pipe

[arj]

i've had fish in my tank for about 7 weeks now, everting seems pretty much ok.

cleaning the tank they way i'm doing it is becoming a bit tedious, i was wondering if those suction pipe/ syphon things are a good investment? bearing in mind that we have sand, not gravel...

on another unrelated note, one of my 3 male guppies has been acting strange recently. usually, he's pretty active, swimming around at all levels of the tank. but in the past couple of days, he's just been sat there on the sand not moving that often. he's not dead cos every now and again he goes back up andacts normal. last night i also saw what looked like red faeces hanging out.. .....

 

[appleblossom]

I have found the syphon powered cleaners to be more hassle than they are worth, but the battery powered cleaners with a little bag on to collect the crap while the water filters out back into the tank i have found to be really handy, and worth the £14ish they cost. With sand i have to hold the suction guard on the sand, whereas with gravel i push the guard into it to move the gravel around and release any trapped debris.
as you wont have anything trapped in the sand then just holding it on the surface of the sand works fine and lifts the poo etc off the surface and into the bag. you might get a bit of sand sucked up, but nothing to worry about.

 

[abstract]

that really defeats the purpose of a water change. it is not to remove the crap from the sand/gravel but to lower the levels of toxic nitrates in the water.....

that being said, yes the python and other sunction based cleaners are well worth it.

try feeding your guppy some pea's (boiled) and not feeding otherwise for a day or two - maybe he is constipated.

 

[arj]

why peas?

 

[The-Wolf]

Peas act as a laxative.

 

[arj]

i c... well i put a boiled pea in, and they couldnt break it up o eat it. so i mushed it with my fingers, and then most of the fish who could fit it in their mouths just swallowed it then spat it out, over and over.

 

[appleblossom]

the battery powered cleaners are supposed to be used as well as a water change so that you can pick up all the crap while the water change helps improve the water quality.

maybe its just me, but i find removing waste with a syphon, when i put the new water in it disturbs all the crap i managed to miss with the syphon.... whereas the battery powered ones let you have a real good dig around if you need to without sucking up all of your substrate

hows the guppy doing now??

 

[arj]

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=62201

 

[appleblossom]

aw no sorry to hear that arj