John Rimbauer

OK, the pictures came out rubbish, so we'll have to go old school and use text. Raw results from my notes: Day 5 – the green algae on the front of the tank seems larger – have marked and measured a dot at 3mm, to compare on subsequent days. Green dot algae on the back of the tank seems to have declined – looks clearer than previously. I have also completely cleared a section of glass, so that I can see if new spores are settling and growing. Other obs – the java fern’s roots are showing a lot of new growth. Tips are white indicating a new growth cap has formed, and lots of root hairs are visible just behind the cap. Day 7 -Green algae on the back of the tanks has continued to decline. The algae on the front of the tank has not increased in size, based on measurements of reference colonies. The edges of the colonies are also starting to look ragged, as if it were growing unevenly, or perhaps flaking away or being scraped off by snails or catfish. Previously this was not apparent; the colonies grew in a circular fashion. The clean patch has no visible regrow, even with quite meticulous examination being done. Day 9-Reference colonies have not increased in size. The back glass looks cleaner than previously. The colonies on the front of the glass have a distinct ragged appearance, like they have been nibbled. Some of them have lost the algae from the centre, leaving either a ring shape, or more a “pac-man” shape where an entire segment has been lost. There are a couple of colonies lower down near the substrate which look more healthy, but most are ragged and small. Other obs – ambulia has started striking roots from some of the nodes near the surface. E. osiris has developed a much stronger red colour on the new leaves. Java fern is growing new plants at some of the leaf tips. Day 12 - Green algae on the back of the tank is difficult to spot. The colonies on the front of the glass are looking very ragged and eaten, it is obvious that some of them have almost completely gone. Several colonies look healthy, but the reference colonies have not expanded in area. The clean are has no sign of any colonies forming. Day 20 - Reference algae spots have gone although there are still some tattered colonies in the area. None are larger than approx 2mm. Back glass has a very few, very small colonies of algae which are no longer visible without careful observation. The cleared area has no colonies visible, even with careful inspection. Overall plant growth is heavy, the tank will need to be pruned which may have some impact on the algae one way or another.

It's going well. Tentative results are written, but the photos haven't come out well. I'll make a point of posting my notes so far tomorrow - they're on my work computer.

It didn't dissolve in my tank with pressurised CO2. It dis spread pretty quickly though, I ended up taking it all out.

Thanks Caryl. I've been using imgur as a host, but lately I've found that they are very variable - some days hot linked images are fine, others they just plain don't work.

I've seen a few references to green dot algae being a common nuisance algae in freshwater aquariums, so I thought I'd try something out. A quick search of the site didn't show anyone else having tried it yet, so... Depending on which references you read, people will claim that green dot algae is either caused by excessive phosphate, or by tanks with very low phosphate. I tend to favour the latter based on what I've seen in my tanks, but opinion isn't proof. Currently, one of my heavily planted tanks has started growing green dot, whereas my other less heavily planted tank is clean as a whistle. They both have undetectable nitrate and phosphate levels, so I dose small amounts of potassium nitrate (KNO3) and trace elements to keep the plants ticking along. They are filled with the same water, and kept at the same temps, feed the same foods, have been set up the same length of time and so forth. It seems to me like a golden chance to test this theory, so here's my plan. The currently clean tank is going to be kept as it is, functioning as a control. The other tank I am going to dose with small levels of phosphate to observe the effect on the dot algae. All other things - ferts, photo periods, water changes etc will be kept the same. Hopefully I'll see the algae decrease, but I'll be just as happy if it proliferates. I'm not signed up with any image hosts, but if there's interest I could email some photos round to document the process.

I know a few people who run the CO2 into the canister filter uptake hose from the tank, and I've done it myself on two tanks. The filter disperses it perfectly in my experience, no need for a diffuser. It's done no apparent harm to the filter either - for the first year or so I examined the ceramic shaft minutely for erosion, but never had any issues. Theoretically, a large enough bubble could cause the pump to airlock, but I've never heard of it or seen it. Pure CO2 seems pretty soluble in water, but if you get a supply that has a lot on nitrogen in it, it could happen.

