Hi from south Australia

[vrmmmpshhh]

hi, just browsing through your website and noticed this must be one of the biggest fish forums on the net, if theres any bigger please tell me!! also ive been using vbulletin for ages.

i have a 180 litre tank with
2 angels
lots of neon tetras
tiger barbs
1 fighting fish
4 guppies
2 mollies, i just found 2 miniature babies and i dont know where they came from

i have only started a few weeks ago and will be having a planted tank. i just have a quick question, ive seen pics of those planted tanks with so much foliage, especially the low plants that spread out, did they buy the plants separate and put them all in or do the plants themselves actually all branch out that far?

how long does it usually take for the smaller plants to branch out and cover the floor?

thanks

 

[DDDude]

Plants need lots of light and it depends of what plants you saw some you can seperate after purchase and they will spread to make them look wider!! but you must have alot of light to get any plant to grow well. Also the right kind of light is important 180l is that like a 65 or 55 i am american and they did not find it important to teach metrics in school here. but my rule of thumb for light is low light 1-2 watts per gal 3-5 for moderate 6-10 for high. OF course you want the spectrum to be about 6500 kelvin to 6700 kelvin, most flouresent bulbs can do 65k pretty easily and power compact also has 67k but pc is expensive and kind of bulky, the tank you have would do best with two 36 inch power compacts with one fixture with 67k bulbs and one with 10000k bulbs as this mixes the blues and reds really well!!

Hope i helped
dddude

 

[Vyache]

Welcome to the Tank vrmmmpshhh. I've a question for you about Austrailia. I recently got some rainbowfish and decided to do a little research on them. The book I read said that Australia has a complete ban on the exportation of live creatures. I was wondering what kind of impact that has on local aquararists. Are imports of animals restricted as well? Are you allowed to keep native wildlife as pets? I read that most rainbowfish available come from New Guiniea due to the Austrailian laws but that shipping fertalized eggs was ok. Anyway, just something interesting to me that your being from Austrailia reminded me of.