Tag Archives: gravel

Using black sand as a substrate?

Posted on April 18, 2012 by admin| 4 Comments

I have a ten gallon tank that currently has some blue standard aqarium gravel. It is freshwater, but I would still like to change the substrate to black sand. So how would I go about that? It is the home to a male betta, 3 cory cats and two ghost shrimp. Would I have to catch them and toss them in a bucket with the tank water and then scrape out all the gravel and add the black sand? Would my tank have to recycle even if I used the same filter and plants/decoration?

Also would it be okay to just get black play-sand and rinse it in a pillow case and then soak it for a week?
Okay, I can get the aqarium sand, but were would I keep my fish for two weeks?
Okay are you sure I don’t have to recylce? I know a lot of people don’t know what they are talking about, but I trust you as you usally give awsome advice. I am going to check around on some various fish forums just in case(:
Ooo I like the idea of having the gravel on the bottom and covering it with sand(: But eventually I might get a khulie loach or two and I think they would be surprised when they went to burrow…

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Need to change my fish and decor out. 55 gallon freshwater tank.?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by admin| 3 Comments

Right now I have large gravel and a bunch of cichlids. I would like to change it over to a sand floor, some live plants and some small non agressive fish. Ideas and links would be great. There is just so much info out there, I don’t know where to begin to look. I have double filtration going from the top, a heater, thermometer, 4 air stones going, and of course lights.

I am going to rehome my cichlids this weekend, and give the tanks some time to adjust to the change over from gravel to sand before I start adding in new fish. Need low maintenance ideas. As in, once a week at most. My boyfriend is partial to ghost shrimp for a clean up crew. I am not too sure about them. I know guppies are colorful, but want to stay away from guppies, and mollies. Danios I have had before and liked the coloring and activity level. Any other ideas? What do you have in your tanks?

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Can someone explain to me what is going on with my tank?

Posted on November 5, 2011 by admin| 8 Comments

Ok, I’m doing fish less cycling. I have a 30 gallon freshwater tank with all the gravel and 8 live plants. No fish.

I did what was recommended by getting some water from the cartridge of an established tank. I only put about a table spoon of the sample into my tank. Also, since I cannot find pure ammonia here in germany (air force base), someone suggested I use shrimp as my source of ammonia. So the shrimp has been sitting in there for about 3 hours now and my tank is cloudy! My tank has only been up for two days now.

Is this normal? Doesn’t mean theres signs of bacteria? I tested the water and 20ppm of nitrate, and about .5 nitrite but no ammonia. I’m confused! lol.

Thanks in advance who read this whole thing! =]
Tetra-yes, I have dechlorinated my water.

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Feeding live Brine Shrimp?

Posted on September 11, 2011 by admin| 2 Comments

I’m currently cycling an Eclipse 5 gallon corner fish tank (freshwater) housing a single juvenile Zebra Danio and an African Dwarf Frog. My equipment includes a bio-wheel filter, hood lamp, air stone, large gravel substrate and a 25-watt Top Fin heater that is currently set at low and produces a consistent water temp. of 77.5 degrees. (sorry if this was all useless info!)

Basically, I’m looking to diversify/enhance said Danio’s & ADF’s current diet of flake food and frozen blood worms. Preferably, I’d like to find a local pet store (Seattle area) that sells ready-to-feed live brine shrimp. Setting up a mini-hatchery in my tiny ass apartment seems like a hassle (let me know of any possible mis-conceptions I may have about this!), although if no better options present themselves, I’ll make it work.

Can anyone share their experience feeding live Brine Shrimp? How often/how much should I feed? How do I make sure the ADF gets his fair share of live Brine Shrimp?

Regards!
I’m sticking with a single Zebra Danio just until the tank has finished cycling.

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Freshwater Tank, nasty beard algae high hardness!?

Posted on June 26, 2011 by admin| 2 Comments

I have only a few fish, guppys, neons, cory cats. 150 Gal tank with slate rock, gravel and sand. Live plants (one type, momo?) Fern like straight growing, 74″ max. I had an issue with algae, first thin black then green then thick spongy green, now thin and thick green with the bearded brown on EVERYTHING.
Water test says, Nitrate is 0, Nitrite is 0, Hardness is 120ppm, Alka/Buff is 120ppm, pH is looking like 8.4, Ammonia is 0.
Ugh……Am I going Brackish?! What do I do. Add pHMinus? then what? I can buy fish,shrimp and plants for the algae issue as well as scrubbing, but dude, whats up with my water! Could extra conditioner help this? My main issue was and acted like Nitrate issues, but does not seem to be it.
The Green algae began as the famous Blue Green then evolved into the Hairy Brown. Bubbles lover to stick to it, they get to the size of BB pellets! Rocks are not fizzling, and the plants only get the air bubbles stuck to them, mild algae if any. The glass only gets the paper thin green algae. I do use Phos-X, granted only enough for a 30 Gal tank. However it does cut down on the odor. Yucky pond! The hard water/pH and such would make sense to why newly added fish pop up dead within a couple days…I just don’t want to be limited by the hardy Goldfish being the only thing able to survive this! lol Oh, my lights are on for 4 hours, and I feed only once a day, 1/2 tsp of granules and 1/2 flake. Everything is gone in less than 3min.
Looks like short feather hair at a few feet, but has a very “can’t hold the rock kind of slimy” feel and has a soft/gel look to it. Colors range from bright emerald to tourquise, then theres black, a brown, and baige sand brown. I have darn good photos, I’ll get them online if someones interested.

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