Joe

What I was meaning is that there is no brand that specializes in manufacturing ADA-style tanks in NZ, or nature aquarium/aquascaping products for that matter. However this brand might be coming to NZ... http://www.na-un.com/ Yeah Petworld makes great tanks :thup: I got my 140L made with a low iron front. All the sides are bevelled and polished though, not just the front

Beautiful work !drool:

If anything, having bright light in a blackwater biotope is a good thing because it allows you to see the fish clearly and take decent photos of them When I used to have lots of oak leaves and tannins in the 140L tank I still struggled at times to take decent photos of the fish and the aquarium was illuminated with a 6,700K 150w halide on a magnetic ballast

:facepalm: :slfg:

+ 1 for minnows. Looking good Sam :spop:

All ADA products are not available in NZ and never have been. NZ is the worst place for aquascaping equipment availability, and you can get a few cheap diffusers and drop checkers on TradeMe but otherwise you have to buy everything from overseas which will cost you a small fortune. In NZ there is no company that I am aware of that manufactures nice tanks like ADA and if you want an ADA-style tank you will have to get it custom made. There are a few really good tank builders in NZ if you look around. I got my tanks made by Petworld in Christchurch and the quality is pretty good :thup:

They are made from low iron glass and have polished and bevelled edges.

Stop making me jelous :an!gry :slfg: !drool:

+ 1. Tank looks nice. You'll love the Apistogramma trifasciata. Such a cool little fish

Nice

Cyperus is relatively easy to grow. As long as it has root fertilization and decent lighting it will be fine. Just don't disturb it/move it around too much. Cyptocoryne balansae is easier to care for, but I wouldn't rule out Cyperus helferi altogether.

Wow that looks awesome! Brilliant work Those plants are amazing !drool:

Borelli is currently not present in NZ. As Dan said it is most likely trifasciata. I haven't seen steel blues for quite a while either, although there might be some floating around.

Cacatuoides are the most aggressive Apistogramma in my experience. I would not mix them with any other dwarf cichlids or similar looking fish.

:slfg:

Nice work :thup:

Looking awesome dude! That CO2 setup is wicked !drool: I've kinda given up having a nice planted tank here. Everything overseas is much cheaper like you said, and of course there is loads more stuff available like Crystal Red Shrimp and other cool fishes, plants and invertebrates.. So once I've been to university or whatever I'll most likely move overseas permanently :thup:

Awesome rams Dan breeds really good quality fish :thup:

Awesome stuff

The fluffy plant is definitely a species of Myriophyllum. Hippuris vulgaris does not have leaves made out of many segments like Myriophyllum does. The submerged growth of Hippuris vulgaris looks like this. I would assume the species you have is M. propinquum, which I have seen for sale a lot in water garden shops so I would think that they would sell the same one at pet shops. The only other species I have seen for sale is M. robustum which is red. The red plant is Alternanthera reineckii (not Hygrophila). You can tell because it has the small yellowish flowers at the nodes which Hygrophila and Ludwigia do not.

Wow that is amazing Brilliant job to all who worked on this Thanks so much :thup:

It appears that the whitespot has now gone from the tank. The surviving fish are the trio of Apistogramma trifasciata, two males and one female Licorice Gourami and 10 Reed Tetras. Also the tank is a mess at the moment - there is so much algae that it just isn't funny I will have to get round to cleaning it out, although I'm a but worried because it is one of those jobs where I will need to remove everything including the fish and I don't want to stress them out too much in case the whitespot returns. I have had a long think about whether or not I should get the Axelrods, or any other expensive fish for that matter. And I have come to the decision that I will just work with what I have got, and also get the Odessas from Caryl. I feel that I just keep buying more and more fish and they all die one way or another, and it has really put me off buying anything else. So hopefully I'll be able to make a bit of money with the fish that I have left, if they decide to breed from me. I'd at least like to recover the cost of the fish I lost and maybe make a bit extra, and then I will probably sell all my livestock and have a break.

Probably not.