Flumpweesel

Gloves always leak. Generally my skin is fine with the tank water but does occasionally itch. I have heard of people being allergic to bloodworms and other live foods so maybe if it's something you can figure out and remove from their diet you could make this a more comfortable hobby.

And keep the tank lights off (every little helps)

The weather is set to break tomorrow and drop by 10C back to the normal summer 20s. Air con would be a very expensive way of dealing with temps we don't get most years. Keep the rooms dark and the air moving I've turned my heaters off just to allow the night temps to drop a little lower than normal (if possible) Add airstones where you can .

We don't get these issues very often but take some time today to check the tank temps, my nano tank had jumped up by 4 degrees today. Larger tanks temps are stable enough happily. I did a partial change a added an airstone to the nano so hopefully it should make it through. I don't complain about being warm but as I live in the soggy northwest I do have to take time to remember how to deal with it.

Wow that's impressive. Might be best to just try and manually remove the bulk of that. Now your back the tank should get back into balance so hopefully it won't return. Have a good gravel vac and water change in case of overfeeding in your absence

Room temp should be fine.

Very cute fish, congrats

I like to build up plants slowly so they have good nutrients while they establish and I don't want to spend more on fertilisers than fish food. Put to many in at once on a new tank and you could end up losing some just because there isn't the waste for them to consume. Also its fun to change things up down the line

I never quarantine plants they are normally kept without fish in stores so risks are minimal. I would welcome snails. I did however decide against buying plants at an LFS recently as they had duckweed in the plant tank and that just seemed like transfer would be inevitable.

I had a heater go bad a few months ago it took me to long to notice, I'd had some random fish deaths but put that down to aggression and iffy new stock. But then one day I felt a tingle in my hand when cleaning the tank and on inspection a big crack in the heater. Sorry for your losses good news is you seem to have found the source and resolved it. Story above is just a show of solidarity these things happen to us all.

Sounds like it could be safe but I'd like to see it before deciding. It sounds like it would only be available in specialist shops which might be the main reason for it going under radar. Most inert things can be used as a substrate I do like a smooth feel to my gravel though. If it could be cleaned well enough you could have a recycling project to look into depending on how often it needs to be replaced in the machine. See ya on Etsy 😝

So maybe this is a better place to put my tankhold updates rather than spamming general with random updates. Since joining this group I have set up a shrimp tank and I'm currently cycling the grumpy fish isolation tank. My main tank is due a big reset soon. So I'm sure I'll want to document that. So here is the progression of what is currently named the isolation tank. Tank picked up second hand with light, heater, filter (not being used) and half a bag of fine gravel (being saved for main tank) for £35. Stand is lower than I would like but will serve until I can source something better. The filter, gravel and hardscape was all from storage and the plants have come from my other tanks.

So I have a long tank in between two couches in my living room. When I kept goldfish in it they would sit next to me in the evenings. They were a lot of fun I believe if they could have left their tank they would have been lap fish constantly nudging for attention.

Honestly doing nothing and just waiting is the hardest thing sometimes but once you get the hang of it saves you a lot of stress and money in the long run. And lean to love algae its the best signal that this tank can support fish.

Looks like a cichlid maybe juvenile colouration, assuming you don't mean the Congo tetra. Fish shop labelling is often hilarious no wonder so many people have no idea what is actually in their tanks.

@DannyBWell can we be sure such a happy doggy didn't help😜. Sterling effort and they do look tasty. I don't think I can compete but I'll try to make a taco tea time tomorrow for solidarity.

I don't water change if I'm doing a fishless cycle, its hard work but the best thing you can do it leave it all to sort itself out. If the tabs are deep enough they shouldn't be causing an issue. Plants like ammonia so don't take them out, do remove dead leaves. Stirring up the gravel can cause things to alter as the bacteria in the surface and the deeper bacteria can be different and doing different things. Early cycling can be delicate light touches to tidy up the plants and see how it goes on the bright side when the bacteria kicks in they will be more than enough for your Betta

I would say scenario 1, sounds like you have the most control you could try breather bags and just take the lid off the cooler every now and then to improve the air circulation. Max out the water to fish as l ratio as much as you can and if space allows

I can't see it being a problem I found adding the young ones in caused less issue as they hide and get used to the group slowly where adding older fish can cause a dominance issue. They catch up pretty fast anyway

So this year and most certainly since joining this forum. I have learnt to covent C to F and litres to US gallons (and the difference between imperial gallons and US gallons).😜 Also that fishtanks take time to change and develop and no magic products or potions do as good a job as waiting. Except ppi 30 foam and plastic canvas they are incredibly useful. I have also learnt how to keep shrimp alive hopefully soon I'll be able to say that I can get shrimp to breed . Also that the only person my tank has to please is me. It is nice to have a forum focused on helping people succeed. And where there are no stupid questions.

So my assumption is that there is a certification required to state fish safe ( or food safe) and if they don't pay for the certification they can't sell as safe for fish. Doesn't mean it's not safe but that it hasn't been tested maybe or that its not in a food grade condition from factory so I would make sure its clean before using it on an aquarium. I can't think of any other reason it would need to carry the warning.

Thinking about it they might make a really good alternative to fine filter floss either layered or just stuffed in and they would have the potential to be reusable ( unlike floss some flosses) or if you don't want to reuse them at least they got one extra use before being binned.

I've finally emptied my old gravel bucket. It's been very handy to have to hand. I've set up two tanks with it. Used it in bird baths to create beaches so insects and smaller birds can drink safely. I've used to weight doorstops. It is really handy have a bucket of gravel to hand. Someone was using big water bottles to store it in (after cleaning and drying) that looked pretty clever. Cleaning and drying now saves a lot of messing when you want to use it so worth the work.

I used some old tights (pantyhose) to make some weights for plastic plants had them in the tank for years. I never even thought to see what they were made off , they aren't going to dissolve so rinse well to get any detergents off them (don't use the caffeine impregnated spanks) and they should be good if fiddly to use. Because of the stretchy nature they will hold the media quite tight so might not let it move around enough. And the fine holes will clog so as above says they might not be the best choice for media bags but I commend your attitude to reusing stuff

No that's absolutely fine, normally the volume you add to top off isn't enough to slow down the cycle. Topping off isn't like a water change as you aren't removing anything when water is lost through evaporation it's only water that goes all the other stuff that is in aquarium water stays behind getting more concentrated adding more clean water just puts it back to the concentration prior to the evaporation. Hope that reads ok I'm a bit sleepy.