alanmin4304

When quarantining fish a 10% loss of fish would bring Maf in with a big sledge hammer and from a commercial point of view there is no profit in dead fish. It seems that you are having difficulty accepting that there are many ways to cycle an aquarium as there are many ways to breed and keep fish. I think people starting out there should be given these options so they can make the choice as to how they wish to carry these things out. Your reference to my grandfather only shows that you have missed the point. As I stated, neither of my grandfathers would have kept fish as they went through depressions and world wars and therefore would have been more interested in being able to keep themselves and their families alive and fed. My reference was to "grandfather" meaning a generation or two ago.

My setup is pulled down at the moment. I have used the converter plugs with no problem for these and elements etc. I used a timer to turn the CO2 on about an hour before the lights and had it running for 12 hours. You need to start off quietly and work up to that with lights, CO2 and ferts.

I think some people who have not been involved in importing or breeding heaps of fish would not realise how much you can get away with and how tolerent fish can be (some species). When doing either of the aformentioned there is an economy of scale where people try to load their tanks to the maximum because the overheads are pretty much the same for 100 fish or 1000 fish. With experience these people would get away with what others would consider over the top. And by the way fish which have had their gills and or fins burned off with ammonia poisoning are not very saleable so this is to be avoided as are dead fish in Quarantine as this makes Maf get all excited. Why sticky "water changes?"

I was using that setup before the fish went on holiday because of the shakes and I had no problems.

The more frequently that water changes are carried out the less difference there will be between the tap water and aquarium water. The aim is to establish a balanced system between the toxic wastes produced by the fish (ammonia and nitrite) and the bacteria helping to create the balance and there are a number of ways this can be achieved. The best way is the way that works best for you and done properly none of the ways need to be cruel to the fish.

If you double the diameter you get four times the flow if that is any help.

Interesting reading. They are not facts, they are one person's opinion and are as valid as yours or anybody elses.

Actually they are both organic dyes and neither contains copper. Most fish that are sensitive to copper are also sensitive to malachite green (the dye is named after the copper ore malachite because they are the same colour).

There is no point in having domestics over this. We have a person wanting to cycle a tank. There is some very good info on the front page about cycling written by Jennifer and published in the December 2011 AW. Some people do not seem able to accept that there is more than one way to cycle an aquarium and people can choose how they do that. The aim is the same in each case--to establish a balance between the bacteria and the waste feeding them so that the toxic elements in the nitrogen cycle are kept under control.

It is not NZ made. It comes from the same place but also has a markup from the importer, wholesaler and retailer. I see this as similar to Trademe. A lot more trade will happen this way and shops will have to compete with it the same as they presently have to compete with Trademe. In future we may buy livestock and plants from shops and everything else from overseas. Oh the times they are a changin.

I have no idea how apple snails handle salt but wunder tonic contains malachite green and methylene blue.

Do a google search on subwassertang

There is a sticky by Aquila in the native fish section and it has some links which may be helpful.

Subwassertang--lost in translation.

Freshwater seaweed?

Looking good. Is that sword in the middle horizontalis?

The foam is another inert media like the rockwool and does nothing to feed the plant. Your problem seems to be keeping the plants planted. Might I suggest having a deeper sustrate or adding lead to the plants stem. The pots restrict root development which is a problem with heavy rooted plants like swords or crypts but not for most stem plants.

You can grow it emersed in a bell jar setup or in a glasshouse or out in the open over summer. You just need to keep the roots very damp.

What is wrong with having hundreds of them?

Commercialy it is grown emersed and will grow very dense in natural light. If you submerse it like that it will usually die off through lack of food and light.

I have had the black angels with even better fins in the past. The genes are in pairs so you can get an angel with two black and two long fin genes---very very stunning but black fish (particularly double black fish) are very weak.

Patience is the main thing that you need when fish keeping.

You would need to be careful of giving too much of the fat soluble vitamins as they cannot be easily excreted like the water solubles (Vit C etc.)

So the bacteria that you are trying to culture to turn nitrite to nitrate---what do they get to practice on?

A few have. Do a search. They do not tolerate high temperatures.