Recent content by NorCalAl

I can't believe I forgot the SAE's. I have four in my 65g and they were essential. I shoulda edited my original post and added them!

Hey all, after three planted tanks and some real serious algae problems, I think I have it down now. First off, (and all of this is from my experience, ymmv) I think one of the prime things we do wrong (and one of the main causes of the algae) is that we introduce too much light, too soon...

WOW! 5.5 inches! I guess that means I'll just have to get a bigger tank. Dang. :-) You know what though...I'll have to do something about my sig...it's at the maximum line limit now... I'd probably driven to every large lfs in NorCal before I stumbled across them in San Jose at Dolphins...

While my algae problem has slowly been diminishing, yesterday I stumbled across a tank of SAE's in San Jose. Despite it being 106 outside and four and a half hours from home, the SAE's are now residing in my 65 - and chowing down on the algae! I'd gone the route of plecos (no help - wrong...

OK, good call. I'll leave the carbon in for the weekend, which will give me a chance to get a new pad. Thanks all!

I'm using an XP2 on my 65g and wanted some opinions on the media stack I am using since the last filter change. From bottom to top (which goes with the flow of water) it's 4 layers of foam (which fill the first media basket), then about 2" of ceramic media followed by 1 more sheet of foam and...

Thanks all. I did the deed this morning - including moving the fish. The rams were NOT cooperative! I also rearranged stuff to hopefully reduce the friction between the discus, which I did not introduce all together. They are all schooling together right now, so it seems to have worked. I...

Hi all. I've come to rely on your expertise and experience and would like a little help here. I've got to the point where I want to move some fish out of my 65 and into the 29 which is done cycling. I'd like to move my rams and my synodontis, leaving just the discus, clown loaches and plecos in...

I can wait, I'm in no real hurry. He's just one of the fish I want in the 29g long-term so I thought I would move him. Next is the rams and discus. More fun.

I would like to move a couple of my current 65g inhabitants to my new 29g. One of them, a fiesty little synodontis, is proving very difficult. The gouramis were easy - I put some food in the net and they basically did the rest. The syno isn't that dumb. Without pulling everything out (or giving...

Thanks. Since it's at nearly 87 degrees now, I'll just stick with the heat program. The additional problem I saw in my discus is most likely related to overdosing Excel (the new bottle has a larger cap but the instructions don't seem to know it. Yesterday was the first time with the new bottle...

I've brought the 29g up and it's heated - could I use it as a hospital tank for now and just move the affected fish? I'd like to QT them rather than continue to expose everyone else. I know there's no biofilter in there now, but I could do daily PWC's. I really need some advice!

I completely break up the cubes before feeding. How do I include veggies? I've wanted to do that, but I'm not sure how or what ones to feed.

I know the old adage of feed no more than they'll eat in 15 minutes. Now I hear it's feed no more than they'll eat in 5 minutes. Well, my fleet eats everything within about 1 minute. Usually two brine shrimp (frozen) cubes two or three times a day. I add some sinking pellets most nights for the...

Up to 86 today. Will go to 87 tomorrow and hold. Everyone is doing fine - even the plecos. I thought my otos might not be happy, but no problems so far. I'm going to turn my new 29g into a discus/ram tank and we are getting a 10g for QT. That WAS going to be the role of the 29g, but... Oh well...