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I thought the irregular surface of activated carbon was from microscopic amounts either sublimating into gas or oxidizing and either way leaving the solid lump behind with a new pit. the process isn't perfectly even at a very fine scale so teeny weeny pits form all over. I'd guess rubbing...

I've wanted micropoecilia fishes and never thought just to look in aquabid! Duh! Glad you mentioned it Platytudes! I used a 5000K 23w Satco brand CFL and a 4100K 23w Satco CFL, in 10" parabolic, clip-on workshop reflector lamps to light the shot. I've started using Satco 4100K CFLs...

Back to my "new" tanks. I couldn't get anything but algae to grow and then tried not using Neutral Regulator and Discus Buffer to set pH to 6.8 as my LFS owner had recommended. Now I just use any old basic water conditioner to remove chloramine and chlorine and a bit of API pH down (it's strong...

Hi Anoxia! So nice to read you again! I'm very interested in breeding c. habrosas! Maybe a nifty thread you could start for us, hmmmm? I love my habrosases very much. I have four reg. sized one and one that is like 2/3 as long and similarly narrower and shallower. Seems healthy though, have...

I recommend sand of .2 to .5 diameter grain size, which is to say that it's been meshed such that no grains outside that range are included. This leaves an excellent balance of surface area to interstial space (open space between grains) allowing good rates of diffusion up and down through the...

That tunnel system sounds absolutely fantastic.

You know what? I think I'm gonna order some gels or see if I can borrow a few snippets from my theater friends - in between productions don'cha-know. I've been re thinking the whole lighting deal and figure a compendium of figures and methods and facts and physics for the dedicated techie...

I'm kickin' mydamnself! I keep forgetting to check the brand (it's a no-name sorta brand) of the CFL I get at the hardware store. "Bright White," it calls itself, 4100K color temperature. I'm sure the color rendering is inaccurate relative to our sun's 5500k-6700K (depending on time of day and...

Oh, I do like MTS for stirring the sand, since they only go down a little bit. They slightly deepen the aerobic layer of sand, increasing its capacity to eat NH3 and NH4 and NO2, and also, the MTS help plow mulm down into the sand, where it can further decay out of sight and sift deeper from...

I think I'll say it again: I don't want to stir the sand myself, and I don't want to turn over the deeper sand and disrupt the mildly and heavily anaerobic/anoxic layers. The request I put forth, and will put forth again is for critters to stir the sand. Not for methods by which I may stir the...

Thanks for feedback re. pictanks and update re. lighting. I'll stick with endlers and cpds (yup, CPDs like my little tanks so long as the temp is reasonably stable tho' their habitat is shallow shallow water prone to temperature swings from day to night). For a 1 gallon plus, a betta might be...

If I were an MTS, I know I'D eat the eggs of fish, but that's just me...;-) My experience is as Wes'. Three months is a good period too let the tank mature. My cali blackworms love spirulina disks and generally like whatever my otocinclus suckmouth catfish enjoy.

I started a long and annoying thread titled "Toward a standard understanding of aquarium lighting. I am including an excerpt from my first post. I make up a unit of measurement based on one watt of fluorescent lighting with no reflector or a flat reflector above it. with a flat reflector the...

Well, yes, MTS are something I actually keep. The idea of stirring the sand yourself is best if you wish to be sticking stuff in the tank and stirring it around a lot. Some people like that. I keep freshwater DSB tanks, and there are roots aplenty and I wish to keep the aerobic, anaerobic and...

I meant to say "$30! freakin' go for it!"

I am very happy with those workshop lamps! I discovered I am very happy with a wider "parabolic" reflector for a lamp higher up and a relatively narrower "parab." reflector when clipping one on each end of the aquarium and pointing them so's they cross beams. I like using a 4100k and a 5000k...

superduperminimicronanopicoquarium

Oh, and to those who've thanked me for initiating this thread, I must say thank YOU.

WOW! I'm so happy to check this thread out and see all the folks who've taken it up! I'm always proud to have stimulated people to stimulated further people, etc., into a self-sustaining kind of reaction. Much more fun than writing something about aesthetics and getting a bunch of people ticked...

OK, I give up. I'm getting the fins and snorkel and diving in with a garden spade and a darned rake! C'mon, somebody help us out! I know there's somebody out there with good ideas! Oh, I thought of kuhli loaches, which will dig into loose sand pretty enthusiastically if they sense there's...