Jump to content

Chris45

Members
  • Posts

    70
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by Chris45

  1. Thanks. I undersatand the nitrogen cycle pretty well at this point but never bothered to mess with GH and KH. I try to do a 50% water change each week and dose about a level tablespoon of equilibrium each time on my 290 litre tank (~75 gallon). I was told I needed to do this becuase our water is very clean and lacks minerals etc. Not really sure how this also affects the GH / KH and whether I need to check levels etc.
  2. Is there a video someone could recommend that explains basic tank chemistry, in a language that one might use for a small child, or golden retriever?
  3. I want to trim this plant to keep it from getting too high and then overcrowding the top of the tank. However, all of it's new leaves shoot at the top which means I keep chopping off the new leaves instead of the old terrible looking ones further down. I don't want to keep choppingt the top half of the plant off and replanting it because it then has to grow new roots all over again etc. Is there some way of trimming this to keep it from growing too high without brutally ruining the thing every time?
  4. It's a modular setup and it seems to suck in water from in between the modules that fit together. So it would need to be something that doesn't set or cure, else I couldn't take it apart easily for cleaning etc
  5. I bought one of these filters a few days ago and filled it with some fine wool filter pad. The idea being to use this extra one as a water polisher. https://www.aquariumuniverse.com.au/products/cruise-internal-aquarium-power-filter-700lph Got it in the tank, turned it on and waited for the water to clean up. Like watching paint dry, I continued to watch.... the water slowly get dirtier and dirtier. The increased flow stirred up everything from the bottom. To be expected, but I thought it would eventually all get caught in the filter. As I continued to watch, I noticed the particles fly right by the intake at the bottom and also get sucked into a number of other gaps at the top with great force! The main gap being a gaping hole around the out pipe. So the water was going in and straight out again without passing through any of the filter material. Pretty stupid design imo. Is there some kind of fish-safe, putty-like substance I can use to plug up the gaps or some other solution? I could use blutak, but not sure if that would leech and poison the fish...
  6. Yeah I understand the theory that the fine sponge is to catch the particles, however I would expect that those particles would be caught at the entry side of the sponge or inside the sponge and not on the exit side of the sponge. The entry side of the sponge has no sediment or particles. This doesn't support the idea that the water is travelling through the sponge in the way it's designed to. Another reason I feel the water is bypassing the trays is the quality of the water column inside the tank. What I mean by that is without a prefilter on the intake the water is not clear, despite there being 3 sponges in the filter that the water is meant to pass through. Once I put the prefilter on the intake, the water became crystal clear overnight. There is no way that the water can bypass the prefilter and is therefore mechanically filtered and produces clear water.
  7. Unfortunately I don't have access to easy green (Australia). I have a pretty heavily planted 75g tank, understocked. Is there a similar product to easy green that I could grab from amazon or ebay etc?
  8. I meant to put this in general discussion or anywhere else more appropriate. Not sure that I can move it myself. Appreciate if a mod could move. Thanks!
  9. My pre-filter was clogged so I removed it, and when I did the filter started making a rattling noise as it began moving water again. I pulled it apart and did a clean - the first one in about 6 weeks. Not sure what was causing the rattle, but it seemed back to normal once I put it back together and turned it on. What I've been noticing when I take it apart is that the lowest tray, which has 3 sponges, is that there is always a decent amount of sediment on top of the top sponge, the fine sponge. This makes me think that the water is not moving through the sponges and it would have not allowed any sediment to settle there due to the movement of the water. I feel like the flow of water is taking the path of least resistance by flowing through the pretty significant gaps between the trays and the panels of the filter housing. The filter is a pretty large diameter with a couple of millimeters all the way aorund. It seems that would allow for a pretty decent flow of water. If that is the case, it would be bypassing the trays and straight out the top and back into the tank, and rendering the media largely useless. The trays themselves feel pretty flimsy and bendy, so you need to be very careful putting the trays back so they line up perfectly. It's very easy for them to sit on top of the other trays wonky and not lined up. The nitrates are always over 20 despite having heaps of media designed to deal with nitrates and also what I'd say is a pretty heavily planted tank. Is water bypass a thing or am I just being paranoid??
