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  1. Aiken Drum

    40 or 50 gallon tank on 1st floor

    Its impossible to say. Just for info, im an architectural technician, so i work in construction design. I did calculations a while ago, and a floor designed and constructed to minimum standards in both the UK and USA will support about a 75g aquarium. In practice nobody designs floors to the...
  2. Aiken Drum

    Cycling with the use of api quickstart

    The specs do repeatedly use the term "chemical" filtration without ever being specific on what that is. It may be there is some chemical removal of ammonia going on. On the other hand you have some nitrite and that should be coming from the nitrogen cycle. Unfortunately the nitrate test will...
  3. Aiken Drum

    New here

    Hi Mike Welcome to the community. Looking forward to seeing and hearing about what you are getting up to. How about a photo of your 75g? And what are your plans for the 125g?
  4. Aiken Drum

    How many Golden Rams to keep together?

    Ive kept 3 electric blue rams together with no aggression problems before. They are a colour varient of the same species of ram. My problem with them was these rams needed much warmer water than i kept that aquarium at. They don't suit the temperature most tropical aquariums are kept at. 26c...
  5. Aiken Drum

    Cycling with the use of api quickstart

    And to add, keeping the lights on or off won't help your cycle at all. The microbial growth isnt effected by light. Keeping them off all the time will stop your plants photosynthesizing and eventually they will die though. Turn your lights on for 6 to 8 hours a day on a regular schedule same as...
  6. Aiken Drum

    Cycling with the use of api quickstart

    Did you take into account that the household ammonia isnt 100% ammonia when you calculated your 1.5ml? I cant find the actual concentration of the ammonia you used (i didnt look too hard though) but I think its a 10% solution. Household ammonia is typically between 5% and 10%. Commercial ammonia...
  7. Aiken Drum

    How to cool down fish tank in the summer?

    Is aquarium temperature really that much of an issue for you? I live in the UK and we don't have hot summers or AC, but my aquariums that are typically 24/25c (75/77f) can get upto 30c (86f) for a week or two in the summer without any problems. This has happened the last 2 summers when we had...
  8. Aiken Drum

    Is it ok to take out a filter (I have two filters but now one filter for same tank.

    Assuming both filters are the same, removing one will also half of those microbes responsible for your cycle and you would likely see elevated levels of ammonia and/ or nitrite at least for a while. If the remaining filter is sufficient to provide filtration on its own then your cycle will...
  9. Aiken Drum

    Help - Do i have too many fish and how to get my water clear?

    Please feel free to contribute to the forum. Everyones experience is valuable and we learn more from contributing than just sitting on the sidelines listening in.
  10. Aiken Drum

    yoyo loach

    Theres not a lot to go on really. Maybe going through the "unhealthy fish" sticky might bring something to light you hadnt considered. It could be nothing, could be old age, a neurological issue, picked up a disease. If it was a toxin it would effect other fish as well...
  11. Aiken Drum

    ammonia and nitrite

    If your tank is cycled you wont see ammonia or nitrite. You have enough of those microbes to consume ammonia and nitrite in short order. If either shows up on your testing when it previously wasnt, either something happened to kill off those microbes or more ammonia got into the water than...
  12. Aiken Drum

    Help - Do i have too many fish and how to get my water clear?

    You really need to get yourself a good test kit and report your water parameters. API freshwater master test kit is a good one to get. https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit If you could find out the size of the tank that would be great. If you dont know the volume, measure...
  13. Aiken Drum

    Help - Do i have too many fish and how to get my water clear?

    The cloudiness is called a bacterial bloom. Its a normal stage new aquariums go through. Its bacteria in the water feeding on excess nutrients. As your cycle establishes and the nutrients get more into balance it normally clears up on its own. How long has your aquarium been set up? Do you...
  14. Aiken Drum

    Cycling nano reef

    If you want to add fish now you will be doing a fish in cycle. Do 100% water change before you add fish and proceed with a fish in cycle. If you want to finish your fishless cycle, redose ammonia once the ammonia once the ammonia and nitrite are zero. When you dose 2ppm ammonia and see zero...
  15. Aiken Drum

    Cycling nano reef

    Your initial ammonia probably came out of the live rock, but with no more going in it wont cycle. Wait for the nitrite to drop to zero, then redose ammonia back up to 2ppm. Wait for that to cycle out to zero ammonia and nitrite, then redose ammonia again. When 2ppm of ammonia cycles to zero...
  16. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    Follow this thread for a fish in cycle. https://www.aquariumadvice.com/threads/fish-in-cycle-guide.382320/ But set all the equipment up, run it for 24 hours to make sure everything works OK, drain it down, set up your aquascape, refill with water conditioner etc, get it up to temperature and...
  17. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    Please don't use fish to cycle a tank you dont intend to keep long term. We should be promoting ethical fish keeping, and using fish you are planning to just return once you are done with them just isnt right. We are going back to the practices of that awful fish store again. Start your cycle...
  18. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    The thing with fish in cycling is you are only cycled sufficiently for the number of fish you use to cycle. If you use 2 fish, you are only going to grow enough microbes to support those 2 fish. If you then add more fish your cycle needs to catch up and grow more microbes. If you only add a...
  19. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    Using water from a cycled tank will do nothing to help cycle a new tank. The microbes responsible for your cycle dont live in the water. They live on surface area, so thats on your substrate, on your aquascape, on the glass your aquarium is made of, but mostly it lives in your filter media. All...
  20. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    If you are worried about overstocking you should see my aquariums. Im trying my best to not overstock, but like to see busy tanks. I bet im nearer to 2"/ gallon. Everything is happy and healthy though, water quality is OK (could be better, but it is what it is). Nobody is perfect.
  21. Aiken Drum

    Still haven’t bought an ro filter

    Running the gas boiler for an hour for our heating costs about £1/ hour. The electric to heat 100 litres of water to 100C must be more than the 20p cost of water conditioner. If cost is absolute a factor, the cheapest way to remove chlorine is to let it sit in an open container 24 hours before...
  22. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    The rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon. 1 inch of fish per 5 gallons is something thrown around for marine aquariums because you shouldn't stock marine tanks as heavily as freshwater. Its a flawed metric though. A 10g tank might be fine for 10 x 1" fish, but you couldnt keep 1 x 10"...
  23. Aiken Drum

    Still haven’t bought an ro filter

    RO is going to be bad on its own. It has no hardness so there is no KH to buffer against pH drops. The nitrogen cycle requires KH to function. It needs to be remineralised to provide a healthy environment. You would use RO if you are keeping fish that are particular about their water parameters...
  24. Aiken Drum

    Still haven’t bought an ro filter

    Why do you need an RO filter? Whats wrong with water conditioner?
  25. Aiken Drum

    How did my female guppies have babies?

    This is why you was warned to make sure you got male guppies. Livebearers will breed and the only way to ensure you arent going to over populate your aquarium is to buy only males. There is always the possibility with females that they are already pregnant when you buy them. If they have been...
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