stillnzcookie

By substrate fert, I presume you just mean one of the aquarium substrates you can buy? If so, which ones do you recommend, how much is it likely to cost, and where would I buy it? Also, how long do they last, and what do you do when all the nutrients have been used up - do you need to replace the substrate, or will it be replenished by fish waste, liquid ferts etc? I bought some anubias, which arrived this morning, and I bought an internal filter yesterday, but I still need to get some more fast-growing plants, so the big re-vamp will probably have to wait another week. I keep thinking I've made my mind up on what I'm doing, then I start having second thoughts, so I'm not sure if another week of planning will be a good or a bad thing!

A school of corydoras (at least 6, 10-12 even better) are great fun to watch. The more you have, the more active they seem to get - they're my favourite fish! We have panda cories, which stay small, so you could fit a decent school into a 130L tank. We also have dwarf neon rainbowfish (melanotaenia praecox), which are beautiful and quite active. When our male is displaying to a female (or chasing after one - he seems to live in hope!), his blue and red colours get even more vibrant, and he gets a stripe of highlighter yellow colour from his mouth up to his dorsal fin that flashes on and off - it is quite spectacular.

Just a couple of quick questions: I am looking at getting an Aqua One 102F internal filter - can anyone tell me how quiet or noisy they are? I presume I need to run the old filter and the new filter together for a while before I remove the old filter? How long will I need to do this for? Is there anything else I need to do to change to a new filter?

Right, I did a big clean out of the tank last night - I boiled the driftwood (which worked wonders!), took out all the plants and cut off all the dead leaves/algae covered leaves etc, put in a new lamp (hood only has room for one T8, but I got a tropical bulb, which is supposed to be better for plant growth), and scrubbed all the algae off the tank and hardware. It's not the way it's going to stay, but already it looks a whole lot better! I now have Java Fern tied all over the big piece of driftwood, and three other little pieces also with Java fern. After last week's water change, there was some green growth at the top of the Ambulia, so I cut that off and shoved it back in the gravel - not sure if it will survive, but I'm planning to buy more anyway. I think I will stick with my original plan of using just Java Fern, Java Moss, Ambulia and Anubius, as I think that will give a nice contrast of leaf shapes and textures. With these plants, I'm not sure a Walstad-type tank would be viable, as most of them will not be getting their nutrients from the substrate. Am I correct in this, or is there something I am missing about how aquatic plants grow? I have also decided (I think!) to turn the tank around 90 degrees on the bench, so that the filter and heater will be against the wall, not on the kitchen side that you can see. However, this probably means that I need to get an internal filter instead of the HOB that came with the tank, so that it will sit closer to the wall. It will make for a much easier tank layout, I think, as I will go for a roughly triangular shape, which should screen the filter and heater, then leave some open swimming space at the front. Sorry I don't have a camera, so I can't show you how it's looking yet. I am going to buy some plants over the next week, and am hoping to be able to make the change Saturday week, when hubby will be home with his camera. Thanks again to everyone for all the advice

:iag: Li@m, if I could get a tank looking like that, I'd be stoked! Thanks for the links, I spent a fascinating hour looking through them when I was supposed to be doing chores last night! I think my wee tank would be too small for the island style, but it has certainly given me some ideas, so thanks! Would dwarf sagittaria work in my tank, or is the lighting not enough?Another plant I've been looking at is hygrophila polysperma - again, yes/no? I'm pretty sure the LFS has some, so I think I'll grab some when I'm in town tomorrow. Right, the kids are playing outside, and I've just sat down with a cup of tea, so time to grab the pencil and paper and start planning!

Thanks, will investigate further. Are they easy or hard to keep? Thanks, I read through this thread a while back, but will go through it again. Yes! I have never heard of this, but I googled it to find out what it was, and it is exactly what I've been wondering is possible. I'll look into it further, thanks! Thanks, I knew red/purple plants needed more light, so I wasn't considering any of them, but I didn't know that green plants turning brown could be due to not enough light - that could be part of the problem we're having at the moment. Thanks so much for all the advice - I'm getting quite excited about giving the tank an overhaul!

