Recent content by raylove

For me it's not the economics - I like my Nerites and wouldn't introduce anything that wouldn't be compatible with them any more than I would introduce a predatory fish into a community tank.

Hopefully my fish are keeping warm back in cold and windy Britain while I'm enjoying blue skies and hot sunshine in southern Spain!!🌞😎

Yep, heaters with just a rubber bung and air pumps where you could just pop the rubber base off with no tools required, exposing the electrics😬

Still nothing from Colin_T - hope he's doing OK, the last post I can see sounded like he was in a bad place...

Those neon Rosy's have been around for decades in the UK. There was a time when they were all you could get. I had a bunch back in the day (perhaps six?) and I recall going for half yellow and half red because I thought the colours indicated gender. In my case I believe that is how it turned...

He did list his fish in the original post. They're soft water varieties but as you say, 7.6 isn't particularly extreme. Having said that, the original post also said that pH was 8.0 so I'd have to wonder what's causing swings of that magnitude. Most likely one or other of the readings is...

I'm amazed the silver dollars are ignoring it! Whenever I've tried Anubias I've found that the new leaves are very tender and apparently irresistible to my fish! The same tank had many other tender leaf plants such as hygro and ludwigia and none of them were touched. I never figured out which...

I think he's looking for advice on how to correct the parameters to suit his fish. Sorry, I can't help with that myself although I thought there were some substrates that might lower pH. I used to filter through peat with some success but I eventually tired of the blackwater look. I noticed no...

Try reducing silicates by using Phosguard or similar. After 50 years of tolerating brown algae (diatoms) these totally disappeared after I tried this, and I'm now 4 months totally diatom free. I added a small quantity of the media and replaced it after 3 weeks having noted only a very slight...

I replace mine every 4 - 5 years as a matter of routine. I've never had a failure so even if the newer ones don't last as long as the older ones, they still seem to be good for that period. I usually buy decent branded products but bought my first Ehiem about 5 or 6 years ago and that's the...

I had these diatoms for 50 years and thought the issue was fairly modest until I got rid of it! That was when I realised just how dingy it had been making my tank look all these years. I used a silicate remover (Phosguard). I added a small quantity to my filter and changed it every three weeks...

I wouldn't put the old sponge in the new tank early, as without the fish the bacteria in it will die from lack of food (i.e. the fish waste).

Angelfish!

I count 14! There are three on the sponge (one right at the bottom) and 11 above (there is one behind the one that is just above the tiny one that you might have missed).

This my Juwel 260 litre Vision bow fronted tank. It was set up 5 years ago though all the fish in it I have had for much longer, apart from a couple of rehoused Cory's from about a year ago. This picture is taken a week after thinning the plants which is why they are a little lower than usual on...