skaffen

Hiya - I'm a n00b with a 440 L planted tank. My kH keeps dropping - I'm bringing it back up by adding Sera mineral salt with the weekly water change. I understand this is normal for a planted tank, it's the plants consuming the minerals? Can someone suggest a cheaper alternative to the Sera product? If I knew what mineral salts are needed I'm sure I could obtain the raw materials and mix my own batch. -Si

I do IT security and networking for a company in Hams. I'd rather be a semi-retired dive instructor on an exclusive resort island somewhere

How about in a planted tank? Will plants handle the change in salinity?

I know Leaf Zone has iron, and according to my test kit, higher than 0.5 mg/l is considered too much. All it mentions is "irregular fish behavior", what ever that means... You might want to google around to be sure.

I've got fine white quartz gravel (3mm) and it's staying pretty white. I vacuum once a week with the water change, that's about it for cleaning...

It's 3mm quartz, got it and the wood from World of Water in Ham. Shannon said she had some wood that would look good, it was out in the garden weathering. I took one look and thought "Yep, that'll do" Short, slightly old, very crappy video here:

Wow, awesome photo :-)

Here's some more more pics - a bit of a build blog really. Not sure if this should be here, but you can't comment over in the tank pics forum... This is the new filter running on the old 85 L tank - to give the bio-filter a head start - slight overkill :-) Cat is lurking in the background, he seems to approve of the new hobby. Here's the cabinet all assembled, leveled and powered. The tank has just arrived. I spent ages deciding between a blue gradient or plain black for the background. Black got the nod in the end. Sera Floredepot substrate is in and I'm adding quartz. Filling up for the first time Full, the floor appears to be holding up. Luckily there's a double joist directly under the tank. First plants - some java ferns. More plants and the first fish move in. The rest of the plants and fish are in. Ten days later. The anubias nanas on the rocks and along the wood are slow growing compared to the other plants. Two Weeks later. I moved the wood from the rockpile down to the stump - it looks like it's attached. I moved a couple of crypts and sagittaria.

Ants have lots of formic acid in them - I don't know if they'd be good for your fish?

I was, I have an AquaEl Unimax 500 Pro...

Your english is better than my spanish! You're correct about the direction of the shell spiral. I'll have a search and see what I can find. BlueandKim, do you have the full name for what you think this thing is please? -Si

Ah, not to worry then - thanks

Another thing, I just found this guy floating about on an aponogeton leaf. Must have come with the plants, what is it? I presume there's more, are they going to munch plants too much?

The same plant three days later, the smaller leaves are about 250% bigger now. Has anyone noticed standard Flourish smells like soy sauce?

Thanks for the info. I don't like the sounds of adding floc, but I might try some filter pads. I presume there's no free lunch and you have to clean them more frequently? I can see myself getting sick of that and learning to appreciate the natural organic look more It'll be interesting to see what the UV unit does...

http://www.petplanet.co.nz/index.php?pr ... Clarifiers I've seen these in Animates for a bit more $$$ too The one I ordered is made by the manufacturer of my filter and it's designed to fit inside the cannister filter. The cool thing is it has a separate power supply so you don't have to run it all the time. -Si

I've got the Unimax internal UV unit for the filter on the way :-) I should have added, I'm a n00b, so I don't know what's achievable here, maybe I am looking too close

Hiya I have a 440 L tank with an AquaEl Unimax Pro 500 for filtration, which has foam/wool, bio balls, dolomite, then ceramic noodles. What do you guys reckon about the media I'm using? The water's clean and almost clear, but there's some fine suspended particles - should I be able to get crystal clear water? I'm wondering if I need finer mechanical filtration media? I added some wool to the foam in the first basket, which seemed to help some... r Cheers -Si

