Schismatoglottis prietoi, apparently increasingly known as ‘Philippine anubias‘, is a brilliant aquarium plant with an unpronounceable name so don’t let that put you off! Schismatoglottis prietoi requires almost no maintenance This what makes this plant so special. A lot of aquascaping plants go through a number of stages. You first get them and they are […]
Read more →Author: Andy Pierce
Learning about planted freshwater aquaria and WordPress.
TL;DR: Problems with algae? Turn down lighting intensity Sometimes there is wisdom online if you know where to find it and then actually listen to it. Clive at UKAPS for example advises against the “photon cannon” approach of blasting your aquarium with too much light. Too much light causes problematic algae. Lately I haven’t been […]
Read more →We already have a graphic representation of the inter-connectedness of the Niade posts and pages: a website connectivity graph. As you might expect, because the site is very highly interconnected, that winds up looking like a snarled mess. Much more useful is a knowledge graph: a visual representation of the conceptual (semantic) relatedness between the […]
Read more →It perhaps will not come as a big surprise that the hobby sometimes ascribes common names incorrectly to species names. Tangerine Tiger shrimp are a case in point. Tangerine Tiger shrimp are almost universally described in the hobby as Caridina serrata, but actually they are Caridina cantonensis (much more on that below). Does it matter […]
Read more →I love Aquarium Gardens. Such a great aquascaping shop. They recently opened a new larger operation in Peterborough, so I thought I’d check it out. Owned by Dave Pierce (no relation) they stock plenty of aquascaping kit and plants. They also have a showroom where you can get some inspiration. They only moved in two […]
Read more →You may have noticed a new request for cookie permissions on the Fireplace Aquarium. Nothing nefarious here, Google Analytics and such. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be bothered with this kind of thing but I was notified that Microsoft Clarity would do something threatening (I didn’t really pay attention to what) if the situation was not fixed. […]
Read more →It is a struggle to find plants that can thrive in the Shrimphaus. The combination of low-KH high-GH “low tech” not-CO2 injected water seems to make things difficult. I recently gave up on the reputedly “easy” Staurogyne Repens. Still, lots of plants left to try. This time we’re having a go with another “easy” plant: […]
Read more →I thought the Blue Velvet neocaridina shrimp had all died off, but then suddenly, babies! There are at least 5 new little guys in the Shrimphaus. I have no idea where they came from – there is no sign of their parents. I gave them some protein flakes and they seem to be enjoying those. […]
Read more →The Fireplace Aquarium was looking pretty overgrown and I hadn’t done a water change in a couple of weeks so time to get stuck in for some maintenance. For me, once I get going on this kind of thing it tends to get a little more vigorous than first anticipated, but it has a way […]
Read more →I recently put some Rotala rotundifolia ‘Blood Red’ into the Fireplace Aquarium and it came in more of a burnt ochre shade of dusky reddish orange than ‘blood red’ as such. I looked around for the (potentially mythic) ‘Singapore’ (SG) variant of the Rotala which is claimed to be more red under a broader set […]
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