Recent content by jjohnwm

Okay, I give up. To those who have taken offense, my apologies. To those who have re-thought and edited their earlier posts to soften their tone...nope, I type slowly enough that I have plenty of time to consider my words before hitting "post reply", and I stand by my comments. And to those...

It's common practice nowadays to preach that you can do anything you want...if you want it hard enough and set your mind to it. Even if this were true...and it emphatically is not...it would be hard not to notice that you are already asking for short-cuts and work-arounds to give yourself "some...

I'm sure that if you do a search you could come up with some sort of chart or formula that rigidly lays out numbers and specific procedures for adding new fish. I'm equally sure that strict adherence to such edicts would be a complete waste of time. There are so many variables at play that...

I would say...not at all. Boiling will weaken the fibres of the wood and speed up its breakdown under water. It will help to remove some of the tannins, but waiting for the wood to sink and for all the tannins to be leached out will still take time. Will it kill any hitchhikers? Yep, for...

You don't crash the cycle by removing some of the stock, but of course the population of beneficial bacteria will drop down to the level appropriate to the new bioload. As the population increases with reproduction, so too does the population of bacteria to utilize the increased nutrient...

The more crowded a tank is, the closer you are walking to the edge of a disastrous crash. In your case, I'd say you've already jumped over the edge and are hanging by your fingertips. Something goes wrong...a power outage, a filter malfunction, etc...and your water conditions can quickly...

I've been present for a few of those horrible fish executions using clove oil; they are relatively slow and in every case but one, the fish seemed to experience a period of extreme discomfort before expiring. I will never use that stuff. Small fish are killed instantaneously...which is, by...

That sounds like a good plan, and a good reason for doing it. You will also be learning the art of silicone-and-glass, which takes practice. If you can build a one-gallon tank out of picture frame glass, then using thicker glass to make bigger tanks will be child's play.

A search on Google will provide you with a chart that shows you the required glass thickness for various sizes of aquarium, based on depth. Those are, of course, minimums; it's always a good idea to increase thickness for more of a safety margin. The chart doesn't take into account overall...

Window frame glass is just as useful for aquarium building as any other non-tempered glass. You must, of course, consider the glass thickness and size the aquarium accordingly. In this case, I think you would be limited to an aquarium about the size of a pack of cigarettes.

Over and over I find myself reading threads that explain how a fish is a "rescue". Sometimes it is mentioned merely in passing, other times (rarely) a rescued fish is doing well and there is cause for celebration, but most of the time we read a tale of woe in which a fish is on death's...

I had a Synbranchid Eel that was purchased when it was about 5 inches in length; back then they were available fairly regularly and were sold as Golden Eels. I had it for several years, until it was roughly 24 inches long. A good friend was so enamoured with this fish that I gave it to him...

A "normally stocked" tank does not have a bioload that is 1/30th of these tanks. Why then would you think that a water change regimen that is 1/30th as strict would be comparable?

Now that's what I'm talking about!

Actually...nope. I consider a 50% change the minimum that is worth doing. Much more is much better. Do it often, before the water begins to deteriorate, and you never need to worry about acclimation. Of course, temperature matching is essential, as is proper pre-treatment of tap water if...