geleen

It is a 10g planted with camboba and crypts,driftwood and black onyx sand as substrate. Who would assasinate the ramshorns and pondsnail but not bother guppy or fry?

A zebra loach (botia striata) would take care of it. Mine maxed out at 3 " They do like their own company so get at least 2.

I have come to a love / hate relationship with the snails. If you take out a bunch every week and limit your feeding you can keep them under control; they do keep the aquarium very clean of all algae.

J

I am thinking of setting up a tank with the following fish;

A. heckelli

bolivian rams

congo tetras

rainbow fish

2- synodontis catfish

2-plecos

This would be a 90 gallon

Would this combo work and how many of the rams, tetras, and rainbow fish woould be recommended?

This mix might work OK. As to stocking, depending on the species of rainbows some go to 5 inches, and the plecos some go to over a foot....Your synodontis catfish grow very large. .I would max out at a total of 70 inches of fish measuring adult size from the start.

To go with the A. heckelli the larger rainbows would likely be better.

Rainbows and the tetra's need to be in a group of at least 3 preferable more of each. The rams would fight too much if you ended up with too many males.

J

I would like to use pool filter sand for my 180 gallon african tank. Anybody have pics in their tank?

Any problems with it?

I can get a 50 lb bag for $14. Good deal I thought.

There is a place called SIL.....something just off 17 Street and highway 16, $16.00 for 100 pounds.

I am using the white stuff size 3.4. The syphon will suck some of it up but if you are careful there is no problem.

All the poop will sit on top and can become unsightly.

You will need to stir it up because of a risk of pockets of gas forming that can kill the fish.

For a 180 2 bags will give you about a 3" cover ....my guess.

PM me for the address if you want I have it at home.

John

As the new title states. It now worked for me too, thanks Nick.

Not for me.

I tried to full edit the heading in the blue bar ......no go Is there a setting that has to change?

J

I received a total of 35 fish from Spencer in last order. They are in quarantine. There are 27 left. Treated them for gill flukes, now they seem alright but in a few day's they will get parasite clear.

J

Just set the cursor and hit backspace until it is erased. Then type in whatever you wanted or not . Then submit modified post.

I can't change the title in the blue bar with this method. I don't see any way to change the title without help from a moderator. If it is possible to do it your self I would like to know how to......

J

Yep, they just call em domestic

There are more and more hybrid rainbow fish on the market....buyer beware.

J

My otos love Kale (you can get it at Sobey's).

What is Kale?

Lana

Kale is a broad leaf (rough edged and heavy leaf)vegetable with a unique taste. Best after a nights frost! Very European.

Boil till tender then chop very fine before serving, great with boiled sausage, mashed potato and gravy :thumbs:

J.

Ishkabod[/b]

Also you didn't say you checked the nitrite levils before you added the fish so the cycle could have been in a nitrIte spike stage.

Check the nitrAte levils asap

Quote] krazy_Karma

Nitrites can take up to 6 weeks to establish. Ammonia eating bacteria much faster. I stand by my original guess that your tank is not cycled. Stability added daily will help.

Maybe squeeze some sponges from your other tank into your filter that should help.

Try to keep the NitrAtes below 25 by WC.

J

... the Ammonia is at 0 and the nitrite at a .1

I would think the Nitrite (NO3) is what's killing your fish, your Nitrite should be at zero....

On the test kit, maybe Im miss understanding, my water doesnt stay clear, but it is matched with the first color on the kit test color panel... I dont have it in front of me right now but thought it went .1 - .2 - .3 and so on.

Lisa

Nitrite is NO2. Nitrate is NO3.

Nitrite level of 0.1 should not be lethal. IMO

Here is a possibility. The tank is not cycling as fast as it should, perhaps the filter you took from the old tank is not large enough for your new tank. Nitrites are 0 in a well cycled tank.

Adding salt will help with the nitrites as will prime at the higher recommended dosage.

J.

I took a 33 gallon tank out of the garage that had been in storage for a year and discovered a dry 2 inch square patch of shiny substance on the OUTSIDE of the glass on one pane. It is transparent but looks like oil in a rain puddle - rainbow effect.

I let a friend use the garage for car body repair and wonder if some coating spray hit the tank as it was in the vicinity.

I tried a pot scrubber with paint thinner - nothing.

Then I tried lacquer thinner - no better. Tried a razor blade too.

Any other solutions (no pun intended)? It is a cosmetic issue as it is on the exterior but I would like to remove it.

You could try acetone or nail polish remover.

J

:thumbs: :smokey:

I can feel the excitement over here!

J

i absoutley agree and thanks again of to buy a better filter any recomdations on filters??

I sugest an xp3 to go with your xp2 as a good start. I have had good service from my Rena canister filters and absolutely no issues with them.

That's what I would add

J

I agree, the XP 2 is inadequate, and you are overstocked. You may succeed if you at minimum,doubled the filtration and did at least 3, 50-75% water changes per week.....lots of work though.

The rainbows, and angels aggressive eating habits will keep food away from other fish especially the discus. I am not familiar with danio's.