Congrats. If you put up what part of Auck you're in you might get some people offering you cuttings or young plants - which will help speed up your ammonia-nitrite-nitrate cycle. Of course, if you're in Franklin, you're more than welcome to raid some of my tanks for greenery.

I'd treat any tetra in a tank with a fighter with great suspicion. I've seen glowlights, rummynose and neons snacking on fins. I was told once that you can prevent it by feeding high protein food but I suspect that was wishful thinking, not verified fact. Fish have quite variable personalities as such, you may find that you have some that are as good as gold together. You could always chuck them in together, and then keep an eagle eye on the fighter's fins. Any sign of trouble and you hook the tetras out and re-home them.

Siamese fighters have nice long flowing fins, which some fish (especially tetras in my experience) like to nip bits off. Eventually you end up with a stressed raggedy fighter, and the torn fins are an excellent place for various infections to set up shop. One I kept in a community tank lasted about a year before the glowlight tetras started nipping it, and once 2 or 3 started, all of them joined in. I ended up taking out the tetras to protect him. I'm sure other folk will weigh in with some suitable combos of fish. There's a lot of knowledge on here.

During my first experience with kuhli's I ended up cutting up an old net and cable-tying it over the strainer, coz they kept getting into the canister filter. It's just lucky for them that they were so entertaining I kept fishing them out! I'm not familiar with your tank, but you may be able to "modify" it with a hacksaw, to slightly shorten the pipe. That will of course depend on whether you can still clip the parts together after they've been modded. I've done this before to lengthen an filter uptake, for an extra deep tank. But don't feel pressured to get kuhli loaches just because they were suggested. There are heaps of cool fish to look at keeping, then you'll want a bigger tank, then another tank, and so on from there... MTS at it's finest!

If you go with cold water, with no heating, you're a bit limited. The tank is a little small for most goldfish, so they're out unless you want to rehome as they grow. And in my experience, goldfish are the messiest of fish, excluding the large plecos. Gold fish eat heaps, dig, poo everywhere and dig up plants. They do look pretty though! Umm, back on topic, leopardfish and white cloud mountain minnows are cold water tolerant, even down to single digits overnight. If the house temp never drops below 18 degrees Celcius you can keep some semi-tropicals, such as guppies, but they won't do well if it's cold, they may die during a cold snap. If you don't mind throwing a wee heater in, then you got choices galore. It will just be a case of how much the fish grow, or what room they need. You could look at any of the smaller tetra species - glowlight, cardinal, rummynose, black emporer, lemon, etc. If you can manage the flow from the filter so that it's not too brisk, you could have a siamese fighter - not two though, coz they fight. Corydoras species and bristlenose will do OK, and I'd imagine kuhli loaches would too. I'm not too familiar with the danio species, but a lot of them would work. Many of the smaller killifish would probably do well, perhaps some of the killi fanciers will chip in with ideas. Dwarf gourami would probably work too. It's really going to come down to looking at fish you like, and then doing a bit of research to find out what conditions each fish will require.

It's going to depend on what kind of fish you want to keep mainly. :lol: One thing I will offer is that neon tetra's aren't the most hardy fish in the world, though they are cheap and colourful. If you're not too worried about cheap fish, I'd say get something more interesting, and just be very very careful to keep up your water changes and tests while the tank cycles. If you can get some filter media from an established tank that will speed up the process. If by suckerfish you mean bristle nose catfish, I'd hold off for a couple of weeks while the tank cycles. When they are young they are a little bit sensitive to water conditions - I don't think it would be a problem. but it's a worry you can avoid. As they are algae grazers, a brand spanker tank will be lean pickings for them, you'd need to feed them extra, which will add to your cycling problems with water quality. They are also a little territorial when they are grown, you'll need a couple of hiding places so that they can avoid each other, otherwise you may end up with only one. Or just have one to start with.