After three years of ill health, I am well enough to take back responsibility of our fish tank - under hubby's watch, water changes only happened once or twice a month, and plant maintenance was fairly negligible, so it's currently not looking its best (to be fair to hubby, he was also trying to run a business and look after me and the kids, so I'm eternally grateful to him). Our tank is a 60L Elite brand set-up, so it will be a low-tech, low-light tank. It has a dark gravel substrate, which I plan to keep, a lump of driftwood, and currently some very sad looking Java Fern and Ambulia. Current inhabitants are Panda Corydoras, Harlequin Rasboras and Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, which are all thriving on weekly water changes! I have been reading about setting up and maintaining low-tech tanks, and my current thought is that I will plant the tank much more heavily than it is right now, to hopefully reduce algae build-up (we have had major issues with algae, especially BBA), and dose with Excel. I'm also planning to upgrade the light tube - we had one we bought from Organism, which was supposed to be good for plant growth, and when it blew, we replaced it with the only one from our LFS that was the right size, which is when all our algae problems started! One of my concerns is that the Excel may lower pH - we already struggle to keep it above pH 6. Is this a valid concern? Does all of this sound about right? One of the things I read said that, if you have a low-tech tank, you should never do a water change, as the change in water chemistry can create algae problems. While I'm going to take that advice with a grain of salt, as it goes against everything else I have read, it did make me wonder if I am changing too much water each week - about how much should I be doing? For plants, I'm planning to grow Java Fern all over the driftwood, get lots more Ambulia, and also Anubias and Java Moss. Are there any other plants that would grow well in low light conditions that might be worth considering? I'm still trying to plan layouts that might work - the tank is on the corner of our kitchen bench, so is viewable from three side (two long, one short). I'd love to be able to hide the heater and filter, but I'm not sure yet the best way to do so. I've been looking at some plants on TM - if I buy them, should I "clean" them somehow before adding them to the tank, and if so, how? Also, what is the best way to clean things like heaters, driftwood etc that are covered in algae? Thanks in advance for any advice! I don't have a camera that works, but I'll ask hubby to take before and after shots when we make the change :happy2:

Thank you all so much for the good advice! Based on your replies, we'll leave it for now, and look again when we're closer to being able to set it up.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/f ... 995031.htm Just wondering if this is worth bidding on. The dimensions are 1220l x 610h x 620w, 10mm glass thickness. Using the calculator gives a safety factor of 2.6, which seems less than ideal. The question I have is, is it possible to add extra bracing to make it safer, or is it just not thick enough glass, full stop? As it would be going in a room with expensive musical instruments, I'd want to be sure it was safe! Also, for comparison purposes, can anyone give me a rough estimate of how much a custom made tank of these dimensions in 12mm glass might cost? As it is for a long-term dream (ie we need to build our dream home first, before we could use it!), I'm only interested in buying something now if we find a real bargain! Any advice appreciated, thanks!

Thanks!

I'm starting to think about our next fish tank, which (if it ever happens!) will be a lot bigger than the 60L we currently have. I'd like a tank with a sand substrate, but I'm wondering how you do a gravel vac - doesn't the sand all get sucked up? Also, is it possible to get problems with anaerobic bacteria build up in the substrate? I'd love some advice about using sand - what type, how to use it, how to clean it - ANY advice at all would be appreciated! Thanks

Good news - the harlequin just ate a bloodworm! I've been feeding twice a day, as the sick rainbowfish had been looking a bit skinny too (she is fattening up again nicely) - with such frequent water changes, I figure it doesn't matter if I overfeed a bit. Fingers crossed things are getting back on track...

Thanks F15hguy. Yes, pH problems have been the bane of our lives - we have lost several fish to it in the past. A couple of years ago we started adding coral rock to the tank (on the advice of John from Organism), and it certainly helped stabilise it, but the daily water changes this past week have caused problems again. We have been using a pH test kit and the strips, and they always agree in their readings, so they're probably correct, but I know this will be hard on the fish. We bought the test strips because they were the only thing we could find that measures water hardness (we got them when we were having problems a while ago). I wouldn't just rely on them - we have proper test kits as well for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate - but I find they're useful to do a quick check, or to double check any surprising results from the test kits.

