If you have fish that like to nibble live plants you will find the uplift continually being clogged by plant debris. Java fern is a bugger for getting sucked up too.
Black muck you can scrub off sounds like it may be a rotten bit. Can you cut that bit off and make sure it is at the back or has a plant in front to hide the cut?
If you have flakey bits of wood drifting around there is definitely a rotten bit of log somewhere.
That last green thing looks like a siphon tube with the net missing (from the wide round open bit). You would connect it via an air hose to a pump and it would suck up the waste. Never did a very good job in my experience.
What neat looking animals. I suggest you back off a bit when you take the photo then it might focus on the dragon rather than the things behind the dragon
I would like to correct the initial statement made that there are over 2500 members in the FNZAS. There are not! There are over 2500 members to this site - which happens to belong to the FNZAS.
Registering on this site does not make a person a member of the FNZAS
I doubt very much the saltwater section will be split into categories any time soon. Not enough traffic in it.
I believe many shops have a deal with particular brands who give them good deals if they only stock their products and it is very hard to get other products into shops for this reason.
Nothing wrong with a pH of 7.4 - 7.6 if it is stable. The neons will be upset cos of the damage done, not the pH as much. Although they originally come from more acidic waters they are adaptable and these days cope with quite a wide pH range.
I have always been told BNs need wood in their diet but I suspect the bottom dweller pellets available these days have enough wood lignin(?) in them to do the job. Don't know though as I've always had driftwood in my tanks :roll:
It should be locked. As Rockerpeller says it gets the air out plus helps to fill up with water. Whatever you do, don't take it out with the inlet hose still turned on cos water goes EVERYWHERE!! :lol: