alanmin4304

Indian Fern.

I had some made at Argus heating 455 St Asaph Street Christchurch 8001. I thought they were a reasonable price. I bought expensive digital thermostats and a week later someone was offering the cheaper ones on this site. You will need to tell them the size and the number of watts you will require. Some of the electrically aware members could advise. You need to have the same volume of water in each tank to keep the temperature even or you can vary the temperature by altering the water volume, more water --lower temperature. ( If you want the phone PM the poster, Mod Alan)

Have a look at the sticky at the head of this section

If it absorbs water it would be likely to leach from the cement and peat. This need not be a problem as gold fish live in concrete ponds and many people add peat to aquariums. It would be a matter of getting the balance right. I would think fibreglass would be a good material. Impervious and easily cleaned if you used food grade materials.

I always rinse my filter media from my external Eheim under the tap but with some conditions: Christchurch water is not chlorinated Only rinse lightly and leave some residue Only rinse when flow is restricted severely and restriction is not in the pipes. The bacteria will be mainly in the filter media and gravel where the food is rather than in the water. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

You could rinse (lightly) the media from the old filter in the new tank and use the new filter to clean it up. This will distribute the bacteria you want throuout the tank and not just in the filter.

The active ingredient in these preperations is sodium thiosulphate which is not very expensive, I think it is also used in photography. Anyone with a swimming pool and chlorine testing kit could work out how much of a stock solution was required to remove the free available chlorine and you would have a cheap DIY neutralizer. Fortunately I live on the right side of the Bombay hills in the unpolluted south and use pure spring water straight from the tap

The point I was trying to make was that there are millions of different microrganisms out there and they do not all use oxygen and produce CO2. The main ones you are wanting will carry out various stages in converting nitrogen to nitrate. In that process they may or may not produce CO2. There will also be other bugs present which may or may not produce CO2 and take no part in oxidizing Nitrogen.

To withdraw an auction from Trademe you have to give a reason and that reason and the fact that it is withdrawn is notified to all bidders and watchers by Trademe. It was an auction and no one knows who was watching and waiting to bid at the last moment (including myself) Hopefully more will be available to us all after this.

I had them 30 years ago and couldn't breed them. Very nice fish and I hope they get bred up so more are available.

Is this what used to be called A. bivittatum bivittatum?

I may have been dropped on my head as a baby but I don't see why an external cannister filter would encourage the growth of any microorganisms that are different to that in any other filter. They are there because of the environment and food.

If you mean: 'Will the bacteria in the filter produce CO2 like fish?" the answer is no. There are many different types of bacteria. Some need oxygen, some need no oxygen and some can survive with both. Some will produce CO2, others produce methane or other wastes. The main use of the bugs in the filter is as users of nitrogen not for CO2 production

Not certain but I think so.

The albinos are from bronze corries, so mixing up strains to do that

I'm not familiar with any of them, do you have any pics? Alan NZKA56

I used to have a fishroom,heavily insulated with no windows, 12ft x 8ft and and a light over every tank (about 50), heated by a one kw element and a fan going all the time and heat was never a problem. Unless you have massive lights in which case I would confer with the previous advice about diverting the heat away. Don't forget you are paying for heat even if it comes from lights, so if you can use it to preheat water you may save a bit.

It could be TB?

I used to breed a lot of corys and use the babies as cleaners instead of snails. You need to seperate the males and females and feed them up well. They breed best when quite mature and the females are a lot bigger and easy to tell. I bred them in bare tanks and you will usually get them to spawn by giving a cold water change and they spawn the next day as the water warms up. They are ideal in a tank of middle swimmers like angels and will grow very well on the brine shrimp and microworm left over. There is also a good market for them.

Fin rot is a bacterial disease and needs to be treated with an antibiotic. The fungal infection is normally an oportunist infection on the area damaged by the fin rot. Furan is and antibiotic and contains methylene blue. On the odd accasion the fish shops do get it right. I have never used malafix and therefore no nothing about it. I don't like the idea of puting oil into a fish tank, and I doubt it has any fungicidal properties. I would treat with furan and add methylene blue directly to The infected area also. I would not raise the temperature or aeration and treat in a seperate tank as the methylenE blue stains the RTV. Good luck.

What is the plant in the foreground? If it is the one they sell as beetroot (Alternanthera rubra) it is not an aquatic plant and will rot. Tank looks good.

If it was hemorrhagic septicemia it would not go away in a matter of seconds by itself

Where is your water suppy from. Most water supplies would have some nitrate.

Hardness is the amount of calcium present and is measured in parts per million expressed as calcium carbonate. The tap water in Christchurch is 45 ppm or milligrams/litre expressed as calcium carbonate. I still don't know what my tank is.

I think both would be OK. I have 3 large chunks of weather worn marble in one of my tanks and neither the plants or the fish seem to mind too much,including discus, neons guppies etc. I don't know what the hardness is as I have never tested it.