Posts by Shortie

As a beginner and wanting something simple to start out with, my first plant was the Java Moss. This was recommended to me by the guy at my local store as being the one that I would find the easiest being that it was my very first plant and I had only had fake plants prior to that until I decided to go to real.

Java Moss is a very low maintenance plant for beginners and one that is very easy to keep. It doesn't take a lot of time and it's perfect if you are new to keeping plants as a startup as you work your way to maybe keeping others that are not as easy as this. Java Moss is one I know a lot of my friends first started out with and they found it really easy as beginners and slowly built themselves up to bringing more into their tank as and when they felt ready.

I absolutely love flowering aquatic plants, especially the ones that bloom and have colors on them. They really do brighten up the aquarium and I love that. My most favorite when it comes to these kinds of plants are Amazon Sword Plant, this one is just gorgeous and has white with yellow and like a dark red on it. Another of my favorites is the banana plant. It's white with yellow in the middle but again, it's bright and really does give the aquarium that lease of life with the bright colours.

As someone who loves to keep things simple and easy to manage, I would have to say my most favorite for a freshwater tank would have to be Java Moss. It's one of the easiest plants to manage and it looks great in the aquarium. As someone who isn't too overly well-known with plants, Java Moss is great for me. The trimming side of things with Java Moss isn't too time consuming and is easy enough to do without running the risk of causing any issues and I like that.

I would have to agree with Li0nFish. One of the worst things about keeping fake plants in an aquarium is the cleaning of them and they always seem to get the worst dirt in the places that are hard to reach but you don't want to leave any of the dirt for fear of it getting into the water after cleaning and it can be frustrating, Having fresh plants is a lot easier to manage I feel and if it prevents me from having to stand and spend ages cleaning them then I would rather take that option.

It really depends on the size of your tank and how much time you have to put in to take care of a plant. I know that Java Moss is one of the easiest to take care of and grow and is great for beginners who are just starting out growing plants in a tank. This is great as a foreground plant in the aquarium.

I would say it depends on what you use in your tank for the water as to whether it would be safe for your plants. If you are using some chemicals in your water, I would definitely check to see if they would be safe to use for plants before using the water to water the plants. I can fully understand why many would want to use their tank water for their plants as it saves water and prevents waste which is great, and I know many people that do just that, but I know they don't use chemicals that can harm their plants.

It would really help if you could tell us what kind of algae you are having an issue with. There are a lot of algae eaters for saltwater tanks but as said above, many only eat a certain kind of algae so just getting any may not help with your problem if they may not eat the algae, you have an issue with.

Hermit crabs I know do eat all kinds of algae but that would depend on if you were able to have those in your tank.

Many do not realise that algae can be a problem in salt water tanks but it very much is. There are quite a few types of algae that form in a saltwater tank that you do need to keep an eye out for.

Here is a list of the types of algae you may find in your saltwater tank

Hair algae
Cyano
Diatoms
Bubble algae

These are the most common ones that you will find in a saltwater tank if you have one and are ones to look out for.

From what you have described it seems that lighting may be a huge factor is how it's gone from appearing to just blooming everywhere. How much lighting does your tank get? Is it in a place where any kind of sun light may shine on it which could add to how much algae is forming? I would definitely advise if you can clean out the tank thoroughly and then fill it again and add anything you need to and ensure it doesn't get too much light if you can. Hopefully you managed to sort the problem. Nothing worse than getting algae that just builds up out of nowhere and you are not sure how it happened.

I would definitely not advise putting acara in with goldfish at all. Getting two separate tanks if you can that would be a better option as they as stated above both need different size tanks and different temperature as well. In terms of placing goldfish with Angelfish I would avoid that too because both goldfish and angelfish come from completely different environments. I hope that helps.

I myself have not used driftwood for my tanks in the past but I do have friends that have used driftwood in their tanks. They bought the driftwood from the store that was not in water, and it varied on how long it would float for before it did sink like it should do. I remember one friend that purchased driftwood that had not been kept in water and he told me it only took a couple of weeks for it to sink but then another friend was waiting just over a month for their driftwood to sink that they purchased. It really does seem to be a variation for each person.

I myself learned the hard way a lot of don't when it came to my first aquarium and its many things you wouldn't even think of. The first thing I learned was to not overcrowd my aquarium which is something I don't think I would have done but there is always that risk that you may end up doing that if you get over the top with buying fish. Another was to not put my fish directly into the tank for about a day after setting it up, this was something I was unaware of and actually did put my fish in on the same day I set the tank up. Luckily, I don't think it did any real damage but at least I know for future reference.

I would be very wary of using super glue in a tank if I am honest, it just seems like one of those glues that would be really toxic and would cause harm to my fish so wouldn't take the risk. Silicone is something I would lean more towards for anything like that as I know it's a lot safer than say super glue and I wouldn't have that worry of it making the water toxic and making my fish unwell.

I have always been wary about anything designer or anything that is an odd shape with a tank as I would always worry that it would crack with the pressure of the water needed within the tank. I think that if the person who was making the tanks was very well established, well known, had good feedback and very rarely had any issues reported with their tank then I would definitely choose to buy one for my home. As for shape, I am not too sure, but I would want something that was slightly artistic if possible. I would imagine I would be paying quite a bit for a uniquely made tank which wouldn't be a problem as I am all for supporting people who make their own things, but it would be something I would save for and not be a quick purchase.

It wasn't something that happened to only me, but it was something that happened when I was younger and living at home with my parents. We had a huge tank that would stand on the floor, we had it placed in front of the window in the back room of the house. It was full and we had plenty of fish in there and we never seemed to have any issues with it. We made sure the seals were secured and redone before we filled the tank and for quite a while the tank was fine. It was one morning, and I remember this like it was yesterday, it was a Sunday morning, and I woke up to my Mum sounding a bit angry, curious as to what had happened, I went downstairs and the tank had cracked down the front and there was water all over the back-room floor, we lost some fish that got caught within the crack and some survived. After that my parents never got another tank and we moved the fish that survived into the pond outside.

I will admit that I am someone who will after a while get bored of a layout of something and I am such a pain for it. When I had my tank, I would set it out how I was happy with it and how my fish would be happy with their surroundings but after a few weeks I would get other ideas of where I wanted things placed and want to change it up. I guess with me doing a full clean out of the tank once a month that was the perfect time for me to be able to move things around if I wanted to so that is what I did when I would do a thorough clean out of the tank, do the move around then.

When I had my tank the main things, I had in there were shells, rocks and some aquatic plants as well. I found the way I had it all set up it looked really nice, wasn't overcrowded and the fish seemed happy with their surroundings which was what I was aiming for. I did think about adding a few more things but I really didn't want to overcrowd the tank and I also didn't want to place anything in the tank that the fish could potentially get stuck in.

When I had my fish tank I would always do small water cleaning weekly without fail, I had myself in a routine where I would do it at the same day every week so that I knew it would be clean and I would not have any issues. Major cleaning such as completely changing all the water out and cleaning everything within it I would do once a month. I found that this would help keep my tank clean and free from any issues that would arise if I was to leave it any longer.

Being someone that has never needed to use a heater I haven't needed to place one in any position but if I was to have a heater that I needed to place, I would definitely place it horizontal rather than vertical mainly because it just looks better horizontal and it looks as though the heat would reach more areas in the water horizontal. I know friends that I have that have used heaters, they always have their heaters horizontal so that must be the norm for most people.