Nooboon

I will definitely make it on at least one of these trips if I can get off work early enough. I will mention it to Nicolas the French Guy here at work. He is interested in the natives too. I'll call you Stella or Andrew to confirm, some time this week. I Should be able to get my hands on a good spotlight we can use. Cheers Pete

Yes, I too tried the flourish excell. Warren from Brooklands gave me a bottle to trial. It worked perfectly. Go through a bit though.

Yeah I don't think it is the link. It must be the website. I went to the site yesterday but I can't get back to it now, even using my history menu. Perhaps try again later.

Yes I use Pauls second option there. Cut any stems that get too long or tatty off right down low. Then new stems start from down there and you don't get that top heavy look. If you do this regularly you will have new stems at different stages of growth so the plant always looks 'natural'.

Ok then, - leaving to purchase (order) one bottle of Flourish Excel

Any news on how the Flourish Excel went Aqua?

So how is the Flourish Excel meant to kill algae? It is just a carbon substitute right, to use in place of CO2 injection I guess? I was just wondering how it works, I might get some.

Perhaps he's just bored. They usually like to be in groups.

Thanks guys. Andrew, I'll bring along a sample of the algae to your place today. I have had a SAE in the past but it was being picked in by my Chinese algae eater (which are known for aggression, I would never have one now) so I traded them both in (the SAE was not the most pretty fish ever anyway) at Wet Pets. They didn't know what the SAE was and didn't believe my identification. Now I wish I had kept the SAE. Warren, perhaps you can help me when I set up my planted tank in the future. I'm planning a tank about 1000L or so with all of the flash equipment but I have to finish up at Uni and get a job to pay for it all first.

I currently also have a bit of an algae problem. I have very short, dark green algae growing on the older leaves of my plants. It isn't running rampant or anything but is annoying becase if I pull these leaves off my plants the lower stems end up bare. I have no CO2 system but do use ferts (N & P free) and quite a lot of lighting. However growth is not spectacular. Today: N = 5ppm P < 0.25 though I did a 10% water change 2 days ago, so values may have been a bit higher before that.

Just a question for Warren. Where do you learn all of this info? I mean, I know keeping N and P levels low discourages algae growth but you know all the specific values etc. Is there a secret book(s) I can get?

If you don't already, perhaps try feeding some algae wafers.

I use an automatic feeder when I go away, but if you are getting someone else to feed them, individual portions in labled plastic bags or containters, as Ira said, are the way to go (prevents possible overfeeding). My unsubstantiated opinion of those feeder block things is that they are a waste of time. I think they are mainly made up of things other than food. They are not really appropriate for any top feeders you might have. If you have snails they will eat most of it. They can't be good for water chemistry. Feel free to crucify me if my opinions are wrong.

I don't have this problem with mine but I have heard that they can do this when they are eating snails off the plant leaves. I don't know if that is true but it is a possibility.

Yeah they do that now and then. Looks like a cat climbing a tree (with no legs of course).

Maybe you could suggest a bigger tank then, to compensate for all of these new fish.

The issue is, if there is a problem with the tank now he is likely to blame you. Maybe it is time he looked after his own tank again.

Hi Paul, Thanks for the heads up. I'll post a short list of the plants I am most interested in soon. It is very likely that most of them are available here in NZ as you say. I was just thinking it might be easier to get all of the ones I want all at once from one place rather than having to search around here for them. However it sounds as though the cost will make that idea uneconomical. Perhaps if you will be importing in the future we could join our orders and share the costs.

Thanks guys, I will try the garden centers but would imagin most plants would be locally grown. Worth a try though. Otherwise, does anyone know who I should contact regarding the required documentation?

Hi guys, I am thinking of trying to import some plants in the future. I read in a previous post, for example, that madagascar lace is hard to come by. I printed off the list of NZ banned plants on this site. Are there any others that I have to avoid and are there any other issues that would mean this isn't going to work? Do you need a permit to import or something? I don't want any probs for the environment or for my pocket.

Haven't heard of ladder eels (probably also go by some other name also -perhaps tyretrack eels?) however I know fire eels look great. I haven't kept these though as all of the fish I have kept are peaceful community types. Unfortunately those eels will make dinner out of smaller fish.

Yes I have some borneo suckers, really cool. Where do you get your fish from? Can't say I've seen many of those you mentioned here. I would love to get my hands on a REAL upside-down cat. I was pretty sure the ones they were selling here were just some other synodontis species and that was pretty much confirmed by Andrew Broome when I was speaking to him in the weekend.

Yeah it's still doing it. My girlfriend uses a Mac at work so I might go in at some stage and give it a try. At least that will confirm or reject any relation to the Mac system.

My favourite one that I keep currently would have to be what I was sold as a "dwarf Hara hara catfish". They don't often do much and are really hard to spot due to excellent camo, but that is what makes them so attractive to me.

I wish they would stuff up my account like that! Hahaha