here are some of the pics i have taken in the last yr.

the tank pics are of one of my 40g tanks and one of my 10g tank. things have changed alot since the pics where taken and i dont have new ones yet.

after the tank pics are some of my fish past and present.






















...thought i'd share in the hope that some may enjoy the pics

nicely planted

I enjoyed them! What kind of fish is that in the third pic?

Microgeophagus ramirezi, also known as the 'Blue Ram'.

And I would love to know the water parameters you've got them in, Fishy? Although I've had them breed, I've never had any last longer than 3 months. (Maybe a separate Post under Cichlids?)

That Tetra - looks like a Black Neon, but too blue. But checking your fancy 500 character tank resume, it does say 'Black'.

But that slice of Zucchini looks familiar. I think I may have seen it, and friend, over at PC...

as kana said, it's a blue ram, layne.

cant remember if i balanced the colour on the blue BLACK neon, lol.

in the 40g tank that i keep the rams in the water is 26C, pH 6.6-7.0 (but usualy 6.8 ), NO3 10-20ppm, kH 3-4.

when i bred the rams it was in a 10g tank, the temp was raised to 28C and during the breeding and raising of the fry i did water changes of approx 20% (very soft) tap water every 2 or 3 days which lowered the kH to almost 0 meaning the pH rose slightly to about 7 (no added co2 to bring it down). this also kept the NO3 very low 0-10ppm.

i posted a thread about breeding rams along with some pics in the cichlids section. as i say there, i am no expert and have only had 3 baby rams (now almost adult) survive from about 3 or 4 batches of eggs

(re zucchini/courgette) my cat gets about

So pretty! Do you know if silver dollars would do okay with those kinds of plants? I'd like a tank with plants just like those eventually, and I'm trying to decide between redhook silver dollars or blue rams. I also have a variety of loaches which I've read can be plant uprooters.

Also, my water is on the hard side with high pH. I know some types of cichlids like higher pH, but what about rams?

According to TFH, Rams like pH 6.8, H 7, 27c.

I've never bothered with Hardness before, so I don't know what H7 really means. I know that generally South American waters are soft. I know that my local water is soft. And so far that's been good enough for me! As near as I can tell, my tank was in acceptable parameters for Rams.

You remember Kristin, when we were talking about water hardness, I said you should try out African Fish? That's probably what you're thinking of - the Lake Cichlids. Off the top of my head, I think there's a high Calcium content in the bedrock there?

I asked my local Aquarium guy about the water hardness a couple of days back. He said '40'. So it looks like I've got some book reading to do (I do know there are two scales of hardness).

Anyway, I'm a bit of a Dwarf Cichlid fan. I don't know if the Angels actual count (as Dwarf), but I've also got Keyholes. I'm after some Cockatoos, and maybe one day I'll try out the Rams again. I hate the idea of taking home a fish to die. And Silver Dollars, they just don't do it for me, I'm afraid!

in this reply i will make an attempt to answer the questions raised and point to 1 or 2 decent reference sources.

i dont know a lot about siver dollars but i just read this...

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...which indicates they can eat plants, so a general plant setup might not work to well. although success may come if u treat them like discus, i.e. only use tough plants like java fern and other discus recommended plants.
the link also metions that they can be nervous fish, best kept in shoals and can grow to 5 inches. so unless u have a 'big' tank and are able to provide a 'peacefull' enviroment, rams might be a better choice.

regarding loaches uprooting plants, i have khuli loaches and a tiger loach. touch wood i have had little or no problems. i have had the odd plants 'uprooted' but i find that if it is well rooted and u provide enough food for the loaches everything tends to stay were it should be. a suggestion is to leave one or 2 clearings in the plants that u can use to feed the loaches. this will help stop them having a go at the plant roots.

about ur water, Mizpriz, if ur water is relatively hard and high pH (above 7) then u may have problems with keeping cichlids. most cichlids as far as i know, prefer soft water and a pH of 7 or below. this appears to be true for silver dollars too.

