Warren

And as long as there's a breeding group, you'll soon have 1000+ of them...

Seems a few members have been going dotty lately??

Good point - #3

Please keep all Trademe or other online auction links to this thread. The exemption is only for helping Livingart. We don't want the whole site being overrun with Trademe links - the very reason for the ruling in the first place. Keep up the good support here please.

From PT&E - lets limit the Trademe Links to just this thread please.

So it would seem. Edit - Mod Billaney heres a bit from the guidelines. Since you won't learn the nice way, the full force of 'The Dark Side' will now fall upon you until you submit - resistance is futile!! (I know, two different shows...) Nothing more will be said on the matter - people who are disrespectful will suffer the consequence. As usual the small few have ruined it again for all... The topic will now also be locked as I know some small few will not be able to help themselves - as clearly demonstrated earlier in this thread.

I give up :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: And to think I actually thought I might get a positive response from this, oh well...

No you didn't post anything nastier - you agreed with the first post making yours equal. I've visited sites like the one you mention above. For me I find they have no sense of community but can easily imagine it suits some people fine. We're trying to offer a family environment for both young and not so young people. We're here for people with no experience right through to the best of the best. All members need to given the benefit of decent treatment until they are proven troublemakers - and they show themselves very quickly when they turn up here. Don't make your first response offensive to the initial poster. Even if they turn out to be trouble, there's still no place for it on the site. They'll eventually get sorted. Note: I have no issue with the people who made the posts in this thread. It was an excellent example to use to try to get the 'sense of comminity' message across mentioned by Fenriswolf. In my experience, people feel they belong if they get on with each other, get help and positive criticism without being belittled or attacked. My sole purpose in pursuing this is to try to make the FNZAS forums a better place for everyone. I'm sorry if anyone in this thread has taken my comments personally - they are mostly intended for everyone, not the people in the thread although hopefully they will understand what I'm trying to achieve as well. I too have been aware of the lack of 'community feel' for some time but have been too busy focussing on other aspects of the site in recent times to do anything about it. I'm not sure if the approach I'm taking is the right one but it's what I know. This is your forum and it's only as good as you make it. The Admins and Mods are here to help out and step in when necessary. It's therefore up to everyone here to be nice to each other and bring back a sense of 'community'. Any member who posts in a negative manner chips away at that sense. When the chipping starts to outweigh the good we end up with members feeling alienated and leaving. Lets stop this now please and get on with being helpful.

Remember too, I can see the original posts by everyone and the full post history on edits...

Ok, it seems I need to spell it out for you. Here's how I would have written it: This gets exactly the same message across without looking and feeling like an attack to the original poster. If you can't see that then this is why you're feeling left-out so to speak. This is a very good place but recently the tone of many posts here has alienated many members. It is possible to help and give constructive criticism without giving offence. I know you didn't make the original post but your response shows you support it. Irrespective of how you feel or whether you think the thread is a joke, common decency still needs to prevail in a public forum. How would you feel if it was you starting this thread, you were genuine and ended up with this response?

You'll need to keep an eye on the water level in the chamber as evaporation will make the level change quite quickly. You might find the tank needs topping up every few days. You might also want to put a bit of mesh around the overflow area to stop small fish being sucked over the top.

Well, whatever you think you meant, it was at least partially responsible for making the member edit their posts and probably never come back to this site again. Just think a bit about posting before alienating people. Some people genuinely don't know and others don't put enough detail in their posts. Both are no reason to create responses like these...

Response 1: It's the way it was done :roll: - see my reply is negative. Response 2: It's ok to be concerned for the fish but the response could have been worded better so the member did not feel as if they were being attacked or belittled - this response is much more positive, see the difference...

Agreed, right from the first reply this member was attacked (and by 3 members in a row!!). A completely different approach could have helped AROWANA instead of making sure he/she doesn't bother to visit these forums again. This is happening all too regularly here. Instead of constructive criticism worded nicely we just get criticism that comes across as an attack. Come on people - this is supposed to be a friendly place where we help each other. So, lets try to help in the future and not put people off. AROWANA - I hope you give this place another chance, don't let the few who've responded poorly scare you away. Hopefully this won't happen again although I suspect it will take some effort to ensure it doesn't.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/here-v ... d3d270c9f4

Actually, 6 x 2 x 2 is approximately 1828.8mm x 609.6mm x 609.6mm if you want to be a little more accurate...

Except I didn't say Daltons Aquatic Mix...

27'C is not cold for discus. They don't need to be kept that hot. I used to keep mine and breed them very successfully at 26-27'C. They also live longer and are generally more active and healthy due to the higher oxygen content at lower temperatures. You will be able to go several hours with no heater as well... You'll typically get 1-2 years longer life at 27'C over 30'C and the power bill is lower.

I recommend you spill it over the rest of your carpet. The stain will not come out. Your only options are to replace the carpet or use the meth-blue to dye the rest of the carpet the same colour... 8)

Alan, I think the stuff he's referring to is not the JBL stuff. Palmers have a bag of stuff labelled 'Aquatix Mix' (and it's really cheap). It's mostly clay with a bit of pumice and quite a lot of organic matter. It's intended for use in ponds in plant containers which are typically open on all sides so the mix can get some water flow and stay fresh. When used at the bottom of an aquarium it gets little to no flow so it rots and releases hydrogen sulphide gas. This is poisonous to the fish and plant roots don't like it. It turns black when it starts to rot. I made the mistake of using this once with terrible results. Initially it was great - lasted about 3 months before things quickly started to go downhill. I ended up managing to remove the top larger of gravel and saving it but threw the rest out. I haven't used the JBL product you mentioned but I expect it would be ok - JBL products are usually pretty good.

If it's the stuff just simply called 'Aquatic Mix' the the guy at HFF is 100% correct - it's no good. It contains a large amount of organic matter that rots at the bottom of the substrate. Within months you will get gas bubbles with a strong sulphur smell coming from under the substrate. I'd recommend changing it before you get too far down the track before your tank gets poisoned.

Nope, don't live anywhere near it...

Look up Rotala wallichii

Don't forget good quantities of Magnesium too...

Nitrate is really only useful to stop cyno. Plants use very little nitrate compared to ammonium due to the fact it is much more difficult for the plant to use nitrate. In a well planted tank nitrate is usually in short supply because the plants use up the ammonium which would normally get converted to nitrate in the filter. Most non planted tanks have high nitrate levels (greater than 20ppm) which is detrimental to plant growth, promotes algae an begins to get toxin to some fish species. Between 10-15ppm is a good level for nitrate where cyno does not form easily, it isn't toxin to the fish and other forms of algae cannot get started. If the nitrate is 0ppm cyno can take hold quite nicely (as it often does in new tanks) due to it's ability to fix on the dissolved nitrogen gas in the water.