Jennifer

Even in small amounts ammonia is extremely toxic to most living organisms (including humans) so I seriously doubt that the council would add it to our water supplies!

ROFL that is brilliant!! Very well done on the costume, you looked great! Mum and dad looked cute too.

As many of you saw this tank in progress when you were down at conference, I thought I would post some pics now that I have started planting and populating it. It is still in the early stages and some aspects are still in progress. The right hand side is largely just a placeholder until the rest gets established and the new plants are ready. Dimensions: 1830mm long x 500mm high x 500mm deep Volume: approx 400L Glass: 10mm all sides, European bracing Heating: Jager 300w x 2 Filtration: FX5, heavy on biological filtration; Fluval 405, mechanical filtration Lighting: 4 strips T5 Powerglow (two strips on a 5 hour photoperiod for two weeks to allow the plants to adjust) Co2: Injected and pH controlled Substrate: Dalton's propagating sand + JBL root balls under crypts and swords Other fertilisation: NPK and Flourish comprehensive 4x weekly, 50% weekly water change Fish (so far): Red rainbows x 2 (more to be added) Boesman rainbows x 2 (more to be added) Praecox rainbows x 6 Green fire tetras x 40 Spotted hatchetfish x 6 Red whiptails x 2 Gold bristlenose ancistrus x 2 Siamese algae eaters x 2 Gold zebra loaches x 6 Striata loaches x 6 Plants (so far, some will stay and some will go): Anubias barteri v. barteri Anubias barteri v. 'nana' (Anubias barteri v. 'nana golden') Anubias barteri v. nana 'petite' Anubias barteri 'marble' Bolbitis heudelotti Cryptocoryne wendtii v. “Brown” Cryptocoryne wendtii de witt "Red" Cryptocoryne lutea Cryptocoryne crispatula v. “Balansae Green” Cryptocoryne affinis Echinodorus x. “Rubin” Ludwigia arcuata Ludwigia repens Microsorum pteropus v.'Windeløv' Microsorum pteropus v. 'narrow leaf' Nymphaea lotus 'Zenkeri' Vesicularia montagnei

A 20L Bag of Dalton's propagating sand from the red shed: $4 Difference it will make to your tank: Priceless Looking at inspirational tanks shouldn't take away your own vision, it should "...incite a riot of new ideas." - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Wasn't meant to imply that you should copy it, just feel inspired by the colour contrasts and composition.

The hardscape is the hardest part...remember the style is based on three feature rocks. Even if you break away from that concept, your arrangement could be missing a 'feature' rock. You should enrich that substrate and grow the glosso emersed to get a good fast carpet going before adding water. A feature plant would go nicely amongst the rocks. Something like this perhaps? Image courtesy of: http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazin ... Style.html

You have chosen a good number of samples and that will help to create a good set of data for your results and help to minimise experimental error. However, you need to decide what you are testing. It sounds like you are trying to see how well StressZyme works to eliminates ammonia. To do that, you would need to compare it to a negative control and ideally also a positive control. For example, you could have one sample set with plain water (your positive control, it should always show the presence of ammonia since there are no denitrifying bacteria in the sample), one set with StressZyme added (your test sample) and one set with used tank water vaccumed from a cycled tank (your negative control, it should always show deceased ammonia levels since there are definately denitrifying bacteria in the sample). Then you would then add the same amount of pure ammonia to each sample and see how much ammonia is left after 5 days, 10 days, 15 days (or something like that). That sounds like a good idea, although it would be better to have good oxygen flow right around the media where the bacteria will grow. If you can't afford a small sponge filter for each sample, how about adding a chunk of sponge to the end if the airline so that air is flowing through the media - you can get ordinary sponge pretty cheaply. Then you wouldn't need to use any other media. This is a good idea although there are a couple of things to consider: 1. Test sensitivity - The amount of ammonia you add should be low enough that you don't kill the bacteria outright, but high enough to be detectable on your test kit. Better do a preliminary study with various ppm of ammonia to determine how sensitive your test kit is. 2. Temperature - The test sample at about 30 degrees C should do an ammonia cycle in 3 to 5 days. At cooler temperatures, this will take a lot longer so if you can't keep them warm, you might need to keep sampling for up to three weeks or so. If you had more sample pottles it would be very interesting to also use a couple of other products as samples too, such as Cycle and TLC Smart Start. Let us know how it turns out.

A couple of us are hosting students here in Christchurch but there are a few students in Wellington who are desperate to find a place where they can get some hands on experience caring for reptiles and amphibians. I should clarify that these are almost exclusively a group of girls who are studying to become veterinary nurses. Many of them know little or nothing about reptiles but one day may be required to give advice at a clinic so it is vital that they learn from experienced keepers. Please help if you can. This could have a long ranging impact on the reptile community.

I often have too much to use so leftovers are just left in the jar of freshwater overnight in a cool place. In the morning the vast majority are still alive and I sometimes decide to just feed them out as normal. The fish eat them no problem.

Pm'd as I don't want to drag this thread off topic.

