Brennos

Thanks Jennifer.

1x Bristlenose adult female soon to be another 1 or 2, suck cool fish. 12 x Cardinal Tetra 2x Electric Blue Rams 3x Panda Corys

So as I mentioned in an earlier thread (or two) I have been really slack on tank maintenance, due to not having many fish in the tank, so 2 weeks ago I decided to do a massive clean and reshuffle some stuff around. while I was doing it I noticed this green carpet like slime on lots of plants and gravel. It hasn't seemed to migrate to anywhere else, just on the floor of the tank. its easy to vacuum up and get rid of that way, but it keeps coming back. I got the majority of it 2 weeks ago, and today upon investigating the plants there is more back. Can some one ID the type of algae it is for me (circled in the pics) and maybe give me some insight into how to reduce/get rid of it permanently? Tank Water Conditions Ammonia = 0ppm Nitrate = 0ppm nitrite = 0ppm phosphate = 0ppm KH = 0°-3° (0-50 ppm) ph = 6.9 Planted with Java fern s. microfilia (spelling) and some sword thing Fish are 1 Female Bristlenose, 3 panda corys (new yesterday) 2 german rams (new yesterday), and 12 Cardinals (new yesterday) Pics:

Which is good yes? I mean for my application soft is good? Or am I missing something?

Riiiiiight. Yellow is blue. Ok, so it sounds like my KH is perfect. I am on tank water, is this normal kh for rain water? In the tank is fine gravel, and driftwood, and ALOT of plants.

My water isn't blue? So they mean blue is actually clear?

So I went to animates today and bought a new phosphate test kit, and a KH test kit too, as I was curious of my KH. It's an API branded one, and in the instructions it states So I did the above: 1 drop = faint yellow 2 drops = still faint ended up with 6 drops to make it almost orange yellow. At no point was the water ever blue, and no matter how much solution I use, its never bright. if I had to liken it to anything its more like L&P yellow. does any one else use this solution? can someone enlighten me? Going by this test my KH is around 3°-6° (50-100 ppm) which is ok for the fish I have, but lower would be better, ideally below 3° for the tetras and bristlenoses. So I guess some water changes are in order.

I have bristlenoses that love zuchini, and i now have rams and tetras, what veges would they like? and how do i prepare them, just cut em up and dump em in?

Yeah I have been researching amazon biotypes, the guy at hff recommended the sword to suit the fish. I will be changing anything I need to to make it more Amazonian. the gouramis I saw were dwarf cobalt blue ones. not the monster ones but still, would not suit this tank. The rams I chose purely on thier looks, I wanted German Blue Rams, but the guy at HFF roskill had no idea what I was talking about, and they didnt have any I saw. would of looked pretty cool in my tank. I just did a full water test. Ammonia = 0 Nitrite = 0 Nitrate = 0 Phosphate = 0 PH = 6.9 Going by the tests, every thing is fine, and It should be ok to start dosing with flourish, and flourish excel. P44, is there anything else i can do to help my plants out in the average light conditions. (ar620t light hood has 2x 18w pl's, and a lot of water to get through. And I don't want to change the hood just yet.)

What's the dimensions of that tank? and what gear do you have to make it all go (pumps skimmers etc) how much would that cost the average joe to setup? I want something similar to that only with some corals. Sorry if it's all been posted, but it's not clear to me if it has

When I set up my tanks, I usually do it with a guppy or two, depending on size of tank of course.

Yeah, I was contemplating a black background, but I don't want to darken it too much. Any ideas?

To me, it looks too "busy" too much in one spot. Might try and anchor it to the bottom of the driftwood, see it that makes it blend in better. I have to crop a little, as I want to get some java in the other tank on the driftwood.

The circled java is what I need to prune, and move to another tank, currently its just floating where it is, but its growing like a weed, so I need to do something. Hey p44, can you id any of my plants, so I can research their care easier?

I paid $22 for leaves around 15 cm at their longest, and 3-4 cm at their shortest, and has around 30 leaves, and the roots were about 12 cm long. pics to follow.

Quite big. Apparently its hard to get at this size for the amount I paid. but I put that down to sales technique from hff staff. pics coming soon, camera is charging lol.

UPDATE: Well I pulled the shist rock out of my tank, and replaced it with a plant, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinodorus_uruguayensis, can anyone tell me its common name? the tank is looking very planted now, I need to trim down one of my Java ferns, and maybe try and plant it somewhere, instead of it floating in the back of the tank, but that's a job for another day. I also purchased some FISH 2 Blue Rams (babies only 1 -1.5 cm long at this point) 12 Cardinal tetras (freaking expensive) 3 panda corys HFF albany only had 3 left so I'm off to roskill tomorrow to get 1 more to satisfy my need for even numbers of fish The corys went straight to eating algae and crud off the bottom fo the tank yay, and the tetras are schooling nicely. the rams seem a little bemused by their new home though, and don't really move much, but they really are a nice looking fish. While I was there I saw a really nice blue gourami that I'd love to put in the tank, but I feel it might be a bad move. While I was at HFF, I picked up some Flourish excel, and some flourish to help my plants grow, and ill start dosing with those next week, once everyone is settled in, I moved my guppies to my other tank, so I'm not too worried about overloading the filtration, hence why I added them all at once. (tank has been up and running for over 6 months with this external canister, which had mature media in it when I first installed it so should be fine)

I'd love angels, but have heard they get quite aggressive, morcs is this correct?

Problem is I have bristles in there now, and they are useless at cleaning, all my plants and gravel get covered in some form of carpet like algae. only started recently, after 6 months of almost no algae. Must be something in out rain water out here.

That's what I have decided on. Should be all good hopefully.

A single male fighter, and a school of something small and pretty? I got a fighter of Adodge a wee while ago, and he has the most amazing colours, and has a wicked character. He plays hide and go seek with me, and will come and eat flake from my hands now. Just an idea.

So maybe ditch the glass catfish? I'm going to buy the Rams first, as I believe they are fairly terratorial, so let them get established then add the otos and then finally the cardinals.

Hey everyone, I am finally happy(ish) with my tank layout, and time to stock it with something a little more exotic than guppies. The tank is a Aqua One AR620T at around 130l (- gravel and driftwood, but + 7L for the canister, so it should be at least 120l) I was thinking: 2 x German Blue Rams 4 x Oto 4 x Panda cory 6 x Cardinal tetra 6 x Glass catfish 4 x Bristlenose Pleco (I have one adult, and 3 babies) Obviously I wont add all of these at once, as it will overload the filtration, so my questions are: 1. How much time between adding fish, I'm guessing at least 2 weeks between each species? 2. Can anyone see any problems with this mix? www.aquaadvisor.com tells me its mildly overstock, but that's all. The tank is well planted and has a UV filter, and a cf1200, and I have a spare cf1000 I'm planning on adding if needed.

Hey P44, in this pic, what's the "grass" circled? I ask because I have some in my tank, and want to get some more, as over the last 3 months it has grown well, but needs more to fill out my floor.

I just converted mine into a Fighter tank, grass, small rock, black gravel, and a small piece of driftwood. It has 3 bristlenoses in it, but they are only there till they get a bit larger, then I will swap them out for 5 neons, and they can go in my guppie tank, with the others.