Powerhead distributes CO2 Today I shifted the location of the CO2 diffuser from the left wall of the tank to behind the moutain and underneath the powerhead. The atomised CO2 gets sucked up directly into the flow and actively pushed around the tank. Previously I had the diffuser on the opposite side of the tank […]
Read more →Author: Andy Pierce
Learning about planted freshwater aquaria and WordPress.
After spending some time thinking about how to deal with the top-heavy mature form of Lobelia cardinalis ‘Wavy’ even after a very aggressive trimming, I decided to pull it out and replace it with a (hopefully) smaller form: Lobelia cardinalis ‘Dwarf’. There are still challenges with aquatic plant supplies so when I got notified by […]
Read more →Nothing has really dramatically changed in the Fireplace Aquarium but I feel the green spot algae has been growing back quicker than it used to. I was having to give the tank walls a credit-card scrapedown every three or four weeks, but now it seems up to every other week. I tried increasing the dose […]
Read more →Managing CO2 flow rate satisfactorily is particularly difficult for smaller aquariums; it’s very easy to have the CO2 come blasting out, but a nice steady well-controlled bubbling takes some work. The usual combination of regulator and needle valve can work, and adding in a secondary flow restrictor between the two can be a big help. […]
Read more →On the recent discussion of seach engine optimisation using the Screaming Frog web-spider tool there were some visual representations of the structure of the Fireplace Aquarium site. These do a nice job of illustrating the higher-level structure, but don’t convey a good sense of the internal connectivity of the various pages. Browsing the interwebs on […]
Read more →Time lapse sequence following major aquarium plant trim About a month ago I revised the layout of some of the aquarium plants. I didn’t like the look of all the stemmy/rooty bits of the Lobelia showing up against the front wall of the aquarium so I planted a row of dwarf Cryptocorynes in front to […]
Read more →Planting Bucephalandra caterina Looking for a replacement epiphyte for the failed Anubias nana ‘Snow White’, I’ve plumped for Bucephalandra caterina. There just isn’t much availability for aquatic plants in general in the United Kingdom recently, and the availability of Anubias and Bucephalandra varieties seems extraordinarily poor especially for the smaller size varietals. I managed to […]
Read more →Easy SEO anyone can do Did you arrive at the Fireplace Aquarium by way of a search engine like google or bing? How search engines choose which sites to show and in which order can be influenced by ‘search engine optimisation’ or SEO. An important aspect of SEO, in addition to having interesting and informative […]
Read more →Aqua.egads.uk ➔ Niade.com I changed the domain name for the Fireplace Aquarium from aqua.egads.uk to niade.com. Dreamhost (my web hosting provider since 2005!) made the WordPress domain changeover process super easy: register and host the new domain name, go into the web hosting control panel, push the appropriate button and in a minute or two […]
Read more →It’s been seventeen weeks since the Cryptocoryne lutea ‘Hobbit’ was planted so it’s time to take a look at how the emersed growth form from the shop compares to the submerged growth form in the tank. Aquarium plants for commercial sale are, for economic reasons, almost exclusively grown “emersed” – the roots of the plant […]
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