My Aquarium

hey im thinkin of getting a ups for my 60 litre tropical fish tank, but i cant find a ups of a reasonable price that would last long enough to make a difference (most last for around 15 min). what do you use? p.s. im prone to power cuts were im from sometimes for many hours at a time. email me please.thanks, alex.

al_ashmore@hotmail.com

Hi,

I am trying to create a lesson for children on the responsibilities of pet ownership. I would like to show them the proper set-up for an aquarium (as opposed to a jar with water). May I use one of your aquarium images? It will only be used in my powerpoint slide lesson.

Thanks. Ellen

Ellen,

You may use one of my aquarium images if it will assist you provided it is for the purpose described above. Hopefully it will teach the children respect for animals and maybe interest some of them enough to want a setup at home.

Good luck :O)

Check out this website to help control many differnet types of alage:
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

Hi, can you offer ANY advice as to the preperation of water in a tropical fishtank before introducing fish into the equation. Where I live the tapwater is very high in calcium (hard water) and very high in chlorine. I have had quite a high turnover of “staff” in the tank so I need to go back to the start and get it right. It’s my first tank, 60 litre, with a filter in the tank, gravel substrate, one flourescent lightbulb in the lid of the tank and a small airpump with two tubes going to airblocks. Any help is greatly appreciated. Cheers.

Hiya Aidan, Your water sounds very similar to mine, make sure you always use something like tapsafe whenever you change the water as this will eliminate any Chlorine present. I always use a product called filter aid in my tank aswell as this is basically bacteria that helps the filteration process. The problem you have at the minute is you don’t have enough bacteria living in your tank to support the amount of fish you would like to put in it. You need to stick to only a few tough fish such as Zebra danios until the tank is stable (no more deaths) this is because the Nitrite levels and Ammonia levels are too high at the moment as there is not enough bacteria to process the waste. There is a good article here which explains fishless cycling better than I can: Practical Fishkeeping. Something else to keep in mind NEVER wash your filter media under the tap, this kills the bacteria that has grown there, use the water you take out of the tank to fill the sink then wash the filter media in that. Don’t overfeed your fish either twice a day is enough, they may all pretend to be starving but they will be fine. If you put to much food in the tank it again creates waste, as they’re isn’t enough bacteria in your tank to cope, the tank again becomes toxic to your new fish. As you can see theres a common theme to this and its the bacteria once this is thriving in your tank, the deaths will stop.

Regards Jay

Jay, thanks a million for all the info. You’ve given me some great pitfalls to avoid. I’m going to start again during the week, I’ll post up the results and any tips I can put together based on wha tyou;ve told me. Thanks again mate.

No problem, it dosent take long to sort itself out you’ll have a great tank in no time!