Crystal

Prime is my favorite. I started off with other brands, but after encountering one that actually contained amonia ("to boost the bacteria in your tank"), I tried prime and never went back. It nails everything from chlorine to chloramines to heavy metals. I am afraid I am a bit lax in my water changes. My 20g, 15g and 14g get 75% water changes about every 2 weeks. My heavily planted 90g gets a 75% about once every 2 months (it only has twelve 3" fish though). I up my water changes if I have fry in the tank.

That looks a lot like the blanket weed that found my tank about 2 years ago... I still see it every once in a while in my tank. Nasty stuff. Barley extract actually worked the best when combined with a 48hr complete blackout - it almost eradicated the algae. Co2 helped, but this stuff actually seemed to love excel. I found having lots of stem plants out-competes it. Elodea and hygro worked the best for me. Nothing eats it.

Most pet stores offer free water testing. Maybe take a sample in?

I am beginning to think I will just play it safe and keep bringing out the large rubbermaid container. I use the hose to fill it from the tap and a pump to put it in the tank once it has sat there an hour, so it isn't all that hard. The water station in Athabasca often has fluctuations in the water coming out of our tap so it is probably safer for me. For some reason, most of my current fish are $15+. Now how did that happen?

I have always put the water in buckets or a tub and let the water sit for 5 min because I was scared to lose any of my fish. Glad to hear of people adding water straight to the tank - has anyone ever encountered problems doing it like this? Using 3g buckets isn't too bad with the 10g or a 5g, but the big tanks are a bit more tedious.

I have never had a problem with prime. I over treat with prime as well. How long do you let the water (and conditioner) sit before adding it to the tanks? I am not entirely sure it is a pathogen... (well, besides the ich, but almost any fish from the pet stores seem to carry it - easily treated by adding extra salt to the water). You cleaned the tanks better than I ever have. If you don't mind me asking, can you describe the tank setups? I am just trying to understand what kind of tank setup you are using. What kind of filters are you using? Is the substrate just regular aquarium gravel? How many, and what kind, of fish are in each tank? Is it just the bettas? I have no real experience with bettas other than if they survive the first 2 months, they tend to live for 5 years in my tanks. I find the ones from the common chain pet stores aren't really healthy. What other fish have died, and what were the symptoms?

I had something similar when my water de-chlorinator expired... What kind of water conditioner do you use? What is your water like? I know some water sources have ammonia straight from the tap (and some water conditions also cause the ammonia kits to show ammonia). I also know that several towns (like mine...) have recently added chloramine to the water - does your conditioner remove this and other heavy metals? How many tanks is this effecting and how big are they?

I currently use canisters on my tanks 20g and over, but I have also used HOBs with no problems. I tend to like canisters for more power and flow. The canisters have more room for the good bacteria to live undisturbed (a big consideration for heavily stocked tanks). The reason I went with canisters on my larger tanks is because when I put the filter sponges it gives me really clear water. I have used HOBs without problems, especially on tanks 20g and under. I have used a Rena Xp3 for almost 10 years with no problems, I also have a Rena Xp1 on a 20g (chose Rena just because I already had the sponges for the Xp3 - would love to try a Eheim one day). I have 3 other tanks - 1 with a hob, 1 with a small air driven in-tank filter, and 1 tank with a sponge filter. I have used sumps and overflows as well. So it really just depends on what you are doing and what you want. (and if you have room for the canister to sit below the tank - this was always my limitation for most cases) edit: if you have a planted tank with Co2, a canister with the flow bar pointed away form the surface is an excellent way to go.

I had danios spawn in caves, shells, etc, but they scatter and then ignore, or try to eat, the eggs. But I have never seen them stay in a cave for more than a minute or two before blasting around the tank. Those guys never stay still. It does sound like they are being chased by something, although I have had danios mixed with most of those fish. Although I never had the catfish or Paraguay Tetras. If it was the catfish, they would be cruisng the top of the tank, out of easy reach. You had them a year and they just started this. correct? I know I had some pond-bred minnows that had never been in a tank and always hid while their tank bred friends calmly cruised around the tank. Try a 50% water change, and ensure you add enough de-chlorinator (one that also binds chloramine and heavy metals is recommended). See if there is any change. If the cave is small and you have an hour or two to spare, try pulling the cave and sit down and watch to see who, or if anyone, is chasing. Maybe you just need to move the cave to a different location in the tank for a week or so.

I would advise checking the stand to see if it is particle board (compressed sawdust). They are quite common and, in my thoughts, are a ticking timebomb. Water and sawdust stands do not mix well... My 55g taught me that, a slight drip from a filter over several days can make a stand crumble. All tanks in my house over 20g have a solid wood stand, or sit on a solid wood dresser. All tanks over 55g are on metal/steel stands (with a stand-alone wooden cabinet cover to hide it, of course ). No experience with condos, but my 90g stands just fine on our raised sub-floor against a load bearing wall.

