Pteronarcys

For anyone who uses CO2 cylinders (not the paintball cans) where are you going to get refills? I thought it would be good for people to list the name of the place they are going, address, and cost for refill (approx.). This will give a good resource for people who want to find someplace close to where they live to go refill. I am currently refilling my cylinders at: "The Recharge Center" 5622 Burleigh Crescent SE, Calgary, AB (403) 258-1141 http://rechargecentre.com/ - for my 10lb tank they are charging $40 for an on the spot fill (not sure the price if you leave it with them and pick it up in a few days) While they have good service, it is a pain for me to get down to that location. I live downtown and I work in the northeast. Does anyone know of a place that fills cylinders that would be a shorter drive from downtown or that I can do right after work in the NE? I have made calls before around and many of them say they don't do refills for small tanks, just large industrial ones or they only deliver and swap out empties for companies.

Update on the tank. It's only been a few weeks but lots of growth in that time.

When you say "cull" are you meaning separate out the ones you don't want into a separate tank, or kill off. Cull can mean both. Any low grade ones you don't want, I would be willing to buy/trade/graciously accept the donation. Low grades are fine for me because I am not trying to make the lines you are doing. Just like having these guys in my 2 tanks.

Welcome

How does the point system work?

So you are saying once the shell or carapace hardens.. it is the ultimate "c*ck block"

I was looking into my nano tank to watch the shrimp and I notice a smaller crystal shrimp riding on top of a larger one. The one on the back had a good grip and stayed on for more than 10mins. I have never seen shrimp do this. I know they breed but I have yet to see it happen. With my neocaridinas I get new babies all the time but have never seen them mate. I am new to having crystal shrimp and perhaps this is how they do it? I was actually looking up how to sex them on my phone when I noticed this behaviour. I have only had these guys a few weeks and they haven't berried and there hasn't been any babies yet. I am assuming the larger ones are females as you see in neocaridinas. Web sites say that neocaridinas face each other and the act of breeding is only a few seconds. These caridinas might be different, I don't know. Perhaps the one was just going for a ride. I snapped some pics and video with my phone. http://vid745.photobucket.com/albums/xx99/rjpesq76/20140817_191652.mp4 http://vid745.photobucket.com/albums/xx99/rjpesq76/20140817_191547-2.mp4

I recently switched over to LED lights from Buildmyled.com. I ordered their XB version (extra bright) and their dimmer. The thought was that if I wanted to try a very high light set up, I would have the option to do so and control the % output through the dimmer. The dimmer ended up being on an almost 3 week backorder. So lights went on at full strength. Around the time that I set up the new lights, I had accidentally introduced some algae into my aquarium through getting plants from pisces. The tank that I got the plants from had spirogyra algae and cladophora. I normally peroxide bath any new plants, but these got introduced through miscommunication with my fiancee (of course I am not going to blame myself). Needless to say it didn't take long for the algae to become noticeable under such high light. I had to adjust my EI dosing to suit the higher light output, because some of the plants started showing deficiencies. Plants bounced back, but I was also feeding the algae. The strong lights caused my plants to take up more CO2 and this caused fluctuations that resulted in BBA appearing. Arrg! I can see that very high light tanks can be a pain to figure out all the parameters, especially when it is trial and error of using test kits and watching how plants and livestock react to changes. Those few weeks without the dimmer and very high light quickly changed my tank into an algae haven. I got the dimmer in and have the tank under control and found good levels of all my parameters. But the algae was now a problem. I added a lot of nerites and amano shrimp, but they didn't touch clado or spyro. Having lots of shrimp I didn't want to add harsh chemicals. I have many types of mosses that are sensitive to excel and peroxide, but I tried it anyway. I nearly killed some of my mosses and I did kill off my riccia. booo-urns! I didn't want to have to tear down my tank and treat all the rocks, plants, tubing etc. in a bucket. I came across a product called AlgExit in my searches that says fish, plant, and invert safe. It has been sold for some time in Europe and I had to google translate many forums to find out about this product. It was looking to be a miracle product for algae... and completely safe for all livestock and bacteria!! I thought I would try it out. I couldn't find it in North America stores and contacted the company. They are just starting to sell it in NA and they gave me their NA contact info. At first they told me I would have to order a minimum of 200 bottles... umm no! They were very nice and helpful and told me they would allow me to order a minimum of 2, 1L bottles from their warehouse in Baltimore. I got the product in on Monday. For my tank I had to add 30ml to my tank once a week for 3 weeks. After that, it is 15ml once a week each week for prevention. I did some research online and found the active ingredient is Salicylate. This amino acid works by blocking a pathway in algae used to uptake phosphate. Apparently this is a pathway unique to algae but not plants. Depending on the type of algae, it will take a few days to several weeks to kill off the algae. Further research in salicylate, shows that it is derived from willow trees, specifically found in high dosages in new branches. Willow is also where Aspirin comes from. The difference between Salicylate and Salicylic acid is that the acid breaks up into Salicylate when in water by losing a H+ and forming an anion. I also came across information of people who cut new twigs off willow trees and place them in their aquarium and this prevents algae. New branches needed each month. Interesting find. A day after I put the product into my aquarium, the spirogyra algae have mostly become limp and with a colour change to whitish grey. Cladophora is starting to look paler. No change so far on the BBA. Though the treatment does say 3 weeks for full eradication. Here are some pics of the dying spiro and clado as well as the BBA. I will post more pics as the weeks go by on how well the product works. The snails are already eating the dying spiro!

