't really know anything about high tech, but you're only getting an inch of substrate for your £71.59. You might want some more.

Best value for money at the moment is just leaving the window open, I'm getting a constant supply of fresh mosquito larvae laid straight into the tank.

Not all of us feel the need for all the high tech gubbins. Plenty of ace low tech stuff going on still :) Sent from my LT30p using Tapatalk

I think from the video those are just co2 bubbles, to be fair. Could be wrong.

I lost all my imageshack images as well, but as long as they were from an account (rather than really old ones where you could upload without an account), then you should be able to get them back by nagging their customer services guys - they fixed mine after a few days when I asked. Not sure if...

Very nice, I miss my big emergent Echinodorus. No idea about magnetic hangers but Darrel's suggestion is a good one, or you can get shower caddies with suction pads on them, although they can be a bit prone to slipping down the glass if they have a lot of weight in them. I just used hydroton...

That top ADC tank is lovely.

Yeah MC will grow in anything. L. brasiliensis is also slow but steady in pretty much any conditions. I like a mixed carpet approach - mix 3 or 4 different species (eg MC, L. brasiliensis, hairgrass and whatever that stuff I got from Alastair is called), then stuff will fill in at different...

People who know more about this than I say that plants are pretty adaptable and that spectrum really isn't important. So you could try a 20k bulb I guess, although I'm not sure how well the previous advice applies as you start getting into the more extreme ends of the spectrum. Plus it'll look...

A 20k bulb is going to be very blue. Unless you particularly want that look then something in the 5-7.5k range will look more like daylight.

This is the sort of thing I was using for the first couple of years - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JCC-TRACK-PRO-SPOT-70W-FLOODLIGHT-SILVER-RX7S-240V-/251526844068?pt=UK_BOI_Lights_Lighting_ET&hash=item3a902b0ea4 Dirt cheap but very ugly. Take standard rx7s bulbs which are available in lots of...

I would definitely go for suspended light if possible for this sort of setup. In the UK there are very often cheap second hand halides on ebay that are used for shop lighting. A 70w halide suspended 1.5-2 feet above the tank would be plenty of light. The are also cheap LED flood lights that...

Yeah oak are pretty long lasting (and nice looking). Beech should last 2-3 times longer still.

I reckon you'll be fine. They'll probably have a whole ecosystem of bugs on then at this time of year so probably worth a rinse, dry and rakeover before storing them to minimise household microfauna.

Wave scissors are just about the only 'posh' bit of aquascaping paraphernalia that I have, they are pretty handy.

Colorail can be quite good for this sort of thing - the chrome fittings don't look bad and are pretty easy to construct a frame from. Then you just need to fix them to your cabinet and hang the lights. Just don't pay B&Q prices!

Disappointing. You can quite clearly see furniture in the picture - if you'd chucked all that out you could have had something much bigger.

Aww, you got globular ones. They're the cutest.

Yes! I've always wanted my own granny annex.

I'm just going to move in with Al I think.

I assume you've been browsing dendoboard? Some ace stuff on there. www.dendroboard.com/forum/parts-construction/83431-island-paludarium-360-z-185-gal-40-x-40-x-28-a-18.html

I don't know whats available near Plymouth, sorry, but Aquajardin Gloucester is right on the M5 - Google Maps

That should be fine.

When you say cycle, are you adding additional ammonia? If so then don't bother. JI will leach some ammonia for a few weeks, but if you've got old filter media in there and happily growing plants then it may not be noticeable. I would just let the tank run for a few weeks until the plants look...

Fair enough Phil. Didn't mean to jump down your throat, but it's hugely irritating when companies make all sorts of claims about their products and never provide a shred of evidence to back them up.

Right I think I must be missing something because I don't really understand how your post provides any evidence for FlorinAxis being beneficial - at low concentrations it didn't kill the plants, at high concentrations it did kill (or visibly damage) the plants. You've not demonstrated that it...

And what happened in the control tank?

Well if we're nominating other people, then Alastair managing to breed both licorice and chocolate gourami in a community display tank is going to take some beating I think. Defintely highlight of the year for me (I measure these things by how much jealousy they inspire in me :-P).

These little guys I think (rosy loach fry). Now fully grown -

Wow apistogramma.com need to get some admin online. Spam city.

