Ianab

Caught this little fellow in the stream down in the garden on Monday. Booted the Bristlenose and a couple of guppies from the little tank, took out the heater and dropped him in. He seems to have settled in fine, fed him a pea last night. He has excavated a pile of gravel from under the log to make a better hiding spot and seem happy. Ian

Yes, they work OK, especially for small tanks. I think the 'daylight' colour ones are better. They have a higher frequency, more blue light. They will be OK for low light plants anyway. I use them but dont have any live plants in my tanks, except for some stray java moss. Ian

If you have plenty of java moss in there many of the fry will survive. They are really that easy to breed :lol: Ian

Like Stella says, get a torch and go look in some creeks. I caught this little fella today while we were recovering the neighbours foot bridge (flashflood yesterday). He was hiding under the boards and I just grabbed him when we lifted it out. Checking out his new home in the 20l tank. Ian

Yup.. partial water change is the most important. A bit of gunge and algae wont do any harm, as long as the water is fresh. Ian

Yes, do the water changes. Something is wrong with the water in the tank, some large partial water changes cant make things any worse. The only times I have problems in my tanks is if I get slack with the water changes and gravel vacs. Ian

The DIY filter should do some good, as long as there is some water flowing over the media it will do something, and it will also keep your media alive untill you get the new filter. Cut back on the feeding and do some extra water changes if you have to. I would also consider buying a cheapo filter and bung some of the media in that. Never hurts to have a spare filter running in a tank. I have 5 tanks and 8 filters of various kinds. So in the event of a failure I can shuffle things around to leave every tank with some sort of working filter. Also very handy when setting up a new tank. Ian

The idea is OK, teabags just contain chopped up leaves off a tea bush. But I think real peat is probably cheaper, and wont get your fish hooked on the caffiene in the tea. Wonder how they would react if they didn't get their morning tea or coffee fix? Ian

Run a decent external filter, but have the return to the tank run through a spray bar back into the tank. That spreads out any current, but still lets you keep up a decent filter throughput. The fish dont mind a gentle current, just not the full-on output from a big filter. Ian

Me in my natural element. Cutting up some boards for another fish tank stand maybe. Ian

OK, thats a small hang on back power filter. If its working there should be some whirring pumpy noises and water should be getting pumped in and out of the filter. There should be some sort of sponge pad in the filter that the water flows though. The problem is that the filter has to run for a while (weeks) to build up a population of bacteria to process the waste ammonia. Otherwise this builds up and poisons your fish. In the short term you can do extra partial water changes to reduce the levels of toxins in the water, but you need to have the filter working correctly for the long term. Have a read of this page, it explains in depth what is going on. It doesn't matter what size the tank is, it still has to have working bio-filter of some sort. http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm Ian

OK.. dont buy any more fish untill you get the water quality problems sorted out. You dont mention if your tank has a power filter, if not, you need one. The problem you have is that fish produce ammonia as part of their waste. If you dont have a properly established filter to process this waste it builds up and the fish die. What you can do immediately is change part of the tank water. (1/3 or so) That will reduce the ammonia level. Keep doing that every day untill you get your filter set up and running (may take 2 weeks). You will want to get a fungus treatment for your fish, but unless you improve the water quality it's not going to help. The tank is on the small side for goldfish and they will outgrow it in time. But short term it should be OK, just more difficult to keep the water clean. Good Luck Ian

I would hazard a guess that the peat is actaully a great bio-substrate for the nitrogen cycle bacteria to hang out in. Because there is so much of it and a low number of fish it acts as a filter, even if the water flow in the tank is minimal. Thats my theory anyway. Ian

Yes, just let it cure completely before you put it in the tank. Ian

If you want some little fish that can live in an unheated tank all year round then try some White Cloud Minnows. About the size of guppys and really hardy. Will breed in a planted tank with no special care. Ian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Cloud_Mountain_Minnow

Protein skimmers are worth the effort in saltwater tanks where big water changes are not practical. In a freshwater tank, frequent water changes are a more practical way to keep the water clean. You can set up a continous drip system to change 50% of your tank water per day a lot cheaper and easier than a skimmer. Ian

Wood will be fine to shim the stand with. Get a few different thicknesses of ply and cut suitable sized shim pieces. As long as the weight is spread, wood can support a huge amount of weight. Get a straight edge and a level and make sure the top is flat, use the shims as needed to correct for the floor. If your floor is level within 5mm, you are lucky, but you want the top to be flatter than that. Cheers Ian.

Thats really weird... I have never lost a pleco, I now have 8 (including 2 BN) and the oldest is about 6 years. They are the hardiest fish I have ever kept. If your loaches are happy in the tank then there cant be a serious problem with the water. Whats your tank pH and hardness like? It's almost as if it's a shock water change thing. Your loaches have adjusted to your water, but it's a big change to the new plecos? I'm only guessing, but thats what I would check first. Ian

Can you swap a little bit of media with another filter? Even a handfull of beads swapped over can be a big help. I keep a little spare internal power filter in one of my tanks, that way it's ready to go to at least get some working filtration into any new tank, or if one has to be stripped down and restarted for some reason. Cheers Ian

Thats my understanding too. It's the fat that most fish have trouble digesting, especially from nice fat domestic animals. Beef heart and lean chicken is pretty low in fat, so it shouldn't do any harm if it's fed as part of a balanced diet. Some fish (arowanas etc) do in fact eat small mamals and birds as part of their normal diet, so it cant be all bad. Ian

If you have plecos you should definately be feeding some veges. Start with the basic ones like cucumber and courgette. Green beans and mushroom are popular with all my plecos too. You need to stick a fork or something in them, let them sink, then take out whats left in the morning so it doesn't pollute the tank. Cheers Ian

Both. Ian

What is in the tank? A bristlenose pleco or some otos will make short work of that brown algae and aren't too hard on the plants. Otherwise do everthing you can to get the plants growing to reduce the nutrients that are feeding the algae. Although you have plants they wont be established properly yet and there will still be extra nutrients floating around the tank. Cheers Ian

That sounds like a sensible next step. It not an exact science, just dont drop all your new fish in at once, spread it out over a month or so and you will be fine. Ian

Agreed. Once you have zero ammonia and nitrite for a couple of days, then add a couple more fish. Do that each week untill you have a full population of fish and a fully cycled tank to match. Ian