HBSterbai

Hi again. Thanks for the tips on limiting the sound produced by the pump. I'm in the Hawkes Bay club, but I plan to pick up some new equipment tomorrow. Hopefully problem solved. Cheers

Hi Caryl. Thanks for your response. I feel a little foolish, I completely overlooked the option of adding an air pump to increase the surface agitation. It's a 160 L tank. How powerful an air pump would you think necessary. The sound generated by air pumps used to bother me a little. I suppose as a temporary measure it won't matter though.

Hey maxxi1. Thanks for the post. Unfortunately my filter doesn't seem to produce enough surface agitation to melt it, as the duckweed is doing quite well. I think I'll have to go with Shilo's method of removing it by hand.

Thanks for the speedy reply Shilo. I guess I had better get scooping.

Hi everyone. The plant that is pictured floating on the surface has become a bit of a nuisance. I haven't intentionally introduced it. It must have piggybacked in on another plant. Anyway, does anyone know what it is called or if there is a way to get rid of it other than physically scooping out every last specimen. https://imgur.com/a/5glXIAm

Thanks. I poured it over the main couple of patches. I don't have a syringe on hand though. The tank contains dwarf neon rainbowfish, neon tetras, corydoras, and bristlenose plecos. Also I just noticed the bristlenose had bred, so a whole bunch of the fish are teeny tiny plecos.

Hi all. I just noticed some black beard algae growing in my tank the last couple of days. I picked up some Seachem Flourish Excel today. I've heard that it is useful for getting rid of this stuff. So I plan to at least initially dose it according to the instructions, rather than doubling up. My question is, should I have carbon in my filter while I'm using this? It says nothing about removing it on the bottle, but I don't want to just strip it from the water. Thanks

Thanks you two. Very useful to know the drops per litre, the article states.

Hi everyone. I am going to have to cull some fish that have become too injured to become well again. What are the best reasonably humane methods that can be performed at home?

Hi everyone. Since I last posted I have been performing increased frequency of water changes, and have brought the nitrate and nitrite levels to zero or as close as the test will read to zero. Although I have since last post, noticed that there are some pretty high levels of aggression going on in the tank. The rainbowfish are the culprits. Because of the aggression I think the rainbows have to go. Also because I have had disease in the tank I assume I would have to cull them off and probably members of any of the other species that are showing signs of serious injury. I have heard that you can anesthetize fish with clove oil, and then put them into freezing water to kill them. Is this an acceptable or commonplace practice when culling fish?

Hi Adrienne. My tank is a blue planet model: AA900PGD 160L. The Filter pump is model: AA590A. I read online that is does 1100L/h. Filtration media is model R-060-SC. The Filter flow is set to maximum as well as the on board aeration. There seems to be a decent amount of surface agitation although not excessive. I don't use excel or supplementary CO2. I use seachem flourish weekly for the plants. There are a lot fewer fish so I'm feeding less. They don't seem quite as interested in food, although they are eating 2-3 times a day what they can in about a minute. This doesn't apply to what I feed the corys and plecos, as the pellets are dense and take several hours to be finished. Is that too long? Maybe I have been too used to the aggression levels of cichlids. The rainbows are fighting a little bit and I'm down to 7 of them total now. None of the rainbowfish seem to have mechanical injuries though. Maybe their activity is stressing the other species out. I just did a test of water quality now. GH: 120 KH: 40-80 PH: 7 NO2: 0.5 NO3: 20-40

Hi again. So I ran a treatment of furan 2. At first the affected pleco lost the white stuff growing on her body. It came back though, a couple of days after the treatment ended. Also some of my neon tetras are still exhibiting signs of fungus or bacteria, and showed no sign of improvement with medication. The dwarf rainbows are looking OK in terms of appearance, but I've lost quite a few and the ones remaining are sometimes lingering just under the waterline as if they are starved of oxygen. I'm really at a loss of what to do at this stage, as I've exhausted the range of products I know that treat this kind of thing. The tank is looking pretty lousy. I'm doing water changes 1 - 2 times a week. Water quality parameters look to be within normal range with only miner fluctuation before water change. Any advice on how to proceed appreciated. Thanks all

Thanks for the info. Interesting that the carcinogen warning is covered by another less scary sticker.

