alanmin4304

I feed my adults and babies a range of food. they are the same as fish and can be trained to eat various foods. I feed all that you have listed plus some to the babies so they get used to different foods. They also get a lot of bloodworms. My adults get the same but mainly reptile sticks, plant and fish

When you talk of a hardness of one do you mean ppm or degrees?

Got mine yesterday and a good read, many thanks.

Homogenised milk is passed at high pressure through a small jet so that the milkfat is broken up and then it does not rise to the top. Hence straight from the cow etc.

Neither do I.

As I said, I can't get it to make the coffee. (maybe if it was 18 rather than 30)

What you smell is not chlorine, it is chloramine. Chlorine is what killed grandad in the first world war.

Chlorine is a strong oxidizing agent which reacts with nitrogen compounds in the water to form monochloramine which reacts with more chlorine to form dichloramine which reacts with more chlorine to form trichloramine. When this happens it is then possible to have "free available chlorine." As the chlorine disperses or is used up by other contaminants (like people urinating in a swimming pool, fish in an aquarium or aeration to remove chlorine) the equation moves back towards the monochloramine. The creation of chloramines (and other chlorine compounds) is called the chlorine demand. When you swim in a chlorinated pool and your eyes sting it is not too much chlorine, it is not enough and the equation has moved back towards the monochloramine. Any water supply which is chlorinated will contain chloramines. Monochloramine is added to water supplies in the United states as a disinfectant rather than chlorine to avoid the creation of some of the other chlorine compounds. It is a disinfectant (not as good as chlorine) and as such cannot be doing your fish any good. If you wish your fish to swim in disinfectant that is your choice but if monochloramine makes your eyes sore in a swimming pool I would suggest that your fish would prefer not to be swimming in it. In my view any chlorinated water should be treated to remove chlorine and chloramines.

I use river sand also because it is round (not sharp) and contains a bit of river silt which is good for the plants.

I own an accurate thermometer and that is the extent of my testing kits. I know what the Christchurch water supply is and that doing enough water changes will make the aquarium water very similar. I grow plants and keep fish that are happy to live in those conditions. Once you start chasing pH you will be doing it for ever. In my view it is a waste of time unless you wish to breed fish or keep plants and fish outside of "normal" parameters. Your plants and fish will generally tolerate a range of conditions better than they will tolerate wild swings caused by people "fiddling."

Open the windows in the morning

What do you mean by realy soft? Christchurch water is 45ppm which by International standards is soft.

18 ppm chlorine is high. The aim is to have some free available chlorine at the point of use and so they add more to allow for the chlorine demand. I would only expect 1 or 2ppm at the tap.

I would doubt it as they have been wiped from the wild and are heavily protected. Some overseas breeders might have them but I am not sure if there is anyone importing plants at present.

I have a rena which has been going well for over 30 years. Controls the lights, feeds the fish and turns the air off and on again while the fish are feeding. I just have to work out how to get it to make the coffee.

I have been growing plants for many years and have never used it yet. What are you trying to achieve?

Between them, redwood and what I was growing myself I used to supply most of the shops in Christchurch and beyond for quite a few years. They had a great setup and I believe the well was capped off. Not only good plants like those but bad ones like water hiacynth and lettuce etc. That was before they were declared noxious weeds. I used to send them live tubifex too. They were the days.

I have an 1150mm tank which I built 3 caves in. A pair took over the cave on each end and the middle was a war zone. They defend a reasonable territory so you need to give them space.

Was that the Adams family in Welcome bay? I had madagascar lace and Queensland lace 30 years ago and managed to kill them both off.

I have one heavely planted tank with a heatpad under the tank and 3 without and don't have problems going anaerobic with any of them and I don't stir the media up because I put micronutrient under it and JBL fert balls under big root feeders. I think this anaerobic sand thing is an urban myth invented by people selling heater pads and gravel.

It is hard to believe sometimes but humans are worth more than dogs.

Most cichlids are combatable. That is the problem with them. (Just trying to do IRA out of a job)

There is nothing unnatural about chlorine or ammonia. They are both strong oxidising agents. Cloudy ammonia is cloudy because of the other stuff in there other than ammonia, and some chlorine based bleaches have other additives as well. The normal stuff used to clean up plants is Condy's crystals (potassium permangenate) or alum

Spiralling is not a sign of TB. It is a swim bladder disorder or whirling disease, probably swim bladder.

Most dogs are retrainable as are most humans but some dogs and some humans are just bloody evil. I wouldn't want Adolf or Idi as neighbours while they were retrained. All dogs are very useful and the best use for this dog is growing big fat juicy grapes. It is no good working out who was at fault while you visit the graves of your grand children.