lmsmith

Mmm. This is exactly what it looks like, and quite frankly, I find it disgusting. Saying something is bad because it's girly is sexist, and saying something is gay and you wouldn't wear it is homophobic. Grow up, and grow some tolerance, people.

I usually use a tbs for every 10l, added over 2 days. My method isn't exactly science.

Welcome! Looking awesome! Your lighting should be sufficient to grow some cool plants if you were wanting to go that route. It's nice to have the plastic ones to fill in the space until you grow enough live plants for your liking.

Alrighty, it's awesome that we've narrowed it down. I would try doing a huge water change to get your phosphate down as low as possible (maybe leave the water sitting out to get up to room temp before adding it into your tank, so it's not cold and you don't have to add hot). Take a phoshate reading. Do your regular routine with lighting, but don't feed the tank. Do another phosphate reading in 5 days without feeding and see how much the fish are adding to the system. I wonder if it's also worth setting up another container of a similar size and ghost feeding it then doing a phosphate reading - that way you can see if the fish or food are adding more phosphate? If it's the food, you can change to a lower phosphate food. If it's the fish, you can reduce the bioload by taking out some fish and seeing if that helps.

She HAS torn it down and started from stratch.

Yes, he did. But I agree, off topic.

Saying something is girly and that you don't want it BECAUSE it's girly is sexist. It's also a gender stereotype, you're right.

Chur for your sexism, bro.

You want a compressor. They can be noisy, but they pump a lot of air.

Whitespot and ich are different names for the same thing - it's all ichthyophthirius multifiliis. There are lots of treatments for it. My recommendation, regardless of which one you choose is to continue to treat after the spots have gone away. 14 days after the last spot goes is a good idea. Do some research on the life cycle of ich - you'll do better treating it if you understand it.

Not sure I agree with that distinction - if you deliberately kill something to cause the most pain you can, then eat it, it's still cruelty.

This tank is cool! I would probably set it up as a crazzzzzy densely planted tank. It's viewable from three sides so that makes it an ideal densely planted tank. I wonder if there's another clip on lighting system you could use? Even order another one of the lights it comes with as supplimentary lighting to keep with the look?

Wooooooo. That's a big clown.

The tank looks like this There's a solid top except for a small gap for the HOB filter and access to the tank.

No CO2, and I won't be running it. The tank is almost a closed box and I'm a bit concerned about gas exchange at the best of times. I'm thinking of rigging up some supplimental lighting. It is growing, just too slow for me!

Interesting that the hot water has a reading. Do you usually use some hot water when doing WCs?

She's just taken the entire tank apart and cleaned everything. I don't think that's the issue

I'm super jealous your hairgrass is spreading already. My stuff is taking it's sweet time, though bf insists it is.

Nano planted are awesome - here'smy first planted tank - 23l.

I would definitely not be starting my first dabble into reefs with a 55l. The bigger, the better for reef tanks, especially if you're just starting off. My first reef tank was a 90l and it was very hard work. I'd never go under 200l now unless I also had a bigger tank so I could do daily WCs.

Could be from overfeeding, or there's phosphate bound somewhere that's leaching. Fresh water + substrate, and fresh water + rock, then test tomorrow should help isolate the issue - if it's not coming from those, there aren't many things left!

Cool, that's exactly what I thought and is part of the reason I don't keep natives - I can't guarantee I can care for them for the next 10 years!

There's also a dam just north of Taupo that gets released around every lunchtime. It's cool. It's about a 10m drive north. The geothermal walk called Craters of the Moon is wicked - you do have to pay but it's not much. It's a good, pretty flattish walk that can take a couple of hours if you're slow and look at everything along the way. In that same area is horse treking - it costs, of course, but it could be within your budget. The Honey Hive near the Huka Falls is definitely worth stopping in at - it's free, you can learn about bees and taste test honey. Along that same area near the prawn farm is a geothermal activities centre where you can learn about volcanoes and stuff. The Huka jet is cool, but I think it's around $60-70. The prawn farm is also pretty cool, you can go fishing for your own prawns. Awesome. If you can, drive around to Kinloch and spend the day at the beach over there. There are lots of walks in that area too. Right opposite the turnoff where you go up to De Bretts and across to Napier is a hotel and little road. If you drive down the road and park at the bottom, then walk around the lake to the right past the rocks. Bury your feet in the sand, and it's nice hot water and sand. A perfect way to spend an evening with some fish and chips, but make sure to bring your insect repellant.

I thought you weren't supposed to release things you had taken home?

I haven't kept them but I was really interested for a while and did a bunch of research. They usually only have a few batches of viable fry before the start not developing properly. They're livebearers so bigger fry, but Ithink a 3mm net wouldn't be enough - I think they'd probably be able to suck the fry through. What about one of those plastic breeding boxes, put mum in the breeding box in fry tank when she's ready to drop, then put her back in the main tank>