Posts Tagged ‘plants’

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Bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble!

Tuesday, October 4th, 2005

….The Witches Cauldron Brew, the
bogwood is still soaking nicely.

I’ve seen the
L190 this evening, it’s still in the tank and feeding. I visited
Petland in my lunchtime today in York, they have an excellent collection of Ls
in stock, I almost parted with an

L177 but needed to catch the bus! Maybe next time! I don’t think they
have a website, but here’s a
review by the Ryedale Aquarist Society.
 

I’ve just noticed that I use the
terms Ls and Lxxx numbers a lot, and some readers may be confused with what I am
referring to. The group of catfish I keep are in the scientific name
Loricariidae, this is pronouced
Lori KARI Iday or more commonly referred to Suckermouth Armoured Catfishes (yes
they do stick to the glass!), they have rows of armour plating covering body,
underslung suckermouth. They all come from South America. Originally when a
suckermouth armoured catfish was discovered, it was given a scientific name (latin),
and a common name, as more were discovered in recent years it became impossible
to readily identify them, and give them common names, so the L numbering system
was invented to uniquely identify each catfish, and hence the L series was born,
there is also an LDA series, the same has also been done for Corydoras
catfishes, Cichlids and Rays.

Endlers’ are doing well, and have another four fry.

Purple Spotted Gudgeon in the fish house are massive compared to the fish in the
display tank. Sexual difference possibly.

Many projects still to complete, fish house needs a tidy for the forthcoming
cold weather, and I’ve got a new temperature project finished, but need to
relocate the computer system in the fish house.

Again, I’m pulling the late shift all week, at the office, so not much time to
organise the fish house.

Had an excellent response from

Pond Supplies UK, and a replacement end-cap for my Hailea air compressor
has been posted. That’s Excellent Customer Service, I’m still awaiting to hear
from Java-Plants (I think all
the Vallis is now dead!).

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Cheap Alternative to Aquatic Planting Kit Pots

Monday, October 3rd, 2005

This was emailed to me by a fellow aquarist after having difficulties with the gibbiceps digging up the plants in my display tank. Reproduced here in its entirety with permission of the author – Amerce.

“Actually I managed to rig something a little bit cheaper up for myself with items I had left over or had squirreled away.

I had some peat left over from my killifish breeding pots (sterilized in the microwave), I had some aquarium sand (£2+ for a 3 kg bag), some fine gravel left over from another aquarium and some plastic containers left over from various things (Ferrero rocher container, strawberry punnet container etc. I’d punched some holes in the container bottom beforehand), the most expensive part was buying the plants and the plant rooter granules.

I lined the bottom of the containers with some peat, sprinkled some of the root granules and then tied up the plants (using the lead that java sent me), once I had decided where all the plants were going I then used the wet sand to firmly place the plants in the container (I’d washed the sand earlier and it was still a bit moist) the sand acted like putty and was easy to shape and mould around the plant roots, then I sprinkled the gravel over everything to make sure the sand and plants didn’t float up once it was placed in the tank, and because the containers had been punched before the water soaked in to the base of the container and gradually filled it and it sank nicely without loosing the plant, soil, or sand.

This way the undergravel isn’t bunged up with roots from the plants and you can take out the containers at any time to do plant maintenance and also move the container where ever you want without upsetting the plants too much.”

So this Christmas, save those Ferrero rocher containers, and recycle them, and save them from landfill!

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Soaking Bogwood

Sunday, October 2nd, 2005


These
are the four pieces of bogwood I purchased, currently soaking in a vat of water
before adding them to aquariums in the fish house, the brown stain in the water
is caused by the tanin in the bogwood leaching into the water. Boiling and
soaking for long periods can reduce the tanin leaching into the water, the use
of carbon in a filter will remove the tanin from the water but can also remove
other nutrients required for plant growth, regular partial water changes will
also dilute the effect. I quite like the colour, and it appears more natural
for the fish that I keep. It also helps to acidify the water  in the
aquarium. You usually have to pay for chemicals to do this e.g.
Tetra Blackwater
Extract. (the observant amongst you will notice this vat was last filled
with a potassium permanganate solution, this has been siphoned off into 20l
bottles, so I can dispose of, at a rate of 500ml (half a litre) a day!)

I’ve planted out my display tank this evening using Aquatic Potting Kits,
I’ve inspected the Totra Vallis, I received from Java-Plants and they are of
very poor quality unlike the Amazon Swords I received, I’ve emailed Java-Plants
for comments. All 25 plants look like they need a priest, very brown, I don’t
think they’ll recover.

On the subject of emailing suppliers, I’ve also emailed Pond-Supplies UK,
because I’ve noticed stress fractures/cracks on my new Air compressor, and
that’s not been in service very long. Air is leaking in via these cracks, and
not via the air-inlet.

