jumpsmasher

hmm... stilling get the http://url4short.info/ redirect when i provide ppl with links to AA

Someone just ask him and basically his answer was that for shipments to Canada, he would have to pay around $500 in fees for the export process so the issue is on his end. Of course if the order was large it enough that probably won't be much of an issue.

They will breed fine as long the the parameters are within the range. Parameters will depend on your source but generally they will need the following: pH: 6.0 - 6.8 GH: 3-6 kH: 0-1 Temp: 24-26C Shrimps have relatively low bio-load so the number of shrimp won't impact water quality as much as things like overfeeding etc; 100 shrimps in a tank that size should be fine. Plant density have little impact on breeding unless you are planning to keep them with fish. If that is the case, plants will provide some shelter but once a fish knows the shrimps are a source of food, they will constantly seek them out; most people rely on having the shrimps breed faster than they are being eaten in to maintain a healthy population.

short answer - yes. Generally the higher the grade / pattern is the more they are... BUT it is important to remember normal crystral red shrimps (CRS) and Pure Red line ( line bred / pure breed) are graded differently. For normal CRS the grade (A, S, SS, SSS etc;) denote the various patterns but it doesn't account for the quality. For Pure Red Line each breeder have their own standards but generally the grade refer to quality of the shrimp (thickness of shell / intensity of color) while the pattern is denoted separately. Furthermore, the value of Pure Red Line shrimps also vary greatly depending on who the breeder it. For example, Japanese Pure Red Line aka Japanese Red Bee Shrimps as they are refer in Japan are considered a level above normal PRLs.

I currently have a Hi-blow 20 - probably one of the better central air pumps out there; quiet but a bit undersized if I have the air on my reservoir tank going full blast; I will probably be upgrading to the next size up eventually. I also have an ALITA AL-15A as a backup; those big air pumps are a good investment when you have lots of tanks!

Yes, but usually not from Japanese lines - flowerhead / crown are quite rare amongst japanese breeders but there are a few breeder out there. Nishiki-Ebi in particular was known for his line of japanese red bee shrimp with headgear and large white coverage Also MananaP from BC worked on a line of PRL with headgear for many years, and he explicitly state that he never used golden bee / snow white Unfortunately Nishiki-Ebi switched his focus to "cloud" (fancy pinto) shrimps and MananaP went MIA from the shrimp world. You will see some mosura flowerhead / crown from other asia or european but still fairly rare... at least high quality ones.

i don't touch it after i set it up. I let the shrimps do that for me :p

They should be available at some LFS - i know Big Al carries them here in Calgary. if not you can get them from J&L aquatics but prices have really gone up due to the exchange rates! Thank-you! i haven;t really done much it it since but as a test tank, the fluval statum seems to be alright so far - my CRS have been breeding fine in it

i believe this is the kit she has: http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/product/15222-starter-aquarium-kit-with-led-55-gal/#.VdY6rvm6dhE It should be fine with low light plants. both Java Fern & Anubias will take time to growth so it will take a while to fill in. Sometimes java fern do melt but i just remove the dead leaves and they bounce back with new healthy growth over time. Maybe look are getting some low light stem plants

Tropica has done a great job bringing these to the hobbyists. More and more rarer plants are now becoming more readily accessible via tissue culture from Tropica and other companies which is great!

Nice! I believe 'cuspidata' is a type of dwarf bolbitis but not sure if it is same as mini bolbitlis. Would love to see what else you have! Yeah there is quite a few different variate of Ludwigia inclinata out there. Curly/tornado is my favourite so far but for fans of red plants 'Pantanal' is a stunning plant.

personally i would stick with high quality Painted Fire Red or Fire Red; they are much more consistent and stable. It depends on your source but quality of Bloody Mary offspring vary greatly.. high percentage of them are not solid like their parents so they are not really what i would call a stable line yet.

