henward

my discus would demolish any food hitting the floor before anything can get it. your clown loaches must not be hungry:D

ally cant find that bit that says cow milking can you send me that link?

mm interesting. that is good that mid 7s is acceptable. will still have to separate my tank from my main system as the hardness has to be addressed.

so really, troppheus need a ph of 8 to 9? cant be mid 7s? what are the consequences of mid 7ph with tropheus?

my partner really wants to milk a cow lol wanting to surprise her and take her to milk a cow

does anyone know where i can go and milk a cow?

also, do they tend to kill each other like the electric yellows and blues? they seem much more peaceful

Hi all trying to get into a new project. keeping my options open. just wondering, tropheus, i assume will require harder water and higher ph like most africans? saw my cousins trppheus set up. wow!

so how do people achieve the thriving moss on wood wiht baby tears as carpet grass type plants? is one side perhaps more light than the other?

yes baby tears, readily available? how about if i dont fill it up to the top? what would be a good height? always liked the terarrium/vivarium look i still want moss, will moss die in high light?

just a questions on a plant, it has little round leaves, it carpets like a vine. what is that plant? very bright green. cant find the picture

One more thing do i need to start with an empty dry tank, lay substrate and then fill slowly or can i get away with putting things in when there is water in it? (i assume its easier to empty and start again) my tank is a 5 foot tank 60 high - what lighting would you recommend, the MH lights i had sucks massive power - was thinking of somethign more efficient. any links or suggestions?> where do i go ask about this, LFS only has t5s and t8s and mh lights. (i mean if i was to use t5, who has used this and had good results, how many bulbs?) i was also told that the fitting is important, you can get cheap chinese ones but they dont fully power the bulbs of t5 properly, and can be under utilised, so in saying this, what b rand should i use? i assume hagen is good. also reflector is key, each bulb should have its own reflector and a good quality one. this ensures that the light is utilised as much as possible. any comments on that?

Ok to recap If you have much light, then you gotta hvae good CO2 and Fert levels to utilise the light. so daltons can do the trick, i wont seal the substrate as i will focus on java or narrow leaf java ferns, and lots of moss covering wood. i will have some amazons - and mainly carpeting grass type plants. now some more questions: 1) is the above correct or did i totally muck that up 2) Peat moss on top or bottom of the daltons? i pretty much want the carpeting plant to cover the entire bottom, how is this achieved? as you said, i need strong light cos of the lowlying plants need light to penetrate water. is that right? so seachem has products like flourish, excell, iron etc. do i need to use those if i have daltons? and if i dont seal daltons aqua mix, it was said above that the nutrients will free flow into the WColumn meaning that the other plants that dont root into the soil will still get sufficient nutrients? co2, do i need those co2 diffusers or can i use the seachem product that intros carbon into the tank?

mmm i am completely confused lol

one more thing, can i use TOP SOIL as the fert layer, then sand then gravel? what does it mean by MINERALIZED TOP SOIL SUBSTRATE?

where do i get undergravel ferts? leterite, are they expensive do i get them from LFS or landscape shops? daltons is a landscape shop right? or am i confusing two different things

cool, good to know. lighting, that is important - what do yous uggest. i have geen looking at LEDs, making my own, what spec led bulbs do i use? is there a particular one or just a bright white LED is fine? or shall i not bother, maybe just 2 or 3 or 4 t5? whats your opinions, could you post your tank pics on too?

yes it does. i assume the larger gravel is to ensure that the water does flow through to the substrate. how oftend o you replace fertilizer layer, eventually it will deplete. but if i am gonna focus on alot of narrow leave java fern, mosses that absorb nutrients from the water colum do i still do that configuration of substrate?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5063/5584300098_89307c9f7f_z.jpg this is really the type of style im looking for

Hi All, Just wondering, what substrate to use for a planted tank. i am not lookng at MASSSIVE amounts of ground plants, i am trying to focus more on the moss type plants and java ferns that hang on to wood. I will do mostly carpeting plants for a dense GRASS LIKE scene. Wont have much BIG plants, maybe one or two amazon sword type plants, but mostly GRASS like plants. Any suggestions? looking for cost effective substrate, tank dimensions 5ft by 70 by 60.

no, prelim research really, nothing set on stone yet. but was thinking of my 600 litre growout and converting it to a plnted. but dont know yet. guess just wanted to see what costings were IF i were to do that.

what do i need? http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=54446 in tis post, the 2nd, 3rd 4th picture. something like that. what sort of lighting do i neeD? or gear.? IF i was to do it.

man makes me want to do a planted tank, been sittiogn on the fence for ages (my version of reef but FW) ....

I am th inking this a planted aro tank, of course very low stock http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=planted+arowana+tank&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&tbm=isch&tbnid=vejSATqBxMuQoM:&imgrefurl=http://aquarium2you.blogspot.com/2010/02/planted-tank-inspiration.html&docid=fAiIVQWR3KwsYM&w=400&h=242&ei=8r17TvmeH8XPmAWt2tyhAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=337&page=5&tbnh=148&tbnw=193&start=113&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:113&tx=109&ty=56&biw=1680&bih=858 http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=planted+arowana+tank&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&biw=1680&bih=858&tbm=isch&tbnid=0oxw5y_u_y5zqM:&imgrefurl=http://arowanaclub.com/stories.php%3Fstory%3D03/01/25/8562502&docid=ntP2GpZ81TsqjM&w=400&h=218&ei=8r17TvmeH8XPmAWt2tyhAQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=207&page=1&tbnh=107&tbnw=197&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:25,s:0&tx=145&ty=56 http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=planted+arowana+tank&um=1&hl=en&safe=active&sa=N&biw=1680&bih=858&tbm=isch&tbnid=izvBsf8upYkRLM:&imgrefurl=http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/36808-Putting-plants-in-my-Arowana-tank&docid=-3ukuYt75koz8M&w=640&h=480&ei=8r17TvmeH8XPmAWt2tyhAQ&zoom=1

wow that is a massive tank! 12k litres!!! dimensions? what sort of filtration you have, any plans? would like tos ee plans, would love to see soething you want to emulate from overseas perhaps?