Search results for query: *

I think you have to be realistic. It's a very basic tank and, at least that's my impression, you seem to be a beginner. It's unrealistic to expect the stunning high energy landscapes some people here show us. It is perfectly possible to do a nicely planted tank or a biotope in one of these but...

I've found that in these setups it's not necessarily nutrients but mainly light that's the issue. I did this on ordinary gravel and a thin layer of tetra soil under it. Bit of general purpose mix weekly and easy carbo:

I've used this tank for a long time. Low light and the spread of the light is also an issue. I got some reflective polycarbonate from the hobby shop and lined the hood with it which helped some. Even then I had the most success with low light plants. Anubias did amazingly well as did...

Chinese tap water is, from what I know, ranging from bad to outright dangerous for your health. I'd definitely always use conditioner. A 50% change in 30 minutes is a big temperature shock so I'd do some temp matching.

The use of chemical disinfectants such as chlorine is no longer allowed in the Netherlands except for emergencies. Such emergencies are almost always published to the public and they are quite rare to be honest. Dutch law also specifies that during normal operations if chlorine or chloramine is...

Apart from the sudden increase in growth the last two months I've also noticed that more and more new leafs are turning a bronze-brownish colour. What causes this?

My 4.5 litre windowsill "pond" has developed a rather bad case of cyanobacter which refuses to respond to the usual treatment. We've decided to rebuild this into a wabi kusa, see how that goes. I currently have some plants growing in a cookie jar (windelow fern, small crypts, some rotala and...

Thanks. err.. 1. get an in tank background 2. get some moss. 3. place moss against background. 4. hold in place with a fork for example 5. wait!

Hi all. I'm growing Echinodorus Angustifolia emersed in a storage jar. At least that's what it was sold as. See on this pic in the middle below the wood DSC_7530 by j_wijnands, on Flickr Since it's been in the jar it's growing steadily and flowering constantly with tiny delicate flowers. Is...

I've been trough several of the 29 pages of this discussion in search for an answer to a very simple question. 1. what is it? 2. what's it producing? Would anyone be so kind as to point me to the right page of this discussion at least? tnx!

@matt: This is the Rio 125 with the stock T5 tubes that came with the tank. The floater is amazon frogbit. I keep it mainly to keep the hatchets happy. The red plant was a nymphaea zenkeri which is often sold as a red lotus.

@Phil: thanks for the compliment! Old fashioned setups like these also allow a lot more room for error, you don't have to be on top of everything every single day. Nutrient wise I think I have things under control now. I had some problems with stunted growth and even some chlorosis. After some...

I'll have a look, tnx!

So I'm not the only person that has had success with the simple old methods.

Been too long since any updates. I've eventually removed the nymphaea since it was rapidly outcompeting anything else in there. Managed to give it away to someone setting up a 140cm community tank. The full tankshot by j_wijnands, on Flickr and after: DSC_1340 by j_wijnands, on Flickr...

My current setup is now about a year old and sometime really soon I think I need to take out the wood with the windelov to do some serious pruning on that and attach it again. As it is now it's growing taller and taller above the waterline. And that got me thinking, if it's time for a some...

And I was hoping for a magic solution. Ah well....

I'm not much of a scaper, just a fishkeeper. However... with non-profit usage of my pictures I'm usually OK if people send me a copy of whatever they use it for. I'm sure many people here will be fine with their pics being used if you credit them and send them a calendar.

Was in Denmark recently: Waterspreeuw - Cinclus cinclus by j_wijnands, on Flickr

Are there any tricks to keep Sagittaria subulata confined to a certain area of the tank? I keep having new shoots pop up in the weirdest places.

Thanks Darrel, that should be good for some more reading! They generall do. Only exception is that narrow leaf echinodorus (why can't I remember the name!). They sometimes scrape that for algae it seems but they will damage it in the process.

Hmmm.. So to get the best benefits I'd need pieces of iron near the iron hungry plants? Oh, and what's DOC in this context?

