jn

intended for plants that are root feeders (with rhisomes) I think.. like java fern etc.

It was Milet who got water details from CCC in this thread.. still no mention of phophate though but they did offer to give more specifics if required from here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/whats- ... 21310.html

Fair enough Alan :-? I still think it would be good to call the council and check as believe the water quality still varies from station to station. I think Janelle or someone may have gotten some info a while back by calling the council. (I don't see phosphates in that analysis anyway but maybe I missed it!) My bore is at 20m and the nitrates test about 10ppm (we're just city side of Chattertons rd so still pretty close to town) but we're probably in the top aquifer. We've got a new bore down which we haven't switched to yet at 36m. Be interesting to see the difference!

Hee heee..... There's no date on that , I wonder how old the analysis is? I'd be surprised if it was current, I have a hard time believing the Nitrates are still only at 1 even in town. I'd enquire direectly with the Council who should be able to give you stats from your nearest pumping station. This is a bit of topic but I'm also laughing because I insisted the Council change their information in the section "Where our water comes from". It made no attempt to educate people about the recharge zone! (What's even funnier is that the woman at he Council had no idea herself about the recharge zone.. I'm laughing now but wasn't at the time!!) They now clearly mention it and include a link to ECAN's website! I got tired of hearing poeple say our water coulnd't get polluted cause it came from the glaciers. The recharge zone is something that everyone in chch should be aware of because if they let things continue as they are going now we're looking at increased pollution and potentially having to go to a treated supply somehwere down the track.

Thanks for having us Scalare! What time did you guys finish up just out of curiosity? Would be good to have an idea how long you usually meet for so I can make better arrangements next time :-? Was nice meeting you. ps: Wilson your fish are all doing fine in my new tank! Still too busy checking it out to bother coming up for food though but they're nibbling on some of the finer plants and I think they're catching some of the flake that I leave on the top after I turn the filter back on! It's funny though they are completely spread out all over the tank doing their own thing! And lucky for me I suspect 4 of your WCMM are female which will be great once I add mine I have 3M 1F and the F gets harassed!

Awesome! You must be very excited! Hope you've been doing all your research Sounds like marine is a whole different world! I'll look forward to hearing about it tomorrow!

Maybe you need to ask yourself why the filter outlet pipe got so gunked up? You'd think most of the crap was supposed to stop before it got near the outlet pipe? Do you need to clean more often? Are your sponges in the right order? (I don't know anything specific about your filter.. just wonder what you could look at !) I guess giving it a rinse when you do the sponges would take car of it too though I bet your fish are pleased!!!! :bounce:

Nice !!

Pass :-? Hopefully one of the experts will come on and tell you if I'm wrong or what to do about it!

Yup. I filled it and its been running for a few days to settle the gravel etc. I didn't plant it up yet cause I wasn't sure Figured a bare'ish tank was better than a sick one! I'll have to take some plants out of my small tank and rearrange what's left. That one's very densely planted right now cuz my jordanellas really prefer the cover!. The new tank will still look pretty bare though but hopefully things will grow ok and I'll be able to spread some cuttings around soon! I'll buy some more plants too.. mostly I have stem type plants now cause there wasn't enough room for anything bushy in the 35L. Probably get some anubias and/or java fern when some comes up! Stem plants are best while the tank matrues anyway I guess. The slow growers would just get covered in algae Trouble is I'm still at work so it'll be late before I get started!

I did a quick google search on neon tetra disease. I woulnd't rule it out. Apparently it starts with pale patches when the tissue starts to die.. then the fish gets lumpy as cysts develop inside it. Does that sound possible? If so it's contagious and can affect fish other than neons.

Thanks! That's great news! I'll make sure they get a good soak at a reasonable strength. I don't think I have anything hugely sensitive. (New tank was going to be awfully bare otherwise!!) woo hoo gonna have a busy night then :bounce:

Sorry to hear your fish died Dixon What are the symptoms of Neon tetra disease? I've heard about it but know squat about it. Could this be the problem? Have any other developed the black patches?

Hey Mal.. Welcome to the site! I'm still new at this too really. You've found the right place! People here are great! I'm sure most plants arrive in a fairly safe state so don't worry! Just good to keep these things in mind. As you get more fish and bigger tanks (I only have 1 small tank but am setting up a slightly bigger one soon) it starts to make sense to quarantine things.

