blueether

Do you know how old you just made me feel?

:gpo2: I would just soak it fror a month or two doing full water changes each week and test the pH towards the end

I would say :nfs: but cant see any in the pond You may have trouble keeping the shortfins in the pond :dunno:

Give it time. Some mosses do better than others when very wet. One way to do this is to find half a dozen different mosses and put them through a blender with a little water an then poor the mix over the rocks.

Have used the Yates ant bait before, and also used 'home made' wasp bait - 1 drop of frontline in washout 250 ml of liquid sugar

I would go with the cf1200 for only $10 more

Paying for flights?

What I would say is to replace the carbon with real bio media like ceramic noodles or the like. Just vigorously wash the carbon balls in tank water and poor that back into the tank, this should save some of the bacteria that is on then. I would then only wash the bio media each their or so water change unless they were clogged with gunk. It does sound like it could be anaerobic bacteria or cyanobacteria. I would just use tap water. In my two tropical tanks I just use the hose and no hot water unless it is winter then I'll use warm tap water. I normally do 20 - 30% water changes.

no

If there was any substrate reused that could account for the readings with added organic matter?

OK then in that case I would say go down the pumice route in a diy filter. I wouldn't fluidise it though, all the bumping will wear it down fast.

Off trademe for about $100 + another ~$150 for a CF1200 filter. I'm about to upgrade the filter to a Nautilus 2700 soon. I'd be more inclined to by new now not second hand as I had to re-seal the front glass and it does have scratches etc

Will work, but it is easier to add a frozen bottle morning and afternoon than doing a 20% water change every day. Another way is to mount a fan above the tank blowing air across the surface. Looking abck I had a few inanga in my 55L when I first set it up, but I upgraded to a 430L soon after viewtopic.php?f=41&t=49650 http://www.flickr.com/photos/blueether/5264024421/

For the effort involved in a diy filter and the $20 for an intank ~250 l/h filter I know what I would use for a 55 l tank If you go dow the DIY rout you will need to buy either an air pump and lines, stone etc or power head + some media, one of the small intank jobs will be fine for such light bio-load that you are looking at.

The smaller bullies seem to keep well clear of my koura, but the full grown ones seem to get the odd fin niped. With the bullies it would be best to get a male and a female or two females. Best bets would be Upland, Cran's or Redfin bullies. The next thing to think about is keeping it cool over summer, 1.25 to 2l bottles of frozen water will help lots.

could be Myriophyllum robustum, a native

A koura and a pair of bullies could work. Lots of rocks and caves.

Can't see the image

Tap water is normally around 7.4 PH. They may have added something extra with all the fresh yesterday :dunno:

See my other post about bullies but 55l is small. I started with a tank about that size, search 'west coast stream' or some thing like that. Inanga (one of the whitebait) will probably out grow a tank that size, and they have a tendency to swim in to the end of the tank real fast. Plants - look at duckweed and azola for floating.

Welcome along for the ride. Good to see someone else into natives. 55l isn't that big to keep natives in. You might get away with 3 or 4 bullies. Just remember that they will almost all natives grow to 10cm or more and can live for years.

You do know that there is a daily bag limit of 50 on crustaceans not explicitly named in the fish regs?

:gpo2: That was what I was thinking or go native? thin layer of gravel and lots of rock piles and driftwood high flow at one end at the bottom 3 or 4 banded or giant kokopu school of smelt and or inanga for the middle a dozen or so bullies and a torrentfish or two

I would do a good water change, about 30%, and then add 3 g of salt per L of water. Dissolve the salt in hot water first then add it in 1/4s over today Do you have any other fish in there (cats and the like) as some fish don't like salt Do you know the water parameters?

I could see it fine the other day... "User error, replace user and press the any key to continue"