On a happier note, my "aquarium sealant fix" seems to have fixed my other
Hi-Blow type air pump.

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Mopani or Bogwood?

Thursday, September 29th, 2005

Up
again early this is morning to collect a parcel from the local Sorting Office,
it turned out to be a small piece of Mopani or Bogwood, I’d purchased. The
Sorting Office, also had my remaining order from
Java-Plants, 25 Vallis Torta, which
were placed in a water vat at 28 degree C, until I had chance this evening to
disinfect in my vat of potassium permanganate solution. (yes still having
planting issues in the display tank!).

This is an ideal piece of bogwood for my angelfish to spawn on, and also for
my "plecos" to graze on. When I’ve soaked it and disinfected it, I’ll place it
in my tank, and post a picture here in the blog.

I’ve also have a small community of Endler
Poecilia Livebearers, these seem to be very
popular on eBay at present, and are selling for very high prices, I was recently
given some male Endlers because my females seem to be rather thin. These fish
have finished their quarantine period, and after studying them closely, I don’t
believe they are True Endlers, possibly Guppy hybrids, so I have not mixed them
with my true Endler community, just to be safe, Male Guppies will hybridise with
the females very easily.

I have also moved all the male True Endlers, and separated them from the
females because the females were being harassed too much, and I noticed three
young fry in amongst the java fern which has grown out of control in my display
tank, so I dumped some in the Endlers’ aquarium in the fish house. I’m a little
confused, because every time I examine pictures on the internet of Endlers’ they
all look slightly different, so I still don’t know what True Endlers’ look like!

The nice man "Mark" at
AquariumSuperstore telephone today and left a message to let me know, I
should get my water deflectors tomorrow by post.

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Waste Water

Tuesday, September 27th, 2005

I’ve got 50l of Potassium Permanganate solution at a concentration of 10mg/l that I’ve been using to disinfectant my aquatic plants to remove snails and snail eggs, all waste water from the fish house, is disposed of onto the garden. Not wanting to empty 5ol of mild disinfectant onto the garden, I thought it would be prudent to ask Yorkshire Water, if this could be safely disposed of down the drain. It is possible that this could destroy the good bacteria at the local treatment works. After discussions with Yorkshire Water they advised that I should dispose of it, at a rate of 1l a day down the toilet! So it could take quite a while to dispose of this waste water. Remember this if you are making up quantities to disinfect plants, it may have been easier with hindsight to use a Proprietary “snail off” killer. I’ll make new enquires with Yorkshire Water, if I filter the solution through carbon, if I can then dispose of down the drain. Yorkshire Water were converned that I would kill off the bacteria at the local treatment works and were surprised that you can.

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Patial Water Change Sunday

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

I’ve been completing a 25% partial water change on Aquarium 8, this evening, this was Franks’ Home for the last year, and now it’s void of Angelfish, this will give me the chance to move another breeding pair into this tank. I’ve got a Silver/Platinum pair to move into this tank. This tank is approx 90l, size – 30″x15″x12″, and filtered by an Hagen Biolife 55 internal filter, and also an air operated Algarde Bio-Foam 200 sponge filter, I keep sponge filters operating in most larger tanks, as backups, they are also useful to use in new tank setup’s to speed up fish tank cycling. This tank is heated by a 500 watt heater connected to my bespoke multi-channel controller in the fish house. The heater is a little overkill, but the last heater failed, and this was the nearest heater to hand at the time.

Not done anything with all the plants, that have been up-rooted in the display tank.

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And This Morning!

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

All the plants have been dug up! I guess the gibbiceps didn’t like them!

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Rough Science!

Saturday, September 24th, 2005


I’ve decided that prevention is better than cure, so rather than have
millions of snails taking over my display tank after the introduction of new
aquatic plants I would soak the plants in a solution of potassium permanganate
at the correct temperature and pH as the display tank for 10 minutes, this
should kill all snails and snail eggs, it acts a mild disinfectant.


Please Note:
Potassium Permanganate is extremely deadly to aquatic organisms only treat
plants externally to the aquarium, and ensure the plants are well rinsed before
placing in the aquarium, never use it direct in the aquarium with live fish or
animals.

Potassium
Permanganate can be obtained from good pharmacies for very little, I paid 1.25
GBP for 25grams, at the concentration I’m going to use, that’s enough for 2,500
litres. I had a little trouble trying to weigh such a small amount, because the
recommended concentration is 10 milli-grams per 1 litre of water, my kitchen
scales minimum is 1 gram.

My
builders muck bucket holds approximately 50 litres, so 0.5 gram of potassium
permanganate crystals will yield the correct concentration, I weighed 1 grams of
crystals, and then divided the amount evenly using a 10ml measuring cylinder –
it’s called rough science! After 10 minutes soaking in the solution, I rinsed
thoroughly before planting out in the aquarium.

