HummingBird

Absolutely - I've never had a problem with algae in my planted 3ft tank which I've been dosing with PMDD for ages. I did have a problem in a planted 2ft tank which has recently been set up (fully cycled though) but I didn't add any PMDD initially, since I've started to algae growth has slowed and the plants have taken over - there's still a bit of algae remaining but the ramshorns that are in the tank will make short work of that I'm sure.

Hahah - great minds think alike eh.

Refer to "Control of Algae in the Planted Aquaria"

Squeezing out a sponge from a cycled tank's filter will get you a good dose of the bacteria you want too, as will a handful of gravel.

Well I got two Oscars yesterday, and already one of the Dats is getting a lot bolder and coming out of his cave a lot, and the Oscars seem to get along with him and each other. I think the other dat is getting bullied by the bolder dat though, so I'm probably going to have to get rid of him (on that note, anyone looking to get a 3 inch Datnoid Tiger? PM me). The albino isn't quite as pure-white as the photo makes him out to be, it's just the flash.

Feed him well him quality, maintain good water parameters and just give him time.

Definitely, if only because of the silver sharks. Those things get huge!

Actually I think both his and mine are microlepis, according those these identification charts (and the opinion of a Datnoid-only forum experts, in the case of mine) - they're the most common dat, in any case - Assuming you can call any dat common: What fish do you have in with yours, David? At the moment mine are pretty much by themselves. They had the company of a few baby swords & guppies for a while, but they're "gone" now...heh.

If they weren't so overpriced I'd definitely buy them to feed to my dats.

Thanks melovefishy - yeah those heaters are just temporary till I get some higher wattage ones that'll be placed a little more strategically. B&K- With Oscars, basically nothing is safe. I've kept them with Val and crypts before and they tore them up as soon as I planted them. But yeah, the java fern does look good, thanks again for it

GZ_Loach, in actual fact it's the bacteria in your filter and elsewhere that convert nitrites to nitrates (the "nitrifying bacteria") - plants only use nitrates, not nitrites. Not sure what you're talking about when you refer to "ammonia bacteria" either. But if you mean to say that nitrosifying bacteria (that which converts ammonia to nitrite) would have been detrimental to the fish & plants, you're entirely wrong. Nitrites, while still harmful to fish, are far less so than ammonia. But all this is moot in any case, because it would seem that neither nitrosifying nor nitrifying bacteria were present, hence the problem.

Here's a pic of one of my new dats, he's about 3 inches at the moment. Weird thing is that sometimes he's coloured like this, and other time's he's completely black with only one tan line down the top of his body, David R does yours do this too?

Screw waiting for them to come out of their homes, I just used a flash to get a pic of one of them. lol.

The tank's up and running now, fully cycled and stocked with two tiger dats - I couldn't resist buying both of them. They were $60 each, and they're probably just a bit more than 7ish centimeters. They refuse to come out of their caves so I can get a good picture of them though - oh well, I'm sure once they're comfortable in their new home they will. Once the dats get bigger I'll be getting the Oscars (give the dats some time to get a head start on the oscars, because I think O's grow much faster)

I just bought a 25kg bag from Stone and Water world the other day, it was $15 and covered the bottom of my 4 foot x 3 foot tank sufficiently, although I'd want it a bit deeper if I were going to plant it (which I'm not).

When doing a flea bomb I stuffed plastic bags into all the gaps in the lips of my tanks and everything was fine.

Not sure if this has already been asked, but how old are your light bulbs? after they get over a year old they're not good for growing much more than algae.

It depends if you have fish in the tank. If you do, you should do it weekly to reduce ammonia/nitrite levels to something tolerable. If you don't, you can wait till it's cycled and you get some nitrates.

From the sounds of it I'd say it's more likely an intestinal problem. Try feeding them some peas, this often helps keep them regular.

I agree about the 6 minimum for khulis, but don't worry too much about sand. I've kept them in normal gravel before and they laid eggs, so they must not have minded too much!

I've never had ramshorns eat plants before, but I've only kept the normally coloured ones. IMO malaysian trumpet snails are a pest, they're live bearing, they breed too much and pollute the tank.

Ignoring heat loss, yes.

Yeah after talking to some people on Oscarfish.com they recommend only two in this size of tank, so I'll just be getting two and a Datnoid Tiger. Anyways, I got the tank this morning and it's been mostly filled up. Going out now to try and find some appropriately sized driftwood.

In fact, when I got it from Plantman it was that long and longer. It makes an excellent background - here's a pic of my tank, to give you an idea of scale it's 40cm tall:

I was doing my weekly water change today on my 3ft planted tank when I discovered that my Mini Saggitaria has put out a flower, with a couple more on the way. This is especially surprising because I only got the plants 12 days ago! It's an approx 140L tank with 90 watts of lighting in total, I regularly dose it with PMDD and flourish excel. To see some more pics of the tank & flowers check out My Picasa Web Album