Recent content by Arinon

Right now I have a 4ft tank whose primary inhabitants are five, seven year-old clown loaches sitting at about 5 inches each. They chill out with some corys, some rummynose, a couple of SAEs, and a couple of Bristlenose. While I've been in the hobby for years, thus far I've kept things...

MTS strikes again. Have a 75g setup for a couple months that I'm still on the fence about stocking and I stumbled into a 30g tank and figured I wanted to try live plants, see what I can do. Need a few pointers. Even reading some info on lighting I'm a little confused. As I already picked up...

Ok another 30% change today, still reasonably high nitrites so looks like the changes will be daily for a while. Was really rough on the soda test but filled large bucket and added the soda. Before pH was 6.0-6.4 (damn test has really close colours in this range) after soda was very close to...

Since Day 19 I've been running 25-30% PWC every other day. Its not the work involved that worries me, but the potential to change things like pH and KH really quickly if I do something like 50% every day. I checked the water right from the well (before it hits the softer) and its at ~7.2 Day...

The story so far… Tank: 75 gallons Substrate: 2 parts PFS to 1 part Black Moon Sand Temperature: 78-79 Source water is well water through a water softener using softening salt. Parameters as tested on Day 0 PH: 7.3 NH3: 0.0 NitrIte/NitrAte: 0.0 gH: ~40ppm kH: ~60ppm Day 1- 6...

Its just some local brand. Old Country Ammonia All Purpose Cleaner. I contacted the manufacturer CP Industries to ask about it. Its just plain old ammonia at 4% nothing else. Dirt cheap too.

I’m about 2-3 days away from water in my tank. Going to be doing a fishless cycle and I wanted to make sure I don’t OD the tank or get myself into more work then I need. Assume 70 gallons or 265L of tank water This gives (1ml/1000L) * 265L = 0.265mL of ammonia to equal 1ppm I’m working with a...

Ouch! Not looking to spend that for my first fish. I'm basically looking for a social, schooling fish, that gets 5"-7" and has the shark/torpedo shape, and is an active mid/top swimmer.

After looking around a bit for something a little smaller to take the place of Balas I came across the Denison Barb (Redline Shark?). I should be able to run 3-5 of these guys much easier with less problems. I hope. Are these a reasonably common fish?

Planned on cycling with just straight up ammonia after I track some down. Just going to use some gravel or decorations from the other tank (not mine) to help it along.

Finally picked up a 75g tank (48x18x20) the other day at a LFS and ordered just about everything else I need online. Picked up some black textured paint for the back as I’ve seen a few pics floating around here and it looks much better then most backgrounds. Once everything else gets here I...

As partial as I am to the internet as the ultimate reasource there is something to be said for media you can hold in your hand. Looking for some good solid texts on: a) Setting up and maintaining FW tanks. Cycling, lighting, heating, water changes, diseases etc. b) Species guide for FW fish...

Thanks guys. Also if I'm look at tank dimensions am I further ahead to look for a 'long' tank? Like Xx18"x18" for the Balas? Not having it jut out of the wall as much would certainly be a plus. And would there be anyway to work a small school of something smaller 2-4" that wouldn't be a...

Looking to get my feet wet (sorry) in the hobby and have spend a few weeks, checking out LFSs, online sites and forums such as this one, and generally trying to do my homework. I’ve tenatively decided on the Bala Shark as the fish I wanna base my tank around. The trouble I have is that pretty...