Thanks Shilo. I'll pick up some Furan 2 this week. I don't mind paying a little extra for a healthy tank. $70 it looks like for a course.

Thanks, Alan. The photos don't really depict much more than decor. I haven't observed any bullying, except for perhaps some of the dwarf rainbow males displaying to each other, and the odd chase down the tank. Does anyone know what is in Furan 2? Ultimatley my fish are more important than the plants, although I am fond of them. So as far as adding acriflavine goes, I'd prefer not to use products with that in it if I don't have to. I hadn't even thought of the salt harming the plants, and yet it obviously is detrimental to terrestrial plants so why wouldn't it be harmful. I have been changing 60 of the 160 liters once a week, as well as an additional 40 liter change on day 3 when i redosed the wunder tonic. Is 60 liters once a week concidered normal for a tank this size?, housing neon tetras, dwarf neon rainbows, plecostimus and corydoras.

Thanks for the speedy reply Shilo. I had wondered about it perhaps being bacterial. Do you know if the concentration of malachite green/acriflavin in wunder tonic as stated above is adequate for treatment of Columnaris? I think my lfs stocks Acriflaine by itself at a higher concentration than the tonic. I haven't seen Furan 2 there though. So I'm thinking about my next step. Should I dose another course of the wunder tonic, or should I get another solution like Furan 2t ? I'm a little daunted to try the dip method as catching the specific fish would be difficult. Especially the pleco.

Pics of the tank

Hi. I have been having some problems with fungus in my 160 liter community aquarium. I have kept fish for many years at a time in the past, although I have never had serious problems with fungal growth. I noticed some fungus had grown on some wood that had put into the tank. It concerned me enough to remove this particular piece. All seemed well after that, however over the past six weeks or so, I have noticed that some of the fish in the aquarium have developed fungus growing on their bodies. IEVEN lost a few. I treated the tank with API Pimafix that contains Pimenta Racemosa (bay oil). The Pimafix didn't seem to help much. I Then started using tonic salt after water changes and dosed a cycle of 'wunder tonic' containing 1.5% methylene blue, 0.1% malachite green, 0.05% acriflavine and 0.04% quinine. I havn't had any further deaths since I dosed the wunder tonic product. Yet I am still somewhat concerned about the welfare of these animals, as two of my neon tetras and one of the bristlenose plecostomus have visible growth of fugus on their bodies. So my questions are what can I do now to prevent further development of fugus in the tank. As well as how to medicate or care for the fish that are still exhibiting signs of illness. The Nitrite ppm (mg/L) is 0 - 0.5 The Nitrate is ppm (mg/L) is 0 - 20

I have a little less than 20 of these now. I'm really happy with them. I have never kept any rainbowfish before so its really interesting to observe their behavior.

Hi everyone. I am interested in getting some Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish. I know that ideally it is best to keep two or three females to each male counterpart. My question is if I can't find a source for sexable specimens, can I get away with adding 8 or so juveniles and growing them out together?

Thanks Shilo, that was very informative. It's cool that native hard wood is so suitable. Thanks Adrienne. It don't think I'll be making it up to the East Cape anytime soon, although thats sweet information for any other readers. I will be searching for wood in the Hawkes Bay.

Hi everyone. I have set up a new aquarium at home, and although I have had tanks filled with fish before, I have never added wood. I am wanting to know if there are ways to prepare driftwood taken from the beach, for safe housing in a freshwater aquarium. Thanks

Hill all. Found some sterbai, so I'm sorted now. Thanks

Hi. I'm in Hawkes Bay. Looking to buy corydoras sterbai. Thanks