Faran

CO2 doesn't need to be expensive. There's a DIY way with 2 2.25 coke bottles, some yeast sugar and water and a little $25 elite internal filter for a diffuser. If you don't have enough of either the ferts, carbon or light you'll get some serious algae as that's what uses the leftovers. It's basically an all or nothing situation...

Sup Mr Blue Ram, this whole thread is about an excellent DIY mixture. You can buy stuff from the shop, but this is much better. All of these chemicals should be readily available at a hydroponics shop - [plug]www.sog.co.nz[/plug] - and you'll have to buy quite a bit of it, so people on the forums may be able to supply the ingredients for a fair price (that's where I got mine). The history behind PMDD is that it's the basic chemical composition of a Dupla plant fertilizer formula. Therefore the name "Poor Man's Dupla Drops" or "Poor Man's Dosing Drops". Aside from this, you'll need a good light source as well as a source of carbon (CO2 injection or Flourish Excel) and then balance it all out. That's the basic formula for planted tanks. Lastly, you'll need deep light penetration for glosso. Make sure it gets enough light or it's gone!

I suppose there's a pretty big market for CO2 gear at the right price, after I'm done with the fishroom and I have some money to play with I'm thinking of doing some bulk purchases to drive down the prices and get some really good deals for everyone... have to say though, his prices are a heck of a lot better than mine were when I did this last year. I can't even get a dual gauge rig with solenoid that cheap! Then again, mine come with JBJ bubble counters, I suppose...

Flourish (original, not excel, iron or any other name) is an excellent trace elements mix that does wonders. Later on down the line, you'll probably move on to PMDD (poor mans dosing drops) which is cheaper but needs to be mixed from raw ingredients and refrigerated.

Both the start and finish of the image embedding have a slash. If you can edit your post, simply remove the / from the at the start and it should come right. Nice work, where did you get slate from? I could use some... would prolly look more natural than the floor tiles, even without the sand cover

I am a Light Cycle. I drive fast, I turn fast, I do everything fast. I even breakfast. I tend to confuse people with my sudden changes of heart. Sometimes I even confuse myself, which tends to cause problems. (If you were not a Light Cycle you would be an Asteroid.)

I've owned an AR980 for about 18 months now and can vouch that the wet dry system is adequate even without any extra filtration IF you keep the filter intake clear of debris and do regular maintenance. I found that in heavily planted tanks, the decaying plant matter clogs intakes and causes problems quite often. I've replaced my stock intake guard for a sponge filter and need to maintain it regularly. I simply watch the output and can gauge the flow from the amount of bubbles going into the water. Sounds like you have a VERY nice tank, congrats! All the additives you're using are great aside from the cycle. That is only needed for setting up a tank and shouldn't be required for more than a couple of weeks, provided your cycle is established. If you want to simplify things, a CO2 setup will replace the Flourish Excel, but does basically the same thing.

Good work with the pic, fishboi Yup, exactly what I meant and the revised version is the way to go if it's a cerami disc. Here's a note for you - your ceramic disc will get dirty eventually. To clean, soak in a 10% chlorine solution overnight, then soak in a dechlorinating solution. Do not at any time touch the ceramic disc with your hands as the oils and skin cells block the tiny holes in the ceramic disc. Happy to help and glad you're enjoying the plants!

Okay, the top unit in the pic looks like a bell diffuser (unless there's some piping I don't see) and should be downwards in the tank. Presumably, the U bend would run the line down the tank and then curve up, then connect with the diffuser which has a downwards facing input.... Kind of a "nJ" shape, if u get my drift. The other unit is a fancy bubble counter. This can be put inline anywhere between the needle valve and the diffuser. The U bend with that will aid in getting the line up the tank and connect with the other U tube for the diffuser. Wow, funny how hard it is to explain something that would only take a sec to show

LOL, sorry mate, but I suppose I left the forums and never saw it until today :oops: This pic was taken just before lights out... I'd love to put him in a concrete/urban environment and see how he blends in. Who's got mad photoshop skillz?

