Recent content by doublenerds

Thanks for the recommendations, all! Gonna go shopping this weekend :)

What do you recommend? I have a 29 gallon, heavily planted but with low-growing plants. My current denizens (6 rummynose tetras, 5 otocinclus) love the plants so much that they mostly just zip around their mini-jungle. Lovely to watch up close, but now I need some fish I can see from my desk...

If you wanted to add soil to an established tank, you could mix organic potting soil and water to make mud, then freeze the mud in an ice cube tray. You can then slice up the mud cubes and place them under your existing substrate. Not too much freezy mud all at once, of course :)

I'm still putting together my salt tank, but my plan is to keep a fresh sponge in my sump, then use it on my sponge filter in the QT when appropriate. Of course, gotta get rid of the sponge after breaking down the QT each time, but sponges are pretty cheap.

I really like this tank - it's kinda chaotic and busy, but in a good way :)

Are you fishless cycling? I can send you some mature media if you want..not sure what shipping costs would be but I'd guess less than $5-6 for priority mail.

I got my dwarf puffers from thatpetplace.com - one fish did not survive transport and they refunded me immediately. The others are thriving and happy. I was very pleased with the transaction overall.

Your fiancee has good taste! I completely love my dwarf puffers. They have tons of personality and they are always up to no good. From my experience, I would put 2 dps in a 10 gallon tank. They engage in a rather confusing mix of territorial chasing and peaceful gathering in a small group...

No, but I have lived long enough to know that a small investment in redundancy can save thousands of invested dollars. Two heaters for the display tank is not uncommon, one heater for the mixing station is necessary. And I already own the 4th heater, which is for the quarantine tank. A small...

I think this was directed at me? I am putting 1 heater in the sump, 1 in the tank, and 1 for my RO/DI mixing container. I work long days and I live in the NE. If a heater dies, I wanna make sure I have back-up :cool:

I am sure it can be done less expensively. Sumps can be DIY for under $100, or you can forgo them altogether. I'm pretty sure that protein skimmers are considered optional if you are doing a fish only tank. I want the flexibility to easily convert to reef next year, once I have more...

10 days after the last round of photos. I think I will need to trim the cabomba every couple of days....the new growth is kind of stemmy and I really want something a bit more filled out. I bought a java moss mat and cut most of it off for a wall in my low-light 29 gallon...the stripped down...

There's an article in this month's Aquarium Fish International about marine breeding and feeding fry. Article says phytoplankton first, then rotifers, then baby brine or artemia shrimp. The article also advises to have your cultures set up in advance :ermm: Good luck!

I run a 4-3-5 photoperiod, with lights off during the warmest part of the day when no one is home. I have had no algae to scrape and every week I cut my cabomba to 50% of tank height, and every week it's back to the top of the tank. I dose Excel a couple of times a week but don't do...

I don't use CO2, but I do use Flourish Excel. I am very happy with my plant growth but I do NOT get some of the crazy vibrant reds and super lush rapid growth that some of the high light CO2 users do. It all depends on what you are looking for. One thing that my dwarf puffer tank has is lots...