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Try something like Seachem Clarity and putting a sheet of fine floss in the filter for a day or two. I have used this many times after a major plant re-arrange and water went cloudy, the floss after a day or two was covered in a fine slime !!!!

Should be fine. My tank & filters went for a couple of days, one winter, after a sub station neutral fault tripped the RCD in the house, whilst I was away. Another reason I use a PLC to control the tank . I made the display flash red when the filter and heater are off, after having done exactly...

My surface scum only appeared for a couple of weeks when the tank setup was "new". Removed by floating a sheet of kitchen towel on the surface, when necessary, to pick up the scum. Best removal was an air curtain at the back of the tank, running after the CO2 had turned off, for an hour or two.

Sometimes the scratches won't show when filled with water. or many people have used this type stuff. GLASS POLISH SHOP - Smart Restoration & Polishing Products

I went away for 5 weeks, no water changes. Made a dual peristaltic pump setup to dose reduced amounts of macro and micro fertiliser, used an automatic feeder with smaller food amounts, reduced CO2 on time and light on times. Plants & fish were all fine when I got back. Plants maybe not as green...

When records were a thing :rolleyes: it was marvelous when I moved from an upper floor rented room to a concrete floored house. I could now play a whole side of a record without it jumping due to me breathing/moving in the same room....:eek:

My mate had a tank upstairs, maybe only 100l odd, but had a few minor issues: He positioned the tank in not ideal to view or not in the place he originally wanted so that tank was at right angles to the floor joists, so that tank was resting on the floor joists where they were supported by the...

If they are limescale marks just use Kilrock limescale remover, preferably outside as a bit wiffy. Wash thoroughly, hopefully job done.

Air stone running for an hour or two once a day removed all my surface film.

Acetoxy silicone (the one that smells of vinegar) requires water/moisture to set, so will set under water, though is difficult to work as it quickly skins over underwater whilst "playing" with it Neutral cure does not release vinegar whilst setting. Be careful a lot of silicone has fungicide...

I wrote to Union Carbide (major gluteraldehyde supplier) about interactions of gulteraldehyde and EI salts (back in 2012 !!). Replies were: In presence of trace levels of iron salts it will decompose. So that's mixing with micro solution out. Will polymerise with high pH (10-12) and come out...

The CO2Supermarket nano system is the way to go, if you require a solenoid on a small disposable bottle. The solenoid is built into the valve/flow regulator, thus no piping to pressurise up, so no issues. I have a CO2Supermarket single stage regulator from 2012 and works fine. Now on my 32nd...

Wont work, when solenoid turns off the pressure in the tubing builds up and blows the pipe off. The nano systems use "flow valves" to regulate the tank flow, either a small hole in metal plate or metal sponge that limits the gas flow, not really a regulator. You can leave it running 24/7...

They don't normally retest fire extinguishers, as new are sufficiently cheap. They take expired ones (that haven't been sold to fish/plant keepers :confused:), empty out CO2, remove valve, sometimes cut off neck to prevent re-use and send to recylcing.

In UK, pressurised cylinders should have a date of manufacture stamped on them. The lifetime before inspection & retest, at least for CO2 cylinders, is 10 years.

After trying numerous ways to keep my "floaters" under control, all ended up in failure with "mass breakouts" occurring. The picture above does include a ring made from airline, which clearly didn't work. In the end I bought a 3D printed plastic ring from Ebay, specially for "floater control"...

I regularly used to forget to turn the heater back on after water changes, so tank would be unheated for a week. Plants probably grew slower, fish didn't seem to mind. In the end I put the heater and one of my filters on same mains connection, as was less likely to forget to turn filter back...

Not sure why you would want one. People have had whole 2kg tanks empty out in a couple of minutes, due to a failed O ring and not suffered any breathing difficulties as they changed their underwear due to the noise and then examined the piles of dry ice powder (solid carbon dioxide) everywhere...

Sorry to drag an old thread up. Anyone heard any more about these ? Are they available ? Any reviews ? If all is yes, I will get back under my rock...

Use one of these. After having been through loads and loads of in tank digital thermometers, finally settled on one of these. Advantages are: Low cost. Works 24/7. No batteries. Doesn't leak (that's looking at you Juwel, Maplin and cheapy Ebay). In tank cable doesn't degrade and fall apart...

