Recent content by barrettd

Water temp is 77-78 degrees. I'm going to try the driftwood. I know it's not an immediate fix, but maybe I can lower the PH for future plecos.

I float them for 15-20 minutes, and slowly add a little tank water to the bag prior to adding them to the tank. I'm assuming this is OK, as it's worked for my other fish. I've only been at this "hobby" since the 1st of April, so please don't assume I know exactly what I'm doing... :) BD

I have not medicated the tank. I use NovAqua and AmQuel when I do water changes, and I use Stresscoat when adding new fish. I'm buying the Hypostomus Plecostomus. They're the only plecostomus I've been able to find locally.

Would a 25% water change cause a big swing, or should I do smaller, more frequent water changes? BD

So perhaps I should add some driftwood, let it do its thing, and then add a pleco when my PH gets down near the 7 range? Will the driftwood be enough to do this, and how long should that usually take? BD

I do not have any natural wood in my tank. I thought about getting some when I initially bought the pleco, but didn't research the effects on my tank. I only knew that plecos liked driftwood, and I didn't want to throw off the rest of my fish. There is no salt in my water, at least none that...

The PH is the natural PH of my water. It's been 8 since the beginning (about 2 1/2 months ago), and the gouramis and tetras have been fine in it. The latest pleco is still alive this morning, and sucking on the glass. I thought it might be too high for the tetras at the beginning, but I thought...

About five weeks ago, my 2 1/2 old tank was starting to show a little brown algae. I thought it was time to get some kind of algae eater, and opted for a Pleco. The first week or so, he did a terrific job eating the algae from the leaves, glass, etc. and I was also dropping him wafers once the...

I just started my tank on Saturday with Biospira. In my 29 gallon tank, I've got 10 neon tetras, 2 gold gouramis, 1 blue dwarf gourami and 1 red dwarf. My nitrite and ammonia levels have been 0 today and yesterday, pH is 8, and the water is quite hard. The fish have seemed to be doing fine, but...

As established in another thread, I'm brand new to aquariums, and currently have a 29 gallon tank. I've got its lights on a timer to run from 5pm to 10-11pm. The tank is in an area that gets little/no light during the night, and I'm wondering if that's okay or do these guys need some kind of...

Now he's hanging out with the other guy, so he seems fine. Thanks for all your help with this. I'll see how it goes this week and may add some more plants and/or small rocks to the tank. My first goal is to make sure everyone lives. BD

Hypostomus- The blue and red gouramis are dwarf gouramis. Hopefully I'll be okay? The tenth neon has been located and they've brought him back into the fold... One of the gold gouramis is spending a lot of time at the top of the tank. He swims back and forth, but tends to stay close to the...

Thanks for all the suggestions and help. I got 10 neon tetras and 4 gouramis (1 blue, 1 red, 2 gold). I figured I'd see how it goes with this group for a while and get more creative later. They seem to be happy so far, darting around the tank and such, but one of the tetras is AWOL, and the...

Thanks so much for your help! Exactly why I'm here before I go buy fish. I've got a book that shows all these fish, so I've been looking up your suggestions since I'm not quite familiar enough with them. So far I'm thinking about this: 1 paradise fish 1 krib 2 khuli loaches 10 glo-lite tetras...

Hello all... A friend of mine who's really into saltwater aquariums and things recently convinced me to get into aquariums. My wife and I have wanted to do this for a while, and recently moved into a house with some room to have one. I got an Eclipse combo with a 29 gallon tank. Last night I...