SpidersWeb

As a basic guideline I try to get 4-5 times turnover. So 65L tank, 5 times turnover 325 litres/hr So go for an internal filter that flows 300L/H. Eheim and Fluval come recommended but also come with a price tag. I'm a cheap ass, and have had good experience with the Haliea range ($35 vs $75). Also in the economy range are AquaOne which are 'ok', and Shark ADV which are 'ok' but I personally don't like them. Given your location your selection will likely be limited to what is on the shelf, or available via trademe. But what you are looking for on the packet or advertisement is the ' litres per hour' or 'LPH' or 'L/hr' etc needs to be around 250-350. Too much and the fish will confuse home for a hurricane, too little and it'll go eww. There is also the topic of 'cycling your new filter' which is a whole different bag of fish! You may already know about the nitrogen cycle, but if you don't make sure to do some reading on the net, this site, and dont be affraid to ask more questions.

lol thats my signature, its at the bottom of all my posts, yeah you really don't want convicts! Got another two hundred or so yesterday, leaving the parents to defend their young by themselves, hopefully the clown knife will reduce my numbers :-? I can spare a tiny bit of java moss and a bit of Java Fern, but hopefully somebody local will offer some good sized plants to you first If not just give me a yell.

Sorry for triple post, but compressed CO2 might be the best value for money. Excelling a 600L tank would be $$$ on a regular basis. If you go DIY yeast, do some testers blowing bubbles in to a bucket or something for a week, so you can work out your doseage. ALso remember fresh yeast works better than old yeast and it makes a huge difference.

Oh and I ran two 2.25L bottles in a bucket of water (heated with Jebo 25W heater) on a 200L tank. So bottle per 100L. Stronger the dose, the shorter the lifetime. Too strong and it fills the tank with yeast (just awesome that was). Honestly I think it'll pee you off more than anything.

It's a cool science experiment, but I found it was just a pain in the ass in the end. Hate to say it, but I wouldn't even bother with compressed CO2. It's so expensive to setup. Personally if I ever did a planted tank again, Flourish Excel + Daltons Aquatic mix. Excel is expensive, but damn does it work good, and cheaper if you buy in bulk. I hate the idea of using aquarium chemicals but this stuff works amazingly well and will prevent hair algae at the same time. If you do use DIY yeast/sugar, try to use a filter as a diffuser, otherwise it just bubbles up and doesn't do anything. It does have an effect, but nothing compared to Excel and/or a well setup compressed CO2 system.

Fiiiiiiiiineeeeeeeee Ira wins with his fancy logic. I wouldn't pay more than $27-28 for a GroLux/PowerLux though, I'd probably whipe a booger on it then go get a $7 tube instead.

Then you end up paying more in power and I found I had trouble with odd algaes. GroLux isn't too expensive, people spend $$$ on Flourish, Flourish Excel, CO2 and all sorts, might as well buy a $20 bulb!

Hey there, moving this to the plants section, it'll get more responses there There is a plant called an Amazon Sword, has very large leaves and has a large root system, but I think you're actually thinking of Java Fern, which can attach itself to a piece of wood. Java Moss is an unrelated plant but it also attaches to wood and is a fine moss with nice dark green colour to it. Hope that helps a little Java Fern grows well in beginner tanks and doesn't need much light, same with Java moss, although I always seem to kill mine Welcome aboard!

Beating up the mrs is part of the process when breeding Siamese Fighters. Good idea to make sure she has somewhere to hide but she will get beaten up. If she has the bars etc it sounds like she is keen anyway. Female fighters may be considered peaceful, but guppies are kind of slow and retarded, makes them easy to snack on. Tails are tasty apparently. And it's definately a female you have there.

Ok so I've setup a Jebo R338 (38 litres) with plastic grass and a huge chunk of Java Moss. The factory filter is off, and replaced with a cycled sponge filter. 100% fresh water, added water ager but thats it. Put in two fat females and a single male. I'm going to leave them for a week. At the moment I don't think they're overlly happy in the smaller tank. If I start seeing tiny fish after the parents removal, I'll continue this procedure to build my threadfin armies. Got microworms and infusoria and liquid fry food at the ready.

Use it with caution, using too much I found my fish had trouble breathing. Now I don't bother using it at all, and if I did it'd be in a hospital tank that is well aerated.

Daylight is 6500K normally. Cool white (4700K?)would cover the lower wavelength for clorophyll, and growlux would certainly cover the higher wavelength. Would be a good combo. I'd imagine though that the cool white tube would be mostly for viewing pleasure than plant growth. 6500K daylight tubes centre the curve so that you get fair levels of both wavelengths needed, but tubes like GroLux PowerLux etc will always be better as they're designed for this purpose and have those specialised peaks. Totally agree with you Alan, growlux

Just sounds like 'brown algae'. Most algae eating fish will take care of it although make sure to avoid the Chinese Algae Eater or Golden Algae Eater as these will cause problems later. Bristlenose are good, Siamese Algae Eaters or Flying Fox will be great too. Side note, the fish sold in NZ as 'Siamese Flying Fox' could be SAE's or Flying Fox (different fish that look similar). Last time I checked they were genuine SAE's (which is good).

No. You won't get 'PowerGlo' at an electrical wholesaler, and you wont get standard 6500K tubes at a pet store either. 6500K tubes sold in wholesalers are used for visual lighting, so the color matters but not specific wavelengths, as long as it's bright white thats all that matters. Plants use chlorophyll, which prominantely uses light from two wavelengths of light. Both of these points have huge peaks in aquarium/plant growth bulbs, standard bulbs do not have these peaks. They have the required wavelength but not at the extreme of grow lamps. If you're wanting to grow plants without using hundreds of watts of metal halides, at least make the effort to use lights that are designed to be efficent for plant growth. A T5/T8 tube that is designed for plant growth give off a white light, but will look slightly purple when you stare directly at it.

Probably. Generally too big for most.

Sounds like you have an Apple Snail, they do that. Most common water snails do it underwater.

Wont be a problem during the day, but I've found some of the smaller tetras can get picked off at early morning. Cichlids seem to wake up earlier.

Yep.

haha here is the funny part I've never been able to keep Indian Fern alive!

Yeah what type of setup do you have there? I'd start with Cabomba, its easy to grow, looks good, just trim it when you need to. Little bit of Java Fern maybe? It is hard buying your first plants as you don't know what works and what doesn't. It's a bit of a shame that many 'aquatic plants' in pet stores aren't aquatic plants at all, just swamp plants that may survive underwater. Cabomba I've always found to be good and easy to care for.

If anyone asks, its a special mountain moss.

Didn't think we had that in our water. Only chlorine in some areas?

Not many vets know fish, but I know a vet who has a brother who does, and he helped me before so I'll pass on the name. Upper Hutt Veterinary Hospital & Cattery 578 Fergusson Dve Upper Hutt Can get their current number from yellowpages.co.nz

Not always, I know at least one member of this forum who works at animates and would strongly disagree. Getting all staff knowing the fish business isn't really going to happen, but it would be nice if they don't pretend to know what they dont.

That's about as right as left. IF the customer was using an internal filter below the water surface maybe. Sounds like the sales assistant didn't know surface movement aerates the tank. You could say they did it to get the sale, but top sales people don't really work at animates, I'd say they're genuinely stup... er misinformed.