Aquatopia

No skuzza - you are right ! ITs obviouslyt a very successful aquarium.

Stunning growth, but not really my thing - too much of one animal and not much of anything else in my book.

I have a pic of something (maybe a moray or an eel) and I wondered what it was.

Hi Caryl (nice to chat last night btw). I think Saffaboy is saying that the water is always 6.6pH when it comes out of the well, but when it goes into the tank it raises. Would this not be related to the kH of the water too? Just because it comes out of the well at one pH doesnt mean it will remain that in the tank from what i can recall. It is likely that there as something in the tank buffering the hardness up too though. SAFFABOY - why are you so adamant about not using chemicals? I would have thought the simplest (if not possibly costly initially) solution would be to used RO water buffered to your desired pH for Discus. That way you can be sure.

I'm thinking - kids microscope? Would it be practical to take one out with you? Or even binoculars with close focus to look into a sample of what you collect.

Well good luck dude. This site may be worth a try;- http://www.tmc-ltd.co.uk They are the MAJOR importers in the UK, but they have one of the most advanced hatcheries in the world from what i am told. They may or may not offer advice - there is a contact email address, and they are certainly willing to advise on practically all aspects of marine aquatics. I think there may be links to various breeding articles too. Gotta be worth a try.

Following on from Ira's comment - could you not just collect seawater and then culture it? Im not really up on it, but i recall someone mentioning that as a possible method. Am i barking up the wrong bush ?

How much is the culture from that company? would it be worth getting several people to place orders and use the law of averages that way?

Bloomin hellfire ! Have you seen the price - of a big hanky ! lol. Nah, I know its a bit more intricate than cotton, but wow ! Wouldnt that be more than running a phyto-reactor ?

Sure we's cool. nuthin like a little grumble to clear the air !! That plan sounds good. I was reading an article inissue 13 of Marine World (i bought some back issues from Redwoods), and although its not on breeding, it was talking about a guy in the UK with a 7000l tank who changed his way of feeding from what we (nearly all do) to regular small feeds during the day, including the introduction of phytoplankton, which increased the natural level of zooplankton in the tank (and lots more). Upshot is, feeding more but little and often (the way it happens in the ocean mostly) improved fish and coral health and growth and vitality and reduced nitrates (he had 20ppm and it went down to 5ppm) depsite the total feeding increasing ! I know thats an aside, but it had a bit about how they maintained their phytoplankton culture once they had got it started. Dont know if that would be of any interest ?

Just chillin bro !!!

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

Well if you cant source the food you need, you will have a feeding issue ! Please dont patronise me by telling me to chill out. I merely made a suggestion on your thread which was meant to be helpful and you chose to correct my use of english instead of either accepting or ignoring my offering graciously (which is meant to be what forums are all about). In my (humble) opinion, that was un-necessary.

As you wish - I'm not going to argue semantics. Thats what I meant, and in the context of the thread, I assume people realised that ! :evil:

Hi Pies - would reefcentral be a worthy research medium on your feeding issues, in addition to here? Just a thought.

Dont forget it also depends on what corals you are putting in the tank. Some don't like the flow to bombard them !!! I sometimes think we get caught up in the flow of flow !!! I read recently that as well as corals, flow is also important to maintain filtration in the live rock. To that end (and also to help minimise detritus settling) I am planning to have some of my flow coming out from within the rocks in my new setup.

CatBrat - Well my favourite corys are adolfoi, panda, sterbai. But to be honest its my first go, so would consider being advised otherwise. How do you tell male from female? How old should they be? What is considered good quality food? Can you get live food here? And what would you feed the babies on? cheers

I like the idea of a figure 8 that doesnt meet in the middle. Cutting or grinding the glass to the right angle for the joints would be a b***** though. Would powerheads be enough to get the water flowing? On a complete tangent, i heard that if you do your stimulant water change at the same time it is raining outside for corys, then they are more likely to spawn as they can detect the atmospheric pressure. Or is this why people dont fill the tank back up to the same level as before, as the water pressure difference of being at a different height has the same effect as the change in atmospheric pressure? I wanna breed little baby corys.

Having said all that - what a beautiful fish to succeed at breeding. I quite like the idea of setting up a "migratory tank", though i would have to be more inventive and make it less boring than a simple circle. I think it would do well to have "baffles" in some places (just simply a piece of glass coming out from the wall) to create a resting place for the fish too or when they want to sleep they would be washed round and round like being in a washing tub !! Lol.

You could get a moonlight (not sure if this would work, but dont see why not) or even a red or blue shaded light - we went to see the kiwis and they used a blue shaded torch i think which they werent aware of. I used to us a really dim light over mine at night sometimes just to watch what went on. Oddly - my 6 corys used to go on the prowl every night 10 minutes after lights out - literally swimming as a shoal, just on a litte reccy before settling down.

I cant remember for sure but i seem to recall the ghostie is nocturnal. If this is the case (can any of the other folk confirm or rebutt this?), then i would try feeding after lights out and just watch to see if he is feeding that way - leave it a good half hour though so that the other fishes have settled down. Mine was so friendly he practically ate out of my hand - which was great.

Aaron - this is something we have discussed, and I am keen to understand the chemistry of a UV steriliser creating Ozone. Do you know the relevant reactions that occur to do this? OR does anyone else? Layton perhaps?

Scooby - yep - they do that when they are asleep, just like a lot of the botias too. And just like you and me - being prodded when asleep is likely to wake us up grumpy ! LOL. First time i saw my clown loach doing that i nearly had a fit. Same with my ghostie. Mine was only about 4" long though.

Chimera - Would you be able to write it for MAC too? :-)

Hey Scooby - dont let just me put you off. What is your largest tank? Do a search on the web and see what others are already doing too. Also, i think that they are slow growing.