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Fish for Hard London Water (20 Gallon)

If I want to add a black background to aquarium, is there a way I can do this once it is already filled?
 
pollyandpear said:
they are said I could take home the otocinclus today to clean the wood in my tank
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I honestly don't know if the people who give this advice are unscrupulous, stupid or ill-informed, either way suggesting to put an otocinclus straight into a newly set up tank beggers belief.

You made the right decision in declining the offer, and saved yourself the trauma of watching the cute little fish slowly perish.

Like sparkyweasel suggests our advice is free and there are no ulterior motives other than wanting you to have a successful, almost stress free aquarium.
 
pollyandpear said:
... they are said I could take home the otocinclus today to clean the wood in my tank,
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What @John q says.... You store gave you some incredibly bad advice there.... Oto's need a mature environment with algae and biofilm to thrive. None of this will be available in a new tank.

pollyandpear said:
but I am going to take your advise and stick to focusing on just maturing the plants and making sure I am comfortable with that!
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You cant go wrong with that!

pollyandpear said:
If I want to add a black background to aquarium, is there a way I can do this once it is already filled?
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Yes. from the picture above, it looks like have enough clearance behind the tank to work (a few inches at least) and to make sure the outside glass surface is clean (no calcium stains from your hard water). I've changed my backgrounds a couple of times on full tanks. I am cheap, so I am using just a thick matte paper stock (mine is dark blue) cut to fit the dimensions and affixed some double sided adhesive pad to the corners and along the edge and gentle slide the paper behind the tank and affix the sticky pads to the tank. It might be a bit tricky, but can be done.

Cheers,
Michael
 
dw1305 said:
We have members who like to perform water tests (I'll add in @jaypeecee ) and we have members who don't.
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Yes, Darrel is correct. Some of us prefer to do water tests - when appropriate. Examples of water parameters that I may choose to test are ammonia, nitrite, KH, GH, pH. To this list, I may add EC* or TDS**, both of which are in the form of a battery-powered electronic probe. It is vitally important to use good liquid reagent test kits such as those by JBL. There are other test kits for other water parameters. Just ask if necessary.

*EC = Electrical conductivity
**TDS = Total Dissolved Solids

Hope that helps.

JPC
 
Hi @jaypeecee I've only ever used Api test strips and Api liquid tests, so can't compare to other brands. The strips aren't very accurate if one wants to determine specific numbers (.1, .2 etc), but they did tell me ball park figures and was a quick way to answer whatever specific question I was investigating. Over the years I'd often repeat then cross reference the results with the liquid test kit and 9 times out 10 they'd match, like most scientific research the anomaly got ignored.

The strips and liquid test kits also performed well for me when I'd actually know specific values in the tank or a standard mixed solution.

Hope that answers the question John.
 
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pollyandpear said:
If I want to add a black background to aquarium, is there a way I can do this once it is already filled?
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I applied black vinyl window film to my aquarium as a background - it adheres with a bit of water to the outside glass of the aquarium. Though, depending on the placement of your aquarium, it can be a bit tricky to apply. I went with this method because it's non-destructive and easy to remove in the future, although my applying technique was a bit amateurish and left some air bubbles behind!
 
Thanks guys.

Grrr I'm kind of wishing I'd gone for white/ natural gravel now but too late to change wahh
 
pollyandpear said:
Thanks guys.

Grrr I'm kind of wishing I'd gone for white/ natural gravel now but too late to change wahh
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I know the feeling well! Live with it a little while and if you still don't like it, you can easily put another layer of the colour of your choice over the top. I have a tank with multicoloured layers where I didn't really like the original and added a layer over the top. It will probably eventually mix with the old colour but at least that way you can test out a different look before going the whole hog and changing the substrate. If you don't want the multi layered look at the front, you could scrape the very front backwards and fill the gap with the new colour.
 
Guys the driftwood still wants to float without the amethyst - how long until it should stay put?>
 
How long is a piece of string I'm afraid! It depends how large and dense the wood is and how dry it was, just move the rock every now and then to test it, it'll eventually stay put. No new tank is complete without random rocks holding down floating wood! Some folk are good at forward thinking and presoak for weeks. I'm too impatient so use rocks.
 
When I do my first water change next week, how much should I remove? And how accurate do I need to be as I can't measure it, I assume I just look roughly say halfway down tank height and remove that much?

Then when I add fresh water back in, do I just add tap safe to that added amount, or enough for the entire tank volume?

Haven't touched tank or measured any parameters since i got it. Looks okay so far. I still want more plants. I never added any bacteria to it, hoping the plants had enough on them.

Only thing I've done is turn the lighting off at night.
 
With the water change just guess by eye as you suggest. If you take out a little more or a little less it won't really matter. I always add dechlorinator to the new water before it goes in as that way you dose only the new water. Water changes are a bit of a personal routine and you will find the frequency and amount varies massively between us all. I like 50% water changes but others do far more or less.
 
jaypeecee said:
Yes, Darrel is correct. Some of us prefer to do water tests - when appropriate. Examples of water parameters that I may choose to test are ammonia, nitrite, KH, GH, pH. To this list, I may add EC* or TDS**, both of which are in the form of a battery-powered electronic probe. It is vitally important to use good liquid reagent test kits such as those by JBL. There are other test kits for other water parameters. Just ask if necessary.

*EC = Electrical conductivity
**TDS = Total Dissolved Solids

Hope that helps.
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Hi @jaypeecee, As far as water testing goes I am into it as well (as you know 🙂 )... EC/TDS/ORP is what I monitor on a regular basis and occasionally KH/GH/pH just for the joy of it and to confirm what "I already know" from merely looking at my plants and livestock... Unless your keeping a speciality tank (say finicky species of fish/shrimps, breeding etc.) or have a particular interest in monitoring stuff (like we do), frequent testing is by and large unnecessary. And of course, as we know, some of the more mainstream tests can be deceptive as well. For instance, total Ammonia tests (NH4+NH3) are particularly problematic in the sense that ammonia toxicity (free ammonia / NH3) depends on pH and temperature. So without factoring in those parameters, the reading is almost meaningless. Also your particular choice of fertilizer can throw you a curveball as well (I dont know if there is a similar Cricket term)... for instance, in one of my tanks where I exclusively dose Tropica Specialized (contains NH4NO3) I always have elevated levels of Total Ammonia after dosing. I can totally see how a less experienced hobbyists could be led astray in that situation.

Cheers,
Michael
 
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jaypeecee said:
I guess I was not expecting a newbie to measure (and interpret) this parameter. For me, ORP is primarily my measure of dissolved organics.
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Well, while not exactly a newbie, I still don't really quite understand what it is I am measuring.... I am just relying on you to tell me if my numbers are good or bad 😉

Cheers,
Michael
 
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