F15hguy - that was the third water change in as many days, so probably not surprising. Having said that, we have NEVER had a nitrate reading (we have a test kit and dipping strips and they both always read 0). Why is this a problem? One of the problems we have run into with doing all these water changes is pH fluctuation (our tap water is very soft). It has ranged from 6-8 over the last week. I've added some more coral rock in the hope this will buffer it a bit - is there anything else I can do? It was 8 before today's water change and 6.6 afterwards. I also discovered the water was 29deg - I was going to turn up the heater as alanmin suggested, but our thermometer was broken, so I thought I'd better get a new one first and, assuming it's right, the heater is set to 24, but the water is 29! I'll leave it at that while we're treating, then turn it down a bit, but I've lowered the water level so there's a bit more surface agitation. On the fish front, the cories are more active than they've been in ages, as are the two healthy rainbowfish and most of the harlequins. The sick rainbowfish is still spending quite a bit of time near the bottom of the tank, and is still covered in (presumably) velvet, but it seems to be perking up a bit, is eating well, and has a lot more colour. So I guess we persevere with the treatment and hope it makes a full recovery. The harlequin that has stopped eating, on the other hand, is not doing well. It seems to be getting skinnier every day, and every so often it will sink to the bottom of the tank and lie on its side for a second before swimming away again. I can't see anything visibly wrong with it, for some reason it just won't eat - it swims towards the food with the other fish then swims away again. I bought some freeze-dried bloodworms the other day, and the other fish are going nuts for them, but not the one we want to eat them! Apart from keeping the water as good as we can (which we're doing anyway), I'm not sure what else I can do for it. At what point do you decide that the kindest thing is to euthanase it?

Thanks

Thanks alanmin. Do I need to do a water change and re-dose every day, or will every couple of days be sufficient? I'll turn the heater up a bit too. Water parameters before today's water change: Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 0 pH - 6 GH - between 0 and 30 KH - 0

Hi, we have a dwarf neon rainbowfish which I am 99% certain has a fairly serious case of velvet (have googled numerous sites, and it seems to fit the description/photos exactly). We had some acriflavine in the cupboard, and this seems to be a recommended treatment, so on Friday hubby did a big water change and dosed the tank according to the instructions, did another water change yesterday and re-dosed, and I'm just about to do today's water change and re-dose. The majority of the info I found online suggested a three day treatment, but it doesn't seen to have made much difference yet, so I'm wondering if we need to continue treatment for longer? Having looked at some photos of velvet, I'm now suspicious a number of our harlequin rasboras have also been suffering from it for quite a long time, it's just been harder to notice with their colouration (and the fact that they have seemed pretty healthy - the rainbowfish, on the other hand, is definitely suffering ). We also have one harlequin that looks healthy enough (ie good colour, smooth scales, no visible infections etc), but just seems to be fading away - it doesn't seem to be eating, and the other day it sank to the bottom of the tank and lay on its side for a few seconds before swimming away again. I'll test the water when I do a water change and post the results later. Hubby is supposed to be in charge of the tank, as I have health problems that make it hard for me to do, but he has been pretty lax over the last year (admittedly, he has had a very stressful year). I think I'm going to have to take it over, as it's obvious that the lack of frequent water changes has had a pretty detrimental effect on the whole tank - we've lost several fish to unidentified causes, and have ongoing algae and snail issues. I'm feeling a bit despondent about the whole thing at the moment, but I hope we can bring it back to its former healthy state soon. Tank: 60L, with Java Fern, Ambulia and driftwood Inhabitants: 3 dwarf neon rainbowfish, 6 harlequin rasboras, 3 panda cories Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Thanks Caryl - we found a bigger one (about 5cm), and (s)he's now happily munching algae off the glass in our tank, exploring all the nooks and crannies and meeting the other fish, so fingers crossed! I warned the kids that new fish sometimes die, even when we do everything we can to make them happy - if it happens it will be an important life lesson, I guess. Interesting you say smaller bristlenoses often don't do well - we bought a GBA a few years ago, and it refused to eat and died after a couple of weeks. It was the biggest one in the shop, but it was still only tiny, so that's useful to know.

ps - love the photo, Ira!

