Recent content by TallPaul

Hi all. Just throwing my two pennies in the hat. I've had issues with BGA/cyanobacteria in my tanks before and have just started to see a slight bloom of it again in my current tank. I'm not a fan of using chemicals personally but when my previous tank was struggling I used Easy Life Blue Exit...

If you watch George Farmer on YouTube he has a large bucket that he puts in his sink and he lets it overflow with the correct temp water. In the bucket he has a submersible pump and he has that pump clean water to his tanks with a garden hose. He just does the process in reverse to drain the...

Look at the Python water change system, then look at the price. You can buy all of the parts on ebay for a fraction of the cost. They even sell them as a complete package. You just connect it to your tap and it draws water out and fills it back up.

Snails are like marmite. I hate them, even just 2 can leave your entire tank coated in little white snail eggs that need to be scraped off with a razor. If you want an alternative consider this. 10 x dwarf pencil fish (top dwellers) 10 x black neons (mid dwellers) 8 x bronze or panda corys...

Could you swap out your 70l for your friend's 35l tank? The 35l is a great size for a siamese fighter as it gives them plenty of swimming room without them looking lost in a bigger, mostly empty, tank. Plus with it being smaller it is less intrusive in a living room so parents might enjoy it...

Hijacking the thread. I'm in a similar spot except my tank is a 105 ltr Aquarius Leddy and is an existing tank. It has been rescaped and neon tetras housed in a 60 ltr so all is left are 6 amano shrimp. I did enjoy the neon tetra but I found the supplier lights are just too bright and startle...

The white bit is his belly. Looks fine, betta fish are prone to bloating and if that area swells up it is probably due to bloating from overfeeding.

I'm not trying to per on your bonfire, I think it's great that you have had success with them. I know exactly what you are thinking when you see them. I see the same sickly fish at my local Pets At Home chain store and I've mentioned to staff that it looks on its last legs but they are just so...

Honestly, I don't recommend buying sickly fish from a chain pet store. The way they see it, they can carry on stocking these fish and treating them the way they do, usually very badly, since they are being sold. If you really do feel sorry for them then I would suggest haggling for some sort of...

You will go through all kinds during the first month of cycling. Bacterial bloom is normal and, as has already been mentioned, it will pass when the food source dies off. You will likely see a brown rust appear on your decorations soon. These are diatoms, a sort of algae, and they consume...

It seems my tank may be suffering an outbreak of mass stupidity, I had to rescue an ember tetra from the rear compartment. It must have jumped the gap so I've had to drop the water level a bit more to avoid that from happening again. It was incredibly difficult to get the fish out, the only way...

You suspect the "glute". I stopped about 3 days ago but I think it may already have had an effect. Only one Oto went for the sponge though and all the others are seemingly fine. I was cautious over the Easy Carbo and under dosed but they could still have ingested too much after I had treated the...

Well, I'm slightly less overstocked. Worryingly I lost an Otocinclus today. It was just lay at the bottom of the tank all day behind some plants. I became worried and gently tapped him with my plant tweezers. They usually fly off when it comes anywhere near but this one didn't move. I picked...

Having kept mine now for 2 months my experience with them is that they devoured diatoms and have had very little interest in much else besides biofilm. I had a small amount of algae on the glass, I assume it was green algae although it looked brown, and they were uninterested in it. The algae...

The problem with adding more Otos is that I can't guarantee enough food for them. These just will not take to algae wafers at all, they just completely ignore them. Blanched veggies do well though and they usually rasp the skin from cucumber and courgette/zucchini in a day. In fact I am quite...