Cricketman

How about the laws that were meant to be coming in that pet shop staff had to atttend short courses on handling and looking after various animals before they could sell them?? What happened to that? it would certainly be a way to regulate and standardise care and selling habits of stores and thereby the care and sale of fish to the general population. perhaps what we need is to develop informational supplies for pet shops. create a sticker for the window or something achievable, perhaps even within FNZAS that the store can strive to attain. once it gets going, and people hear about it, it will become like the MTA, where people actively look for the certification before they look at purchasing goods, knowing they are not getting ripped off, and getting good information! SPCA can get involved too. ie: "this store has attained the grandeur of being approved by the FNZAS for thier work to better animal husbandry techniques and information" or some hairy fairy thing like that, with noted standards, (ie, eash goldfish requires 10+ litres once fully grown) and information given to stores about the best way to sell and look after fish, and how to inform customers! It would also attract alot more people to the site where they can get advice and help. It also is pro-active rather than winging and whining. This has been me spitballing ideas, so don't shoot me down too quick...

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Made the decision to keep rotifers well clear of this phyto setup for now, and do them in a seperate area completely, with bleach baths between handling to ensure no cross-contamination. Doing that alreay for the phyto. Got two "working cultures" (ones to feed out) going, one Pavlova lutheri and one Nannochloropsis sp. Next step for me is to develop a "clean" cupboard (laminar cabinet) to store "parent cultures". These will act as redundant cultures just to make sure that we Don't lose a species of phyto, and can keep innoculating "working cultures". As such, these cultures are kept a little cooler, and as Aseptic as possble. This should be achieved with wipeable, non-porous material , with a positive internal pressure, and hopefully a "air dam"/"air curtain" accross the front acting when the cabinet is open. This coupled with ethanol to disinfect everything in the cabinet and equipment (ethanol does not leave a residue when it evaporates) should give us a good chance of success in keeping cultures alive for a long time (hopefully perpetually). Currently waiting on a third species of phytoplankton from toppom, and then waiting for Mr. & Mrs. Amphiprion ocellaris to practise saving the species... :lol: which, judging by thier behaviour, should be soon. Cue: bow chika wow wow! :lol:

neon tetras, and lemon tetras... had about 20 getting ready to breed, next second, GONE! :evil: RAGE!!!! :evil:

We got nannochloropsis( green phyto), Pavlova lutheri (brown phyto), and a third "tetra" (haven't found the proper latin name yet) Experiment is to look into the different growth rates and survival rates of the fry using these 3 algae to feed directly, and gut-load artemia/ daphnia with. various algae have different nutritional values, between protein, lipids etc. and you can't blame me Mr "F/2 in my fridge"

nothing live in it, just a nutrient mix at way too high a dosage, and autoclaved (not the vitimin mix) for sterility. unless there is something i'm missing? but we got some now, anyway. :lol:

caryl, can we please re-name living art "f/2 in my fridge" master???? :roll: :roll: :roll: :lol:

thats the one i found in aussie, 32 bucks for the smallest and more than that again for the freight, insurance and bank fees etc plus waiting... I know there is some in NZ

Got some corn meal broth that they use for nutrient agar for growing all manner of things from bacteria to fungus, not sure how it will work, and my google-fu is proving to be weak to find a analysis. Surely someone on here knows something about f/2 source? please?? waiting for Tuesday to get hold of NIWA.

Just throwing this out there, but I am looking for a source of F/2 media for phyto culture. I know NIWA sell it but don't know thier prices, or if they will bother withthe tiny amount I need. I need enough for ~ 40l worth of culture, so is really tiny amount of concentrate, but happy to buy a little more to make it worth someones while. doesn't have to have silicate, but will take whatever i can get my hands on. Google is failing me for a local supplier, closest I got was a place in AUS... and the shipping cost more than the product!

It is up to the individual LFS IMHO. They have a responsibility to look after their animals and make sure they are homed appropriately. if you go to a LFS and get I.d'd be happy that they are doing a great job and are doing their best for their animals. If you are common to a LFS, get your parents to come down with you the first time and ask if they can put your name down so you can but fish on your own in future perhaps? That way they are doing their part and you can keep going back?

bite the bullet and get a stagea rs... I recently got a 2001 mitsi diamante advance, great bang for 5000 bucks, goes harder than my commie. Only problem is the fwd >.< Or get a Ute and throw a 1uzfe in it. you can get engine mount adapters off TM for hilux's and surfs. MK3 cortinas are sexy things too! There so much out there at the moment, find something reliable and do it up yourself, that half the fun.

does fine in mine. maybe I got lucky...

use to have a little gadget that worked sorta like a soda stream, but pumped Ozone into the water. safe to drink and no funny taste. They don't make them anymore, I think.