People have tried using UPS, but a suitably sized UPS to last more than a few hours would be very expensive. For example a 500VA UPS costing £200, with say 50W of filter power and say a 200W heater on 50% of the time will last 500VA/(50+200*0.5)= 3 hours !!! In fact if you have no power to...

Some people always add water conditioner to their RO water in case there is chlorine (from chlorinated water) and/or ammonia (from chloramine) getting through into the output due to worn out/failed RO elements. Also the RO water is probably one case where a chlorine and/or ammonia test kit would...

My Dad used to work in the bottled water industry, solving "issues" (generally bacteria and uranium salts !!), but would only ever drink tap water as it had chlorine in it, unlike bottled water !!!

Something like this would be suitable, obviously much much smaller would be OK in domestic setting. Has an 8bar pump, so RO membranes are running at their rated pressure, stop/start control so when storage container is full it stops pumping and a Chloramine/Chlorine pre-filter so you don't...

This is severely not recommended under the water supply regulations 2000 in that softeners add sodium to the water. Softened water must not be used to feed babies (and possibly children). Generally there should be a unsoftened water tap available for drinking, cooking and obviously fish water...

Not been able to maintain tank for about 5 weeks due to taking kids to Uni and holiday, so tank left in holiday mode (reduced light, CO2, ferts etc) but came back to this.... This was a free arrival with some fish I got....

Here is the technical reason LED (and olde fluorescent) lights are often slightly incompatible with "olde yet reliable" mechanical time switches. Basically, generally the contacts of the time switch may have some form of contact suppressor to suppress sparking of the switch/relay contacts. The...

I have stainless jubillee clips on my diffuser rather than the lock nuts, as I had a "pop off" incident whilst fiddling adjusting hoses once.

15ml White HDPE Travel Bottle & Screw Cap - Ampulla - 0161 367 1414 I bought loads of these to use to store food an ferts in. Still using them, as you can put shampoo, mouthwash and other liquids in when you fly away for short breaks. Flying abroad...any one remember that....

In 2012 I would have been away for about 5 weeks, 3 weeks away + week either side. My first pass was to place fish food and measured fertiliser doses in little bottles, labelled for each day away and neighbour drop in and empty one food and one fertiliser bottle per day. Would have left CO2...

Commercial hydroponic/greenhouse growers use lights at the pink/red end of the spectrum: This produces the most grams plant mass per Watt input power. Not wasting energy in producing higher energy blue light that makes little difference to plant growth. Not wasting energy in producing any green...

I tied my drop checker, with a short length of string to a stone, so it could be moved around the middle of the tank, rather then be just stuck to the glass. Using my 1500l/hr filter + internal 600l/hr filter in a 180l tank I found spots where the drop checker was still blue(ish) when lights...

Years and years ago (late 80's) my mate used to kept all the filtration and water processing for his marine tank in a shed against his house. This is when marine tanks, at home, were quite "new thing". Used central heating pumps with plastic attachments to circulate water. Yes the shed was...

Here's what a bit of heavy breathing does to your drop checker... How to check your drop checker....

I moved the tank on it's stand, so glass was fully supported.

Yes I had hardwood flooring fitted underneath my tank many years ago. - I drained tank as low as fish'ily possible into large 40l (from Asda) buckets. - Two of us moved tank to other side of room. Cut all carpet around tank to leave tank on a pad of old carpet. Refilled with the water. Floor...

Just silicone a square (or disk) of glass on it, if worried. My mate cracked the base of his tank, in one corner, due to putting it on a "collapsing" drawer unit. He siliconed a square of glass over cracked area, buried it in sand, would never know it was there. He had the tank for over 20 years...

What I liked about his posting, was he posted his failures as well as his successes. He was not being afraid to admit the failure had cost money, then how he fixed the issue and in the end the solution that worked.

Very very very unlikely the glass will be tempered. Normally glass is tempered for things where breakage would be dangerous eg door glazing, glass shelving, coffee table tops etc. Never heard of tempered glass being used in a fish tank. Anyway you will soon find out if it is tempered...

