Hi all, The 8 hours for the oase 650 is because it is the second filter and used to supplement the juwel filter bioflow L stack as the standard juwel set up has less than 3x turnover for a 350ltr tank at 1000lph as well as only being specified for tanks upto 60cm. OK, as the others have said, you ne...

Hi all, Tank looks good. Filtration standard Juwel rio stack, foam and ceramic media full time with oase 650 biomaster canister filter again with foam and plastic balls operating 8 hrs per day. So possibly overkill on the filtration but you can never have too much can you???? I think we mainly tend ...

Hi all, I use RO water in a medium planted and stocked 350ltr tank which is currently at 3dkh, everything seem happy and parameters are 0 ammonium, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate and are consistent between my 15% weekly water changes. I have read stories about tank crashes and am concerned that the low KH cou...

Hi all, Putting it in my own words, these fishes live from the rotting bacteria, not from the wood itself. Or would this be to bold to state? No, I think that is right. We have a bit of thread on this, starting in 2010 with < Little Panaque soon...... >, via < Teeth degradation in Panaque >, from 20...

Hi all, @daviem you have asked a question, and these very kind, and knowledgeable people, @Lycosid , @Acanthicus , @MarcW , @Bas Pels and @Viktor Jarikov have tried to answer it for you, to the best of their considerable abilities. If you don't want to listen to them, that is entirely up to you, but...

Hi all, What I think Darrel meant was Apparently the EU (European Union) has rules for the quality of potable water (new to me), and you may have heard Great Britain has left the EU - implying the EU rules will not have any meaning for the UK. Darrel expects the rules for potable water to become les...

Hi all, ........ into the river as is Uncleaned killing animals and polluting the water I still intend on using the reverse osmosis kit, but I now know the fish need some hardness in the water so thanks, would these products be enough to get the minerals they need back into the water....... I unders...

Hi all, @daviem , I suggest that you should listen to the posters on this thread, they are people who really understand fish keeping and your fish, and they are trying to help you, they aren't trying to be difficult and they are offering you sound advice. Thanks for the reply but I’m a little bit co...

Hi all, To the scientists out there, what about using a deionizing unit here? If there is not an issue with the water being too hard, that would remove the nitrate. However, I do not know if it would also be removing other ions that are desirable to have. You can get specific anion exchange resins t...

Hi all, I am currently breeding L134 and L397 plecos and I’m moving to a property with a well with high nitrates 25ppm+. I want to use ro water and just wondering what is the cheapest way to remineralize water and what is the best parameters for plecos. Any info is greatly appreciated. It is a trick...

Hi all,

stuby wrote: ↑21 Apr 2020, 13:28My suggestion would be to stop overthinking it..... I do use a 50/50 of tap to RO water for mine.

I'd agree, probably start there and see what happens.

cheers Darrel

Hi all, Very interesting, thank you for the reply. If thats the case, what is the target TDS range you would recommend for these species? I haven't kept L134 or L182, but I grew out Hypancistrus debilittera and Hypancistrus sp(l333) using this approach, and have had Otocinclus sp. spawn successfully...

Hi all, ......The PH levels on both of these mixes was higher than I was expecting, seeing that the pure RO/DI water had a PH: 6.4 - 6.6. My main goal is to lower my PH to around 6.5 - 7.0, while maintaining a relatively stable KH so that I don't experience any large PH swings. ......... You don't n...

Hi all, .....Another thing, you'd lack the food source that makes these sites popular with the fish - the high abundance and variety of invertebrates feeding on the plant matter, which are then food for the fish. I suppose you could stock your tank with inverts... but which ones? Scuds? Ghost shrimp...

Hi all, While such a tank would be very intersting, the problem would be the decaying organic matter. That is, the constant worsening of water quality. In nature the system is large, our tanks are relatively small, even a large one. I agree with @Bas Pels, you would need to find a leaf that was very...

Hi all, I also tried a bottom with sand, and the result was the same like in the past (disaster after disaster). This approach simply doesn't work. The uneaten food remains in the sand, it accumulates in the tank, bacteria and protozoa multiply even faster, and as a result, the fry die faster as wel...

Hi all, .....In the paper, the authors stated that four of the five natural spawning sites they encountered were inside hollowed-out branches, with the fifth being within a split along a thick log. These were tangled near the shore, dangling above the river floor. The authors inspeculated that the a...

Hi all, Fascinating observation is made in this paper - the species preferentially spawns in natural (and artificial) tubular objects that were positioned several cm above the stream floor/substrate . When the authors dangled pipes in midwater (10cm-30cm above the stream floor), those pipes were cho...

Hi all, Good to know! We just had a London Plane tree planted in front of our house last fall. I’ve been meaning to experiment with the bark. I've never been to the United States but from the little bit of research I did yesterday it seems that even with you London Plane is planted much more widely ...

Hi all,

bekateen wrote: ↑05 Apr 2020, 16:02Thanks Darrel. Excellent info. Cheers, Eric

I'm really good with plants, it's fish I struggle with.

cheers Darrel

Hi all, @bekateen the wood is fine to use. You may find that some of it already has a central cavity, I have bits in some of my tanks. Do you have Black Locust Trees ( Robinia pseudoacacia ) on campus as well? That is another good one. I haven't tried Plane leaves again recently, I have easy access ...

Hi all, FWIW, Watts' paper is also in the forum here: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=48490 Your portal since it's run by Watts' university, I expect will share future works too. Thank-you, I must have missed that on the forum. I've talked a bit with Joy, her research is...

Hi all, I'll post this here, rather than cluttering up the "Dissertation sticky" thread. @bekateen posted a dissertation: Marden, Caroline Louise. (2019). Characterisation of the microbial communities in the gastrointestinal tract of wood-eating organisms. Doctoral dissertation, University...

Hi all, So does a quarantine tank for ottos also need to be heavily planted? Could it just be filled with floating plants like guppy grass, cabomba, etc I would have plants, they like broad leaves to rest on so a potted Amazon Sword ( Echinodorus bleheri ) would help.@Apistomaster used this approach...

Hi all,
Thats it, what @Bas Pels (and @Lycosid) say.

I'd definitely have "Structural leaf litter" as well as plants. Have a look at <"Natural habitat..... ">.

cheers Darrel

Hi all, Right now very few it has been reticulary difficult for me to keep plants alive in this tank. I have tried elodeas, anubias, java ferns, java moss. The only one that last for some time is the java moss. I was thinking of adding some duckweed. I only keep the lights on 6 hours but maybe there...

Hi all,
Is it a planted tank?

cheers Darrel

Hi all, I have 6 pepper cats (corydoras paleatus), 3 small albino corys, 3 kuhli loaches and a 2 small plecos. They have all been together for many months - the paleatus have been in that tank a year. All of a sudden my paleatus are hanging at the surface. All my water parameters check out fine. Tem...

Hi all,
I'd add and for the UK.

Corydoras panda breeds successfully in hard water so you often see hobbiest bred ones for sale in this area (Bath, Swindon, Bristol).

cheers Darrel

Hi all, The first thing I'd say is that I practice nutrient depletion, and I use plant/microbe filtration as an essential part of this. I don't measure NO3 (it is much more problematic than most people realise, even with analytical quality equipment) , but I use a mix of conductivity measurement and...