catshanon

Hi there people, I really want to grow HC cuba in my tank and at the same time I don't want to invest in ready made lighting. I am planning to buy some T5HO lights and make reflectors for them. As I recently found out, reflectors play a major major part in the amount of light that is going down into the tank. After searching some forums, I found out about ahsupply.com . People have good reviews about their reflectors and they use mirror polished aluminium sheets for their reflectors. Specifically, they use MIRO-IV aluminium sheets. There is a distributor in Ontario that sells these sheets (anomet) . A silver finished sheet (0.020" x 48" x 24") with 98% reflectivity will cost $55 and $42 to ship to Alberta. I was wondering if any other members are interested in building their own reflectors. Built properly, reflectors can increase the amount of light going into the tanks many many times. proper reflector design. If anyone has worked with aluminium sheets before, please let me know how difficult it is to cut them (0.020" thick) and what tools I would require to cut and shape them. Thanks in advance, Raj

I have heard that Aquagiant sells big pieces of driftwood for $2.50 per pound. BigAls and other stores usually sell them for $4.99 per pound. My best bet will be to get them from other members. Driftwood that has plants growing on them demand high prices. BigAls sells driftwood with anubias on it for $65.

I would suggest make it densely planted and make a south american biotope and put 4 or 5 rams in there. A couple of otos and a couple of corys and thats it. The reason I am not saying rasboras or rummy noses is that I like these fishes in a shoal, and if they are in a shoal of 20 or 30, they move together and look awesome. However, a 10 gallon is too small to accomodate all those fishes, hence the suggestion of rams. Rams are fascinating to watch and have gorgeous colours

I am looking to add 2 T5HO on my planted tank and instead of buying a fixture, I want to buy a ballast retrofit kit. Here is a link to it on JLAquatics. HagenGLO ballast I am also buying 2 39W bulbs , and the Giesemann bulbs look fancy. I wonder if anyone else has used them before and whats the opinion on them. I already have a 96W 6700K and a 96W 10,000K PCs on my planted tank. So, I am looking to get some different combinations (an Aquaflora and an Aquablue, perhaps....) . Here is the link to the bulbs Giesemann bulbs Any opinions will be very much appreciated. Thanks, Raj

No question is stupid and you wouldn't know if you don't ask. Fluorite comes in a reddish brown color other than black. One thing to keep in mind is that if you have a bottom sand bed and then a fluorite bed, then later on it will be difficult to recover just the fluorite if you want to. I had experienced this before as I had created a sand bed and then put some fluorite and then covered the fluorite with black sand (real expensive). After a few months later and some gravel vaccuumming, all the top layer of black sand got mixed up with the fluorite and the sand and was lost. Now its practically impossible to recover just the black sand. If you have a 2 inch thick bed of fluorite, then it might not be difficult to separate it if you want to tear down the tank. Big Al's has it, also one of our sponsor Nature's Corner store carries laterite and fluorite. Tropica sells ready made ferts. I have never used ready made ferts, so I cannot comment on them.I use dry fertilisers and then create the mixture at home. The 3 main ingredients are N,P and K. these are Nitrogen, Phosporus and Potassium. Apart from these 3 main (macro nutrients) you would also need trace elements or (micro nutrients) Here is a forum discussion about this.DIY fertilisers. All Seasons Gardening on Whyte avenue in Edmonton carries these dry form of fertilisers and for 20 bucks you can get ferts for many many years. Here is a discussion in the "Planted tank" section about Excel.excel 15 W is really low (IMO). You have a total of 30W over a 75G tank, which is less than half watt per gallon. I would suggest to up the lighting first. T5HO (HO = High Output) bulbs are pretty good and looks like everyone is going that route these days. Metal Halides are bright, will cast a blue rippling effect in your tank and will make your tank look marvellous, but they are expensive and they will run hot. I had PC (power compact fluorescent) bulbs all this time, but now the time has come to upgrade to T5HO bulbs. A ballast kit and 2 36" 39W bullbs specifically meant for plant growth will be close to 100 bucks. JlAquatics, PetsAndPonds are two canadian retailers that carry these kits. If you don't want to build a retrofit kit, you can buy a complete fixture, but that will be a little bit more expensive. I will be ordering a T5HO kit from JLAquatics and some Giesseman bulbs, so if anyone wants, I can include them in the order. And if you can, get a copy of Diana Walshtad's "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". Diana Walshtad had a graduate degree in microbiology, and she did a lot of studies about different plants and how they did in nature and in aquariums. She even had a planted tank with normal soil as the substrate and said that if done properly, the aquarium will be a complete ecosystem and there wouldn't be any need of a filter. However, this book is really scientific and goes very very deep into the matter, so it might be overwhelming at first.

