Frogfish

Is there a limit to the jar show as far as jar size, number of speices, what if it's not in a jar? Scary catfish was in a rubbermaid tub, good thing he wasn't in a jar or he would of had to have been catfood to fit!

Oh boy oh boy! This should be a good one everyone has plants! My spidey senses must have been tingling because the other day I was just wondering to myself if the jar show would ever include plants woo hoo.

I would just cut the frame with a razor blade save on coin and waste. I had the same problem with a custom tank, didn't seem to matter to cut the back up a bit I look at the tank from the front and the cut portion doesn't even show!

You could lay the slate on its side and lean a piece of wood on it and have a crypt growing through a gap and attach moss to the now vertical slate surface or on the wood somewhere. Not sure if the slate is glued or not but you could make it look like a ruin to give it some character and appearance of an aged/archaic look. I have no idea though it depends on your taste. Sounds like your plant placement ideas will work great. As it grows in the crypt and sag will mesh well together. My other half doesn't have a huge interest in the hobby but she is really good at helping with layout and design. Her opinion matters because she has to look at it and her ideas often work better than mine.

Don't make the same mistake I did and get the fluval CO₂ system, it is very costly to maintain and wasteful due to the disposable cartridges. $20 every 3 weeks or so. If too much light is an issue the frogbit will do an excellent job at blocking it as well as getting its long roots tangled in your stem plants. I love that plant and watching it dance and twirl in the current.

I meant the home competition because trimming plants for auction takes recovery time. Good thing volunteering makes plants grow faster too because I can barely get a guppy or platy to breed.

5003 16ave nw. It's on the south side of the intersection of home rd and 16ave I hope entries for aquarium beautiful are before the auction. Count me in for volunteering.

Ugh I can't wait till my daughter grows up and wants to put Dora or my little pony in her aquascaped tank... Well at least the pony will have a nice assortment of plants to munch on lol. Good thing I have a little time she just turned one on xmas eve. I hope she grows up to learn and love the hobby like your son has, good on you man.

Well looks like it worked, the tank is much clearer now, plants greener and algae under control. The blackout stressed the plants a bit but for the good, I see a ton of new growth points on them and I am sure it won't take the glosso too long to remember it's supposed to be a ground cover and not a mini forest. Lesson learned don't forget to fertilize after a waterchange... Thanks AA members for the help provided on this thread and other related threads on the forum. In post pardum would it be wise to continue adding liquid CO₂ for a while longer or will proper balance of nutrients/light and pressurised CO₂ suffice to keep the hair algae at bay?

I have had that white slimy film growing on a new piece of driftwood purchased at the lfs before. Kind of looks like jelly if I remember correctly. I researched the heck out of it and for the life of me can't remember if it was fungus or bacteria growing on it. Anyway it went away after a few weeks, the ottos and bristlenose plecos seemed to enjoy grazing on it and it hasn't come back. If your timing is right I think the CAS spring auction is sometime in March if you're still in the market for locally owned and grown plants.

Blackout is in progress, I took a peek today after 24hrs and things are looking much better at a glance. Here is to hoping that the good news will continue into tomorrow when the blackout period is over.

Check the riverbanks along the bow river. Look for weathered wood with little to no rot and loose bark or no bark, I come across a ton of it when doing canoe trips. Another place might be fish creek park or kananaskis country. Some of the more interesting pieces I have found come from roots of uprooted trees rather than the above ground woody tissues. I will look in my wood pile at the shop to see if I can find something to suit your needs. Wood cut earlier this spring should have loose enough bark. I might even have some plants for you too!

I thought of adding algae eaters but I'm trying to make this a guppy/endlers only tank. Why guppies well, angelfish seem to like them... The guppies sometimes chow on the algae but I think the best solution is to fix the imbalance rather than use a band aid solution. If anything I may add some amano shrimp although the flagfish do look nice, you never know I might just cave and bid on some if they come up at an auction. You are right about the ameca and their voratious appetite for hair algae but unfortunately I had to give them away because they became aggressive. I got some anubias plants once from auction covered in hair algae and the ameca had it pretty much gone overnight. As they got bigger they got nasty towards my bottom feeders, especially the cories which had almost no scales on one side from being pecked at. Once the algae dies will it just melt away or do I still need to either remove it or get something to eat it? I'm hoping that once it's growth is curbed the guppies will handle that task.

Thanks for the input, I was pretty certain leaving the CO2 on would be a bad idea. I have a bit of excel I keep around for when a tank runs out of gas and needs refilling so I'll drop a bit of that in. It all started when I went on vacation a while back I did all my water changes but forgot to redose ferts before leaving. Before I mess with the light timing I will re-establish the nutrient balance. You are right about the imbalance, the plants especially the glosso were suffering from iron and nitrogen deficiencies. Before the problem occurred the glosso growing in shaded areas was a much darker colour than the portion getting full light so I think taking one light out won't hurt. The pipe cleaner is a real pipe cleaner from sheffield and sons it's more stiff and coarse textured than the toy ones for arts and crafts. It works wonders compared to the toothbrush. I made something that looks kind of like a mini microphone stand with 4 legs and I just spin it and hook the algae. It even works well for power raking the glosso mat, it gets right in there. As for the blackout I think I'm still going to go through with it for at least a 24h period to kick the algae in the butt. Plants are tough they will be able to handle the dark period, it can't be worse than shipping. Will keep you posted on progress

