alanmin4304

Mouses ear is Saururus cernuus and is usually grown emersed when in the shops. It needs strong light and grows slowly when submersed.

I agree with what you say, in that different fish produce different amounts of urea (and then ammonia). I can't see why people think adding a few fish slowly and allowing the bacteria to adjust to the natural and actual load is a stress to fish but adding ammonia is not, even though they have absolutely no idea that the ammonia they are adding has any relationship to the fish they are adding and the urea they will produce. I think the latter is probably more stressfull even though it may be more fashionable. I sell heaps of plants and none are in rockwool because I don't grow with hydroponics. I always plant the plants in the media and they help to use up the nitrate which is all part of the nitrogen cycle.

"pithedagain?"

You have to be carefull where you use PTFE (thread tape) You need hemp on most metal joints and the tape can blow some fittings.

The corrosion of brass is called dezincification because it leaches the zinc from the brass, not the copper. Local authorities keep the water slightly alkaline to avoid the corrosion of copper and brass so brass would not be a problem. I would use approved plumbing fittings as they are designed not to leak as they are often inside the wall. The other fittings are usually exposed and in the garden so it does't matter if they leak.

Lobelia cardinalis Flower, obviously named after the colour of a Cardinal's Gown.

If you use the scientific name you will get the fish you want. Many fish (and plants) have common names that are used for more than one type so it can cause confusion.

How many fish are equivalent to 5 or 2 ppm ammonia? How can a plant grow if it is potted in rockwool?

Take the microworm off the sides of the container with a small paintbrush and rinse into a small container of water then suck up with an eye dropper and squeeze where you want it. I use a pipette which is like a giant eye dropper (available from the chemist for measuring baby meds).

Siphon the fry out as soon as they are free swimming and It will probably all happen again.

I keep mine in a seperate tank when they are ready to lay and can tell from their behaviour when they are going to lay. They always lay in the same spot as it is close to the window and is the warmest area of sand.

Utricularia feed on microbes in the water. I dont know if this includes free floating algae.

The black is female and the gold male. You look at the angle of the body line behind the pectoral fins. On the male it is more like 45 degrees and with the female it is more like 90 degrees to the anal fin. The ovipositor is larger in the female (when showing). I have also been reliably informed that the female lays the eggs. The female will also get fat in the belly (usually more on one side) when ready to lay eggs.

There are only two ways to reduce noise and that is to put either absorbing material or very dense reflective material between you and the noise. Neither are very practical on a fish tank so it is best to try and design a quiet system in the beginning.

If any eggs hatch you have a pair

I hope it went well also. I hoped to be there but ended up helping with an emergency up the street

I agree with the above advice. I was advised once one hatched to assist the rest and it resulted in disaster. Now I leave them to hatch by themselves and only remove them when the egg sac is used up. Dont even help them from the shell as they generally still have a lot of yolk left. If you keep the shell moist (and therefore soft) they will come out when ready.

I use greywacke river sand and put it through a seive to take out the largest about 25%, place the rest in the tank and put the washed larger stuff on top to hold down any silt. My lights are 2 x 4ft (total 80 watts) on 17 hours/day. Tubes are one growlux and one soft white. Plants grown successfully are ; Ludwigia repens Hygrophila stricta, difformis and polysperma 3 types of Java fern 2 types of Rotala Aponogeton undulatus and crispus Cryptocoryne wendtii, balansae, blassii and walkeri Echinodorus tenellus, martii,red special,barthii, amazonicus,bleheri and rubin So it can handle a range of plants and they go well at the lower temperature.

My killie tank is 1200 x 450 x 400 high and is heavily planted with medium lighting. Plants like light and killies don't so a lot of plant gives them places to hide and get away from the light. I usually have 20 - 30 males in there of various types and have had various gardneri and australe in there together without problems. I don't mix australe with gardneri now as I find the gardneri are a bit more bossy and slow the growth of the australe. They would be OK together if mature in a display tank. There are always some fish visable and visitors are usually impressed.

That would be great, I have sent a PM. Many thanks.

I understand that grindal worms were discovered by Mrs Grindal in a whiteworm culture but in my experience they are easier to kill off than whiteworms and as stated one likes it cool and the other warm and wet. They may be grindals but to me look more like a healthy culture of young whiteworms. My outside whiteworms look like that and a month ago the top of the culture was frozen solid in the mornings and they only came visable when the media thawed out. Grindals would be dead and gone in those conditions.

I wanted some to neutralize chlorine from decapsulated brine shrimp cysts. All the info from Mrs Google said to neutralize with vinegar but I couldn't figure how the chemistry of that worked. The chemist could only get solution and it was a ridiculous price (probably analytical grade). Do you know where I could get some solid without selling the family farm?

I have a tank about that size full of killies and it works well. Some suggestions: 1 Keep away from anuals (Nothobranchius etc as they wont live as long) 2 Keep only males which will be of similar size and nature 3 Suitable would be gardneri--blue, yellow, albino and nigerianus 4 I have these sort of males with coriodorus, siamese algae eaters and clown loaches and they do well 5 Plant the tank heavily to give hiding places 6 Wind the temperature down to 22 -23 deg C. The killies should live 3 years. and the other fish should look after algae and snails.

Warren---where did you get your sodium thiosulphate? I tried to get some from our local chemist but it would have cost me an arm and a leg.

I have a number of whiteworm cultures. One seems to be mainly large (on the garage floor), one is a mixture of large down to small (on a bench in the garage) and one which is mainly small worms (outside under a tree). I also have grindal worms and they are very fine compared to any whiteworms. Whiteworms need to be kept cool but grindals need to be warm and would die off at cooler temperatures.