kluyu

Hi Luv... from really "down under" to really "up here" To all who may stumble across this... in US - Canadian cross border posts, "up here" usually means Canada and "down under" means US... something that I didn't catch onto for a while, because I always thought of Australia as "Down Under". Well, we live & learn... or just live, anyway. CTank really does have a LOT of fish oriented focus... the weird & funny stuff simply came about because of us having troubles with the board, so that really only a core of people (who happen to be pretty verbal) have survived the various "incarnations." So, like many people who only have themselves to talk to, we've grown a bit odd That is also why we welcome new people with open arms...

That triggerplant link is great. I have saved the link & will now share it with other plant enthusiasts. We have a few "carnivorous" plants in this area, but the are generally of the pitcher plant type. We also have several species of wild orchid (57) that are usually tiny & hidden in the brush. I am an orchid lover, (although I simply worship them from afar & do not have any real botanical knowledge). Plants are great. I'm rather afraid that I don't have any sort of green thumb though & generally go for hardiness in the ones I keep. Still love looking at the others though!

I agree with Ira that it would be an improvement over the older setup. The actinic lights usually have a large spike in the blue end of the spectrum, which is what many marine algaes and corals like/need to grow. Freshwater plants also like some light in the blue spectrum, but generally prefer larger spikes in the red/orange end of the spectrum. There is some evidence that they also like a bit of a spike in the green areas, but this is mostly still in the "hypothesis" area. So, you have upped the correct intensity of light with the 32 watts. Since you have a tall tank (I have one & it gives me problems) the amount of that light that is actually hitting your substrate is reduced. (BTW, if you would like to read a discussion of whether or not light is diminished by depth of tank, I refer you to this link. The conclusions some of the contributors reached do not match my "hands on" experience with tall tanks, but it is a good discussion, nevertheless.) http://www.thekrib.com/Lights/depth.html There is some data that indicate that algae prefer the blue end of the spectrum. (this is just something I picked up in general reading & haven't tried to verify). The K number is not, in my experience, very important in plant growth. The correct spectral output and the correct intensity is. You usually see K numbers from 5000 to 6500 recommended. These K numbers just represent what color noon-time sun is in the temperate zones to the tropical zones. There are many combinations of spectral spikes that will give you the same K number, but have different effects on your plants.

I have yearned to grow some Daphnia of my own to feed very young fry. I have only followed threads about them, and then also seen the freeze dried kind sold in containers as food. I have also heard them called "water fleas" and they are supposed to be big enough to see with the unaided eye. I have looked in various puddles and drainage ditches by the road, but I don't believe I have ever seen anything in the water that I could absolutely term daphnia. You don't do anything but leave water outside? No special places, times of year or other such things?

The oyster shell may be your best bet. You can often find it, as Pegasus says, in feed stores where it's sold as chicken grit. Just be sure to check that it is made from shell, as a lot of chicken grit is made of crushed granite & would have no effect at all on your problem. Where I live, my water (well water) is massively buffered by the calcium carbonate & magnesium in the ground. The only way my ph goes is up. I have tried many different water-conditioning schemes, and finally given up and just kept fish that like high ph (mine is 8.5 in my tanks). This is not very restrictive, since most fish stores in this whole area have the same ph as do I. They order and stock fish that come from breeders who use higher ph. This includes a bunch of the cichlids on your list. I keep several angelfish and they do well in my high ph. I used to have oscars also (astronautus ocellatus). They did so well in my high ph waters that they grew at least an inch a month. I am sure that the fish stores in your area probably have lower ph, if they have a similar water supply to yours, but if they do stock africans, they must have some scheme in place to buffer their water. You can acclimate fish to higher or lower ph than the shops have, and have them thrive. What is deadly is the sudden changes. If I were in your shoes, I would think about the substrate additions. I believe that oyster shell would be pretty good for a natural substrate amendation. It is primarily calcium silicate, and this dissolves less readily than calcium carbonate (limestone) and should be cheap as well. It would also be stable. The problem with most water modification plans is that they require you to do water mods every time you change the water, and are a real headache in the long run. With the shell addition, you could simply make smaller water changes more often and not have to worry about dosing water each time. In re the nitrification cycle. I can see that with your low ph that this could present a problem. Nitric acids do occur. The impact they have on your tank can be lessened to a great extent by having good circulation and aeration in your tank. It really makes a big difference.