Ah - a few minutes of google-fu and here we are: http://www.cdosabandonware.com/games/XCOMApocalypse.zip Now you get the fun part of downloading it, and trying to get it to work. :lol:

It's a difficult game to get to run nicely under XP or Win 7. You'll need leet Dosbox skills (or just google Xcom Apocalypse and Dos box) to run it well. I've got my original disk, so I used that, but I read several notes saying that the mounted ISO route was easier as you don't need to sort out CDROM compatibility. Search abandonware sites and you'll probably find a copy.

Cycling a new tank can be sped up if you can pinch established plant cuttings and/or filter media from an existing tank. For a brand spanker new tank, I'd probably go so far as to say get a couple of test kits. ph, ammonia (NH3/NH4+), nitrite, and nitrate. If anything does start to go wrong, the test kits will probably be your first warning. And if it does start going wrong, it'll be the first question that everyone will ask when they try to give suggestions. A lot of pet stores will test for you, and if you know someone with a tank they may have the bits too. Borrowing is often as good as buying, and you make new friends. I also like to test the heater in advance. The settings on them are based in reality, but generally speaking it can be + or - 4 degrees. Set up the tank and have a measure with a thermometer so you can get your temp sorted out.

Here's a link that purplecatfish put up with a lot of good algae info in it: http://www.guitarfish.org/algae I'd also suggest that your friend keep a very close eye on things. I've seen a few comments on various cyanobacteria species being toxic. I suspect that if it starts to break down the water might need to be changed and the gravel vacuumed a lot more frequently.

I once had a cyanobacteria outbreak in a planted tank that had no nitrate due to the plants using it. I've seen some people recommend keeping the nitrates in the water at about 10ppm. The test for this theory was to try dosing potassium nitrate in the tank, to maintain 5-10ppm. When I did this the cyano slowly died and never returned.

A couple of thoughts on this based on my experiences. You can run a tank so lean that you exhaust the phosphorus and nitrate in the water. When you reach this point, the breakdown products from the debris on the gravel will be used as soon as they are released by bacterial activity. Vascular plants - i.e. most "plants" in an aquarium - have very efficient capture and transport mechanisms for nutrient compared to algae. So good circulation in the water will give the plants in a tank lots of opportunity to scavenge the liberated ammonia and phosphates. Also, ammonia is more biologically available than nitrate as nitrate has to be reduced before the plant can use it for protein synthesis. Ammonia takes less energy from the plant to reduce, and as it is very soluble, is less work to transport. I'd suspect that it actually enters the leaves via osmosis rather than having to be transported via the vascular tissue. So in a hypothetical semi-lean established tank, the plants would have less nitrogen (be that ammonia, ammonium, nitrite, or nitrate) and phosphate than they would like. When debris hits the gravel and begins breakdown, the products of that are captured in the waterflow and absorbed by the plants. As the non-soluble material builds up, the plants will extend feeder roots into it, or you may choose to vacuum it up. Just my thoughts, no guarantees implied. :lol:

Wow. Some opinions popped up here. Anyway, back to the topic - I'd recommend that before you import, you should have a chinwag with Customs (email link via their website) and MAF. They'll be able to tell you what's what with regard to quarantine, treatments, duties and so forth. I know about 4 people who import for their business, and they all reckon that the whole quarantine and tax angle is pretty serious. The last few imports I've bought in have spent a couple of days clearing customs. That doesn't matter for some things, but you'd want to check that your bloodworms didn't get stuck somewhere defrosting, and that you don't get hit with duties and GST after they are here. Or worse, seized and destroyed.

I sort of agree with Barrie. If you're importing, then obviously the LFS will lose that sale. I personally like to support my local businesses, and I only import when something isn't available. But I'm not saying you should let the LFS gouge you either. Have you considered talking to the owner about the fact you can get them cheaper if you import? He or she may be happy to give you a price break if you're buying a lot. They're in it to make sales, give them a chance. You may be surprised. I was in a local store tonight and wanted something that was $10 more expensive than driving through to the next town. He and I agreed to split the difference to reflect the convenience of me being able to buy 5 mins walk from home. Don't be afraid to ask people to sharpen their pencil if you think you're getting clipped, but have a think about a fair margin too. They have to carry the overheads for the store, you don't. But if you want the stores to be there, you've gotta support them.