Most external filters will have requirements like this.

I don't use any test at all, read the link I sent as to why you are wasting money using hobby grade test kits. Never tested my water or tank, absolutely no point. Plants grow like mad, fish thrive & breed like mad, so nitrate levels must be OK, what ever level that is. Hobby grade nitrate test...

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/what-about-test-kits.52487/

Use a water heater like I do...Simple... https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/water-change-heater-project.25877/

Many years ago my Dad scraped some chemically unremoveable limescale from my shower cubicle glass at home and got it analysed at his work. Mainly calcium sulphate along with other calcium & silicate based compounds. Best I did was polish it out using fine silicon carbide grit and cerium oxide...

Then it's most likely sulphate salts, which generally can't be removed by common chemical methods. So, scourers etc is a good start, but beware of scratching the glass. Next stage is fine polishes. Brasso can work, but a lot of elbow grease is required. Jewelers rouge and/or cerium oxide can...

I have just cleaned a nice set of 3 stainless steel pans (Ikea) my wife got from local Facebay for £5. All badly scaled, as we have very hard water in our area. Kilrock, shifted most scale, but a wipe round with 10% hyrdochloric acid and pans look like new.

As you have no fish, try Kilrock or hyrdo-chloric acid, both should work well.

One thing to bare in mind, which is often a point of failure in deep tanks, is maintenance. You need to think how you are going to reach the bottom of the tank to clean, plant plants, shuffle substrate etc. People have come up with boxes to stand on, scaffolding steps, extra long gravel pumps...

I have boiled gravel that became extremely green once. Bleach just converted the extremely green algae to white ghost like algae, but didn't actually get it off the gravel.

Limescale removers produce fizz equally well with both calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. If its anything like the scale I had at home, before getting a whole house water softener, it is calcium sulphate, which is completely 100% untouched by all limescale removers, as you have found. I...

Why do you think it is magnesium rather than calcium ? Just interested that's all, as there are very few parts in UK that have significant magnesium in tap water. See this post for the very few area's in UK that have magnesium in the tap water. Magnesium area's

Righto....here's one reason why sanitisers & antibacterial soaps can cause fish issues. Many contain benzalkonium chloride or some variation (I have used to it to de-algae my patio, until price after Covid pushed it through the roof). It is relatively safe for humans, on skin and if...

You will need a "wallet extension" if you dose using this. Your tank is 4x2x2 ft -> 16cu ft -> 450l. + sump -> 500l. TNC is 1ml per 10l, thats 50ml per dose @ 3 times a week, so at £10 for 500ml will last 500/50/3 -> 3 weeks !!! :rolleyes: You need to consider EI dosing, so you will not need...

Turn down length of CO2 to match reduced lighting time. My PLC controller normally has 2 tubes on for 17:00 - 23:00 (4 tubes 17:30 - 22:30) and CO2 on 15:00 - 2200. For holiday mode 2 tubes on for 18:00 - 22:00 (4 tubes 19:00 - 21:00) and CO2 on 16:00 - 2100. I have left my tank in holiday...

1. Get some form of auto ferts dosing. This can be: Peristaltic dosing pumps. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/diy-dual-peristaltic-dosing-pump-with-alternate-switching.22332/ Commercial dosing system. Prepare the fertz in labelled small bottles that your visitor can just dose when they...

Oh. You need 25 posts before the for sale section is visible. Anyway it is a JBLe1502 used only for 3 weeks whilst my old filter was repaired. All spotlessly clean, as used for such a short time. Did use the supplied 16/22mm tubing so need to get 2 x 1.5m lengths. £110. Fits into Vision 180...

This fits perfectly well in the Juwel 180 cabinet. https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/virtually-new-jbl-e1502-1400l-hr-filter.59812/

Yes. Fluval Stratum (which I use as well) does not significantly affect the water parameters. You can harden RO water many ways, commercial solutions are one option. https://www.seachem.com/equilibrium.php You can also make your own. http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/RO.htm

This is bad, very bad and is probably the source of your algae issues. With 0dKH you have no buffer capacity thus will encounter rapid pH swings due to CO2, rotting plants, fish poo etc which is a 100% sure way to grow algae (and kill fish). You mustn't use pure RO, it must be used with some...

