DubbieBoy

Hi Doc, From what I can gather from what I read, the Seachem Flourish product range are hugely popular at the moment (particularly in the States). You can get details of the products at . I came across them from reading a similar forum to this one but devoted to planted tanks (its primarily American though...). It can be perused at <http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/> Based on what I read there, I decided to give the Seachem products a try and so far so good. I was particularly pleased with the 'Flourish Excel' product which, although sold as a source of carbon for aquatic plants as a supplement to CO2 injection, has the happy side-effect of killing BBA. I'm also using the 'Flourish' fertiliser which I'm very happy with. Naturally, it has no Phosphates or Nitrates which might encourage unwanted algal growth. I was able to order these ferts from Redwood Aquatics in Christchurch- not too far from you... Redwood have been great. Just my tuppence worth

Hi everyone, All my Vallis upped and died on me this week for no apparent reason and I was wondering if this in any way common? It had been doing really well in a pretty heavily planted tank in which everything else appears to be thriving. The Vallis had been throwing out plenty of runners, as many as ten new plantlets on some of them, and then this week, in the space of a couple of days, all the leaves have browned off and are dying back en masse. All (and only) the Vallis plants seem to be affected; its like some sort of mass suicide. The only significant water-chemistry change which coincided with this die-off was the addition of Flourish Excel this week to try and combat some low-level BBA. It seems to be doing the trick for the BBA (which has turned red and is slowly dissappearing, yay...) but is there a chance it could be responsible for killing off my Vallis too somehow? It does seem awfully coincidental... I had assumed that Vallis throwing out lots of runners and propagating itself was a good sign and that the plants were doing well; is it also possible that this is just part of its life-cycle and unavoidable? The new plantlets seem to be dying off too though :-( When Vallis throws out runners like this, should they be detached from the parent plant at some stage? Is there any likelihood that the root-stocks might eventually regenerate, or would I be better off pulling the lot? The tank itself is 216l with HQl pendant lighting, DIY CO2 and Seachem ferts. All other fish and plants appear happy and healthy... I'd be interested to hear your thoughts...

Thanks for that; I was just curious. I don't use it continuously but rather for an occasional water 'polish', leaving it in for just a few days. It really makes the water crystal clear. Looks like I'd be wasting my time adding fertiliser while its in there though.

A quickie, Does activated carbon filtration remove plant fertilisers and trace elements from the water in the same way that it removes meds ? Cheers.

Things are looking a bit better today I think. Another barb and two of the tetras gave up the ghost last night but the survivors are looking a lot perkier and the spots are starting to disappear and heal up. Would it be a good idea to do some water changes during the course of the treatment or should I wait until the meds have finished doing their job in a week or so? The med says to dose on days 1, 3, 6, 8 and 10, I'm on day 5 today so perhaps a water change tonight before the next dose goes in tomorrow? If as you suggest w/s is always lurking at low-levels in every tank, waiting for a distressed or rundown fish to allow a resurgence, does this suggest that its pointless placing newcomers into a quarantine tank on arrival if the stress of quarantining itself and subsequent removal to a main tank is only going to further stress new fish and make them a target for parasites that are already present anyway and impossible to eliminate completely? Have people experienced spontaneous eruptions of w/s in an otherwise stable tank which hasn't had any new fish introduced? Thanks for the input fellahs.

Hi Pegasus, I'm pretty sure there shouldn't be any contra-indications using Melafix (tea-tree oil) and a generic w/s medication as the makers of Melafix, aquarium pharmaceuticals, also sell a malachite green/formaldehyde w/s mix and do state in their Melafix flyer that these may be used together. The two meds target different things but I guess you're right in that the combined load on the system might be enough to at least knock out the filter bugs. The barbs are a mix of tigers and green-tigers (these are lovely fish) still pretty small (maybe 3cm), so far one tiger and two green-tigers have karked it. Are barbs particularly sensitive to w/s? I would have expected the tetras to go belly-up first but they seem to be slugging it out well even though they have lots of spots. The tank is 2x2x2ft so there's quite a bit of volume there; makes it more expensive to dose tho. Another advantage of having a small quarantine tank i suppose, you'd only have to buy one bottle of medication! I'm not looking forward to going home this evening and looking for corpses; I'll keep ye posted...

Hi Alan, I agree absolutely with what you say, I would love to have the luxury of a quarantine tank and am now paying the penalty for taking the gamble - nine times out of ten it would probably be ok but inevitably... Although I've kept fish for years, I've never actually experienced a w/s outbreak before; I guess I got complacent. I've learnt my lesson though, when I get this bout cleared it'll certainly be some time before I introduce anything else. I shall have to look into getting a small tank for quarantine purposes; even though there's not a large number of expensive fish in the main tank, its just not worth the trauma! As main tanks get built up over time, it may be that a quarantine tank becomes less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Anyway, in the here and now, its a damage limitation exercise.

Hi Matt, If you do manage to source some Riccia and some Java Moss, I'd be very interested to know where from; I've never understood why such useful and prolific plants are always so hard to get hold of... Cheers.

