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I don't think there is anything to be gained by regularly adding salt to the water of fish that don't natively have salt in their water. Many of us also have healthy fish, and never add salt in everyday use. Salt can be useful to treat some conditions (e.g., ick) but it isn't needed unless you...

I don't know much about kribs, but that's about twice what I feed my mbuna. They get about 3-4 pellets once a day, with a food-free day about once every 5-6 days. Good luck, Jim

I ordered lots of stuff from New Egg, too, and never had a problem. As for the CDRW drive, those things are so common and so inexpensive that it doesn't make a big deal where you get them. WalMart (in our town) carries some decent brands, LiteOn and Sony, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend...

I use it and I like it a lot. It seems to be pretty digestible. I have noticed less fish waste since I've started using it. Others have commented that it's helped their fish show colors better, but I haven't really noticed anything terribly drastic. I like it and recommend it. Jim

Cloudy water is caused by two things, typically. The first is the algae bloom, with which you are familiar, it seems. The second type is from a bloom in the population of one or more of the normal microorganisms that inhabit our tanks. These microbes are not necessarily those involved with...

Yikes! 6 ppm ammonia? If you have fish in that tank, you better start doing water changes. You want to keep ammonia (and nitrite) below 1 ppm (or better, below .5 ppm). At 6 ppm, fish will experience permanent damage. Re: filter cleaning, I strongly disagree with bob1962. The more frequently...

The discharge of a HOT Mag can be totally below the water surface. The benefit of using a prefilter on a bio-only filter is that you reduce the pollutants that build up in the tank (by exporting crud before it breaks down) and you decrease the frequency with which you need to tear down the...

I also subscribe to RTR's model for isolating mechanical and biofiltration. I like Eheims and I use them as biofilters in many of my tanks, but I don't think they're the best choice for mech filtration. Although they are quite efficient, they don't have as much flow rate as other filters, and...

How much water are you changing? You have a 37g with 3 platies, according to your sig. You can change a higher percentage of the water, to get the nitrite titer lower after the water change. I also wonder how much you're feeding, because it seems like a rather quick accumulation of nitritie for...

Water changes are no fun... but O-girl is right, keep the nitrites below .5 ppm. If they're getting above that, your fish are being stressed. You can decrease feeding a bit, that should help slow down the nitrite buildup. As little fun as water changes are, scooping dead fish out of your tank...

I have a few AquaTec HOB filters that I have packed with AquaClear foams. They make great cheap mechanical filters. They seem to be quite durable and reliable, which makes sense as they are manufactured by Marineland. Jim

I'm not as familiar with the G. moori, but the estherae are mbuna and will do best with a low protein, low fat diet. The will do fine on algae wafers, fresh veggies (e.g., zuchinni, lettuce) and cichlid diets formulated for mbuna (e.g., Hikari Cichlid Excel). Your spirulina flakes look OK...

I also am ze French! Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time! Jeem

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everybody! It's nice to be thought of... Jim

In my tanks, it's usually the pleco who gets picked at. Sometimes africans will leave pleocs alone, but not uncommonly they'll peck at it. Jim

Whether a Malawi cichlid can be sexed by appearance depends on its species. In some species, males and females have different coloration. Other times, both genders look identical and you can only sex them by venting them (netting them and looking at their reproductive organs). What kind of...

I disagree. I've spent more time getting a couple of Aquaclears to restart after power outages, water changes, etc., than I've ever spent on canister filters. If canisters are set up as bio-only filters, there is even less maintenance. I have nothing against HOB filters; I run quite a few...

Yes, buffering capacity is essentially the same as KH. If yours is 300, you have some well-buffered water that will resist most efforts to change pH. (And yes, if you're tank measures the same at the tap, you're reporting the actual pH of the water.) Your options are (a) leave the water alone...

Does your water test at 8.4 after it has set out? Sometimes tap water is highly depleted of carbon dioxide, but after it sits for 24 hours it picks up atmospheric CO2 and the pH may drop. What is your water's KH? That will hold the key as to how difficult it might be to lower pH. If KH is...

"Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit..." Jim