FraserNZ

I actually think the gravel kind of works with that one... I'm not normally a fan of un-natural looking gravels, however that one kinda brings out the reds in the plants.

Looks pretty cool, so how would one get ones hands on some?

Looks wicked Phoenix, may I ask what type of camera do you use to take those vids?

Yeah I'm pretty sure it has more to do with the Hydor brand no longer being sold in NZ. One of my friends use to run loads of them and never had any issue with them. He also had a lot of other Hydor gear which all seemed pretty good quality! Bring back Hydor I say :thup:

my bristlenose does that to my swords every now and again... one more chance and hes gone! :sml2:

yeah I had the same problem... turned out it was a leak in the line next to the check valve. my bottle only lasted 2 weeks which was the first I knew of the problem.

yes please :bounce:

well thats my issue... I have co2 running on the tank and I really want to be able to crank it up a little bit more, which I won't do until I sort my KH out

Thanks for your response Jim, So do you think it's worth having a play around with? I was thinking about using some seachems product, and just adding it to the storage water first, then adding it to the tank once I had the PH,KH, and GH looking ok...

yeah but was your KH sitting at 1 or 2?

I did think about this way. However, I think it was going to get too tricky as I would need to somehow plumb the pipes in permanently as I currently just run them through an open window from outside on the day I do the water change. The other problem is that it’s a heavily planted tank and I'll be using a lot of fertilizer so I guess if I was running the constant water change system it would be hard to keep track of what the levels were in the tank. Does anyone play with their water chemistry at all? The reason I ask is that my tap water has a very low KH level of just 1 or 2 and I'm just a little worried as I'm running pressurised co2. I would like to be able to turn it up from what I have it on at the moment, but if I do I'm worried that the added co2 will cause a major PH crash and harm my discus. My tap water has a PH of 7.2 and KH of 1-2 once it hits the tank with the co2 it drops down to a PH of 6.2 and the KH doesn't even have a reading! Anyone have the same problem?

is it actually and good for people that cannot afford ADA products?

28-30 for discus, the breeder recommended 30

Just got hold of a 300w Hydor inline heater... and I have to say it's got to be one of the most efficient heaters I have ever seen in operation... I set it to 30c and it brought the tank up from 29c to exactly 30c very fast. I'm really impressed!

hehe sweet, so if I was to store it for over a week would it be advisable to run an airstone or something to stop it from going stagnant?

one thing I have noticed is different diffuser's have very different running pressures. My old diffuser use to require me to turn the pressure up just about all the way in order to get the required bubbles per min. However, with my new diffuser the reg is hardly even turned on... So in short, your diffuser is most probably putting a lot more pressure on the line then what mine does.

Hi Guys, I have just setup a 200l water storage tank for my discus tank which is around 300l. The plan is I will just full the storage tank up and heat it up separately each Sunday when I do a water change. I have placed a pump in the bottom of the storage tank so all I need to do is plug it in and it will start pumping water from the storage unit into the main tank. My question is... how long would it take for the water in the storage tank to go off? Most of the water will be replaced on a weekly basis. But, I'm keen to hear from anyone who does water changes using this method, or something similar. Cheers, Fraser

Awww I want some! The only bits I can find are just tiny little narrow leaf plants... I have standard Java Fern that doesn't seem to be growing all that fast, even with my hightech setup! Does it grow faster than the standard stuff?

Looks wicked! whats the green plant in the top righthand corner that looks a little like java fern?

So how much would it cost to get setup with everything you need?

Hi Jennifer, I'm hoping you can give me a few pointers with regards to ferterlizers, I have been running my 300L tank for about a year now and have be getting ok results from what I have been doing so far... However, I have invested quite a bit of money in lighting and a CO2 system and feel my tank should be looking a lot better than what it currently looks like as most of the plants don't really look 100%. I had a bit of a problem with blue/green algae which was starting to get out of control, covering plants etc, so I completed a 4 day black out. This completely killed off the algae, also the green spot algae that was growing on the front glass. But, the blackout also left the plants in a bit of a state, with the stargrass and lotus shooting up towards the top of the tank and looking very pale. Tank Specs Tank: 300L 122x50x50cm Filter: 1x Fluval 305 Substrate: Aquamix with fine gravel covering Lighting: 8 x 36" T5's, 1x 18,000k, 2x 6,500k 5x 10,000k (currently only running 6 lights) CO2: 1 x Bottle system which comes on and off with lighting Fish Stock: 30+ Neon Tetra, 1 x Blue Ram, 1 x Sliver Fox, Plus soon to add 5 x Discus Plants: Riccia, Stargrass,Micro Swords, Glosso, Various Sword Plants, Lotus Anyway, all I have really been dosing currently is Flourish Comprehensive, 2 x caps twice a week. I now understand that this doesn't really contain enough macronutrients for what I am doing and is probably contributing to the problems I am having with poor plant health and algae. I have now purchased some ferts from Valray off TM that contain macronutrients as well as microutrients which I intend to start dosing daily at twice the recomended doseage. Since Valray doesn't add Phosphate to the mix I have purchaed Seachems Phosphate so I can add this also. Any tips you have would be very much appreciated Fraser

Yeah I had a feeling you guys were going to say that! dam, now I need another tank

Yeah I had a feeling you guys were going to say that! dam, now I need another tank

I will be going away over the xmas/new year break for 5 days and will not be able to change the water in my baby discus tank over this time. I will have someone feeding them daily over this time, however, I won't get them to change the water in the tank as getting the temprature correct and conditioning it will probably be too much to ask... I normally change their water on a daily basis. So my question is, will it do any harm leaving them for 5 days without a water change? They are about 3 months old and are currently being kept in a 30L tank. Any advice would be great! thanks

Do you have any plans for your stand that I could have a look at? I might just do the upper and lower frame in 3x2 and do the legs in 2x2 to make putting the screws in easier in that case. Are you using MDF or Ply for the top base and sides? Did bunnings cut all of that to size also? I would be keen to see how you setup the support brackets also if you get a chance to update your stand build post. I'll probably start this project this weekend