magenta

Wow - they look so cool - I've been trying to get my plants pearling since I read Takashi Armano - Nature Aquarium world - what a drool fest Pearling is actually bubbles of oxygen produced by the plant when it is photosynthesizing really fast - usually because you have that mix of nutrients, CO2 and lighting juuust right. I finally saw my riccia pearling the other night:

80-90%!!!!! OMG I hope you have it plumbed in or automated in some way? How big is your tank?

Aged water shouldnt be an issue with Chch water thought right?

I noticed a bit of a build up in our 4ft from the Royal - he's a bit of a sawdust machine :oops: The water in that tank was also kinda dark with tannins, but all other parameters were good, no nitrates to speak of, fish happy and plants all growing wildly. So I thought I could do a series of water changes to get rid of the gunk - paying some real attention around the driftwood. I've done 20%ish the last two nights, and the water is much clearer and cleaner. No-one seems to be sufering from the extra water change, so my question is: How often is too often? I'm on christchurch water, so no issues with chlorine... If I did a 10-20% each day for 3 or 4 days in a row (or longer even), would that damage the filter in any way? Logic tells me no, but I'd like some advice from more experienced aquarists

Yeah - make sure you try to hold yourself back It's easy to add fish *way* too fast - they all look so lovely in the shop, and they obviously need you to take them home... tell us some more about your tank?

We only have two, but we love em: 1x Royal Panaque http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h289/HamishDuff/dsc03686-web.jpg 1x Hypancistrus inspector (L201) http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h289/HamishDuff/Spotty%20Plec/dsc03834-web2.jpg

As promised - pics of the new tank layout - you'll see it looks a bit clearer than the photo I posted the other night Left Side: Front: Right Side: And last but not least our new arrivals - baby scribble discus:

I got to about 11:00 last night - about 5 hours after coming home - everyone was still happy, all the levels were unchanged, so I decided to take the risk. Looks like it paid off The other tank is bigger, and probably the ideal home, but at the moment there are angels in there - so if we do well with these two babies, who knows. My wife wants to use that larger tank for cichlids, but first I need to replace our telly with a huge kick-arse LCD, and put a 6ftx2ftx2ft in its place Ahhh lotto dreams

BTW, everyone is still happy today, and the tank only has a haze left...

CO2 production - help the plants grow. Evrything in our other tank really took off once I had CO2 bubbling up through an airstone, and then accelerated even more with a proper difuser.

yip - there's always a silver lining

Yeah, I might just do that - but it has worked so well in my 4ft. I slapped this one together, whereas the other tank is rigged with a bottle in between the reactor and the tank to stop overflows. Looking at the bits, I think what happened is that some yeast made it through the tube - not a lot maybe, but enough to clog up the airstone on the end (yes I know, the other tank has a diffuser too ). Once clogged up, it must have built up pressure until the tube blew off the airstone, resulting in the mess I came home to I will look at it all again once I have the tank stable. Thanks for the advice all Cheers, Hamish

Of all the times - my internet connection has been flaky - so I havent been back on till now... I was at the shop right as they closed The tank seems fine at the moment I've done Amonia, Nitrite, Nitrate tests 3 times since I came home - roughly every hour - they are all at zero, pH just under 7. Yes on Chch water CO2 shouldnt be a problem - its more the yeast using up the oxygen I was worried about - but everyone looks happy enough, and the tank has cleared a lot, so my main panic is over - although I am keeping a really close eye on it. I have a spare airstone and pump on standby, if anyone looks in distress, that is what I'll try first - plus another large water change. Such a shame, the tank has been really stable, and I've been itching to get the discus in...

I took a pic, so you could see how bad it is...

I finally got my tank ready to take some baby discuss - our firt ones. Went to the LFS, brought them home in the bag, only to find my tank water almost white. I redid my DIY yeast reactor this morning, and it looks like the start of the reaction was strong enough to have blown the mixture into the tube and into the tank. It doesnt look like a lot got in, but enough so I can't see through the tank (about 10cm visibility when I found it). I immediately popped the bad with the discus into the top of our 4ft, to keep them happy while I sorted oout the mess. I've done a 50% water change, and added some Accu-Clear, and I can see a pretty good improvement, it is clearing quite quickly. I plan to do another 50% tommorrow, to try to clear the yeast, but I'm not sure what else I should be doing - anyone got any ideas? All the fish seem fine - no-one in distress at all... Should I put the discus into the big tank in the meantime - or will they be fine in with the cloudy yeast? I need urgent help please Cheers, Hamish

Hi all, I keep seeing decorated synodontis in the LFS, but I want to know a few things about them... I was wondering what people's experience was with their behaviour - are they very social? - we have a couple of Pictus cats, but we never see them (plus we think they ate all our $9 a pop runmmy nose tetras ). I could Google for more info, but I would rather read people's actual experiences - that's what I like about this forum TIA Hamish

We use filter gauze - like the black stuff that comes with your AR980 - we have an AR120 that drove us nuts too. The only thing you need to watch for is to rinse the filter wool out frequently - otheriwse it will clog and the water level will rise...

Wow, I cant wait till ours is that size Blue - she is a great fish - great to see they keep being friendly, ours has just started displaying on the driftwood, not scurrying off whenever we come near.

Thanks for that Sharn. I've joined that site - its realy helpful. What types do you have Sharn? Our LFS has Red Turquoise about 4 cm long - I'm pretty tempted by them... Still, I want to rebuild the tank they are for first - I might have to admire them from a distance at the moment.

Hi all, We really like discuss, and have wanted to get some for a while We are tentatively looking, but we don't know what variety to choose - I guess is down to personal choice? Why do people choose the varieties they choose? There are so many beautiful fish - how do you narrow it down? any advice would be welcomed TIA

Hmmm 500L you say, lots of driftwood... Sounds like an excuse for a new tank Luke: umm, he's not normally that green i think - maybe its my camera technique :oops:

Thanks for the comments We got him/her at Organism about 6 or 7 months ago - he's still the most we've spent on a fish - $140. The guys at Organism have such nice fish, and they're really helpful too.

I finally managed to get a decent pic of my favourite fish - a Royal Panaque: He's only a wee fella still - about 11cm. No idea if it is a male/female - anyone now how to tell?

welcome piggy how's this for an avatar? Post the link below into the URL field for your avatar if you want it: http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h289/ ... /piggy.gif Hope you enjoy the forum! What sort of fishies have you got? Cheers, Melissa and Hamish

Excuse me if this is a newbie response (maybe I'm not DIY inclined enough) but in comparison to using ceramic noodles, which have a surface area of approx 1350m2 per liter of media - isnt it better to just not DIY, and buy the noodles? (they're only $20-$30 a kg right?)