| We've all encounted "the fish that MUST go". Be
it a nasty maroon clown or assorted damsel. Catching these guys can be a down-right chore.
The strategy that I use (and which works quite well by the way) is to wait for all the
lights to go off, then shut off all ambient light and wait a good 3-4 hours for all the
fish to go to sleep. Then, with a flashlight, blind your little fishy and pull him out!
Flipping on the lights quickly inside the tank also works well, but using a flashlight
will provide you with enough direct intensity into his eyes such that he wont even see you
coming! Bill J. Geese For those of
us using powerheads for circulation in our tanks, every once in a while we encounter the
dreaded misguided snail who unwittingly wanders into the intake and meets his maker. Worse
yet, we sometimes encounter the nightmare of a fish or cuke getting sucked up into the
powerhead. A simple and cheap way to fix this problem is to take a single bioball and
place it into the intake of the powerhead. The force of the impeller will hold the bioball
in place and the porosity of the ball will not restrict water flow. [Editor's note: If
power is interrupted to that powerhead the bioball will fall, and the aquarist must
remember to return it to the intake when power returns] Bill J. Geese
Increasing the "Shelf Life" of Limewater - By James
Wiseman
If left exposed to the atmosphere, limewater (or kalkwasser) will react with the CO2
in the air to form an insoluble CaCO3 scum on the surface. Due to
this process, exposed limewater will lose strength over time. Since a lot of hobbyists mix
limewater and use it in a top-off reservoir which may take a week to drain, steps must be
taken to ensure that the mixture remains effective. If you are using an open-topped
container with vertical sides - such as a 5 gallon bucket - as a topoff reservoir, there
is a simple and effective way to "seal" the surface of the water. Take a thin
sheet of styrofoam - such as you would find in a fish shipping box - and cut out a section
that will fit snugly into the bottom of your topoff reservoir. Remove the styrofoam circle
(or square, or whatever shape) and add the limewater, then float the styrofoam on the
surface of the water. If you are using a powerhead or small submersible pump in the
reservoir, cut a small hole in the styrofoam for the cord to exit the container.
Terry,
After I received your email,(thanks for replying so soon
yesterday) I mixed a teaspoon of kalkwasser (limewater) with about 2-3 ounces of water and
I drew up the undesolved kalkwasser on the bottom. I injected the majano anemone
with this mixture. An interesting thing also occurred with the solution: whatever did not
get injected directly into the anemone actually coated the anemone and clung to it almost
like a cement or gel. I woke up this morning and went to the tank to check the outcome and
the majano had turned to jelly. It appears my majano problem is over. I just
wanted to let you know so you can share this with others. It was a relatively easy and
inexpensive way to eliminate this problem anemone. Thanks again, Tom Provatas |
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