Hi Guys, Quelle désastre; I've had a horrible white-spot outbreak. This tank had been going so well too but then I brought in five platies and BOOMPH, white spot city. I know there's been a recent thread on this subject but I thought I'd seek some reassurance that I'm going about getting rid of this scourge correctly (and permanently). The tank is a two-foot cube (216l), heavily planted, ammonia (and presumably nitrites) is zero. Occupants include(d) 8 barbs, 15 cardinal tetras, 2 bristlenose cats, 5 platies and 2 rams. The platies, which I'm sure brought the bug in with them, are ironically the healthiest fish in there at the moment, the parasite has knocked off three barbs and one of the tetras and a couple of the other barbs and tetras are looking borderline at the moment. I initiated treatment at the weekend with Melafix, as seemed to be a popular recommendation within this group although it is described as anti-bacterial and anti-fungal and I'm not sure what effect its likely to have on parasites but it should at least prevent secondary infections setting in when the parasites have dropped off (smells nice tho...). I'm also treating with the generic ick-cure combo of malachite green and formaldehyde ('Spot-Off' from Masterpet, the only thing I could find at the LFS; who thinks up these names...!). I wanted to avoid methylene blue as I'd rather not stain the silicone if I can avoid it. I have increased the tank temp to 28 and introduced some intense aeration as those fish which have died seemed to have suffocated, presumably because the parasite has been destroying gill tissue? There's still a lot of heavy, laboured breathing going on but only with the affected fish. I'm a bit concerned about the plants as the tank is quite densely planted and they had been doing really well. I can't see the meds doing them a whole lot of good but hopefully this incident won't knock them back too much. So there you go, I'm not sure what else I can do other than continue treatment for another 10 days or so and then do serial water changes for a few days to try and dilute out the chemicals. I was astonished at how quickly this problem developed and also how quickly really healthy looking fish lost condition and keeled over. I hope we're over the worst of it now and shouldn't have any more losses but I'm thinking it will take lots of TLC to get the survivors back into shape. Maybe some frozen bloodworm will perk them up a bit ;-)

Thank you to one and all for the warm welcome; always good to be reassured that I share in the aquatic affliction, the piscine passion... Special thanks to Kriber for the emotional blackmail idea; might indeed be the way to go.... I had a go at putting the tank in its final position and hanging the overhead pendant light at the weekend. Nearly there. I shall share a pic of the tank with the group once its all assembled and I'm ready to 'just add water'. There's a thing - water (an oft overlooked but vital component of this business). I'd imagine the H2O in NZ is pretty pristine - back home I would have been using rainwater mostly for water changes (and sadly, even the Dublin rainwater isn't so pure these days...). Are people mostly using their tapwater (after perhaps letting it stand for a day or so to let the chlorine dissipate) in their tanks? I don't buy into the idea of adding those 'safe-water' conditioners ad hoc to everything and then lashing tapwater straight into a tank (except in emergencies of course...). I believe the Dunedin water is relatively soft and I'm hoping it will require minimal interference. One additive I will be throwing in though, at least at the start, would be a filter maturation agent to try and get some bugs growing. Anyone got suggestions as to the best way to 'break-in' a new tank? I might try and get hold of a small piece of used filter wool to seed the new filter; should start things movine pretty quickly. I'm aiming to have the tank filled and ready to receive some plants by the end of the week - will keep ye posted...

Hi everyone, This seems like a friendly place, what a great forum; I thought I'd introduce myself and say hello... I've been in NZ for three years now (what a wonderful place...), I'm originally from Dublin, and after a break of a few years from fishkeeping, I'm delighted to be setting up a new tank at last. Hooray! I'm hoping users of this group will be able to help me out with questions about the aquarium hobby down here, what's available, where can I get it from etc... I'm based in Dunedin, so dedicated aquatic retailers are a little thin on the ground... Anyway; the setup - I got bored with the routine rectangular boxes so I've gone for a cube-shaped tank, 600mm to a side (had it made up by Redwood Aquatics in Christchurch who did a great job), looks great (still empty though...). The challenge - my partner is 'not as yet' a convert to things fishy and the tank will be set up in the corner of the new lounge, so this (first) tank HAS to work well and look good, no algae problems, no leaks, no trouble (at least until I get her sufficiently hooked....). So I'm aiming for the middle (i.e. safe) ground - primarily a well planted tank and not a lot of fish, just a shoal of cardinal tetras and some Corydoras, perhaps a couple of specimen fish. Sounds safe enough? As I'm really keen to have healthy, actively growing plants, rather than straggly strands than linger for a while before dying off, I've given a bit of thought to lighting (if the plants are growing, the algae's not, right?). The square top of the tank doesn't really suit fluorescent tubes so I'm going to use an Osram Floraset Mercury Vapour pendant light - these used to be quite popular for aquaria a few years ago but seem to have gone out of fashion now. Kicks out a lot of light of an appropriate wavelength for plant growth and should be beefy enough to penetrate that extra depth. I think its a good 'medium cost' high intensity alternative to metal halides. It wasn't easy to get hold of either... I had considered leaving the tank open on top to let plants grow out but I suspect it would make the room too humid, plus I'd be forever fishing the cat out of it, so I'll just use a cover glass. The substrate I have at the moment is a neutral, fine gravel. I'm also considering using a slow-release substrate fertiliser; would anyone care to recommend a product for this? When it comes to actually planting out the tank - where would you recommend getting plants from? The local petshops down here don't have much of a selection unfortunately, is there a good mail-order supplier within NZ someone could point me towards? Again, I'm not looking for anything particularly exotic, just the old reliables that will grow lush and well given a chance, lots of Vallis and an Amazon Sword right under the light. I would love to get hold of some Riccia though, that little plant does great work. Is it available here anywhere? Anybody care to donate a piece? Anyway, I'll stop babbling now. Looking forward to some interactions from the group, all comments and/or suggestions for the above described setup warmly received; happy fishkeeping!