Recent content by alistairw

Hi there. Cory's love a sand substrate. They filter the sand out through their bills searching for food. It's what they do in their natural habitat, so it's good to try and recreate that. As already mentioned, the substrate you have will cause food to get trapped and eventually cause water...

This is a great post Bruce, thank you for writing it. I have often wondered about whether you can add our native species to our tanks. You often see specific leaves for sale on various sites. It’s given me a few ideas. Have you added any yet?

Oooh! A hard boiled egg sliced onto toast, mature cheddar melted on top with some Worcestershire Sauce. 🤤

I’ve just realised you quoted PK!

Ive done shooting since I was 16 (43 now 🤣) so costs are really minimal as my rifles don’t need to be changed. The Astro stuff is fairly basic and had that before I got into aquariums. I don’t spend an awful lot on this either now. Tank is established and stable and I have orders from the wife...

My .22 LR target (Anschutz 1984 Olympic) was bought late 90’s for about £650. I still use iron sights on it. My 7.62 is A Swing Mk4 from the mid 80’s. Was owned by the Royal Marines target team and had been used about twice when I bought it 10 years ago. I used iron sights until a couple of...

I do small bore (.22 Cali Rd) and full bore (7.62/.308) target rifle. Very expensive at the start. My fulll bore rifle cost £1500 and the scope the same. Rounds are about £1 a pop. I have to travel to Bisley near Guildford to shoot it. Small bore less expensive and the club is nearer home. This...

I thought the general consensus was to keep more females than males to distribute any dominant behaviour, for example, what may have been shown in this tank. I am no guppy expert, but that is what I have read in other guppy stocking posts. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Thanks both. I will try and find the literature I read to check. I have read elsewhere someone changing the impeller when the filter got noisy which is where I got the idea. I will do some more investigating…..!

I had a Hydor in line heater which was great, as the heated water got distributed really well. It wasn’t too tricky to fit but unfortunately it stopped working. I have never replaced it and just have your normal heating bar in the tank now. Its on my list of things to look at as an upgrade, so...

Evening all I run a Fluval 206 external filter on my tank, and have done for around 4 years. It has recently become quite rattley so decided to buy a maintenance kit that includes new seals, impeller shaft and impeller cover. I also bought an aqua stop valve as that has new seals too. Just out...

I concur with the above and do a couple of changes a week. Water quality can get bad quite quickly with the smaller volumes of water. I don’t think you need to leave the water a couple of days. Put some tetra aqua safe or similar in the water beforehand which will neutralise harmful substances...

Lovely looking fish there Bruce! I thing DG are great fish, but I have bad experiences in the past with the old dwarf gourami disease and it’s put me off them. This was a number of years ago though. I assume you will be updating your excellent journal with their introduction? In which case I...

I think the consensus here is listen to the members here. I agree with Bruce - this "vet" is an ex vet, that gets a great income from you - he is there to make money and probably see's dollar signs in his eyes when you walk in, so will continue to tell you everything is great and sell you more...

Excellent post Myraan and great advice on how to go forward. I was thinking we are at an impasse, so hopefully the advice and knowledge will be used to progress with the hobby. I don’t think much more can be said really, without the OP getting a test kit and water changing each day, but I too...