If I am understanding correctly, the lots numbering start at 01 and goes consecutively until 20? So I would have 2 items per table if I had all 20 lots (eg. 01 and 11 at table 1, etc). Can anyone tell me for sure if I can sign up and pay on the auction day? If they have a pdf sign up form I can fill it out and just pay at the auction. I presume that I would still book my lots with Michael in advance? Is it easier on the volunteers organizing the auction if they also know of the donations in advance? I usually send in some plants or starter cultures.

Can anyone run me by the details of selling in an auction? I have been to quite a few, but have never sold although I would like to try this time. I know I have to have a membership and a max of 20 lots. What is the numbering scheme of the lots? I emailed Michael at the above email a week ago, but haven't received a reply yet - spam filters really like my long email address, so I suspect the spam filter ate it. How can I sign up for ACE (I am out of town)? I know they used to have a site, but I haven't found it for a while. Is it possible to perhaps pin a post on auctions and their rules in the ACE Forum?

I usually just use 3g ice cream buckets with lids. Inside a vehicle works best (just put plastic suran wrap under the lid to prevent any leakage). I usually get my buckets from the stores that sell the hard icecream in those white buckets. I've transported over 50 white cloud minnows in one bucket with no problem. Just run an air pump in the bucket until the last possible minute and drop it back in when you arrive at your destination. I have made probably over 100 trips with fish in those buckets with no problems. Even the one time I transported 50 4" feeder goldfish meant for a pond in one bucket for 2 hours, I had no losses. Throw a blanket over them, the darkness keeps them from stressing out unnecessarily. Hope this helps

I am not entirely sure, I use a blue LED and different plants look different under the lighting. The bright greens take on a blue-green tinge, and the reds/pinks take on a burgandy color that I don't particularly like. Whites practically glow (ornaments or shells). Reminds me of a cold and clear winter night with a full moon reflecting off of the snow. I think the Big Al's in Edmonton had a display showing different LED light colors, perhaps the one in Calgary does too?

I am rather lazy and I find brine shrimp too much work (I dislike having to tinker with tanks/cultures on a daily basis unless fry are involved). Vinegar eels are for very tiny fry, although they are by far the easiest to keep (I ignored mine for 5 months without problems) I breed daphnia, microworms, and whiteworms. All are pretty easy and don't mind being ignored for a week or so if they are set up well. I like daphnia because they swim and won't drown in water - excellent for the office tank over holidays. Microworms sink and will go into the gravel, cories will find them if the sand layer is thin; and in a fry tank, they are easy pickings. Excellent for almost any variety of fry. Whiteworms are bigger than microworms, my cories can eat them, but it takes them a bit. Good for conditioning bottom feeding fish. LFS might carry some, but it may be easier (and cheaper) to find a member who has them. At least you know that they don't need special conditions to breed. What are you thinking of feeding?

Lol. Some good ones on here. Mine usually aren't named, or their names are very general, "fat female cory", "female cory", "Big Male Cyp", male BN, Aggressive idiot, etc, although I do have one deformed N. Multifasciatus that I called Mutant. "Fish" usually works very well. The furry four legged animals in our household are all named.

Maybe use black paper to cover half to 2/3 of the front glass pane? For a week or so, and then remove 4" of paper every other day or so until all the paper is gone. Just a thought, that is what I did for some really skittish fish, but they were only 5 inches long...

I have a 14g with cherry shrimp and daphnia (a food culture), but that probably isn't what you want with such a big tank. Plecos like BN will be fine Most fish that don't get over 2cm will work (rice fish, endlers) Possibly neon tetras Add lots of cover, plants, java moss, driftwood, etc. and the fish will never see the babies until they are too big to be eaten.

I am not sure of their age, I bought them as a breeding group at the last Edmonton auction. They haven't grown any since, and no matter what or how much I feed them the female just doesn't get that "bowling ball" look that you see in the pictures. There are several live plants and spawning mops in the tank. Water changes are done once a week or so just due to the fact that I feed them frozen foods every night. I only have 4 in the tank, so I am sure I would see at least one egg considering I look at the tank 3 times a day when feeding. I plan to remove the eggs to another tank whenever they appear.

Have you had any luck in breeding (or at least getting eggs from) any of your cories? I have 1F, 3M Cory ehrhardti, and they just refuse to lay eggs.

Good for you! I just got some Gold Lasers from Harold - very similar. I can't wait until they are big enough to breed, they are supposed to be fairly easy as far as cories go.

Welcome! :welcome:

If you are after free natural stone, many rock piles are to be found in farmer's fields and in many backyards. I also saw that there were some posts on Kijiji recently.

Welcome. What fish do you currently have?

I usually treat ich with just salt. If it is really bad, I will move the fish to a dedicated quarantine tank and use salt and a chemical called coppersafe. I usually add about 1tsp of salt per 5 gallons. I quarantine all fish before they enter my tank (some of my plants don't like as much salt as I would use if the fish had ich. As for your assassins, sell them. Even advertise on Kijiji, honest for 50 cents, or $1 ea they will go like wildfire (I wish mine would breed).