DubbieBoy

Well I just did a search in Private Trade & Exchange for the terms 'Blue Ram' which returned absolutely no matches which does seem a bit odd...

Brilliant; will be keeping a close eye on this. Looking forward to seeing some NZ content.

Had hoped to get a recommendation via a satisfied customer rather than just approach some rando... Seems to be a massive variation in quality and fitness out there. A search didn't pull up any matches anyway.

Can anyone put me onto a breeder of good quality Blue Rams? I'd like to get 10-20 and the poor things in the shops are in a sorry state usually. I'd like to go direct to the source if I can...

Uh oh, I see where this is going... :lol: Ymir, jenniferh and Aquilam_11 - PM me your details and I'll send you enough to get you started. Anybody else, feel free to contact Ymir, jenniferh or Aquilam_11 in a few weeks for yours If any of the bidders on the auction for the mother plant are in the house, rest assured that I won't be trimming anything off that momma, these small bits will come from my remaining stash. It's a great plant, grows nice and dense and doesn't seem to suffer from the leaf blackening that regular Java fern exhibits when the leaves get a bit older. Very hardy and undemanding; in fact I've found it does best in dark corners rather than in full light. Can't believe it isn't more readily available really.

Hi Ymir, I'm selling the plant on TradeMe, would you like me to send you a small piece ? (**secret squirrel**) - DB

I wonder if there is such a thing as dwarf sag... My sag was instilled about four years ago now and was sold to me as dwarf sag; it promptly grew to about 12 inches but did very well nonetheless. More recently it's been keeping pretty low but still grows up tall occasionally. If I had to guess, I'd equate the dwarf form with higher nitrate concentrations. When I bump up the KNO3 I believe the sag stays low, if I back it off it tends to grow taller. I think it's more to do with the conditions than any particular cultivar, but that's just my theory... :lol: We're currently going through a dwarf period...

Hi Ed, I wasn't able to find an identical replacement o-ring for my aqua-medic regulator and have instead been using the standard, yellow nylon seals. They don't appear to fit properly at first glance but when tightened down these do appear to seal properly. I've had no probs with them and no leaks. How's that tank of yours getting on anyway? - DB

I was making myself a 40dKH standard solution for use with a drop checker; I work in a lab so have access to very accurate scales/cylinders etc... I now have 5 litres of a 40dKH standard made with anhydrous sodium carbonate and ultrapure water (this stuff is so pure it leaches silicates out of glass bottles). Its commonly used as a 4dKH standard to indicate 30ppm CO2 in conjunction with a pH indicator solution, so what I have is 5 litres of a 10x concentrate sufficient to last me for, oh, about eleventy million years. Thought it might be of interest to other plant geeks out there so if anyone is using this approach to measure CO2 and would like some of this KH standard for themselves before I pour the remainder down the sink, sing out and I can send you some If you have no idea what I’m on about but are curious, here’s some background info for you. http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=437&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/do-yourself-aquarium-projects/32100-diy-drop-checker.html http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/general-planted-tank-discussion/42429-kh-standard-how.html - DB

What's your water hardness like? IME, Vallis tends to melt in soft water. Maybe try an up your GH/KH a tad.

Its real pearling; I see it all the time after a water change and it persists for days until it subsides back to 'background pearling' levels; so I don't buy the degassing hypothesis. Its a subject that generates a lot of, often quite heated, debate with basically two camps. One lot say its excess dissolved gasses in tap water as alanmin4303 suggests and others say its dues to extra/excess nutrients in the tapwater giving your plants a boost. I have no doubt that its a genuine photosynthesis effect (its real pearling, not just gas bubbling out of solution). Personally, I wonder if it could be due to removal of growth inhibitors from the water column which build up over time. Following a water change the brakes are let off and away we go. Whatever the actual reason, it can be quite striking. My tank bubbles like an opened bottle of soda water after even a quite minor water change (bubbles streaming from the plants themselves/cut stems etc... not just appearing on surfaces).

I've posted this before and I'm going to post it again because this has come up a few times recently and it really irritates me... whew, feel better now.

