Faran

good point, would definitely have to be a pressurized system.

Another reason is that CO2 is released from the water due to surface agitation (bubbles) so it's good to have it on during the night (when plants produce CO2 anyways) and off during the day when you're doing your CO2 injection. So have you figured out what you'll be doing as far as a CO2 diffuser goes? Some people inject it into the canister filter but I've seen some really sexy ceramic/glass diffusers with a built in bubble counter that I'm gonna try and get... To explain, the CO2 runs down the glass tube and then enters the spiralled section from the bottom. At this point you get to watch the bubbles wind their way up until released at the top. They then sit under the ceramic porous disc which breaks it down into millions of microscopic bubbles. This is a bit of a hybrid between two of the popular designs by Amano's ADA glass works. I should have these on the market by the end of the month.

I have started using a coke bottle CO2 sys with the outlet into the inlet of one of my filters, should I be gettin rid of my 02 airstone. No, but you may want to hook up your airstone to run only at night. Timer on the air pump does this well. You should look into using a second coke bottle as a safety in case your CO2 generating bottle tips over. You don't want all that crud getting into your tank. Ive also just started using flourish and read to take the carbon out of my filter as it takes out the nutrients is this correct? Most people stop using carbon in their filters unless absolutely necessary as it leeches the nasties back in the water once it gets old. My lights are old workshop fluros, It has twin 65 daylight bulbs but are about a million years old should I be replacing the bulbs :-? Flouro bulbs should be replaced every 6 months. HTH!

Very nice. The Danio Ks we got from you a few weeks ago are coming along. Think they'll be ready to go in a few months as well. Got a pic of one earlier today...

It's doing OKAY. Much better than it was in the tank that had a full layer of floating Riccia "clouds".... almost lost it when it got uprooted by a large pair of male BNs fighting for territory and it took me almost a week to find it at the very back of the crypt wendtii where it blended in with the colours up at the top in a dark spot. Hope it makes it but I might see about getting a plant or 2 off diverjohn as I have a friend that's been trying to get one of mine for a while

You're not joking, they grow at an amazing rate until they start using the energy towards creating plantlets. THEN they slow down. Make sure that the junctions are in direct light as the plantlets will need photosynthesis to grow properly. I recommend using some kind of weight with a bit of twist tie going up to the stalk to keep it under the water yet above the other plants. Here's a great picture to show what I mean... Osiris... red melon? hey, I have some of that! Cool beans. Trying hard to propogate it. Currently have 2 at small sizes and growing fast in the planted tank. By "fast" I mean an increase in the length of the weekly new leaves. http://www.plantedtank.net/plantprofiles/Melon-Sword-Echinodorus-osiris/1004/

Holy cripes! You need to start bending that stalk down, boy! From what I can see in the pic it's pretty thick and almost at the surface! I already count 4 maybe 5 sets of plantlets on that stalk. You'll need to weigh it down towards the farthest wall away from it and keep an eye on the daily growth as it will tend to head towards the surface again. When it gets close again, weigh it down again and again until it's done growing. Be very careful to bend the stalk slowly and if it shows even the slightest sign of "crimping" stop bending it at that spot and move on to another bend (if you get what I'm saying). Not sure how rigid it is at the moment. Good luck bro!

Talk about counting my plants before they've pupped. Noticed that the stalk hadn't grown at all in the last few days and went in to explore. Seems that a bit of some other plant and a ramshorn snail shell were the "stalk". Funny. Suppose I'll be waiting for some martii a bit longer...

huh? pictures please? lol

And it's really fun to watch the fish start hiccuping and singing pub songs!

Yes, listerine as in the mouthwash.... The gold stuff, as in original unflavoured.

Just moved out of the heart of the city to Upper Hutt.. about the same travel time as Wai but without the tyre-busing hill. Still go to Uni (older student!!) in the city so I'm spending a lot of time in Welly still. We LOVED Wai and wanted to buy but there was too much competition in the market for our budget. Rather comfy in our dodgy neighbourhood now

If you're a member of KMAC you just need to contact Dark and you'll have access. It's a "members only" function. I'll just PM you with details.

"Spawning turf" or a good layer of java moss covering the whole bottom. 100L (3ft) should be perfect, that's what I bred them in. It's a large breeding tank and fry will need the whole tank to grow out, so I never had a chance to have a second go. You saw 6 of the offspring with the school the first time you visited. They're now owned by a mate (fishy_t) down the road.

sup ewok, welcome to the forums. If you put your location on your profile people will find it a bit easier to see you're a proud wellingtonian The "Peru Zebra" had a long discussion here in the past... with the search function crippled I can't find it though. Sounds like you have a wicked setup, looking forward to meeting you and comparing tanks sometime

Congrats! If you look carefully you'll see a small "puff" of eggs at the end of the shiver, which is usually followed by a frenzy of fish eating the falling eggs. To breed them you'll need to set up a tank of their own, with a medium on the bottom to keep them from getting to the eggs, as well as little to no light as the eggs and young fry are photosensitive and will die if exposed to light. It's a bit of a miss and they are considered difficult to breed. Both Mark and I have bred them successfully, so if you need some more pointers and decide you want to give them a go, feel free to ask! Blue

Hey Bernadette, Sponge filters are the way to go. I'm putting in an order for KMAC members, can you access the club trade and exchange?

With the oriental theme of the pergola and the convenient viewing decks for hand-feeding I tend to think of large lovely koi.... Beautiful pond, Caryl. Looking forward to swimming in it some day :lol:

Just Googled this cuz I couldn't remember the stuff that I was recommended last time... hydragea green or something. Came across a rather nifty sterilizing agent - Gold Listerine. Otherwise, bleach (non-scented) in a 1 to 10 ratio of water for 15 minutes followed by a soak in water dosed with de-chlorinators (water agers). As for tanks on the floor, my lowest rack of my breeding tank racks are on the floor and it's a bit of a nuisance. MCT was right, you'll be able to siphon until the water levels even out between the tank and the bucket. Otherwise you'll need to siphon with a hose hanging out the window going somewhere lower than the level of your floor.

Well, they were already holding when we broke down the tank and got a good look at them so she may have been holding for a few days already. I'd go with option #3 on herefishiefishie's post and just put her in a tank by herself with some rock caves to do her thing. 15ltr is TINY though....

Hiya sharn, Plant both of the roots under the gravel. One is the rhyzome which they reproduce with and store energy (brown) and the other lot is the roots they feed with (white). Good pics and great question. HTH.

Have any of you thought of using some professionally made blue LED light strings? Completely waterproof and ready to go.... not exactly DIY but it's a working product for relatively cheap and very safe...

Trouble counting the fry? Take a digital picture from straight above the tank. White under the tank helps (I asssume it's some kind of bare-bottom setup). Pop the pic on the computer and use paint to mark the fry as you count them. You should get a pretty close estimate +/- 5 fry.

You're gonna need a lot of light for red plants, but considering your amazon is stalking I assume you have plenty already I guess it's a race to see who grows out a pup stalk first, aye? You're probably about 3 days ahead of me already.... if I even HAVE a pup stalk, that is! 8)

There's a pic at the bottom of the FNZAS plant survey - http://www.fnzas.org.nz/plant_survey/aq ... d098544e42 but before I have time to snap pictures (REALLY busy with all the fishy stuff going on at present) I'll give you the simplest description I can. Same as yours, but leaves are red when they first come up and turn dark green. Your martii should go from light green to dark green, right?