alexyay

The API Nitrate kits often show 0 as many people don't follow the instructions completely (it's OK, we've all done it!) - it's really, really important to show the instructions exactly or it'll show 0 Nitrates. You need to shake both bottle No. 2 and the Test tube (after putting the second bottle drops in) basically until your arms almost fall off - then wait 5 minutes. You should definitely see Nitrates after that

Hiya, I have a simple poll to fill out to hopefully satisfy my curiosity/confusion. * Required fields - Does your water contain chlorine?* - Do you use a dechlorinator?* - Do you know where your water comes from, if so do you know the average levels (eg residual chlorine) in your water supply? (EG. Mine comes from Ardmore and Waikato, and according to the 2013 Water Report their averages are, in mg/L, 1.10, 0.95 and 0.97) - How old is your tank? - Does your use of dechlorinator change based on the "maturity" of the tank? That is all for now

+1 to Giesemann. Only algae issues I've had are BBA - little to no GSA, cyano etc. Big improvements since upgrading from cheap tubes. I would say Hagen/Fluval is secondary - probably the only two brands I'd be keen on here in NZ.

If you're doing all male you need at least 3 males to spread the aggression. IMO all male is quite risky, especially as DGs are prone to infection. My following recommendations on setups for DGs (actually all gourami, with the exception of types like Chocolate and Bettas): 1 Male 1 Male, 2+ Female 3+ Male (risky) 2+ Female The only time I recommend 1 Male 1 Female is for breeding. 2 Male tends to be disastrous as one male is dominant and picks on the other. Edit: When doing all male you simply cannot have females, or else there will be mayhem (for both the males and females)

Yeah I'm worried about putting the Asian rummynoses in the higher temps as it appears they're quite sensitive little fish The Emerald eye rasbora were a consideration too, they just don't have the colour I'm after but I've also not seen them IRL (which may make a difference) BB gobies are an idea but prefer harder waters (even if not brackish) so aren't suitable for my very soft water. I would loooooove some Badis badis or Dario dario but thought they were quite sensitive so not necessarily a good fit with the gourami? Also love zebra loaches but the tank I believe is too small Got the leaves and wood :thup: Most plants in the tank are SE-A (except for a few grow-outs) with H polysperma variegated, twisted val, H difformis, R rotundifolia, C wendtii, C undulata, C balansae, Nymphaea lotus and Java ferns Has anyone seen Rasboroides vaterifloris or Sundadanio axelrodi for sale here? Any experiences with them? I may consider Boraras maculatus or Boraras brigittae otherwise

I have a CF1000 on my 120L, no leaks and pretty happy with it :thup:

!drool: Cactus plecs are definitely on my wanted list when we get a big tank... If it still counts... I have a poor collection, but have the 5 female rios (ugh), various BNs, 1 royal whiptail male (lost my other about a week ago), 4-5 sterbai cory (same random deaths as the whiptail), 3 red whiptails (2 female, 1 male), 5 hoplos, 8+ peppered cories, a banjo cat and 7 hara cats :nilly:

