aquatica

If you can find someone to help you get some local grown plants in large quantities maybe even on this forum that is always a great start and then add the extras from your LFS. You may also want to visit the Calgary Aquarium Society Spring Auction coming up in a week or so. As this can also be a great place to stock up in volume many of the plants that you are looking for. Cheers Rudy

I would certainly look at a lot of different plants just to start. Also stop all fertilization until plants are actually growing (visibly) The plants that I would recommend are:Hygrophilia all types work Bacopa caroliniana or moneri Ludwigia several types are available Vallisneria and or Sagitteria are great Sword Plants are also ok As others have already mentioned the types of "plants" that you have chosen are basically bullet proof, but they also do not grow fast and that is just whats missing in your aquarium. Once any of these above plants have taken hold then I would add others such as Crypts, Java Fern & Anubias to help with easing of maintenence ie trimming. Good Luck! Rudy

[] Aquarium Club of Edmonton Presents 2009 AQUARIUM BEAUTIFUL CONTEST Hello All, At our next monthly meeting we are having our annual Aquarium Beautiful Contest. This is a great way to share your tank(s) with other club members and to see their tanks as well. A slide show or power point presentation of photos of the submitted tanks will be presented at the meeting on April 7th After the presentation the membership present will vote for their favorite tanks and present the winners with some great prizes! The contest is open to all Aquarium Club of Edmonton members in good standing. 1st Place 250.00 2nd Place Large Variety of Plant related products 3rd Place TBD Feel free to enter any or all your show tanks, they don't need to be the greatest show tanks by any means. There is no entry fee for this contest just your desire to show us your aquarium(s),the more the better!! Tanks entered in the contest must be your own current running tanks and can be planted, African, saltwater,nano, novelty, etc from 1 cup to 1000 gallon. Please contact me with any submissions before the end of the month.(cut off is midnight March 31) Please send an email with the best pics to ghanke@shaw.ca If you don't have a digital camera, or aren't up for taking the photos yourself, I can probably help out with that as well please give me a call at 468-9110 but sooner is better. Good Luck!

Another suggestion that may be a little different from the norm is Crypt Usteriana, sometimes also call Crypt aponogetfolia. It needs an established tank with a reasonable amount of light. Has some similarities to balanase already recommended, but looks far more impressive for a background plant that can really fill a void. Rudy

Usually it is almost immediately, but one must keep in mind the type of diffuser you use may need more pressure than you are producing. What type of DIY unit have you made? and what type of diffuser are you using airstone etc.? Rudy

What type of algae is it that you a dealing with?

Yes, you can buy a membership to the club that morning but be sure to come early. Also remember bags must be numbered with seller number usually a 200 number for Edmonton area and a bag number (200-01,200-02,200-03) etc. and since you are not yet a member the prefix number you would not know until arrival. So give yourself a little bit of extra time so 9:00 would be a good arrival time. As for the money, yes they are handed out after the end of the auction once out of town accounts have been settled. The split is 70/30 to the seller. Hope the info helps! Hope to see you there! Rudy

I would disagree with your point about the plants not waiting for the C02 and thus get growing faster in the morning. No one I know rolls out of bed eats a couple of steaks and a few potato's and then does a marathon before lunch. If the plants truly need all that C02 first thing in the morning you should see pearling* happening within the first 1/2 hour of the lights being on when in fact it usually doesn't start till the lights have been for at least an hour or even 3. Just like human behavior we get up have some coffee breakfast and then we go to work and start working. I'm sure the plants work much the same some even show the "behavior" of not fully unfolding there leaves until an hour into their timer driven day Even in nature the full intensity of sun is in the middle of the day when it is directly overhead which is when most of the aquatic plants are doing the greatest amount of actual growing. The rest of the day light is at best somewhat subdued or diffused coming thru bush or other vegetation *Pearling is the giving off of oxygen by the plants during photosynthesis R

Hello, Your question regarding C02 is actually a very simple one to answer. During the daylight hours C02 is "consumed" be the plants during photosynthesis as they in turn expire oxygen in the process. With plenty of lumen's (light) on the aquarium and fertilizer the addition of C02 put the plants into there element. But during the night cycle the reverse process takes place, so the plants actually use up oxygen in the water and aspirate CO2. Which is usually not a great problem unless you also keep fish. Leaving the C02 on during the darkness actually aphixiats the fish, because the fishes are trying to find some oxygen in the water column as are the plants and all they can find is C02. Thus a slow aphyixsiation takes place and the only thing that saves them is the timer turning the lights on in the morning. If you see your fishes in the tank hovering at the surface gasping for air early in the morning, this would be why. C02 running 24/7 is not only a waste but it is bringing your fishes to a near death experience on a nightly basis and it is only a matter of time before some will succumb to this nightly be rage. This process happens to the fishes "best" when the tank is well or heavily plant. Hope this helps with your question. Timers are about 15 bucks, well worth the money! R

Yes the fishes (Jewels, Mollies)you talk about are there but the numbers have been reduced over the years. I was there recently and did observe the mollies but did not see any Jewels it appears that Mosquito fishes have taken over. Years ago I did photograph several pairs of Jewes just under the boardwalk as you enter the bird sanctuary viewing outpost. The area is very well monitored by security so don't bring a net as it is VERY taboo to do so. If you are going and would like to make an extra effort to film your adventure the Aquarium Club of Edmonton would be very interested. In the event that you are a member may even sponsor a portion of the cost. Interested please let me know

After reading all the replies I have to think that the problem is not the arline but the shipper. After having shipped plants & fish in about every type of weather for oiver 15years, I find the fact that the heat packs were cold very unusual. The trick with heat packs is that they require air to activate, so if placed into a sealed box with little"breathing" room the heat back remains unactivated. If after the heat packs were taken out of the box and placed on the counter you will find that it will again become quite warm. Best solution is; when shipping fish start off by opening the heat pack, then catch fish....and always leave a bit of "breathing" room for the heat pack. Hope this helps save a few fishes Rudy