Recent content by TMills27

It's bad when I start thinking "These fish naturally live in rivers, lakes, oceans, and i'm trying to captivate them in a small 55g". Then I start trying to figure out how to build a lake in the basement..lol. just joking. Maybe a fish pond in the far future. Does anybody have, or thought...

Platy fish are ok for 10 gallons too. Welcome to fish keeping! Just keep striving to learn more, and be a little wary of some of the information from the fish store, and online. I find this site a very reliable and friendly source of information.

*Update* (A good one!) I didn't buy any algae eating fish, and i don't have excel just yet (A very good LFS around here is ordering some for me). However i did a 33% water change last night. First I used a magnet brush to remove algae from the glass.I took all the rocks with algae out and...

@"Never listen to LFS" For sure..lol. Right now i'm battling an algae problem with my planted tank. (Too much light, nutrients, maybe not enought co2). So i go to the pet store and told them my situation, maybe i can get an oto or 2. They told me "well, I don't see why you have lights...

Anyways heres my game plan. I'm reducing the lights, feed more sparingly, do bigger water changes. I'm going to let the horwort grow as big as it wants without pruning and maybe it will lower the amount of light over the anubias and java fern. The wisteria and valisneria will still get there...

*nitrite typo

I'm just a newbie, but, if i grasp you situation correctly (unproper cycle, high ammonia and nitrite), maybe you could get a bottle of nitrifier bacteria. I have "Cycle" from nutrafin. It says it reduces fish loss, by introducing massive amounts of beneficial bacteria, which works to...

Aqua chem, It is a 20 gallon tall. I also have 2 10 gallons. I have two 26 watt CFL with a Kelvin temperature of 6500 (Daylight). I am not getting a ton of CO2 into the tank, but i beleive the tiny bit that is dissolving is helping the plants a lot. I don't have a co2 test kit, but...

I haven't seen any Excel in any of the petstores down here. Is there a better way to get CO2 dissolved in my tank. Right now its going up into the HOB filter.

I did a bit of reading on otos. Sounds like a good fish for a cleanup crew! One site said a minimum of 33 gallons and 2 other sites say a minimum of 20 gallons. Since they are docile it might be a good choice for me.

I also read that plecos and algae eaters need lots of space to swim. I'm not sure about otos but i don't think i have enough space for plecos to swim.

Hey Philly thanks for the reply. I have the lights on a timer. I will reduce to 8 hours then. Funny story, the person at the fish store told me that fish and plants don't need any light at all! She told me lights are just asthetics and to just unplug and leave it that way...lol.

Water Wisteria Java Moss Valisneria Anubias Hornwort A while ago I tried setting up a 20g planted aquarium and had it running awhile before I almost lost everything due to a very low light from a standard aquarium hood. After doing a lot of research into plants i decided to upgrade the...

lol...sounds like a good plan jlk! All the fish are fine, i guess i suffered from temporary craziness there. The molly is awesome, he eats red algae all day, that i couldn't get with my magnet scrubber. The platy prunes off suffering leaves from the wisteria. They are all little gardeners!

I just did an image search on google for "black molly". Theres a molly on the second row with exactly the gold shimmer that i'm talking about. Maybe it is just thier natural colouring? The day i posted this thread i was having a rough day. The worst thing that happened is the dog bit the...