I'm pretty sure it will leach ammonia, yes. Westlands do a pond soil which is supposedly mineralised to reduce ammonia leaching but it's another one that contains limestone etc. JI already contains quite a lot of peat, I can't see adding more having a measurable effect against the amount of...

Sorry Mark, don't know (I used it mixed with another pond soil). Alastair seems to have it answered though.

Yup that's the one I was referring to. A few of us have used it with success.

John Innes 1-3 will raise hardness and ph but won't 'kill everything'. I've used it before and there are plenty of fish species that will do well in those sorts of parameters, and most plant species will be just fine as well. If you're not keeping obligate soft water fish then JI 1 would be fine...

I tested an ericaceous compost and ended up with acidic water but still a very high TDS. Have a look on eBay/Amazon for 'Original Aqua Soil'. It comes in blue bags and should have a fairly minimal impact on your water stats.

Sorry to hear that Dan, sounds like you've got some problems that are unlikely to be fixed with a few leaves. Maybe a new thread for some advice? In the meantime, a little leaf lovin' -

Flubendazole is extremely effective against hydra - Hydra removal | UK Aquatic Plant Society

OK, so for reference after two and a half weeks the sycamore is probably 80% skeletalised, the sweet chestnut about 50%, the oak about 5% and the beech still looks exactly the same as when I added it.

Brilliant, thanks Mark.

That would be great. I imagine Pier and Rare are the most likely, other than individual importers.

Really? Any idea who brings them in?

Yeah that first video is brilliant, I've watched it a couple of times. The Ammocryptocharax at 36:13 is awesome, but completely unobtainable.

Yeah I collected mine after waiting ages for two consecutive dry days and they've not taken much drying out. Tricky in Scotland though! No rush though, there'll be beech leaves available at least in good condition a long way into winter.

Right, one of each is going in the tank now, I'll report back in a week :p Beech can last for months in my tanks though, can't imagine sycamore taking longer to break down.

I've not used sycamor myself before, I think they'll probably break down a bit quickly and I read on The Krib that maple leaves tend to retain more nutrients that beech or oak, but I can't see either being an issue unless you're using it in large quantities.

Went for my annual leaf collecting walk this afternoon and got a nice mix of beech, oak, sweet chestnut and sycamore which should see me through 'til next autumn. Beats paying to have Indian almond leaves flown halfway around the world! Great for shrimp and breeding fish, and can add a nice...

Don't know if there's a Dobbies in Cornwall these days? They and P@H tend to be cheapest but the plants deteriorate quickly. You could ask when they get their deliveries and go in the day after. Birstall do good rates for packs of 5 online, or if you're mixing and matching then the standard...

Giant ginger flesh-eating Viking field mice. No word of a lie.

Interesting fact for today; there is a 'Celtic Fringe' in the UK in small mammal populations as well as humans - The Celtic fringe of Britain: insights from small mammal phylogeography

Hah. I'm from Cornwall actually, but they're pretty stingy down there too.

Soil, because it's cheap!

Got to love living in a drafty old Georgian tenement - no such issues here :p

Actually, I was a bit off topic and overly critical with that post, sorry. I just wasn't sure what the aim of linking that thread was before you edited your post with the info about ADA substrates and it makes more sense now.

Not at all, I frequently sing the praises of the 1%. It was just a personal musing that I fail to see the enjoyment in that kind of dissection.

I find Aquasoil an absolute pain in the backside to plant in compared to sand. And that thread is absolutely terrifying, but then I have absolutely zero interest in the underlying chemistry of my tanks. I just want them to look good, be filled with healthy plants and fish and be really easy to...

Well, put me down as bemused.

With all due respect to Wet, the original post does come across as a bit of a rant, and it's taken us until page 2 to figure out what the thread is actually supposed to be about (I think, I'm still not entirely sure!). A less antagonistic and more focused post might have been preferable....

Yeah that's a fair enough peave and something you see all over the net. I think we're very lucky here to have people like Tom, Clive and Darrel who can discuss such questions with reasonable rigour, but at the end of the day they are only three people with infinitely better things to do with...

