jn

Ok.. this might sound crazy but here's a thought. Let me start by saying I live on a lifestyle block (aka: pseudo-farmer!) So if I get his right your fish room sounds like a glass house? I believe in the 'old days' glass houses were kept warmer by having a large compost pile in them. Compost gives off heat as things breakdown (if it's done properly) I don't know how much heat or how big a pile would have to be to make a difference. Nor how much spare room you have. Its just an idea. But you go to a landscape supply place in the winter and the compost heaps are always steaming. It's a low tech idea. A bonus is you'd have compost :-? I guess the other important thing would seem to be that all air gaps are sealed as well as possible. Like mounding soil around the bottom edges so the wind doesn't get in. Also since heat rises. Can you put extra insulation on the roof or in the ceiling for the winter? Can you plant some screening stuff on the windy side to keep some wind off the fish room? Maybe some polystyrene panels inside on the south wall? (like that expol stuff they sell?) or some straw bales stacked outside the south just for the winter to keep wind off the shed?

I've seen pictures of some types of killies. They look like awesome fish! Will check them out. What part of the tank space to they tend to inhabit Alan?

Hey how long do WCMM eggs take to hatch?

Yes.. I suppose the male unchallenged has developed a big ego!! It's not like the girls have a choice of who to mate with so he can treat them like dirt and still 'score' 8) He must feel like a real 'chick magnet'. Maybe I'll make my next water change a real cold one and see if they'll spawn. The girls certainly look in good enough condition with ripe lookng bellies. I was just spacing out the Flourish excel cause it's expensive :-? Maybe I should keep at it regularly until my problem is gone though otherwise I'll just be damping down the benefits and get myself nowhere!! Good to know not to use ferropol every day. I'll stick with weekly I think. Maybe I'll search the web to see what others do. I thought since the ferropol has iron in it.. and the excel says it helps keep iron in a form useable by the plants that they might complement each other. Maybe that's a topic for the aquatic plant section Thanks for the feedback Love your kitty dreaming of fish dinner! (actually.. maybe my cats have finally discovered the tank been jumping up to check it out and that's what's started the girls cowering at the back?? Wish I had a CatCam!!)

Thanks guys. I'll rearrange my plants in the next few days to see if that helps. As you said I don't think he's hurting them. I thought he might have been nipping their fins but I don't see any fraying so I think he's just 'threatening' them. Still disappointing cause my tank looks very empty I think there's only 1 male. Should I try to get another or would that just make things worse?

Thanks Zev. Yes the tank is fairly new so I will be patient. The plants were growing submerged in my pond and had been in there for a couple of months. They're doing ok and have put out a reasonable amount of new growth since they were moved. I dosed once last friday with ferropol. Then dosed saturday with the recommended initial dose of excel. I dosed with excel at the follow up dose rate this morning. My hygrophila is improving. The 2 inches of new yellow growth is very slowly strarting to show some signs of green and the algae that was covering all the leaves has gone from a thick layer of purple/black to a thin layer of grey. My nitrates have also dropped a little more again and considering I did a 30% water change thursday (my tapwater is higher in nitrates than my tank is) I'd say the plants are definitely using up more nutients. Also cleaned the glass when I did the water change and nothing has come back yet. I actually think the stuff I couldn't reach on the back glass due to the driftwood being in the way is disappearing! I might skip a water change this week and do another scant dose of ferropol friday again. Then next week I'll probably do a reasonable change cause I'm not quite happy with the placement of my plants and I know that's going to upset things a little. I also have a bully in the tank who's scaring the others into a corner so I need to spread some cover around! (see my other thread in the beginners area)! How does that sound? It doesn't say how often to dose on the ferropol. I'm hoping eventually to have to fertilize very little but I think the plants starved a little before I got the fish in there and the cycling finished. I'll cut right back once things are green again and see when it next shows signs of yellowing as my guideline I think.

Picky huh! I'd have to agree about mine. I'm just feeing a goldfish flake blend. There are 3 colours of flakes in there and they definitely pick and choose which they eat!! Mine never go below the top third of the tank lately (although I thought I saw one eating some algae off the back glass the other day!!) I'd be interested in hearing if your ramshorns breed. They're a nice looking snail, but I'm worried about getting overrun with them and them not really having much impact on the algae. Are they mainly eating leftover food or do they actively consume algae? A borneo sucker sounds good too. I'll keep my eye out for one. Could definitely use something to liven up the bottom layer of my tank and with my nitrates rapidly heading towards zero I expect the tank can handle another occupant. The algae has slowed and possibly decreased a little but it would still be great to get something in there to clean up the plants where the algae had enough time to establish.

Congratulations!! I'm jealous!! My algae is pearling does that count!

