riverpirate

Anyone have experience in cloning swords? I have a couple swords that are amazing id like to share but dont know how to trim and clone. One is a gorgeous red sword and I dont want to end up killing it. Anyone able to point me in the right direction?

Anyone have experience in cloning swords? I have a couple swords that are amazing id like to share but dont know how to trim and clone. One is a gorgeous red sword and I dont want to end up killing it. Anyone able to point me in the right direction?

Been busy working out of town lately here. The tank is over a year old. I do 50% water changes weekly. I keep co2 around the 30 ppm according to the drop checker. The tank is around the 24" mark off the top of my head. So I really dont know what I can do here. Hope it balances itself out while Im out of town working here. I hate seeing algae in one and crystal clear in the other tank...

Thanks guys. Yeah I do like the figure eights. we were looking at them a few months back but didnt get them because I was more into a planted community tank at the time. I dont have any shortage of java ferns, java moss of annubias so thats a plus. I love the look and Idea of mangroves. So where would one find mangroves?

I was just given a tank from a coworker and the better half has been interested in keeping puffers for a while. Im just not so into cleaning algae. I try to keep all of our tanks relatively low maintenence. EI dosing has been pushing her fish chore thresh hold as I work out of town alot... Any ideas for keeping a low maintenence puffer tank? some plants that might be tolerant of brackish water? A bit of a shot in the dark but if anyone knows itll probably be someone here..

Well, Ive been coming down with an algae issue. I have brown algae that keeps forming on the glass in my tank. Im currently Ei dosing have co2 in the green and am running 2 36" t5ho's at a total of 78 watts @ 1000k. This kind of came on after removing my pleco and starting EI. Its heavily planted with swords, vals, annubias, rotala, ludwigia, java fern and java moss, and a couple in there I cant remember.. All of my plants are growing like wildfire now, You can see a steady stream of bubbles coming off a lot of them. From what Ive been reading Im starting to think that I have to increase my lighting or scale back on ferts Im definately leaning towards the addition of more lighting as I am waiting for some plants growing emmersed to try adding a carpet.. So with the addition of more light should I be able to beat the brown? Scale back ferts for now? Also, should I be mixing 6500k and 10000K ? Thanks guys

If youre going to have all of this intense lighting, make sure you have your ferts non limiting or you will certainly get algae in no time. EI dose and plant heavy!

yeah quick grow in calgary is pretty good to deal with. They have t5hos with bulbs and ballasts and reflectors for under the price of a single bulb in red deer. They even had they same stuff at riverfront, but riverfront charged you for the reflector where quickgrow gave it for free. Also they ususally come with 6500K bulbs, and said they would open the package and swap for a 10000K .

To get your levels to the desired ppm you will have to dose to the total water volume as your dry ferts will dissolve into all the water. The point of Ei dosing is to have your ferts non limiting. I was running flourish products before and just started dosing dry ferts a little over two weeks ago. The growth that I have gotten since has made me a firm believer. Had a tank that was geting a lot of algae, start having the algae dissapear and growth take right off. My advice; dose hard.

Use one of the hose systems when willing helps a lot. I had the same issue when I first got my flourite. I used buckets to fill my tank and it stirred everything up. Once I got the hose set up I had no problems. Aslo Itheres a chemical, I beleive its made by seachem called clarify. Its a polyflocculant that binds all the tiny lttle bits that are suspended. Using this in conjunction with a sponge filter of filter fiber will clear it up in no time. The first time I used flourite I couldnt see the back of my thirty gallon and within a few hours it was almost clear..

Thanks jay. I had come across a similar chart until someone had told me its not very accurate do to phosphates skewing readings. But I guess a rough idea is a little safer than choking the roselines.... So, I just checked ph and kh and Im in the green, a little to the high end but not too bad for just feeling it out I guess. Thanks man. I just got a drop checker the other day too. Have been meaning to whip up a 4dkh solution to keep an eye on it. And as for gas exchange, I keep a spray bar angled up agitating the surface, but not breaking water tension. Next tank will definatley be outfitted a little more equipped. Skimmer, sump, undergravel returns, and a much better job hardscaping. Done DSM as well too.

Well finally got my poop in a group and made a trip to calgary to get my dry ferts together to get EI dosing. What a difference. After just five days, I'm seeing noticeable growth in my plants, and can actually watch oxygen bubbles coming off of my plants. And plants that were starting to be plagued with algae, are sprouting green growth free of agae. Hopefully got this balanced out now. At first, all of the additional gas in the system made me think I had jacked the co2 too much, but the roseline sharks seemed to be fine and no one else seemed in distress. The roselines are usually my first indicator for co2 levels. In my tank I get a light protein film from feeding shrimp, and it seems to keep gasses from breaking out to the surface. I was kind of wanting to remedy this with lily pipes, But this might work in my benefit. Keeping oxygen in long enough to fully dissolve, and not letting c02 gass off. As well, I dosed hard the first day and followed up with a 50% water just to get levels up(and was due for a change). Immediately following, I had my apistogramma caucatouides looking like they are spawing. Formed up a couple pairs and established little territories that they are defending now. Was a cute lil show they put on that night. The female presenting REAL hard, slinking around and rubbing up on the male and trying to lure him over to her flower pot.

