rainbowfish

Hornwort it mops up excess nutrients algea love and over a time helps reduce algea blooms (not overnight but it will) plus it is easy easy easy to grow as easy as java moss only it grows a lot faster in fact it can grow too fast and take over but its easy to trim or remove chuck excess in a bucket or pond or sell it. It has no roots but you push the bottom into a pot or substate tie it to something to hold it down etc or let it float on the surface it will reduce the lighting a bit though if you do that. I have buckets of it growing in a dark corner somewhere it dosnt die it is like day of the triffids in those buckets. Also frogbit is a surface plant usually grown in ponds but you can grow it in a fishtank it dosnt take over like duckweed and it is more attractive with hanging roots baby fish love it too. I grow Crypts in a tank with only sand and gravel as substrate never used any fancy root tabs or soil they do great. Fish poo in the substrate plus some liquid ferts and co2 is all I use. Co2 in a bottle works just fine I use API.

I swear by UVC's for a bigger tank with lots of stuff and plants and fish I run 39 wats on my 4 foot and I am busy a lot so don't have time for managing anoying problems like algea. Ok it does not and cannot kill algea on surfaces that is already growing there but what it has done for my tank is drastically slow down the spread of any algea outbreak. Since spores and stuff travel through the water to invade other places if it passes through the uvc it kills it and helps break the cycle. If you set the UV up at the start before any algea is present you should have less problems unless you put things in the tank like I do without treating them first. I have had a minor hair/thread algea problem for a while, it just grows along some plants and mosses closer to the surface near the lighting it can take over a tank in a very short time, it hasnt done that in my tank. I clean it off with a toothbrush now and then. I occasionally get some green spot (the green spot algea actually is not 'algea' it is a little water critter that has calcium shell that feeds on stuff on the glass and surfaces. The algea grows on or under it thats why its hard to clean off. Even that hasn't spread very much at all. I have not done a water change on this tank since setup either since there are only a few tiny fish in it and I'm lazy. I never check PH or anything, it's mostly a display tank for plants and experimenting with home collected driftwood etc. It has CO2 injection a Co2 monitor that says all that is good, I add extra Co2 in a bottle and fertiliser. The plants are crypts, one tiny anubis, lots of java moss on wood and terracotta, some ferns, some pink baby tears some varieties of rotala the red one macaranda I think Hornwort (said to reduce algea because it sucks a lot of nutrients) some other plants I forget the name of. It also houses a baby ghost knife, a bristnose 2 female betta and a snail. No canister filter, just a powerhead pulling water slowly through 2 sponge filters and then through the UVC and back in at the other end. No oxegen pump because it died and I couldnt be bothered replacing it. 90 wats of fluro built in lighting on probably more than 8 hours a day plus coloured effects light. Never had green water, lots of tannins from driftwood and only small amounts of hair algea on some surfaces and a few green spots. If I do some water changes, improve the filter and add some more algea eaters I might not have much algea at all. Some algea in a tank is good. If you have plants and some small areas of algea that isnt causing a problem it will help prevent more invasive algea from growing. There just wont be enough nutrients in the water for any new algeas to get a foothold. Starving algea out from the get go is the best way and controlling it with UV and water quality (please do water changes I am just lazy) you shouldn't have a problem. My tank is also not 'heavily' planted. I only put a small amount of baby plants in to grow out. Once they fill out and get bigger I should also have less algea. I have noticed in other tanks that I use LED lighting on I have virtually no algea at all or only just under the lighting and I leave some of them on 24 hours a day.

I put danios, rosie barbs and some silver cats in my outdoor pond one summer to clean up mozzies and algea then forgot about them for a long time over winter south of sydney I never check outside water temperature but it gets cold. Anyway the following summer I cleaned the pond and they were still there a few extra and BIG maybe because it was outside and they had live food and lots of leaves and mud in the water I don't know but it was interesting. They died after I put them back in a tank a while later. Sarah

I have found them the best of all the mini heaters Ive tried, and more reliable than the reptile mats they fluctuate the temperature too much, and the plastic ones cant seem to keep water above 24c. I am hoping more brands will bring out small heaters and eventually some adjustable ones. It is harder to keep temperature stable in small tanks anyway I still try and keep the room warm as much as possible and I find keeping the tanks in one area with lights etc generate enough heat to keep things more stable. I have got away with having unheated jars on a shelf with heated tanks around them and they seem to stay warm enough, until my barraks is done but I will always have individual display tanks to heat and I like them to look good without trying to jam some bulking great big heater in there.

The 10w was about $15 the 25 about $18? near that I forget I got them from Pet and Aquarium warehouse at South Nowra NSW.

I bought 2 from local LFS a 10w and a 25w they also have a 50w they are preset to 26c and non adjustable however unlike other non adjustable mini heaters (the black plastic type) these actually work better they are glass just smaller than the normal size heaters and fit in very small places and are a colour grey that dosnt stick out, easy to hide. Not sure how well they will work in the winter but if the house is warm they should be good. I have the 10w in a tiny 5L acrylic tank and the 25w in a halea 8L all in one tank and both read between 25c and 26c on cooler days. Normal room temp now is 25c anyway but the fish all seem happy. If your looking for something for a single betta tank or a very small tank I recomend these. So just thought I would mention these in case you havn't seen them yet I think they are a new thing. Sarah

I see, I'll see what else I can find.

I think one of my female bettas and a gold catfish have a thing going on... I moved her back to her main tank where a gold sucker and a couple of little pepermints and a khuli loach live and within 5 minutes her and the gold sucker were dancing around and she was fully barred and vertical under him, he just stared at her lol. Weird? I guess Mr Betta just didn't satisfy...

Do you know if those plug in fluro's from bunnings would be any good? I saw some they were cheap compared to the aquarium tubes.. I am thinking of putting this big light into the greenhouse instead it is probably better for a reef tank do you think? I am new to lighting lol

I am having some issues with my lighting, I bought a fluro unit 4 foot and it came with 2 T5 28w tubes a white and a blue, Hopar 10,000k I have been getting a lot of algea problems. It is mounted vertical on the side of the shelf about a foot away from the tanks. The plants love it... is this common should I try different globes, any suggestions?

Maybe a red dragon then? What about Gold?

he dosn't have real flowly fins that could be improved, they are a bit narrow but I like the colour.

Thanks, he does have some pale sparkly blue in the tail it didnt show up in the picture. I have another boy I scored for $7 he was one that had melt he got over it and bounced back better than ever. His colour has improved now he is a really rich red with a metallic blue sheen over his back end and tail, feisty as anything but getting a pic of him has been a challenge he just never stops racing around like a maniac he even flares at plants lol

Now THAT is a fish... :)

Oh that sucks...Ive seen video of some monsters fished out of the rivers up there... I would need to dig a dam... I had thoughts of renting a bobcat and digging something that might reach halfway to china and my mother put her foot down :(