the-obstacle

Just finished an algae turf scrubber in a bucket. Now to test it...

Looks great! that lotus looks tiny. All it needs is about $600 worth of lights, ferts and co2 and it'll grow 3 times the size

I cured mine with melafix and salt. Table spon of salt added to the tank every day for 4 days. Follow the Melafix instructions at the same time. The salt helps free up their gut which is causing the paralysed look and also helps with the infection in the base of the dorsal fin. Melafix does the rest. You may be left with a few scar marks but these will disappear about a month after they're all better.

What? or watt.

I ran out of my last batch of ferts so today I mixed up some new ones and dosed as per usual and WOW! I don't think I was even dosing anywhere near enough. My rotala is red! It's never been red in this tank. The twisted val has also put up a flower stem! I'm so very very stoked. I'll sort out some photos tomorrow.

So the angels are on the mend but one of my heckelli is now hanging out near the top of the tank panting. I did a 50% water change yesterday before adding ferts (same process every week) and I've just done a full water test which is showing 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 5ppm Nitrate. There's clearly something going on in this tank. I don't want to risk losing the whole tank and seeing as it's now spread out of the angel family I'm inclined to think it's either gill flukes or worms. What should I do next? I'm considering moving the one affected heckelli to the hospital tank with the angels but I fear this is just treating 1 symptom of a wide spread problem. I am officially scared now.

Broke the base for the 3 foot tank I was building out of 2 broken tanks. Prepared the rest though and now just need to find a base. Took the dogs to Muriwai for a run by the river. They had a great time. I contemplated getting more sand while there but figured I hadn't finished using the last lot so didn't bother. We go out there at least once a week so if anybody wants to put an order in for a bit of black sand let me know.

I was being the old guy that suggests you spell tomorRoW correctly.

None dead this morning and all swimming in the middle/upper sections of the tank. These guys are on the mend.

Just did the first parameter test on the tank water and WOW! I have never seen those colours come out of my test kit. Ammonia - 2ppm Nitrite - 1ppm Nitrate - 20ppm pH - 8.2 I'm assuming this is normal for early on in the cycle. If anybody has any suggestions on what i should change let me know otherwise I'm'a-leave-it-alone.

Sweet! I think I'll put my order in now...

hahaha, I knew I'd get busted for that one I think the water changes and the formalin have done or are doing the trick. they're starting to flare a bit more each day so hopefully in a few more days they'll be all sorted. I might do another formalin dose in a day or 2 as it only lasts 12 hours at max strength before being watered down with a water change. I lost another one today (down from 13 to 11) but I'm hoping that's the last. They're still spending a fair bit of time hiding out in the corner but are occasionally doing a nice swim across the middle of the tank. They've mostly stopped skimming the bottom of the tank too which i see as progress. Onwards and upwards.

I don't know why but I happily trap/kill wild mice and rats but I would love some as pets. The wild type don't take to being handled very well though. Hmmm, I have 2 spare bird cages. One would be just right for converting to a rat cage... must. not.

They had slippers? damnit! i avoided the merch stalls for fear of having to spend thousands on toys that don't last very long for the kids. i'd love some slippers! might go tomorrow and see if they're got the merch cart open on the courtyard. Oh, I went this morning (11am) too. It was rad. My kids loved it too.

Yeah, I was expecting an ammonia issue but I thought it'd be safe from nitrite for a few days. Clearly there are some bacteria in there but not enough of the right ones. The nitrite is only an issue in the hospital tank so not the cause of the original issue for which they were hospitalised. I've done 2 50% water changes today and will continue this regime until the tank cycles and/or the angels are healthy enough. I considered moving an internal filter from my guppy tank but figured if I managed to crash the existing filters I would probably do the same to this one.

wow! Who knew decaying organic matter could smell so bad?!

I haven't had one myself but in the little bit of research I've done they live in relatively swift flowing streams in the asian tropics (india, indonesia etc.) so like to have sandy bottomed tanks with plenty of caves and hiding places scattered around. The one thing I did note was one website suggested 1 eel per 200L and don't have more than one in a tank. So a 250L for the eel alone should be fine. They're often seen in aquariums with other large fish from the area and I'm sure Henward/Fruju/Darvid R etc. will be here soon to offer some real advice but if you're going for a 250L I'd say all you'd want is the fire eel so as to not overcrowd the tank. You could put some other smalled fish in with it but chances are they'd become dinner. They're very cool fish. I hope it works out for you.

Are you raising money for another R and a W?

they've had heaps of hose changes in my tank too... Oh well, they're not going back it the big tank - I'm rebuilding a broken tank I picked up the other day for them so they can get the hell out of my future sump.

If you buy a ceramic diffuser (like this ) I can give you everything you need for a DIY setup. Including a recipe for replacing the yeast mix when it slows down. I have my setup from before I went pressurised sitting here needing some love/use.

That's the bit that's killing me. Since 4pm today the 0 readings across the board have gone to 0 ammonia, heaps of nitrite :facepalm: , 0 nitrate. I've just done a 50% water change which will have diluted the meds but I'd rather that than nitrite poisoning. After the water change the adults have started trying to flare again which is promising. I'll do another 50% in the morning and see what happens. There's definite improvement going on though. Hopefully not famous last words.

I thought this was how you breed cardinals? I've blacked out the tank and everything! :lol: actually, if I could get some bengai cardinals to breed in there it'd be sweet! Not a hope in hell of course...

3 guppies and 2 double red cockatoos is my count so far. I now make sure to pour my rank filter water through a net when I'm emptying them.

Yeah, I agree, and at first I put it down to temperature related stress but since moving them and increasing the water changes (essentially 100% in 2 50% changes) so essentially giving them the best water conditions they were still not looking well and one of them died. All other inhabitants are perfectly happy. I'm putting it down to keeping the angels at 26 degrees for too long. The other occupants are more suited to lower temps. I added formalin this afternoon as per the recommended dose and they took a while to get used to it but they're now a lot happier. I'm hoping this is the answer. I did enough water changes to remove most of the wunder tonic before adding the formalin. I'll have to stop the water changes until the 3rd day as per the formalin instructions but the water that is in their tank no longer resembles the community tank water. I'm treating it as an uncycled tank and am watching the ammmonia levels very closely. At the moment they're reading 0 across the board as there is 120L of water in the tank. I expect there'll be a bit of ammonia after 3 days but they're only being fed lightly so I hope there won't be much.