Question: would the addition of ice before the tank got hot help to sufficiently prevent the heating in the first place? Rather than focussing on getting the temp down once it was already too high? Also the ice might melt a little more slowly if put in the tank while it was still an a normal temp (in anticipation on a hot day!)

Hi folks. One of my WCMM's (the biggest) has gone really aggressive since my last tank cleanout. He's patrolling the top front of the tank and the others are huddled in the top corner. Anyone who tries to come out gets beaten back into the corner and now some of the ones in the corner are starting to pick on the smaller ones probably out of frustration. It was also very hot that day so the tank has been warmer in the last few days (still sitting at 24 degrees with no heater in it) Is this the start of a breeding display or just a bully that I should consider getting rid of?

In chch we often see barley straw advertised in our newspaper classified ads at the weekend under the stockfeed column or sometimes in the garden/plant ads (sold as mulch). ps: just found this on trademe: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 849213.htm

I have an outdoor pond in chch that grows ludwigia repens just fine in the winter. This particular pond is pretty neglected and the stuff does fine.

I'm starting to get algae in my 30L tank. I have 7 WCMM's who get fed twice a day. Light is the standard fitting that comes with AR380 (11w PL compact flourescent I think) on for 12 hours. No direct sun. The plants are still growing in and one is showing signs of iron deficiency (pale yellow new growth, slightly stunted). A hygrophila I think. Others have good green new growth. I have bought some JBL general trace element ferts (Ferropol I think) and some flourish excel cause some of the plants are starting to get a purple/black looking algae covering the leaves which I thougt may be BBA. I haven't used either of these yet as I was letting the tank settle and waiting to remove the carbon filter which came with the tank in case it was housing some of my beneficial bacteria. It stopped cycling last week with ammonia and nitrite now firmly at 0 for 5-6 days. Nitrates are decreasing currently around 5ppm according to my test kit. My tap water measures 10ppm. I don't have a phosphate test kit (should I have one? Is there anything I could do about a high phosphate level anyway?) I plan to take the carbon out tonight and replace with plain filter sponge and do a first dose with ferropol since that's an obvious problem. I won't dose with any excel until the hygrophila starts to green up again to see if it will voluntarily rid itself of the purple looking algae. I imagine this may take some weeks if I only use the ferropol very sparingly. I am also getting some bright green algae on the glass which I expect is normal. Have scraped this but some spots where I have scraped now appear to be showing small amounts of greyish marks.. look like oily smears (diatom algae I gather?). There is also a small amout of rusty looking fuzz on my lilaeopsis grass. This sounds like alot of algae but it's really just in quite small/tolerable amounts for now apart from the black coating which seems mainly to be mainly on the hygrophila plant and seems hopefully to be decreasing on its own (some leaves that were previously completely covered now have clear patches on them). Would like a heads up on any tips people have since the tank is most likely too cold for an algae eater (although I am tempted to buy one for the summer months while my tanks matures and sell it before cool weather comes!! ) Will plenty of plants really be sufficient to keep the worst algae types at bay? (opinions on ramshorn snails?). I am right to assume that in a new tank its normal to have differnt types of algae until things get into some sort of balance? How long before this might be happen? Also getting algae on my driftwood as it gets alot of light but am considering getting some moss to cover it eventually (maybe xmas moss as it sould like it needs less trimming). Any advice on what to expect next would be greatly appreciated, I prefer to be prepared in advance!!

So tell me more about the fully hydrated Epsom Salts in this mixture. Do you measure the 2.5 Tablespoons and then add just enough water to dissolve that amount completely? How important would the epsom salts be? I guess they're the only source of magnesium lacking in tap water? Is it unstable like iron?

Hi fievels007. I'm in chc too and was asking about gravel prior to the holidays. Someone from this site told me to go down to birdlings flat and I'm so glad I did. I saved having to buy gravel from a shop and brought home a big selection of driftwood!! I washed the gravel heaps about an inch in a bucket at a time sloshing it around with lots of freshwater, tipped out water and repeated, then did this for all the gravel I had picked up. My tankis freshwater so I didn't want any salt left in the stones. With the driftwood, based on advice from the guys here, I soaked it in a plastic bin outside held down with some bricks/stones as some of it was floating! I let it soak 2-3 weeks changing the water daily for the first few days then every few days afterwards. The wood is now in my tank with no problems excet that it's grown a pale fuzz on it (which after searching in the forum seems to be harmless). My tank has been up for about 3 weeks now so I'm pretty new to this also. I will just take the wood out this weekend and give it a wipe down maybe pour some boling water on it as I hadn't done this before. Been waiting until the tank finished cycling which it did late last week. (Fish had been in about 10 days) So yes...you can pick up driftwood from around the place I ordered alot of my stuff from www.petplanet.co.nz. I have no affiliation with the site but after shopping around at most of the petshops in chch I found I could get really good prices online. The shipping is $5 unless you order something massive so if you're buying several things then even with the shipping you end up spending less money. Stuff arrives in about 2 days.