BUCEPHALANDRA - Too many to list (70+ types) ARIDARUM ARIDARUM Caulecens sp. White Fang ARIDARUM Caulecens sp. Saber Tooth ERIOCAULON ERIOCAULON Aquaticum ERIOCAULON Parkeri ERIOCAULON Setaceum ERIOCAULON sp. Shiga japan ERIOCAULON An Son Blood Vomit (Trithuria Sp) SYNGONANTHUS / TONINA SYNGONANTHUS Belem SYNGONANTHUS Maderia TONINA fluviatilis Misc Stem plants POGOSTEMON sp. 'Sri Lanka' Eichhornia Diversifolia Hygrophila Lancea Limnophila Mini 'Vietnam' Bacopa serpyllifolia aka Bacopa sp. 'Japan' ROTALA sp. 'Vietnam' ROTALA sp. Mini 'Butterfly' Ludwigia inclinata sp. Curly/Tornado Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata sp. 'Pantanal' Ludwigia brevipes Alternanthera Reineckii 'variegated' Sphaerocaryum Malaccense FERNS Bolbitis heteroclita 'cuspidata' Microsorum sp 'Thor Hammer' CRYPTS Cryptocoryne cordata 'Rosanervig' Cryptocoryne matakensis sp 'Candi' (Anambas) Cryptocoryne ? sp. 'Temurun Siantan Tarempa' (Anambas)

Just wondering if there is any rare plant collectors out there... let's see what you have in your collection! I would love to add to my collection by swapping/trading with other collectors out there! I guess the definition of rare in this case would be something you can't normally buy from a store.

You are right that same business model is not longer accepted, at least for dogs; I can;t think of any pet stores that sells dogs directly; most of them work with adoption agencies now. If pets stores were held to the same standards as dogs and cats, they would not longer be allowed to sell fish any more. at least not directly. And if that is the case, than we would be able to buy would directly from breeders. While it might not come to that with fish stores, nothing is stopping you from only buying directly from local breeders. Many, many, many years ago when i worked in a small pet store and we were allowed to sell dogs and cats, it was standard to include a free vet check with them to ensure the animal was healthy; this was to ensure peace of mind for the customer that they were getting a healthy animal but also because there were some things you just can see with the naked eye, no matter how experienced or well trained you are. At the same time we tend to self-diagnose and treat fish diseases ourselves versus taking them to a vet. Would it make sense to bring your fish to a vet for a thorough check-up? At there any vets that are even qualified to do so? The main issue with fish is they are almost never sourced from local breeders / farms. Almost all of them come from overseas, at at the very least another country so I think that has a lot to do with it. Of course that being said, if they are clearly sick, than the store shouldn't be selling them; that's just common sense. And certainty some stores are better at it than others. I think i am just rambling on..lol... but yeah there are lots of different factors

ADA is a pretty good system as far as commercial ferts goes and like i mention before I love their simple dosing system but I would consider it a more advanced one for a couple reasons; 1) it is designed to be use in conjunction with their Aquasoil substrate which releases lots of nutrients initially. Their Green Brighty line is designed accordingly; Step 1 (first 3 months), Step 2 (3m - 1yr) and Step 3 (1yr +). It is important to note that ADA products are designed to reflect Amano's own approach to setting up planted tanks and that is he plants them heavy right from the get go. 2) While much leaner than EI, the dosing schedule is similar; Brighty K is designed to be dosed daily while Green Bright Step series is dosed 2-3x a week. 3) Even if you had a full ADA setup, it is very hard to get a hold of ADA ferts right now in Canada as ADA Canada been having issues bringing them in. Another system you might consider is the new Tropica line; the Premium Fertiliser (Orange) is basically just a standard micro so it is mainly for low light plants. The Specialised Fertiliser *green) has Nitrogen and Phosphor so it better if you have higher demand plants. It is dosed once a week so might be a good simple way to get started. I haven't used it myself but I had some friends who did and got pretty good results with it. Of course no liquid ferts can compare costs wise to DIY dry ferts over the long term but it is a start.

