Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

@apache6467 great to see your pics. Boris is still looking good, and it's nice to hear about your new arrivals. 

@fcmf I hope that your tactics are working. Keep at it. 

@ColinB 2016 has a lot to answer for. Couldn't believe it about Rick Parfitt, and now George Micheal as well. Roll on 2017, let's hope it's better and/or quieter than 2016 has been.

@marquismirage does the new house have more room for fish tanks?

Just got back from a brief visit to Cardiff. Opened the front door and hear a noise upstairs, which was worrying. Looked in the living room and things had been disturbed, but not enough to suggest that I had been burgled (again). Checked all downstairs rooms, no broken windows. Went upstairs to find that somehow a squirrel had got into the house while I was away, and has spent the time trashing any room it had access too and pooping everywhere. It was on the windowsill at the top of the stairs, and was obviously frightened by my walking up the stairs, so it jumped, hit me in the face, ran over my head and ran into my bedroom. I have opened the bedroom windows and shut the door, hoping it will find it's own way out, while I pick up all the tree decorations it knocked off, clean up all the poop, and wash everything that I can.
On thre bright side the fish and axolotls are ok, if slightly nervous and hiding in the corners of their tanks. Everyone has eaten, so I'm hoping I can deal with the uninvited house guest, find out how it got in, and get everything back to normal fairly soon.
Perhaps I can even start setting up the new tank for the axolotls tomorrow. 

We had Christmas dinner in my mother's nursing home, a very good 3 course meal for £2.50. My younger son was at a loose end as his girl friend is a pharmacist who had to work yesterday so he came too.
My mother had a really bad fall almost 2 weeks ago and ended up in A & E twice - the second time was because the nursing staff at the home couldn't believe that she hadn't broken something the amount of pain she was in so she had to go back for a second X ray. Mother still can't walk because of the pain so she couldn't come here this year.

We spent today with my elder son and daughter-in-law hearing about their less than perfect Christmas day - d-in-l's father came down with labyrinthitis so not only could he and d-in-l's mother not go, they couldn't collect d-in-l's grandfather from the rehabilitation home so our son had to go for him, and then the other grandmother; and d-in-l dislocated her knee last week so she can hardly walk.



All in all we had the better Christmas day - no cooking and no washing up, and an excellent meal.

@Littlefish Truly shocking news about the squirrel - but I'm afraid hilarious from a distance. Do you need us to send some replacement nuts down? Sorry..... its still funny
You should try hoovering with armed backup, both barrels of a 12 bore should sort the blighter out.
Oh no, on second thoughts that would be stupid you might wing a tank, now what eats Squirrels? I know! Three or four large excited dogs, probably wouldn't catch it but I'm sure they would chase it out .....after a while.
I'm probably not helping am I?

Might the section on squirrel-proofing the home in these articles help, @Littlefish ?
http://www.squirrel-attic.com/keepaway.html
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/squirrels
http://www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/factfiles/squirreladvice.pdf

I will admit that the squirrel problem is probably my fault as i do tend to feed them in the garden. 
Never expected one to come down the chimney though.

@fcmf very useful links, thanks. I'll be asking the landlord to have a look at the chimney, and will also be spending some time checking the attic.

@Andy the minion I am counting my blessing as the poop is dry pellets and is easily hoovered. Can you imagine if it wasn't... 

Thanks for offering the services of Tuffers, if it ever happens again I may well take you up on that. 

I hope that your knee is a little better now, and that the wine & Nurofen cintinue to help you to handle the painuntil everything is well again. 

That's quite impressive, and a relief to know that your tank is fine for at least 24 hours.
Glad to hear that everyone is ok. 

*phew*

There is a chap on another forum who never advises fishless cycling. His preferred method is to set the tank up with lots of fast growing and floating plants then get fish a few at a time. I'm beginning to think he could be right.

I have a feeling @Richard W would also agree with this more 'natural' method of cycling.

But where a newcomer does say they have live plants, I now know that plants can make a big difference.

I have a hunch that there may well be a difference between an established tank with plants and one just being set up with plants. For example, when I started converting from silk to live plants in the summer, something wasn't quite right and many plants didn't fare that well despite all allegedly being "easy to care for". After a few months, though, the situation changed and even those alleged to require "medium care" are doing fine despite me doing nothing differently ie just keeping them in the pots that they came in and not using any chemicals, root tabs, etc. I suspect that, if your situation had occurred in my tank in the summer (or at the point where I was 100% fully live plants), the outcome wouldn't have been as positive as if it were to occur now with plants having been established and surviving/thriving in the tank for several months.

Maybe you should give up on the filter alltogether