Recent content by Swank

I too recently resorted to the bleach solution for my green hair algae. I thought I'd really been getting my act together with dosing and injected C02, weekly water changes, etc but I think the hair algae had too much of a foothold (and I was impatient). I felt like it was a bit of a cop-out...

You may be confusing SAE's with CAE's?...that is Siamese Algae Eaters with Chinese Algae Eaters. From what I've read, the Chinese are known to be picky about the type of algae, and when they get older, they stop eating the algae altogether, preferring fish food. And they get mean. The SAE's are...

Wow...so far so good. Its been running pretty consistently now for the past 2 hours, now that I've set it up as advised above. Thanks all...

Yeah, the instructions are not great. For example, it says: Unscrew the large brass ring from the bubble counter and fill the bbble counter 1/2 full of fresh water." So I did that. Then, the instructions say "Be sure the needle valve is closed before filling with water." Well, of course it...

Wow...okay. I have to read that article in a sec...in the meantime: 1) I have a Milwaukee MA957. 2) I was trying to use the large knob to regulate, with the needle valve open all the way (I had read that wasn't the right way to do it, but then I figured I was following mfgr. directions, so...

Hi, I finally bit the bullet and got a pressurized CO2 set-up. I'm having a bit of trouble getting the bubble counter to maintain a consistent rate. When I set it up 2 nights ago, it seems like it just kept slowing down and petering out, and when i got home from work yesterday, no bubbles at...

I think I read somewhere that having a tight fitting top helps keep CO2 from dissipating as quickly...

wow...what a happy looking little tank!

sounds good to me... what about my other, related question? if you do decide to make a substantial change to your aquascaping, do you remove fish and other animals to a separate tank first? Which is more stressful, tearing out a giant piece of driftwood and stirring up the tank, or moving the...

well, it didn't take much planting, replanting, and setting of logs/rocks for the layers to kind of blend all together... The book was concerned with "compacting" of the substrate, and the more general concern of it being "too old" without describing what you might lose with age. Iron? I...

My folks gave me a book on planted tanks for christmas last year...didn't really look at it much until now (i've been using the web for most of my info). Well, I notice in the care and maintenance section it says you should change out your substrate every 3 years or so!!! 8O Is this true? DO...

My Red Tailed Black Shark will do a little eating of dead plants, it appears...and then coincidentally I read somewhere that this is a fairly standard behavior.

That 10000K bulb is going to be very blue...not the best for plants, I don't think. And certainly won't be great for highlighting colors in freshwater fish. Most folks use bulbs in the 5500k (like morning light or twilight) to 6700k (like bright daylight) range, which are a little closer to the...

Sand is inert -- as far as plants and their needs are concerned -- probably no better than the gravel. An iron-rich substrate would have been preferred, but I believe that a 10g tank is small enough that you can easily make up for inert substrate with good fertilization regimine...incl. iron...

ahhh..there's the rub. PH is the only one I consistently have a problem reading. Interesting. Any reason why? Any any solutions??? Anyone??