Recent content by FishDan

The only easy answer I can give is: Probably not. For one, many crabs require areas out of the water to be happy, so this is something to consider. But the biggest issue is that often crabs will eat just about anything they can get their claws on. That includes any fish that may wander within...

Another thing to consider is the size of your tank. Even if your water were perfect, a 15 gallon tank is far to small for an ID shark to comfortably live in for very long. Another reason fish my jump is due to a lack of livable space. This is something else to think about if you want to...

I do not believe that marketing is the only difference between the two filters. Even if I am mistaken on some of my points, other points are not mistakes. And the spray bar is another addition. It simply does not make marketable sense to maintain two totally seperate products (and therefore...

Sure you can use them. For water that is removed from the tank only. Not for any water that is being returned to the tank. So, I agree, it's just best to get new buckets and either get rid of the old ones or save them for future home improvement projects. Any bucket that has had any household...

The point of boiling is to kill/remove "nasties" that, primarily, come from nature. You don't want aquatic "nasties" hitching a ride with those great rocks you found down by the river. The likelyhood of any "nasties" that are going to harm or effen remotely affect your fish is so small as to...

It could be the light or a difference in surroundings. Often times fish colors will differ somewhat based on things like amount of light and substrate color. If the fish is healthy and behaving normally I wouldn't worry too much. I'd just keep an eye on it for a few days, see how it does. \Dan

I did a little checking (looked at the website and manuals). There are a few differences between the two (it simply does not make sense to me that one company would have two lines of filters that only look different, this strikes me as impracticale to maintain two products with some very...

Then I would do the same thing as LFS. Just give them a good rinse and they should be fine. I have similar river rocks that I bought a bag of from a craft store and they have caused no problems at all. \Dan

Did you buy them from a LFS? If so they are likely "ready to use". Just rinse them off to clean off any dust and dirt that may have settled on them. If you actually picked them up from a river, yes, boiling them is the way to go. This will kill off any "nasties" that may have hitchhiked when you...

Huh. I was told that the Penguins did not have the extra media baskets. Thanks for correcting me!! When I bought my Emperor I think the one difference I recall when I was checking it out was that some people reported trouble with the Penguin's impellers from time to time. \Dan

Of course for sales. And this is why I feel that the person should be fired. In every job I have been in, my education has been a continuous prospect. Of course I am trained before hand. Does that mean I won't learn anything new? So a person who opened a fish shop in the 1980's should ignore...

While I agree (wholeheartedly) that the advice/answer this person gave are misleading and/or just plain wrong, I have a better solution: Educate them. Those of us that get on our high horses about someone who doesn't know what we all know are (IMO) worse than the people who give bad/wrong...

Yeah, effective at what exactly? Are you talking about a specific brand? If it is aquarium gravel, only black in color it should be effective only in so far as covering the bottom of your tank and giving it (IMO) a finished look (personally, I don't like bare bottom tanks, they never look...

There is at least one fairly significant difference, besides GPH, between Penguin and Emperor filters. Emperors have additional media baskets to allow for more customization of filter media. The Emporor 280 has one basket, the 400 has two. This allows you to add additional chemical or biological...

What is the nitrate level of your change water? It is possible for the water (either out of the tap, or from a well) to have nitrates in it. Thus, changing water will do nothing, and in cases of some heavily planted tanks, may actually raise nitrate levels. Plants, especially ones that grow...