Did some experimentation with my microworm cultures recently. 1. The brand of oats you use doesn't matter at all 2. Some recipes say sprinkle some dried yeast on top of the oatmeal. This does boost growth in the first 7-10 days but after that there's no difference anymore and cultures with...

21 quid for L183? That's ancistrus dolichopterus! They breed like rabbits. Must be someone in the area that has some youngsters that need rehoming. I keep LDA008 or Ancistrus Claro in my tank. Generally plant friendly although they can be a bit hard on echinodorus leafs when they try to scrape...

I'm away on business at the moment but this is definitely on my todo list for when I'm back.Thanks for the reminder!

For a first setup it's amazing! Personally... I think I'd concentrate most of the planting on the right. Move the filter to the right corner and don't have any plants on the left 1/3 of the tank. I'd also stick the heater in an upright position in the right of the tank so that it will...

I'd love to debate that bit Darrel. From what I understand the iron we love to have forms best in a low oxygen environment and about 2 inches down in the sand it's pretty low oxygen. Add to that the fact that it was common practice in early Dutch style aquariums before iron supplements were...

Thanks Thomas! Yes, this was set up as a good place to live for fish first and something nice to look at second. For the first I must be doing something right since the ancistrus and the cories have spawned and the barbs regularely go trough the motions as well. For the second.. well I leave...

It is indeed a lovely tank shape. Shame there's no off the peg tanks with this form factor. As to the assortment of lush plants, I do wonder if that lily is viable long term

Here? With all the CO2 and EI experts? Well.. gosh... these things seem important to me. Make a plan first Fertilize well but don't go overboard if you have about 1.7 watts gallon like this tank. Don't care too much about conventions and what other people do. Currently I'm doing water...

Managing, or micro managing even of the conductivity does play a role if you want to breed some fish.

:facepalm: well that will teach me to check profiles.

The tank is inhabited by half a dozen T. Espei, 15 green neons, 6 pygmy cories: DSC_9547 by j_wijnands, on Flickr 6 marbled hatchets: Lined up hatchets by j_wijnands, on Flickr 1 male and 2 female ancistrus claro DSC_8735 by j_wijnands, on Flickr who have had 2 litters now. DSC_0670...

The PFK visitors are already familiar with this one but I like to show my work just like everyone else. It's a low tech affair and doesn't look nearly as stunning as some of the other tanks here but I like it. The setup was inspired by some of Heiko Bleher's biotopes. When I set this up I was...

How tastes differ! First thing that went trough my mind when looking at this was "Wauw! I wonder how he did those muddy bits!"

Netherlands, right next to Schiphol Airport.

No, unfortunately not Tom it was a chance snapshot in a developing snowstorm. wildlife is a lot of patience and frustration but to me that's part of the charm. I like that challenge!

Thanks but it's a grebe ;)

Not legally. But there's a 30 day trial

Gimp should offer some raw support. If not there's raw therapee. For nikon the free view nx will at least do a decent conversion to tiff. As noise reduction tool I've settled on Nik's Dfine. Tried a few others but I couldn't get my head around the interface or it did horrible detail smearing.

I not only like to sit in front of my aquarium with my camera, I also love to go out to a local nature reserve. morning light by j_wijnands, on Flickr Battling deer by j_wijnands, on Flickr christmas deer by j_wijnands, on Flickr DSC_5254 by j_wijnands, on Flickr goosander male by...

Good shots Tom, perhaps you're the one to do a tutorial on how to process pics?

Why doesn't anyone mention metering? A DSLR comes out of the box configured to meter the entire picture and find a value to minimize over and under exposed parts in the scene. Most of you guys run tanks with a LOT of light which makes for a big contrast between light and dark in the scene. One...

I know Nikon, not Canon so I can only recommend on that. I'd expect to see some really good deals on the D3200 since it's successor is out now but the D3200 is still an awfully good camera. Stick an 18-105 lens on it and you'll have a good quality combo that will handle 95% of most people's...

