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Sounds like a great idea to me! I'm in!! :thumbs: Keeping it limited to small tank such as 10 gallons at first seems like a good idea to help keep costs down, however that may also be limiting as to who can enter, say if so-and-so wants to enter their already established tank but it's bigger than what's allowed... Maybe you should not make size limits and just go with whatever you get submitted, if you get a lot then maybe you could break them into 2 categories, large and small or whatever. Just a thought...

Awwwww!!! Christmas Doggies!!! Those are great pics John!! I love the expression on Fudge's face on the stairs... "pleeeease get this *&^%ing hat off me, I feel stupid!" And Achilles looks very well cared for, those coats are a LOT of work!! :thumbs:

Thanks for the help Andy!! I shall give it a go...

Anyone know where a person buys this stuff? I have a bunch of java fern that I want to 'sterilize' and I just can't find it anywhere. I've looked in drugstores, hardware stores, lfs's... no luck. I'm not sure what it's more commonly used for... but I imagine that little tidbit of info could be useful in tracking it down! I have done the 'bleach dip' in the past but it seems to be kind of hit and miss as to whether the plants will tolerate it or not which is why I'd prefer to try the PP.

Beautiful tank Ty! :thumbs:

Thanks Rudy! Yeah it was a link from a smiley site that allows hotlinking. Got it straightened out now.

I like the photo contest idea... not sure what all that entails in terms of work involved for admin or extra costs or whatever... but I like the idea. p.s. Anyone know why my sig is not working? :well:

:w00t: Really nice Valerie! I love looking at other people's tanks, thanks for sharing yours! :beer:

:rofl: at airco02!! :beer:

:thumbs: Hey I saw those in one of the display tanks at BA's, I had no idea what they were! The colour on them was so amazing I was wondering if they were dyed or something. Good to know that they actually look like that!

One word... WOW!!!! :drool:

Heh... you had already done most of the work Garhan... we just tweaked it a little for ya! It looks great btw... :bow: can't wait to see it once the plants fill in!

VERY nice pics!! Awwww there's that little blue smiley guy...

Hmm that's wierd that your otos aren't interested in the brown algae, mine go crazy for it, that and the soft green stuff. I must say though that nothing has ever done as amazing a job of tank maintenance that the bristle noses I got from Oxquo have... they took a 50g that was COATED in green, brown, crusty, you-name-it and made it spotless in 2 days!! Thanks again Oxquo!! :thumbs:

I would think that it is a lack of a specific nutrient... 3.8w per gallon is pretty high light and once you get into high lighting, you generally need to add ferts. Flourish has a little bit of a lot of different stuff, and I've found it doesn't work so great because it's usually not enough of the thing you are lacking and/or too much of other things that you don't need. I like adding ferts individually because then you can add only exactly what you need. Unfortunately, I don't know which one YOU need! Could be iron or nitrates, in which case stepping up the wc's is not going to help. Do you have any testers for macro or micro nutrients? Hopefully Garhan can tell you more...

I have a veil that looks like your veil exactly... his name is Casper. BTW... what was the original post about? Does your CT have a problem? I couldn't tell from the picture...

I believe the numbers transfer directly... like 2.0 ppm is the same as 2mg/L. Sounds like you got the right stuff!! Good luck!!

Wow... I am really sorry to hear that!! Thank God no one was hurt or you didn't have more damage to your home!! Thanks for sharing your experience, I'm sure we all can learn a little something from it, I'm just sorry it happened to you.

Yeah, that's not really 'wierd', just indicative of Swim Bladder Disorder. Poor little guy. That's good that he has an appetite, BUT in my experience, food and especially dry food such as pellets are only going to make the situation worse. I would fast him right now, he needs to go at least 2 days without eating and then I would try feeding him a couple tiny bits of thawed frozen pea. After that I would start him on small amounts of frozen food. He is sinking becuse he is has an intestinal blockage (all 'bunged' up), he needs to rest his tummy until things get moving again. Dry foods will only make it worse. Bettas are carnivores with a relatively short digestive tract that is not designed to digest things such as grains and flours which is primarily what pellets are. So it is really unfortunate that betta pellets are marketed as the 'perfect' betta food because nothing could be further from the truth. The last guy (Nimbus) I got from Petcetera had this and he could barely move at all, just laid on the bottom all the time with the occasional strain to the top to breathe. I fasted him for 3 days, then did the pea thing, then swtiched to frozen food, it took a little over a week but now you'd never know there was ever a problem. I will never feed him dry foods though, just in case. Some bettas have particularly delicate tummies and are especially prone to bloating due constipation and may never do well with dry foods. What size bowl is he in? You may consider lowering the water level so he doesn't have to work so hard to get to the surface, however if you do this, you will need to keep an even closer eye on the water quality due to less water. Here are before and after pics of Nimbus. Just so you know that I know what I'm talking about This is when I first got him... all he did was sit on the bottom, barely moving... This is him now, all fixed up!! and another See? He didn't starve and the frozen bw's didn't make him sick either!

There's no reason why they should make your bettas sick... what brand are you feeding and how are you preparing them? How much do you feed at one time? I feed Hikari brand frozen bw's just because they are guaranteed parasite free but have had no problems with the San Francisco Bay brand. I have 'been owned' by over 40 bettas and have never had one get sick from frozen bw's... :well: A betta can go along time without food, I've had some really picky guys go for 2 weeks without eating, just because I am determined to feed them something better than the crappy pellets they are used to. I call it tough love... I would fast him at least 2 days and then try the pea... trust me it works. What are your parameters in the tank you have him in... could make a big difference as to whether he gets better or not... Is he sinking or floating? This is not always curable, but I've had some that came home with what looked to me to be a very incurable SBD and after living in some clean water and a stress-free environment with the right foods they were able to overcome it. I hope your boy can too.

Sounds like he has swim bladder disorder, which is fairly common in bettas that have been fed nothing but dry foods or overfed which is usually what happens at the petstores, (either that or they don't get fed at all). It can also be caused by bacterial infection due to poor water quality. Given the conditions the petstores keep their bettas in, this is hardly surprising. I would cut waaaay back on food, actually I would fast him for a couple days and then slowly reintroduce non-dry foods. Frozen fooods are waaaay better than flake for bettas. Frozen mysis shrimp, brine shrimp, glassworms, bloodworms, daphnia... all my bettas go crazy for these foods and I've not had to deal with Swim Bladder Disorder since I switched from pellets and flakes. Except for the one I rescued recently that came home with SBD... but he's fine now. You could even start with a tiny bit of cut up thawed frozen pea after the fast, this helps clean him out. And keeping him in 'pristine' water conditions is a must if you want him to beat this. Good luck!

Cheetoes and Lily are gorgeous! I've never seen a bengal in real life before, cool looking cat! Awww... Sachelle is sooooo adorable... I love looking at pet pictures!

Nice pics!! And eating flies isn't silly??

Were you planning to just float them and not plant them in the substrate? If you leave them floating they will continue to do this. Also I would manually remove the hair algae as much as you can... it can quickly become a BIG problem... is it the long thready green kind? That is easy enough to remove by winding it around a new toothbrush. Or is it more the short fuzzy kind? This type can be a sign of poor water quality, I would step up the w/c's if it's that kind. I suspect that your lowlight situation is causing the algae to outcompete the plants for nutrients. Have you been able to find any lowlight plants yet?

Thank you RD! Seems I should post pics more often... good for the ego...