GrahamC

Sounds like you need an in tank divider, and more frequent PWC to allow the fin to heal.

The Kindle comes in various flavours for PC, HP tablet etc as a free download. And allows you read content protected by DRM. Looks like the book mentioned above is some type of comic book.

I've actually read a few posts on the www.barrreport.com regarding non Co2 tanks and algae

Just curious but did you consider metal framing ... the stuff they advertise on TV for housing. Or that not strong enough?

Could be high phosphates but I do regular WC so I thought that would remove them. This is an unplanted low tech tank, and from numerous web pages I have now read, it is said that algae flourish when there is high lighting and low nutrients. To combat the above I need to cut back on the lighting and feed the few plants I have. So, based on the advice also given by others above, I have started to add some Flouish Excel. Took me 30 mins just to get the cap off though.

I've done that before. Make sure that the container is able to fit under the seat infront of you. Mine wasn't quite water tight so I left a little puddle under the seat! Easier to carry if the box they're in is carried inside a larger bag.

Doesn't look like the seller knows what they're selling. But I'm thinking it might be a water immersion lens.

Good point. Listing 483267010 also looks promising. Is that an oil immersion lens attached?

one of my fish has gone down with what I thought was saprolegnia around her mouth after jumping across a divider to join the angels ( and presumably being attacked ), but the stuff has now spread to her dorsum so I'm thinking probably columnaris now. Three days in a hospital tank with salt, and daily 30 min baths in 1L of saline with 1 drop of 1% methylene blue has not halted the progression. I've also been swabbing her mouth with undiluted 1% mb. I'd like to get some of this fluffy stuff and examine it under a microscope so I can find out what I'm dealing with. Anyone know where to purchase second hand microscopes?

I've only been in that shop the once when I was in conference in Rotorua a couple of months ago. In comparison with what we have in Wgton, they had quite a few fresh water and marine tanks with a technician for both. Tanks looked clean and fish looked healthy. In chatting to them they didn't seem clueless.

In the past when I've had problems with algae on plants, I've put them outside in containers which have been filled with water, and after a few days the algae melts off. Just thinking it might just be too cold though right now to try that.

If so, then they would have some way of feeding them successfully.

Most of the concern has been about carbonated waters contributing towards osteoporosis. ( Acids -> buffered by leaching calcium from skeleton ).

Some people also use rubber bands to secure rhizomes to rocks/wood.

Ahh.. you bought the wrong form of Excel to go with your sodastream Co2 injector. You need the Microsoft one.

I didn't use cotton as I read sometimes fish can swallow it possibly with some issues. But used nylon fishing line. Some people say it doesn't take that long but I started with very small plants and it took months. Once they were attached I removed the nylon (which I had stapled down into the wood ). Staples were a little rusty. @p44 - do you grow your java fern in an unheated goldfish tank?

Could these mussels have been in the shop for some years?

Is a sodastream a form of CO2 injection? And if so, what are you trying to grow? :slfg:

I did a 30% PWC last night, and after another 20% today, it's down to 10-20 ppm, so it must have been lower than 80 ppm.

These look like taken under specialist lighting http://www.arowana.co.nz/gallery.php

Don't have a way to measure phosphates, but nitrates 80 ppm.

http://www.nzwaterways.co.nz/NZWR-Solutions/ Don't believe they're cheap though

There is always safety in redundancy.

I've never used any nutrients, maybe I have to! I think it's lights out for this tank ... 72 hours. I guess the fish will be okay in the dark for a few days.

That's why I was wondering if the BBA is doing this since some leaves are healthy and others dying back. My ordinary fern died from from the root but this one seems to be dying back from the tips.