oO SKIPPY Oo

mmm can i ask what they didnt eat then or was it lots of the same plant they like to eat ?

i was afraid someone was going to say that - guess im getting more plastic plants since my tank looks quite bare at the mo. cheers

i have read on some sites that severums eat plants ? is this correct ? are there any plants that they wont eat ?

cheers - you pretty much just confirmed the light theory i had standard brown white and black stones in the bottom of the tank before but have now just changed to silica sand - but i dont think thats it !! I will try the different lights - come to think of it about 6 months ago i upgraded tanks from a 70L Hex with only angels and 1 severum in which i had a smaller light with a warmer color band and the color did stand out more esp in the sev - i will try the different colors and see how it turns out....now to find some bulbs i can steal from around the house..

can tank lights affect the color of your fish - i ask because when i brough my green severums from the LFS they had nice dark colors but in my tank they have turned a dark cream in color however when one of them hides in his / her log the color almost seems to come back - the other one colored up a little bit when i got my gold sev but still not the same as when i bought them... also the stripes on my angels really only come out when the lights are off ive got a arcadia freshwater ff15 lamp if that means anything to anyone ? here are some pics of my fish and this is how they use to look (pics from the net) http://www.bromba.com/knowhow/Green_Severum.jpg http://www.bharada.com/aquaria/125/125_wild_angels.jpg Cheers Skip

i have been averaging about 10ppm at a weekly test so its not overly high but i might take a look at the chems to remove nitrates and see how things go. thanks again everyone.

thanks for the info everyone - i took a ride to placemakers on the old hutt road and found they do actually sell silica sand and it was even labelled as Silica sand - i guess i got one of the guys in the showroom rather than the trade section but its all good now...

thanks for the welcomes - i feel at home - i just checked my tap water and the nitrate level is about 5ppm...is it worth worrying about these levels ? or should i just leave as is ? cheers

nice pic - seeing that makes me want to change form gravel to sand even more - how do you find cleaning it ? i know with the amount of fish i have now i find a lot of poo on the bottom of the tank esp from the 2 BNCatfish i have - messy little buggers.....i found some details about the pollution from the greater wellington council site http://www.gw.govt.nz/story1683.cfm? are those levels pretty high ? Sample Date Parameter Analysed Result (n/100ml) 18-Aug-09 Enterococci Bacteria 110

one of our local beaches has really nice sand but yeah not sure about the polution levels - is there any way to check ?

i rang Placemakers in the old hutt road and the guy that answered said they didnt have any Silica sand - what a git - might have to take a ride down there tomorrow. how long ago did you get yours ? cheers

good idea - will try that now.

Does anyone know if there any shops in wellington that sell silica sand ? so something that is a light colour ? im sick of gravel, and dont want the grey sand that the plant places sell. do i need to go to a quarry or is beach sand ok ? cheers Skip

thanks for the reassurance i was a little worried about it but and didnt really want to be putting anymore chemicals into my water than was absolutely nessacary as was suggested to drop the nitrate levels

Hello - My names Craig and im from Miramar in Wellington. Ive come across this site a couple of times but not creating an account stopped me being able to search so here i am Im a bit of a newbie to fish (flushed a lot of goldfish but having better luck with tropicals ) I have a 128L tank with the following 2x Green Severums 1x Gold Severum 2x Bristlenose Catfish 3x Tiger Barbs 3x Golden Tiger Barbs 5x Odessa Barbs 5x Angels (standard wild varity i think) 1x Rainbow Shark 3x swordtails My water paramas seem to be pretty stable PH 7.4 Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 10ppm I have been speaking to my LFS and they seem to think that the Nitrate level is high but i have been reading comments that anything higher than 40ppm in an unplanted tank is bad and should be looked at I do weekly water 40% changes and my water is clear i dont have an algae issue and apart from the odd whitespot breakout when adding new fish i think im doing everything right.. anyway thats me and hope to gain more knowledge through you guys