:lol: ^^ GOLD! (fish)

for the last 3 days- Marcy playground - sex and candy... can't get it out of my head... must... thrash...

at least they should grow out to that size again... and in the mean time, you got 2 more nems!! :bounce:

http://www.google.co.nz/images?um=1&hl= ... =&gs_rfai=

I love my gibbiceps and pardalis. they are not wild colours, but awesome patterns and very active. Just my 2c. 8)

what I love... sites like "treehugger" Theres where you get unbiased and scientific opinion... :lol:

I can only speak for myself, but I use an overflow system before the water goes through my filter, in this overflow chamber (it is a box that goes down the corner of my tank and then out through a drilled bottom) I have filter wool and some plates that trap most of the large debris/detritus that would otherwise go into my filter (hell of a lot easier to change the filter wool/clean the plates than open up the canister all the time) . I use the filter mainly for polishing the water, removing floaties etc, but it is also useful for increasing water volume and giving extra surface area for bacteriological breakdown and metabolism. It is also useful for water movement. one of the main things that you need to make this system work is high aeration of the water, also the more times you can "turnover" the water in your tank through the filter, the better. agreed putting an FX5 on your 20l nano is going to cause a mini typhoon, but in general, more filtration you can get, the better. Also, as P44 said, if you have a bigger filter now, you wont need a new one if you decide to upgrade your tank at a later date. Filter wool gets clogged easily, so would deteriorate the efficiency of the filter. And whilst the gravel does do a great job, I still run the canister as a fail safe mechanism, and to breakdown things that get trapped there-in. NO3 is also desirable to algae. The bulk of plants only use a portion of the NO3, and usually they absorb is straight from the gravel. I don't think my water changes are large, but they are frequent. again for clarity and removing the excess NO3. also I just like water changes since I think of the water as going stale after a while. imagine being in a room with no doors or windows open. Pretty much the deal with the tank for the fish. When setting up the gravel cycle, I do heaps of water changes to avoid the ammonia spike and nitrite spike that is part of cycling, but soon enough it gets going. water changes also dont disturb the gravel, just remove the released NO2 and NO3. Like I said, the plants will absorb most of it straight from the gravel, I don't use nitrazorb, but I have used phoszorb. phosphorous is rare in nature, even rarer in water. this is because it binds strongly to the earthen soils, and its dissolving in water is thus even rarer. it is also a main part of photosynthesis and is needed by algae to grow. With the phosphorous laden soils and fertilizers that are being used on farmland, there is a greater amount of phosphorous in our everyday water. I have had a phosphorous spike in my tank that I believe was caused by truck with phosphorous laden soil going past and the dust settling in my tank. caused a huge horrible algae breakout. Hence the PhosZorb. NitraZorb can be used in the filter to remove excess nitrate/nitrite in lieu of more water changes, but I don't go down this route. Its all about balance and testing your water to see what the various levels of NO2/NO3/NH3/NH4 and pH are like and see what is working and what is not. I have been doing it for long enough with this particular tank that I have it sussed. Also I don't use nitrogenous/phosphorous fertilisers, I only add flourish for carbon and trace minerals. Note that this system works for my community tank. I like it since it is all about being easy, and minimalist, whilst growing my plants better than ever. It is not a perfect system that is going to work for everyone, and i don't reccomend that everyone dump thier canisters immediately, it is all about a balance. another point to think about. Imagine a river in the wild: Constant high flow and water turnover, but the gravel/sediment is never turned over or vacuumed. Yet it survives and the plants/fish survive without major algae or problems. This is what we are doing in essence.

There are other ways of putting a spraybar on bro, not neccesarilly the OEM versions, but you can jimmy a connector up, surely?there are a multitude of fixtures and fastners that you can apply if you walk down a plumbing isle in your local and think abit. just an option. and fishplants: by the use of NH4/NH3 (ammonium/ammonia) nitryfying bacteria are able to produce n02 (nitrite) and NO3 (nitrate) the latter of which is accesible to plants. phoenix44 and myself (and many others) work on the basis of sand/gravel beds whereby the waste products are incorporated into the substrate, where their breakdown to NO3 is beneficial to the plants, and a natural fertiliser. with enough plants in the tank they should out-weigh the bioload of the inhabitants. Ergo, no need to vaccum your tank once the process has started, only W/C needed. slightly more W/C is needed when this system is starting up, but once running is an effective removal of the NO3. Water turnover and the mechanical filtration of floating debris is facilitated by the canister, whereby it is trapped to undergo the same process of decay, and "polishing" the water (whilst also allowing another place for nitryfying bacteria to live grow and do thier job.) i agree that for the price difference compared to water turnover, and the benifits thereof, going bigger now definately makes a vast improvement later. also realising that as time goes on, canisters loose a certain amount of effeciency compared to when they are new. so a canister that will "do the job" now wont neccesarily be doing it in a years time.

:lol:

Seem awfully similar to a species that i saw diving "penguin island" around Slipper island a couple years ago that (as far as i know) hasn't been ID'ed before, closest i can get is a crested weed fish that isn't quite right. though from its movements and the way it "crawled" through the eklonia/ seaweed using its pelvic and pectoral fins, i am now convinced that it must be a similar species to these. Anyone want to fund a research party? :lol: