Recent content by smidget

My well water is the same way and I haven't had any problem with using it for water changes the way it is. We drink it too and run it in the coffee maker. The only thing I've noticed is that my tank's colour is slightly yellowish, probably not noticable to anyone other than me.

A sculpin? They're pretty bumpy and spikey. We have them around here in cold water bodies, don't know about Ohio though and I've never seen them a foot long.

Thanks for the info everyone, I'll be sure to pass it along :)

A friend of mine is building a house and has decided to build an aquarium into one of the walls complete with a drain and tap for water changes. The water comes from a well and is quite high in iron (makes the toilet bowl orange). Are high iron levels harmful to the fish, or is this maybe...

Mine will eat flakes but that's only because that's what they were fed in the store. I tend to go with brine shrimp now though. I don't think too many actually like flakes. I agree with Felf with being overstocked, I have 2 dwarf puffers and a bristlenose pleco in a 10

I'm not sure how comparable these species you guys have to some of the FW mussel species I worked with but I work for a conservation authority and we did a lot of work with species-at-risk mussels. I've never kept any in an aquarium but when sampling for them in a river they don't always have...

Smoosh them-good fishie snack. Or i've heard someone else on here suggest leaving a piece of lettuce in your tank overnight and in the morning it should have attracted most of your snails so just remove it.

I had red coloured swordtails in with my angels and didn't have a problem.

same here.

Media is what you put in your filter basket. There are a bunch of different choices such as charcoal, ones that remove phosphates, ones that provide an area for the benficial bacteria (bio-max rings) etc. As severum mama said, the aqua clears have a reuseable sponge block. In my aqua clear...

Oh, I forgot to mention cory cats. I had a couple in with my puffers to clean up after them since they are such messy eaters.

I haven't had any algae issues with my tank really, maybe just some tiny spots on the glass that I use my magnet scrubber on when I do my vacuuming. Other than that the algae is well in check.

I love my ghost shrimp, they do a great job cleaning and are fun to watch. I just found that they got eaten once in a while depending on what you kept them with. I also found ottos to be pretty good cleaners and of course, snails. I'm not a big fan of the alage eaters (not sure which one I...

I got a fluval 204 from Big Al's online- They had the best prices and it was here quick. It was really easy to put together as well- I love mine

I have a couple of dwarf puffers in a planted tank with a bristlenose pleco and they all get along fine. That being said, I wouldn't keep any other "friends" with puffers.