Numpty question about fish tanks...

[Glutton4...]

Thanks JJ - you are a love. This is just in the hypothetical early planning stages at the mo. But it's good to know there's someone whose brain I can pick if it ever gets near to reality!

[jackie j]

Oh I see a bit like my FIL he wanted a tank in the wall son talked him out of it.

[BarleySugar]

This is a bit OT (well sort of), but here goes.....
My daughter took over my sister's fish tank when she moved and couldn't take it with her. There were a number of tropical fish, which gradually died off over time, then the heater went, but there was only one huge pleko(?) left. A bottom feeder anyway. Well it was about 8 months after she took it on that we started to notice water snails. We hadn't put in anything except fish food, and my sister had never had any snails. They breed well, with clumps of babies floating on the top, but Kissykit says that Malg (the fish) eats some of the babies. The water is crystal clear, and she has done nothing to it for months, which is good as she's off at uni now, so I just chuck some food pellets in reguarly. However, anyone have any ideas of where the snails came from?

[Hilary B]

This is a bit OT (well sort of), but here goes.....
My daughter took over my sister's fish tank when she moved and couldn't take it with her. There were a number of tropical fish, which gradually died off over time, then the heater went, but there was only one huge pleko(?) left. A bottom feeder anyway. Well it was about 8 months after she took it on that we started to notice water snails. We hadn't put in anything except fish food, and my sister had never had any snails. They breed well, with clumps of babies floating on the top, but Kissykit says that Malg (the fish) eats some of the babies. The water is crystal clear, and she has done nothing to it for months, which is good as she's off at uni now, so I just chuck some food pellets in reguarly. However, anyone have any ideas of where the snails came from?

All snails are hermaphrodites, and when they mate, usually each fertilizes the other, so if just one, previously mated, snail got in there at any time.......
Perhaps there were dormant eggs in there all along? Did you ever offer non-dried fish food? Snail eggs might perhaps get in with that.

[Capsid]

Algae in a freshwater tank can be controlled by getting luxuriant plant growth which will compete with the algae, but most freshwater aquaria fail to achieve good plant growth because there is not enough dissolved carbon dioxide in the water. To get round this you can buy carbon dioxide systems. It transformed my freshwater tank into a beautiful plant filled system which looked more natural than the bare but algae ridden tanks most people end up with and are generally disappointed by.