this brings me to the last point that i'd like to try and answer and probably the most dificult to answer concisely. water hardness is measured in 2 ways. GH (general hardness) is a measure of calcium and magnesium in the water where as KH is specifically the amount of carbonates i.e. CaCO3 dissolved in the water. when people say soft water they generaly mean the GH, but when u r dealing with CO2 injection to the water, the important factor to know is the KH reading as there is a direct relationship between KH, pH and CO2 in the water. generaly speaking if ur water (assuming tap) is of high GH (and maybe KH) then ur water will have a higher pH (above 7) and may not be suitable for cichlids.
there are ways of dealing with this tho if u want to keep fish that need or prefer low pH and low GH. one method, i believe, is to use an RO unit (reverse osmosis) to remove the hardness from the water and thus lower the pH. thankfully i dont need to do this myself. using RO adds some extra expense and labour to the hobby that i prefer not to have.
another method of lowering the pH is to use 'chemicals' from the LFS such as 'pH down' but i wouldnt recommend this route as this can cause problems in itself and is not a good idea for a planted aquarium. the best way, i think, of lowering pH is to inject CO2 into the water, althought this will also incur some extra expense and labour to get the balance and equipment right. (using an RO unit is possibly easier if u dont need or want CO2 for plants). although, if like me and kana u add CO2 with a homemade 'micro brewer' and possible a homemade CO2 diffuser then the costs can be kept to a minimum.

i am aware that i might be getting into this a bit deep and beyond my knowledge and ability to explain it well. i recommend, what any good fishkeeper should do, read read read as much as u can about the subject and the knowledge slowly sinks in to even the thickest skull (i mean mine).
2 good places to start i recon are the following links. the 1st link is to the 'krib' forum (smart cookies), it explains a bit about KH and GH, see here ...

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the second link that is worth looking at and bookmarking, i recon, is a great page that shows and explains a bit the relationship between KH, pH and CO2. it also has a very simple to use chart and or calculator that will show u the CO2 content of ur tank providing u know the KH and pH readings. i strongly recommend getting KH and pH test kits. the liquid dropper tests being better value than the strip tests. the link is as follows ...

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it is worth mentioning that u dont need to add co2 to a planted tank, although it does help a lot. i am currently running my own experiment on this topic. i used to inject CO2 to both my 40g tanks but to cut down on labour and expense a little i decided to try and have a low tech planted tank and see what happened. so i now have one with CO2 and one without. in the no CO2 tank the plants dont grow as fast and there is a limit i have discovered to the plants that will grow or survive ok. i have found that java ferns and java moss grow great if not a little slower as do the 2 cryptocoryne plants i have. also my anubias, which are slow growing anyway seem fine. other plants though dont do so well. the dwarf cuban chain plant that i had died off, my vallis seems to be in an almost permanent dormant state, very little growth and the dwarf hair grass i had grows very slowly and not nearly as tall as when it had added CO2.
the non CO2 tank still looks very good and can still be considered heavily planted, even if it is mostly java ferns. this tank would probably be a good silver dollar tank, soft water, low ph and tought plants.

so as u can see from my above ramblings there is always tons to learn with fish and plant keeping, lol, something i love about the hobby. plus it also means the hobbiest has plenty of scope and choices to make.

i hope i have helped a little more than i have confused the issue and i do strongly recommend reading the links i gave, especialy the second one.

i will finish by including a pic of my non CO2 injected tank. sorry about the poor image, i had to use a rubbish web cam, but it gives u an idea of what can be done without CO2. the pics doesnt show it too well, but i created a 2 tier affect recently with rocks and bogwood

Jeez Nick! Your Posts' are getting to be as long as mine!

When I set up my large tank with the Plants in mind, looking at lighting, CO2 and such. I did some reading on the effect of CO2 in the tank, and although I was always a bit of a dil when it came to Chemistry, I satisfied myself that I was doing ok. From what I've read, I should be doubling my current CO2 for the size of my tank. But my philosiphy has been, what I have now, is better than not having it at all.

And it did take a while to figure out why no Snail could survive in that tank.

What I'd really like to tackle is the elongation in my growth (the Plants I'm talking about!). I have three tubes, and it doesn't seem enough. But that may be something to talk about in the plant section?

that was me trying to keep the post short too, lol.

i'm curious, do u measure the co2 in ur tank Peter, do u just measure the co2 or do u measure ph and kh and then calculate the co2 like i do? at the moment, in my co2 added tank, i have ph6.8 and kh4 meaning my co2 is about 20ppm. i tend to use the second link i posted to calcualte my co2 and try to keep it in the recommended range of about 10-25ppm.

forigive my ignorance, but i am not sure what u mean by tubes? i tend to find looking at pics of Kylie Minogue works at elongating my tube (sorry couldnt resist that one).

also i am not sure why ur snails dont survive? i am curious to know ur thoughts on that? in my non co2 tank i have 2 types of snails, little gold katherine wheel looking ones and ones that look like dark ice cream cones. i dont seem to have any in my co2 tank but i put this down to the tiger loach munching them up.

a funny aside ... when i got some shrimps recently i didnt realise they shed their skins. the 1st time i saw an empty shrimp 'skin' i thought one had died so bought a few more, then i read and realised that as they grow they cast off the outer shell. now i am not even sure how many i have, doh, lol. i mention this as i noticed a massive shell cast off this morning, i am guessing the large male or female i have is getting even bigger

ok, i better get on with my water change that i am in the midst of doing

... oh ment to say too that Kristen's signature list of animals made me giggle. good luck with the impending addition too

You'd better make that a COLD water change Nick!

