michael.qian

What do you reckon is the hardest fish to catch? Especially in a heavily decorated or planted tank. Few days ago it took me about 30 minutes to catch the last leopard danio, with two nets, tank is decorated and fairly well planted, had to basically take out all the decorations and some plants. Long time ago it took me almost 2 hours to catch a chinese golden algae eater, but only with a small net that time. So it kind of teaches me to think carefully about what fish I buy, in case I have to sell them and get super frustrated having to catch them. Any stories anyone like to share?

they can grow up to a meter. and I also know they can get friendly and tame, which is a good thing.

how big is your tank? they will grow enormous.

two trays i can see, and one black pad, sellers says media is complete.

no such fish so that's fine. Apparently the tray with the white rings are not full, they are the biological media should I buy more to make it full or 3/4 full? right now it's only about 1/2 full.

oh and this filter comes with a spraybar. That's something that's above and parrallel to the water surface and sprays water back into the tank correct? and has several holes for spraying water back in? If so that's even better.

Sorry confused which is is the inlet and which is the outlet? Inlet is the pipe taking the water into the filter right? and outlet is the pipe taking the water back in the tank? So there will two pipes sticking in the tank? one taking water out and one putting water back in.

Just clicked buy now on a Eheim 2224 canister filter on Trademe for $120. Was wondering when I get it, how would I start it? I've heard it can be hard to get canister filter started. Also how often should I clean it? Thanks a lot

in that case probably best to do gradual changes like I said above, change 2-3 litres every 2 hours or something.

what's novatom? What about gradual water changes? change a little once in a while until most of the 40L is changed.

Don't have a phosphate pad, don't think I can fit on in my filter anyway, it's a Internal Eheim 2010. Though planning to upgrade to a canister but havn't found one yet, limited budget. Did a 25% water change yesterday and today also, and all the blue hygrophila plants I've taken out, so most of the hair algae is gone. I'm thinking if I add a new java fern, if new hair algae starts to grow the SAEs should eat them before they grow further. More inputs appreciated thanks.

I'm thinking of Java Fern, a few bunches of rotala. I have medium lighting. And just sold some fish today, 5X neon tetra and 5X leopard danios, so that's should reduce nitrate a bit.

Hi all Recently my tank is got infested with hair/fuzz/green algae and they killed all my blue hygrophila plants, all 5 of them which was my centerpiece. Got 2 siamese algae eaters on friday and another two yesterday, but it's too late they can't stop the plants dying now. Just had to take out all the blue hygrophila plants as all the leaves are rotting away and branches are breaking off. Was wondering if it's safe to get some new ones straight away? The SAEs will eat the new hair algae growing to stop them spreading but won't eat the old algae. If I get some new ones, say tomorrow, are they likely to be infested with algae again? Thanks a lot

geez how do they get them looking so good????

They should be fine, 20 degrees isn't enough to kill your fish unless its for too long, should be much longer than 10 hours. I do my water change with slightly warm water, or at least water that's not cold, so temperature fluctuation is minimal.

You should change the water 20% weekly anyway, not just to correct things, in fact 20% weekly is sometimes not enough. In a small ammonia, nitrite and nitrate can get to very high levels that can be lethal to the fish. I strongly recommend you to buy a test kit for at least ammonia and nitrite, so you know where you water is at, nitrate as well but if you don't want to spend too much you can leave nitrate out for later.

what's your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate at?

Yup a breeding net is a good option. I don't have one that's why my swordtail babies never make it past the 3 day mark. So far saw 5 babies in there but gone after one or two days.

what's the water parameters? What do you mean by clenched? got a pic?

I use a glass scraper. Works well I do it once about every two weeks but it always comes back.

probably sold as "siamese flying fox". to my understanding though there is no such thing, there is the siamese algae eater and the flying fox.

what kind of snails?

Agree with above bettas shouldn't be kept with guppys, it will nip their tail. Some bettas are very peaceful though, mine is is an example of an extremely peaceful betta, a beautiful red male with long tails and fins. Neon tetras is still a good option if you want a betta in the tank.

I wouldn't go with a bristlenose, 22L is way too small for them. I would go with 4 neons, you could push for 6 though, 1 betta and that's about it. Trying to think of something on the bottom but 22L is a bit too small for most of the bottom feeders I can think off.

yup make sense to put roughest first and finest filter media last. thanks for the help.