Adrienne

Thanks Phoenix, I'm hopeless with my plant names. You also supplied the mighty swords I have or had :roll:

Not sure of the types - they are moss to me :oops: I've had major problems with my tank and something causing the fish to gasp for air immediatly after water changes over the last 8 -10 weeks causing me to lose two of my discus and some other smaller fish. Ron is looking after the rest and can hopefully bring my two breeding pairs back to full health.

A couple of comments - Have this pair actually bred before and produced live wrigglers. I am wondering if you have a pair or a couple of females fighting over the batch of eggs. Some young males will eat their eggs but eventually they do grow out of it.

Over the last week I have totally cleaned out my 5ft, 450 litre tank and my filter and replanted the tank again. Today I turned the filter back on and have put 10 small fish into the tank to begin the cycling process. I will add a few more in another 5 or so days and continue to do so as it will take a while for the filter to build up the beneficial bacteria. I will eventually put a second cannister on the tank and am hoping to add CO2 in the long run. Here are a few pics of what it looks like now. Its still slightly murky and the glass still needs a good wipe down on the outside. I don't know the names of all the plants but here are some - saggitaria microfolia swords (unknown, the ones on the right by the rose sword) rose sword java moss xmas moss red pine windelov java fern anubias tiger lotus ludwigia arcuata hygro. ploysperma rosanvig hygro. polysperma and ludwigia repens. E.Amazonicus AKA. E. Cordifolia

what type of algae or at least what colour is it and how long does it grow? Is it just spots on your glass?

cost my husband over $2,000 last year for one :roll:

Mine are not remotely interested in breeding and neither do they have the long bristles like yours. ATM I have harlequins sharing the tank but once I move them out I will post some pics. Maybe mine are all females after all :roll:

You have lovely looking tanks

:lol: :lol: Just as well I go in first. The address this is going to is not an address I've ever used before.

have you got both the golds and the browns?

No you're not and you're doing a very kind thing which hopefully will reap great rewards

pm'd

To help JenniferH I will throw this into the mix as well. With my fx5 I find that adding extra sponge filters (either under or over the media in each basket) causes the filter to slow right down and collect air which then bubbles noisily into the tank - not a constant bubble and noise but periodically. However, take out the sponge filtering and its away again. Maybe it wasn't designed for extra sponges. Don't get me wrong I love my fx5 but my 2200 was just as efficient at keeping the water clear and the sump I had prior to that was brilliant. It does boil down with cannisters to how much media you want to use.

me? 24/7 and always have I've moved most of the fish out now anyway. Just waiting for some new gravel to arrive, then will have a day stripping down and cleaning out everything in the tank. Interesting though as everything else in the tank is fine atm but will rinse out all the existing substrate/filters etc and replant hundreds of plants - I have lots of saggitaria microfolia in the tank, then leave it to cycle for about a month before adding the fish in gradually. I have a surplus of halfmoon female fighters so will use them to cycle the tank

Good on you for posting this. Why did the lack of an airline make the fish come up for air - excuse the ignorance - but was it because you run CO2?

Hi - read up well on it. Breeding tanks need to be bare bottomed and when the fry are young daily 100% water changes are recommended otherwise the growth will be stunted and they will be more suseptible (sp?) to diseases, parasites etc. Higher temps 28 -30, lower pH is also recommended. Read through the cichlids section on this forum as well and it will give you some ideas.

fantastic - the only thing i've had spawn this weekend is fighters lol

Deformed fry are normally caused by inbreeding too many generations. Well done

:bounce: Fantastic - thats such good news. Well done Ryan

Ymir - I don't know what you use in your tank but if you have been using flourish excel that is likely to 'melt' the val.

I add salt to my tanks - not a lot though - but just have never added it to a planted tank and thats why I was asking. Sorry Phoenix if asking this here turned this post into less that something civil :roll: You have been a great help to me This forum is supposed to be for questions, answers and friendly peoples Asking publicly is more helpful to most than sending a question by pm because a pmwhich means that only one person will benefit. and... if your tank is thriving, which by the plants and fish it certainly is, why change what you do.

you can get some of the twisted vals here.

Am sending my discus off to board with a forum member for the next month. Will start to catch and move some of the others fish out into some of my other tanks this weekend and look to empty out and restart the tank again next weekend if I can't get it sorted. It only seems to be the discus now so they may have a problem as well although two of them were happily chasing mozzy lavae last night, one of the others was a little interested and one not at all. It will be a mission catching the rest of the fish especially the sterbai. I saw some young in the tank tonight at just over 1cm My fancy plecs won't be too chuffed either I think especially when they have to go share with the female fighters.

doesn't the salt damage the plants?

yes I started off with about 10 plants for the carpet last winter and have now sent quite a bit around the country.