Supaclear

simply amazing!!!!

Yep thats pretty much the conclusion i came too as well. Still my current rig wasnt exactly as cheap as i initially started out. it just sort of evolved.....and yes i do hide receipts. :oops: haha Well i have also set up a nano betta tank for my boy, planted of course and i do love the low techness of it all. it just looks great, always....my brother and i was talking about setting up a big african tank in the garage.....time will tell..or Mrs Superclear...

i run UV 24/7 and i know plenty of reasons why i shouldnt have to, yet i do....when i was checking it all out i was trying to fix green water myself. turned out it was a bacterial bloom that looked supergreen because of my heavily planted tank diffusing green light. i checked the water by straining it through a tissue to look for algae but it was clear. UV took about 10 days to sort it, it may have sorted itself in that time but i wanted to try it out. main advantage i can see with UV is that its another line of defense to a few problems but its not the full answer. i have read that UV can benefit redox levels in fresh water tanks and this helps fishes. I dont know but it all sounded very plausible at the time.

Sorry mate, must have got confused. breeding tanks sound cool but i wont go down that track just yet. i looked at marine as a possibility but got a bit scared off by the chemisrty behind it all. one day maybe once i get this aspect sorthed

Thanks Josh, you have a juwel as well? i remember reading some of your posts when i was trying to decide which tank to go for.

of lurking so time to say hi. I have learnt heaps since i returned to the hobby and have been amazed by the amount of info around on the net, places like the barr report, planted tank, the krib and of course here. please excuse typing, using a netbook with sausage fingers... I am still looking to learn heaps more. the many posts by members like (not limited too) adrrienne, jennifer and phoenix44 et al have been very helpful since my goal was to set up a community planted tank, with nice fish and interesting plants...no algae.... No pix yet but heres the juice: Juwel vision 260 ph 6.4, zero nitrates, ammonia or nitrate GH KH etc unkown Got bored with testing so havent done so for a while, results identical every time. 30 percent water changes weekly and use prime Eheim 2217 plus internal sponge. eheim has media only. juwel bioflow has purigen and course blue sponges , cirax and floss. 24 watt UV run 24/7 10 LB CO2 through diffuser into the 2217. Ph before CO2 is 7.6 so i guess ppm are ok. certainly plants and critters doing well. dual stage reg soleniod timer etc Lighting is standard 2x 54 watts with reflectors for around 12 hours per daygsg Subtrate is black flourite (3 or 4 bags) black onyx sand (1 bag) and a couple of packs of laterite. No root balls or other. Tank was heavily planted with stems, crypts, swords and java fern on day one Fishes: harlequins (3) used to cycle (was 10 but angels have thinned them out) 4 wild type angels (P. Scalare) 4 veiltail german blue rams 5 super red rosy barbs 6 odessa barbs 4 chain loaches 4 leopard cories 2 SAE 4 ottos 1 featherfin synodontis 1 bristlenose Plants: Rose sword x2 (X Ozelot) Red sword (hormanni sp?) Green tiger lotus Uruquay sword (x2) Barthi sword x 2 Java fern tied to bog wood Crypts wnedti tropica parviflora tropica twisted val H polysperma sunset had glosso (featherfin took care of that) stems like ambulia, poly, wysteria etc turned into tank busters so i replaced them with slower growing plants Ferts are pmdd from trademe trader valray. I dose 3x recommended daily so 2mls. was using seachem micro and npk. toying with the idea of EI but algae is non existant barring some GDA on a rock and front glass after a week or so. so will ilkey stick with what i am doing. Algae cured to date: minor bba outbreak while i was sorting CO2 diatoms, like big stingy gloopy blobs hanging off everthing - angels ate it green hair - otos and sae and manual removal blue green (fixed with erthromycin) and just to kick a bloke, thunderous staghorn everywhere that could not be removed. resorted to API algaefix. dosed exactly as per instructions, sorted ferts. New tank syndrome for sure. anyway, thats me cheers andy