Search results

I have 2 fish that have gotten quite skinny over the last couple of weeks. One is a blood fin tetra that got that skinny in the the belly that his spine looks like it is curving, the other is a female guppy that is has really gotten thin. They bothe try to eat but everything they take in thier...

I use dicalite swimming pool diatom powder as you can see have way down the page in this link that its swimpool grade is used for aquariums. http://www.grefco.com/Diatom_filter_aid.htm

Money saving tip for you 7Enigma: get your diatom powder at a swimming pool supply place, far cheaper and works just as well. In Canada where I am the local pet supply place sells 1 pound boxes of diatom powder for 11.99 but I got a 10 pound bag and the pool supply place for 12.99.

That though crossed my mind as well, my lights do have a sturdy lexan shield over them. I never had a problem though. In fact one time when I was rearranging my aquarium I had a heck of a time trying to get the suction cups to let go so I could move the wood.

I bought 4 pack of 1 1/2 inch diameter suction cups from Walmart for 80 cents, I screwed 3 of them to the bottom of the driftwood then stuck it to the bottom of my aquarium. Worked like a charm.

Thanks for the replies, I think I will just rinse them off in my tap water, it is from a well and there is no water softeners on it.

Thanks for the input people. newfound77951, I was always under the impression that even rinsing in tap water from a well would destroy good bacteria that resides on the filter. But perhaps that might be more trouble to tanks with very little substrate or no biological media. If I rinse mine off...

How do I rinse my filter. I used to swish them around in a bucket of aquarium water from my gravel vac/siphon, this would clean them and preserve the beneficial bacteria. But now with the python all my aquarium water goes down the sink drain. I have a fluval 304 which has 4 filter pads, maybe I...

Personally I agree with fearlessfich, I would give it a try, but keep an eye on him for a day or two. I put a male betta in my 29g community tank and he did quite well, even with the fancy male guppies with the big flowing tales and fins.

There could be a lot of crushed shell in it that could mess with you water parms.

Just rinse off the filter bag and it can be used many times. The actual filtering is done by the diatom powder which coats the filter bag and prevents the bag from gumming up with waste.

The formula with which to find an equilateral hexagon's area is 2.5981 times the length of one side squared. 12*12=144 144*2.5981= 374 inches square * 30 = 11223 cubic inches 11223/231 = 48.58 gallons. Pro bably a 50 gallon tank.

newfound, I don't understand why your aquarium is not clear yet after so many times with the diatom filter. The frst time I used mine the water was so green that I only had a couple of inches of visibilty in my tank, could not see the back at all. About 20 minutes with the vortex on the first...

newfound The diatom powder you had laying around work was for swimming pools I hope. If it is food grade diatom powder (or for insect control) it is not recommended for filtering. Aquarium and pool diatom powder goes through a heating process to fuse some the diatom skeletons together to make...

The instructions call for a cup, but I find about 1 and 1/3 cup works best. The diatom filter will filter everything down to 1 micron, it will even filter Ich as well as other suspended parasites and some algae spores out of the water. The difference it makes in water clarity actually has to be...

Swimming pool supply places have diatomaceous earth at a lot lower price. I have not tried it in my diatom filter yet though.

Here is the liquid fert I am using for micro: http://www.hagen.com/uk/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=121&PROD_ID=01076740030101 - 236 ml(8oz) - Fertiliser for freshwater plants - Fulfills the nutritive requirements of plants - Replenishes valuable nutrients - Optimizes growth - Contains...

So there is a chance I could have a calcium/magnesium deficiency in my tank? I don't have a test kit to measure calcium or magnesium (or is that what the kh/gh kit does) so I don't know what my levels are. My water parameters are: phosphate = 1.0 nitrate = 15 ph = 6.8-7.0 (this put my co2 at...

Thanks for the info Jchillin.

After reading this thread I went to the garden and dug up an earthworm. I washed the dirt of it under the tap, minced it up into small pieces and dumped it in the aquarium. the fish went absolutly nuts over it. I have never seen them go into such a feeding frenzy, I though they went nuts for...

I bought Nutrafin KH/GH test kit so I could use "Chucks planted aquarium calculator" to figure out my CO2 levels for my plants. I new my water would be hard because it leaves evidence of that in my tea kettle. Also I knew it would be well buffered because ph down will only affect my swimming...

Surprisingly enough with only the 20w life-glo bulb I had several plants that did quite well. Most plants I tried didn't last long though.

The 29 aqua tech from Walmart is the same one I have. It comes with a regular t8 20 watt bulb. I switched my bulb to an Life-Glo 2 bulb and it help my plants greatly. But just yesterday I put a DIY 80 (4xt8x24) watt light/hood on my aquarium. I am hoping this will help even more.

toyotarsrfun, Perhaps you could send him a link to this board. Over the last 2 years I have found this board to be an absolute treasure trove of useful information for a new aquarist.

I agree that there is a problem in the tank, I hope that I did not give the impression that a Diatom filter will cure the problem. It will certaintly remove the symptom, but it will not cure the problem. In my paticular case high phosphates were the cause of the problem.