Recent content by bman

Full tank pics here

No filtration on the well water. I have not been adding NH4 and do not know what or how much to add? I will have to wait until Monday night to test for the alkalinity of the water to see if I can hold my 6.5 pH. I do not have a test kit for that, ,but have one at work.

So I recently moved and just now decided to do a pwc. Going from city water to mountain well water, I thought the water would be ok. (I had thrown out my old test kit in the move, and thought I would not need it anymore) Well, the next day all my fish were dead. I found out by my wife calling...

I think it is a great idea as well. I work in swimming pool service, and you would be surprised how many people (and hotels) want weekly service just so they don't have to spend time (or unqualified employees time) dealing with the maintenance. Where do you live? I would believe this...

What about putting the rings in the bottom of the canister? Seems like there is plenty of space there, and doesn't the water still pass over it?

I just got one of these myself but have not hooked it up yet. It is my belief that the chem bag is just a bag of activated carbon, which I do not think is totally necessary unless you are trying to remove meds. LWB- the Rena XP1 onnly has one basket, where to put biomedia?

My loving wife got me a Rena XP1 for my tank this Christmas (She's the best, you know!) I getting ready to set it up, the directions do not say what the difference is in using the powerhead over the spraybar. What is better for my set up? I have a 20 gallon long tank, heavily planted, and I...

I have heard that they prefer live food over flake or pellet food. I noticed that when I got mine, they did not eat for a couple of days(flake or pellet). I then went out and bought some frozen brine shrimp and started feeding everyone in the tank a cube a day and they started to eat that. I...

I have never noticed my Serpae tetras feasting on my stargrass. Actually, since planting it several weeks ago, it has actually started to thrive recently.

They sell a replacement light for swimming pool underwater lights that is made up of LEDs. These lights have three different colors and you can cycle through the colors, or have all three come on which makes a "white" light. The bulb resembles a flood style bulb that can screw into a standard...

I have been lurking on this post since it's inception, but just realized I never posted my tank. Anyway, I have only been at this for one year, and have learned a lot about plants in the process. I will post my tank even though it is not in the same caliber as most of you. I will have to...

hygro has been pruned and thrown away due to lack of interest.

I have several stems of sunset hygro (about 6-8 about 6" long) and a compact sword plant (5" diameter, about 10-12 leaves) That I am willing to trade for any other medium light plants. I would be interested in any type, but specifically Bolbitis heudelotti (african fern), stargrass, Limnophila...

I feed mine frozen brine shrimp. The current shoots them around like they were alive. Plus the tetras love them too so any that pass near the gobies are goners!

Thanks for all the input, and still I am not sure what to do. I quess I will wait and see what happens. I recently added a second bottle just before the temp drop so I am a little hesitant to add a third bottle. I don't consider my tank heavily planted, maybe moderately as you can see in my...