Loaches Online Forum

What are the dimensions of the tank? Measure the floor space in feet, and multiply by the depth you want, also expressed in feet. Such as: a tank 4' long, a foot and a half wide, filled 3" deep = 4' long X 1.5' Wide X .25' Deep = 1.5 cubic feet. Ask the salesman if s/he has any idea how many pounds ...

How about a small bottle, the opening would be big enough, and easier to close off a single opening when you are ready to make the snatch.

Several of my fish have hollowed out under rocks or driftwood to customize their cave.
Certain Cichlids, and a Violet Goby have been the most industrious. So far my Loaches do not seem too interested in digging.

If you can remove the fallen Ich organisms before they can multiply the Ich issue will get resolved faster. This is hard in a planted tank, but if you used a pretty small vinyl tube you might be able to do something like a gravel vac between most of the plants. You do not actually have to dig into t...

OK, I re-did it. Maybe I did something wrong the first time: Volume: 125 gal Evap 2 gal/day (I add about 4-5 gallons to the sump a couple of times per week.) NO3 /day: Either 1 or .1 ppm (Only variable) Goal: 10 ppm NO3 Water change % came up 47.76% when I used 1 ppm " " " " " 17.01% " " " .1 ppm @ ...

Wonderful link, Shari. Concise, to the point, informative. clutchxr, sorry about your problems. I also had an Ich storm, and lost 2 tanks (smaller than yours, fortunately) of fish. I know this is rather late, but about Ich: It used to be that the majority of the Ich organisms would die at temps over...

KH is also called Carbonates or Alkalinity. It is a measure of Carbonates. Carbonates are probably the largest pH buffer in freshwater tanks, though organic matter can buffer the pH as well, and some aquarists use a Phosphate buffer for lower pH. GH is General Hardness, a measure of Calcium and Magn...

I have had mixed tanks with the black ones and the most common striped Kuhlies, and they got along fine. My black ones are a little smaller than the striped ones, but no problem in mixing them. Then I found a slightly larger striped one with sort of different markings These guys would not play with ...

Beautiful tanks!
Yes, I can imagine blue gravel, red lava and plastic plants.
My driveway has some areas of rainbow colored gravel!

Quarantine the plants, too. Even from a trusted source, they might bring something in.

Easiest way to enter pollution (Nitrate) accumulation seems to be as suggested above: Measure after a water change, then daily for a while until you get a noticeable difference. Divide by the number of days. I got an odd result: I played around with my 125 gallon tank. (I entered 72" x 18" x 24") My...

Hi, Mike Unusual that the Nitrates are 0 ppm, in a cycled tank they are usually always climbing between water changes, unless this is a heavily planted tank. Old test kits can give false readings, too. Do you quarantine your new fish? I sure do! The best success I had with Clown Loaches was based on...

The cement will eventually settle down, but continue the water changes.
You can do a fishless cycle by adding Ammonia to the tank and the nitrifying bacteria will grow to a very large population before the fish arrive. Then there will be no problem with fish in a cycling tank.

At 1 wpg the few plants that survived really did not grow well. Trace amounts of fertilizer (Potassium and Iron) whenever I felt like it were all they needed to stay green, grow a little. Now that I am up to 2 watts per gallon I can grow more plants, they grow faster, but they do need carbon (I use ...

I have found that Corys with similar patterns shoal together better than different colored ones. Various spotted species will play with other spotted species, for example, but not so much with the solid or striped species.