Fish Tank Game

Your success in keeping aquatic life depends on establishing and keeping these bacterial populations in sufficient numbers as your biological filtration.

So, what are these magical microbe helpers and how can you get them going for you in your aquarium? Theyre are a few approaches here, with variations therein, and all with their various endorsers and detractors. Again, dont let these differences of opinion faze you. Bear in mind that the end result of all these different efforts is the same. This is to make a home for sufficient numbers of beneficial microbes to help keep your tank clean and healthy.

Of the Many Ways t

Modern power filters with their small cartridges, foam pads, and spinning or whirling gimmick devices, will never be adequate for proper biological filtration, in spite of the misleading and exaggerated claims made by some manufacturers.

Under-Gravel Filters: This was the first true biological filter invented for the aquarium. The gravel in an aquarium is suspended above one or more plastic plates, which are equipped with "lift tubes" that extend vertically from the bottom to the water surface. Air is pumped into the bottom of the lift tubes and rises up the tubes, carrying water w

Are there any safe paints that I could use to

repaint my covers? If not, are there places online where I could buy black

covers?

Thanks,

About Spills...

IF a sump should overflow, a fitting be blocked, plumbing leak... where will the water go? On the floor almost assuredly. Some folks go so far as to plan for these near-eventualities by arranging a sort of "spill pan" around their tanks, gear, sometimes with even a good-sized drain line... going to a lower spot (easy to do in houses with a raised foundation, cellar or

Run the pumps for another 15 minutes in this mixture. Disassemble and scrub and rinse all the individual parts before placing the pumps back in the tank. After all of this, your powerheads should look and run just like brand new.

Conclusions

Powerheads are usually the silent workhorses of our aquariums. Good ones perform their function of powering filters or providing circulation while requiring little maintenance other than a good cleanin

nstead utilize a wet/dry trickle filter with a very shallow layer of gravel merely for decoration and to cover the bottom pane of glass

The other interesting option with these powerheads is the needle wheel that is included to regulate the injection of air into the water stream coming from the pump. While this is kind of neat, it is not really that useful or necessary. I generally forgo the air injection in all marine setups because the bubbles bursting at the surface of the water creates far too much splash and salt spray for my liking. A

Cleaning Under Your UGF
If you've ever considered tearing down your under gravel filter, just to clean the junk out from under the plate, here is a tip you'll enoy. ....

Mud sump
Hi, my husband is starting a new 170 gal tank with a 100 gal mud sump for me. Is it ok to take maybe a third of the mud from my 50 gal mud sump and use it like a sourdough starter? How long would it take for it to cycle? Thanks.

Daphnia For The Aquarium

Daphnia are a great food source for both young and adult aquarium fish, you could catch them with a net in a pond, but their's a risk of bringing in parasites. I just found an article about growing daphnia yourself, nice read for the real tinkers out there :-)