Pet Forum / Aquaria / Freshwater / July 2004

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with "peat plates".  Big
Al's has them, and they seem like they would be good for my aquarium -- my
water is pretty hard (I soften it by mixing with RO, but it is still
pretty hard) and I'm also thinking of giving them a try because ...

My home tank has me pleased. I really enjoy watching the combination I
have - it's only a 12 gallon, so my choices were limited...
I now have
1 beautiful male beta, blue, turquoise and red

I am setting up a basic FO freshwater tank for my father.  I got a
great deal on an Oceanic 58 Reef Ready tank (1 overflow).  I have a
metal stand for him, and don't really want to run one of my Fluval 404
canister filters (For cosmetic reasons only.  Basically because it's a

One of my ghost shrimp recently molted, and has turned white.  I thought the
color would fade as the shell hardened a bit, but after a couple weeks he's
still white.  My other shrimp are just fine, and are their normal clear
color.  What gives?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good algae window cleaner for a
30 gallon tank?
I have 3 shrimp in the tank, but they don't seem to touch the algae
growing on the glass.

To all who responded:
Thank you.  Unfortunately, (as predicted), two more of the fish
perished overnight and a third is laboring badly this morning.  I
removed the dead fish, did a 70% water change, and am hoping for the

To all,
As I prepare to restock my 55 gal community tank, for one of the tank
inhabitants I debate between 2 Rainbows:
Boesmani Rainbow (Melanotaenia boesmani)

I just treated my tank on Sunday with AlgaeFix - came in to work this
morning to find both frogs and the snail dead with a white fuzzy coating all
over them. Pretty upset about it! They were fine yesterday (or so it
looked).

The subject of avoiding the use of softened water in aquaria comes up a
lot.  However, I was just reading some webpages on water softeners, and
they claim that you can use potassium chloride in a water softener, so
that potassium will be exchanged for the calcium & magnesium instead ...

Hi group
i have a problem with ammonia.
my tank is about 3months old now...
about 5 weeks ago i lost about6 fish very suddenly

I've seen a number of posts re carbon. I'm not sure that I understand what
carbon is supposed to do! Can anyone explain (in Janet & John language)
please.
Thanks - Dave

I have one surviving guppy left in my tank (the others died over the years).
My pH used to be set around 7.2, but I brought it down to 6.5 a year or so
back for the discus. I am worried about him being on his own and having an
identity crisis, as I think he now believes he is a ...

Well, I got some more strips (all the Petco had, had no time
unfortunately to look for something of higher quality)--did a
"control" test and found the pH test to be worthless (actually because
the KH is low--the Mardel strips even say so), but other ones

Someone in another ng posetd the following info on how fish are captured. I
haven't listened to the radio program yet, but would like your thoughts. I
am also not sure whether arsenic or cyanide is actually used.
*************

I have a 12 gallon tank with 5 small golden barbs and 2 ottos in it.
I've had this setup for about five months, and except for an initial
cycling problem, everything has gone smoothly for the past 4 1/2
months. I performed water changes with one of those gravel vacuums