alanmin4304

I only vacuum the crud on top of the media whenever I do a water change. Otherwise it stays there as cheap plant food

What is the advantage of those lights over a standard double flourescent fitting where the tubes cost about $5.00 each?

Glosso is native but needs good light.

Egg yolk is "dead" easy to become a disaster as it can turn into a polluted mess real easy. You only need realy small amounts. You can make ice cubes out of a very weak suspensin and thaw them out in the morning and feed over a day. Temptaion is to over feed because of the desire not to waste the egg yolk but you do only need a fraction of a yolk (eat the rest and you wont be tempted).

I use Selleys becaue it is acid cure, suitable for aquariums and the cheapest at Bunnings. Each brand behaves a little differently and therefore people making lots of tanks will have a preference for what brand they prefer but if you only want a wee job the cheapest suitable one is good for me.

You will be getting a load of free CO2 from the fish you have in there.

Any peat will do the job so long as it doesn't have added fertilizers etc. Each time you boil it you get rid of some of the solubles like tannin that you are after. There comes a point when it is leached out but is still useful for bottom spawners or egg storage.

Could be gill flukes, skin flukes, white spot or velvet. Check the skin of the fish with a torch at night in the dark and see if they look like they have been coated with salt or pepper. Pepper is velvet and salt is white spot. Report back for further info.

Do what feels good.

I use the expensive imported palletized stuff from the pet shop. I put it in small netting bags and boil it in rainwater many times until it stops producing the colour I want. I keep them in plastic bags between boils. It is about $50 a bag but they break them down to smaller bags for about $8.00.

Many of the heater/ thermostats on the market are very innacurate. I have a couple that range in settings from 18 deg up but will not go down below about 25 deg. You get the top product for the top dollar but they still have a fair variation . Jaeger can be adjusted which is an advantage.

Everyone has their own wayof doing things but what I do is keep males and females seperate and only put them together when they are ready to spawn because the males are heavy drivers. A well planted tank with various types of males is a pretty spectacular thing.

but what would the fish rather?

Your turtles will love you for having plants in with them. Mine have a diet of one third plants, but I hook it out of the river as it is cheaper.

Most killies don't like strong light. I have some in a well lit tank that is heavily planted and they do well because they have plenty of places to hide. I still get to see them as they come out as well.

We used to collect hundreds of pounds from an area in a river down stream from a freezing works outfall until the regional council got the discharge cleaned up. I understand they need high protein like blood to survive. A few people I know have tried to culture them but not with any commercial success. They are usually present in my turtle tanks and no doubt arrive on weed from the river.

Your tank and filter are far too small for two turtles that size and it is getting overloaded with waste. Turtles are pretty grubby critters.

That would be quite normal for a bimetallic thermostat which is what is used on heater/thermostats. The only way to get a more constant temperature would be to use a far more expensive electronic thermostat. I have a set up with electronic thermostats and it fluctuates even more than yours for other reasons but the fish don't seem to mind.

The only problem I have with a fishless cycle is: When do you know how many dead prawns has the same "bio load" as the fish that you intend to add? Every time you add a fish, a fish dies, leaves on a plant dies, algae dies or you do a water change there will be a change in "bio load" and the tank will need to adjust (and it will). I therefore cannot see why people seem to get so stressed out about using fish to cycle their tanks. I think the pet shops are on to a winner with additives again. But that is only my opinion. You may well be causing more stress to your fish by doing a fishless cycle--who knows.

I haven't seen any for over 25 years----might be a bit old now

Your prawn rots and produces ammonia as does a fish via urea. The aim with chlorinated water is to obtain a few ppm Cl2 not 1000ppm. You would be lucky if there was still any free available chlorine in tap water at the tap.

I have a tank about that size (pic from Caryl's trip to Ch Ch) and the plants grow well. It has a double 4ft light (daylight tube) going 17 hours/day.

Shell is calcium carbonate

I would treat the tank anyway as otherwise anything you put in there will get infected.

What type of plants will grow OK in a brackish tank?