js

Thanks for your answer. My tank is a 200ltr community, so I think even though I have plants, they don't have much chance of surving in there either. I now see there are breeding nets with a tray halfway in them, so that the fry drop through when mum gives birth. Perhaps I should have had this setup? Do these work? Do the fry actually fall through the grates and stay down there?

Hi there I have a platy and guppy who were pregnant and I bought a mesh breeding container for them. Amazingly, I actually got to see 2 baby guppies being born on Saturday night, but they got eaten straight away and there are no more babies to be seen. Not sure how many she should have had. The platy has now gone back to her normal size, so I think she must have had hers at some time too, but eaten them all. How do you manage to keep any babies?

Hi there Just wondering what people use to clean the glass on their tanks? My water always looks crystal clear but my glass is slowly getting covered in very hard to remove green algae. I have always used a microfibre cloth which is great, but I notice now it's not quite strong enough to get it all off. Have tried a magnetic cleaner, but this didn't do anything more than my cloth and I am scared it will scratch the glass. I have checked previous posts, which say to use vinegar and baking soda, but that would be for an empty tank. What do you use for a tank which is up and running?

I have purchased a clown loach on Wednesday night to go with my current two. He was in a tank at the pet shop with one other, and he was swimming around really busy and had very black stripes, while the other one was less active and very dull in colour. So I picked the busy bright one and when I released him into my tank I noticed that he had little white cloudy dots the size of a pin head on each of his eyes. My other two loaches have lovely sparkly black eyes. Do you think this was a stress thing, or would it be some kind of disease? I am not sure if I should take him back and swap him for the other one. He has been hiding since I put him into my tank, so haven't been able to get another good look, but he did come out for a couple of seconds last night and I could see the white was still there. He is a bit bigger than the two loaches I currently have, so don't think he should be intimidated.

Thanks for your answers, I feel better now that at least he/she isn't unwell. Yes this is the smaller of the two, so perhaps that could have something to do with it. Would like to get some more, but none in our shops at the moment, so will have to grab another couple when they're next in store.

Hi there I have two clown loaches in my 200ltr tank and one of them keeps losing his black stripes, almost on a daily basis. They fade right out to a silvery grey, and almost disappear completely, then they come back and he looks normal again. It happens quite often when I go near the tank to look at them. Do you think he is getting a fright, losing his colour and then when he recovers, his colour comes back? Each episode only lasts about a minute or less. Other than this he looks perfectly happy and is eating well.

Thanks for your replies. I am pretty sure it is fluffy/fuzzy rather than lumpy, and cannot see any red areas. I am emptying their container daily and refilling with fresh tank water. They are eating well, especially the platties, and I am keeping an eye on the ram, as he doesn't eat as much. I have one extra platty in there, as I just noticed a small area on the side of her head that looked slightly discoloured, but not sure if this is just a natural mark on her body or not, so thought I would treat her too, just in case. Have seen no change in that either, so presume she doesn't have anything wrong with her. I will have a go at applying the tonic directly to the area tonight, as ryanjury has advised. Sorry for sounding a bit thick (I am quite new to this fishkeeping business), but when you say I need to add an air stone, do you mean like the whole tank set up, with tubing and pump, or do I get an air shell from the shop? Using a container floating in the aquarium, I am not sure how I would set up another air system? Thanks once again. Everyone on here is fantastic, and your advice is greatly appreciated.

Hi there Just after some opinions. I have a platty which has a cottony growth on the end of his tail, and has now spread right across the end of it, so am presuming fin/tail rot. My blue ram then got a bit on the end of his tail. My tank is approx 200ltr community and all other fish look fine at the moment. I treated with BioPet Antibacterial & Fungal (because I don't want to turn the silicone blue in my tank), after the 7 days of treatment, there was no difference to their tails. I have now had them floating in a plastic container filled with tank water and a dose of Wunder Tonic. I am filling the container with new tank water and dosing with the tonic again each night. Have been doing this for about 3 days now, and still haven't noticed any improvement. I have looked at getting Melafix and dosing my whole tank, as this will not discolour my silicone either, but see there is also a product called Pimafix. Could someone please recommend which one I should use? I have no experience with either product. Or is there a better method/product still? Many thanks

Thanks Caryl, that's a good idea about the internal filter.

