hensonc4098
Fish Herder
Hiya 
My auntie and uncle have a 30L BiOrb which has gone to rack and ruin and has been overgrown with algea. My uncle says he wants to put it in the bin but I've persuaded them to keep it as it was my late nana who bought it as a present for my little cousin.
The hitch? I have to "fix" it.
So where do I start? Well the tank, typically BiOrb, has the rubbish filter that has that awful lava rock stuff in it. I can't change the filter as any work/costs I will probably have to pay for or if they pay for it, they won't really want to spend more than £15 or so I would guess on the whole thing. (remember they wanted rid of it)
Before you say, BiOrbs aren't my favourite kind of tank either but hey ho - it's not mine!
I have a hex and a rectangular 
I've not really looked at the filter but according to my auntie it's an undergravel with a spongey bit in the middle. The lava rock allegedly aids filtration but is so jaggy that you cannot put anything like ottos in as they will cut their mouths, and they kinda need ottos to help clean up the algea problem. It also doesn't seem to do a lot of filtering
It's mainly green algea on the inside of the glass and I'm not sure if the water was a bit green too 
Sooo... my plan is to maybe take out the jaggy rock stuff and replace with chunky gravel which will still allow the under-gravel to work but will allow them to have a few ottos. Also, I would add a couple of plants (they don't have any atm) to try to cut down algea production.
Their current stocking is pretty meagre - a black neon and another kind of tetra, I couldn't see what it was because the glass was so green
They haven't been able to keep many fish alive probably due to poor water conditions or something.
They don't have a heater though, which I thought was a necessity for tetras etc. but apparently not - they're just slower. Is this so?
Would changing the gravel be ok? And also, about the heater - would some zebra danios be ok in a cool-ish tank? I know they're pretty hardy. If not, is there something else that could as they aren't too keen on goldfish but the expense of getting a heater for a tank with an uncertain future might not be too popular!
I've just realised how long this post is! Sorry guys!!! Thanks for reading
Claire
My auntie and uncle have a 30L BiOrb which has gone to rack and ruin and has been overgrown with algea. My uncle says he wants to put it in the bin but I've persuaded them to keep it as it was my late nana who bought it as a present for my little cousin.
The hitch? I have to "fix" it.
So where do I start? Well the tank, typically BiOrb, has the rubbish filter that has that awful lava rock stuff in it. I can't change the filter as any work/costs I will probably have to pay for or if they pay for it, they won't really want to spend more than £15 or so I would guess on the whole thing. (remember they wanted rid of it)
Before you say, BiOrbs aren't my favourite kind of tank either but hey ho - it's not mine!
I have a hex and a rectangular I've not really looked at the filter but according to my auntie it's an undergravel with a spongey bit in the middle. The lava rock allegedly aids filtration but is so jaggy that you cannot put anything like ottos in as they will cut their mouths, and they kinda need ottos to help clean up the algea problem. It also doesn't seem to do a lot of filtering
It's mainly green algea on the inside of the glass and I'm not sure if the water was a bit green too Sooo... my plan is to maybe take out the jaggy rock stuff and replace with chunky gravel which will still allow the under-gravel to work but will allow them to have a few ottos. Also, I would add a couple of plants (they don't have any atm) to try to cut down algea production.
Their current stocking is pretty meagre - a black neon and another kind of tetra, I couldn't see what it was because the glass was so green
They haven't been able to keep many fish alive probably due to poor water conditions or something.They don't have a heater though, which I thought was a necessity for tetras etc. but apparently not - they're just slower. Is this so?
Would changing the gravel be ok? And also, about the heater - would some zebra danios be ok in a cool-ish tank? I know they're pretty hardy. If not, is there something else that could as they aren't too keen on goldfish but the expense of getting a heater for a tank with an uncertain future might not be too popular!
I've just realised how long this post is! Sorry guys!!! Thanks for reading
Claire
what about a couple of danios?