I want to run a 96W square type 4 pin CF bulb with a Fulham WorkHorse 5 (WH5) ballast as my old ballast gave out. I got the Fulham from Litemore and have looked at their wiring diagram. The problem that I am facing is that the WH5 has 4 red wires and one yellow wire. The WH5 supports a total of 132 Watts, so I need 3 red wires for my 96Watt. According to the wiring diagram of Fulham, I need to jumper the contacts of the bulb socket as shown here. Wiring diagram of Fulham for WH5. I am doing the wiring on the left ( 4 pin CF bulb). My old Sunpaq ballast came with a 4 pin bulb connector and I want to reuse that with the WH5 ballast. I have cut of the red and blue wires of the old ballast and want to hook the red and blue wires to the WH5 ballast. Here is a picture of the old Sunpaq ballast. All I need to do is jumper the red and blue wires coming out from the 4 pin socket as shown in the bottom picture. This was obtained after a lot of googling and the person who has done this is in Virginia and a member of Nano-reef forum. Before I asked him, I thought I will ask for local help. I had connected the 3 red wires from the WH5 ballast to the 2 red wires of the socket and the yellow to the 2 blue of the socket, but that didn't work. I hope people here can help me out with the jumpering part as I believe thats all that is missing. Many thanks in advance. Raj

Thats a pretty nice looking tank you have there. Fill it up with real plants and it will be gorgeous. Beginner plants are low light and easy to keep. I don't know about what kind of lighting you have. Both the wattage and the spectrum will matter. 6700K spectrum bulbs are a good choice of growing plants, although people have grown plants with shop lights. Here is a rundown: Substrate: You need some good substrate so that plants can send their root system through. Sand is the not the best choice as its compact and doesn't allow root system to spread healthily. People usually build a substrate bed, with sand in the very bottom, maybe an inch thick, then some laterite, maybe half an inch thick and then pea gravel on top. Laterite is expensive, as are other ready made substrates. Fluorite is a good substrate, although thats a bit expensive too. 7lb bag is 30 bucks. I usually have a bottom sand bed of 2 " and then a fluorite bed of 1.5". With sand in the bottom layer, you can create raised beds and make sloping surfaces and make your tank bed look more natural. There are a lot of specialized substrates in the market, like Eco-Complete, Fluorite, Aqua Soil Amazonia. I suggest you start with sand and fluorite and then when you become more experienced, you can decide for yourself. Lights: As I said before, watts and spectrum matter. Plants synthesize chlorophyll using the blue and red spectrum and these are present in the 6700K bulbs. Planted tanks get categorized as low light, medium and high light tanks. Low light tanks have < 2 watts per gallon, medium is between 2 and 3 and more than 4 watts is high light. If you have high light, you should also start injecting CO2 in the tank, as plants will need both the high quantity of light and CO2 to thrive. I suggest you try with the lights you have and then up them later on. Plants: Low light easy care plants are java fern, anubias variety, vallisneria, hygrophilia. I am sure you can get some free stems to start with from fellow members. The auction in late FEb/ early May is also a good place to pick up plants. Vallisneria and Hygrophilia are easy to grow and these are tall stem plants, and will look good in the back. Foreground plants are anubias, cryptocorynes (these 2 come to mind right now). Apart from these there arecarpet forming plants that require high light and pressurized C02. Take a look at www.tropica.com to see the different variety of underwater plants available to the hobby. Fertilisers: Ferts bought in dry form and then mixed up together are the most economical option. You can grow plants without ferts initially, but sooner or later you will start needing them. You have some pretty neat driftwood in the tank. You can try growing some moss on them to give them a more natural feeling. Hope this helps for now, and the wonderful people in here will inundate you with information. Raj

If I have understood you correctly, the hole is between the background and the substrate, and they escaped by digging under the background. Why don't you remove the 6 fishes and then make the hole bigger (by removing the substrate) to entice the escapees to come back into the fore front ? Raj

In terms of brightness, a 13W is really bright, and you can grow low light plants comfortably with those (IMO).

