Blackadder

Probably the waters fairly soft and carbon dioxide dissolving in water will be forming carbonic acid, dropping your pH a bit

I used to use it in my filter and it was fine and I've seen it used in tanks before.

I used a water based paint on mine and that worked fine as well. I would probably scratch off easier than oil based paint, but you don't get much wear round the back and sides of your tank once you have it in place.

It is if you want a tank as sad looking as that one No wonder the waters yellow.

I can probably get you some, do you want the Nitrate?

How much Potassium salt are you after?

Thanks for the welcome everyone, will see you in the forums. Yeah I do like Blackadder, what gave it away?

I'd make sure the whold base has polystyrene, just put another 6cm polystyrene strip along one edge.

Make sure the pipes leading to and from the filter are full of water, otherwise it'll just be trying to pump air. You could suck on the outlet hose till you see water coming up the hose, then stick it back in the tank and it should run. I've had one of these running for years no problems.

I'm thinking about making rocks and caves for a Malawi tank and I'm wondering if anybody has done this and how sucessfully it went. I've looked on the net and found some stuff about coating polystyrene with cement, so I was thinking of trying this, but I was wondering if the oxides you can get to color the cement are toxic to fish. Also has anyone tried acid washing the cement after its dried so you can use it in the tank quicker or do you just have to soak it for ages? Are there any other good ways of making rocks and caves?

I've been lurking in the background occasionally reading the forums and finally joined recently so thought its time I said hello. I've kept fish for a few years and only have a couple of tanks set up at the moment. I'm thinking about trying to make a rock background and caves for my Malawi tank but I'll leave a question in the DIY section about that.

My 1500x500x500 tank in the lounge is only 6mm glass and its ok so far, been using it for years. Looking at the replies maybe I should be worried though.