well said jiejian

cigarette filter?! i dun smoke but is that the part at the end called cigarette butt (the chocolate colour?) or this is a different type of filter?

welcome back qz. hope u had a good rest + lots of drinks!

kuri : thnx. i guess u have to stuff it into the airlines to make it work?

good luck varial.

belco : position it close to the water surface. the concept is to blow onto water surface to dissipate it. the water inside the tank will be cooler.

kytz, i think u can try the units before buying right? why not ask them to install on their aquarium and run it before buying? i'd think most china made filters are quite ok already. i bought 1 recently from xianleng (can't remember the name but the box is brown and yellow colour) and it was quite HOB.

goldfishes on the surface maybe due to low oxygen in the tank.

or bcoz they see u and they think u wanna give them food....

jiejian, won't the paper towels after drying become brittle or disintegrate inside the tubing? or is it that the cleaner is made from vinyl cloth?

don't see the benefit of rainwater. for worse, the rainwater might contain pollutants. at least with tap water, its safe for consumption.

having said above, u can always try and monitor the changes.

emily,

1, how long shall i cycle thing tank?
- until u get 0ppm ammonia and some nitrate reading. can be a few weeks long...

2, is it safe to cycle it with newly bought java & xmas moss?
will it affect the moss?
- yes no problems, just dun add fishes yet.

3, how can i speed up the cycling process?
- use the filter media from the older aquarium if you have (must be a current running one)
- use start up bacteria liquid available at LFS

4, what's the use of cycling with fish food inside?
- fish food will rot away due to no fish eating it. the rotting will make ammonia. the first process of nitrogen cycle begins where ammonia - nitrite - nitrate

18c is too cold ya... preferable is 22c-25c region is more than enough. in fact, lower temp will result in difficult for nitrifying bacteria to get established.

varial : i'm sorry that i don't use the BW ferts so unable to comment. but the essence K should be the potassium. try and search google. can learn from others experience. glosso also i haven tried planting.. hehe..but i think 27c might be on a higher side but i could be very wrong. wait for the otais

do u mean 3-phase?

if u can collect all the mosses, it will be a lovely collection. love the crayfish video!

sorry for ur loss. must be the ammonia thingy...

most LFS now package it for easy start to the hobby. but some like pets88, xian leng and i believe our sisaiko bro got sell the tanks only.

woah... tat is big.. really big!

u can fill up with more water until the surface skimmer is full(the part with a tube sticking upwards).

wobbling sideways for goldfish means some buoyancy issue. they cannot balance themselves. could be overfeeding issue. best to feed them once a day with less qty. they dun starve so easily...

the bio rings anywhere inside the filter is good for housing additional bacteria.

syafiq, if urs is hob, the waterfall will introduce some bubbles. its normal.

if its canister filter and quite noisy, then maybe got air inside the cannister.

Or maybe its just simple pearling (plants giving out oxygen bubbles)

either way, nothing to be afraid of if ur fishes is going ok.

luqee : everything is a learning curve. i had much success when dealing with 4ft than a 2ft. going to restart the 2ft soon.

both strip or the liquid are ok. its not necessary to have all the reading accurately. but it could be a real challenge if you are colour blind like me. i can't distinguish the shade of greens to yellow until it really a bright yellow in the co2 indicator... haha...

i think at least u need to have ph, ammonia and nitrate test kit.