That is correct. In other animal species, Levamisole has gone out of favour for many reasons mainly to do with reactions associated with injectable use but in fish it has proven safety at large doses (the oral LD50 for most mammals is between 200mg/kg and 1000mg/kg). Most anthelmintics are generally safe at many times the therapeutic dose and in the aquatics ward we often dosed at many times the therapeutic dose over several days in a row when we encountered confirmed drug resistance problems. One of the biggest benefits of using Levamisole is that it is very soluble in water compared to fenbendazole which can settle out in suspension. Levamisole can also be administered topically (on the skin), enterally (by mouth) or parenterally (by intravenous or subcutaneous injection). Fenbendazole is a very effective medication but it is poorly absorbed through the gills so it is best given orally (by feeding). Either way, if you are routinely deworming your fish (e.g. on a regular schedule more than once per year) you should rotate between the two drugs or resistance is very likely to occur. Again, praziquantel can be safely combined with either of these drugs if you want to deworm for cestodes and trematodes as well.

Beautiful. I am really impressed. I love your natural aesthetic.

Mmmmmmmmm, I am not a fizzy fan but DrPepper is my fave...reminds me of the hot summer days of my youth after a long dusty trail ride. ...errr derail. Welcome to the forum.

A big one?? Oooooooo. 8) Must be cake involved.

Wow, they look great!

no pressure....

Well said David, I would have to agree.

Actually, that is an excellent point. Fish generally ingest calcium as needed from the water. In marine fishes, there is an abundance of calcium but in freshwater fishes, there may be comparatively little calcium in the water and as such, the fish could be reduced to mobilising bodily stores from the bones and scales. Around a third of a fish's body calcium stores is found in the scales and calcium is mobilised from the scales in priority to that from the bones. This is especially true for females that are developing eggs. The result is thin weakened scales (among other things). The point is, I wonder if weakened scales might be a contributing factor to HITH.

We are having a good increase in membership lately so we might win the trophy next year as well. 8) Yes, that is a challenge to all the other clubs Calling all Chch people, come join us, it is only $15 a year and you get to get all the groovy benefits like discounts to fishy businesses and the very cool Aquarium World magazine (plus some pretty good food at the meetings....). Meetings are really informal, we are a social friendly group who spends most of the time visiting. We are looking to jazz it up this year with some fun activities for those who are keen - no reason not to join! Oh, and if we win the trophy next year for biggest increase in membership, I will personally ensure that every active member receives a reward that involves something delectable!

There are some very good points and ideas here and Stuart is correct when implying that the FNZAS should not be a regulatory body. We must be clear that the FNZAS is a representative body not a regulatory body and the distinction is very important in this case (you can't support someone and slap them on the hand at the same time). If we want to be influential of the regulatory body we will have to consider having a say on one of the Ministerial advisory committees for the Animal Welfare Act - e.g. the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) or the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee (NAEAC). This is a long term objective (and a very big ask) but one with a significant impact. In the short term, we can act as advisors and advocates of good fishkeeping and some of these ideas are well on the way at making a significant impact on our communities. I am looking forward to the development of some of these ideas with a solid rationale and a good plan for action. Suggestions are encouraged. More on the Animal Welfare Act 1999 can be found here: http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/legislat ... m#advisory

Awesome thanks for the advice. They look quite good. I have also been thinking about the L239...what do you think about them?

+1 to the rainbows. They are also a lot more hardy than gourami or rams.

In the water column, not in the substrate (since mosses are not root feeders).

Here is what I do to keep clean cultures: 1. Each grindal culture is a shallow take-away food container with no holes in the lid 2. I mix peat with ground eggshells, wet it and squeeze it dry 3. Put a layer of the peat in the container, no more than 10mm thick 4. Put a clean culture of worms in a small spot on top of the peat 5. Put a 10mm square piece of luncheon directly on the spot of worms 5. Keep the culture at 25-27 degrees (it should be ready to feed out in 2-3 weeks). 6. Remove the piece of leftover luncheon every day, any mites will be clinging to it. If they are not clinging to it, they will be right under where it was so are easy to pluck away (once the culture is really clean, you may only have to remove a couple of mites per week to keep it under control although it is possible to have no mites). I have glass on some of my cultures but find that it can go anerobic pretty quick. I prefer to just feed out when the population gets large enough that they start climbing the walls and lid (I dunk the lid in the tank or wipe the sides of the container down with my finger). I feed out every day with the same culture for about three weeks and then start new culture using 'clean' worms from the lid and sides of the container. If I have an infected culture, I keep it away from the clean cultures. It is possible to clean up infected cultures but it is easier to just start up new ones. To clean up an infected culture I do this: 1. Put a thin layer of the infected culture in a sealed container (so the mites cannot escape). 2. Wet the culture so that it is like wet mud, and create a small peak that rises out of the mud 3. Stick a piece of luncheon to a glass cover and place the luncheon on the peak 4. Each day remove the luncheon and the mites that are clinging to it. Scrape away any mites that are on the glass and under where the luncheon was. You can also flood the mixture with water and pour off the adult mites since they float - the grindals will survive in water for a week but they will not be able to feed or multiply this way. It is difficult to dry out the culture after that though and the worms will not be concentrated around the food so will not multiply very fast (it is best to keep them concentrated right under the food, that way they only think of eating and multiplying - that is why a thin culture works best). I can post pics if needed.