I was browsing the posts here and noticed yours... I'm a fellow USer, although from TX. Been through Redding a good bit though... very hot and dry in the summer. I have seen many people convert the "lava rock" or pumice into aquarium uses. It has been pointed out to me recently, however, that you may get different results on your water chemistry according to what volcanic source your rock is from. Most of the commonly available landscaping rock should be fine. You can take the sand and chips you mention, let them sit overnight in the same water you use for your tanks. Then test that water the next day for any changes in the chemistry that may be different from your ordinary water parameters. As you say, many people use this in their fountains and ponds, but there are many different sources and the mineral content is bound to be a real mix since it is spewed up from deep within old mother earth.

To tell the truth, I am thinking about some CO2 injection on one of my tanks. I have really made a major issue about not doing this sort of thing in various posted threads, so I know I'll have to take a lot of ribbing about being converted. I know (have been told many times) that with CO2 injection, higher plants in a tank can outcompete black beard algae. This would really be the only reason for going to CO2 injection for me. It does allow more lush growth under the conditions I now have, but I really like easy maintenance tanks. I can have nice looking tanks with low to moderate lighting (1.5 to 2 watts per gallon) although they won't be show tanks. I do like to go to the AquaBotanic forum you suggested as an interesting site. Most of those people DO have the high light & high maintenance type tanks. When I hear that they have to prune and shape their tanks on almost a weekly basis... well I just feel a little faint. Not for me, that slaving over a hot aquarium! But some of the people that do frequent that board are very knowledgable indeed, and I find it very interesting and informative to follow their threads. Quality plant info there.

It is, of course, good advice. As you can now see, I put my "home" BBS in my sig link. Hah! didn't miss me did you? I just had to flash across to see bowhunter's post and make sure I didn't say all the same things he did. So, since I now know what he said, I can spread myself a bit. We at the Community Tank are very much like a friendly family. It is still a small board, and since it is a smallish one, eveyone is much more connected than you would see on a big BBS. That's good, because a better bunch of people you would have to travel far to find (like maybe NZ?). We like new people, whether you just come by to chat as a guest or post on a topic or ask a question. While the majority of us are scattered across the US, we have Canadians and UK people too. We are lucky to have some very knowledgable members fish-wise as well as some just getting started. I had the pleasure of looking at a lot of Caryl's pics about your fnzas meetings and the beautiful fish you have. You are really lucky that so many of your members are within driving distance to each other. We have been trying to find a place that would be more or less central for most of our members, so that we could finally get together and actually meet each other. As it is, I think that many of us will only ever know each other through posts at the BBS. You people are really lucky to live in such a beautiful country (breath taking scenery) (recently seen in Lord of the Rings) that is also small enough to let a lot of your members actually meet. It is also great that although we are in your yesterday, at least it is still day for both of us for a goodly spot of time. Some of our members in the UK are up and about during the middle of the night for most of the rest of us US folk, and we can only post back and forth while one or the other of us is fast asleep. Either that or awake way, way too far into the night. So... come on by and set a spell, even if we are in yesterday for you. Oh yes... if the world should come to an end in your time (tommorrow for us) please leave a post in this regard... I would like to have time for a bit of going-out-of-buisness shopping. Bye!

Will do, oh flighty one... I'll have to dig up a suitably Texan avatar, but I'll go put the 'Tank in my sig file right now.

