oO SKIPPY Oo

here are some pics of the fish in question (unfortunately they were taken with a low end camera)

I've called BOC and Air Liquide here in Wellington and its blimmin costly to rent. If you check with a company closest to you that does the cylinder testing they should be able to provide you with a tank and new valve that may cost more than a years rental but at least you own the cylinder etc. Since calling BOC etc I've found a place in WLG that will provide a 2nd hand 3.5kg tank, tested, with a new valve for about $250. I've had no luck finding anywhere else in Wellington that will / can provide anything similar. I read on here somewhere about a place in AKL that provides tanks and valves for about $200 but I don't know the sizes etc yet. On Trademe I have seen a regulator with 6 outlets on it but cant find it now for you

not much of a life for the fish if it has to hide out in the ship or whatever IMO - it would be like stranding you on an island in a pool with sharks swimming round

They are some :nfs:

its hard to see with the flash on - can you take any pics without ?

im 32

Jennifer - your a legend, I will get started on a shopping list for my co2 tank etc and start dosing every couple of days with comprehensive and excel. Can you get bulk micros and macros (separate of course) or just the micros? if just micros do you know anyone that can supply the bulk macros?

Thanks for reply - I think by removing the cabomba I have reduced the amount of trimming I need to do - that was the fastest grower in the tank but my other issue with the cabomba was when i trimmed it looked a bit ugly. I've never really had any luck with floating indian fern in this tank i dont know if its the amount of light or something else but every time I had tried it just goes brown and dies off. I'm trying some in my daughters tank which is very low tech - a t4 tube, no ferts apart from Daltons Aquatic Mix under the same gravel I'm using in my other tank - and so far so good but im not holding my breath i just have to wait and see. I'm not really after fast plant growth but if that's what its going to take to get rid of the algae then so be it I just double checked and the single 10,000 k tube is on for 7 hours from 12pm to 7pm (mind you that was reduced last week from 1x 10,000k and 1x 18,000k PowerGLO but same length of time) I have about 3/4 of a 500ml bottle of Flourish comprehensive so i will use that up first but when that is all gone to cover off the macro and micro nutrients would something like this be better? http://www.trademe.co.nz/Pets-animals/Fish/Water-treatment/auction-384736933.htm - if I remember correctly there was someone here selling macros and micros in a dry mix it yourself form but i forget who it was. So your suggesting that i need to add Excel even though im running DIY CO2? would i be better off getting a pressurized system ? im not sure if i mentioned that im running my co2 through an airstone i know i need to get myself a diffuser or something else ? if there is anything else that is better for difusing diy co2 into the tank? Thanks for your help

Hi Jennifer, can I ask for help I have a couple of tanks that are planted but my main problem is my discus tank Dimensions & volume of tank = 80x40x40 / 128L Lighting = I have a 4 tube T5 but currently running is only 1x 10,000 Kalvin tube (turned off the 18,000 PowerGlo due to issues listed below) probably on for about 9 hours a day - I need to check that when i get home tonight. Substrate = 1 inch Daltons aquatic mix, with 1.5 inches gravel on top Plants = Twist Val, Sagittaria microfolia, and the big leafed plant from this shot which i forget the name of http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=49091&start=17. I pulled the cabomba and ambulia it was just getting out of hand too much space between the leaves. Fish stocking = 2 Discus, 1 GAE, 8 Neons (i was looking at getting more like 20 more but that may be too many for the tank), 2 Pearl Gouramis (which i may find a new home for) Goals = to rid myself of green hair algae, a small amount of black beard algae, and the brown/magenta algae on the leaves of the Sagittaria. I spend about 3 hours a week on my tanks now but i dont want to be trimming plants all the time, thats why i have pulled the cabomba etc. dont have a big budget anything under $100 should be ok. A couple of other notes - I'm running DIY CO2 but I'm not getting much pearling on the plants so I think I need to make some changes with my recipe (1.5L bottle 1.5 cups sugar, 2 teaspoons active yeast). I have Flourish Comprehensive but only put 1 cap in when I do my weekly water changes. I have Flourish Excel which I also put in 1 cap in the weekly water changes (this was to help with the black beard) Hopefully from this you can sort me out

22 degrees would be at the lower end of what they are considered to live in http://www.fishlore.com/Profiles-Swordtail.htm swordtails will tend to eat the babies unless they have somewhere to hide, from what i hear guppies don't, not sure about mollies or platies though. also I have seen some large guppies that were the same size as mollies, and swordtails etc.

just to add another to the list - swordtails - which are similar to mollies and platties can have up to and over 120 babies per birth - at least my ones have

Thanks, I put 3 fish in there to cycle it before putting in my baby angels and they like going through the tunnels I made so thats all good

Heres a better shot of the tank and a close up of the rock wall

they are pretty sweet especially since they don't stand out like sore thumbs

Thanks everyone. I used a teaspoon to get the contours and tunnels etc and then used a heat gun to melt the poly to make it a bit harder and less likely to fall apart as i handled it. The last coat of concrete I mixed in some black oxide to get the color and then 2 coats of expoxy resin to seal it all up. I think it looks bluer than it actually is because of the phone so i might try and get some better pics with a camera tomorrow.

After many months of procrastinating I have finally finished a background for a tank i setup at work this weekend - the planting leaves a lot to be desired but as more come available from my other tanks at home i will plant out some more. The rock wall at the back is just over half the back wall so I had room for the heater and filter intake pipe which will hopefully be covered up by twisted val etc in a few months time. The wall has a few hole that join together with a bit of a cave from the left hand side so the fish have somewhere they can hide if required. excuse the image quality as the pic was taken from my phone

my wife would say i have no patentice so may 3 or 4 days is how long i should wait

sweet - i need to get this tank up and running so that might be tomorrows job just to give it one more day - now to work out how im going to plant this thing.

I have recently made a half tank background and glued it in place with the aquarium safe silicon on thursday - how long should i wait before planting and filling with water ?

nice work Ali. I'm getting my work tank ready over the next 3 weeks so unless i go coldwater with koura and bullies i could be interested in getting a few babies or the other pair if you still have them

this auction http://www.trademe.co.nz/Pets-animals/Fish/Lights-lamps/auction-376933113.htm specifies the height of the unit and comes with 4 tubes (i know you said 2 tubes - but i have a 4 tube fitting with 2 switches on it so i run 2 only on my 60cm fitting)

i was in the pet centre yesterday and thought there had to be a better range of the tubes as i could see heaps of the T8 sizes but only a couple of the T5's - i was about to walk away and ask for the size tube i wanted when i found most of the T5's were directly behind me in the same isle but not next to each other - did you notice them there ?

yep he caught it - 30 mins to land so probably tired. oh and apparently that one was small !!

oh to have a lot of space and a nice big pond like that

you shouldnt have any issues growing the ambulia, but i wonder if you need to setup a diy co2 bottle and remove the airstone ?