I'm having an issue dealing with hair algae in a tank and am going to try a two day blackout to get rid of any remnants after a water change and mechanical removal. (Read on the forum about making a tool out of pipe cleaners and it works wonders thanks AA) I checked water parameters and the nitrates were 5-10 so I will add some up to 20ppm after blackout. The flow output was also a little low on the filter so I increased that as high as it would go after cleaning. I will also reduce the photoperiod from 11 to 9 hours and have removed one of the 3 lights on the tank. The light was burning the glosso carpet. My question is regarding CO₂. I feel a little silly asking but I am assuming that the solenoid should be unplugged during the blackout as it is controlled by the light timer and not a pH controller. Please feel free to advise on any other solutions to the issue.

Wow I'm pretty happy with the results considering the short amount of time I have been enjoying the hobby. Good job fishclubgirl good on you to keep goals, mine is to get around 250 points a year or more if I can. Now that the tanks are looking and growing well I am running out of tank space and I find it hard to remove plants that I like for the sake of getting new ones just for points. Psst I'm cheating by running 4 hi tech tanks which might explain how I managed to get so many points in only a year. I don't mind waiting until the next meeting for the plaque, I might just find the time to make and print my multi form that Bear the hapmaster liked so much. Too bad he can't award brownie points hehe. Can I get points for managing to get green hair algae to pearl? Man that stuff is a pita to pull out of a glosso carpet, thank goodness for the advice on this forum to make a swifty spiffy hair collector out of pipe cleaners.

Whatever works really. That's the great thing about this forum is the sharing of information and ideas. Half the fun is learning and trying new tricks until you find a method that best suits your needs and patience. Sometimes you have to be patient and stubborn to replant the same stem daily for weeks until it finally decides to take hold. As for moss and rhizomes like anubias elastic bands and sewing thread or fishing line works wonders for attaching to rock and wood if you don't have a glue gun which I learned from AA is also an effective method for anchoring to hardscape elements.

You could let the stems float free for a while until they develop roots then plant them in the substrate or like Jvision mentioned I find that leaving the lower leaves or a portion of will help anchor the stem long enough for it to develop roots. I tried weights like the ones that come with plants purchased at the lfs and gave up as the plants stems would eventually rot around the weight and end up floating after a few weeks, at best I found it to be a temporary solution that in the end inhibited the desired result of rooting stems. Cutting off the lower leaves will however help promote cell differentiation and division which may in turn reduce the time it takes for roots to develop. Plants are really cool that way that when tissues are damaged the cells surrounding the damaged area have the ability to divide and grow into cells of a different kind to replace what the plant needs. This basically explains why most plant species are easily propagated by tissue culture as all that is required is a single cell to make an entire new plant. Another example would be if you topped a tree which is utterly stupid, the tree would respond by growing suckers to replace the leaf mass lost from being mutilated/topped. Kind of a long winded answer to a simple question but I felt compelled to share some of the horticulture science related to the topic.

I found that the neatest thing about the shrimp tank is the other critters you find emerging without the presence of predators except for the damselfly larvae that decimated the shrimp population. Bah what the heck it was cool to see it go through it's metamorphosis cycle and catch the adult flying around in the office.

Concept in Calgary can probably make one and ship it. When they made mine they were in the process of making one for a guy in Vancouver. Just remember you can be very specific with the order as far as choosing type of silicone, glass, and rim or rimless etc.

From bottom to top in the canisters I use sponges, floss, ceramic rings and top off with more floss/pillow stuffing. On the hob I use sponge and rings and sometimes floss if I've moved the substrate around too much when planting. Everything seems ok and from what research I have done all you really need is surface area so a filter full of sponges and a bit of floss would probably work as well as ceramic rings or lava rock. As far as maintenance goes they get a sponge squish, ring rinse and floss change whenever the flow output is reduced. As far as a recommendation for a canister check reviews and do some searching, I ended up with the filstar because I like how big the media baskets are and it's pretty easy to use and clean but it's not as quiet as I expected based on review and research. I find the hob to be easier to clean and I seem to have less issues with protein film on the tank with the hob. Another thing I like about the filstar is the volume of water it holds, makes me feel like I have more tank for some odd reason although the extra water also makes it heavy especially when pulling it out from under the cabinet while hunched over.

Pothos can survive a direct hit from a nuke and my mom can grow it so you should be fine.

I let stem plants float until they make roots then plant them in the substrate when they're being stubborn and rotting away at the stem. Stargrass gets pretty bad stem rot when the lower portion is too shaded.

Welcome to the forum. Don't be afraid to add plants right away the 'cycle' isn't really important for plants when starting out in my limited experience. I definitely agree with adding more filtration. Starting and learning is the best part.

I prefer using the razor scraper wand for the odd time that glass needs cleaning, my mag floats are being used as cabinet door handles and one is sitting on my dresser as a dust collector. The water movement caused by the magnets was uprooting plants and to effectively clean, the magnets require multiple passes in the same area at different angles.