Maybe someone should ask them to do a PMDD combo and sell a kit with smaller quantities of all the right dry ingredients. Of course they would charge a small premium for this but I reckon more poeple would make their own if they didn't have to buy 10 years supply all in one go! :-?

Redwood Aquatics? Wow...Good on them. That's knowing how to keep your cutomers happy!!! Thanks for letting us know too. It's always good to know where you can turn when you need something! Good luck with your fish

Not going to the molly hunt unfortunately but I'd be happy to post you some closer to the end of summer. As I said it was almost dead when I brought it back to my place so it now has 3 very long strands on it and a few embarassingly little broken off bits with roots. It also has blanketweed on it which might put you off!!! I'll remember you later in the season though and send you a pm when I've gotten some more good growth and you can let me know then if you still want some. I'm Jen by the way. JN are my initials

No thanks Definitely don't need any more and have seen it root so won't have any trouble increasing my supply for personal use if need be I would recommend it to others if they can still get some and think their water isn't 100% clear. Cleared mine up really quickly (wasn't expecting it too.. just threw it in cause it was an eyesore at the other pond due to being placed at an inappropriate depth (like 5cm below water level - it needed to be deep or have crown out to take on emmersed form, not in between. I didn't know that at the time and I actually thought it was half dead!!) Come to think of it the fish spend less time at the surface during the day. Perhaps the bottom part of the pond is now better oxygenated? I have oxygenators but they're closer to the surface being that the barrel pond is on the south side of my house and gets very little sun. Didn't actually think the myriophyllum propinquum (love saying that) would survive at the bottom (45cm) but it's thrived so far and has grown to reach the top of the water!!! GO natives!

I still have the label and I'm quite new to this aquatic stuff. Trust me, 'propinquum' is not the kind of word I would have ever dreamed up :-? Maybe I'll try putting a strand in a glass jar and taking a photo to post here. Caryl, I don't want to name the supplier but it came from the same place as your pond plants did and had the blue plastic plant labels wedged into the pots.

Oh.. the only other thing I can say is that the pond is about 35-40cm deep and long and narrow so none of it is hard to reach. The tenants have a net and are encouraged to scoop off stuff that falls onto the pond before it settles in the bottom (in a little courtyard there's not much else to do!!). We come along every few months and reach in and grab out anything that has settled down there before it rots. We did buy a cheap vaccum that works by hooking it up to the garden hose and creates a syphon. It has its drawbacks but cost us $25 and is a big help for getting fine muck out if there are few stones/leaves (or else they catch in the discharge hose!). We used to hire a pondvac from the local watergarden specialist but they don't have it available anymore! Used to cost $20/half day. Excellent value!

They're still selling it in chch!! All over the place actually. I can see how it can be weedy. every tiny piece that breaks off will grow roots if given a chance. Although I woulldn't say it grows extremely fast or anything like that.

The pond at our rental had no filtration and was doing quiet well under the previous owner's care. It had a good number of very large plants and was lightly stocked. 1100L with about 7 fish. The pond was above ground and made of concrete. There was a pretty standard pond pump (not a massive turnover one!). Intake to the pump was near'ish to the top of the waterline. This ran to an inline pump which fed back to a pedestal where the water trickled down. She had the pond 'serviced' twice a year. Not sure what they did but maybe some vacuuming or tidying up the plants, clean the pump etc. She had the healthiest layer of spongy looking algae I've ever seen. It grew in patches on the sides and the bottom, just the very short green mossy looking stuff. The fish loved it. Water was crystal clear. She had 2 massive arums in terracotta pots sitting in the water (crowns above water level of course) and many large lilies, some papyrus and around the base of the pedestal she had acorus. There was some lilaeopsis grasses too as a spawning area. With the intake being in the top level of the pond the pump stayed clean and the pedestal stayed in pretty good nick too. So basically this was aeration only. We've added a submerged biofilter that sits on the bottom ($70 I think) but only because our first tenants really screwed things up and the amount of crap that settled in the bottom was alarming so we thought if we could draw water from below instead of from the waterline we might be able to help slow down any accumulation of detritus on the bottom. The down side is that it does suck up a huge amount of much and the pedestal is almost alwasy dirst because of it (I think I need to put some extra filter wool in there or something). I have considered taking the submerged filter off, since we've had a change of tenants and the current ones are absolutely meticulous with the pond and the poor folks have to scrub the pedestal every other week! Some of the veggie filters you see on the net just have water being pumped to them and then they just trickle through pots of stuff like watercress and aquatic mint.

Oh yeah! All makes sense now! Thanks!

OK.. excuse my ignorance but what is MTS? :-? :oops: