suphew

If your wanting to do a planted tank, IMHO you are better off making the bottom 1-2 inches of substrate right for the plants rather than for looks then just adding a layer (1/4-1/2 inch) on top for looks. For my substrate I use 50/50 gravel mixed with aquadic clay (purchased from a plant shop, used for lillies), and a few handfuls of peat. Doing this puts the nutirants etc in the substrate, rather than the water column where algae can access it, it will leach out for a few months but make for a far better setup.

Just wait till you start getting up in the middle of the night to look!!

Would be suprised if anyone would fill it. I believe bottles are certified only for the type of gas they are made for. I've used sodasteam bottles they are ok but run out quickly (month or so) and cost almost the same as the bigger bottles to fill. But IMHO the bottle is the easy/cheap part, the regulator and valve will be what costs $$$. I used a fed into my filter output tube to defuse the CO2, works really well

When getting stuff from hydroponics shops just make sure you check that there is no Phosphates in the mix

I have tried to get these in Wlg, Chemists aren't allow to sell chemicals any more (go figure), the other problem is the small amounts you need, chemical suppliers are only interested in selling Kg's of stuff. I was told to go to the uni lab and ask them nicely. I never did so don't know if it works.

Agreed, I have even seen this (or looks like this, Japonise Rush or something??) for sale in plant shops as a house plant. A lot of so called aquatic grass/rushes, are actually marginal or bog plants, which means they will only survive short periods under water. Another thing to note is that a lot of commercial plant growers grow the plants out of water because it's faster, easier, and when they get to the shops they aren't covered in algae (I wondered for ages why shop plants always looked so good and free of algae). The down side to this for us is most plants have different leaves out of water than under water (usually far larger under water). So firstly it's hard to judge what a plant will look like and secondly often all the leaves will fall off or die down leaving only the roots or stem which with luck will then grow under water leaves.

Did consider both those points, also remember I'm just chucking round an idea, not actually planning to do it. Was thinking that the difficulty of a few holes was made up for by ease of glueing. Breakable, whats your tank made out of?? lol

Not planning on building one at the moment but was reading some posts the other day and people were talking about making skimmer chambers square and out of perspex. It occured to me that if you can make them square then why not out of glass? This then leads to lots of other interesting ideas like, instead of putting the skimmer in a sump why not make it as part of the sump? i.e. seal off one end, add some holes and a pump. What about turning an old tank on its end and using that? Cheap huge skimmer! It proberly no better than using perspex but for people used to working with glass might be alot easier.

Maybe the spectrum goes out of the visible range? Cause there is definately a difference in visible brightness between old and new bulbs, if you put them side by side and compare

Planted 4 x 4foot Marine 3 x 3foot

Bit hard with MH cause they are so bright its hard to look at them but fluros, yep.

Dont know that you will be able to see it, I can only see changes in mine if I put and old and new bulb in at the same time. This is why so many people resist spending the money, its doesn't really "look" much different unless you have two side by side to compare.

Bulbs (all types) should be replaced after 6 months to a year because of this. Just do one at a time so everything can adjust to the new brightness.

Research, and then results from correcting deficiencies. It is possible to make up your own trace element mix, but unless you have access to chemist or uni lab its difficult to get the stuff you need in the very small volumes required. I meet a guy with a hugh hydoponics green house and he made up his own, but he had 10000 odd liters of water in his system. What I do is figure out what I am missing and look for a suppliment that contains it. Commomly it is just Iron and Potassium that is a problem, as most of the others are replenished when water changes are done. When I can avoid it I prefer not to add stuff to the water because this gives it to the Algae to, so for Iron I add clay under the gravel when I set up a tank or push in clay balls if I need to add it later, for Potassium I do add Seachem flourish but use highish doses and only dose for a few days, am then fine for 3-4 months. I dont know if dosing like this is a good idea but I'm lasy and forget to dose if I have to keep doing it and it works for me, Ive stopped using CO2 cause the plants grow too fast, but still pull out a pile each week.

Both I think

The cheapest option is to DIY, electrical suppliers sell single and double fluro fittings for around $30 (same as the white fittings you see in buildings etc), It would be simple to hang one of these above you tank. You would have to wire up a lead and plug and they dont come with reflectors or tubes but you can get these from them as well tubes $10-$15 for common types (like daylights), never got reflectors so don't know how much these are. Word of warning, these fittings are of course not sealed (water proof) so make sure the earth wire is connected, they are well ventilated, and cant fall into your tank.

Noticed a few people asking questions regarding holes in leaves etc so decided to post some information, once you have identified your deficiency, look for a suppliment that contains it. IMO Iron and Potassium are the most common deficiencies. Iron, New growth is yellow from a lack of chlorophyll, growing tips sometimes appearing pinkish or white. The new leaves are small with green veins. Shows up first in rapid growing plants such as Echinodorus tenellus. Leaves may become brittle and transparent. Potassium, Yellow or dead patches, on old leaves, making small spots and holes, the veins don't stay green. Leaf margins wither, and the leaves may curl. Calcium, New leaves are small and distorted, with white or yellow margins. The whole leaf can become white. Root tips may be blackened and die. Magnesium, Yellow to white patches on older leaves, but the veins will stay green. Leaves may become transparent. Boron, New growth is small and distorted. Shoot tips start to die; side shoots form and then die. Roots are short and distorted, the root tips start to die. Manganese, Yellow patches between green veins on older leaves. Tissue between veins die out leaving elongated holes. Can also be caused by excess iron, which blocks the uptake of manganese. Molybdenum, Yellow patches between veins on older leaves, followed by brown areas along margin. Sulphur, Yellowing of new leaves at first, may be pinkish with high light levels. Phosphorus, Plant stops growing with premature leaf loss. Some plants become darker green, others purple. Zinc, Yellowing areas between veins of older leaves, starting at leaf tip followed by margins, and then rest of leaf. Copper, Mainly new leaf tips die and leaf margins wither. Excess copper will kill many species including Vallisneria and Sagittaria. Nitrogen, Older leaves turn yellow first; occasionally in high light levels they become reddish. The old leaves tend to perish. Plants will become small and stunted, but still have large root systems.

Have you tried Biosupply in Auckland? I'm not sure what the correct name or address is, but I have had live food sent from them and they are pretty cheap. To get their address go to your LPS and look at the frozen food (like discus tucker) they supply most of it in NZ. PM me if you cant find the address I have some food of theirs at home with a contact phone number.

Not often you see some one asking how to grow Algae!! Do the opposite to every thing you normally do to get rid of algae, I kept daphnia (sp) for a while, put the tank in the sun, dumped the contents of my filters into the tank, no water changes. Nice thick green soup. Dont know if this helps.....

Mine did, she USED(!) to sleep on the top of the light cause it was warm, I had light and glass off to do a water change she's pretty old and didn't notice jumped off a chair right into the tank, was so shocked she didn't move for 2-3 seconds and then leapt straight up and out. Very funny! never seen her on a tank again!

IMHO cheap pumps aren't worth spending money on, they dont last in salt water, leak water, and some leak oil, so yes Eheim or Iwaki. I made the mistake of buying a resun to drive my skimmer, it's only been running 6 months, is noisy and already needs to be replaced, plus it leaks so I have to run it in the tank which heats up the water, so a waste of $130. The Resun one replaced a Rio pump (the first one I got), another waste of $130 only used for a month. The other problem with driving skimmers is they have heaps of back pressure, which kill cheap pumps.

Can anyone tell me how you get xenia to 'branch' like that? I have three going now from one that I got off steve, ones quite large but not branching????

One other quick note regarding skimmers, just need to know with venturi (i.e. pump driven skimmers), they are really good, BUT, they often dont come with a pump, you can get the skimmer for maybe $100 for a cheap one like a queen turbo but then find you have to fork out $300+ for a big enough pump that will last in salt water.

Shea, regarding the lights, figured it might help if I explained a little since eveyone is saying "do this" but not saying why. I dont claim to be an expert and this just my understanding so anyone please correct any thing I have wrong Firstly fluro tubes "wear out" i.e. lose there briteness, at around 6 months your only getting about half the output, althrough you cant see the difference the corals (mushies) or plants for freshwater can. Next, water absorbs light at different rates pending on the wave length, what this basically means red light doesnt get very deep into the water, blue and green do (which is why the sea looks blue) therefore corals only use blue/green light to grow cause thats all they get in the wild. If you think about it, in the wild algae tends to grown where plants/coral arent doing so well, ie closer to the surface where there is more red light therefore red light can = algae. Note this doesnt hold true for non-water plants (because there is no water filtering the light) which is why hydroponic grow tubes are some times pink. Common tubes for marine are 10000+k (kevin) which are cold white looking but are actually quite a blue color (these are also used for plants in fresh water) and actinic (which is a type not a color) blue tubes. these tubes are really blue, like nightclub blue! The "light bulb man" in chews lane in the city stocks these tubes, they are the proper aqurium tube (not that it matters) same as the LFS sell, he charges around $25 for a 3 foot, dont know how much other sizes are.

The lees model is counter current, wooden air stones (blocks??) are about $2 each.