Not sure if this is the correct area to post this question. I just need someone to explain how these tanks work are there different types? I have a couple of platties which suddenly get extremely swollen bellies, but the next day they are the same size again, so I think they must have had babies over night, but they would all get gobbled up in my tank. Could I get one of those Isolation tanks, put the patty in there and hope in the morning there are babies? Could I also use the same tank if I had a sick fish, to put the treatment in that little amount of water and not the rest of my tank (approx 200ltr). They say they float? Is this correct. I have a glass tank with glass lids, so not sure about clipping them on, as some others also suggest. Hope this isn't a stupid question, but I would like to know how they work before I buy one. Trying to avoid needing to set up another tank, when I don't really have any room.

Thanks JenniferH, your advice is appreciated. All of my fish seem happy, so I will just leave things as they are. Just can't explain the few deaths I had, but perhaps the fish were just unwell.

Well I got my water tested yesterday and Ammonia's, Nitrites & Nitrates were all perfect, however my PH is about 7.4 to 7.6. I tested our water straight from the tap (we have our own bore supply), on Friday night, and this came out below neutral (about 6.2 to 6.4). Very confusing as this is what I fill my tank with. However, I left the test tube on the bench and when I came out yesterday morning it was reading 7.4 to 7.6 again. Does water change when sitting? We did approx 30% water change this morning and I tested straight after that the results were low. Have just retested again now, and they are back up at about 7.4 to 7.6. Can anyone tell me what I should do, and is this sort of fluctuation normal?

Thanks for your replies. Looks like I should get a kit. Will PM you Scott - thanks for the offer.

My new 4ft tank (approx 200ltrs) has been up and running since mid January now, and so far everything has been going great. I do water changes (approx 25 to 30%) weekly and have an Atman 1200 external filter. In the last two weeks, I have had one gourami, 2 bolivian rams and my lovely big bristlenose (approx 10-12cm) die. The bristlenose I just can't explain as he was eating well and seemed perfectly healthy. The two rams and gourami, however were not eating and just eventually died. No sign of fungus etc on them. One of the Rams was in a "Specials tank" for $4 at the pet shop, so perhaps not well when I got him? Although my friend got one too and hers is fine. She doesn't do much water changes, fills her tank back up with a hose from outside (so water is cold), doesn't add ager (is on town water), puts new fish into her tank with the water they came in etc and never has any problems. I try to be so careful and do everything "properly" and it's my fish that are dying..... very annoying. All my other fish seem perfectly happy and are eating well. (Neons, platies, bristlenose, 1 x gourami). I have checked my PH and the test only went up to 7.4 and it was definitely that high, quite possibly higher. Do I need to buy a master test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate? I have rung the pet shops in Dunedin and none of them sell master kits and they tell me I don't need one. I feed my fish everynight (and everything is eaten), but one shop has told me I should only be feeding every 3 days. Another shop said if there was a problem with ammonia etc, All of my neons would be the first to belly up. I want to add a couple of clown loaches, but am not sure if this is wise at the moment. Any suggestions would be appreciated thanks.

Sorry, I was really stupid putting about the 1250. The width of the roll was 1250, but there is a whole roll of it and I only needed about half a meter off the role. But we can just run it longways, so I will see if I can get him to give me a couple of meters in length for you, which will be 1250 wide. Hope that makes sense. I will check with him this weekend and then PM you. Pics of your tank looked great by the way.

Yes please. I would really appreciate that. Well I was having the same dilema with having a join in my paper, when my husband came up with the brilliant idea of asking our friend who is a builder for some of that black building paper that they wrap houses in. It was perfect. The roll is 1250 long and my tank is 1220, so no joins and then we just cut off a piece deep enough for the height. I'm sure he wouldn't mind giving me some more, if you let me know how much you need. Assuming that your tank is not wider than 1250? The paper is nice and thick too, which may be insulating like intended for houses (to a small degree anyway).

Thought you might ask that. Will have to go and charge up the camera and then try to put a pic on here. (Haven't done that yet either). Might be tomorrow before I get a chance to try and put it on. What does the powerglo do? Is that the one for the plants? And then what colour is the plain the plain 10000?

