Ira

Potassium nitrate would be in the garden center sold as "Stump Rot" It's pure potassium Nitrate. White salty looking stuff.

Unfortunately, Pegasus, I only have one male and one female. I used to have 3 males and one female, but two of the males decided to go on a walkabout when I was in Christchurch a few months ago. Never found a body or anything. I have had a hell of a time finding some kind of netting to make a breeder net out of, I found some stiff cotton mesh stuff but that made the water foamy. So, I tried the pebbles because that's what I had. This is the second try getting them to breed in the little tank, first try had no results that I could find. The successful breeding was in a 100L bare bottom tank sometime over a couple weeks while I was trying to find some kind of mesh to protect the eggs. Oh, temp is 26° and I assume the parents ARE related because I bought them at an auction.

I had my female danio in a little tank conditioning her for a week with whiteworms and all kinds of frozen food, then I put the male in and in about 5 days the bottom was covered with eggs. I had it covered with bunches of pebbles to keep the eggs from getting eaten. Then I take the parents out and wait for the eggs to hatch...And wait...And they all fungused! Looks like none of the eggs hatched! There must have been 50-60 eggs at least and NONE of them hatched. Guess I'll have to be happy with the 6 remaining from the last try. Anyone got any ideas what might help with fertilization next try? It's in a little 10 liter tank, I know that's pretty small but the only bigger thing I have available is a 20 liter. Would that have caused a problem? Filtration is a little heater/filter combo.

Nah, I don't think so. Since the yellow of the fertilizer mix is exactly the same color as the yellow trace element mix.

Hmmm, You're using the pure chemicals aren't you, Warren? I'd say that's the difference...Maybe it's filler or something that's in the garden center mix, or just the form of the garden center stuff doesn't dissolve as well. Mine is a yellowish color. Well, the undissolved stuff is yellowish, if I let it sit so that all settles out the remaining is a bluish color. I'm pretty sure the yellow stuff eventually dissolves in the tank too, because I haven't noticed any kind of yellow sediment in the tank or in the filter.

Yup, working fine...Well, actually this last batch isn't doing so well. But, that's my fault because I thought I'd try filtering out all the particles that aren't dissolving in the mixture so it doesn't cloud the water for an hour or so...And I think I filtered out most of the minerals.

I've had mine sitting for months on top of the fish tank. No noticable fungus or mold or anything.

And that's why you use a safety factor and go with maybe an extra 25% flow for when things start getting gunked up.

Nothing complicated about it, plug the numbers in and it's just 6-7th grade math after that.

I dunno, I find it pretty satisfying to use such basic math to figure out if I'm doing things right. Especially if it saves a few bucks.

Hahaha, now I want to get a pair of swimming goggles and dunk my head in MY tank. Actually, I just had a thought...Something like an inexpensive webcam covered in shrinkwrap to make it watertight and dropped in the tank...Hehehe

Oh, and about messing up the fish's circadian rythm...It may...But I doubt it would be enough to have a major effect on the fish's health. I've read with fry a lot of the time it helps to have the light on 24 hours a day, they grow faster.

More seriously...Maybe he just likes running back and forth in front of the glass? There's nothing saying he has to act exactly like all the other fish and that he has to act the same all day.

I had a look at a handful of pond pumps a few days ago and it looks like most of them only lost about 1/5th of their flow at 1.5M head. Going by the manufacturer's rating anyway. I don't remember the max of them, but this was for a couple different makes and models with flow rates from 1500ish-4000ish L/Hr, looked like all of them were 1/4th to 1/5th less. Ummm...Maybe not relevant.

Yeah, but, while you may end up with more total lit time having them on all the time you'd still have them on twice as long. So you'd probably end up with them lasting say 9 months at 24 hours a day instead of 16 months at 12 hours a day. Or however long until you decide they've dimmed too much or just plain don't light.

You'd probably get heaps of algae and the extra cost of 12 hours of wear and electricity outweighs the extra wear from turning on the light.

Sounds like he's got ADHD, I think the treatment is ritalin. :lol:

Now that's a great idea. I'll have to add that to my list of stuff to do if I ever get the money and ambition.

My way of getting good pictures is, using a digital camera... Step 1: *Clickclickclickclickclick* Step 2: Download.... Step 3: Nope, those all suck, go back to step 1.

The problem with sumps, imo, is that to do it right you need holes drilled in the tank for the intakes and you lose somewhere from 1/3-1/2 of the pump's flow by lifting the water the extra 4 feet or so from the sump.

I think you can put me on the list for some if it'll be about $70 per lb.

I had the thought that the next filter I buy I might actually just get a nice big pump and try and make my own filter instead. That way I could try and fix the biggest problems I've noticed with cannister filters and probably have more flow for less money. Maybe a big sponge intake like John's? hamburg Mattenfilter going to a bucket full of some type of media then the pump down low so it should never have a problem with air...

Fish like bristlenoses and cories are great for not eating fry...But, they'll happily eat eggs. I think your best bet is to keep just the parents in a tank until the eggs hatch, then add maybe a bristlenose, otos, cories, whatever.

Hahaha, Never woulda thought to look in watercooling for PC's for pumps for an aquarium.

I was draining the tank I'd thrown the male and female danios into because I'd thrown them back with the rest of the fish while I was treating them. After I'd drained about half the water I noticed a bunch of little fry in it. Hope I didn't drain too many out into the garden, all I can count are about 8 of the tiny little things. I should have checked but I'd just assumed since it was a bare tank that the parents would have eaten any eggs! I'm going to check and see what I've got that I could use to grow infusoria. For now, would pond water work fine for feeding them? I assume there would be lots of little things beside daphnia in it.