Zev

This one is tied to a rock with brown cotton, the rock is partially buried in the gravel, and about 30mm of it sits above the substrate, with the majority of the roots just floating around it.

In laymans terms, please. All I am after is something to help my plants along a bit, and am not particularly bothered about wiping out my current crop af algae. Ta.

As Sharn said, I think it would depend on how large the fish get, how active they are, how teritorial they are, what they eat, and how much they eat-n-poop, and in direct relation the the eat-n-poop thing, how many litres per hour you filter will do. Are you looking at big natives, or smaller ones, a Northern Spotted Barramundi, aka Pearl Arrowana that grows up to 300mm will need a different setup than a community of, say, Blue-eyes. Have you looked here? http://db.angfa.org.au/ This links to Fishbase.org for additional information. You don't state in your profile where in Auz you are, but there are affiliated ANGFA groups across Australia. I picked up this info when we were in Melbourne last month from a fish shop.

Nah, it just means you don't like picking it out of your filter inlet when it get stuck there.

Not exactly glowing red, is he? How long have you had him, and did the LFS tell you that he would colour up? If they did, I'd want to swap him for a better coloured one. You don't want your young ones to turn out this colour and with no ventral fins as well. ps do they loose their colour as they get older?

So if you want to run a small tank with just a sponge filter, say for breeding or growing out, or quarantine with a bare bottom, do you have to seed the sponge filter first, and do you use fresh or tank water, and does it cycle? Which can't be good for wee fish, surely?

I have often wondered about this, some people say not to clean your filter bits in fresh water, only tank water because it kills the bacteria. So what happens when you put your seeded filter into mainly clean water? Whereas others say that they clean their bits in fresh water, to no ill effect?

Tegel used to do them years ago, with the Christmas turkeys, we don't buy turkeys, horrible and dry if you overcook them, so don't know if they still do the pop up indicator thing.

lol.. aint nature grand? Does this apply to Gourami as well?

Have you had a look here? http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... thickness/ Can be rather heavy reading (sorry Warren)! or you could cut to the chase and go to the end.. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/techni ... d_aquaria/

Wow! all that growth in under three weeks!

We have stopped getting Mozzie larvae up here at the moment, I think it's getting too cold for them.

ok, the ducks are cute. Um.. they remind me of a song off Barney about ducks going off and dissappearing until there is only the mother left.. See Caper, I have also had childrens television inflicted upon me!

Here are some temp comparisons from my 2ft tank. Temps above taken from the same spot in the tank - furtherest point from the heater. The heaterstat is set to 24 deg. Temp of middle of tank 25.2deg. The Fluke is calibrated annually, so is the most accurate thing I can find to measure temp (rather an expensive option, though, at roughly $500.00) Whilst some of you say that you can check the temp by putting your hand on the glass, some of us newbies are reluctant to trust ourselves with this sort of method, and are always seeking reassurances - albeit from obviously not so accurate thermometers - that all is well in our tanks.

I had a look at these the other day, the only ones they had started at 35degC, not much good for fish temps, and the little line of mercury was soo hard to see, even with the beveled side of the glass that is supposed to magnify it.

Ok Caper, I think you have been watching way tooo much Sesame Street...

Bait catcher for sale on TM http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Fishing ... 563644.htm Or, if you think you are dealing with The Monster Cave Goldfish.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Fishing ... 601708.htm

What fish will eat/graze on this stuff?

I have a digital one, I don't think it's particularly accurate. The instructions say to put the probe furtherest away from the filter outlet, but it still seems to fluctuate heaps. I am thinking of getting one of those glass and red alcohol ones with a suction cup that goes in the tank.

Ok, lets get a thread going that has pics of the algae that can grow in your tank. What we are after is initally the name, then, after we have sorted that out, what could cause it, then, what you have done to get rid of it successfully. This may help other members work out what sort of algae they have. Please use your own pics, no links to other sites. Here's one to start you off.. and same stuff but on different plant

How big is the poor thing? If he's not too large, you could try a 'Bait Catcher' like they use for catching baitfish in the sea, plastic cylinder thing with ends that the fish can get in to get the food you have put in there, but have trouble getting out.

Ha! my four year old picked up one of these Sera tablet packets at the LFS and said 'look Berocca for fish' Our LFS has these too, sorry Quark, can't remember how much they were. How about one and a half tablets every second day Lyndyloo? Do they break easily?

Pleeeease Antwan.. Tell me you are going to do something about this: It gives me the heebie jeebies just looking at it. It needs a cover or junction box over the wiring or the whole fitting to make it secure from the ingress of water and fingers, and something to secure the wiring in case you trip over the lead and it pulls out of the connector and falls into your tank, and the fitting may need to be earthed, which may or may not be incorporated in the connection block, but I can't tell. Sorry to harp on, but If i did something like this, I'd loose my practicing licence. And the thought of you and your fish turning into crispy-critters is something few of us would wish to contemplate.

PS Are you a member of the HBAS? Next meeting is Wednesday 19th at the National Aquarium 7:30pm

What are the actual dimensions of your tank, and What sort of lighting do you have in it? We came home from 10 days away and had left the kids to look after the tank. The whole top four inches of water was a mass of green floaty algae. It was actually attached to the top plants, but looked like a dense mat because it had grown so much in our absence. I pruned the top half of the tank and scooped the green out, and did a 50% water change. We then got two Hillstream Loaches and three Otocinclis, who have tidied up the bulk of the algae that was growing on the stones, low plants and glass. It took well over a week to filter green out of the water. What I have worked out is that our lighting is insufficent for our tank. It is 600x300x300 with two 15w 7000k fluroescent tubes. Our plants pearled the first day I put them in, but have not done so since, so they are not happy and therefore not taking enough nutrients out of the water to keep the algae down. For my size tank I should be looking at 77 watts of light. Have a look here: