Zev

Hmmm... we seem to have an Austin Powers fan here! I am pleased to see your daughter didn't name the CAE after the large red headed character from the last two Austin Powers movies! The reason I asked about the water flow is that I have found when this is too low (usually from not cleaning the intake or the filter regularly) then the algae starts to become noticeable. It looks like you are a doing 20% water change per week, which is fine. Your lighting calculates out to approx 90 watts if they are T8s and you have them all on at once for 14 1/2 hours per day. I do not think this is an excessive amount of light, we have a 28w light going 24hrs a day over a 10 litre fry tank, which has Riccia and Stargrass in it, and it does not have an algae problem. We have two foot tank that periodically gets both of the types of algae you have, when it gets too bad I trim the most algae covered plants and pull as much of the cotton wool stuff off as I can and then do a 30 - 40% water change for a couple of weeks, it seems to fix itself after a while. We keep away from the chemical solutions, whilst they may kill the algae, they are not solving the problem of why you have it getting out of hand in the first place, it's like brushing away an annoying spiders web on your car wing mirror, but not removing the spider - next day the web is back again. Even the snails aren't immune to alage! Could you post a pic? Would be good to see what sort of plants and stuff you have in there.

More questions for you: What filtration/water flow do you have? Do you use ferts, if so what and how much? How often do you do water changes and what percentage are you swapping out? Does the puffy stuff look like a dark green cotton ball? How many of fish do you have in there and what sorts?

I didn't mean Money Cowrie as in Cypraea moneta, I ment you could make some money out of selling the cowries!!! Don't forget the underwater light that changes colour, either...

Is it an Aqua One? Does it have a switch at the bottom that changes it from deg C to F? IF so, it could be faulty display, it should give you two numbers to the left of the decimal point and one to the right, then a little c. The H may be an eight with the top and bottom segments not working. Just a thought...

Flippin heck, Evil... How big is the first pic - it seems to take ages to appear on my slow computer, then it resizes. (Very nice pic too, btw) Oh, and names please, for us uninitiated killie fans, ta.

So they could be 'Money' Cowries after all? How much are you going to sell them for each??

And always put the bottle somewhere lower than the tank, in case it gets knocked over and starts syphoning into your tank.

Imagine trying to ring 111 - like they are going to take you seriously. I can just see it now - 'Hey guys, I've got Superman on the line, says he has an emergency!'

Wacky baby names 1. Kal-el Coppola (Son of actor Nicolas Cage) 2. Audio Science (Son of actress Shannyn Sossaman) 3. Bluebell Madonna (Daughter of Singer Geri Halliwell) 4. Daisy Boo (Daughter of chef Jamie Oliver) 5. Pilot Inspektor (Son of actress Beth Riesgraf and actor Jason Lee) 6. Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily (Daughter of television presenter Paula Yates and Singer Michael Hutchence) 7. Dixie Dot (Daughter of television presenter Anna Ryder Richardson) 8. God'Iss Love Stone (Daughter of Singer Lil'Mo) 9. Jermajesty (Son of Singer Jermaine Jackson) 10. Apple (Daughter of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and singer Chris Martin)

One could also see the cat's reaction in my previous post as how some males would react when a visit to 'Dr Nick' is suggested?

Patience, Grasshopper, patience... Can take a couple of hours or more to get going. We also used to wrap our bottle thingy up in wadding or filter floss and put it in a poly box with a hole in the top for the airline to come out of to keep it warm, especially in the winter.

I think we used the same amount of sugar and half a teaspoon of Elfin Instant Dry Yeast and a small pinch of baking soda (can't remember what the baking soda was for.) Fill it up with luke warm water to top mark and stir with a chopstick! Oh, and make sure you do the top up real tight, or the Co2 will leak out around the screw top.

If the Co2 comes out of it, yes. If not, no! Well, technically, I think the above is incorrect. The purpose of the Nutrifin ladder or a diffuser is to increase the amount of contact the Co2 has with the water, therefore disapating it more efficiently into your water, so if the airstone just lets out big bubbles into the watercolumn it's probably no better than just having the tube releasing the Co2 straight into the water. If you have the Nutrifin ladder, you will notice that the bubbles get smaller as they reach the top of the ladder because of the distance/time they have taken to travel up to the top, increasing the contact time with the water. A diffuser breaks the Co2 into tiny bubbles that are more easily absorbed into the water.

Argh... Wayyyy too much information Lol.

You may have to find out what sort they are, the eggs hatch in different ways depending on the type: Retrieved from: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/snailreprofaq2.htm I think Astrea snails do the larval stage thing, I have seen mine squirting stuff around the tank, but no littlies, whereas I have a few small white and pink snails that seem to increase in numbers quite happily.

Ohh I can see MAF just loving these! Gambusia can reproduce in the same manner.

Ahh, so us 'Northerners' get to meet The Pepsi Kid in person? You're not going to let him take any on the bus trip, are you Caryl?

I have noticed that some of the most successful picos are those that belong to people who have successful larger tanks. I think Melev was doing water changes in his pico with water from an established larger tank, therefore all the water parameters are correct every time he swapped the water out, no need to fiddle with chems/phosphate removers/salinity etc for a small amount of water.

Hmmm.. I am sure I had five a while back, then my post count went backwards... Should survive ok, and grow a new head where you chopped it off. The trick is to get the top bit to stay put. Tooth picks seem to work the best, unless you have a very territorial Goldstripe Maroon Clown who does not like any form of tank rearrangement, and yanks the tooth picks out and chucks them down the back of the tank and the mushys float away, never to be seen again.

Slice it up like a pizza! More bits for everyone...

I use Safari on my Mac laptop, have done so since I got it in 2003. I tried Firefox, but it couldn't handle the multiple locations that I use to browse the internet without having to get in there and change the preferences every time. Safari just keeps going where ever I set my location to. Wasn't impressed with Opera - came with the laptop and I think it was a beta version.

Dammit... No 'drool' emoticon! Stunning pics, as per normal Jacob.

You might not make 56 if your wife reads your earlier post, Jim!

There's nothing wrong with those cellphone pics!! Hi and welcome...

*rushes off to shield cats from low flying gliders with net dragging off bottom*