Silly Question, But What's MA?

Good point.  I'll do that too.   

Hi Jesnon.

I really don't know - either Ghosts or Cherries were my initial thoughts but by the sound of it I'm best leaving things as they are for now and trusting to nature.  Tomorrow will most likely be just window shopping and enjoying the delights of a fresh aquarium outlet.

Mind you, when I get back, who knows...   

The big tank's been going about a month now and all the levels are static with no algae problem apart from a thin film on the glass which I scrub off every now and then as I've not got any algae feeders yet.  I do a weekly 20% water change and will do another at the weekend, a few days before we go.  We've lost a few (2 Endlers and 4 Tetras over the month in all) but the rest are quite settled bar one mini Endler who insists on not growing bigger like his brothers.

Cheers,

I too would wait before getting shrimps. I have had problems with mine - all the cherries I bought have died. Natalia suspected a shrimp-specific 'bug' in the tank that the newly bought cherries had no immunity to. It is not a good idea to allow shrimps to eat dead ones as that is a very good way to pass on disease - and the same applies to fish. Always removed dead bodies whenever you see them.
I have amano shrimps in another tank, and apart from losing one shortly after purchase, they have been fine. I lost a female last year and another about a month ago, but I did buy them in Feb 2009. Amanos don't breed in freshwater tanks. The females beome berried but the larvae (amano eggs hatch into larvae unlike cherries) need salt water to survive.
There are recent reports of amanos killing small fish, though a lot of those cases are down to shops selling macrobrachium shrimps as amanos, and indeed as ghost shrimp. If you go for ghost shrimp, check their arms before you buy. Any shrimp with long arms is predatory.

Ah...that's a shame, Ken Sorry about your little endler.
The only consolation is that at least he didn't last until you had gone on holiday, and then died. That could have upset your water.

Hi all,
Sorry for not posting any updates for a while but we've just got back from holiday.

Good news - all the little fishies survived.
My neighbour was as good as her word and only fed the food I'd partitioned out, every other day.

Had a bit of a scare the day before we left - the NitrAte seemed to spike suddenly up to >80! and when I tested the tap water it was the same.  Confirmed the reading with a sample from my son's tank (5 miles away) and it seems that Nitrate test bottle #2 had some undisolved particles in it that dislodged and made the readings way too high.  I'd been doing daily tests and getting readings of ~10 so the concentration suddenly changing made for really wacky results.  New test kit duly purchased today.

Anyway, while I was at MA Wimborne getting the test kit I somehow managed to sneak 5 Glowlight Tetras into my bag...
So I now have a small community of 3 Neons, 3 Endlers and 5 Glowlights which seem to all be getting on fine so far.  The Glowlights also seem to have had a calming effect on the territorial Neons too and even they're getting on.

Another week and I may add some more Tetras (if necessary) to up their shoal number.  I still need to leave room for the Guppies my son has promised me from their brood though.

It's good to be back.

Welcome back Ken, and I'm glad all's well in the tank. Yep, piccies - it's the rule, you know!

Are you aware that the maximum level allowed in UK drinking water is 50ppm? I know that home nitrate testers are only ball-park, but it could be worth contacting your water supplier to see what they have to say for themselves.

I don't know much about products that claim to remove nitrate. If you don't mind possibly wasting your money, you could try one and see what happens. Do you mean API Nitra-Zorb?

Hi Sue,
I emailed Wessex Water asking their opinion on my high Nitrate readings and their reply was basically along the lines of "the water's fine".

Apparently the official nitrate reading for my area is 36, HOWEVER... 
That is based on an average of just 8 readings taken between 1 Jan and 31 Dec '12 which gave extremes of 27 and 41ppm.  Not exactly current figures that inspire confidence.
I therefore still maintain that the current level for my tap water is around 40-80ppm.

But - the fish don't seem to mind too much so I'll leave it at that.  ;-)

It is also known for water to temporarilly have high nitrate especially if the catchment area has a lot of farmland that gets fed on nitrogen rich fertiliser. Yours might go down again.

Good point! I don't know where you live, but round here there's been an awful lot of muck-spreading. The air's rather 'fruity' at times. 

It's that surrounding countryside that the water runs off and ends up in your taps.