I don't see any problems with your 60W bulb, but if you use the CF type bulbs, they will be better (IMO). A CF bulb will be more brighter than a normal bulb and the cost will also be lower.

So, I have drained my tank and I see the glass filled with tiny green spots. I am assuming its green spot algae. Now how do I remove these ? I tried scraping and rubbing with a coarse filter pad, but its not going. I also tried rubbing with vinegar, but still they are there .. Any suggestions ?? Thanks in advance. Raj

I hope you don't have the callamanus nematode. My fishes were infected with that and they used to take the food and then spit it out. You are more experienced than me, so I guess you will know better if its really the nematode infestation. If you see worms sticking out from the anus, then I guess it might be callamanus.

I am running a 96W square pin compact fluorescent light. My fixture is 2 x 96W and there are 2 ballasts driving each bulb. One bulb flickers and doesn't stay on, so I am suspecting its the ballast ( I have switched bulbs to test if the bulb is fine or not). Read about the workhorse ballast on another forum, and will go with that if its < $40. I don't think I will need an IceCap 430 as that will be an overkill and IceCaps are pricey too.

As the title says, I need a Sunpark electronic ballast model no APF120 - 1/96 PLL (120V, 60Hz). Which store carries ballasts in Edmonton, or if anyone has one that I can buy, that will be welcome too. Thanks in advance. Raj

I have a 33G tank on a iron tubular stand. Just the edges are supported and sometimes I worry that its going to come crashing down.. I have been using it for over a year now and nothing has happened. But I guess it would depend on the size of the tank. 50 and more gallons can be a cause for concern (IMO), but 20 or 30 should be fine.

I need to refill my CO2 tank, and I have to take out the regulator. Is there any precautions or steps I should take to take the regulator out or should I just unscrew it from the CO2 cylinder ? Thanks in advance. Raj

So I had this worm in my fishes and thanks to Charles Harrison, I got some Levamisol to cure this. I have applied one dose and will apply another after 2 days. I can see the worms sticking out from the fish's anus, so I thought I would share this in the forum. This is a deadly disease and I have lost many a fish. Most sadly, I lost my black angels and numerous rasboras and some cardinals to this worm. Levamisol works best as it is absorbed through the skin and then the worms get paralysed. Then the fish has to push out the dead worms from its intestines and it will be healthy again. Callamanus Callamanus sticking out

Play sand or any other kind of sand (black sand) and as well as fluorite won't change the water pH. Once the substrate is changed then the pH will stay stable.. won't rise... If you want to lower the pH, then peat filtering is one method. Adding CO2 to the tank will also lower pH.

Really awesome looking... The background is awesome.. and those backgrounds can be got from Patrick (website = gillsnfins.ca). Natures Corner store also has one on display, and yeah..they are PRICEY..SUPER SUPER PRICEY.....but they are worth it..takes your tank to another dimension. :thumbs:

As far as I know, bristle nose pleco (BNP) won't eat brush algae. The Siamese algae eater(SAE) is a good candidate for that. I have a SAE in my 55G planted tank, and it takes care of the black brush algae. Here are 2 good links on algae and algae eaters. Algae eaters Algae

Its critical that you let the filter fill up with water before you plug it in the electrical socket..The filter has to fill first, otherwise the impeller might get damaged. I don't know whether you have a manual or not, but here is a link eheim priming link

You can add vallisneria to the above list of plants. Vallisnerias come in 2 different types, straight leaved ones and twisted or corkscrew leaved ones. Go with the straight leaved ones as the twisted ones require high light. They are super easy to grow and can grow on any substrate.

Thanks to Jonah, Neil and Brian for the links. I hope I get the meds as soon as possible. Raj

If anyone has Levamisol in Edmonton or even in Calgary and are willing to ship, please let me know. I have an angel that is dying and now a healthy one has also been infected. Apart from these two fishes, my other fishes are also infected, so I need to treat all 3 of my tanks. From the previous posts, I saw that Shai had ordered some from Charles Harrison in the States. If you still have some more medications left and can ship some to Edmonton, please let me know. Thanks everybody. Raj.

There is also HITH which is Hole in the Head disease...