Yes it is quite nice, but I haven't had much luck with this one in my little tank. Had to keep replacing it. The stalks and undersides of the leaves are red and the top sides of the leaves are a dark green colour.

I have just bought some from the pet shop, so don't even know the names of them. I'm not intending on getting really technical like a lot of people on this forum have, so haven't put a plant base under the gravel etc.

I have read the Lighting FAQ which is a great article, but a little bit beyond me. Could someone please help. I have just upgraded from a 54ltr (60x30x30) tank which I had a 62cm Aqua One single tube light running with a tube called "Atman Tri Power Light" 15000k 20W. This seemed to give a blueish lighting which really showed up the colours of my fish beautifully. (Have neons which looked great with this light). The new 4ft (120 x 48 x 38) has come with a 62cm Aqua One double tube light running with one tube called "Gro Lux F18W/Gro T8" and the other one "Philips TLD 18W/840 New Generation). This only lights up the middle of the tank, so we have decided to get a 4ft long light, but not sure what colour tubes etc to get. The tank doesn't get much sun and we have put a black background on it (the small tank was in the same spot but with a picture background (so brighter than the new one). I have a gravel substrate and plants in there. Am thinking the lighting on the smaller tank looked better, but perhaps this is because it lit the whole tank up? Have just checked with a Double Tube Aqua One 4 foot light for sale and apparently it come with 2 "sun light" tubes? I really don't know the difference between any of them. Any help would be appreciated.

Everything seems to be working great at the moment. Other than the noisy pump, which I think I will have to replace with a quieter more expensive one. Regarding the filter, can someone tell me how often I would need to clean this out. Sorry for all the questions, but there was no instruction manual with it and I have never had a canister filter before.

That's a good idea about putting them in trays. All is fixed again now, so hopefully fingers crossed there will be no more floods. Now, 2 more questions. Had to buy a new pump. Its a Hailea 2202 (same as the one which blew up). It's extremely noisy. We have it sitting on a piece of sponge, but it still seems noisier than the old one which was loud enough, when you are sitting in the lounge watching tv. Any ideas on how to quieten it down? Also, when rummaging in the box of extras I got with my tank and filter, I have found a clear blue tinted plastic grill type thing, which is clearly in the shape of each of the trays in the filter. Should I have this in the filter? The person I got it off obviously didn't use it, but I am wondering I I should be, and if so in which section of the filter would you put it? Thanks again for your help.

I have just rung the pet shop to check about the non return valve. Feeling rather sick (or perhaps I should be feeling lucky), because the guy said it could have drained the whole tank. Talking hubby into 200ltr + from a 54litre may have ended in divorce. Ok, just about to head back into town and get a new pump and non return valve. Is there any other things I should know about. Feeling a little bit nervous about the possibility of a good 200ltrs of water pouring into the lounge. Another winters day here, so good excuse to light the fire and help dry out the carpet! Thanks for your responses.

Well, we got up this morning to find the cupboard under the tank very wet with water. After cleaning up, we have found it came from the air pump. We turned this off before going to bed (as there are no fish in the tank yet). It is connected to a bubble tube thing which we have running along the back wall. But it seems that because we turned it off, the water returned up the line to the pump. About 10 minutes ago the pump went bang! So now I need a new one. Has anyone had this problem? If the power goes out then this would happen again. Can you get non return valves for them. In my little tank I just had it connected to a little air stone and this problem never occurred.

Thanks for your help. Yes, have just got it all working now. Tank is full and just have to wait for the cloudiness to disappear. Think the filter was missing the walking stick part which curves over the top of the tank, but my husband has managed to get it all going. Very exciting, have been trying to talk him into this for some time now! Just happened to see sponge filters for the Aqua One CF1200 at the pet shop today and realised that ours might be missing bits. It has 3 trays and the 1st one only had noodles, then the 2nd one had noodles and a piece of very old looking wool filter and then the 3rd one had noodles and a new looking black sponge filter. But according to the Aqua One box, it looked like I should have a blue sponge in tray 1 and 2 and the wool should be with the black sponge in tray 3. So I have bought a new wool filter and 2 blue sponges and hope this is correct. Thanks once again for your help. No doubt I will be asking more questions soon.