Matt_95

I can help a bit with this. Front plant in pot- pogo helferi The one behind the pogo- some sort of louts, possibly tri-colour? (red, green and black) can't see any black but it has the same patterening. Foreground to the left of the pogo is staurogyne repens, fantastic low light plant that can be grown as a bush or carpet. Not as fast as other carpeting plants so a lot less work. Behind the diffusor is Blyxa japonica. Behind that is needle leaf java fern. Right of the needle leaf is hydrocotyle tripartita Right of teh pot of pogo under the stems it looks like some tropica java fern. I don't know the rest other than that I think they belong to the genuses ludwigea and rotala. was that of help?

So was he from one of her imported trios or the moggie tank? And do you have guppies or endlers?

Myles, he is lovely. Do you breed them and do you sell any of the fry? I would love to get my hands on a few If you want you can have one of my males when I grow a few up. Soon they will be coming out of my ears. I found the missing fry today, they hang out under the sponge filter in a little crevice in it. I moved it and found them there. I always thought endlers were dumb fish but these fry are quite inteligent. Maybe its just natural instincts?

Do you have access to rainwater? I use that and it has a low ph me either, I introduced it with some plants and was so angry but it just died. Happened 3 times. Have it in 2 other tanks though <_<

You could do dwarf mollies to, I think they are close to pure. What if you get endler looking endlers?

In tanks larger than 40 litres I would add a power head, it will evenly distribute co2 and other nutrients as well as disperse heat. I find it helps in the start up period, in the soil it stops amonia leaching out and if you have a low plant density it is good as a cap while swords and other permanent plants grow in. It quickly exhausts it's self. Everything I try grows well, vals, swords, lotuses, blyxa, mosses, glosso, pogo helferi, crypts and much more surprisingly the only plant that dies is duckweed, don't mind loosing that one lol. I wouldn't add peat to a npt, it won't really do anything to the water, water doesn't circulate through the substrate. Have you read Ecology of the planted aquarium? Diana says in it that when she uses peat it leads to iron toxicity. It makes the substrate acidic which makes some nutrients unavailable, plants do better with a neatral to slightly alkeling ph (7.5) you could put peat in your filter though. Di's subtrates work well but she doses liquid ferts co2 and also has algae problems suggesting her tank is unbalanced.

Yay I got bookmarked Proud if those choko's. It's my only one GEE I'm growing it. I cleaned it espicially for you :)

I have used it before in my four foot tank. It was mediumly stocked and the nitrates were always at zero which presented problems. These tanks can be stocked quite high, often higher than is recommended with filtered tanks. Basically the organic matter in the substrate decomposes to produce co2 which the plants use, they take up waste produced by the fish. The soil contains micro nutrients that are not necessarily available in the water column, the fish are fed a bit more than they can eat and the excess food decomposes to release co2 and other nutrients the plants need. Plants prefer ammonia over nitrates, I think they have different charges and the plants have to convert nitrate ions into a positive or neutral ion, not too sure though sorry. Filters will compete with the plants for the ammonia which is why they are not needed. These tanks often become deficient in potassium (K). This can be overcome by putting a layer of dynamic lifter at the bottom of the substrate or by dosing potassium nitrate (KNO3). This can also be dosed if your finding you can't supply the plants with enough nitrate, you should have at least 5ppm nitrates. In the start a lot of quick growing stems are needed and as the heavy root feeders become established the stems can be removed and replaced by heavier root feeders such as crypts, lotus and swords. You want to keep the substrate slightly alkaline, hence the shell grit, to ensure hard water nutrients are available. If the substrate becomes acidic it can lead to iron toxicity. The water will naturally become neutral because of the various biological process occurring and if your ph is rising or dropping it usually means your tank is unbalanced or an object in the tank is affecting your ph. These tanks naturally grow large amounts of micro organisms and make great fry tanks, I'm going to be spawning in this one soon. You want to soak your substrate before using it if possible, especially if it comes from a bag (potting soil) it could release ammonia on set up. I add the zeolite to avoid this as this soil had aquasoil which releases ammonia when new and I didn't soak it. Zeolite also has a high CEC which is supposed to be good for plants, I think they can access the nutrients it takes up. Was this helpful? It is in no real order and I wrote everything down as I thought of it lol. Here is my 4 foot tank in its prime, it is not looking to good now, I’m in the process of going high tech because some of the plants I’m growing don’t go to well with this method. It was great in its prime though and only has algae because I’ve unbalanced the lights, plants and CO2.

