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  1. Graham

    Found Volume 1!

    FYI, I've had a few people express interest in this, so I'll update this thread with what I've told them. The remaining book looks well used - likely by the staff. Cover is slightly torn and many pages have bent corners. All-in-all, not worth the $65 they are asking (they didn't offer the...
  2. Graham

    Remineralisation salts for RO water

    I think pH crashes are only a concern when there is a long period between water changes/heavy stocking and the KH is minimal. I also use peat-treated RO with a very minute amount of CaCl, MgSO4 and K2SO4. I try to keep the makeup water 50 ppm or less. Back in the day when I was "doing time"...
  3. Graham

    Decapsulated brine shrimp

    five, retro_gk's writeup is more precise than what I can relay. :) I rehydrated 2 Tbs. of eggs in 300mL of freshwater for 2 hours (aerate). I added 300mL of bleach (still with aeration) After the vast majority of eggs were orange-ish colored (about 5 minutes), I poured them off into a BS net...
  4. Graham

    Decapsulated brine shrimp

    I can't speak much for its use unhatched, but I just decapsulated a batch of cysts this weekend and will never hatch whole eggs again. The difference is amazing and the mess is gone! Not all of my decaps hatched, since they get "sticky" (cling to the vessel and don't hatch) and I need to find...
  5. Graham

    friendliness of hobbyists

    I don't know if it's the $$$ as much as the personalities that are attracted to certain types of fish (or animals in general). While generalizing only goes so far, the personalities in Apisto enthusiasts vs. Pirhana or Oscar enthusiasts is often quite different. Having done some time working a...
  6. Graham

    culturing moina

    Thanks for the replies guys. I was planning to start the culture indoors and move some out into a tub in the yard once the overnight temps stay above freezing. I'm going to cover with a screen so it doesn't turn into a mosquito farm...though the larvae would be an extra bonus, I doubt I could...
  7. Graham

    culturing moina

    I'm planning on getting a culture of moina going in a spare 10 gallon tank. What I was wondering is if anyone has ever tried putting a sponge filter in with them to help keep ammonia under control? Since daphnia are notoriously touchy with "new water", I'd like to keep water changes (and excess...
  8. Graham

    Making caves...

    I've also recently had success using a hacksaw to cut small terra cotta pots in half. Soak it, flip it upside down and go to town. I rarely have enough substrate to bury whole pots, so cutting them in half allows creation of very narrow caves. I have yet to see if there's preference for upright...
  9. Graham

    Found Volume 1!

    I've been out of the Apisto realm for quite a few years and just started setting up some tanks for Apistos again last month. I searched high and low on the web for Romer's Cichlid Atlas Volume I, since it came out while I was on hiatus. After lots of digging, finding out that inventory had...
  10. Graham

    Reducing Nitrate Level

    Chemical treatments are really only crutches IMO. They don't get to the root of the issue causing the elevated nitrate. I feel it's best to strive for a well-functioning tank by practicing good husbandry rather than using products to do it for you. But if you don't use RO, it could be that your...
  11. Graham

    Apistogramma sp. "Maulbruter"

    Very interesting! I would think the female would be tending to the eggs....fanning and whatnot. I don't know that it's an O2 issue. Maybe she feels threatened? She obviously wants some privacy, going to the lengths she is to seal up the pot. Maybe even more of a hands-off approach during...
  12. Graham

    Making caves...

    I buy the little 3" terracota pots. Soak them in water for a few hours (or overnight). I then use a 3/8" concrete/masonry drill bit and drill the hole where I want it on the pot. Then I often use a rat-tail (round) file to make the opening larger as appropriate for the species of fish. I...
  13. Graham

    Heteranthera Zosterifolia aka Stargrass

    I recently had this same problem with some well-established H. zoster. I upped my Nitrates to the 12-15ppm range (from about 8ppm) and boosted the PO4 up to 2 ppm (from 1). In the last 7-10 days since I started this, the number of black leaves has really decreased and the plant seems to be...
  14. Graham

    What can eat green hair and black beard algae? UPDATE

    I bought a couple Siamese Flying Foxes about 8 months ago (yes, they are the Siamese ones :wink: ). They don't touch my black beard algae (but do eat other hair types), nor do my "Amano" shrimp. The only thing I have found to control it and kill it is limiting your phosphate input. The...
  15. Graham

    Seachem's Flourish Excell

    FWIW, I've used it in the past and have had good results, though not as good as with CO2. It's some weird organic compound that plants can derive carbon from, so it's not actually CO2. I don't think it's very practical on tanks much larger than 40 gallons...
  16. Graham

    filtration in Apisto tank

    I usually use a sponge setup run by a powerhead on dwarf tanks. Especially with plants and CO2, I like to minimize surface agitation. Also, I usually allow the parents to spawn in the display tank and the "souped-up" sponge filters won't eat babies. If you can still find them, Tetra made a...
  17. Graham

    DIY CO2 questions & black brush algae ?

    For DIY CO2, I keep my 2-liter bottle immersed in a bucket of water with a small 25W heater in it. I can vary the temperature and thus, vary the rate of CO2 production. This works pretty well. From the bottle, it goes through a check valve and into a reactor in the tank. pH stays around...
  18. Graham

    Wow, what timing!

    Can't believe I actually found an apisto site that I can belong to from its beginning. Cool! I'm just getting back into them...perfect timing.
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