Caryl

Guppies these days are not hardy. I would use danios Remember the key is to add a few fish to start with. This can vary depending on the size of the tank. How many litres in your tank?

Yes we do. They have lots of fancy trophies and cups on offer to be won too The last one was held recently in Wellington.

The idea behind fishless cycling is to save fish from stress after being added to a new tank that has not been cycled. I am not a fan of it myself but it is the latest fad in the UK and everyone seems to be doing it. Personally I see nothing wrong with adding a few hardy fish and slowly building up the bioload to match the increasing resulting good bacteria in the filter. A lot easier and no messing about. If done correctly there is no harm done to the fish. The fishless cycle followers create a cycle by adding ammonia rather than using fish waste. They then claim you can add the full complement of fish faster, and without a spike in the bioload. I still don't see how they can work out how much ammonia is required to equal X amount of fish poo so they know how many fish their bioload can handle :-?

As long as both sides remember where the box of pump parts is stored

People like gravel as it looks nicer than having plants just in randomly placed pots. The 'gunk' in the gravel is what many of the plants feed off. A certain amount is fine and good. The amount of gunk depends on how many, and what size, fish you have and how often you vacuum it. I clean out my heavily planted tank with no problems. I thoroughly clean the open gravel but around the plants I lightly hold the vac above the plants, or gently push it over the plant to rest lightly on the gravel, to remove the surface gunk only, leaving the rest for the plants. All my plants are in aquarium gravel and I do not use any fertilisers or additives.

I too have been following it and laughing. Great sense of humour and he will get a lot of money for a clapped out machine :lol:

We get them too I believe you can set off a bomb if you are careful. I have not tried this myself so can't vouch for it working. Cover the top of the tank thoroughly to seal it (perhaps Gladwrap or similar) then cover with a heavy quilt or something. If you have external filters or pumps that suck in air from the room, can you lengthen their tubes so they are running from outside? If not, turn them off, it will only be for 24 hrs (make sure the tank has been cleaned and had a water change first then stop feeding the fish for a couple of days beforehand to lessen the bio load). If you only have one tank, have you considered moving it out of the house while you bomb? 24 hrs in the shed or at the neighbours and it should be fine. Not sure if the bombs do actually kill cockroaches though. I understood they are very hard to kill. :evil: You ought to see my pond filter outside. Lift up the lid and it is crawling with cockroaches! :-?

You also need to make sure the fish have space to swim! :-?

I think the amount many girls expect their parents :roll: to fork out for dresses, hairdos and stuff is horrendous and I am glad my kids have left home and no longer attending school balls!

Why is your dispute with Kongs Lucy? Surely the shop you bought it from should be replacing it, not the importer. Your contract was with the retailer, not the wholesaler.

It has just gone on sale in the UK and my friend Sean (manager of Wharf Aquatics) has just set one up in the shop. It looked really good but he was not sure how it would go long term. It is very small so you are limited to what can be put in it. The water fills to the top so tricky if you have to stick your hand in. It looked good though It was selling there for about 90 pounds, which translates to around $249. Very expensive for such a small tank.

Welcome back. Tank is looking nice. Bow fronted tanks are always harder to photograph :roll:

Welcome and good luck with setting up the tank. Yes, if you update your profile to show your location there may be someone nearby with some spare used filter media to help kick start your cycle

Don't panic, most likely one of the above suggestions to do with your bugs you have had. Get it checked though as a blocked node or gland may get infected.

This might help http://www.budgerigars.co.uk/diseases/diarrhoea.html

You need a site down at the Riccarton Market Loopy and go into full time production. Your designs and the execution of same were well done. The pics do not do them justice.

This is usually a sign that the tank has got out of balance for some reason. Has something changed recently? A new food, new person feeding the fish, light tubes replaced, an unusual water change from the normal, new fish or plants added (or removed)? To reassure you to start with - the fish will not be bothered by the green at all, it just looks ugly. I would do a 3 day blackout, rather than just 48 hours. I also assume you did not feed the fish during the blackout? I'm not actually sure if the blackout trick works on green water. I have only used it on cyanobacter which is the horrible sheets of green slime that grows over gravel and plants. Sometimes you never figure out what caused it and often, if you are lucky, it will clear up again as fast and mysteriously as it appeared! I get green algae blooms when I change the light tubes :roll:

I remember vaguely an article in Readers' Digest many years ago on how to help get the gender you wanted when trying to get pregnant. I would like to say it worked but since I had a 50/50 chance of the same result anyway (and didn't have further kids to test more exstensively) I can't confirm definitely but it was to do with eating acidic or alkaline foods too depending on which sex you wanted. There was a lot more involved too like frequency and timing.

and he's good at that - that is what happened when we turned up on Monday! :lol:

Many UK fish sites are very keen on fishless cycling but I don't see the point in it. More trouble than it's worth I think but give it a go if you're keen. For pure stuff try a chemist. The ammonia in NZ supermarkets has additives.

You could have left Janey behind suphew! It was a great weekend and we were all well looked after. Grant and I got home about 10pm last night. He is off to Collingwood today as he is straight back into work. I have to finish the AW and start the YB :roll: etc etc etc I will have pics too as soon as I have got them off the camera. That Driving Creek Railway is great and always interesting.

Their wages would need to be higher as the cost of fresh food over there was very high!

That would be telling porkies! :lol:

Perhaps they are cheaper eslewhere :-?

No they don't. It is a separate company working next door. I can't remember their name off hand.