FuglyDragon

Agreed on the JBL balls have had great results with them and JBL aquabasis under the substrate.

I have a small amount of minima variagated (marbled) I can drop into John if you like, its probably me he is gonna ring asking for it anyways assuming he remembers I have it. Are you sure about Petite golden ? I have standard nana golden, and I have green petite but i havent seen golden petite.

From my own experiance... Dont waste your time with any internal reactor, they invariably get jammed up with snail shells, algae and or slime and you end up cleaning them constantly. Go with an external reactor on a return line from a filter or pump, you can buy the likes of an Aquamedic ( http://www.aqua-medic.com/reactor_1000.shtml ) is what I use (got it from ebay) on my display tank, with a bit of effort you can make a DIY version with a couple of gravel cleaners some silicone and bits and pieces. Get 2 timers, run your lights and CO2 solenoid on one and an airpump on the other when the 1st one turns off (ie daytime lights and CO2, nighttime air) Best way to monitor CO2 is by monitoring PH (as CO2 increases PH lowers, my display tank starts at PH 6.8 in morning and drops down to 6.2 by evening after a day of CO2 injection) best way to monitor PH is a Drop Checker or alternativly a digital PH meter. Its not so much overdosing CO2 as lack of oxygen that kills fish, hence the air stone at night (at night plants give off CO2 and take oxygen from water), worst time is just before lights come on. Lots of really good info about CO2 on tbhe Barrreport Website... http://www.barrreport.com/forumdisplay. ... tive-Index

color on mine varies from month to month, have never really worked out why, they go from a washed out lemon yellow to intenses golden at times...

CO2 injection definately, and keep the substrate rich. and dose iron supplement in the water column. Excel will work but in the sized tank you are likely to need to grow swords it will cost a bomb, my 4 foot discus sword tank needs 30ml Excel / Day going the excel method. Cheaper to get a presurised CO2 system. (Although Excel worked fine its cost prohibitive in a tank that size) http://www.youtube.com/mikefishnz#p/a/u/2/hi-vdAvXjqg Mainly vid of discus buit plenty of swords growing in background, amazonicus, red special, rose, osiris, red hormanie etc etc....

minima varigated nana - var petite nana - var golden nana - var varigated nana

Nope. not possible to test for K as far as i am aware. If you get small pin hole sized holes with brown edges in plant leaves its likely to be lack of K. There is an online calulator called then fertilator which can give you a good idea of what youe K level is based on what you are dosing... http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... ilator.php Put your water quantity at the top, what you are dosing in the windows and click calculate, will tell you what you are adding (but dosnt tell you whats allready there, ie whats coming out of your tap)

I have found Tom Barrs EI regeime better than PMDD uses the same stuff but I get better results. http://www.barrreport.com/forumdisplay. ... tive-Index

I built my racks myself from 3x2 timber, they are fairly well braced and each is attached to the wall behind I had no tank losses just a lot of water slopped out and lids falling into tanks. My 4' show tank (250 litres jewel bowfront ) slid about 1 inch to the west (it lies east - west) on its stand lost about 2 inches of water. I have a plant tub system of 6 linked 50 litre fish bins which are sitting on a stack of concrete blocks which arnt secured at all, much to my surprise they didnt collapse. Only damage to my tanks was a crack in one of my plant tanks caused by something falling onto it, fortunately it only has a couple inches of water in it. will add some photos for you when i bring camera home from work.

my 4' tank = approx 250 litres = 250 kg -= a quater of a ton, it slid sideways on its stand about an inch and a half. Drained out 75% of water and tried to man handle it back, no show couldnt move it at all. Seriously stay well away from your tanks during quake / aftershocks, having that kinda weight fall on you dosnt bear thinking about...

Yeah sorry a but stressed yesterday, earth moving under you not a nice feeling

2 cracked tanks in my fishroom, and water all over but so far no losses. Have spare tank space if anyone needs it, PM me. Checked in on Organism on the way past, no major losses there... just stock falling in tanks ... And as for the 'looting reports' lifting a few bottles of alchol is hardly looting, anywhere else in the world they'd go straight for the TV's and electrical stuff, but here they go straight for the piss lol ....

I have never seen Cardimine here, havent really looked hard for it though, me being a South American nut Hydrocoytle (Brasilian Pennywort) appealed more.

Hydrocotyle all have a strong herb like smell if you crush the stems, Cardamine dosnt and the leaf shape is different.

In my experiance most crypts are likely to melt when water conditions are changed drastically (like being moved from an established to a new tank) emerged grown or not, 90% of the time they sulk for 2 or 3 monthes beofre settling in and starting to grow well again. Once settled they grow like weeds. I generally remove all but 2 or 3 leaves when planting new crypts in my tanks to save having to remove them later.

I have found circulation helps with Cyno too, it seems to like the stiller quieter areas, if you can get a good amount of water movement it dosnt do well. Dosing Nitrates may help in the short term but it is most likely you have a phosphate to nitrate inbalance, to much phosphate for the amount of nitrate. make sure to remove any dead or decaying plant matter and don't overfeed, just about everyone overfeeds and thats where the phosphates come from. NO3 test kits are pretty much a waste of time IMHO they need to be calibrated constantly and seem to go bad or stale fairly quickly and give constantly low reading. If your biological filtration is working properly there should be plenty of NO3 being produced as NH4 is changed to NO2 and then NO3, so it may be an idea to check your filter, make sure its not clogged or overloaded.

I have some if you are still looking Alan.

If you want to cut down the light over ferns get some wire or plastic mesh and place it on top of the lid between the light and glass lid to 'diffuse' the light hitting the fern. I had lots of problems with java fern (and bolbitus) producing lots of brown patches on leaves untill i cut the nutrients way back, seems they dont like the level of nutrients i use for most other plants so now i grow them in a tub of their own with very sparse nutrients added. they deffinately grow better in a emerged hydroponic state (just roots in water, leaves in moist warm air)

Hes grown a bit since i took those photos, the amount of 'waste' he produces is substantial, i have 3 filters running on the tank now... Was trying to work it out the other day, im not 100% sure but he is at least 12 years old, possibly 14...

Anyone know what the smelt that smells like cucumber is ? Can they be kept in a cold water tank ? Caught a few while whitebaiting today.

I'd say cordifolius for the first and a ludwigia sp. thats been grown emerged for the second

lack of iron, dose your tank with just about any commercial aquatic plant food, they all contain iron (and sometimes not much else).

John at organism in ilam road has some nice Discus in stock at the moment.

Any one got any tips for me for sterilising equipment for breeding tanks ? Other than boiling water...

Problem will be if you start with CO2 then your system will stabilse (in a month or two) for the ferts and CO2 you have, if you make a sudden large change (cutting back CO2) the most likely result is an algae explosion. You would need to adjust your fish load and maybe your water changes at the same time as you cut back CO2 to try to maintain the balance, which is easier to say than to do. Here is a short video of one of my tanks with undergravel cables, CO2 injection, regular fert dosing, and weekly water changes... If you are worried about gassing your fish with CO2 go buy a cheap timer from bunnings and have an airstone turn on each night when the lights go out, or use a solenoid to turn the CO2 off at night (I use both in the tank above, CO2 turns off 1 hour before lights out, and an airstone kicks in at same time)