SpidersWeb

Just a common wild guppy IMO You see that colouration a lot, and I beleive its considered the 'wild' or dominant strain, since its normally what you get when you cross-breed strains. Hopefully some more experienced guppy breeders can confirm or deny this. It has been a long time since I've had guppies.

The most humane way (without vet drugs) IMO is the put it in a bag, wack bag VERY hard over table etc, put in bin. I'm too much of a pansy for that though, did it once and just kind of can't bring myself to do it again, so I just setup a hospital tank, and let nature take its course. I can't feed them to the Jaguar Cichlid anymore sold him on and dont want to teach my Clown Knife bad tricks.

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I've had good experiences with the cheapies at hutt pets, Haliea or something, work well and come with good suction cups. Definately good value for your moola. AquaOne's have worked well for me too. I've got two Shark internals which I almost want to smack against the concrete. Suction was pathetic, and the power has become pathetic. I have a third whom motor has actually died. So I'm not a Shark ADV fan anymore. Just remember, internals DO clog, so make sure you can see if the flow is stopping. You can do this by either using it to push surface water, or putting an air bubbler on it, that way when you see reduced flow you clean it, otherwise (like myself) you forget and one day your nitrite builds up and oh noes! I'm not a fan of hang-on the back filters either. Numerous problems I've had I just refuse to use them anymore. I either go $30-50 internal, or $150-185 external. Externals are definately the most reliable, and require the least maintenance.

The bacteria in a cycled aquarium turns ammonia in to nitrite, then another bacteria does nitrite to nitrate. There is no ammonia because it has been turned in to nitrite So you're passed the half way point. Fish should be fine, 0.25 is tolerable, but if it gets up higher than .5 you'll want to do a partial water change until its back to around 0.25 at least. The higher it is, the better the bacteria will cycle, but the higher the risk of nitrite poisioning. Its a fine balance. Aquarium Salt will certainly help although I haven't used it personally for this. Best thing is, once its done, you hopefully never have to do it again.

Sounds perfect to me. More noodles are better yep.

The pH of tap water changes once it's in the tank, as gasses like chlorine etc evaporate. Your buffer levels seem fine to me (kH and gH). Raising the buffer level (KH) also raises the pH. If your pH is 8, and the kH was at the level mentioned above, I'd suspect something has 'poisioned' the tank OR check your test kit, sometimes if the tubes aren't completely clean the previous test chemicals make a huge effect on the water. If your pH is 8 and kH/gH is also higher, then something is buffering the water up (like shells etc).

Looks like bloodworms to me. Harmless larvae, fish love them, especially live ones yummy

:lol: :lol:

For 700mm high I'd think you'd want T5 fluoro. Don't think you'll have luck on that budget, unless you make it yourself. T5's are more efficent and provide more intense light. (Aqua One AL20D is T8, as is most of the 'cheaper' :roll: lights). If you DIY it I've seen great results from the 110W 6500K grow lamps + fittings from switched on gardner on deep tanks, but they need to be hung from the roof, and cost more closer to $350 I think. Adding more lights will make the tank brighter, but wont light up the bottom.

Yeah I have gone from 5 to 50 GBAs in the last week, convicts everywhere, angels have laid eggs twice (on the filter inlet :roll: ) twice this month.

Sounds like he's just 'chewing' to me? I have various species of fish (kribensis through to clown knife) that do this, each time it gets sucked up a small bit falls off which they eat, then they repeat the process. Kind of like how us humans eat a drumstick for example.

Sorry I can't help, but warm temperature was mentioned earlier, just wanted to add that (due to moving), I had moved my WCMM in to a tropical tank, they were colourful and happy at 26C.

whoops

Completely take it back, had to move my GBA colony last night, there is at least 50 of them from a single spawn, blew my mind-hole.

Do your best to not disturb the ceramic noodles etc, definately do not use a brush on them. I leave that tray completely alone, and just rinse the foam in old tank water. As above, filter should not be clean, just shouldn't be clogged.

Yeah it's a real no-no. I wrap mine and throw them in the bin, or for smaller ones put them in the garden where young hands don't have access.

If it stays at 0, then yep Sounds like the hard part is over

Small salt doseages DO help with nitrite poisoning. There are lots of articles about how adding salt to your water temporarily has big benefits for fish (at the right time, dont just do it willy nilly of course!). Adding salt to the water will help prevent the nitrite from entering the fishes body (which contains a lower salt concentration). But personally rather than adding things, what I do is partial warm water changes (30%) with water ager, until the Nitrite reading just hits almost 0 or just on 0 then leave it. You don't want to 100% completely remove ALL the nitrite because the bacteria need something to eat to encourage growth Nitrite can kill fish quite quickly though so good luck!

You can't. Most fast moving fish will eat the finnage. Siamese Fighters (Bettas) are normally best on a tank by themselves, with maybe a few bottom dwellers.

As above, never ever cleaned them. What builds up is usually algae etc, I've never heard of it causing a blockage. You can cover the pipes in black tape if you don't want to see it (just make sure the black tape doesn't touch or come too close to the aquarium water) which will also kill the algae. There are cleaning tools (pipe cleaners) available for this purpose, but there is no real reason to clean them. Only bit I used to clean occasionally is the spray bar, as bits of algae etc can jam up the small outlets eventually. I just shook it around in hot water.

That'd be it. Something would have been decomposing in the gravel.

Yeah they're not as cheap as common bristlenose, but they breed the same way (although I've noticed in smaller numbers). I've got one batch of eggs under one of my males at the moment. I'd expect to pay around the 10-15$ mark for a young GBA, $80 for an adult. Although prices are dropping as more local breeders breed.

That's probably ok, although you shouldn't really disturb your external filter that much, I never clean my externals keeps the bacteria much happier. If you're not having problems then go for your life though.

I (personally) don't vac around plants etc, just open areas where its going to get eww.