Tropical Fish News

Is there anything I can do to help make my tank cycle any quicker?

Not being able to find anything in the fishy world locally!

4 chain pet stores and 1 "real" LFS (which I just found out is going out of business) and they hardly carry anything.

Example...I was looking for Purigen. Nope. Have to go online to find it and pay extra because of shipping.

What a crock!

are there any simple Mag. test kits they are a pain in my ASS, I have a Red sea test kit and I have never really under stood it?

Thinking about using these for my refugium lighting.

Does anyone have any info. on these????

Make sure you have your speakers on for this one. :)
http://wheelof.com/whitney/whitneyCarol.swf

I found this app last week and have been trying it out and wanted to share because it's FANTASTIC! :bowdown:

iPump

and a couple reviews on it.
JewliaGoulia: REVIEW: FitnessBuilder
FitnessBuilder Review | iPhone and iPad Healthcare & Fitness App | Macworld

Some of the things I'm loving about it so far:
1. Easy to use
2. Sooo many choices of workouts.
3. EVERY single exercise has a how-to video. :shock:
4. Keeping track of weight/reps for each exercise is quick/easy
5. Timer for rest periods between sets
6. Includes all calculators
7. After each workout ends, it suggests a slew of others you can try next time that are similar. It's pretty much impossible to get bored!
8. Not just for weightlifting. Has cardio, interval training, yoga, stretching...
9. Some workouts are single workouts and others are multi-week fitness programs.

At $9.99 it's the most expensive app I've ever bought but it's worth way more than that.

So I am thinking about upgrading my 29G acrylic tank to a bit bigger one :eyebrows:, utilizing the petco $1 per gallon sale. There seem to be some people that would recommend a 40 breeder over a 55 because of the dimensions. I wanted to get some opinions and thoughts :-k. I will be utilizing all existing equipment. It will have an eheim ecco 34 and a rena XP1, pressurized CO2, etc. The tank will be heavily planted with 2 medium sized angels, 3 blue rams, 5 otos, and a lonely neon. Please give me your opinion on which would be better in your opinion.

Here is a pic of the existing tank when it was about 2 months overdue on a trim.



Thanks
Josh

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For the sake of being completely stupid, how do you pronounce the word Uaru? I really dig 'em and am afraid to ask for them at the LFS I am heading to tomorrow in Jersey.

Hopefully, I'm in the right area of the forum for introducing myself. I'm Lynda from CT, married to the love of my life, and we are fishkeepers (he has 1 tank, I have 3).

I've just recently ventured into lightly planting my tanks and wow, what a difference. Once you have live, you just can't go back. I love the feel and the mood that the plants bring to the tanks. It becomes an additional layer of life and I'm hooked.

Recently, I set up a killifish tank and that has me doing slightly more research on planted tanks, as they require a heavily planted tank for spawning. That's a species only tank. I also have kribs, kuhli loaches, rummy nose tetras, amano shrimp, a rainbow shark and blood parrot cichlids (no, not all in the same tank). The killies have the most plants right now, but the other tanks have some. Am hoping to expand my repertoire to add more interest.

Looking forward to learning much here. Have a great day! :icon_smil

Anyone use this product? I have been DIY co2 on my 20 gallon and thought this may be a little more stable. I followed the directions exactly and after three days not one bubble. I opened the canister and there was no pressure built up and only the faintest yeast smell. The temperature when mixing was much cooler than my DIY Co2 so I set the canister in warm water to raise the temp and kick start the yeasts. Any other ideas?

Basically looking for a whole set up refugium sump. I'm still a bit lost on how everything works so I would really like a whole set up with the skimmer return pump power heads and everything really needed to begin a saltwater tank.

If your local I maybe willing to purchase the your whole tank if selling I'm in lake worth Florida could drive to miami the keys or Jupiter. Zip is 33467

Also in need of live rock and sand after I get the filter system up of course

I know there's a guy on here who sells healthy ones, but where else can someone find healthy Cardinal Tetras? Has anyone bought them from LiveAquaria? I know they are awesome for saltwater stuff, but what about their freshwater stock?

Thanks!

Hey guys this is just frustrating. When I first started my planted tank I bought a Water Wisteria, well after about 3 weeks the base started melting and then eventually the stem broke.

Now 7 months later I decided to try another stem plant Ludwigia ovalis. 3 weeks in and I am noticing that it is doing the same thing, breaking at the base.

