alanmin4304

I would mostly agree but I think my turtles would cost more to run as I feed my newts on mainly aphids (free) and fruit fly (cultured and almost free). If you breed them you will get more hassles but some return.

The echinodorus I prefer are red special (because it has about 5-6 of the new leaves red), bleheri or amazonicus, martii (crispate leaves) leopard (small form and patterned leaves) ozelot (patterned leaves), uruguayensis (lots of tall ribbon leaves) and magdalenensis and tenellus as smaller foreground plants. I have all of the above and they are on Trademe from time to time. Many of the echinodorus here have come from tropica and are hybrids to osiris and get quite large. The ones I don't like are cordifolius,marble queen and the giant cordifolius (macrophyllus) because they grow so rank and all you see in the tank is the stalks (probably good in an open tank with metal halides). The one I would like but don't have is horizontalis because it propagates slowly and is not very commercially viable. I also have Hydrocotyle verticillata on Trademe (it is grown emersed but converts to submersed growth easily and is the only Hydrocotyle to remain in the media and not grow up to the light) Another good foreground plant.

I have two 3 ft flouros with the tubes only in the hood on a timer and two 15 watt incandescents on dimmers that are on permanently. I think this is on the minimum for light but the more light you have the more careful you have to be to avoid algae problems. The large echinodorus sp. need heavy root feeding so require a good depth of media which reduces the depth the light needs to penetrate. The water depth is more critical than the number of litres as the amount of light required is logarithmic as the depth increases. In my opinion a water depth over 450 --500mm is getting into potential problems as the light required to get to the bottom gives too much light to the top.

If you can put up with the stares and comments you can do what I used to do and go to a friend with a gass welder and fill a few condoms with O2 then drive home and fill your fish bags from them. The containers perish very quickly so you don't want to be taking too much time.

Either lighting setup would be OK for Echinodorus sp. I have a 1200 x 500 tank with 2 3ft flouros going 16 hours a day and it contains amongst others martii. red special, tenellus and ozelot all with runners. There are other important factors such as water clarity, depth, time on and type of tubes as well as the nutrient leval and media which determine how they grow. I am using a daylight and a growlux along with 30 watts of incandescent but two daylight would be OK. If you need you can leave the lights on longer.

If I recall correctly wonder tonic contains Quinine,acriflavine,meth blue and malachite. The last three will help with bacteria and fungus but I am not sure about the concentrations in it.

I have never used melafix and probably never will. Fungus is usually opportunistic and will follow another problem which is more than likely bacterial. I would be tempted to hold the fish in a wet net and swab the area with a mixture of straight methylene blue and malachite green taking care to keep it from running into gills or eyes. I would do that a few times a day for a few days in a seperate tank. The extra build up in that tank wont do any harm either. The other option would be furan 2 and swab with methylene blue. You should see improvement in a day or two.

Stargrass is a great plant and has very fragile leaves so travels better if grown emersed (also grows quicker) It needs a lot of light so does best if you plant it in loose bunches and trim it regularly so it remains in shortish clumps (maybe 100-150mm) and replant the bits you trim. If you have it too dense the bottom foliage doesn't get enough light and goes black and straggly. It is the tips that look good ( the name zosteraefolia means star leaf)

The other is a buttercup as suggested and the last one is pass (turtle tucker) The stargrass will convert to submersed easily, red hygro needs strong light and grows slowly but should develop a lovely red colour, cabomba does not like water movement and I think the buttercup doesn't like it too hot. There is a similar alternanthera sold as beetroot (rubra) which should never have been taken out of grannies pot and will rot in a few weeks. I think you have the right one. Great to see you have seen the light and are in to plants.

The first and second picture are stargrass (Heteranthera zosterfolia--grown emersed) Red hygro (alternanthera reineckii roseafolia--grown emersed) and cabomba grown submersed

I have never used it with apistos but I have used it quite strong with angels and killies. I only go by the depth of colour which is a bit hard to explain here but I use 1 or 2 drops of 1% to a plastic drinking glass for killies. You can also use it strong and dilute it gradually before the eggs hatch. It is only there to discourage the fungus on infertile eggs spreading to good eggs.

One of the characteristics a breeder will look for when selecting fish to breed is the time taken to colour up.

Effective UV is very bad for your eyes so any thing that goes over the tank like an ordinary light is either bad for your eyes or does not work. Probably the latter.

It is a nationally banned plant-- illegal to posess or collect let alone sell. The pet shop are being naughty boys and girls. It grows like mad but is also brittle and breaks off the botom into moving masses. It used to be used to strip nutrient because it grows so fast but can be replaced with indian fern or mexican oak leaf. I have to confess I sold heaps of it to the pet shops before it was made a noxious weed.

If it is an algae bloom it would be green. It is more than likely a bacterial bloom (usually caused by overfeeding) Feed less, do water changes and vacuum the gravel if it is too full of waste, and it should come right.

Your angel's dislike of other angels may be the sorting out of a partner. If you put it with some other mature fish they may sort themselves into a pair or more.

The two pipes on the undergravel filter are an airlift. It is not the bubbles that do the work it is the water between the bubbles. The air bubbles bring the water from under the gravel to the surface and this creates a loss of pressure under the gravel so the water runs through the gravel to replace it and is filtered by the gravel on the way. Also it is not realy the gravel doing the work it is the bacteria in the gravel. Various types of bacteria do different jobs in converting the urea from fish waste to ammonia then nitrite then nitrate. It is therefore a living filter and once started should be left going. The bubbles do not need to be going fast as it is the maximum movement of water not air that is required.

Good luck.

You leave it outside until it goes green and you feed it as soon as the fry are free swimming---not before.

The problem with them can be that if something gets stuck under the flap they will fail.

You have something against seahorses then?

What are your interests:coldwater, tropical, marine, plant?

Sounds like a mutant ninja dageti

The cheapest,safest and most reliable anti siphon device is air gap seperation, otherwise you realy need a testable double check valve assembly and that is big bucks

You will have to use a tradesman to do the work as the Council can only issue a consent to a registered drainlayer and craftsman plumber.