Pff, me and glass, I don't see that ending well. :) Thanks for the tip though, has got me thinking. I may have some dark grey PVC tubing left over from when I made some shrimp shelters in a previous tank

:D is there anyone from the PFK regulars NOT present on this forum?

A NEF file is the raw sensor output. Can only be read with some graphics software. Makes it incredibly easy to get better output if you know what you're doing. Have a look at the D40 manual. And yes, a basic working knowledge of photography like knowing what ISO, aperture and shutter speed...

Probably a silly newbie question but I'm going to ask it anyway... When I sat staring at my tank this morning it suddenly hit me what annoyed me. Despites the attempts I've made to camouflage it the green inlet pipe still sticks out as a honest man at a party convention. Now I could of...

OK... Several things I notice on the picture. Camera Nikon D40 Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200) Aperture f/4.8 Focal Length 38 mm Focal Length 37.8 mm ISO Speed 1600 Contrast Low Saturation Normal Sharpness Soft You're shooting the Nikon 18-55. That's a lot of lens for little money but...

Funny enough it only does well on that particular piece of wood and then only on the bits where it's darker colour because of some bark left. Only nuisance algae I got is a dark green spot, you can see it on the leaf below the left fish. Probably due to insufficient Co2 and a less than optimal...

I drag around 5, 6kg of gear on a day out but the D300 and a single lens does travel with me on business trips. 20130811-DSC_6329 by j_wijnands, on Flickr

It's a Juwel Rio 125 with stock lights so Twin T5 28 watts (yeah, those weird sizes Juwel uses)

I've got one piece of wood in my tank which is slowly being covered in green algae and, as strange as it sounds, I really like the effect of it. You can see it in the background here. DSC_0759 by j_wijnands, on Flickr Of course I also got some other algae which I'm trying to shake and...

I'm inclined to agree with you Tom. Perhaps I need to give them another chance when the time comes to replace the D300.

Pfff... Front left is some rotala rotundifolia, under the wood the grassy stuff is some kind of echinodorus. On the wood near the top is java fern windelov. Back left I got some Cyperus Helferi and Sagittaria subulata which is also back right behind the nymphaea. There's some anubias on the...

And does that encourage it to grow taller?

Sure. Didn't post it here because I thought it's primarily a plant forum. 6 marbled hatchets 6 harlequin rasbora 1 gold tetra (last of it's group and 7 years old now) who thinks he's boss of the rasboras 14 green neons 6 corydoras pygmaeus 3 ancistrus claro + some fry few dozen shrimp of an...

I will readily admit that the smaller platforms have made an immense amount of progress the last few years and a lot more is still to come. Personally... I don't expect one to replace my D300. I've got big hands and I shoot a lot with a big tele outdoors in all weather.

Mine runs anywhere between 23 and 25 during most of the year. This summer tank temps have reached 29 degrees and I don't think that has hurt the plants.

Smaller, yes. More features? I'd love to hear about them. Might want to add that for a lot of these there's little in the way of macro lenses so you'd end up having to buy an adapter.

A DSLR with a good kit lens and a macro lens will be a compact any day of the week. However, you're easily looking at a 1000 quid pricetag. If the money isn't there, I've recently had the chance to experiment a bit with a panasonic fz-72 and I was very impressed! Decent lens, not too shabby on...

I use a Nikon D300 which is only slightly younger than the D40. Aquarium photography is, like any other kind, a skill that needs work to master. For fish closeups I use a macro lens but for overview and group shots a kit lens will do fine. A few of my tips: Use a tripod, even if you have the...

And since I have much to learn still I thought I might as well sign up here.I can often be found on the PFK forums as well under the same user name. I have a single aquarium, a rio 125 which looks like this: DSC_0741 by j_wijnands, on Flickr It's a low tech affair without co2 and only a...

Ye gods, half the PFK regulars are here! Hi Chris, nice to see you again!

Late last year I bought a Nymphaea which was sold as "red tiger lotus". Initially it did nothing except lose the 2 leafs it had probably because I planted it too deep or in a part that was too dark. I sort of forget about it until in April I found the rhyzome and moved it to another part of the...