Search results

Full tank pics here

Funny, I haven't used carbon since I started my tank a few months ago (could it be 8 months already?). And any coloration quickly goes away with a few water changes. I'd say don't bother buying any more carbon and use the stuff you have sparingly just in case you need a batch to remove some meds...

Danio jumped to his death last night Well, one of my danios wanted to commit suicide, apparently. It must have jumped out when I was feeding him last night cause he was only a little dried out this morning and there is no way out of the tank except when the cover is open for feeding. First...

Don't I know it! My tank has been greenless for several months since the introduction of some SAEs. Unfortunately most everything now has some black all over it including my nice lake rock.

My vac must have too much suction because when I put the vac near the sand it starts sucking up sand. I probably lose just a little each water change into the bucket and then down the sink. Regardless, I *love* my sandy bottom. It is so easy to clean. The only problem now seems to be that the...

Yep, just regular playsand found in the outdoor section of Home Depot. I am not sure how it differs but I can tell you it is really really fine sand.

Ok, so a few weeks ago when it was still warm I had taken a fairly large bag of playground sand (like $5 at Home Depot, talk about cheap!) and put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I spent about 1/2 an hour swishing water through it, swirling the sand and really driving water into it, until the water was...

First the pictures First I am going to attach the pictures, then I'll tell the story how I did it.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but this weekend I put sand over the top of my gravel substrate. It looks really nice and has given me a nice medium for the plants (Wisteria, Hornwort, Javamoss) in the tank. Everyone seems to really like it and it really brightens up the tank. The Cichlids...

It'll never go away unless your water level is really high... like almost to the tippy top of the tank (you know, when you get a meniscus near the corners from the water touching the edge ridges). I find when I lose just a 1/4 inch of water that it starts to splash -- and this is after several...

Thanks all for the confidence boost. Since I added the two little Malawis and the cat there has been little to suck up from the gravel. So I am assuming someone is doing a great job cleaning up. I must say, these Ocellifer cats are just beautiful to watch. I do not think it will be long before...

I have a new Synodontis Ocellifer catfish. The first few days it would come out and scrounge around for food, occasionally stopping its search, I suppose, when it found something interesting. Now it has found a nice dark place, the inside of my ornamental castle and hardly comes out. Since...

I use Prime by SeaChem. So far it has worked flawlessly and while the bottle is somewhat expensive, it only takes the tiniest drop per gallon to remove all chloramines and ammonia.

This happened to me last week. So for $18 plus shipping from BigAls the piece of mind was worth getting a new AquaClear 50 for my tank (20 gal long) rather than purchasing a new impeller or worrying that one day my Penguin 170 would just quit on me. The filter bumped along noisily for the week...

Trying this one for the tail.

I apologize for the rather poor picture, it is hard holding the camera steady. Can I have some help identify this fish? The LFS said that it was a S. American Dwarf Cichlid of some time. Another guy said it was a juvenile African Cichlid. It'd be nice to know for sure so I can decide whether my...

Ok, thanks. My plan was to not use carbon at all since with regular water changes it is probably not necessary. So I had hoped to be lazy and leave the carbon in there once it has ceased to do anything useful. I think the best thing about the hobby now is that media is mostly reusable. No more...

I am getting a new HOB filter, an Aquaclear 50, delivered today. I plan on running it with the default setup for a while. Is there anything wrong with leaving the carbon bag in place as a quasi-bio layer? Granted it would be better to remove the carbon bag and replace it with true Bio-media or...

I have been using Prime for a few weeks to combat my town's chloramines. Due to my inability to measure or laziness, I have just been putting in 1 ml (one thread in the cap) with my 5 gallon water changes. Last night I splashed a little bit too much into my filter. Two questions: 1. Is it...

Chat is a wonderful resource. I was on last night and got quite a bit of help (as usual) from JChillin and Devlishturtles around 9 pm Eastern Time (had to watch Nature first as it was all about fish off the coast of Costa Rica). Thanks to everyone for the help. Getting advice in real time is...

I have this same issue and DevlishTurtles pointed out to me in Chat last night (a great resource, I might add!) that they are probably just harmless nematodes because of high nutrient levels. The advice was to feed a bit less and do a few more water changes. If you do a search on "white worms"...

Hi Fishfreek, Is it possible to add the "Next Page" to before the quick reply box(es)? The reason I ask is from a usability standpoint. I know I am new here, but when reading a thread I need to scroll *past* the quick reply box to see if there are additional pages/replies. So in most cases...

2 liter bottle is going to last AshleyNicole about 5 years at the rate Prime seems to last! :) 10 gallons per water change (for a 55 gal) = 5 ml prime. That's 400 water changes!

Thanks all. My bottle of Cycle also says to refrigerate after opening so at this point I am assuming it is definitely junk. I am sure the bottle is over 6 months old as well. I'll keep the stress coat as well. Thx!

When I was given my fish tank (free, by a neighbor who kept killing their fish) I inherited a few chemicals, two of which I find are regarded on AA as fairly useless... Cycle and Stress Coat. What is the best way to use/dispose of these chemicals? Can I put them down the drain? Or should I...