After the disaster that was my 120L - lots of illness that all appeared to be unrelated, including parasites which killed 4/5 American flagfish, a couple of external "isolated" bacterial infections a few weeks/months apart and killed 3 gourami (1 banded, 2 honeys, honeys got this from the store), a viral infection which killed one gourami (she had it all her life, though), another random gourami death (unknown reasons), internal bacterial infection (assumed) that killed another gourami - I had what I thought were nitrate issues, but was doing large regular WCs and heavy planting including a peace lily - test kit turned out to be inaccurate. Decided I had enough of it, and wanted to switch to sand from gravel anyway (have now done with with all of my tanks, no regrets at all) - so went to re-do the tank and sterilize everything in it (media taken from another healthy tank, though it came with a good dose of MTS lol). It's finally done and still clearing up (red tiger lotus and crypts aren't happy though, unfortunately!) and I decided to go onto a Southeast Asian biotope (was really enjoying my South American tank). Old stocking list (after all the fish that were lost) 1x Indian banded gourami female 1x Red honey gourami female 3x Red whiptail females, 1x Red whiptail male (one female died in the spare tank, though, for some reason) 1x American flagfish female Current stocking list 1x Indian banded gourami 1x Red honey gourami female 1x American flagfish female (unsure of what to do with her, need to find someone with a group) 7x Pangio anguillaris (yay!) To be added are 3x Thicklip gourami (1 male, 2 female) - unsure of whether I'm going to keep my red honey and get another female and male, or to give her away. Depends on whether I feel the male thicklip will be OK with the honey. I'm looking for ideas on top dwellers and bottom dwellers. I want a group of small shoalers and perhaps a single bottom dweller or group of bottom dwellers. My problem with shoalers is the ones I like seem to prefer cooler conditions. I'm wondering whether anyone's had any of these in about 26-27 degrees. KH sits at about 0-2 and GH sits at about 1-3. Tap pH is 7.6, but quickly drops to ~6.6 - my water is very soft. Sawbwa resplendens Celestichthys erythromicron Celestichthys margaritatus If not, does anyone have any suggestions? My only other thoughts are Brachydanio nigrofasciatus and Brachydanio tinwini - I'm not overly keen on either of them, though. I'm not a fan of harlequins or the larger danio species and am looking for a kind of "minifish" type. I'm also interested in a bottom dweller. The Pangio anguillaris are obviously staying, so they have to be compatible with them. I'm keen on the Asian bumblebee catfish but I doubt they are going to be compatible with my desired shoalers. I'm not big on the dwarf chain loaches (plus the tank grows my snails for my puffer, lol, but I'll consider other Botia loaches) so will only really consider them if there's nothing left. The tank footprint is 80x40 so a fair size for a 120L. Algae eaters aren't too important to me but I mean that's a bonus if they happen to eat algae too. I'm also looking for a good carpet plant - I may go Dwarf hairgrass but would be interested in a crypt species or any other carpet plant if anyone has any suggestions? Tank will be running CO2/ferts/T5HOs/etc

+1, or I keep it just in case I'm using it to remove meds

Sorry to bump, but does anyone know whether these guys will breed in a clear tube? I can tell when my girls have laid eggs but I can't tell whether he's sitting on them :nilly: Also do you remove the females after they've laid eggs, or do you leave them in the tank?

I know Sodastream does (learned that lesson $30 later) but unsure of paintballs but I *think* paintball bottles need adapters anyway?

It's dangerous to fish in soft water. Personally I avoid it. What's your reason for wanting to get rid of the snails? I tend to keep snails in all my tanks as they have multiple benefits - MTS help to sift through sand, others help to clean up wasted food, rotting plants and even rotting fish (eg if you don'tnotice one, the snails certainly will). Snail "booms" often come from overfeeding - cutting down on how much you feed can definitely help. They're only eating what you're giving them. Many people find putting a lettuce leaf at the top of the tank helps to cut down the population. You stick a lettuce leaf at the top and just before lights on in the morning (many snails will come out more at night, MTS for example are nocturnal) you remove it - it can be covered in hundreds of snails. Some people squish them on site (other than MTS which you can't squish) and find that helps - a lot of fish like the leftovers too. Your final option is Botia loaches. Personally I tend not to recommend these because they're not often compatible. Dwarf chain loaches are the smallest and can go in a 120L minimum, but all loaches require groups of 6+ so that's really important to remember. Many people recommend clown loaches, but these guys can supposedly reach 50 years old and grow up to 30cm, making the incompatible for most tanks! You can also get a dwarf puffer. Won't help with your snail population (highly aggressive fish that shouldn't be in a community tank), but in its own tank it'll give you something to feed the snails to

Good to see others are having trouble too (well, not good, but makes me feel a bit better) - first attempt and he sat for 2 weeks (girl dropped eggs) and I didn't see any fry - going to try again in another few days :roll: The fry are so cute! Good luck raising them

Have I? If I have, then I sincerely apologise - the only trace I can find about me discussing Kusuri is this: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=68104&p=720206&hilit=kusuri#p720206 where I made no statements whatsoever. AquariumSuppliesNZ has now confirmed with me that they have not registered the product. I really do try to make sure I know things before making statements.

Oh no I don't mean all their products - just furan 2. It requires registration which would be costing them at least $1000 in fees and they don't have the product registered meaning it's simply slipped through. I can say 100% confidently that the way they are getting furan 2 is not legal. I'm not worried about it being shared, it's just a note for the future that they're likely not a long term source.

They aren't getting it in legally though so it may disappear at any moment depending on whether they get caught at customs

It is a GHS category 2 Irritant, which should be on the packaging (even if simply labelled as "irritant") - the packaging says to wear gloves and avoid skin contact. I personally would be incredibly upset if I was given different packaging without this information and developed a reaction. HFF's new packaging has removed all warnings which personally upsets me and I'm unsure as to whether it's legal for them to do so.