Thanks for the advice everyone! We're just home from the pet shop - I gave my four-year-old the choice between a bristlenose and three julii cories and she was adamant she wanted the bristlenose, so that's what we got! Rang hubby to discuss it this morning, and he said if the bristlenose gets too big, we'll just get a bigger tank - the start of a slippery slope, methinks... We actually are planning to get a much bigger tank one day, but not until we have a bigger house to put it in, so hopefully we can keep all the fish happy in the wee tank for another couple of years! Thanks again - I had forgotten how exciting it is getting a new fish!

I took the kids to the local pet shop at the weekend, and they currently have some little (about 2cm) bristlenoses. Our 60L tank has 6 Harlequin Rasboras, 3 Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish and 4 Panda Cories, moderate planting and a piece of driftwood. It has been running well for over two years now, and I've just done a water change and water test - as expected, everything was good. So I thought I was all ready to go and get a new fish tomorrow. But I decided to read up on bristlenose requirements again tonight, and a couple of the things I found said they have large territories, so I'm now wondering if our tank is big enough, and also if it would be likely to terrorise our pandas. It would be currently about the same size as the pandas, but it will obviously eventually be much bigger, and I don't want to create a problem further down the track. I know a lot of people do keep bristlenoses in tanks as small as ours, so I'd love to hear people's experiences with keeping them in a small tank. Any advice gratefully appreciated!

Thanks for the replies. We we hugely surprised when we saw our first baby fish about 6 months ago, and thought it was just a fluke that one had somehow managed to survive. Now it has become a game of "spot the fish" - it's quite strange not knowing exactly how many fish are in there! It sounds cruel, but I bet that's also why the other fish are thriving, because I'm guessing that for every baby we see, there were a lot that didn't ever grow big enough for us to find! The reason I was asking how old the latest babies are likely to be was that we lost a cory a couple of months ago, and we're pretty sure it was because it was eggbound - it literally looked like it was about to explode before it died. So we wondered if that was one of the fish responsible for the population explosion, but it would appear not.

Definitely corydoras! We have panda cories, and they are really cute, and would be fine with neons. The pandas are a bit smaller than most, so are great for a small tank. We also have three dwarf neon rainbowfish in a 60L tank (a male and two females). They have amazing colours, and are very curious about what is happening outside the tank. They know my 2-year old feeds them, so they always swim to the front of the tank when she is nearby, and they have made our harlequin rasboras much braver as well, so they have livened up the whole tank. They do chase each other and the other fish, though, so I'm not sure if neons would be ok with that or not.

Hi, I haven't been on here for ages, as our tank seems to be ticking along pretty well these days. The fish must be happy, because our panda cories have started breeding! We have gone from three to eight, with babies of varying sizes, and tonight I spotted some more tiny ones when I fed them - there are now at least eleven in there. I just have a couple of questions: The newest fish are about 5-6mm long, including tail. How old are they likely to be? Do baby fish tend to all grow at the same rate? ie is their size a good indicator of their age? We have a 60L tank, which also houses six Harlequin Rasboras and three Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish. At what stage are we going to have to rehome some of the babies before the tank gets too crowded, and what size should they be before we rehome them? (I realise it also depends on how big their future tankmates will be!) It is so cool seeing them all swimming around together. I knew cories liked to be in schools, but I hadn't realised how much happier and more adventurous they get in a bigger school, rather than just three or four. I wish we could keep them all, but hubby wasn't too impressed when I suggested we might need a bigger tank...

s That is superb! (nzcookie's husband here again) For the lowest capital cost option check out: http://www.omega.com/heaters/hsc.html I imported submersible heaters with built in thermostat from these guys to heat a 5,000L bioreactor. An electric heating element this size could thermally shock (aka cook) fishies that get too close so you should ideally install it in a thermosyphon with the heater in a vertical pipe outside the tank connected to a coil inside the tank. (full design drawings on pg 169 of this doc: http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/10 ... lltext.pdf). If you put a heater this size in the recirculation loop from the filter, make sure you have enough recirc. flow that you don't thermally shock any fish near the return line into the tank. For the lowest running cost, and probably most reliable option (similar power saving over an electric element to solar considering how much back-up power you need from an electric element with solar) a swimming pool heat pump is the go. These are specifically designed to hold 20,000 - 40,000L of water at anywhere between 20 - 35 Deg C. PS if you want any design help on a denitrification filter for this size tank let me know (contact details on http://www.apexenvironmental.co.nz) Matt.