Recent content by dw1305

Hi all, We have a few posts about anthocyanins as <"sun-screen" in plants">. I think that nutrients may have some role in how red a plant appears, mainly because anthocyanins accumulate in the cell vacuole and <"are masked by the chlorophyll in a dark green leaf">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I know <"every-one is going to differ">, but I have different method for stocking density, it just goes: If you can? <"You have too many"> (or not enough plants for that stocking density). The advantage of the "understocked" approach is that you have some built in spare filtration...

Hi all, That might have initiated flowering. The Echinodorus belongs to @zozo and I think is <"E. "Kleiner Bähr">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, There is some brilliant <"Victorian slides etc">. I don't know, if it includes citric acid (to remove PO4---)? it probably is. I've never actually tested for silicon /silicate, by any means. You have other things to worry about in waste water work and it has never been of interest to...

Hi all, I'm very interested in this one. Are we talking about the molybdenum blue method? I'll nail my colours to the mast, and say I'd be really surprised if they weren't all 100% SiO2 and pretty much <"insoluble at normal temperatures and pressures">. But only if it is in the form of an...

Hi all, Very nice, it is a Cryptocoryne flower. I don't know <"which species">, but you need a flower to get a definitive ID. @Christel, or @Mick.Dk, may know. They only tend to flower when they are emersed. All <"Aroids"> have that type of "flower", a spadix, surrounded by a spathe. Amazon...

Hi all, "Cool growing Paphiopedilum", as a search term, pretty quickly took me to P. insigne. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd go for that, one pot at a time and probably as soon as they've finished flowering. A little bit of searching found a name <"Paphiopedilum insigne">. This looks some <"good advice">. I've had this plant of <"Coelogyne cristata"> since 1986. cheers Darrel

Hi all, May well have starved unfortunately, particularly with the Bristlenose, snails and shrimp in there. Try looking just after lights out, they are largely crepuscular or nocturnal when they are happy, when you see them careering around the tank all day it is because they are starving and...

Hi all, Now that is a lovely gift. I'd probably stick with those growing conditions, it is a Paphiopedilum sp., but I don't know which one. They come from a wide altitude range so that there are warm, intermediate and cool growing species. They need humidity, so keeping them cooler helps...

Hi all, I'm a <"tea strainer fan"> as well. Yes, from a "pound shop" for me. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Agreed, <"they are poor little things">, and would probably get my vote for the most frequently ill treated fish. I think, even after any travel relayed mortality, they are generally quite tricky if you have <"a very "clean" tank">. I wouldn't ever add them to a tank that wasn't...

Hi all, The test kit will convert all the ammonia (NH3) to NH4+ via acidification (or it may convert all the NH4+ etc to NH3 using a base like NaOH), which is why it measures TAN, it doesn't tell you the relative proportion of NH3/NH4+, because that is dependent upon the pH. The relationship...

Hi all, Yes, they don't really behave like a Tetra. I've only seen singletons (and all male), but if I was somewhere where there were a few more I'd be very tempted, despite what I just said about blackwater fish. We have an inactive member (@bogman) who bred them, which is <"a really unusual...

Hi all, Our <"rainwater is never very soft">, so I don't keep any real "blackwater fish" now. It is OK for maintenance, but not for them to spawn successfully. Certainly helps, Oak leaves should lower pH. cheers Darrel