the-obstacle

ahh, yeah, i guess I countered mine with co2, plants, lights and ferts very early on. It quickly turned to green algae which I was then able to manage.

the rams will eat the pellets too if they're left on the bottom (and last long enough before / after the coriies have a go). The other option is to give them bloodworms once or twice a week as the cories tend to be pretty damn slow to eat those and it'll take a while for the neons to get through them.

as above - the only reason you need carbon is to strip chemicals from the water - usually medication. Unless you have a specific thing you know is in the water that you want to remove it's best to leave the carbon out. Usually carbon lasts about a week though. I have a container on hand for whenever I've finished treating a disease and need to get the meds out. I've used it once

The AR380 doesn't need a poly base - it has a plastic rim that supports it so if it sat on poly it wouldn't touch the base anyway.

Yep - lasts about 3 weeks but drives everybody nuts while they've got it.

I just did a 50% water change and my fish are happier than they were beforehand. I'm expecting to find panda cory eggs tomorrow... :roll:

boil it first to be sure? No chance of a water delivery truck bringing you a tank load of water? We used to get that once every few weeks in summer but we lived a little closer to civilisation I suspect.

1) might be an issue in the darker spots but you'll notice the plants either growing to the light or not spreading in these areas. 2) The lights should have their own power cord so yeah, a simple timer is $8 from the supermarket 3) The lights on my aquaone do nothing noticeable to the temperature of the water. Worst case they make the heater work less I guess...?

Really? I thought the rule was change as much as you need to to keep the nitrate levels down? I'd say it's all down to your stock levels as to how much to change. I have to change at least 100% per week because my tank is very heavily stocked.

I've got an AR126 and it's a great tank for a fish only or a little plant tank. I have ambulia growing in one corner but it needs trimming weekly. In a bedroom you'd hear it but it's at the volume that I think you'd get used to it. Be warned - 5 guppies becomes 50 guppies in one of these tanks very quickly. If i had the choice I'd go for the 380 for the extra 50% volume for not much more size.

I've got one too. I had my plants in the holding tank as I was out of space in the community tank and when I went to put my panda fry in there there was already a fry of some sort in there. I'm pretty sure he's a cory of some sort but looks totally different to the pandas so I'm assuming he came from Fishkeepa with the plants.

surely not? you haven't got the extra 25mm of space difference between 3x2 and 4x2? I suspect you might be overengineering your room if your tolerances are that tight.

Doesn't meant he 2x4 will be more expensive. 2x3 is a standard size but it's not produed in anywhere near the numbers that 2x4 is so I'd expect to pay less for 2x4 in some/most cases.

Did you rig the halides up after you couldn't sell them? go on, you know you want to :lol:

Those are brilliant. I especially like the water ones

I'd treat it like a 'new' cycle. You started with ammonia, now you've got nitrite from the new bacteria that are colonising and some nitrate from the existing bacteria in the filter. Keep the water changes up and wait for ammonia and nitrite to go to 0.0 then do the water changes as often as needed to get the nitrate to a comfortable level. I found my fish got the most stressed by the nitrite in the cycle process so this is probably the cause.

Closed. but don't seal the top so you can open it up to get the litter tray out. Don't cut the entry way all the way to the sides of the face you're cutting it on. Oh, and the best part is when they scratch the litter after using it the box holds it all in

I had 2 kittens that did this when we first got them. They used to sleep on my bed which was not pleasant for the first few weeks. I found that having the litter in the room and keeping it in a box that was big enough for the tray and the cat to be in there at the same time really helped. Basically get a big enough box and cut a door on one side only. The cats found they had some privacy and happily went back to using the litter tray. My brother had the same problem and found the 'private box' to be the solution for him too.

I've got a master test kit for amonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH levels. If I was to minimise it to the absolute necessary parts it'd be PH and nitrate.

scrape it off once a week.

yeah, but you grow plants to freakish proportions! :roll: :lol: :lol: Mine is hardly growing... I think I'm going to move it out to the planted tank this weekend.

+1

I suspect he meant releasing it in PDF form instead of an editable word doc or similar. Maybe I'm wrong though...

Like a big washer so the poly doesn't pull itself over the nail head. or use roofing nails - the ones with the big washer type thing on them for corogated iron roofing.

Very nice. 8) What's the sand? It looks really really natural in there.