Recent content by jtez

There are many lily species that do well in aquariums. A pretty common one is the banana lily, and also the red tiger lotus, which has bigger leaves. I'm not sure about whether they'll bloom though. There's many floating plants available too. Water lettuce, frogbit and cardamine (or pennywort...

Sorry to break it to you but if you're testing and getting nitrites and ammonia your tank wasnt quite done cycling :/ To ensure harmless water quality for your fish you should perform water changes to get nitrites to an unreadable level (I recommend a 90% WC to begin with), and regular testing...

Hey mate, sounds like you're halfway through your cycle. Whether its 2 or 5 doesn't matter too much, just keep dosing your ammonia back to around 4ppm until your test readings 24 hrs after dosing show: 0 ammonia 0 nitrite Any number of nitrates. Then perform a large water change with...

Another option is Brazilian Pennywort (Hydrocotyle leucocephala). You can grow this a number of ways, not just floating. I have some in my 37g, personally I'm not a huge fan of it but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. I just think it's a little messy.

There's no issue with it provided you dose enough ammonia to keep the cycle going. Plants will consume ammonia as a "food source" to them, which means less "food" for the beneficial bacteria. I planted while cycling and didnt see any negative effects though. There's benefits too, such as plants...

Forgot to add pic to first post

I've had this ambulia for a few months now, both in my tank and my girlfriends (pictured) tank. Both a low light, low tech. This ambulia grew a bit to start with, some shoots continuing the thin leaf growth and some getting broad, the same way my wisteria got broad when it was getting used to my...

If it is wisteria, it's grown under low light and if you put it in higher light will probably grow more typical. I still think it looks funny for wisteria though. Aluminium is sold at every LFS in my city, its a common one unfortunately. But some people like to use it and replace whenever it...

I can't say I have any experience but I've read a bit. The tip to minimising your maintenance/electricity would be a reasonable water volume, heavily planted with low light plants and under stocking how many fish you have. I'm not entirely sure what you've got to work woth or what you want, or...

Thats. What I was thinking, but without adding established media, I'm not sure how well it would seed. BB hardly is in the water column is it? So basically it'd be like cycling the filter from scratch I got it from a local "sand and soils" business, where it was listed as river sand i think...

Not sure if you're still asking me, but I have half gravel and half sand. If I did it again I'd go all sand though. I've found it a bit easier to plant in, and it's easier to tell when it's dirty. No issues with vacuuming it either. With gravel you shove the gravel vac in to get detritus but...

I'd be careful of doing this, because the new filter will have to undergo a cycle of it's own. You ~probably~ would get away with it, but I'd personally test how far cycled it is when you put it on your new tank. Eg, when you put it on the new tank, add ammonia to the tank up to 2-3ppm and see...

Looks much better, even makes the tank look longer. That old good you had looked atrocious, to be honest :s Did a 10% WC for the sake of it really. Also bought a new thermometer which is showing a much more comfortable 27 degrees rather than the 34 that my old thermometer has been stuck on for...

Yeah of course. That's a pretty clever way of doing it tbh.

Don't act so sure, in Australia quarantine officers have been known to do such a thing :p not necessarily with shrimp, but I know of people who've been raided due to purchasing marimo balls. Back on topic, I would feel morally ok with it because I know personally that I'd take care to keep them...