whetu

Creative, if you want some fast-growing plants, you can have heaps of clippings off my hygrophylla for free! I trim them every week and they just grow and grow and grow. This is a large-leaf plant... I think it was called "giant temple plant" in the shop when i bought it. Very hardy plant. Call me on 025-205-6585 if you want the plants. (I'm in Sandringham.)

Excuse me for resurrecting an old thread, just thought I'd share my DIY lighting experience... I made my lights using bathroom heatlamp shades. I use energy-saving bulbs (cool white, not warm white) with the normal bayonet fitting. They have in-line switches and are connected to timers so each light can be independently controlled. The advantage of this style over the long lights is that I can "spotlight" individual plants and ensure each plant (or bunch of plants) gets exactly the wattage they need. Perfect for red plants or other high-light plants. By the way, the 'cool white' bulb is 6500k (ie daylight spectrum). Perfect spectrum for freshwater plants, very cheap, available at the big red shop.

Thanks for your replies everyone I'll try a conservative dose of White Spot Cure today, followed by a second dose tomorrow, while also increasing the water temperature. Does anyone know the active ingredient in White Spot Cure? It seems that we're all flying a bit blind if we don't know the ingredients but are doing something other than the instructions say... The instructions on the bottle say "Usually one treatment is sufficient, if the parasite persists repeat the dose after 3 days.... It is not necessary to discontinue filtration or increase temperature." The stuff in the bottle looks like a malachite green solution but the instructions are not consistent with the advice I've located for using malachite green or the life cycle of the ich parasite. The Skeptical Aquarist says "It's absolutely essential to keep on medicating till the last encysted theront has released its tomites, and the last tomite has been eliminated by the medication." This page discusses how (and why) malachite green works for ich.

Howdy all, I seem to have the dreaded ich (white spot) in my tank. I have clown loaches, gold barbs and ottos in there. It's a heavily planted tank with a gravel substrate and driftwood. The total capacity is around 122 litres (32 US gallons) but with all that stuff I estimate it's holding more like 100 litres of water. I bought the only two meds available at my local fish store - Blue Circle White Spot Cure and Malkon (malachite green). Has anyone tried either of these to treat ich in clown loaches? After studying the life cycle of ich I'm very sceptical about the claims of the Blue Circle product that it cures ich in a single treatment, and it doesn't tell me anywhere on the bottle what the active ingredients are. If I go for the Malkon, how to I calculate a dose that's going to be both safe and effective? I've read that malachite green is absorbed by anything porous and/or organic in the tank, so the dose may need to be increased to account for that. With all my plants and driftwood, how on earth do I calculate a safe dose? :-? Any help will be gratefully received.

Depends what you mean by bulk foods. I just bought a huge container of JBL Novo Tabs from Hollywood Fish Farm here in Auckland. I had previously paid $8.60 for 120 tabs. This time I paid $29.75 for 1800 tabs. So maybe your normal supplier can just order in larger quantities for you?

Hi Caryl and Pegasus, I'm hoping to spawn zebra danios and/or rosy barbs. I'm just starting to get 'serious' about my fishy hobby, and I'm told both these fish are easy to breed. Both fish are showing spawning behaviour, so I've set up a spawning tank for the danios. I put marbles in the bottom, but they didn't behave the same way as they did in the well-planted community tank. (They had been wriggling around in a plant I had in there.) I was told a spawning mop might make a difference. What do you think? Whetu

Can anyone tell me where I can get nylon wool suitable for making spawning mops? I've been told the wool should be dark green (I suppose it makes it look more 'natural' - to us or the fish?). It needs to have dye that doesn't leech and not be treated with harmful chemicals. Any favourites?