I just got 3 L204 ( Panaqolus albivermis ) but they're definitely semi-starved. (The place I got them doesn't ever feed plecos correctly, and they were supposed to call me when they came in, but they called the wrong number and so the plecos sat in their care for a while.) I have them in a 55 gallon...

I have Walstads book on its way in the mail but I have not read it. However I have suspicions that she is attributing too much to the plants and too little to microbes. I have Walstad's book. I thought it was very good. Disclaimer: I also know Diane Walstad (although not well). Disclaimer to the di...

It seems like Mankysanke is claiming that the center is more negative (and, obviously, the outside is full of positive ions) which causes the ammonia to "switch partners" constantly, moving inwards each time. This sort of behavior is possible for ionic bonds, which are not bonds between two specifi...

Reading "Mankysanke's" explanation it seems reasonable but for one thing and that is that the negative charge of the clay particles constantly draws the positive ammonia toward the center. Why doesn't the ammonia stick to the first negative ion exchange surface it hits? If I am right and "Mankysank...

One interesting thing of note: the fish in the left of the picture has lots of black pigment all throughout its body, on the bone the notochord, the skull, eyes, etc,. It was the last of a batch separate from the others. I'm guessing its a wild caught fish. Opinions? Well, to the best of my knowled...

That seems a novel, innovative thought to me :) Thank you so much for it. Gotta think how to offer ourselves to potential clientele. How is this done? Through personal connections or is there a web-based service that connects educational institutions with the "people out in the field and the elemen...

***I am not open yet, don't have the Certificate of Occupancy, and this activity would then be probably of some unlawful kind. So I know you're in Florida, where the official position on coronavirus is that if we don't talk about it it can't get us, but for lots of parts of the country people are w...

Someone said on another forum that they acclimated their fish straight from freshwater to marine the fish were fine in a reef tank for a short while then died, so no I’m stuck, did the salinity kill them or the reef environment. The salinity change, probably. You might be able to survive in very wa...

Ok I increased the salinity of the aquarium from 1.005/1006 to 1.007 and this appeared small lumps across the fishes sides I have a picture I will attached then the columbian shark keeper I was talking to advised me it maybe parasites and more salt will kill the parasites so I increased the salinit...

If the goal is more oxygen and not actually more current then why not just use airstones? The argument I generally hear against airstones is that very little oxygen actually exits the bubbles into the water. This is probably true. However, the reason powerheads oxygenate water is that they "stir" th...

As for the big deal over using reverse osmosis trying to say I’m not right if it’s so abnormal why do so many fish stores use it? Why are aquarium reverse osmosis units made? Huh? Why does the aquarium salt companies suggest using it? YouTube is full of videos of people using it, and plenty of prod...

There is no stress or issue with the cycling as there’s no free ammonia thanks to prime and stability my ammonia alert confirms this as does API test kit, eventually the tank will cycle until then the ammonia and nitries are being bound and not toxic. There's always stress in moving fish. Can't be ...

UV sanitizer would be an overkill in my humble opinion but many people, especially who own very rare and expensive fish, opt to have one. I have one, but I've only ever used it to try to control a mycobacterium outbreak. I don't leave it running in any tank normally. Let's review the problems: 1) T...

Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments: I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go thr...

I am a huge fan of Mattens. I have 3 tanks which rely primarily on them. Almost as much, I like the Poret foam cubes. This is a brand and I am sure there are other brands as good, I just ended up using this one. I'll second this. I have a whole aquatics lab running off Mattenfilters, and we never h...

For marine fish there is some research saying that some fry are actually born too small to eat properly. Your experience with some fry surviving in the waste tank suggests that the mechanism may be genetic - some fry will die, some fry will survive, and if you throw a survivor in the waste tank it w...

I only have planted tanks, but my understanding is that Otocinclus spp. are much more difficult to keep without plants. In terms off the lack of success in growing plants, it is unlikely to be too much light or too long a light period. cheers Darrel I've had good luck with otos in a heavily planted...

Edit: my tentative ID is South American bumblebee but even then I’m not sure if multiple species have that common name Normally that means Microglanis iheringi . Seems like a reasonable ID, especially because that's all I ever see at the Petsmart/Petco style stores. The size I normally see them at ...

Storms can have fast changes in air pressure - changes fish are able to detect, although I wonder how. After all, the difference between half a ppi, that is some 50 cm water pressure, is something quite a few fish meet without consequence a day just going for a breath. But some do detect such a cha...

Hi guys hope everyone is doing well in the new year. I have been having issues of eggs hatching prematurely and was suggested by a friend that I drop my ph. So im going to start doing water changes with RO water is it needed to remineralize it before adding it? So normally RO drops the pH because i...