Thanks right back at you Caryl... do you know that I only just now figured out that the nz part of your name had to do with New Zealand? I thought that it was just a different way of spelling Carolyn. Now I see the light though, it is in reality a distinctive recognition symbol to all other New Zealanders that see it. That is a pretty good idea... I don't guess it would work for me though, My name would come out kluyutxus... which is bound to give anyone pause for thought before opening any kind of conversations. As it is, I see you will have to reassure your members that you have not fallen in with a bunch of crazy people, and that most of the members at the Community Tank are quite nice really, and all very sane. Well, mostly anyway, and they have to be very nice to put up with me. What I think is really amazing is the international makeup of so many bulletin boards all over. Here I am, chatting away to you (via my pc) and it's 5:46 pm here in Texas, on Aug. 28th, and I suppose you people are already in tomorrow morning. Pretty amazing... No matter what kind of an insomniac you may be, you can always find someone else in the world wide net awake and ready to talk.

I felt that I too had to post on this topic of fish vs plant. The fish I have now are not too bad on plant eating, but I have had some real bad ones in the past. I had 3 oscars for a good bit, and while they were small I could keep some of the hardier plants in the tank with them. By the time they reached 5 to 6 inches (about 16cm... do you use inches or centimeters?) no plant was safe. If they did not eat the plant outright, they would pull it apart, much like a dog tearing up a toy. Also like a dog was their tendency to dig, and their like of moving their "toys" from one spot to another. I finally could keep no real plants at all, and had only rocks and some fake (silk and/or plastic) plants in with them. I think many keepers of the larger and more aggressive chiclids do the same. It just gets both too expensive and too much work (cleaning out the filters) to keep real plants with them.

I don't know what kind of fish you keep. I was told, right from the start, that fish do need darkness to rest. As long as the lights are on they are on, and too much light stresses them out. I think this would be quite noticable if you kept the more active, nervous kind of fish, and fairly unnoticable if you kept lazy fish like oscars. If you have been having any kind of other problems, like ich or increase in aggression, these may be signs of stressed fish. I don't really think that 14 hours of light a day is too much. Of course if they are in a part of your house where daylight tends to make the room bright, then they are probably getting quite a bit more than 14 hrs. Just watch your fish... do you have plants? Do you have algae problems?

Well, I seldom actually say "howdy" but I am Texan, and I do say y'all a lot... when I remember that I'm supposed to. I'm afraid I've moved around so much in the US & some in Mexico, that all my typical area sayings have gotten all mixed up. But not me... I'm not mixed up & to prove it to any doubters out there, I have personally come to this board and registered. All on my own (sort of) with only the tinest bit of help. I had followed threads with Pegasus in them (Tom's Place) and run onto a lot of NZ people at the various fishforums I frequent. Then, I ran onto Carylnz & simply became eaten up with curiosity about all things New Zealand. I can see, by my sampling of threads here and there, that you guys really know your fish. That's really great, because I love to bend collective ears whenever I have a problem come up. At the moment, I am pretty trouble free on the home front. I keep mainly angelfish, gouramis and barbs, but I also have clown loaches, bettas, the odd fancy goldfish, your basic selection of platies, a few herds of corys and several that I know I haven't mentioned yet. Right now I am sort of focused on aquatic plants, which, in it's own way is every bit as interesting as keeping fish. And considerably more difficult in many cases. So... here I am, and once again I say "Howdy, y'all... Y'all come back now y'here!" Even if it is me that is coming back here. But you too should come back there too, so that you can also return from whence you came. (just doing my little bit to help international confusion here )

They do tend to be a bit on the high-tech, high-nutrient & high-maintenance side. A bit elitist... but, lots of plant info. Sometimes it's worth gritting your teeth and hanging on, just for that. There are a couple of informational posts that are definately worth the price of admission (which is 0, naturally). Check out the "Best Links Out There" post in the General Aquarium section. Another one in the same area is the "Fertilizer 101" thread, where links to all sorts of discussiong and sites for nutrient combinations and substrates. Most of the regular members there are as interested in photographing their aquascapes as they are in setting them up. There is an interesting section devoted to just that topic. PS... hi Pegasus... I followed your sig link from your "dirt ice cube" thread, and looked around a bit. Then, along comes Carylnz and registers at my "home" BBS. So, I just had to come back and register here.