Time will tell if this prevention has worked! I’ll post some before and after
shots of the aquarium, now it’s been planted with the 25 Amazon Swords. I still
await delivery of the 25 Vallis Torta.

 

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A Snails Tail

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005




Here are the first pictures of 25 Amazon Swords (Code 37) which arrived from
Java-Plants.
These are temporarily stored in a water vat at 28 degrees C, and the same ph as
the display tank, the plants will be planted out in.

This
water vat is a builders type waste bucket, which holds approximately 70l of
water, it is aerated by an aging Hagen 201 powerhead, heated by a Rena 300 watt
heater, (I removed from aquarium use, because it occasionally overheats – I
should find the guarantee and return to lfs). The airstone at the bottom of the
picture is currently connected to the new ring main on test, out of view is an
Eheim 1262 internal pond pump, I use to pump water to the tanks in the fish
house. TIP Do not rinse aquatic plants under cold tapwater, cold water
and chlorine will shock and damage the plants. Treat your aquatic plants
carefully.

I plan to connect a complete Dennerle
CO2 System to the display tank to aid plant growth, here is a picture of
the Dennerle  pH Controller,
which connects to an electronic solenoid, which controls the amount of CO2 into
the aquarium. This is the later model, which has buttons to set the pH range,
the older models, do not have these buttons, so bargain accordingly.

These
are available quite cheaply now that
Dennerle have introduced the new

DENNERLE pH-Controller Evolution und Evolution DeLuxe range which
includes a CO2 auto-shut off valve, so there is no need to purchase the
additional solenoid valve, as with the older system. (I’m sorry the web pages
are in German, I don’t know why Dennerle,
removed the English site, and replaced with Under Construction?)


This
evening on checking the fish house and inspecting the new plants, when taking
these photographs, I spotted a snail making a break for freedom, it was half way
up the airline tubing, when I spotted it. I don’t currently have snails in the
fish house, well I didn’t! It’s not unusual to find snails arriving on plants,
I’ll have to plan the next stages carefully, otherwise I’ll have a snail
outbreak. I’ve got snails only in one tank, and that’s the second display tank,
these are Malaysian Trumpet Snails, Melanoides tuberculata, a good
website can be found

here on the little creatures, but there in a tank with three Clown
Loaches, so it benefits the loaches at night! I don’t like using chemicals in
any of my tanks, especially any "snail off" remedies, back in the early 80’s my
friend who kept tropical fish, had an massive outbreak of snails in his fish
tank, he had some lovely fish, so he dosed his tank with some "snail off" liquid
in a bottle, after a few days, he asked me if it looked right, the tank was
opaque brown with the "snail off" cure, he had read the label incorrectly, in
the process, all the fish died, except his Red Tailed Black Shark "Fergal",
which I shortly after inherited, he stopped keeping tropical fish after that
event. Fergal lived for many years after, in the hole in his house brick, which
was found on the beach, completely rounded. I’m always reminded of that event,
every time, I use any chemicals, and never add them directly to the aquarium. I
always measure the amount in glass Pyrex beakers (remember science classes from
your school days!) away from the aquarium. I’ve seen too many mistakes made
measuring chemicals over an open aquarium.

This blog entry is dedicated to all those fish that died unnecessarily in
1980! David if your reading this contact me!

 

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Aquatic Plants arrived from Java-Plants

Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

I collected my parcel containing my aquatic plant order from Java-Plants early this morning from the local Post Office Sorting Office. I’ve purchased 25 Amazon Swords and 25 Vallis, the Vallis was out of stock, so will ship later, the 25 Amazon Swords are in excellent condition, with healty leaves and root stock, extremely well packed in a large cardboard box with “LIVE PLANTS PLEASE RUSH!” stamped on the box; with plenty of packing material. Five ***** to Java-Plants Highly Recommended. The plant order was placed on Thursday, and delivery arrived on Tuesday, the box wouldn’t fit through the letter box so I was “carded” by the local sorting office to collect the parcel.

Excellent value for money, at just 30p per plant and that includes postage and packing. Try and get a deal like that at the local lfs. If they’ve got them in stock.

I carefully opened the box, the plants arrived heat sealed in a plastic bag, and placed them carefully into a vat of water at the correct temperature 28 degrees C as the display aquarium, if I’ve got enough time after work, remember I’m on the late shift, I’ll plant out later.

Most of these plants are to be planted in my 48″x18″x12″ aquarium in the “sun room”, it looks a little bare at present. The remainder will be planted into pots, for use in the fish house for those Angelfish, that refuse to spawn on breeding cones.

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