alanmin4304

The problem is that if the Rtv has deteriorated you will not know it has failed until it falls apart in your lounge resealed or not.

If you check you will find that the new tubes last a lot longer than they used to.

As I said earlier, I bought a four foot growlux and a four foot cool white a few days ago for a total of $17. No probs.

Resealing is not the same as pulling apart and rebuilding.

It depends on wether you want to save money or grow plants. The best lights are the cheapest ones that work for you.

Once they have become soft from being in the water a while and you disturb them they can make the water cloudy with fine particles but it will clear in a day or so. Have you done a heavy gravel vac or disturbed the media that might have released this? I have seen it happen in my tanks after uprooting plants or planting new ones.

What sort of fertilizer did you use? If it was something like JBL micronutrient it should not be a problem as it is not phoshate and nitrate but trace minerals. Bacterial blooms are usually caused by over feeding and the bacteria thriving on excess food. Cut right back on the food.

The higher the tank the more head of water and therefore pressure at the bottom. The longer the tank the more flex in the glass. The width is not a problem until it gets longer than the length.

That is about what I would expect. At the moment it is fashionable to use daylight (7600K) tubes but 30 years ago we used cool white, growlux and 1/10 of the total wattage in incandescent. I have tried daylight for a year, both submersed and emersed and was not realy happy with it so have gone back to the old ways. Every one to their own.

I think that is equivalent to about 120 watts of incandescent

The other plants that are a bit red would be some of the Echinodorus sp. but they need reasonable light and iron. You could try barthii (double red), red special or ozelot. They tend to go brown/green but the new growth will be red if the conditions are Ok. Or C.wendtii red or blassii but they, like Ludwigia repens are red under the leaf.

I breed red eared turtles. Not keen on snakenecks but would be rather partial to breeding Reeves one day.

Velvet is actually quite common---particularly in some fish, but is not always easy to recognise. Nothobranchius killies are buggers for it. The easiest way to find it is to look at the fish with a torch at night with the lights out. If white spot looks like grains of salt then velvet looks like fine pepper. There are a number of cures but I used to use chelated copper sulphate. Check to see if that is the problem first. It is a similar disease to white spot in that what you see is a drug resistant cyst and you need to treat the vegetative stage when released from the cyst.

Many people think turtles are cute but they can be far from cute in the breeding season. Male turtles have and need long claws to hold on to the females while mating. They do the damage to the skin by biting when the females have a head ache.

If it is pretty old the sealer may have deteriorated and if so I would pull it apart and rebuild it.

Lots of water changes and live food then lots of tanks to rear the fry.

If your setup is good for glosso then you will end up with a lot in a short time and if not you would be wasting your time anyway.

I feed mossies whenever I can get them but not from a pond containing goldfish as they carry too many parasites.

It sound like blue/green algae except it is a bacteria and red. Does it rise in the daytime and sink at night? If so that is probably what it is.

No, but I have it available

True Warren but it needs stronger than average light. I am growing it emersed without problem but it will not survive with 80 watts of flouro 17hours/day. My point was that the easiest to grow with average lights that I am aware of would be A. roseafolia

There is more than one right answer but the best answer is the one that is right for you. If you don't put anything: fish, water, filters etc from this tank into your new tank you cannot transfer any disease, but if you do then you run that risk. The problem in this tank may not be too serious and may come right. I would just keep the two systems seperate and see what happens. Neon tetra disease usually has a rapid course and is fatal so if that is not happening it will be something that could be curable.

Most will grow submersed but need realy intense light. I know someone who grows some of these plants with flourescent lights just above the water and in very shallow water. Generally the only one in a relatively normal tank would be what is usually sold as "red hygro" Alternanthera reineckii roseafolia. The others are pretty difficult. Beetroot is Alternanthera rubra and as you say is not realy an aquatic. There is a red cabomba, and a couple of red Ludwigia --glandulosa (used to be perennis) and another I am not sure of. They are often given funny names but you can tell the Alternanthera because it is normally grown emersed and has little flowers above each leaf where it joins the stem. You will have more luck if you can get the cuttings to root before you submerse them. This idea comes unstuck if the cuttings have been underwater for too long. Water plants is selling them on trademe at present and you could ask for ones which have not been submersed--he is pretty good.

correct.

Sorry, I thought you were thinking of setting up a new tank. I am suggesting you don't put these fish in there with other fish. Any of these fish.