Matthew

So long as my memory serves correct these fish have the common name "sparkling gourami" that being the case there was a whole lot at Hollywood Frost rd the other day. Reasonably priced too, around $7. I tried to talk my wife in to leeting me buy some but to no avail - they might just end up being yours.

Just be careful with the HOB filter, at one stage a lot of my bristlenose were half sucked into the intake and killed I ended up covering the intake with filter wool, it decreased the flow rate but saved a few fry

Looks like a bite mark to me. Looking at the tail there appears to be damage there also. How big is the gold fish?

Is your tap water 8 or is it your tank water?. As fish waste decomposes it will naturally make your tank more acidic. I would be inclined to not worry too much about the pH of tap water being 8, as the amount that you add to your tank during water changes should not alter the overall pH dramatically.

Yep, all goes well now, a slight loss of CO2 but only minimal. Looks like I will still keep the regulator. MicB do you use a needle valve or is your flow rate controlled from the regulator?

Just found out that it is more difficult to set this up with a new bottle, my previous attempt was with a half filled bottle, and I am now considering returning it. I will try the crescent trick as micb does and let all know how it goes.

I have just bought one of these regulators. It went on top of the soda stream bottle without too much trouble. The only difficulty was that I did not read the label, and had it the valve fully open when I connected things (open is fully screwed down, normally this would be closed). I managed to turn the output down quite low, and with the addition of a cheap plastic clamp from the LFS on the tubing I have managed to decrease the flow rate to around one bubble every three seconds. Not only that, but from when I purchased the regulator to when I received it was under three days. I am reasonably confident that this will do the trick for my three foot tank, and is definitely more reliable than my yeast concoctions I was making.

I wouldn't bother with removing everything from your tank. Ick will remain regardless of what you do. As previously mentioned it is an opportunist, and when your fish are under stress they are more likely to be susceptible to it. One outbreak of ick in my tank occurred after an extensive gravel clean, the fish were obviously stressed by it!!! It normally lies dormant as cysts in your tank, increasing the heat increases the hatch cycle, and so long as your fish are not stressed it is unable to attach to the fish. The ick needs to have a host otherwise it will die, from memory death occurs around the 24hr mark. White spot cure will do the trick. Coming from a medical background I would insist that you use the recommended dose on the container. These meds have to be tested prior to being sold, and unless they state otherwise they should be safe at the recommended dose. Otherwise salt is the other option. Tonic will do it, but that tends to stain the silicone. I have found that the whitespot cure doesn't stain the silicone as much.

you can put mine in, although it is rather straightforward and I don't often get the chance to make many posts these days. Matt Carter from the Auckland club

We will be having a raffle, A tank is up for one lucky winner. 120 L , 500*400*600 (W*D*H). All welcome

For any who have concerns I have had some dealings with Brent at the store he used to work at, and have found him to be helpful, and to know what he was talking about. Good on you Brent, and all the best.

Any fish that can fit into another fish's mouth is generally known as food. The SAE would likely maul the GBN, especially in their "egg sac" phase until they were dead. I lost a whole lot of BN fry to baby guppies, who slowly picked at the BN until they died. My advice is don't mix the two, until at least when the GBN are free swimming. from memory the SAE grows to 4-5 inches, although more likely to be four. Matt

good on ya. start growing your brineshrimp matey

Bill the blood worms are the larval stage of some sort of midge. The advantage of these over mosquito larvae is the adults don't bite you

redwoods imported some around six months back. Hollywood sold them at $6.95 each, but it was only the albany store. I purchased the last at the time, and have been looking for them since. If you find some let me know please

Sorry, I am ordering today.

I am planning on ordering some things from the states. If anyone wants anything, bags, powder or other please contact me soon (within the week). Thanks Matt

A water change of less than 15% should probably be fine, as the chlorine amount would be diluted. Occasionally I have used water that is straight from the tap with no problems, but my water changes have tended to be on the large side recently (40-50%) so I always use dechlorinator (or rain water)

I am an advocate for using flourish excel as an answer to BB algae. However I use it at the recommended dosing and that controls my algae. It also leaves money in my pocket. I'm not sure who started the rumour to double dose, but I would think if the manufacturer says "do not overdose" one would assume there was a reason for this. 1) It does it's job at the recommended dose, and 2) it is not likely to harm the fish.

That is the joy of auctions, say what you want about your product and sell it, at the end of the day there is no recourse, and the consumers guarantee act does not apply.

For extra info: The albino corys can be either the bronze or the peppered cat, as both of these have albino strains. I'm not sure what trait is dominant, but it would be interesting to see the offspring

AS far as joining a club goes, If you were at the auckland meeting last week I gave away three large bag fulls of riccia.

My four foot tank is made from 10mm glass and I have no problems with it. It has three braces (two either side- about 4 inches-and one down the middle- about 6 inches). As for the toughened glass question. It does have a higher breaking resistance, but when it breaks it shatters. It is also easy to break by tapping the side of the glass, probably easier than float glass when hit on the side. My recommendation would be to go with float glass, it is cheaper, and the mess is significantly reduced if there is breakage.

sorry to be a cynic, but could this be an attempt to sell further products. Also one case out of how many, and is this salmonella only contracted from fish or could it have come from else where. By the way I have one of those gravel cleaners yet still suck on the end of the tubing. I have drunk more than my fair share of tank water to no ill effects (as of yet).

I can guarantee that in my case flourish excel worked brilliantly at removing this. I am told that it is a side effect of the fertiliser, and as such they are unable to label the containers with words to the effect of I kill algae (not only blackbeard- brush algae in my tank disappeared). I find the best way to get rid of it for good is to use as per manufacturers recommendations and then once every two or three days as a maintenance dose.