I read that this particular stiphodon is a great algae eater. Forums talk about them eating all kinds from clado to bba. They even talk about having to make sure there is enough algae and have your tank set up to promote algae growth. Being a river species they prefer a good current. They may breed but fry require marine conditions and are unlikely to survive in freshwater. I guess in nature these guys live in rivers close to oceans and fry wash down into the ocean and a month or so swim back up to live the rest of their lives in the river. Lots of pictures show very pretty male colours. Apparently, the males can change their colours and display a wide variety of colouration on any given hour. They sound like pretty neat fish. Most say they are shrimp safe too since they only eat algae. If all the info I read is correct, these guys sound like a great addition to the tank.

I have been looking at these small gobies that feed on algae. They seem cool and it looks like some species are very colourful. Anyone know much about them, such as which species are best for algae and also look pretty? Also, where to buy or acquire these guys?

Welcome

Yes, my fissidens seems to be growing noticeably faster. I also find it interesting that fissidens seems to be showing up in random places that I did not attach it to. Just a leaf here and there throughout the tank, attached to wood or a rock. Those patches are growing into small bushes now.

Here is the coral moss pics: Here is one patch of moss Here is another I moved the moss before and here it some of it attached to a rock

What.. how can a glass tube costing $400 bucks be over priced? or for that matter an ADA pair of scissors for $90. Sounds as reasonable as the prices for a sandwich at an airport terminal

Did you try grounding him or not letting him have dessert?

I have mini pellia (riccardia chamedryfolia or coral moss) and it attaches but it takes a bit. It seems to grow better in higher light. I have it on several levels of rocks and the lower levels are growing slower. The lower level ones seem to be getting a bit of bba on it. It doesn't do well with excel though. I tried to spot treat it with a lower dose and that part turned black in a few days. I tried a diluted solution of peroxide and had the same issue. Both of those treatments work fine with fissidens and other mosses with no damage to the moss. coral moss is very slow growing.

I had mine attached with thread, all other mosses seem to stick but the willow moss doesn't seem to. I had it tied down to a rock for over a month and that is the one I just unthreaded and it floated off. My Fissidens fontanus, weeping moss, and java moss attaches really well. I am still waiting to see if round pellia sticks to things.

From everything I have read, it says attach it to wood or rock. So I am assuming it will adhere to those substances over time. I have some willow moss and that doesn't seem to attach even though it says it will attach to wood or rock. Got it on both for over a month and it has yet to attach. I just removed it from the rock because I had to move a few things and it just floated right off.

I have been trying to get a hold of pearl moss but everywhere that has it is sold out for a while. If you get some, let me know how it attaches and post pics.

I have gotten them from canadian aquatics and ThePlantGuy www.theplantguy.org/Fertilizer_c_27.html If you order potassium nitrate, you have to send a scan of your driver's license because it is an ingredient in explosives.

Well paying a premium fee for a service that you don't receive is what bothers me. It's like paying for a gym membership, but the gym seems to be always closed.

I like how you mounted your tanks upside down! Quite unique. Causes the fish to swim upside down too.. cool. Just jokin!

Well if anyone in the future is doing a shrimp order from somewhere I might jump in on it. Guess as long as it is going to Calgary.

do it yourself when no one is looking! :eh:

It is still growing in from changing it around and adding many new additions. I use the EI dosing method. nitrate, phosphate, and potassium on one day, then iron and trace the next. At the end of the week I do a 50% water change. Temp right now goes between 76-80 because of how hot it gets in my condo and my current light set up (3 t5HO fixtures running 6 lights). I have ordered 2 led lights from Buildmyled.com but they are stuck at customs for the last week according to the tracking. Fun! Hoping this new light setup will not run so hot and allow my tank to sit more at 76C. Temp swings isn't the best thing to have. I inject CO2 into a reactor that is attached to my canister filter's return tube. The CO2 is regulated by a pH controller (soon I will have the OCO CO2 controller). The reactor ensures the CO2 coming from the canister is all dissolved. This way I loose less from bubbles that go directly to the water surface and is lost, thus conserving more of the CO2 gas and making it last longer. I have 3 small red sea water pumps to move water around dead zones in my tank and one larger hydor pump creating circulation towards the front and minor surface ripples. I want to make sure all nutrients and gases get around my tank. Some of my tank areas are weak because of the limited quantities of some plants available when I ordered them. I will have to make due with growing and trimming to slowly fill in some areas. The moss wall will be weeping moss and as that grows out, I will trim and add more moss walls along the back and cover much of the stone and wood as well. I want to hide my cords for the heater and pumps as well as the eheim tubing and probes with moss and the stem plants over time. Might change my background as well, since only the light blue part is really visible and its kinda drab.