alanmin4304

The engineers usually have a good idea where the water is from and therefore how it is likely to be. The age of a dwelling is not likely to affect the water hardness. For instance the water in Christchurch is from many different artesian wells from the second or third artesian strata and is about 45 ppm. There are four artesian strata.

It is a catch 22 situation. I leave the lighting as it is and do weekly 50% water changes to strip the nutrient back. The stuff is not cheap so you don't want to be throwing it out with water changes (but you have to). I double dose after a water change and do normal doses otherwise and make sure you are not feeding too much. It takes a few weeks but it works for me. You need the lights to make the plants grow and strip nutrient and you need the water changes for the same reason.

I have been feeding blood worms for years and have never had a problem. Dropsy is a sign of water retention normally caused by kidney failure which can in turn have many causes. Usually any treatment will only relieve the symptoms temporarily and will not undo the damage done. In my experience by the time they are swelling up with water retention it is too late. Erethromycen will kill bacteria (if it is bacteria causing the problem) but also cannot undo the damage done.

If you are on a Council water supply ring them as they have to test the water for a lot of things including hardness. They will tell you in mg/litre expressed as calcium carbonate which is parts per million. One degree is about 18 ppm.

It will kill most things going through it but not what is on the fish so I doubt that they would irradicate parasites while there are fish there as hosts.

Don't forget that is 350 kg over one sq metre not down through four legs of one sq inch each.

Yes

My tanks are lightly stocked and the growing out tanks have filters. If you use an air operated sponge filter you will get both for the price of one.

They are carnivorous when young. I feed JBL probaby,whiteworm, mossie larvae, daphnia,frozen bloodworm and give them the odd feed of turtle pellets to get them used to the idea and the occasional oxygen weed to find out when they are interested in adding plant to their diet.

I use one or two drops of 1% meth. blue in a disposable drink glass when storing in wter but don't use it when storing in peat. If you have enough peat so the eggs are kept seperate and not touching you should get away without it.

I have a bank of 6 tanks (1200 x 450 x 450mm) divided into 6 with no air or filters and it works well heated underneath with a heat pad. I grow out in bigger tanks that are heavily planted.

Most fish will eat any fish that will fit into their mouth and some will eat fish that require more than one bite.

There are critical factors for their satisfactory use including water clarity, temperature and flow rate. They will not remove the nutrients that are removed with water changes when keeping discus and they will only remove organisms going through the sterililizer not flukes in a fish's gills

It is normally grown emersed commercially and is not growing much at this time of year. Will be available again in the spring or you may be lucky and get some from the pond plant section of your local nursery.

I often do 50% water changes without problems. If you want to do more you could remove 75% and replace 25% and the rest the next day.

What you want to do is sanitize---kill the bad creebies

If you wish to find out about importing plants contact Vivian Dalley at [email protected]

Sodium metabisulphite produces SO2 in solution and will kill the bacteria and the plants and the fish. Stick to using it to sterilize your home brew bottles or removing the green stains from malachite green.

With both I usually allow them to spawn for 3 days to a week depending on their productivity then seperate them to allow conditioning for a few weeks before repeating. Killies are pretty hard drivers and the females need a rest and some good feeding up in my opinion or they just get thrashed.

In the good old days we used to call an ordinary angel a silver (with 3 stripes.) Stripes between the stripes was a zebra and spots between the stripes was a zebra lace. This can also apply to a black angel giving a black zebra lace.

There are also plenty of people out there that are prepred to sell you pills that are not even slightly related to what is on the label.

Loopy is on to it. Used to work for me.

I think the yanks call them sliders because they can't spell terrapin. It may depend on wether you went to Oxford or Cambridge. (I have been to both, they are lovely wee towns.)

have to admit that is less than I thought it might be. Water changes are good because they remove the waste products that bring about these changes and also the excess minerals that cause algae problems. A 50% water change will not cause any problems if you make the replacement water about the same temperature as that coming out. If you do it weekly it will prevent shock because the pH and hardness will not have time to alter too much. We are blessed in Christchurch because we live on the waka and have untreated artesian water to make water changes easier. Forget the pineapple chunks---thats good enough for me. Good luck.

I have never been able to work out what the difference is between a terrapin and a turtle.