I don't measure anything, well maybe pH once and a while... I bought a CO2 kit by Nutrafin. And it's spec's say it's good for a 75 litre tank. Mine is 250 litres. I figured I'm more likely to have a problem with pH, than with CO2 level. So, yeah...



Once I figured out what the white substance was in the satchels, I could buy several years worth of Sugar and Yeast from the Supermarket, for what Nutrafin charge for a month! The kit is pricey, Aus $80, but the Bubble Maze beats any home-made device I've come across.

Sorry, 'tubes' is 4 foot Quad Phospher 5000k 38w Fluorescent. I have 3, thinking of a fourth. I'm actually considering refitting the entire tank hood. Raise the hood height , redo all the light fittings and reflectors, add in the 4th tube.

CO2 in Soft water creates Carbonic Acid. Just the thing to dissolve a Snail Shell! Do your left-over shells sort of decay away?

ah, that kind of tube, lol. in my current CO2 injected tank i have very basic lighting in a home made hood just now, tell u more later.

not sure about shrimps cast offs, if they dissolve, i have fished out what i've seen so far. currently my corys are cleaning out the shrimps shell thats there just now. i will fish it out later.

i will need to do a thread on my home made CO2 setup. through practice i recon i have the ultimate sugar yeast formula. i am getting about 3 weeks CO2 from one mix instead of the usual 10-14 days.

i have also made a very cheep and simple but effective CO2 diffuser based on designs i found online. again i will talk about and illustrate that in a more appropriate thread later today perhaps.

i ment to ask u a question Peter. do u measure the pH and KH of ur tank atall and when u do a water change do u add bicarbonate of soda?

the reason i ask is i am a little bit worried about ur fish. i think when i 1st started using co2 last yr i may have harmed and possibly killed a couple of my fish and hope that this doesnt happen to u.

from what i read and experience i have learned that in a co2 added tank u need to be aware of and maintain the KH level of the tank.

apparently in a tank that has added co2 there is a danger of having 'big' ph swings. from what i've learned the KH needs to be kept at 3 degrees or higher. i dont understand the science exactly, but the main danger is if the KH is too low then at night time, when the lights go out, the pH can drop a lot, due to the build up of co2 that isnt absorbed by the plants as it would be with the lights on.

u can tell if this is happening by taking a few pH readings from the tank before the lights go out and then an hour or 2 after the lights go out. plus by observing the fish in the tank and hour or 2 after lights go out u can also see if there is a problem. if fast swimming fish like tetras are hanging about the top of the tank gasping for air, then there is a problem. in the short term too much co2 can reduce the oxygen and stress the fish but in the long run big pH swings can affect their gills and stop them from breathing as efficiently and hence cause a shortening of life span apperently.

i dont mean to worry u or sound patronising. i would recommend tho that u maybe check to be sure.

apart from taking the odd pH reading now and again, i am careful to keep my KH at between 3 and 4 degrees. in practicle terms it means that i add about 4 grams of bicarbonate of soda per 10 gallon water change.

plus as we talked about in another thread i have an airstone on a timer that comes on after lights out. the reason i do this is to disperse any excess co2 and help stop any pH swing.

i appologise for being an old worrier, lol

That's partly why I picked up on that Timer / Airstone idea in your other thread.

No, I've NEVER in my whole life tested water Hardness. As I suggested, I felt my 'under' dosing of CO2, would keep that sort of thing to a minimum. I don't chemically adjust my water. I've been running as is, for at least 3 years, haven't picked up on any fish difficulties. And I do notice that sort of thing.

I do remember doing the Night / Morning pH test, but don't remember the result (too long ago). Only ever had problems with the Rams. Perhaps there's a connection? But knowledge of that principle is what led me to price a CO2 Injection & Control System - Aus $400. 'Where's that yeast?'

My little perculator runs for up to 4 weeks! In fact, that's what the Nutrafin 'destructions' say. I thought 3 weeks was getting ripped off! It's obviously something in the Sugar/Yeast ratio. My perculator has 'fill' fins, up the inside, so I know exactly how much of what, goes in. But, I suppose there IS different types of Yeast.

{I think Bettina may have to split this thread, back up there toward the Pics - from Fishys 16Feb 11:11 onward? A lot of my threads go Tangental like this...}