Pearling is your plants' way of telling you that they're very happy. I love watching it. Purigen is a good product for polishing your water but why would you want to remove nitrate and phosphate? If anything, you'll need to add these. In a well planted tank, ammonia is the first nitrogen compound to be gobbled up the the plants and should be undetectable. Nitrites don't hang about either and are very quickly converted to nitrates by the bugs in your filter; nitrates in turn are plant food numero uno and in a lightly stocked tank, whatever is produced from fish waste will be insufficient for your plants, they'll be wanting even more. Your plants are pearling, this means that metabolically, they're pretty much flat out - which is where you want them but to keep it up, they need food too. I'm not suggesting that Purigen is a bad idea in a planted tank, I have it in my own filter, just not for those reasons I really wouldn't sweat it

Another good way to raise KH is sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3 - aka baking soda not baking powder... ); as a rule of thumb - 1 tspn, or about 6g, should raise the KH of 50 litres by 4dKH. Best to make all water chemistry changes slowly over time and be aware of what your local chemistry is like.

One of these is a useful and reassuring investment... http://www.dse.co.nz/cgi-bin/dse.storefront/45a1b6ba01693794273fc0a87f33071f/Product/View/Q1416 Those CO2 test kits are really only pH indicators and not terribly sensitive at that.

Lookin' good there Leo, I really like the over tank luminaire - looks great. What you need in there now are some nice Sag plants... Have fun planting 'em. Don't sweat the pH/KH thing too much. Its good to be aware of the possibility of overdosing CO2 and causing swings in pH and all that, but you're not going to wreak havoc with 1 bubble/sec, that's a good starting point. You won't be risking the fish at all; make changes slowly and it'll be sweet. Looking forward to seeing it grow!

You don't really need 'The BAG' at all; nylons (pantyhose) hold in purigen nicely. Just cut the end off one leg, add purigen and tie a knot in it, works a treat (bit hard on the nylons tho' ) Best to ask 'er first and use an old pair. ask me how I know...

Hasn't been my experience and I don't know where this urban myth originated. My KH and GH are practically 0 out of the tap and I have to supplement with bicarb just to get a reading. The water is so soft I can barely keep snails alive and I've never seen the slightest trace of deposits forming on kettle elements. I wonder if it depends on which reservoir your supply originates from... Test what comes out of your tap yourself but AFAIK Dunedin water is as soft as it gets with no dissolved minerals.

Fine to use if you really want to, but really not necessary... The water out of your Dunners tap is perfectly all right.

Flourish Excel can be used to get rid of BBA (Black Beard/Brsuh Algae), which few other potions seem to have any effect on. Don't think it has any impact on other algal species like your green thread stuff (but I could be wrong). Get rid of as much as you physically can - on old (or at least someone else's ), toothbrush works really well to wind it out. Crank up the CO2 and get the other plants really motoring and it should just fade out of the picture. In my experience, green thread algae don't like current much, or at least they tend to start in areas where the water is still.

Only problem with the Sears-Conlin report was that they pretty much concluded that algal blooms were caused by phosphates with the result that this very essential nutrient has been omitted from products and ferts ever since. Current thinking is that phosphate is not the baddie it was made out to be (I'm talking about heavily planted tanks here, where different rules apply than to mainly 'fish' tanks; phosphates, or most other nutrients for that matter in less heavily planted tanks probably do promote algae) and should rather be appropriately dosed just like any other fert. What the report did demonstrate was that adding plant ferts in ample supply could allow the higher order plants out outcompete algae and prevent its occurrence.

