VinsonMassif

Yeah I have been looking around at the different options for water tanks to collect rain water. The house is far enough away from the trees so it doesn't have leaves collecting in the guttering. I think it is a very good idea.

What is the Nitrate reading? If over 40 ppm this may be contributing to fish death. If you are only changing 20% a week then the TDS are probably up there too.

Clearly they are not.

Moonlight spectrum? Do you have any references? I would be keen to read them. Wouldn't it vary exponentially depending on which latitude your fish came from? And the fact that the moon is only out at night for a limited amount of days per month not counting cloud cover. And would it even matter in the slightest unless you were trying to breed fish which were nocturnal spawners???

Who engineers their water so it is optimum for the fish species they *want* to keep or breed? I am talking about freshwater setups, not saltwater. If you keep rift lakes cichlids do you monitor the water parameters closely? We just had 5" of rain in a 10 day period. We are on a ground water bore supply which is 100% unadulterated. With the rainfall level in this area equivalent to rain-forest levels it plays havoc with the buffering capacity. This leaves the water very soft and basic. My water crashed this week. The pH plummeted below 6, the KH dropped to <2, and the GH was basically nonexistent. With such a low pH in association with low KH my bacteria colony was going thorough mini cycles leaving the tank with detectable ammonia levels. My plants did not have enough calcium and are white and stunted even with an over-supply of ferts and supplements. So I am experimenting with Aragonite Sand as a buffering agent in my canisters to see if I can't stabilize my water parameters. I really don't want to be engineering my water every single water change to buffer for KH and GH, that is just way to much hassle. Does anyone else regularly engineer their water artificially?

Ha ha that is expensive. I paid $5 for 25kgs at Mitre10.

My mystery snails are a little bigger than 5cm diam. As long as you have medium KH and GH they will grow fast. They reach sexual maturity at 1inch but need two to tango

In my travels I have come across two very useful (imo) pages. This page has a chart on Plant Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms This page has a Nutrient Calculator so you can calculate home made mixtures of nutrients and supplements without doing the math. It shows how many ppm each mL of solution will add for your tank size. It works out Magnesium, Phosphate, Nitrate, Potassium. It has CO2 calculations too. It is a small d/l file for windows.

My favourite is a lamb curry made with mutton or hogget leg chops. The ones with the small round bone in. The rib chops are just too fatty and fiddly imo. Coat the chops in flour. Brown in a hot fry pan - usually 35 seconds on each side. Then brown lots of onions and whole seeds like cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek. Adding them to the frying pan causes the seeds to release flavour and aroma. Add to a heavy base large saucepan or slow cooker with diced potato and carrot. Add a bunch of whole smashed cloves of garlic (hit them with your hand on the chopping board), 3 tablespoons of peppercorns, sliced hot chilli to your taste. I add a tablespoon of red curry paste from a jar, and a tablespoon of Tamarind paste. Cover with boiling water. If using a saucepan Boil for 5 minutes. Reduce to 1 1/2 and leave on the stove for 3 hours.

If it was my tank I would have more bracing put on. But that is because I have a terrible record of breaking tanks Have you worked out the safety factor of the 6mm glass?

I have two CF 1200 on my 325L tank. It is only just enough. I have a few internal filters as well. A guy on TM in Nelson sells CF range for reasonable price. CF 1200, 2200, 2400. Check it out. Don't Discus need premium filtration and pristine water conditions? I think over filtration is best. If you can't afford the equipment to provide appropriate condition then save up your money a little longer Dixon.

Well I took a step back. Turned a brilliant shade of red and stuttered. DQ went by the name of JJ, who then complemented me on my flair and asked me out for drinks. LMAO. I was so embarrassed I didn't get any words out at all. JJ went off laughing.

Yeah what Spidersweb said. If you have a foot of snow outside in winter you ought to have spare heaters for this kind of situation.

IT? Really Dixon. If she had heard you refer to her as IT I am sure you would be in somewhat of a state that would take you a long time to recover from...

I have one of those stories too. A few years ago I lived in Sydney. One of my best friends rang me up to tell me another great friend was planning a secret trip to come see me. I was so excited, I hadn't seen her in years. I marked the date and waited. She didn't contact me on that date. Or the next day. On the third I get a call from someone trying to he secretive asking me to meet them in town. I instantly new it was my friend. I went into town a bit earlier and was walking across the square. I spied my friend and ran about 100m to meet her. I ran up behind her, twisted her around, lowered her over backwards and planted a huge kiss on her lips. And it wasn't my friend. Nope. Wasn't a woman either. An impressively dressed queen in drag with long flowing blonde hair. There really is no recovering the situation after that LMAO.

awesome, because there are so many words starting with 'nd'! lol Ndebele

How long have you had those fish. You are somewhat overstocked there, especially seeing the loaches and Pearl Gourami have a possible length of 6".

For small carpet plants have you thought about placing a plastic grill on top with each plantlet poking through the holes, then cover with substrate? I did this with java moss and it worked. I used an old grill that sits inside the canister filter. As for the rest of your plants, I found the 3" round flat schist rocks work well. They were $1 each from the lfs. Or I guess you could find some down the beach. The rooting tabs do speed up the plants establishing themselves so much compared with not using them.

If you want to put up with a glass as an eyesore (only IMO) then go for it. In my tanks my loaches go nuts doing the same thing. I place a ring of small rocks around the base of the plant to hold it in place. It keeps the loaches at bay until the roots are established.

First off Flourish Excel is not a fertilizer. It is a source of Carbon for plants. You may find it beneficial using it in addition to PMDD. If you are going to use Dalton's Aquatic mix you can lay one inch, then two inches of sand or gravel on top of the Aq Mix. That worked well for me.

and add a few extra things to nibble on.....

Bollocks. Unless you live in a freezer. If your room is really that cold just put a heater in the bucket.

Good for you. That is a really good result. You gotta be stoked with them

That is a good point IMO. Putting possibly contaminated water from the LFS into your tank is a bad idea. I like the idea of using a drip line and a bucket. Put the fish and water from the bag into a bucket next to the tank. Put a length of airline tubing into the tank and start the syphon into the bucket. 20L bucket takes about an hour to fill up. Slow acclimatization. Then net the fish and put them into the tank. Throw old water away. I have never lost any fish using this method.

A real old school vid of some americans blowing up a dead whale in Oregon. The reporting is hilarious.