As stated before, do not use neat RODI water, harden up to 4-8 dGH before use. Also remember to dechlorinate eg Prime your water before use as RODI units, especially if not in tip top condition can lead to chlorine and/or ammonia being present in the water. Both are extremely toxic to fish and...

1. What does your drop checker say ? Seems awfully small amount of CO2 for such a large tank. 2. For such a large tank, I very very very very much doubt a glass diffuser will get anywhere decent enough CO2 levels and distribution. 3. Your water is awfully soft, which again leads to many issues...

Most standard mains timers are only accurate to 1 minute on time. A PLC could be programmed with 7.5seconds on 8 times in 24hours no issue, but is not a cheap way to do it, unless PLC is part of a bigger tank control system.

Just switch it via a standard mains timer for one minute in 24 hours and you will get 0.2ml plopped in the tank. Other idea is dilute your H2O2 solution say 4 to one with distilled/RO water and dose this amount 4 times a day.

Below is a link to Williamson peristaltic pumps, which I use for macro, micro and liquid carbon dosing. https://www.williamson-shop.co.uk/100-series-with-ac-powered-motors-3274-p.asp The smallest model 100-008-230-008/4 is less than 1ml per minute dosing. Looking at data sheet 0.8mm silicone is...

Also any H2O2 in the water would react almost instantly with any organics in the water, thus probably completely negating any oxygenating affects. When I got a tour, around the "back" of a zoo, years ago, they auto-dosed H2O2 (@35% strength, which I am sure you are not allowed to have any more)...

You can experiment making spray bars with different hole sizes and locations by buying a length of say 16/18mm (thinwall) PVC tubing. 3 meters cost me £1 at local water feature/pond shop. Tape it to a piece of wood, to keep it straight and stop it rotating whilst fiddling, mark up with a...

Often if you look carefully after water change you will see bubbles forming in rocks, spray bars, heaters etc which is just dissolved gas from tap water coming out of solution.

No he got nothing back. The water company supplied water within regulations. In the end he gave up and broke down his "fish house" and all 22 tank, after having spent £1000's on it. :( The ammonia he talks about is the breakdown products of chloramine, which is often emergency injected into...

Here is what un-dechlorinated water can do to your fish. https://www.fishforums.net/threads/22-aquariums-wiped-out.410456/

Make it more reliable using a plc ? https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/how-to-use-a-plc-to-control-your-fish-tank.42993/ The issue with not dechlorinating is, as many people have found out to their cost, is that water companies will often change the chlorine levels or add chlorine in during...

My friend had one fitted, as he suffered from severe condensation in his loft each spring and autumn, possibly attributed to damp house. Was fitted by a "condensation consultant" to try and "dry" the house but made no difference as in the end the PIV just provides more house air circulation...

You haven't stated if your tank is high tech ie CO2, high lights, high filtration rate or just low tech, as this will make a difference in dosing levels. Have you a magnesium source ? You are not one of these people relying on your water report are you ? Relying on these reports is always the...

Yes if you increase CO2 plants will need more fertiliser, so as you ramp up CO2 start increasing daily doses of ferts.

As you say increase CO2 slowly over period of a week or two. I bet you will get better plant growth even with your existing light levels. Remember to increase fertlisation rate as well. When all settled increase light levels. Just keep if regular cleaning a weekly 50% water changes and make...

If worried either wait 8-12 weeks to allow it to cycle fully or use something like small doses of Prime or Amquel (not Amquel+) daily to remove ammonia. Be very very very careful after using any test kit after using Prime/Amquel as these and most dechlorinators cause test kits to give false...

I just put spoonfuls of sand into kitchen sieve and washed is in buckets of water and hose pipe, outside, until water ran clear.

Slight off topic, if you have damp issues in your house, I would highly recommend these. https://www.dehumidifiersuk.com/dio-ruby-dry-dh600-dessicant-dehumidifier-5-5-litre-extraction.html They do not use a compressor so are virtually silent, so can be installed in living spaces without keeping...

Not sure what you are talking about ?? We have 14 2Kg fire extinguishers here at work and nobody has died. I have 3 at home, one on tank and 2 spares and nobody has died. Here is my tank one, being extremely boring sitting in the corner of the lounge doing it's CO2 type stuff 8 hours a...

Absolutely crap for CO2 production for fish tanks as the reaction proceeds too fast and will be exhausted in an hour our two. You either use sugar and yeast, which lasts a lot longer (and is cheaper) but if you insist you can use citric acid and baking powder but must devise a way to dose the...

Smooth it with a bit of wet & dry sand paper to knock any finger cutting sharp edged off. But looks small enough to be fine.

None, work with what you have got. If they are dimmable (Juwel controller ?) then dim them or if not, put foil rings around the tubes, to block say 50% of the light and go with that.

https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/complete-aquarium-co2-system-kits-single-stage-co2-systems-gsc70.html https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/complete-aquarium-co2-system-kits-dual-stage-co2-systems-gsc69.html...

Ammonia is quite toxic to fish, even in quite low levels. Nitrite levels are quite toxic to fish, again in low levels. Your ammonia and nitrite have come from disturbing the substrate, which as you have found, simple washing does not remove fully. Soaking 24-72 or more hours is better. Your...

Or could be from your RO water. You must always always dechlorinate\de-ammonia\test your RO water as RO units are not 100% guaranteed to remove chlorine/chloramine. Your excessive ammonia levels could be coming from your RO water. Chlorine\ammonia in RO water can be removed by either something...

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/water-change-heater-project.25877/

My front lawn is quite lusciously green in the semicircular patch the fish tank waste water hosepipe reaches via the window.

No not all. Some have dechlorinators have other stuff in, slime coats etc that bind with purigen and stop it working.

In my case I did manage to stop some of my cheap timers , B&Q £9 ones, from randomly resetting, by soldering an "RC snubber" (from now defunct Maplins) across the relay contacts, which also stopped it randomly freezing, halting or more commonly resetting everything back to 00:00. Tended to occur...

Either buy proper quality timers... https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/SMETU17.html I used these for years no issues, lockups, failures etc. Or after numerous timer failures (not the above ones) and plant and fish deaths...do it properly...

Timer failure has always been my main point of failure. All OK if an air pump or light that jams on (or fails to come on) but I killed plants and fish when a timer failed to turn off my liquid carbon dosing pump and emptied rather a lot into the tank. This is why I designed/built my PLC tank...

Hmmmm. Are you sure your link is correct ? That points to a water parameter monitor for $995 AND $35 a month subscription. That buys rather a lot of lab grade test kits for that price.

Anyone heard any more about this. Supposed delivery June 2019. Got over £50,000 funding now. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/felix-world-s-first-smart-computer-for-aquariums?fbclid=IwAR0erxbno4YLGf-SUbAO2ZXZzMfNz_vvQyc2f32PI4EQ0o8xz95H4iyMZiU#/ http://www.felixsmart.com

Warped bottom pane gives either diagonal crack on front or back pane in well built tanks or tearing of silicone on opposite diagonal corners.

Too much light is the downfall on many a tank.

If you stop adding liquid carbon you may or may not get algae, I don't know enough about your tank, but I would hedge a bet in yes you will more than likely get algae, though could be temporary. As you are no longer providing carbon to the plants they will die off as no longer being fed what...

With 2 x 45W T5 and non CO2 and no EI dosing and non monster filter, uncontrollable algae is 100% guaranteed. That is a lot of light. Plants are suffering due to too much light for your insufficient CO2 and fertiliser levels, dying off and leaching organics into the water that feeds the algae...

Looks like it. The Tropica system looks an excellent way to move your wallet contents to the retailer without have to worry about gassing any fish in the process. Decent regulators and injectors from either of these two suppliers. https://www.co2art.eu/ https://www.co2supermarket.co.uk/ I...

How to inject CO2 with two filters and two spray bars.

Please please please don't rely on test kit results to work out your tank build/stocking/maintenance regime. We have seen so many many disasters here, where tank has turned into a complete unrecoverable disaster, at monster expense, and the start of the path to disaster has always been...."but...

Cork and potassium nitrate is a no no, a fire risk. All other chemicals will be OK.