Search results

Curious: How sensitive is an aquarium to the quality of the air outside of it? For example, if I spray Lysol in the room (not directly at the tank, of course) -- would it adversely affect the environment within the tank? What about cigarette smoke?

What kind of algae is this? It's clumping on decorations, plants and the gravel in a couple of places.

A couple of weeks ago, it appeared that my filter media had clogged because the water was overflowing from above the intake tube as well as flowing out from the usual place (love my grasp of terminology?). I chalked it up to needing to replace the charcoal filter insert, which was wayyyy...

I have a good deal of algae in my tank and just added an Oto. He's happily sucking away. Is the tank's algae enough for him? I bought spirulina discs and added one on Day One -- my three platies ate it and promptly became very bloated (I was really worried -- thought they were all coming down...

How many of you name your fish? Why (or why not)?

When I established my first tank a couple of months ago, I went out and bought a Jungle 5-in-1 test strip kit. Shortly thereafter, I starting reading the posts on this board about strip tests being not so good, but I had them already so I continued to use them. One thing that bothered me...

Which freshwater fish thrive (or at least benevolently tolerate) in non-heated tanks?

OK, my 10G (my first tank) has a gold mickey mouse platy, a sunburst platy and a plumetail platy. The tank is now two months old and has been cycled since early this month. I'm thinking of finishing my stocking by getting a small school of either neon tetras or harlequin rasboras. Couple of...

Unless I'm mistaken, my platies are eating the diatom algae in my tank. Is this normal? Or are they feasting on something else that I can't detect? I didn't know they did that.

Is this a good (i.e., non-fatal) mix? I know mollies want a slightly brackish tank -- can they do with less? Can platies deal with it? A reputable LFS has some beautiful dalmation mollies -- I already have a couple of platies (one is non-aggressive and the other is semi-aggressive).

OK, I hesitate asking the question because I've done a little bit of research (and board search) and I can see there are wildly differing opinions (and not a little indifference) when it comes to the use of salt in a FW aquarium. But, being a newb, I just gotta ask. :? Based on board...

I have a Gold Mickey Mouse Platy that has gone from seemingly perfect health to death's door in less than 24 hours. I don't expect him to last the night. He's become bloated, his top fin has dropped, he's trailing some sort of white matter (not what you think), he's listless, tends to slant to...

Is any time of day better than any other to add a new fish to an existing aquarium? It may make no difference whatsoever, but I thought I'd ask.

OK, my FW tank (my first tank, 10G) is almost a month old and after weeks of not seeing any change in water quality, my nitrites have suddenly spiked and my nitrates are definitely climbing. I still find it hard to accurately read my test strips (yeah, I'll be moving to the drops soon), but it...

I have a couple of basic questions, but first I want to say something: Congrats to everyone on the board for being the most newb-friendly on the net. I'm just starting my first FW aquarium and I've been using some "other" boards for reference (as I know nothing). I just found this board today...