Posts Tagged ‘Discus’

Hawthorn hedging

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

I’ll just tell it how it is, after the local council sprayed around the village notice board, the exact same width of hedge behind the notice board died!

After some discussions, ERYC sent me some free plants. Many Thanks to ERYC.

So, I decided to also order 50 x 110-125cm Hawthorn bareroot hedging plants, canes and spirals to patch the holes that have appeared in our old hedge that surrounds the front garden. They were ordered from Scot Plant Direct in Scotland, as they were very competitively priced, arrived the next day in great condition, and been living in moist compost since. But I must plant them out soon.

Hawthorn No.1
110-125cm Hawthorn bareroot hedging plants

Hawthorn No.2 from ERYC
Hawthorn bareroot hedging plants from ERYC

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Border Almost finished

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

Here are the latest pictures of the new garden border in the front garden, now fully planted. I just need to spread some more bark/mulch around the plants.

Border Fini 1

Border Fini 2

The lounge is almost complete, blind fitted to rear window, and in discussion with local design company to fit and forge custom steel curtain rail pole and curtains for bay window.

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Back to the West Country

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

I’ve been away from my home and fish house, I’ve spent 10 days back in the West Country – Plymouth to be exact. Where the water is soft (ph 6.5-7.0) unlike my local tap water which is hard (you can stand a teaspoon in it!) and ph 8.0 – 8.5. and the vast numbers of tropical fish shops, I spent a day and a half visting them all!

I visited the following Tropical Fish Shops, when visting in and around Plymouth, and excellent stock of fish on display, South American Cichlids and Ls, I just wish I could have taken them all home!

and on the long journey home, I visited

Many Thanks and Good Luck to the following, hope to see you again in the future, on returning to Plymouth.

Ken at Devon Tropicals
Jerry at Bretonside Tropicals
Mark at Tropical Waters Aquatic Pet Centre

and a special thanks to

Chris at Plymouth Discus..

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I’ve not joined NASA or Portland Down!

Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006

After removing all the woodchip wallpaper from the walls and ceilings in the lounge/dining room, it has revealed many large cracks in the ceilings and walls. We’ve been discussing whether to re-wallpaper or re-skim the walls and ceilings with plaster, so there’s a decent crack-free surface to paint.

I’ve been searching for a plasterer to do the work, I’ve had several quotations from 600, 350, 220 and 150GBP to re-skim the ceiling, lots of variation and ideas that they’ve run by me. I’m meeting a plasterer tomorrow night which has been recommended to me to discuss the requirements, the issues seem to be the cracks may come back, because the existing ceiling is lath and plaster. Cracks are often caused by lath movement. Because it absorbs moisture from the air, wood lath expands and contracts as humidity rises and falls. This can cause cracks to appear year after year. A nail holding the edge of a piece of lath may rust or loosen, or structural movement in the wood framing behind the lath may cause a seam to open.

When the ceiling is re-skimmed, tape can be used to “seal” these cracks, which may prevent re-cracking.

or have the entire ceiling re-boarded and skimmed

or wallpaper!

If we decide to re-skim, one job I’ve got to do is sand-off the gloss paint of the dining room ceiling, or ensure a rough surface for the plaster to stick to. I tried sanding last night, but my face mask and goggles, weren’t up to the job.

It’s not often I star in my own blog, so this is a rare chance to see me in action…doing DIY!

Andy No.1
Nasty job sanding off gloss paint!

Andy No.2
It helps to have the right safety gear!

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Coincidence first Animal House and then UK Marines Ltd

Thursday, June 15th, 2006

Last August I reported that Aquatics Mail Order giant Animal House, Batley, West Yorkshire had closed down, various rumours exist as to why they closed their doors for the very last time.

Almost twelve months later, after discussions with an eBay seller, who was responsible for the disposal of several items from a tropical fish shop in Batley, I discovered that UK Marines Ltd had closed.

This is a picture of the display tank measuring 9`x2`6″x2`6″ which was sold on eBay, following the demise of UK Marines Ltd, Batley, West Yorkshire. Many years ago, this tank was stocked with marine fish, but more recently had large oscars and gouramis present.

UK Marines Ltd Fish Tank 1
Display tank measuring 9`x2`6″x2`6″ at the rear of the shop.

UK Marines Ltd Fish Tank 2
Another tank from UK Marines Ltd

UK Marines Ltd Fish Tank 3
Another tank from UK Marines Ltd

I did some investigations, and spoke to Roy Meeke, he told me he has not been involved with UK Marines Ltd for at least three years. UK Marines Ltd, Company No.03809034 was incorporated in July 1999, the directors at that time were Lynn Day and Roy Meeke, the company was dissolved in May 2002. Therefore it should not have been trading as UK Marines Ltd in the last few years since May 2002!

UK Marines Ltd, never updated their website, or removed Roy Meeke’s name from it.

I’ve discovered some other irregularities with UK Marines Ltd, but more on that later. All this information is available in the public domain.

Did UK Marines Ltd close due to lack of trade in Batley, due to Animal House’s closure?

When Animal House closed, I posed this question to the owner Philip Day, on my reqular visit to UK Marines Ltd, who indiciated that it would not cause a problem, but over the last tweleve months, I noticed a deline in the stock and hardware in the store, and told they were “re-furbishing” the store, and then they were going to “relocate” to Huddersfield!