You would also need some sort of needle valve for fine adjustment of the flow, it would exit the regulator alone at far too great a flow. Bottle would be small but can usually just be exchanged for a full one, several places do this; would last quite a while on a small tank. I see the regulator has now been listed separately... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farmi ... 244134.htm

Spotted this on trademe... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farmi ... 000071.htm Nothing to do with me but may be of interest to somebody thinking about trying to assemble low-cost pressurised CO2 system; coupled with a good needle valve, this arrangement might have some promise. Don't see regulators suitable for SodaStream bottles very often... -DB

Hey evil, Sadly its not possible to precisely measure these compounds without complicated chemistry. The idea is more to calculate what you would like your final concentrations to be and to dose according to that. Regular water changes prevent a gradual buildup over time. Have a look here, two very useful links on how to calculate how much of different macros to add... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/how-mu ... html#72230 The 'fertilator' in the second link is extremely useful. Actual dosing is very easy, just tip it in there - these compounds dissolve very quickly and don't affect the fish themselves. For eg, in my case, after a, say, 30-40% water change, I would typically add, (roughly ), half a teaspoon of KNO3 powder (for nitrogen), I think a third of a teaspoon of K2SO4 (for potassium, although I wouldn't add potassium every time, its rarely deficient), half a teaspoon of MgSO4 (for magnesium) and 'a good pinch', maybe one eighth of a teaspoon of KH2PO4 (for phosphorus) and a 5ml squirt of Flourish for good measure. My tank is about 200l. The water changes are important obviously, I get away with once every 4-6 weeks and this one should probably be doing anyway as part of good tank maintainance. I try not to get too hung up on the numbers; its not rocket science and needn't be terribly precise. I'm looking to supply sufficient nutrients that the plants have ready access to it, and then a little more.

Not a problem, topic may need to be moved to the Aquatic Plants section tho... I don’t believe so, not if the tank isn’t overstocked etc... I use the solenoid primarily to save gas as CO2 release at night is just wasteful as it can’t be utilised by the plants. I don’t think yeast generated CO2 would be produced in sufficient volume to be harmful but it depends on many variables including plant and fish volume, tank size, presence or absence of additional aeration. Glass diffusers look like this... Gas is squeezed out through a sintered glass/ceramic disk which results in very fine bubbles. Due to the high ratio of surface area to volume, these tiny bubbles dissolve gas very effectively. The other factor associated with these diffusers is that, when wafted about in the water column, CO2 gas bubbles can come into direct contact with the stomata on the surface of leaves and this gets the gas into the plant tissue orders of magnitude more efficiently compared to CO2 dissolved in water. At least that’s the theory, I think its debatable as to whether this makes any difference. I just think they’re neat. These diffusers need a fair bit of pressure to work and so generally not recommended for yeast generated CO2 production. Sourcing my CO2 gear was discussed previously here... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/previo ... sc&start=0 Macro ferts are best sourced from horticultural suppliers, thay are after all, just cheap chemicals. ‘Macro ferts’ really refer to the big three plant requirements, N, P & K (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium). Commercially prepared plant ferts out of a bottle typically don’t contain these ingredients in any quantity as its presumed that fish waste will provide. Commercial preparations also tend to specifically exclude phosphorus as it has in the past been linked to algal outbreaks (although it is still a crucial plant requirement and needs to be present in a true planted tank; I think while excess phosphorus may contribute to algal growth in regular aquaria, entirely different rules apply to heavily planted setups). Its important to distinguish between macro and trace ferts too, trace elements are also important and best added from a commercial preparation, such as Flourish. Sourcing macros was discussed here... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/macron ... html#71140 and here... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/macron ... html#71140 Those are not standard flourescent tubes, they are compact flourescents – the tube doubles back on itself in a U-shape. They are available from Rexel in a variety of colour temps. I got all my lighting equipemt from www.ahsupply.com, primarily because of their reflectors, which are excellent. Replacement bulbs are available locally. I have a standard heaterstat tucked away in a corner, nothing glam, does its job. I don’t think the thermofilters are worth the expense as heaters can and do fail and it’d be a lot cheaper to replace a bog standard heaterstat than an Eheim thermofilter I believe the current thinking is that substrate heating has little observable benefit and that these cables are one of the least useful pieces of equipment marketed at planted tanks. I personally wouldn’t bother with one. Avoiding big hungry root feeders is just my personal choice; your tastes will be different. People report great results using laterite and similar substrates for growing different species esp. sword plants. Hope this helps!