whetu

By the way have you seen Patrick Blanc's "vertical gardens"? http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/11 ... _green.php Quite a nice bit of inspiration!

Having the lights on 24 hours a day won't necessarily speed up the growth - plants need a rest period too. Can you sit the whole mesh structure horizontally for a while, in shallow water with lots of light? That might give the moss a chance to get really well established before you put it in its final position. If that's not possible, can you shine a light at it through the front of the tank for a certain period each day? Of course if you have other plants they might also end up growing horizontally.

ummm... moo!

My sympathies, Caryl. I had my flat broken into a couple of years ago (I'm female and was living on my own at the time). Gave me the heebie-jeebies for a while wondering if the people were going to come back. It's interesting to observe your own reactions when something like that happens. First thing I noticed when I came home was the door was open and I thought "how silly of me to leave the door open!" Then I got closer and saw the wooden door frame was smashed and I thought "wow, I don't remember the wind being so strong that it could have slammed the door and smashed that!" Then I went inside and thought "Not only did the wind smash the door but it also blew everything off the shelves onto the floor!" It seemed to take aaaaages for it to dawn on me that someone had actually broken into my little haven and stolen/wrecked my stuff. As soon as I did realise that, my first thought was for the fish! :lol: I rushed over and checked the tank for damage, looked in to see if the burglars had dropped anything in there, and counted the fish to make sure they were all ok! I had nightmares after that about people breaking into my house and poisoning the tank or breaking it. This is a good policy. I also don't have my address on my licence. Unfortunately I have a very distinctive name and it would be easy for someone to find where I live, so I am careful about where I keep my licence, and even who might see it when I open my wallet. I also had a bit of a run-in with my gym when they insisted on printing my full name on my gym membership tag. It's designed to be attached to your key ring. I specifically asked to have my first name only on the tag, as I am the only person in Auckland with my particular surname and it would be too easy for someone to find out where I lived if they got my keys. For a while the gym insisted that I had to have my surname on the tag as well, but eventually saw sense and allowed me just to have my first name and last initial.

Beautiful pics! Hayley should hire herself out as a fish portrait photographer.

I vote for the bristle-nose! They are poo-machines! :lol:

Sounds like a lot of hard work to me! Wouldn't it be easier just to sell the 4-foot setup and buy a 3-foot one?!

Thanks N_N. I tend to agree about the chemicals in the tank - I am also very reluctant and will use them only as a last resort. Unfortunately I don't have a UV filter so that's not one of my options. I intend to try blacking out the tank completely for a couple of days (with large water changes before and after) to see if that helps the situation. If not, I will use algae fix unless someone can come up with a better solution. I already have a couple of bristle-noses in there and one of the reasons I'm reluctant to use a chemical intervention is that presumably it will kill all the algae in the tank - then what will the BNs eat? Thanks for the warning about dosages. I will be very careful to stick to the instructions.

Oh Tawny, she is a beautiful cat too! All my best wishes and kind thoughts coming your way.

Uh-oh Barrie Good luck! Off to bed at 9pm... I suppose there's nothing left to do in the evenings if there's no light to watch your fish by.

I think I'll try this. I've never had a cloudy water problem in all the years I've been keeping fish so I didn't really have a concept of how frustrating it is! I don't even know if I still have fish in there because I can't see them! :roll: My water went green and cloudy after putting a kiwifruit in there for the fish to eat. They loved it, but 24 hours later (after I took it out) the water looked like soup! I've done multiple water changes but it just seems to be getting worse. Time for the blackout & algae fix I think.

Actually I disagree. Although suphew's suggestions might not be exactly relevant to Ira's question, they may still be useful to him by giving him a new way to look at the issue. Also if it was simply Ira's problem that was being addressed, people could just send PMs. But as a forum one of the most useful things is that problems & solutions are able to be extrapolated to other people's situations. It hadn't occurred to me to put the filter on a spare tank or bucket if the power went out and I knew I wouldn't be home when it came back on. Now that suphew has suggested it I will consider it.

Uh-oh! I obviously left the kiwifruit in too long and I have a major case of cloudy water in my tank! Funnily enough a colleague of my partner's dropped in yesterday. He's obviously not a fish-person (he asked all kinds of questions that anyone who's even kept a goldfish in a bowl would probably know). Anyway he said he loved the look of the tank - and apparently one of the things he liked the most was the slightly diffused lighting effect - i.e. the cloudy water! Made me feel a bit better about it! :lol:

ssshhh caper... you're not meant to mention MTS*.... Linda might try to run away before she gets it and we would be left without our latest victim! * Don't worry Linda, MTS just means Multiple Tank Syndrome... It's contagious (you get it by looking in fish shops & at other people's tanks. It is also particularly dangerous to read any book by Takashi Amano). Oh and it's incurable. But never mind.