  10. I have a film of tiny particles covering the surface of my tropical tank. They are so small they go straight through a net making them hard to get rid of even manually. I assume it's the remnants of flake food that doesn't sink for whatever reason, but still breaks up as it tumbles through the wash from the (canister) filter outlet. It looks almost like two layers of film moving over each other. Strange. I'm wondering if a surface skimmer would be a good idea. I don't need a filter/skimmer combo as I already have the canister and a sponge filter connected to an air line. Would one of these be ok? LINK 1 LINK 2
  11. I bought 4 clown loaches from the LFS to get rid of my pond snails. 2 weeks later and they have tiny white spots over them. I don't have a quarantine tank so they went straight into my 300 litre tank. In that tank I also have 20 neon tetras, 4 Cory's, 3 kuhli loaches, 4 Otto's, 5 Harlequin rasboras, 2 mystery snails that have just laid eggs, and a dwarf gourami. I do have one other small 20l tank that has 5 guppies and a molly as residents. I have read that clown loaches have their own specific white spot that they get, so I'm hoping it doesn't spread to the other fish. What would be my best course of action to cure my loaches? I don't mind utilising the smaller tank if needed. Also should I be asking for my money back on the infested loaches?
  12. Curious to know your tanks dimensions. I have a 75 gallon but mine seems taller than a usual 75 gallon
  13. Someone else posted this on the forums - I use it every time Although the colour for 10 and 20 Nitrate looks exactly the same to me, also for o and o.25 ammonia
  14. I have one. They are great. I calibrated before first use and haven't calibrated since. After I use it I rinse in demineralised water. If I had to also calibrated every time it would no longer be convenient.
  15. Thanks guys. If I used assassin snails then how would I get rid of those after their job was done?
  16. What's the best way to get rid of them? At first it was just a few that got in with some plants. But they must have had a breeding frenzy. I'm manually squashing about 30 every day and they just reappear an hour later. I've read that they are beneficial but I find them unsightly.
  17. I bought those alert monitors as well but found them to be useless in my tank. I threw them out
  18. I use Prime with water changes. API liquid? Do you mean biostarter?
  19. Thanks - I have some happy and sad news. After many days, one of the mums to be has produced 2 babies that seem to be thriving in the separate tank. I think they are between 1 and 2 weeks old. However for an unknown reason, one of the mums was found dead at the bottom of the tank last night. I tested parameters and they were 25 ppm ammonia or less, 0 nitrite and 20ppm nitrate. Temp 25c, Not chasing pH, which i think is around 7.6. Not sure why she died and sure was sad to see her there not moving at the bottom of the tank.
  20. I honestly wouldn't know what an Australian native tropical fish would be. I used to live in North Queensland and my father had a boat so could access the reef, and a lot of our friends kept sea water tanks and had lovely corals and anenome with clowns and so on, but as far as tropicals I couldn't say. When I go into a LFS here, all I see is basically the same fish that are regularly discussed here on the forums and on youtube etc.
  21. I just did a water change and opened the filter. Putting it back together I noticed the downpipes were out of alignment. I tried pushing them into place but only for marginal improvement. Anyone had this problem? This hobby never stops trolling me!
  22. The tank has evolved a bit while cycling. I cut the driftwood in half - was producing far too much red tannin and too quickly for my liking. I think the cycle is pretty much done now as well. I have added a few plants from what I could get from my LFSs, and I would like to keep adding more. A couple Val and baby tears, which look quite poorly compared to the other anubias and swords and whatever the others are. I wouldn't mind some grassly low growing stuff near the front and some more interesting medium size plants around the middle. I've already started thinking about CO2, so that will be the next thing to be researched I guess.
×
×
  • Create New...