Recent content by ElvisMinnow

Doing the same thing... What I would advise is to take a pro-active attitude, rather than a passive/reactive one that a lot of people do. You have a fish in an unstable tank. Help it out: 1. Put in lots of high productivity plants, even if you have to toss some later. You don't mention your...

Care recommended here... H2O2 in an aquarium in a high enough concentration to do some serious algae fighting might be hazardous to fish. Have you ever poured fresh H2O2 on a cut? Ouch! It does some serious biomolecule damage. H2O2 is not a compound that targets algae specifically, it is a...

I have seen one type of ammonia-removing substrate for which it is claimed to be recyclable, but I was wondering if as a rule you could get any of these types of material back to a close-to-new state. I think I read somewhere about a salt treatment, but I don't know the details, and I don't...

I have been watching with some interest the accumulation of very tiny bits of something on my plants. I have an unknown-to-me vigorous vine-like plant (Wisteria ?)in my 10 gal tank, and these little things have appeared all over it during the past week or so. I first thought that it was just...

Don't be dense... If this was an experimental tank, or a I-wonder-what-grow-if...tank. Then I would agree. And as much as this does incite interest and would in my own tank especially, I see why one might want to study it... But if something new and mysterious is growing that you cannot...

Don't give the aliens a foothold... As with everyone else, I don't know what it is. I saw a similar post recently and someone suggested slime mold--which is a Protist. Whatever. I can think of no good reason to keep it in your tank ( curiosity is NOT good enough ). I would use one of those...

other way around... The "cycle" runs from ammonia, to nitrite ( NO2 ), then to nitrates ( NO3 ). I think plants can use the first and last compounds, but maybe not the nitrites directly. I am not certain. I don't know why it is called a cycle, it is just a pathway that is part of the...

musings back at ya.... It is not clear from the pic if those are real plants. Let me make a plug for real plants. They absorb nutrients of all sorts, take the edge off of chemical swings, and give good cover and varied environments for fish. I don't know your filter. How much biomedia is in...

I am sorta new too, but here is what I have learned... First, there are a number of products like the Python, which are pretty low tech, and work well. I cannot understand the advice given above to not clean the tank bottom. Everything falls down-and it accumulates. If you have a "clean" tank...

I use the Purigen pre-bagged size... it is about 3.75 x 2.25 inches in my Aquaclear basket, and is a tight fit so it is fine. You could smash it flatter, or scrunch it up smaller if you had to. The bag is really heavy duty.I am not familiar with your unit, so you have to judge the free-bag...

At this time... it sounds as though it doesn't matter that much right now--your flow is adequate for your filtration needs, and it sounds like you are happy with your surface agitation. I have two smaller Aquaclear units, on smaller aquaria, and I use the high-middle range most of the time. I...

I am setting up what looks like a 3 gal tank for a Betta, and I have some plants in a Flourite/Eco-Complete substrate, and I am running a small bag-filter (just carbon inside for now). The water has been in for almost two weeks, and I have run the filter on low, and turned it off at times...

what goes in the basket... I just got the same unit as you have. One reads so many negative comments & opinions online about the carbon elements in filters, that it makes you want to leave it out. However, carbon adsorbs a lot of different types of molecules--it is used in drinking water...

I am rescuing a little guppy who had gotten a fuzzy fungus ball on his dorsal fin. He had been living in an isolated, poorly maintained bowl--NOT mine. I knocked the fungus off with a Q-tip and put him in a container with an appropriate dash of API Fungus Cure and a few grains of API Aquarium...

To answer your questions: 4. You don't need CO2 injection with the light you have (I assume the CF's are the usual 13 - 25 W ones). 5. You don't need any fertilizers at this point. In a low tech tank, only fertilize if plants show signs of deficiency. 6. I am not sure what you would achieve with...