Pet Forum / Aquaria / General / November 2004

I'm a long-time aquarist who's owned a dozen or more aquariums with most
common freshwater creatures at one time or another.  I got out of the hobby
a while ago, but got back into it recently when a friend had to get rid of
his 55 gallon tank (it was me or the garbage).  So I ...

How often do you guys do the gravel cleaning?
bcoz I got so many plants in the tanks, it seems too trouble to do the
gravel cleaning.
PS I'm using external filter

Should they be planted in the basket?  I only have a very thing layer of
substrate sand and there is no chance of me rooting them under the sand, do
these baskets and foam padding suffice?  I can hide them under some pebbles
and stones.

I started using RO water about 3 months ago. I noticed that my plants
have nobeen growing much and was told at my LFS store that I should be
adding marine salt to my RO water to add electrolytes and increase
hardness.

I'm helping a friend of mine set up his new 40 gallon tank… and we've
gotten to the fish planning stage. He's after a peaceful, colorfull
tank.
Here's what he was thinking…

i should i have read on here before i started......but i only started a week
so i hope its not too late :)
i got myself a 20 g tank and filled it up with tab water, put about a bag of
AquaSafe that came with the kit and the water sat for about a week....not

I still dont have any fish in my aquarium!  I am a fussy twat, and keep
making changes.
Anyway, the aquarium is now setup the way I like, and I have filled with tap
water and de-chlorinated.  It has been sitting with filters on for maybe 5

I setup a 10 gallon aquarium for my daughter about a month or so ago. It is
fully cycled and we have a few fish in it. When I first put it all together
I added 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gal (standard recipe right?).
This is the first tank I have added salt to for fear ...

I am wanting to introduce some mystery snails to my tanks to help with the
algae problem, the oto cats are just not keeping up.  I want to know if I
need to quarantine the mystery snails before adding them to the tank like I
do the fish.  Do they carry diseases?  If so, how long ...

The plant in our tropical tank, Cabomba Aquatica I think, has been doing
great for the last few months. Noticed recently the plant has started
going "brown with very fine dirty hair on it". As a newbie, is this
possibly due to little light or too much light.

I have two filters running 24/7.  One is an internal filter, the second is a
large canister filter.  Would it do any harm to the fish, water quality or
the filter itself, if I powered down the canister overnight?  I was thinking
about setting it on a timer to only run between 8am ...

I have a 96 litre Juwel Rekord 96 aquarium with the internal filter as well
as an external canister.
I have well rinsed sand as the substrate and have three medium sized pieces
of bog wood.

Two weeks ago I fitted a Fluval 404 external filter to my 48x18x12 tropical
freshwater aquarium. I have been running it in alongside my existing under
gravel filter system which is run by two power heads.
I have two questions that I would appreciate your experience with.

Sorry for the simplicity of this question but I'm a little new to
fishkeeping.
Im running a tropical tank (25 degrees) with a few fish to start of with
but am having a couple of problems. I left the tank about 3-4 days to

I have the Jewul Rekord 96 which uses its own filter and heater.  The damn
thing wont drop below 78.5 , is this ok for a community aquarium?  I thought
72 - 76 was better, will the extra heat cause issues?