Yes you want to remove the carbon

I ended up buying myself an 18" planted+ finnex - got some water damage but I'm otherwise pleased. Just ordered a 36" and 12" too

It was a while back but I came back in the morning and nada. She was a lot smaller so I figured they had bred but couldn't find anything - he wasn't protecting anything. He's been really pathetic at protecting the nest - driving me crazy. I had a boy about a year ago who would make a nest in the community tank and he was SO protective and made these huge nests about an inch deep - this guy hasn't done much at all in comparison! I forgot to ask - - Does anyone turn the lights on or do you just use the surrounding light? Does turning the light on have any adverse affects? Have been turning the light on during the day and want to make sure that's not eg preventing them from feeling safe or anything. They've become very friendly since being moved as they now hand feed, so aren't too skittish and it's heavily planted. Don't want the plants dying or anything but am happy to stop turning the light on.

Trichogaster labiosa - has anyone bred these guys or other Trichogaster sp? - Did you have the female separate at all? Eg in a box while the male built the nest? When I first tried they bred but there was no nest, so it ended up being unsuccessful. Now he may build a small nest overnight but it gets destroyed during the day. Wondering whether I need to be separating her? They are being fed bloodworms daily. A right pain trying to separate her without making huge water movements. - What was your water level exactly? - How soon after do you remove the female? If you accidentally left her in for a day after the spawn, will she just eat every egg in sight? - What do you personally prefer for him to build a nest under? I've found the poly cups seem to be working (only been using them for a couple of days). He wouldn't build it under the floating poly that I provided earlier. - Is it OK for me to use glad wrap around most of the tank even though they haven't spawned yet? - How often did you do water changes? I'm avoiding WCs but the evaporation is a bit too high to avoid at least putting in new water (because they've been in there for weeks with no luck I've been doing WCs every second day) Uh, I think that's it. Needless to say I'm not having much luck with them so far. Mostly him breeding when he doesn't have a nest and everything screwing up. Probably as simple as me being too crazy about getting it right :nilly:

- More filtration is definitely better - Typically with UV it's recommended to put good money into it, otherwise it's rendered useless. If you want to go UV I'd recommend either a more expensive brand or an external UV filter - the Sunsun UV filters don't really rate that well. We don't have any UV on our tanks so I can't really say what the best is or whether it's needed Personally I choose Aqua One over Sunsun

Done any water tests? Introduced any fish/plants/etc lately?

It's one of those questions where it depends on who you ask. I'm a bit crazy about good tank size. I personally feel that 300L is a bare minimum, preferably 400L - I tend to go with "goldfish belong in ponds" as it's more likely to happen compared to someone buying like a 1000L tank for their goldies (now that's dedication, lol). Others go by 20 gal/75L per goldfish. But you have to remember that given the space these fish will grow 25cm+ (some much bigger), along with being fairly active and very messy fish :dunno:

The 10 sachets usually cost about $30-$36, the person with them cheap on TM is technically not getting them in legally and may stop selling them at any moment (depending on whether they get caught on import), so they are cheaper than what they would technically cost. Furan 2 doesn't come in boxes as it doesn't come in to NZ any more. What HFF have done (to my knowledge) is take the medication out of the remaining boxes and portion it out into single courses (I think, assuming 1 packet does 4 days course?) - technically I do not think this is legal, and yes they are charging for the single course rather than the typical packets they have taken them from. I wouldn't know whether they're getting the Furan 2 from otherwise other than the possible remaining boxes (as they haven't registered it, there's a whole complicated process on legally importing and selling certain medications including Furan 2 and other antibiotics). Hmm, the Nitrate is important but only if it's over 40ppm (usually it would sit under this). Red gills can mean ammonia poisoning but it looks like your ammonia is fine. Fins rotting usually means bacterial so I think ABs are your best option. I'd quickly look into both Tuberculosis (don't think it would be this) and Neon Tetra Disease (can affect some fish other than neons) just to double check (neither of these can be treated), otherwise Ulcers may be a possibility. But it looks like it's probably bacterial (Columnaris is a common bacterial disease). If it's only affecting the one species and you're sure it isn't spreading you likely only need to treat the affected fish/species. I'd probably do some good sized WCs on the main tank just to ensure water quality is good and the fish can be in healthy conditions for good healing.