Recent content by smartybones

Its a 100 letre tank. With plenty of plants. I have 3 bronze Corrys. 8 neons and 2 chocolate gouramis... All doing well.... The gouramis look like they are attached with a little string of elastic.. Never more than a few inches apart. The corrys have not stopped ferreting about everywhere...

Ugh... Its horrid waiting to the tank to cycle. That's the only downside of fishless cycle. There are so many conflicting and slightly difrent guides to fishless cycling that's its difficult to decide which is the definitive guide.

My preference would be for a external filter but my biggest constraint is the space surrounding the tank. It was fitted into a space as part of the refurbishment of our bar that used to be a firepace. I get that a lot of people have issues with this filter but as they have been sold worldwide...

There are so many difrent guides of fishless cycling and the fact that its not an exact science makes it open to all sorts of opinion. The whole point of fishless cycling is so you don't expose your fish to the stresses of poisonous environments and to that end no2 should drop to 0ppm before...

23 quid.... I am not sure if they do mail order though We'll worth the effort of calling into the shop if its within a reasonable drive....

Needed to replace the filter in my tank and after looking about and reading reviews the fluval U2 was perfect for my 100 letre tank.... I found an exelent supplier around 15 to 20 minute drive away from me, the big blue aquarium warehouse http://www.bigblueaquarium.co.uk/ They will price match...

I agree that it can be done efficiently fish in and you could argue that someone who does not monitor the water correctly while cycling should not be keeping an aquarium in the first place. You could also argue that you can train a dog to not pull on its lead while out walking by using a choker...

Just to throw my 2c in.... Corrys, like most bottom feeders that sift through the substrate prefer sand.... And also using fish to cycle a tank these days is just wrong... It was the way it was done in times gone by when we knew know better... We also used to use ponies to work in mines and...

I tend to use the light on my phone to check the readings. The LED on the flash is quite an intense bright light it makes it easy. I overlap the test tube with the colours on the chart and angle the light so the tube casts no shadows... The colours are never going to match exactly. There are...

Looks like its an app that a lot of people could make use of..... I think I will set about putting it together... Sooner over later... I wonder if api would stump up to cover some developer costs?

Its not as hard as that... Its just a matter of taking a picture of the test result and the colour chart in the same picture and comparing the test tube colour and results colour to the nearest match. So long as the test result card and the test tube are taken in exactly the same lighting...

I double checked the no2 test on tap water again and its perfect... Its finally dropped to 0.25ppm tonight but the no3 has shot up to 40/60ppm which is really where it should be At the end of cycling... Its still processing out 4ppm of ammonia in 24 hours or less.... Its looking good for a...

Yeah... I am slightly colour blind too... Mine is between shades of yellow and green... Fortunately the shades on the colour chart for nh3/nh4 are far enough apart that I get away with it... The no3 colours between 40ppm and 80ppm are very close to me too. The thing is, for either reading I...

Yeah.. We have an airshow at the beach every year.. This year it is on the 11th and 12th August. It's an exelent day and we'll worth the trip. The red arrows are doing both days.. Battle of Britain flyby with as spitfire, hurricane and Lancaster bomber.. The Vulcan bomber is back this year...

Thank you Dan... Are you coming up for the airshow Shelly? Its on over two days this year.. The Sunday and Monday? Do you come up for the day or do you stay over? Me and the missus run one of Blackpool's many guest houses.. The illuminations switch on is usually good to... But they are...