J.

My RO is about PH 6.

I have used 3/4 RO with 1/4 tap to get around PH 7. I did not measure anything else.

No problems for 3 months.

J

Do you buy your RO or have a RO filter?

I have one for personal use installed under the sink in the kitchen, makes at the most 10 gal/24 hours

J

I was thinking of trying some harder to keep species and need to lower my ph and hardness. Since I know nothing about Chemistry and dont' really want to mess around testing it out myself(as its expensive if you are buying RO and screw up) I was wondering if you guys could help.

What ratio of RO to Edmonton tap should I use? I'd like to get my water to about ph7.0 and Kh 3-4, gh3-4.

Or is there a way of using all RO and then buying something to reconstitute it. A product where I'd just have to add a a certain amount to get a certain ph/kh value(like 5g of RO +1 tsp of powder = ph7.0)?

My RO is about PH 6.

I have used 3/4 RO with 1/4 tap to get around PH 7. I did not measure anything else.

No problems for 3 months.

J

i have a 100gal comm tank with my discus (7 discus) for the most part everyone is healthy and everyone is peaceful however i keep losing my discus slowly 1 at a time they start to get very skinny now this takes months and it is only 1 discus at a time it will die then all will be good for a few months then it will repeat i went to my lfs and they keep saying it is the runt... but that you can keep many discus together???? why is this happening can anyone help?? and why if you can keep many discus together does 1 get singled out?? any sugestions??

kelly

There are a few things to check out, as there are a lot of variables and you can try to systematically change some things:

1./ Depending on the amount of other fish you may very well be overstocked. You don't mention stocking level of other fish.

2./ To keep discus healthy in that environment you would need to do at least 2 likely 3 50% WC weekly. You don't mention your WC schedule. If you are overstocked even more WC are required. I suspect the main issue is here! I would schedule several 90 % changes over the next few weeks.

3./ I agree that some of the fish you mentioned are not suitable tank mates.

4./ Discus are easily out-competed for food, they browse for up to 1/2 hour after feeding. For instance, your angels are very aggressive feeders.

5./ What is the temp you are keeping them at. My recommendation when you have a problem is 86 -88 F.

can your other fish handle that?

6./ How large is your filter? Can it handle the load?

7./ In a heavily planted tank there may not be enough circulation.

All conditions above will set discus up for disease and over time the weakest will die.

J

I've had a 90 gallon in my living room for four years and even had a 180 gallon there for two years. But then again, I cannot say that this is a guarantee for you.

I have a 90 and a 120, about 20 feet apart in my living room,on opposite sites, perpendicular and against the bearing walls. The house has not fallen down yet. I do worry about potential leaks though.

My house is 40 years old.

If your basement is empty it would be easy to brace it from below, as close to a bearing wall would make a difference.

J

<br />What kind of wattage would I need to grow these quickly in a 50 Gallon (36" long) tank? I would want to supply some flourish excel as well right?<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Taylor<br />

In my experience,anubias are fairly slow growers and like low light (shady) with very good substrate.

Vals will grow in anything, even 1 watt /gallon but do not like excel. Excel will keep val to 2 " high,or kill it outright. It will like some ferts in the water where anubias likes mostly substrate and some in the water.

I grow val in 1.3 w/gal and need to thin it out at least once a month.

John

Your forum answered one of my questions the go ahead for using peatmoss under gravel. Now I would like to lay a burlap fabric over this peat then cover over with 2" of gravel. This should help reduce any clouding should my stubtrate be disturbed. What I want to know is if anyone else used burlap between the substrate layers. Do the plants have the ability to pass through the burlap or would they slowly stegnate. Of course the other challange is if you want to transplant you might have to dive through the gravel with hemostats to cut way some of the burlap in order to liberate you transplant.

My first layer 1/4 inch was laterite mixed with gravel, then 3/4 inch of peat mixed with 10 % dirt from my flowerbed (sterilized in the oven) then 2-3 inches of gravel.

Plants do fantastic in a low light, low tech set up. While you do pull up some peat when changing plants it is easily sucktioned off and is no problem.

J

All you can do is try it, when it turns white it has regenerated.

J

They are sterbai

John

Very nice! Looking at the nicely maintained tanks and your tank list, you you spend a lot of time changing water.

:thumbs:

]

Artist at work!

j

So in the end I never actually did this. Life went ahead and interfered so I left my 55g the way it was.

In retrospect I'm glad I didn't tear down the tank. For starters, more careful measuring of my rainbows leads me to believe they wouldn't have been happy in the 33g after all. But moreso, I recently realized the problem with the tank being overwhelming was not really the tank at all, but my job. My job has forced me to give up a lot of fun things this year and the aquarium would have been another casualty. So I decided, the hell with that, it's not fair to me to give up anything else.

My life is changing again now, and circumstances in my working life are changing, so I'm going to continue with this theme in the hobby. Patrick has been posting such wonderful photos lately that I've decided to change the tank and start fresh--and try cichlids!

Anybody wanna buy some rainbows?

I am interested in female turquoise rainbows

J