Greetings all

Greetings from sunny Cape Town (*looks out window*)
Ahem, I guess its raining this weekend.

Found this forum through a friend and would love to suck knowledge from you all. I'm currently running a rather small 60 litre tank with plants that just seem to disintegrate and a small school of neon tetras and guppies.

Will upload a photo once it is in decent condition. Using an internal pump, not sure of make or model but I was wondering how often the coal chips in it should be replaced.

Would love to get show show guppies that I have seen on this site and some awesome plants and moss. Will I need to turn my heat down a little for show guppies?

As you can see from my random questions I'm rather new to all this.

Thanks in advance

-Kurt

 

hi and welcome to masa!

 

hi and welcome to TASA kurt,

@ eb.adam, you would do just great as MASA's receptionist, hehe

kurt, coal chips must be replaced every 4-6 weeks mate...i've never kept guppies, so ican't comment on that...

 

Welcome to TASA

Nope only rain for us today... Monday is back to 32 :blink1:

 

Welcome to TASA.

 

Eek, time to rush urgently off to the LPS I think. While on the topic of my hideous filter. I'm pretty sure all of the disintegrated plant parts have done quite a nice job at clogging up the mesh. Is it ok to take this out and wash it with clean water or will this destroy good bacteria as well?

Thanks

-Kurt

 

Never clean you filter media with clean tap water always use tank water.

 

On your 60l tank you should maybe look at doing a water change also say once a week. I'd say + - 10L

 

If I was to be doing it once a week can I just scoop out +- 10L and then re-fill with 10L of tap water with a little chlorine killer mixed in? (not sure exactly what the drops are called)

Thanks

 

A easy way to do it is to get yourself a brum that would hold 10L water and put it next to the tank the day before. Fill it with water and if possible add a air stone to the water. The next day it should be ready for use in your tank.

 

its anti-chlorine or water conditioner, and has to be mixed for at least 1 hour before adding to the tank...thats the way i do it...

 

Anti chlorine is a immediat chemical reaction.

O welkom

 

Welcome to TASA Guppies can literally live in cold water with no heater at all - they are tough little things. I wouldn't suggest leaving your 'coal' in the filter permanently. It loses it's effectiveness very rapidly. Most people only use it to remove medication from their tank and to 'scrub' the water. The money you save on that can be used for more fish tanks

 

Hi and welcome Kurt.

 

Hi Kurt welcome to TASA

 

Howdy Kurt

 

Hi Kurt Welcome Home - The "coal" is charcoal and as stated above used to remove meds etc.. Take it out and replace with some filter wool. Make sure the water is the same temperature in the drum as in the tank. You can top up with hot water from the tap...

 

Hi and Welcome.
I keep my show guppies at around 25 degrees. I find that if they are kept at too high a temp then they get sick quite quickly. Also, make sure you do weekly water changes and add an airstone as well. They like well oxygenated water. Don't overfeed! Rather give small frequent feedings. Hope this helps.

 

Welcome aboard KurtL
Suck away, as you can see all you questions will be answered very quickly

 

Welcome Kurt

Enjoy!
:blink1: