breakaway

Okay, I recently bleached some of the plants that were badly affected by algae. It killed all the algae, but the plant are now losing their leaves (I read this is to be expected and that they will bounce back shortly). Algae is still not showing any signs of going away though. I'm looking at adding pressurised CO² shortly.

The all in one units are plenty adequate for a beginner I'd say. The best thing about all in one units is you can simply go to the shop and pick them up, and they come with matching lids and integrated light hoods. You can also buy purpose made cabinets that look great right off the shelf. The curved glass aquaria look better than siliconed 90 degree ones I reckon. That said you definitely pay a premium for them. Aqua One is good, but I don't like the look of their bigger bow front curved tanks. Juwel looks great, but they're stupidly expensive. It's all down to your personal preference, and then your budget

Correct. I like to automate as many fish tank related chores as I can (I've already got the lights on a timer. I will run the solenoid on the same timer). If you can do it without a proper regulator then more power to you. I can't see it being dangerous unless you're doing something dodgy and / or there's a danger of piercing the cylinder. But keep in mind I really have no clue about this stuff, this are just my assumptions.

Be prepared to pay upwards of $450. Not including gas bottle. That'll probably be another $200. There are cheaper ways of doing it (importing the regulator/solenoid from overseas, buying refurbished gas bottles etc). A regulator + solenoid imported from China is about $100. Bottles you have to buy here. Importing carries its risk though - fittings mainly. You have to ensure that their regulators will fit our bottles, so find out the thread size of the bottle you'll be using and ask the place selling the regulator what their thread sizes are and ensure they match.

I already got him down to US$53 each But I need to be sure that the regulator will fit NZ-Bought bottles. So I'm waiting for someone in the know to come around and tell me whats what.

What is the diameter of the connector on the bottle end of the bottles that you get in NZ? I asked the guy who sells the regulator on eBay and he says the regulator end is 2cm. How big are the connectors on our bottles? It's not a standardised thing is it? That would be far too logical :roll: .

Why would you need clear hosing that can take pressure? That's the regulators job. The only part of the loop that uses hose would be from the output from the needle valve to the diffuser inside the aquarium, right?

Yeah. Usually when you buy a bottle they come unfilled anyway.

Hollywood fish farm sell gas bottles for $220 iirc. The capacity is 10L. They do refills also. I'm sure they wouldn't be selling CO2 that may harm your fish.

How long does the sodastream last for? The main reason I'm staying away from soda stream is because it holds only 500mL of CO² vs the 5kg or so that the other bottles have. Won't it run out in a month or so? And you have to pay $12 to re-fill / replace it at the supermarket? Whereas a bigger bottle wouldn't need refills for close to a year on my 200L tank.

I'm not sure. I'm going to order the reg + solenoid from ebay first - probably this one - http://cgi.ebay.com/CO2-regulator-solen ... 3a57ab9c7c, and then find a bottle.

Also - if I order the regulator from overseas, is it going to fit a NZ bottle? If not, will I be able to buy adapters to make it fit?

The one he recommended me is the same as this one pretty much: http://cgi.ebay.com/Precision-CO2-Carbo ... 45f1e7f350 This is the regulator only for NZ$110 shipped. Still gotta buy the bottle + CO² reactor + check valve.

There's a chance that it smelled like bleach due to the fact there's a relatively high amount of chlorine in my water supply. Better safe than sorry

I just bleached a couple of my plants. Worked really well. I rinsed them with the garden hose for about 20 minutes, and it still smelled like bleach/chlorine, so I unloaded a good amount of stress coat (dechlorinator) into it, and it no longer smells like chlorine. I'm going to change the water tonight and add more stress coat to be safe, then I'm going to put the plants back in. It absolutely decimated all the hair algae and traces of staghorn btw.

Hey, Just wondering if it's worth investing in a 'high quality' brand like JBJ or similar. I had a quick look on eBay and I can source the regulator + solenoid valve for about $120 NZ incl shipping. But only its one of those "chinese brands" (Link 1) (Link 2) So I'm basically wondering - is it okay to get this chinese quality stuff for my aquarium? With filters and heaters I don't take this sort of risk as they have the potential to kill fish, but CO2 not so much, right? If I was to import the above, all I'd have to do is get a bubble counter and a diffuser (both relatively inexpensive), and I'd be in business - is this correct?

A question for the more experienced members - Is one month enough for a tank to mature enough to support that kind of bio load?

Oh, I don't have "Straight Bleach"; Just some 'concentrated bleach' cleaning that I found under the bathroom sink. So this stuff is bad to use? Or can I just use it, rinse the plants several times and chuck em back in?

How much bleach Jennifer? 10%? 20%? Also I don't think we can get blue mystery snails as the puffers might possibly attack them. (Strangely though they leave the loaches alone, but will often attack otocinclus).

It's neither of those (I looked them up in google image search), but here's a better photo. I don't know the common name. I knew the latin name but I forgot it because it was long and a tongue twister Anyway, the above plant was absolutely covered in hair algae. So I've pulled it out into a bucket and covered the top to put it into a blackout for a couple of nights. Hopefully this will help it get a stronger foothold when I transfer it back into the main tank. Photo of yesterday's 'scape: Had to remove the ambulia and some other plants because the cyano had ruined their leaves. I saved the tips and re-planted them though.

I always thought hypothermia would be a nice way to go. You fall asleep, but never wake up.

Ice water bath. This would be humane right? And readily doable by most people as they have ice cubes in the fridge.

I'm looking to invest into a quality pressurised CO2 setup. This DIY stuff just isn't cutting it - it seems that the CO2 just fizzles out after a few days but other times the CO2 goes for ~10 days even though I swear I've used the same ratio of ingredients. Any recommendations for places where I can get it from (don't mind importing) Jennifer, my ambulia has increased its internodal space now. How do I 'fix' this?

The tank seems to be doing better. No new algae is growing, but the existing algae isn't dying either. Some of it has died although. When ran my hand along the plants a lot of it just seemed to 'fall off'. Also removed heaps of Cyano. Tank looks good now, but will look even better when algae dies. Changed a fair amount of water today. Also re-dosed ferts.

Hey Guys, Thanks for the help. Here's what the tank looks like now: So far I've been dosing 4mL flourish every 3 days for 200L of water. I've got a lot of ambulia and some indian fern in there that's going absolutely crazy and attempting to take over the tank. Hair algae growth seems to have arrested rather than go down. I hop if I continue this way then it'll be gone in a while. I've also purchased a new 78W T5HO unit - at this stage do you guys think I'd be better off holding off putting it on or shall I just throw it on and see what happens? I don't want to fuel the algae any further but want to encourage plant growth. Keep in mind my CO² is DIY and my plants are pearling - would it be beneficial to add the 2nd 78W of T5HO at this stage?