As other have mentioned, if you are going to venture into the realm of high tech planted tanks, you probably want to look are getting a pressurized CO2; And as others have mentioned, it is all about balance; if you are dosing CO2 and ferts, you will want to make sure you have enough plants in there absorb all the nutrients you are dosing or cut back your dosing.. There are many different types of fertilization methods out there so might want do some research on what will work best for you. Commercial liquid ferts are pretty straight forward and come ready to use and but are pricey in the long run. I do like the ones that come in pump bottles, especially the ADA ones, make dosing a snap. Of course you can also buy generic pump bottles as well... DIY dry ferts are inexpensive but you will need to so some math to figure out how much to dose especially if you are mixing into a solution EI is the probably the most popular dry fert method; it basically involve dosing lots of ferts (so there is never a lack of nutrients) and resetting it once a week with a big 50% water change. More info about EI here: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/barr-report/estimative-index/2938-ei-light-for-those-less-techy-folks Please be aware that the standard EI dosing numbers are based on 30ppm of CO2; you will have to dose less if your CO2 levels are lower. They are also other methods like PS-Pro, PMDD, etc; You can pick up the dry ferts from hydroponic stores or online from theplantguy.org or Canadian Aquatics. You probably want to pick up a spoon scale from Ebay or Amazon for measuring out the ferts. Plants are no different than fish or shrimps; there are some plants with specific requirements; high N, low pH, low GH, etc; Although most of the stuff you can get locally don't need anything special but still best to decide what plants you want to have in your layout and go from there. If you are dosing CO2, make sure you don't have an air stone turned on while the CO2 is active as it will gassed your CO2. You can set it up both the CO2 (using a solenoid) and air pump to timers so that when the CO2 is on (i.e when lights are on), the air pump is turned off and vice. Alternatively, you can use an oxydator to maintain oxygen levels without gassing your CO2. The main thing with dosing ferts is to experiment and find a method that works for you; if you cannot keep a constant dosing schedule than you are going to run into issues with things being out of balance.

Those of you who want to leave your condolences for Mr. Takashi Amano can do so at the link below. They will be passed on to the family and staff of ADA. May his spirit live on in all of us. #weloveamano http://weloveamano.com/

What terrible news! Takahashi Amano was a true pioneer in the hobby with his tireless drive to bring us closer to nature through his photography and nature aquariums. He has inspired so many aquarists and leaves behind such a great legacy... he will be sorely missed. RIP Takahashi Amano

Yup I have redone some of the wiring to carry less load but at the end of the day the power supply is just not a very good quality or can deliver a constant power under load (even if the load was under the spec). I will be splitting the load up between multiple power supply units.

np, I am here to help! I wasn't sure if they would be ready in time for the trip and there wasn't too many in my initial batch so I didn't want to get too many people's hopes up but I have brought in a second batch of them and they should be ready to go in a few days. Not sure when my next trip will be though. They are $3 each, $2.80 for 6+ or $2.50 for 20+ - decent size batch this time, most are around 1" or bigger I also have some Chilli Rasboras for the same price but they are quite small currently

the only ones i notice so far have been the first batch of "waterproof" strips, the epoxy that they coat them with seems to turn a bit yellow over time so it seems to affect the brightness. The second batch of double density ones with no waterproof coating are still going strong. I think they are fine for plants.. the double density 5630 i have are very bright, just add more strips if you want high light, although I won't use them for deep tanks; you will need proper lens to focus the light more.

Mystery solved thanks, I will probably check Aquarium central soon. How do you know when group buys are going to be held, postings in sub-forums? oh i brought a bunch up to edmonton last weekend for a couple of people.. if i knew you were looking i would have offered as well....

I have pretty happy with my DIY LED strips. The LED strips were great (get the 5630 or higher version) but the power supplies are pretty crappy if you are pushing the higher power draw like I am. But I will be re-purposing some computer power supplies which should be better see my thread: http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=43168

I used Amazonia in most of the shrimps tanks, but mainly with RO water. never really had much issues with my plants, but i mainly keep mosses, java fern and bucephalandra. I do have friends who use Amazonia with a wide variety of plants without issue. One thing to remember is that Amazonia contain lost of nutrients so if you are dosing ferts you will cut back for the first little while. If it is not heavily planted you will also want to decrease your lighting period. Using BBA is a sign of excess nutrients / nttrates. You can kill it fairly easily using spot treatment of excel / metricide What type of setup do you have (high tech, CO2, ferts) and what type of plants do you have? How long has the tank been running and what is your maintenance schedule like?