Jennifer

+1 Stocker has made an aquatic trace mix that can be used with fish and they have fantastic customer service!! For my 400l tank I add 1 tsp KNO3, 1/2 tsp KH2PO4, 1/4 tsp iron, 3/4 tsp trace mix every other day, 50% water change every Sunday followed by 1 Tbsp MgSO4. and 1tsp CaSO4. It has an 8 hr photo period 8 T5HO plus 30ppm CO2. It's an outdated myth that phosphate needs to be limited. It used to be thought that limiting nutrients would limit algae, but now we know that it only limits plant growth and when plants don't grow well, they can't use up nutrients and the algae can take over. The best approach is to make all nutrients unlimited (that's the principle of Tom Barr's Estimative Index) and limit the light to control growth if needed. Plenty of fast growing plants will out-compete algae so get 10x more plants than you think you will need, add plenty of nutrients (including carbon/CO2) and go easy on the lighting and work up to more if needed. :thup:

Good news Caryl! :thup: The orthopod who did my tennis ankle is in Merivale, Paul Armour. He was very good.

The bacteria in the filter are alive so hot water and chlorinated tap water can kill it off. Even if you just clean one part of the media, the other part may not have enough bacteria to deal with all the waste in the tank which could result in an ammonia spike each time you clean the filter. It is good to gently rinse the filter media in a bucket of water taken from the tank and then pop it back into the filter as soon as possible to retain the live bacteria. I prefer not to clean the filter unless the flow noticeably decreases.

Looking good! Plant growth is non linear to the CO2 concentrations - you will still get good growth if CO2 levels are not up but if lighting and fertilisation are optimal, then CO2 will be limiting. You definitely need phosphate when you increase the lighting or you will get green spot algae followed by deficiencies. Dosing monopotassium phosphate (KH2P04) in addition to potassium nitrate (KN03) will give you all the nitrogen, potassium and phosphate you need. Dose them at a ratio of about three parts potassium nitrate to one part monopotassium phosphate. EI ranges for macros are approximately: CO2 25-35 ppm Nitrate (NO3) 10-30 ppm Potassium (K+) 10-30 ppm Phosphate (PO4) 1.0-2.0 ppm Iron (Fe) 0.2-0.5ppm or higher GH range 17-40 ppm or higher - you are already adding MgSO4 but you need to have good calcium levels too so if your tap water has low calcium levels you can add calcium sulphate (CaSO4) at about 1 teaspoon per 400L once weekly. This can really make a huge difference in plant growth.

Nitrate tests are notoriously inaccurate so I wouldn't be too concerned especially as nitrate is not harmful to the vast majority of fish, even in high levels. When the plants get growing well (as mentioned above :thup: ) they will use up the nitrates. I find that even with a healthy filter, a dead fish or excess feeding will rarely show much of a detectable rise in ammonia levels so I would guess that you could have had a hiccup in the bio filter to lead to an ammonia spike. Now that you have cleaned everything, you may have dislodged a lot of bacteria and that could lead to another small ammonia spike. In the mean time, don't overfeed, keep up the water changes and try not to add untreated tap water if you have a lot of chlorine in your tap water (just to prevent killing the bacteria that are trying to establish in your filter).

They could be poo, although they look exactly like the things I saw in my daphnia tank outside. They were environmental worms and infested the tank surfaces. I don't know what type of worms they are but they are red and live inside those little tunnels. The tunnels are distinctly all around the same length and can be straight or slightly bent. The tunnels seem to be made of mulm or something.

Ooooooo I am pumpkin obsessed. I will have to get those seeds. :happy2: Too bad they don't come out at the right time of year though...we should be harvesting them now, not planting them! :facepalm:

Perhaps you need a hat LMCB, stylish cat hats are all the rage you know. From here.

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That is so true!! They are so smart like that! :facepalm: I would guess that if the leaves disintegrate, they are nutrient deficient. Leaves that get holes are often a result of deficiency. Lotus are very hungry for micronutrients. If you have a root fertiliser ball, that will help. If you don't have any of those, you can use ordinary Osmocote (slow release fertiliser beads you can get for potted plants), just freeze them in an ice cube and when frozen, plunge it under the lotus' roots. Edit: typo :oops:

Welcome! :thup: Great to see another Chch person here. We have a friendly local Chch club, if you are interested in learning more about it, the details are here: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?p=403

LMCB, are you posting all this using your iPhone? If so, do you find that dust from the litter tray becomes a problem on the display?

Welcome! :thup: For some reason the website is down but you can have a look here for the club info: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?p=403

Perhaps it's a Hydra. They are a bit of a pest. I'm going out to dinner with a bunch of friends tonight, but I don't feel like it for some reason. I'm such a nana....

I dunno, that's plant nerd territory. :smln: :lol: I do know that it is one of the plant committee's plans this year to start getting all of that information in a handy database here on the site. Some people are workin hard. :happy2:

Here are some pics of mine. She was stressing with me hovering over her but usually doesn't have those red spots. She's quite a bit more round in the body compared to the male.

In keeping with our commitment to represent our members locally and nationally, the FNZAS is collaborating with NIWA on projects involving aquatic plants. Pretty cool eh? 8) http://www.niwa.co.nz/node/102378 Go the plant committee!!! :smln:

The Fish Sub committee present to the executive last month and the quarterly exec meeting last week approved the 2011-2012 fish sub committee action plan. All details are in the FNZAS Exec meeting minutes. We are continuing work on the Biosecurity New Zealand ornamental fish list. They use Fishbase so that is our reference as well.

Over 34 million views??? :facepalm:

Mine's about $550. About $170 of that is just powering the 12 tanks. Cheaper than a horse... :dunno:

I will try to get a pic of my female but it might be a few days. I have had females before and they all have looked the same, very while, more round in the body and with virtually no striping. They do tend to be a little pink but I think it is more due to the tissue under the translucent skin!

Usually quality is associated with freshness and fresh seeds will sprout because they are alive. I would be sure your sprouting technique is sound and if one type don't sprout at all, I would consider changing to a type that do - but that is just me.

That's a subordinate male Dario, the females don't have that striping. The fish look nice and healthy.