I haven't seen my new work area yet, so it's hard to say what area will be available for a tank to go in. That means that I'm guessing a bit. My current office has a 3ft freshwater, and so far the killer has been getting the water in to do water changes. 2 x 20L containers give me 40L change per week, and the tank runs sweet as. Carrying them around full is the hassle. So again, the question is going to be around water changes. If I stick with a max of 40L per week water changes, I'm not sure where that gets me with overall system size. What sort of ratios are going to work? If I go 3ft, it's about a 30% change. 2ft, about 50%. I'm not sure where to draw that line for a marine tank, hopefully some of the resident gurus will have opinions on it.

Thanks suphew. Could you elaborate on what you'd term regular large water changes? I'm currently doing about a 40% change per week on the fresh water tank at work, about 40L of water. If I translate that time and effort onto a 2ft tank, it doesn't seem too bad. And brittle stars grow that large? I've not seen one that big in an established tank, either I'm meeting the wrong reef keepers, or they're slipping ciggies and coffee in to stunt their growth. I've seen enough posts about having them as a clean up crew that I presumed they topped out at sort of dinner plate sized. That'll teach me to presume eh?

I've been hearing rumblings at work lately that I'm going to be relocated, which means leaving the co-op planted freshwater tank behind in the office I have now. Not to worry though, the other 2 fish-keepers in the office will continue running it, and the wee nursery tank next to it. When I relocate, I'm thinking of going for a marine tank talking point. Here's where the no reef bit comes in. I'd quite like to have a small tank, with some hardy soft corals and a pair of brittle stars in it. No fish, anemones or SPS, but I might eventually splash out on a cleaner shrimp coz I like the invertebrates. Which leads to my question - do any of the salties see huge problems with this idea? I'm up on a couple of scores - as the area will be air-conned, temp won't be an issue in summer. One of the industrial processes at work produces pure, neutral, demineralised water, so topping off won't be an issue. I have easy access to west coast seas, and a harbour, so NSW water changes should be easy as. My concerns are pretty much: 1. Can I do it? Is it possible to keep just the softies and brittle stars? 2. What sort of tank size would anyone recommend? Anything over 2ft will make this problematic. 3. Feeding - with no other livestock in the tank, will brittle stars need a specialised food regime? 3a. Skimming - given a light bioload, can I skimp on the skimming - either an HOB, or just do more frequent water changes? 4. Lights - I'm used to using T5 HO, will this be overkill on such a tank? I'm looking forward to seeing if this idea gets shot down, or if it's a (relatively easy) possibility.

Topping up a well established tank with demin water only certainly caused some odd algal "flushes" as the various minerals ran out of balance. I'm pretty confident the water was clean as I was "obtaining" it from a very precise industrial process which couldn't tolerate impurities in the water supply. I recall going through phases of one algae dominating, then dying off suddenly. If I'd taken notes it would have been an interesting experiment. I recall staghorn, hair algae, green water, green dot algae all dominating for a short period, then being displaced. I always presumed that as the various minerals held in the gravel and so forth in the tank were exhausted, as as each condition changed a different algae dominated until it hit it's specific growth limiting factor.

I once used pure water - filtered, demineralised - for doing water changes on a 3 ft tank for a couple of months. It caused quite a few problems with different algae which I couldn't get under control, and unhappy plants and fish. I ended up spending a lot of time trying to correct the water chemistry by adding various things until reality kicked in for me, in that I was putting a lot of effort into a mediocre looking tank. I wouldn't recommend it, if you have access to reasonable tap or ground water use that. From a simple perspective - natural water isn't pure. It runs over clays, rocks, various other rubbish, and picks up minerals and salts.