Good Luck Philip & Lynn, where ever you are…!

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Hikari Saga continues …

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

This hasn’t got aything todo with Noggin the Nog or Nogbad the Bad, although the later could be compared with the EU Legislation in place! Please read on …

I received an email today from a fellow aquarist who breeds Good Quality Discus in South Yorkshire, asking me where I obtained my secret supply of Hikari Algae Wafers, as he has been having difficulties obtaining them. I quickly checked a few mail order suppliers and was surprised to find they were all Out Of Stock, last October I posted an entry, stating the EU had lifted the temporary restriction on Hikari products.

I’ve spoken to PPI this afternoon, the Sole Distributors for Hikari products in the UK, which stated that some stocks of Hikari products were imported into the UK, in September/October 2005, but the temporary restrictions of Hikari products are still in place. I had assumed after this press release in September 2005, that the temporary restrictions had been lifted.

Inspectors are currently visting the Hikari plants in Japan, and a Press Release is due in the next two-three weeks.

The Algae wafer market seems to have been flooded by King British, Tetra and others to plug this hole that currently exists, in my opinion these are not as good. Sera have a good product. Catfish Crisps, my Whiptails prefer these to Hikari Algae Wafers. But I’ve not been able to purchase these in 1kg bags, have I posted this before? rumours state that Sera once made this product for Hikari, before production was moved to Japan – Allegedly.

Sera now have their own excellent coldwater, tropical and marine range of fish foods.

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Huey Hung Bio Sponge Filters

Friday, November 18th, 2005

No this isn’t an article about the cartoon character Hong Kong Phooey, but with a name like Huey Hung you might think so. Taiwan Huey Hung Aquarium Equipment Co was established in 1986, has been devoting all effort in aquaria equipments developing, producing and selling. They have the finest quality, most variety choices, such as fish food, technical filters, medical powder for discus, aquarium nurses medicines. They are not only successful in Taiwan but also in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. They have gained many high opinions and approvals from many countries. It is also well know around the world, but little is known of them in the United Kingdom, unless you are in the Discus breeding community, where their sponge filters and medications are well known.

I’ve been considering switching to the Huey Hung Bio Sponge Filters range, they have certain advantages over the more common, less expensive Algarde Bio-Foam Internal 200 Sponge filters.

  • Larger surface area.
  • Power-heads can be attached.
  • No need for airstone.
  • No need for suckers.

Huey Hung Sponge Filter
This is a photograph of a test Huey Hung Bio Sponge Filters in my grow-out tank. This sponge filter is the HH-02 Super leader sponge filter 200L model, I purchased this in an auction for a fiver, which is very cheap, RRP is about 8 GBP. The problems I’ve found with the Algarde sponge filters are

  • Airstones need regular replacement.
  • Suckers need regular replacement.

This costs time and money, the airstones shouldn’t be a problem, because I’ve got a box of 250, but the suckers keeping wearing out every few months, and I need to keep replacing them at a cost of approx 1 GBP per sucker. It’s getting expensive, replacing suckers.

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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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Discus Breeding Cones

Sunday, September 18th, 2005






I went to the Harrogate Flower Show today to purchase some garden peat to<br /> condition some water in hope to get some breeding pairs of

I went to the Harrogate Flower Show today to purchase some garden peat to
condition some water in hope to get some breeding pairs of Angelfish to spawn.
Unfortunately, there was no peat or even compost on sale so on returning from
Harrogate, visited Moorland Nurseries, Forest Moor Road, Knaresborough, North
Yorkshire HG5 8JY to collect some garden peat, I purchased an 80l bag, which was
very heavy a bit overkill for my needs, but I can use the rest for potting on
seeds and plants.

Whilst at the garden centre also had time to visit
Tropica
, the
tropical fish shop and my local
Dennerle
stockist!
This is an excellent tropical fish, with an excellent display of tropical fish,
Tropica plants, dry
goods and the full Dennerle
range. Some very interesting Botia loaches were on display from Asia, their
mail order business on the internet at
Tropica
, carries some
very useful information on the
Dennerle
range.
I purchased a pair of Discus Spawning Cones manufactured by JBL, I prefer these
"tough plastic" cones, to ceramic/terracotta, as they are easier to clean and
disinfect and are un-breakable, and much cheaper from this tropical fish shop,
than purchasing from eBay!

Back to what’s happening in the fish house, all fish are well, air ring main
is currently undergoing pressure testing, air pump is connected up, fixed in
place, and I’ve tested for air leaks, using a water mister and washing up
liquid, no leaks   were found, touch wood! It’s currently violently
aerating an 18l container of water with an airstone. One of the display tanks,
has an algal bloom, possibly causes by too much vegetable matter from courgettes
and cucumber, partial water change required this week, I’m working the late
shift at the office, so I’ll have to re-plan my evenings.
 

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Black Angelfish RIP

Sunday, September 11th, 2005

I found one of my stock black D/D (double black) angelfish dead this evening, these angelfish our the offspring of Frank the dangerous killer angelfish, which has decided in the last 12 months to kill anything that he shares an aquarium with.

I have read and discussed with other angelfish breeders, that D/D angelfish have a “killer gene” which makes them slow growing and die easily, due to the dark pigment colouration.

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