Thanks for the kind words. I spent a couple of months lurking in various forums, reading and asking questions - good old interweb My friend who I got the 85 L off has accused me of being obsessive A big shout out to Shannon at World of Water who helped me heaps with plants, she really knows her stuff As far as lights goes, it's 4 X Sera 60cm 18W - two 4900 K "Plant" tubes in the rear and two 12000 K "Blue Sky" in the front. I got the little clip-on reflectors too. It's an AquaEl tank and hood BTW. There's an AquaEl Unimax Pro 500 for filtration, which has foam/wool, bio balls, dolomite, then ceramic noodles. What do you guys reckon about the media I'm using? The water's clean and almost clear, but there's some fine suspended particles - should I be able to get crystal clear water? PO4 is ~0.25, not sure about gH - either it's close to zero or my kit's faulty, I'm going to take some water and the kit to the LFS this weekend to figure it out. pH is 7, kH is 6-7 - I've been using Sera mineral salt as Hamilton's water is soft and a bit acidic. Fe is 0.5 - I'm using Leaf Zone to maintain that level, ~40 ml/week. Changing 2 X 50 L a week, vacuuming each time. I'm using Excel at the recommend rate, and I've got some Flourish on the way from Pet Planet. The substrate is Sera Floradepot (read expensive sandy soil with ferts, wish I'd known you can get bulk stuff at Bunnings...) with 3mm quartz on top. I just added some fert tabs, I might have been a little hasty on the swords?

The Hygrophila corymbosa stricta was the one I didn't know the name of - it's the only plant that transitioned over from the 85 L, so I know the rest. Thanks for the ID I can recommend it if anyone wants a fast growing phosphate hoover! Speaking of phosphate, what levels should I be aiming for in a planted tank? Hamilton water seems to have a bit. I don't have any algae issues, so just whatever's the best balance for the fish and plants

That's good new about the plecs Here's a closer shot of the mystery plant. This came from the 85 L originally...

Hiya I'm two months into this, my new hobby. I got an 85 L tank from a friend who's off overseas. It was overstocked so I started shopping for a larger tank. Several lapses of judgment later, I have a 440 L planted tank and a few more fish... Who'd have thunk that crack was extracted from tropical fish I have 9 tiger barbs, 11 black neon tetra, 3 rummy-nosed tetra, 1 golden gourami, 1 platy, 2 Siamese algae eaters, 2 Bolivian butterflies, a bristle-nosed pleco, and one mid-sized bala shark. The RNTs were original, I won't be replacing them over time - too flashy for my taste... I had 5 tiger barbs originally, one died and the remaining four started fighting amongst themselves more. Adding five more fixed that, well as soon as the new barbs grew a little and they all started schooling together. They are cool fish, almost copper colored around the gills in the evenings, sometimes turning a metallic green when chasing each other, and they leave all the other fish alone. The butterflies were my last addition - very pretty, peaceful fish, but they stand their ground when it comes to tasty algae wafers! I had to isolate my red tailed black shark - he was OK in the 85 L, but he gradually got more and more aggro in the 440 L tank - he's by himself in the 85 now. I'll try reintroducing him to the 440 L after a few weeks. I'd like another bala, but I'm not sure about stock levels or how large balas go in planted tanks. He sometimes schools with my gourami - who puts up with it for a while then ducks for cover. After watching a few older balas at the LFS, I think my one would appreciate another of his kin to muck about with. Are bristle nosed plecos OK in a planted tank? I know the larger plecos are a no-no, how about BNPs? Anyhow, after battling with Dotphoto and a few other photo sites, and posting into the wrong forum, I've finally got some pics on line. Feel free to offer comments and constructive criticism on plant spacing, stock levels, and by all means feel free to answer my questions! Remember, n00b alert! My plants are starting to go for it, and the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are all zero. For now I'm using Flourish Excel and API Leaf Zone, along with fert tabs in the substrate. I'm going to look into PMDD soon. Can someone please ID the plant to the right of the stump? It's going crazy and needs lots of pruning, not too sure if I'll keep it once the swords grow in... -Si -Si

I was only concerned with the foam in the first tray, being a new tank I thought there'd probably been lots of physical debris getting filtered compared to an established tank . The plastic grill and the first two layers of foam were fairly gummed up it turned out. I wasn't worried about the bio filter as I was only messing with the first basket. The cycle seems ok still, my ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all zero - my plants are just starting to take off Hamilton tap water seems high in PO4 though, but I'm ok algae-wise - probably 'cos I'm using Excel? Here's a couple of tank pics anyhow... Thanks for the help, the people on this forum are awesome

Can you recycle wool by rinsing it out?

Yeah, it didn't need it, new car syndrome I had the lid off to add some wool, as the stock foam seemed to be letting some fine particles through. I thought I might as well rinse the foam while it was accessible. I also just wanted to have a look and see how dirty it was after that period - comparing the manual with my own observations. Now the tank's all set up I need something to mess about with! Must. Resist. Buying. Another. Tank!