AUSTIN & S.A.Hobbyists

[snake]

It seems we have close to a dozen members who post who are from the surrounding area and I for one see no reason we cannot organize a swap meet/informal gathering in the next few months.
Something low-key maybe at a resturant some evening.
We can swap Plants,fish, equipment,and ideas.
I know I have great trimmings every month that I either throw away or sell at LFS for pittance(3 nice bunches of bacopa + java moss& fernNOW)and I would much rather swap or give them away to some of my local hobbyists.
If interested post on this thread and tell other that may not post and lets see what kind of response we get.
Dean

[snake]

Keepin the thread alive

[ddaquaria]

Still interested. I have narrow leaf java fern and some swords (red flame, kleiner bar) ready to go.

[bigoletankoffish]

I'm interested, but I've cut back my tanks to just one.

I don't really have anything that interesting right now though to trade.

[PeteyPob]

Hi Dean and gang,
How are things going Dean?
Count me in
I dont have much but have a few things that I am willing to share.
If and when just give me a week or two week noticed so I can put my note in for work to request off or early shift. I am lookinf for cherries if anybody has some.
-Pete

[jgc]

Just replying to keep the tread going and say hi from Cedar Park. I am building up my tank at the moment, think it is mostly planted now, but need a while to talk hold before I will need to worry about clippings.

Lights went out for a week (back on 9/2 or so)- equipment failure, waiting on repair parts. Tank does not look as planted as it used to - so would be interested in clippings, but still not able to donate much.

[snake]

Everyone,
Lets try to get a few more"warm bodies" to join us and start planning for a meet within a month or two.Before cold weather and holidays.
Everyone has something to bring, we all don't have the same plants and fish,and what someone may not find interesting, another may want.
I know out of 25 different plants in my tanks,I will always have extras of something at any one time.
DDaquaria has already gat my interest with the narrow leaf fern.
I allways have bacopa,Rotala indica, Riccia, javamoss and fern,and will later
have Stellata ,anubias and crypts.
Pete, I have a tank full of shrimp,they are the wild/color phase of cherries
neocardinia,algae-eatin buggers.If you want some of these let me know.
Lets all try to post occasionally on this thread so someone local can see it on the main menu.

Dean


Dean

[PeteyPob]

I would love some of the shrimp. Ill ask the guy here at the LFS to see if he wants to tag along.

[snake]

Pete,
Just let me know when and we can meet although I work in Georgetown now so logistics will be more difficult and I will be out of town rest of this week.
I also have about 30 7-9 in stems of bacopa if any one need it. Hate to throw it out.FREE TO GOOD HOME. Also peice of java fern and java moss.

[Kayakbabe]

I'd be interested in coming to an area meeting. I've been keeping tanks for 20 years plus, used to be into breeding Rift Lake cichlids. But broke down my fish room 5 years ago. I guess once aquariums are in your blood you just can't stay away. I'm plunging into aquarium keeping again, but thought I'd get back in with doing a display tank. I'm a gadget geek... so I decided to go the full CO2 injected heavily planted tank. Might as well jump back in all the way! I'm in the process of putting together a 120 gallon tank. I'm a newbie when it comes to lower pH tanks with plants, so I'm glad I found this forum. It's nice to know there are people around my area into it too. Reading about the offer of exchanging plants and getting together is interesting to me... I"m going to be looking for plants in about month or so. And it would be great to be able to pick the minds of more experienced aquarists. How about New Braunfels or San Marcus, they are in between both San Antonio and Austin?

Kelly

[0di3]

Dont have anything special in my tank....still a newbie I guess you can call me. But Id by intrested in this to maybe learn alot more than what I can from the net and books.

[Crs2fr]

i'm in south austin, i frequent aquateck every weekend.. in a few weeks i should have some val jungle grass, i have the green and red variety.. it spreads like wild when the co2 is crankin...

i'm not in here much, but i'll try and check back..

chris

[jgc]

I am still new to this, but if I can keep my lights running (that is a BIG if right now), the salad bowl is producing lots of weeds very quickly. Not sure if it is anything anyone but a newbe would want though.

Right now probably have a bit of Rotala Indica, Baby Tears, and a mistery weed that needs to be pruned, and could probably find some val and narrow leaf chain grass to spare (but they really dont "need" cutting this week. I am still trying to propagate the Narrow Leaf Chain Sword and Wisteria.

My schedule is bad for the next couple weeks, but would be game to do somehting after that possibly.

[Kayakbabe]

Aquatec was going to deliver my 120 gallon and stand about three weeks ago. Unfortunately the deliver truck met with some I-35 road construction and the stand met an untimely end. BUT Aquatec guys rock, they got one in pretty quick and are going to be here tomorrow! I suppose I'll have a pretty neat looking tank by the time family arrives at Christmas.

Being this is my first plant tank project. How long after i get the water in , should I wait before putting in the first plants and maybe a couple of rainbows. I read somewhere on the net that cycling is faster if you put in some plants and a small fish or two right from the get go. But that seems odd to me... is that true? Or should I let the water and soil just be for a week or two first?

New stuff, new toys, I'll really probably annoy Aaron with all my questions tomorrow.

Kelly

[jgc]

IMHO and possibly very misguided understanding - heavily planted tanks have somewhat different/more complex cycling characteristics. The standard nitrate/nitrite cycle is not as relevant. The plants have quite a lot of surface area which will have bacteria on it, plus the plants themselves serve as a nitrate (trite?) regulator. Sure you can still get into trouble adding way too many fish at one time (given a limited biomass of plants – heard one guy on this forum tried to add 150 neons at once – it was not so much a cycling issue as a balancing issue).

On the other hand, the tank must cycle and balance out which will end up taking much longer than a simple nitrate/nitrite cycle. I had thought I had achieved that zen like state of balance – but then my light broke. Current light appears to be as bright – but are different (went from metal halide to ondo – just to keep tank lit while I work out the hqi issue) with a different spectrum – and in one week my tank went from beautiful to algae again. Will manually remove what I can today, and hope that balance can once again me achieved. Fear that every time there is a substantial change however, equilibrium will need to be re-established.

Algae may grow, water may cloud, have not experianced green water get - but most of these do not really hurt your fish (suspect the fish like green water)

Anyway, was going to offer a bunch of plants to help set up your new tank (just quick growers – stuff I am disposing of on a weekly basis), but they do not look increadably hot at the moment - course next week might be different again.