Have a read on this age.. there are several articles that might help http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/technical/

Flukes are fish parasite. They attach to the outside of the fish and they make them susceptible to infections. Gills flukes attach to the gills and cause damage there too. When you buy plants they can also have snail eggs and other stuff on them so it's good to disinfect them. Potassium permanganate can be bought at a garden shop. Sometimes sold as Condy's crystals (it's purple). It's good fertilizer for Tomatoes too Do a search on here and you'll get heaps of hits. (I'm sure alot of plants are clean and my own problem was more likely to come from the goldfish I added but I'm going to be more careful from now on!)

You've got driftwood or a log decoration? (I think BN's like to hide in holes and caves )

I'm assuming the Droncit did its job but I had used Drontal for the first treatment and the fish had already improved. I'm treating for gill flukes and they have an egg stage where they're apparently not affected by the meds so I'm repeat dosing for several weeks to ensure they're well and truly clear. Apparently gill flukes can be hard to get rid of cause they bury themselves in the gills and also get covered with mucous so they can sometimes hod for a while!! (GRRRRRR!) I'm guessing prazi is more or less equal no matter who makes it! Droncit is made by Bayer so I assume they're trustworthy

I got some plants off trademe.. a whole heap for a great price. They all did pretty well too BUT.. I stupidly didn't treat them before adding them to my tank. I spotted flukes shortly afterwards but had also added a couple of fish so I don't know what the flukes came in on. I'll never add plants from anywhere again without treating them with potassium permanganate! Trust me.. the PP is cheaper than fluke treatments so well worth it!

Hi folks! Just felt like putting on my new discovery! I've been using Drontal in my tank and recently bought some Droncit instead. Well I used the Droncit for the first time just now and I'll never use Drontal again! (Drontal has prazi plus some other stuff, Droncit is only prazi) For starters: the pills are not as hard and are much easier to crush. Secondly: They're white! Anyone who's used Drontal probably knows that the tank gets pink and VERY cloudy. I could only see a couple cm's into my small tank after the usual dose of the pink stuff! The cloudiness clears over about 6 hours in my case but the Droncit ones dissolve with very little cloudiness! My fish have had no adverse reaction to either BUT they did get stressed at not being able to see with the very cloudy water (as did I!!) and they darted around quite a bit until the water cleared after the Drontal. I bought it from a farm store in a box of 50. I'm guessing I could have gotten it from my vet but I didn't want to have to keep going back! I'll be glad to have some on hand though for future use. Anyway.. I have a bundle. I put an ad in the private classifieds some time last week if anybody wanted some.. but I mostly wanted to say to those of you using Drontal that this seems like a nicer option!

Do BN's need wood in their diet or is that plecos? Borneos like to have some bigger flat rocks to chill out on according to other recent threads in here.

I think you should take out your carbon. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think all the fertilizers you put in will be ineffective as the chemicals will be soaked up by the carbon. So if you're plants aren't doing their best, the algae gets the upper hand. I'd also be tempted to take out the phos-zorb. If you're not overfeeding and you're doing regular gravel vacs and water changes your phosphates should be ok. (I think decomposing plant matter could increase phosphate too). Might be good to test a few days after you take it out. What are your nitrates at? My tank is still very far from perfect (VERY!!!) but I find the algae really starts to take off when my nitrates start getting quite low. I test about 1/month (I do water changes about every other week or 10 days) so I get an idea of what they're at. I recently had a pretty bad outbreak of hair algae and I used Excel at the normal dose rate every other day for a couple weeks and it went away. I went too long between water changes and my nitrates dropped. Those JBL balls are good for the plants that feed from their roots but I think stem plants need the nutrients in the water rather than in the substrate. Does that work with the plants you have? I'm using JBL ferropol and I only use about half the dose they recommend cause I'm paranoid about yet another algae outbreak. Since then I think it's been going reasonably well. Hang in there though! I'm sure you'll get it sorted.

Subject says it all.. what's the best way to make sure plants are totally parasite free? Will potassium permanganate do or do I have to be patient and wait till my parasite treatment 100% done before transferring plants?

Hey Dixon I'm going to be doing the same thing with the leopordfish I'm buying from Wilson. I spent a bit extra and bought a Jaeger heater. The minimum setting on that is 18 C. as opposed to others that start at 20C. I'm planning on keeping it 'cool' but warm enough for a borneo sucker. So will probably set mine to about 20

I was curious about phos-zorb as I've never used ot before.. says you should replace it every 1-3 months depending on the 'load' in yuor tank. Personally I bet you can get by without using it...better to not depend on these things (cheaper too!!) You also have carbon right? Are you using any fertilisers?