fordayzbro

Sorry to hear about your wife, hope she gets well soon. I've been buying gear from about 3 or 4 different websites overseas and although most of the time I'm happy with the service it's also nice to support NZ business. For the hobby to really take off here we need the product to do so, if making a quick buck means we have access to quality equipment then I would'nt hold that against anyone. Looking forward to the JB interview

What ever happen to this website? Was looking forward to sourcing gear locally rather than fluttering money away on sometimes poor products from overseas websites. I realize the NZ market would be small but I don't believe a huge range of branded products is necessary. I would love to see: - Prices for Optiwhite tanks - 3 sizes of lily pipes - diffusers, other glass related products - external heaters - 3 sizes of wavemakers - quality substrates - aquascaping tools - dry ferts - hardscape rocks, wood I really hope this website gets off the ground, we need it! :nilly:

UPDATE Had to chop the lawn today and remove some big chunks of glosso that were tangled pretty badly. I have another month of work down Christchurch coming up so will target late Feb for the final shots then the big strip down. Apologies for the rubbish image..... hard to take photos with a curious puppy at your feet.

Just got home from working in Christchurch for a month to find a some wild growth, glosso pretty much took over the tank! A couple spots of BBA but other than that no algae outbreaks. My family kept up the dosing and waterchanges while I was away and even changed my Co2 bottle when it ran out. Will now start planning the next scape, found some nice pieces of driftwwod to accompany the piece I have borrowed from Sam. One more final tidy up before the comp shots then a strip down.

Agree with this post. It's down to your setup..... Judge whats required by looking at your fish, algae blooms and general health of your tank. A heavily stocked tank with few plants would most likely need more changes. I started out with 10% changes every second day to rid brown hair algae, now I do 1 50% per week and reset my dosing. Some of the medications people put in tanks are so unnecassary..... It just doesn't happen in nature....

I change 50% per week in my 64L......

You could try planting root tabs with tweezers every now and then.... PMDD is quite cheap so just dose it after your WC's. You'd be supprised how quickly the plants take the nutrients anyway.

For your tank, comprehensive should be fine, your plants will grow faster and algae should be easier to control. Does your tank get any sunlight? Sometimes that can cause the green algae on your glass..... There are quite a few algae guides available on the web, plenty of really good advice around

Cut the photoperiod down to 6 a day and daily dose with the recommended amount of Flourish excel. Increase your plant mass if you can and start fert dosing

Main courses of hair algae are insufficient circulation, nutient imbalances, Too much light or lack of CO2. Could you provide the tank specs and current fert dosing?

Horses for courses really..... 60cm, 90cm or 120cm. At least they are standard sizes for light fixtures. At the end of the day it's down to your personal preference, I like 60cm because water changes are sweet and I like the challenge of trying to create the illusion of depth. Anyway Ethanyo, you will find plenty of good information and opinions here... :bounce:

I agree with all posts above... I battled with this brown algae twice in my current tank. I found the best way to manually remove it, is to use an airhose to siphon it out. That way you can target the algae without disturbing the substate or plants too much. Reduce the photo period and adjust the dosing. You will get through it!!!!!!!

Thanks for you input Deepsound...... In mother nature, mountains or big rock formations can be off many shapes especially through China, Vietnam, Cambodia and here in New Zealand which is where I got my inspiration from for this scape. I do see what you mean by the V shape .... it does look nice, beleive me I tried many combinations with these stones. P To move the stones now would mean a total rescape as they are planted deep into the substate. Cheers though, I'll keep that in mind for the rescape

Like this?

Slowly starting to work out this photography thing..... No touch-ups on this pic, just resized :bounce:

I love that piece of wood but I want to do it justice.... I may remove the stone on the right and smash off the back end so there is enough room to plant the wood into the substrate.

Thanks Dennis! Will trim down the glosso in a week or so and prep the tank for some final shots, I have a friend who is a photographer with some nice lenses and studio lights. Then I will strip it down and start all over, maybe something with wood.....

I think so, the other one is a bit warm. Hopefully I will be able to get a new one from the supplier. Only seen 4000k 70w bulbs here...

With the 2x36w and the halide Put the old bulb back in....

Latest pic My photography needs work..... Using a Nikon d40 with tripod and extra light, can't get the settings right..... :-? Gave the hairgrass a shape, glosso still needs to grow in fully but pretty happy with how it's going. Algae is under control, no more staghorn!

Don't rush it, you will find a way to place the stone, you could use your spare tank with some soil in it to figure out the placement. Also don't forget it's a big stone.... have you got a hammer? Break a piece off, I might have some other bits lying about.... Mark the focal points on the tank with a marker and bank the substrate hard. I have that half bag of Manado as well.

Thanks Sam, hairgrass needs a trim and some shaping. The glosso won't take to long to grow back in. The MH is rubbish, I think it's the fixture. Have you chosen some wood for that dragon stone? Flick up some pics! I have that Tunze you can borrow for the big tank

Sump it! Must be a few examples around on the web...... That way you can get a really grunty pump that would give loads of flow. A cannister filter would need to be hell powerful to circulate through 3 split pipes. It can be done

Can't quite tell from the photo if that's algae or the plant itself..... If it's the plant you most likely have a nutrient deficiency. What are you dosing? Could be lack of iron or NPK....

Just ordered the 70w version last weekend for my 60cm. Hope it's good...