Sharn's on the ball. The more the merrier, but be sure and give 50L per fish or you'll inhibit growth. As for bettas, I keep my favourite bettas in my discus tanks. I find them to be good tankmates and neither give each other any mind. I've even had bettas have big spawns in the same tank (as well as the discus) and that doesn't happen when you have incompatible fish.

Just order them 8 at a time and have them stacked outside waiting for when you need them, like me

Yes, but please don't get confused with these being L183 (a starlight with white seams)

To answer a VERY old question - Luke, I've only had a couple instances with catfish sucking on the sides of discus. One was a common pleco that did it at about 30cm and practically left a hole in the discus, and the other was a female BN that developed a taste for discus slime when a pair was spawning. These were individual fish and should not be generalized to include all suckermouth catfish, etc etc - both instances were easily remedied by removing the oddball fish. So, a few months ago I moved the Gold Cloud to a large tank full of fancy plecs. Colouration and behaviour was normal... until a few weeks ago. Somehow, Mr L048 found out how to make his skin look like urban camouflage! The shades of grey have mellowed out and left mostly black and white, but still a very interesting colour pattern. My belief is that he is currently going through a pattern change whilst growing. I'm gonna chalk it down to acne for now

Update - free swimming day 10 Fry are approaching 1cm (incl tail) and growing quickly. Diet includes courgette, pleco chips and sparse feedings of BBS. Twice weekly water changes with aged and temperature matched water to avoid shock casualties. Remarkable ability to change colour from almost white to dark, as can be seen in the picture where two have been sitting on the red leaf for a little while and have some light markings, while the other just joined from a dark sponge filter. Enjoy!

Hey bud, they acted the same when I had them for a while. They even went as far as cleaning a couple spots on the driftwood and killing a fancy plec that got too close. I'd chuck the pair in a 2ft tank and let them rule themselves, mate. The third wheel female should be fine in the comm tank alone. What kind of fancy plec was it? A Blue Phantom Pleco/L128 which I had spent WAYYY too much money on. Gutted.

Many aquatic mosses will have minimal growth when emersed, and will likely die off. I would recommend acquiring some of the beautiful NZ native mosses and attaching them to the driftwood above the surface and see if they grow at all. I'm currently doing this with three types of moss on a chunk of driftwood (that comes out of the water in my 460L open topped tank), but the metal halide lights seem too harsh for even that. Indian fern grows quite well, tho

Sorry to hear it, mate. It's always a bit harder to handle when it's a monster fish. You seem to get a lot more attached, aye? Quick question - how did you know the clown knife and fire eel might have it out?

May take a while on dial up - recommended for high speed connections. http://www.dumpalink.com/videos/Feeding ... -h7be.html Just average freshwater river catfish that someone has been training to "beach" in order to get food. THe sheer number of fish in the pond is pretty crazy in itself.

No account details needed , happy to help. PP should be there Tuesday, thanks for the address and please remember to join a local club and support the FNZAS

I got a kg of PP off TradeMe (Condys Crystals) and have plenty to spare. Can even courier it to you if you want to hurry things up a bit.

I think you'll have a bigger problem acclimatizing it to a tank temp, but sterilization is easily obtained with potassium permanganate. Just a soak in the purple waters for a couple hours, a good wash under tap water and you should be good to go.

Great price, very nice "catch" :lol: I'm a bit overstocked on plecs and might part with my 4 adults, but I'm not fussed. They're cool little fish and I almost spawned some in the past - until a BN killed the male fighting for the cave.

I agree with Jake. I have 4 of them and the patterns can vary with age and stress but that's definitely one of em. They're usually in the $60 range in pet shops around here, if you ever find one. Your LFS should be able to order more in if you like them. They're imported and distribusted by Brooklands, as well as others.

Yup, I stand corrected. Two (1-3cm) youngsters are selling for $55 on TM, so hey, that's a nice endorsement. I see that 3.5cm ABNs are on the pricelists, but breeders are always ableto get you whatevcer size and possibly sex you want, so always a better option. I'm thinking of swapping out my BN breeding colony for ABNs, why not, right?