Carlos & Siran

Check Nitrate and Ammonia levels. Small tanks are harder to keep stable, extra fish means more poo, perhaps the kiddies have been over feeding because of the new fish?

why was the first stand a fail?

Very cool, well done.

Not atm no, we want something tall to full out the back of the tank, Rotorua has it but at $6.50 per plant it's a bit on the steep side as we want at least 15 or so, we'll prolly source bits and pieces. Do you know of a plant like Vallisaria Americana that's allowed in NZ that's not banned?

From what I remember what P44 said, plants will grow differently under pink lighting, and differently again under blue. I think he said the higher the K rating the better the growth. We couldn't find T5s at the lengths needed for the 850, but I guess that doesn't mean they're not available.

Joe is kindly sending us some Ambulia this week, but it's for our south east Asian project. We'd like to keep to SA native plants/fish as much as possible. Our original plan was to have a biotope but we realized fairly early on that a true biotope is difficult and restrictive, so we've changed to a South American themed tank.

Actually, we only bought 3 plants, Matt Smith kindly sent us 3 more free. We highly recommend him(TradeMe name: Cellar.door)

http://www.aquascapingworld.com/plantpe ... 0Pennywort Edit: Sorry, just noticed that's for Leucocephala and not Verticillata

Schwartz's Corydora 44, perhaps I used the wrong common name?, Wonderworld in Rotorua has them, seen them on TM from time to time.

I'm not sure, seemed like a good idea at the time, It seems to have lots of strong healthy new leaves but it also seems to have quite a few withered looking brown leaves which it didn't have before. Do you think we should plant it in the substrate?

So it's been aprox 3 weeks since we started the actual tank, though this has been in the planning stage for at least 2 months. Tank dimensions: 120.2cm long x 44.5 cm deep x 50 cm high. (285ltrs) Substrate: Daltons aqua base covered in a combination of several substrates. Decorations: Large piece of driftwood (Macro tree root) Plants: 6 x swords, including ozelot and rose, plus others but we've forgotten the names. 2 x types of Reineckii, one purple, 1 green. (About 6 of each) 6 x water star grass 10 x Dwarf sag 1 x Hydrocotyle 2 x Christmas moss 6 x Dwarf hair grass Still to come: Cabomba Lighting: 2 x T8 Super light Atman 30 watt 10.000K 1 x T8 pink 30 watt 12.000K (intend to replace these soon with new tubes when we can afford to) Filtration: 1 x Standard 2000lph trickle filter 1 x Eheim 2215 external(620lph) Stock: 2 x Blue mystery snails Still to come: 1 x Royal Panaque 1 x Royal Whiptail 6 x Cochu blue tetras 3 x Oto's 5 x Marble Hatchets 10/12 x Mosaic Cories 1 x BGK Current lighting frequency and fert program: Lighting-currently 4 hrs per day, have just changed to 6, will watch algae and switch back to 4 if it becomes a problem. Fert- 35mls flourish/week 40mls/Ferropol/week Other- 35mls StressZyme/week Will add DIY CO2 in the next few weeks, and hope to change to canister CO2 when we can afford it. Will use the fert program Jenifer and 44 use as soon as the tank matures. Comments and constructive criticism welcome. Alan: All the plants are doing very well so far except the Green Reineckii which seems to be just rotting away, it's getting as much light as the other plants. (The tubes in the tank are old and definitely need replacing, do you think this could be the problem?)

We tried getting T5s for ours but they don't come in the correct length, so we we've gone with 1 T8 power glow and 1 T8 Aqua glow and 1 59 1/2 cm pink T8 tropical plant grow.

Nice pics, is that in the Ukraine?

the last 4 links don't seem to work mate.

Our local would be on the farm and unfortunately it's as you'd expect, lot's of runoff and effluent, I'm not proud of that aspect of my chosen profession and hope to help change things one day. We're now back up North Stella, only a few minutes drive from where the mudfish are/were (near the airport) but unfortunately there has been a bush fire over that entire area, I hope this hasn't affected the mudfish population considerably....

Tardis

idiosyncrasy

You guys do realize that correct grammar and spelling make it much easier to get your point across yes? Repto, I have absolutely no idea what you just said, I've read it several times and I'm still confused, were you being sarcastic or are you making a valid point? Far be it from me to be part of the spelling and grammar police but this seems to be becoming a real problem on this site of late, I'm not talking about honest typos. I'm starting to think that it should become a rule that all posts must be edited correctly or be removed.........

Our driftwood just refused to sink so we ended up sticking it to a rock using two pot epoxy, worked quite well, though here's a tip, ensure the rock you use is actually heavy enough to hold the wood down before you stick it on :facepalm:

Welcome mate, at the rate we're getting Northland members we'll be able to re-start the Northland club back up........

Here's hoping he's instilled a new hobby for you?, new fish keepers are always welcome here

that was my first thought, I should Imagine if you take a wander around your neighborhood you'll find a creek or stream somewhere. Stella about this morning? http://terranature.org/kokopuBanded.htm Very cool fish

Good luck, money isn't everything, especially if you have no dependents?

Crucify the dead - Slash feat Ozzy Ozbourne

Anyone wanna come in to chat room? I'm in here with Ira and he's getting grumpy.....