Sophia

it's brookfields tonic salt

ok thanks everybody, I shall divert my husband from his current 'to do list' and set him on this new one edit.......... got bulb out, it's a beautiful shade of charcoal inside and the filament is not attached to the other side anymore... off to supercheap and hopefully problem solved :happy2:

nice fish/tank

Does anyone know if my car will fail it's warrant if the high stop brake light isn't working? The regular brake lights work perfectly. LTSA site doesn't give a straight answer on it. I have a vague memory that they are treated as extra, if they don't work you don't fail :dunno: thanks

There was a very good book in Auckland City library about mushrooms, your library might also have it.

reed

Hey Nymox, where is the black sand from, did you raid nature somewhere or buy from a shop?

waterfall!

I think what I was getting at here was that my killie tank has KH-softer water than the cory tank and it has salt. The addition of salt alters the ph I think too, so I was thinking that acid/alkaline could indicate soft/hard. So I think it is the addition of salt as a mineral/whatever that has altered the softness/hardness. I don't know. One day it will all come together in my brain. :facepalm:

Eeyore

Changes since last post - 2 pygmies went to a new home, 2 more rasbora and my runt killie added. This evening I was watching and wondering how I could get the loaches to eat the snails. Thought about turning over rocks at Goat Island for snapper and had an idea to give the loaches a taste of snail. Got a knife and squashed the snails that were on the glass and sat back to watch. Loaches came out again and when they found the snails they went nuts like I had never seen. Seems we are onto a new treat, they were like puppies in a sausage factory. :love: Very sweet little fish.

what is iirc?

There are many cute and small fish available at the moment. I don't think you will have a hard job persuading your husband

butt

I went there late Jan/Feb. Other than a dead ghost knife the fish all looked good and I enjoyed seeing all their native fish too. A reasonable amount of choice and prices were the same or similar to Auckland prices.

How about a 7 month old fry? He started with a bent back, still has a bit of one, but has never grown any bigger than he is now.

I seeeeee I will do some daily testing and see how it looks. From memory my nitrates are fairly consistent at 5-10ppm only

long time no see Dennis

tide

For now I have scooped off a few litres from my 80L bug-quarium that was overflowing in the rain. From the tap it's 4 drops or 71.6 ppm to turn yellow, in the cory/loach tank it's 7 drops or 125.3 ppm. I see that the buffering is useful, but if I have a regular feeding and water change regime, and normally good water parameters, where would a pH spike come from?

currant

thanks Ryan, that is interesting and I will read it till I understand the differences . I have a question regarding this statement : Is there a way to naturally 'use up' the buffering capacity?

I think my killie tank has soft water as the snails don't thrive and their shells turn white and they die. There is salt in there and bog wood, water is yellowy colour. The ph is in the low 7s I think. It takes 3 drops for the carbonate hardness test to turn yellow. I understand that the sort of softness we are talking about is not reflected in the carbonate hardness either. :dunno: The cory/loach tank seems to have harder water as the snails are thriving (and not being eaten by my loaches :-? ) and the pH is about 7.6. It does have bog wood and a few leaves. There is no salt in there and it takes maybe 6 drops for the carbonate hardness test to turn yellow. The water is on the yellow side too. I would like the loach tank to have softer water as that is what the fish in there are supposed to prefer. Reverse osmosis is not something I think I could get into.

What test kit is it that tells you whether you have 'soft' water, ie the kind that the characins and many river fish enjoy? And other than collecting rain water, is there any way you can help make the water softer? Is pH an indicator of water softness, or the presence of happily multiplying ramshorn snails? thanks

Since this thread started I grew a microworm culture in hard porridge and brewers yeast. It started off a bit more slowly than the edible consistency porridge and other yeast but I do believe it is slightly less stinky. The worms stay a little further down the sides of the container and make a thicker mass so it's easier to scoop them off. Have also made an effort to harvest every couple of days even if I have to wash them down the sink so they don't overpopulate. My mini fish love them.