Caryl

Blanket weed is a filamentous algae. It is long and stringy and found commonly in ponds. The usual causes of blanket weed are high pH (alkalinity) and high phosphate levels. It can be removed manually by winding it around a stick, or rake, like candy floss. This only controls it though and doesn't get at the cause. If the pH is high - why is it so? An African tank needs a high pH but not a community tank. If your blanket weed is in a pond, what is the pond made of? Is there any unsealed concrete? Are there limestone chips or rocks around the pond that would leach into the water through rain run-off? Have you any shells in the tank or pond? Get a test kit to measure your phosphates. You can get phosphate removers to remove excess phosphate if this is the problem. Pondcare Algaefix is supposed to be effective on blanketweed and won't harm the other plants but I cannot personally vouch for that as I have not used it myself.

You do need something else - a bigger tank! Don't add anything more to the 32L. If it is a common plec, it will have to be moved as these grow up to 60cm and should be bettre in a 200L+. Are the holes in the plants in all the tanks? If not, I would suspect the plec is sucking holes in the leaves.

Multiple Tank Syndrome is well known :lol: There is no cure and you must feed the addiction. Whether you want them to or not, quite a few of the fry will survive. Even if only 2 per spawn survive, in 12 months you can have an extra 24 fish in the tank. After all, the other fish in the tank will only attempt to eat them when they are very small.

What fish are in there? I would suspect either a fish sucking holes, or snails doing the damage.

Not too sure what size a 130L is. What dimensions has it got? The amount of surface area is important. Since you say you have read a lot I assume you know not to add all those fish at once. You must also think ahead. Both sexes of platies will soon mean a tank full of them as they will breed every 6 - 8 weeks. Do you have somewhere else to put all the fry? The fish you selected are all compatible but I would not add the gouramis as I don't think the tank is big enough.

Is this blanket weed in a pond?

This used to be called Underwaterworld but now incorporated a kiwi house and reptiles. http://photobucket.com/albums/v490/Marl ... 0Ecoworld/

(Please recognise this was written with tongue firmly in cheek!) :lol: Well, with the hibernation period for driftwood ending September 30, our club decided to head to Hokitika to trap these elusive creatures in their natural habitat - the beach. The search was on... Finding a good sheltered spot among the rocks, the trap was set using a young piece of driftwood as bait After a tense wait, we finally attracted a mother driftwood and baby Caught!! Success at last as the mother and baby are unable to resist our lure We then hit the beach looking for free range driftwood. Here one attempts to escape but Caryl successfully holds on We later discovered a better bait than the one we were using and soon we had more driftwood than we could handle! Leanne proudly poses atop her "kill" While the rest of us hold down a particularly large specimen Another driftwood successfully tamed! We headed home after a fun day with a bootload of driftwood for our tanks. :lol: PS. No driftwood was harmed during the making of this mockumentary

Well done! Fins crossed they keep growing.

Oops. I didn't see your post come in while I was answering. No, a box filter is not the same as a sponge filter but both run off a pump so can be used together or get a second sponge filter. A bok filter is a plastic box you fill with filter wool and it sits in the back corner of the tank with an airline providing flow through the wool.

A quick rinse when the filter flow is lessened.

It's a wonder Jane gets any work done with that in front of her

They are cheap enough so why not put another box filter at the other end of the tank if the pump is large enough to handle both?

A member in Dunedin had trouble finding a home for his pacu after it got too big to turn around in his 8 x 2ft tank. They are big fish and IMO they should not be kept in aquariums.

The stuff you put inside filters for the bacteria to grow on. Siporax is a brand name for stuff (German I think) like ceramic noodles but many people use plastic 'bio balls' which can be bought from your lfs or hair curlers, plastic practise golf balls etc. They all give a large surface area on which the good bacteria can grow and feed. Sponges are a form og bio media too.

I have organised a high sided box with an open top so they can breathe but high enough so the more agile ones can't climb out

I remember seeing the site where they showed how that pic was done merging two different pics. Until you said that I had forgotten they had also said it was a dolphin.

Most definitely Judy! We have our driftwood trap ready and will post pics when we return :lol: You should have been in the chat room for the discussion on how to sex driftwood, when their hibernation season was over, and the best way to catch them :lol: Some people's sense of humour is a worry :roll:

I don't use the carbon and replace it with extra sponges or stuff like Siporax or other bio media.

Good start. I think the placement of the plants will eventually hide the heater and filter successfully.

I find freezing small amounts of things is easy if you put them into mini plastic ice block cubes, available at shops like The Plastic Box. Stops them sticking together. Might be worth checking out the $2 Shop or similar too. The ones I have are in trays of 15 squares. Each one is 2cm square.

Hi Graeme. Would you like to post the recipe in a thread of its own for anyone who would like to make it? Better yet, email it to me and I will put it in the next Aquarium World

Graeme dropped fish off to us on Sunday night. He is in your Year Book under HBAS.

It isn't the breeding that is difficult shae, it is breeding in large commercial numbers that has been the problem I believe. One of our former members took a video of their seahorse giving birth and it was fascinating.

There has already been quite a discussion in here re native marines but usually to set up as a rock pool and easy to do if you can keep the tank cool enough. I would not like to see snapper and kahawai kept in a tank as they are meant to be able to swim quickly in large expanses of ocean.