alanmin4304

I don't remember, chucked the box away. They have a small pump with two sponge compartments attatched. Pretty common in the pet shops I would think.

I stand corrcted. I knew they were carbonate but not that they were encased in silicate. Does that mean they would not tend to make fresh water harder?

Your next problem will be stopping them breeding

I have a 300l tank for raising guppy fry. It is heavily planted, has sand as a media and I use a small electric sponge filter,mainly to stop the temperature layering. I have never cleaned the filter or sand for 9 months and have no problems so far. I feed live food almost exclusively and I think that helps. I do a 30% water change about every 3 weeks.

Diatom filters use diatomaceous earth which is the shells of microscopic diatoms, chemically similar to coral or oyster shell (calcium carbonate)

I understand someone was breeding them in Tauranga in pools heated by thermal well about 20 years ago.

The plant looks like Echinodorus cordifolius (used to be called radicans)

The blue green algae should be killed off with the chlorination. I would check with the council to make sure that they do not increase the leval of chlorination because that could be a problem also.

No more than sea monkies

Would you eat cold spinach if you were surounded by chocolate?

They probably would be good on marines. I found they would blow a bit of the powder through until they settled down, that might be ok on marine, I don't know

I gave some to friend who had a couple of half wine barrels with lillies that were cultivating mossies. They have been there about four months and have never been fed. They are doing so well on natural food they are breeding like mad. You will be surprised what breeds in an outside pond. I started a daphnia culture and it also now has heaps of mossie larvae and blood worms. My killies love it.

It sounds like you have a pot of microsword which should be taken out of the pot and split up. It should be lots of plants and is probably getting root bound about now. These potted plants are usually grown emersed and the pot will contain a lot of organics which could upset the tank. I would remove them from the pots and remove the mediia from the roots. Others may have other ideas.

They were fashionable about 30 years ago on fresh water tanks. I had 3 of them. These worked by adding the diatomaceous earth to the bottle and the powder clouded up then settled on a fine filter arrangement. They could filter down to 1 micron depending on the grade of powder used. They were like a reverse filter as the powder settled on the outside.

You want as much light as you can get without having algae problems. The lighting can increase as the plants get more established. It is a bit of a balancing act as Echinodorus sp like light and heavy feeding through the roots. You just have to watch and adjust as you need to.

The amount of light required actually has little to do with the number of litres. It has more to do with the depth and clarity of the water, the time the lights are on and the type and establishment of plant. If you pour in too much light before the plants can utilize it you will cultivate algae big time. When the plants are established they will do well with lots of light and beat the algae to the nutrient.

You can also soften pespex in hot glycerene. Good for tube as it heats inside and outside evenly.

The bubbles that are formed can also be formed on the gills of fish. Some fish actually enjoy water changes straight from the tap and others don't.

The water in the mains is under pressure and therefore dissolves more air. When you fill your tank the pressure is released and so the air comes out of solution. Like pouring lemonade in to a glass (except that is CO2)

Add micronutrient to fine sand and fill the jug slowly so it gently spills over on to the plate and does not stir up sand. Any slight cloudiness will clear in a day or two.

If you seperate the courser sand and wash it thoroughly, add the fine sand and silt along with micronutrients and put the course washed sand on top. Then put a dinner plate with a jug on top over the sand and fill the water into the jug you should not need a filter. I use a small electric sponge filter in 4ft tanks to stop temperature layering and a minimum of 50mm 0f sand (up to 200mm in one tank) with no problems. You need to plant the tank well with hungry plants and allow them to become established before loading the tank with too many fish. If you don't get the "clean/clean" bug and allow some krud to build up in the sand and filter the tank will harbour good microorganisms and start cycling for you. As the food builds so will the good bugs and also your ability to add more fish and therefore more food for your plants. Good luck

I get it from the nursery next to the pet shop on the corner of Smith St and Ferry Rd. I think it was 8 or 9 bucks a bag. Called river sand

30 years ago we used to sell live tubifex to the pet shops. All the shops sold them. One shop used to buy 45 lbs twice a week at $1.00 / lb. Now the polluted outfalls have been cleaned up and you don,t see them at all.

The same person is selling it at present on trade me auction 48945180 but it would be a better buy from waterplantz I would think

It can try your patience but I buy river sand from the local nursery and put it through a kitchen seive. Carefully wash the fine gravel you collect and place the unwashed fine stuff and micronutrients in the tank with the washed fine gravel over the top to hold the silt down. I have only done this in a new setup as it would make an existing tank very murky. Minimum depth about 50mm