Anything being added to the tank water? I know some people add chlorine bleach to the thanks to keep their water fresh. Also was the bore water running through a filtration system before it got to the tank? I'm leaning towards a hardness issue, with no evidence whatsoever! Can you take a water sample from each source to a fish shop (or a pool shop, or a specialist water tester) and compare the two?

adodge, I live in Avondale and have two eheim filters running on my tank, so you could have a bunch of media out of one if you like (eheim stuff is expensive though so you'd have to give it back eventually!) Also I run a pretty low pH on my community tank - I don't know if that makes any difference to the filter media or the kinds of greeblies that live in it. Send me a pm if interested.

Oh look, here it is at Woolworths online: http://www.woolworths.co.nz/epsom_salts ... 429134.htm oops... am I allowed to post a link to an online selling site? :oops:

Bathing: bath salts are basically just epsom salts with additives. Have a look at the box of Radox next time. Gardening: If your citrus leaves are yellowing, sprinkle some epsom salts around the base of the tree. Internal use! The phrase "a dose of the salts" refers to epsom salts - basically anything that isn't right with your 'insides' would be fixed by your grandmother with either epsom salts or cod liver oil. eeeewww!

Dixie who?

Hello Linda, welcome to the forums. I hope you realise we will all take great pleasure in your tanks because we all want more but have run out of space! :lol: Therefore our suggestions will all be based on what we can imagine in the corner of our living room rather than what would be best in the corner of your room. With that in mind, I will say: Get a big tank, plant lots of lush plants and stock it with a peaceful, colourful freshwater community. Oh and let me plan it and choose your fish! All you have to do is pay for it, house it and maintain it! :bounce:

My BNs seem to like squeezing into flat, tight-fitting spaces. In fact their favourite place is under a piece of wood. My male digs out the gravel to make a hollow, then squeezes in there and peeps out. There are plants & stuff around the entrance, too, so I think that makes him feel a bit more cosy. I think the shape of the fish is a bit of a clue. Look at your BN front on - they're kind of wide and flat. [if I ever hear my fish saying that about me there will be trouble! :lol: ] Now imagine a space just big enough for them to fit in, and that will probably be about right. I have also heard they like to only have a single entrance/exit so they can guard it. Disclaimer: My BNs have not bred so I'm just watching the behaviour of my bachelor male. A BN in love may like something more than a bachelor pad!

There are several ways of getting CO2 into your water. The cheap (but not very long-lasting) way is to make yourself a DIY CO2 unit. There are lots of recipes about but basically you use yeast, sugar & water to make the CO2, deliver it to your tank with a bit of air line, then let the bubble of CO2 diffuse into the water so the plants can use it. The more expensive way (for serious aquatic gardeners) is to use a tank of CO2 gas, and set it to release a tiny but steady amount of CO2 into the water continuously. Personally, I would make sure your light and ferts are top-notch before even starting on the CO2, unless you're keen on a bit of a play with the DIY one. Most of us have had a DIY one going at some time in the life of our planted tanks. It can be fun but the novelty can also wear off pretty quickly. Hope that helps.

I'm an Animates member but they didn't email me Maybe my accountant had a word with them :lol:

I have some clown loaches that would just luuuurve some yummy snails. What part of Auckland are you in? I did think of offering you one of my loaches to come on a play-date to your tank and clean out all the snails, but I think that's probably a bit too risky and stressful. I second the idea of getting a small herd of loaches, get them to thoroughly clean your tank, then sell them back to the lfs (or sell them to someone on here. BUT ... The loaches I'm seeing in the LFS at the moment are absolutely tiny. They could probably tackle tiny newly hatched snails but might not be much good on bigger ones AND ... Clownies are far too easy to get attached to - I don't know how good you are at not getting emotionally involved with your fish, but you might find it VERY DIFFICULT to part with them once your tank is snail-free. You have been warned! :lol:

epsom salts = magnesium sulphate = MgSO4 Make sure it's pure as sometimes if it's for human consumption they add stuff to make it more palatable.