I really just don't understand why everything else is doing good and this appears to be whithering away.

Ok im leaving in 1 week to go on vacation for 10 days, i have no one to tank sit and i fixed up my auto top off to take care of the water but im wondering about feeding while im gone, i feed frozen every other day, occasionlly i throw a few flakes in once a month and they eat them just fine so do i just set up a auto feeder with flake food for the time im gone??? if so whats a good feeder for this? or any great suggestions welcome. and do i leave my regular light cycle on for the corals?

Kevin

I am in currently in the planning stages of a frag tank system. I was thinking of using two 50 gallon Rubbermaid stock tanks and putting them next to each other. I wanted to use one 250 watt metal halide in a Lumen Bright Large reflector for my lighting. In order to cover the two tanks I planned to use a the Light Rail 3.5 6RPM motor. How long should my light cycle be? The light can travel the 6 foot distance in 6-7 minutes.

Ok, some background. My wife has a 20 long in her kindergarten class with a few hardy fish in it. I believe we've got two albino cories, one albino algae eater, one zebra danio and five white clouds. I know the stocking is odd, we have a few stragglers left from previously larger schools.

Anywho, she moved into a new school last year and we were unable to keep the tank running over the summer. This meant we had to set up a small tank at home to keep the fish in and drain the tank at school. This meant we had a very short period to get the tank going, so it was a cold start basically, very little cycling.

I have an over-powered HOB filter for the tank, plus a small internal filter to help out on the end of the tank furthest from the HOB. The internal filter was part of the summer tank, so it was already well seeded with bacteria. I also put clippings from a few live plants in the tank to help with the cycling.

Basically, my wife knows nothing about fish keeping, and I'm very rarely able to get over and take care of it myself.

So, she tells me last week that her water is cloudy, and I tell her it's likely a bacterial bloom. Now she says the water is green, and I tell her it's likely an algae bloom caused by the extra nitrates that caused the bacteria bloom which is a fairly common part of cycling a tank, especially one done so quickly/poorly.

I advised a few water changes, turning the light off and simply waiting for it to get better. Anyone else have any easy tricks I could pass along? Any fine and dandy products that might help out?

I just had the best idea ever! What about a 3-way tank? No... not that kind of 3-way... shame on you. A aquarium diveded into 3 sections 1) Freshwater 2) Brakish and then 3rd) Reef? With a eaqually complicated sump

Hi everyone,

Half playing, half totally serious - I have the opportunity for a big tank installation next year, having owned various smallish (180g) tropical tanks etc over the last ten years or so. We could go big marine, or huge tropical, but as these things are not impulse purchases, I want to explore all options :)

Anyway, as past avid fishermen, my father and I have a huge love for the Trout, and it has long been a dream to create a tank required to house them.

Now, I'm well aware that for many reasons, not least environment and fairness to the fish, the first basic must is a very large tank.

My thinking is a 4m long, 2.5m high, 2m deep custom made acrylic tank with multiple pump outlets (say 3-4) set about a third of the way up one end. Not sure how many gallons that is without doing the numbers, but it would be a lot...

This would be set partly outside, with the back and one end against a garden wall, one end exposed and one side inside.

So the size is as big as a tank really ever could be in a residential scenario, and the fish would be ensured a well placed source of streamy moving water, and the temperature should be easy to control.

We live in the UK, where many species of trout live happily. Therefore my thinking is that with as little insulation as possible, and keeping direct sun off the water via a roof - only minimal chilling/heating would be required to keep a very consistent stable perfect temperature for the fish which live just fine come rain or shine all around us.

I can't keep waffling on - but that is the outline and hopefully the most important main two elements; size and temp as good as they can be.

Bottom line is - with the above, would it actually be possible? Is that still too small? Would mixing species of trout in a tank of that size lead to problems?

I wouldnt want this to be an exercise in cruelty, and the hope is that with an outfit such as this, the right mix of a small number of fish, fed properly (ie not with beef mince) could flourish and enjoy their lives in such an environment - so I come here looking for any and all advice!

Many Thanks

Harley

Good morning all,
I set up my new nanocube system and it seems to be doing reasonably well. The only problem I see is that the lighting is putting a lot of heat into the water in spite of the fans in the cover. I was considering getting some stainless steel tubing and making a heat exchanger so I could get it down to room temperature at least. Anyone know of a good source? Anyone have a broken chiller they want to get rid of?