Well they did it again. Got some more fry swimming around. And we still have two juvenile from the last batch around there as well too. Have them in there with some platys and baby platys, two pea puffers, and a couple juvenile bristlenose plecos. These fish have quickly learned to keep their distance. So hopefully we'll have a better survival rate this time.

They look good, Fissidens will readily attatch to them. Tons of room for biological bacteria. Go for it!

Id give some melafix a try. Its a treatment extracted from tea trees. Its relatively inexpensive. And Ive heard good things about it from my neighbour. And treated a fish that had pop eye with it. Pop eye was gone after a day.

Yeah as soon as I heard of the c02 tanks I immediately thought of all of my fellow enthusiasts. As soon as He gets some more in, they will be made available for a fraction of the price the stores charge. :thumbs: And this growing emmersed does work. Had a chance to go see some growing over at jgcd's place yesterday. Also got some Im trying out in a hydroponic style set up on another thread.

Well heres some pics of what I was talking about. Have a t5ho sunblaster on top of the terrariun, and little cuttings of assorted plants sitting in rockwool. The rockwool is then wicking up a nutrient rich soluton. In theory, the plants will not have to use as much energy building the root system in search of nutrients. Allowing the plant to spend its energy for vegetative purposes. I have a few Im trying out right now. HC dwarf HG crypt parva hellfire - forgot the scientific name (JGCD?) Micro sword narrow leaf And a mystery grass from the LFS And a beautiful lilaca/ HC piece from aquaflora Pondering on running a small powerhead coupled with an air bubbler in a small resevoir below this tray to keep the solution moving and well aerated. Might be a little over kill. But it should make sure fresh nutrients are available as the plants take them up so it will take longer to become defficient in one. ANd easier to adjust the parameters.

Call culligan. In red deer here they will rent them to you for about $20 a month for your basic, Or you can pay a little bit more to scale up to what you need. i was quoted at about thirty. And the plus side to it is they look after all membrane and filter changes. Which will run you about $300 year anyway. And they install. Something breaks, they fix it!

Has anyone had any experience growing any aquarium plants in a hydroponic set up? It just seems like a lot of these aquarium plant nurseries must be doing it, hence the rock wool our plants come in.. I just have some extra pieces kicking aound and the weekend off so I may give it a try here for kicks. I also just started some plants in dirt growing emmersed, So it mnight be interesting to see how they compare. Any ideas here?

Where would you all suggest going to in calgary for dry ferts?

No co2 in the tub. Both of my tanks are under co2. The smaller of the tanks has been able to keep dwarf hairgrass and the HC. Im just a bit of an impatient fellow so throwing in an established carpet more quickly seems like a plan to me. And as for my big tank, the 10" bruiser of a common pleco like to knock around plants that arent well established. I just had an extra fixture sitting in storage, and an extra timer so it seemed fittting to try this out in the spare room. Im just waiting for a friend of mine to get in some more co2 tanks in at work for disposal to add co2 into my lil grow tub. Apparently they get co2 tanks in, and empty them, take valves off and cut them in half! Once he told me this my eyes went wide... Gimme gimme gimme. Also need the co2 to set up my kegging system for the beer as well which I kind of backburnered once I got onto the fish

Well since I was having such a hard time getting a carpet to take in either of my tanks, I decided to try growing emmersed in a plastic container since I cant rehome my fish and do a DSM. Might keep it going full time if it turns out to work well. I have some crypt parva, Dwarf baby tears, micro narrow leaf sword, dwarf hairgrass, and some annubias and java moss just for kicks. cheap lil tub under 48" dual t8 grow lights on a storage space rigged up for fourteen hours on ten off. Gonna tuck some tyvek over top vent hole to keep moisture in and still allow gas exchange. Hoping If I get a good chunk of carpet going before I put it in the tank it might take off a little better, rather than sporadic planting of tissue. Will post some pics of growth next time I get back.

I just returned the thing. Thanks for the info. Ill just stay with my t5ho and try and get my ferts in check. That light was poorly designed. Had the lunar lighting, but it was all on one power supply. So you had to manually turn it on. No timer action to switch between night and day.

Well just picked this up. Was running double t5ho lights before and was getting algae issues in a 30 gal. Was using c02 adn think I needed to get my ferts into check. But decided to buy this and give it a go. Has anyone had any experience growing plants in their tanks with these. Just trurned it on and Im kind of having my doubts. Thanks, Just wondering if im just wasting some money here.

I just add another hobby. Fish were one of the more recently added hobbies. For me personally I'll be all over one then back to the other. Depends on the mood I'm in I guess. Try making beer. There's something relaxing about sipping back a few pints of home made beer in front of a beautifully planted tank. Its funny, I told my sister who just got teaching said she heard in university something along the lines of " If you have a child with a mental issue, to seat them near a fish tank in the classroom." Well she thought it was damn funny anyways.