Hi Wet. If you feel anyone in particular has overstepped a mark, then I'm sure a quiet message to George or Paulo would lead to them addressing the issue responsibly if they agreed that it was out of order. All in all I reckon this is one of the politest and friendliest forums around, but I...

There's no doubt that ADA and other Gucci soils are excellent substrates - nice to work with, easy to reuse, nutritious with a high CEC - but there are plenty of people also getting excellent results for a fraction of the cost with cat litter, garden soil and plain old inert sand /gravel, which...

Aesthetics, ease of working with, probably some benefits to plants, and to make money for the companies that make them (who will also tell you that you need jiggawatts of light, secret fert recipes in posh bottles and a thousand different chemicals).

Manual removal is key really. Take out everything floating, plus the filter, rinse everything clean of duckweed, then scoop out all the rest of it from the tank. Even old dead looking bits stuck above the water line. You have to be meticulous. Then check at least twice daily for any bits that...

Nice setup. I'd definitely go for a river style linear flow setup of some sort, with both filter intakes at one end and the outlets at the other (or with outlets spaced out as required to give even flow). Should be able to arrange them such that they're not intrusive. This is quite a good...

The only time I ever had visible BBA (in one of the nanos) was when I was away for 2 months and the surface plants grew really thick and blocked light/stripped nutrients/stifled gas exchange sufficiently for 90% of the plant biomass beneath them to melt. Came home to really luxuriant frogbit...

Ah, I assumed when you mentioned bulbs that you also had something to plug them in to! I wouldn't be too worried about not having tonnes of flow, it isn't crucial for low tech.

Sounds like you already have everything you need for low tech. Stick some plants in and turn it all on :) Actually, a second bag of eco complete (or any other substrate) wouldn't go amiss - you won't even get an inch deep with 20lbs which can make planting tricky.

Cheap glass cutter off ebay for a couple of quid, score somewhere around where the thing is stuck. Then repeatedly alternate pouring boiling then cold water on the score, it'll eventually produce a nice clean crack that will be easy to glue back together once you've got the bristles out :) See...

I'm sure as soon as ADA release a £200 inline heater we'll hear all about how important it is :p

Shrimp and I think otos will also devour it eagerly.

That photo had me in stitches!

It's still there, but starting to slowly shrink thanks to international bans on CFCs. Ozone Hole Shrinks to Record Low | LiveScience Or as I'm sure you know really, it was mainly just a smaller and somewhat simplistic moniker for climate change. Which is undoubtedly used as a politic tool...

Heh, still not a single word about what it is or how its supposed to work.

Whatever it is, I'm 100% sure I don't need one :lol:

I've got them in all my tanks and can't say I've ever noticed them eating plants. I don't keep many stems though, and have a lot of mulm and general detritus which I think keeps them occupied.

Sounds like a brilliant project. I'm a big fan of collecting your own hardscape materials, if I was still living in the tropics I'd definitely be looking at doing something similar to you. Can you collect your own livestock as well?

Guess you mean Spirodela polyrhiza ('Giant duckweed')?. Not sure if that's readily available over here in the trade, although I believe it is native. NBN Interactive Map

The problem is that people don't always want to listen or invest the time reading. Or are too attached to the half-correct 'lore' that gets bandied around. Or as you can see in this thread, there are various approaches that all technically work, even if they're nonsensical in the context of a...

I have to disagree a little with this, although admittedly on not much more than a philosophical level. My advice would be; Given the multitude of stresses and potential causes of demise most aquarium fish face, I always think that the least I can do is provide them with water that...

Well I've had no problems using two of the ones in the 'definite no' list. You really need first hand evidence one way or the other, otherwise the same 'lore' just goes round and round in circles forever.

Well found. One other report of using rosemary fine here - The Planted Tank Forum - View Single Post - Diff. kinds of bog wood

I can't find anything directly linked to using rosemary in the aquarium - my google-fu must be weak! Unless you mean you found that some of the biologically active components (eucalyptols, camphor etc) can be toxic? Very difficult (well, I find it very difficult, my plant biology is terrible) to...

Have you got a source for that? Not being funny, just I've used several woods in the past that 'apparently' are toxic with no ill effects. I know rosemary has quite a lot of biologically active compounds in it, but I still suspect that if it's well dead and dry you shouldn't have much of an issue.