Hi guys, I wanted to share this method I use to set up my tanks, its called a natural planted tank. Diana walstad came up with the idea and it is fantastic I have only done around 4 waterchanges on my 4 foot tank in 7 months and all but one has been because I've accidently done something to the water like poisoned it with caffine or boiled the fish ect. enjoy Materials: enough soil for 2cm depth in the tank enough gravel for 3cm, 3mm size max (I liek zeolite) 1 cup per 5 gallos zeolite (optional) 1 cup per 5 gallos shell grit Dead MTS (optional) 2-3 wpg of light plants aquasoil Step 1. Get your soil, I used garden soil through a colander to remove roots, stones and bark. I used mum so shhhh step 2. Mix in zeolite and shell grit. Zeolite is from the pool store and shell grit is from the produce store Step 3. Add dead MTS to the bottow of the tank, If you have any mulm from a filter add tha tto. Step 4. My soil was very sandy so I added a layer of ADA aquasoil to the bottom to add clay. I added less than 0.5cm It really isn't needed I just had a bag spare Step 5. Add 2 cm of soil. Step 6. Add root feding plants like swords and crypts and spoon your gravel cap around their bases. Step 7. Add 3cm of your gravel. Less if you want, 3cm is the max depth. Step 8. Fill up. Put a plate on the substrate and pour onto that to avaoid mixing the soil and gravel. (please ignore my choko) Step 9. Add stem plants. riccia ect. Step 10. Add some food and leave for a day, test the parameters. If they are fine you can begin to stock lightly and continue to check the parameters. No filter is needed but it would be a good idea to have one the first few weeks/months until an equlibrium is established. Please don't hesitate to ask questions :D

I made one for my apisto's and I have bettas in there, make sure it has no sharp edges but other than that it's absolutly fine.

I wasn't aloud to set up another tank. The next drop they will have their own tank :)

He does, he ate one of these fry so down to 2. Fingers crossed they are females. They have doubled in size now too Sounds like a good idea. He might try eat me though when I clean his tankout *lol*

Nawww congratulations on getting married good luck I would recomend you don't use live fish as decorations though. I may have an article somewhere. The bettas will stress at being bumped and guests may put things in their water. Also you need to makesure they have somebody to go to after the wedding. If your dead set on the idea though you could breed your own. You can do bulk buys from many of the Thai breeders but then you have to add importing fees and shipping. If you bred your own you could breed ones that match the colour theme. Then once the wedding is over you can sell them on here. I just thought of something else, how will you heat them? A heater would look very ugly and it may be hard to find power points. Since it is may a heater is definatly needed.

Yep You could keep them with the guppies What about these to? Kribs shell dwellers cories killifish

I just get a male and femal and they have spawned. Surly you know someone who has a fish that needs feeders? What about gambasia? Bristlenose are easy to.

I can feel another grounding coming on, my heater failed and my bettas are looking in a bad way, dad wont drive to a friends house to borrow one and Hua just died. Maybe after that I will try to not get grounded :P

Convicts, sell the fry as feeders, white clouds are another good one. I thin fire tail gudgeons are easy to :)

Oh my, go threw every piece of moss ect. I had some in my shrimp tank and they ate all my cherries :(

Jarod, you have so many lovely fish, I want a pair of all of them Wonder what mum will say hehe

I think Jaws ate a few, the remaining three have a strategy to avoid him. They have very small drops though. I might enter them in The RNA show I totally forgot about them lol thanks, no need to be sorry.

He looks like Sarahs old HM Carnaton Will ask he rwha the was called.

It can be stress or if their tale slows them downthey are known to eat it. someone said to caut the tail back past where he was biting and that will help, she said once they start they wont usually stop.