List of Aquarium Plants I Have Experienced

Carpet plants:
Echinodorus tenellus (old name)/Elianthium tenellum (new name) - widely known as tenellus, fast growing
Japanese hair grass - somehow slow growth based on my experience
Common hair grass - somehow slow growth based on my experience
Lileaopsis brasiliensis - submerged - died. Emersed - successful but slow growth
Glosso - all dead with NPT - could be insufficient light
Hydrocotyle verticillata- melted or stunted in NPT. Successful in a tank with ADA Amazonia soil and CO2 supplied
Marsilea hirsuta - easy but slow growth
Cryptocoryne parva - died in submerged form but slow growth in emersed form

Mid ground:
Blyxa japonica - reasonably easy to grow but may die off out of a sudden if something goes wrong (i.e. being messed by fishes...digging)
Various Cryptocoryne wendtii (such as green gecko)  - easy
Bacopa monnieri - not looking good. Dump to emersed setup for testing
Bacopa caroliniana - easy but got bored of it
Marsilea quadrifolia - very easy but seems to be killed by plants disease now
Hemianthus micranthemoides - supposed to be easy but mine melted due to lack of light. Still testing after replacing the lighting.
Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia - easy

Background:
Potamogeton gayi - easy to grow but sensitive to Seachem Excel
Corkscrew vallisneria - easy to grow
Cyperus helferi - killed by what I believe is plant disease
Tonina sp. 'Belem' - initially quite easy but disappeared from the tank after a while. Alien abduction?
Green rotala - melted in NPT but growing relatively easy floating in an outdoor pail & emersed form
Limnophila sp. "Vietnam" - melted
Ludwigia repens - easy
Hygrophila polysperma - grew too awful in NPT
Sagittaria subulata - easy
Cryptocoryne balansae - relatively easy initially but went missing now
Water wisteria - very easy but it's too big
Pogostemon sp Babien Laos - easy
Limnophila sp. Vietnam - melted
Myriophyllum mattogrossense - easy
Myriophyllum tuberculatum - slow growth
Limnophila aromatica - melted
Vallisneria nana - died
Vallisneria spiralis - easy
Cryptocoryne spiralis - easy but went missing
Pogostemon stellatus 'Octopus' - very easy
Hygrophila polysperma 'Ceylon' - very easy

Hygrophila pinnatifida - easy but slow growth

Floating:
Elodea/Egeria densa - good for fry
Hornwort - good for fry
Duckweed - truly a weed, could be annoying
Cabomba - annoying as it keeps breaking off
Salvinia natans - truly a weed, could be annoying but not as annoying as duckweed
Water lettuce/Pistia stratiotes - very easy

Attached to driftwood/rocks:
Spiky moss - easy but beware of hair algae
Christmas moss - easy but beware of hair algae
Taiwan moss - easy but beware of hair algae
Java moss - easy but beware of hair algae
Weeping moss - Growth is too slow. 2nd attempt seems successful
Riccia - annoying as it kept floating every now and then
Anubias nana - eaten by Kribs
Anubias nana 'petite'  - eaten by Kribs
Java fern - needs colder temperature
Mini Java fern -  needs colder temperature
Philippines fern - needs colder temperature
Windelov - needs colder temperature
Narrow leaf fern - died
Bolbotis - died during my first 3-4 attempts. Currently trying again and it seems to be growing.
Subwassertang - very easy

Aquarium Fan Review

Jebo (small one) - very noisy since day one. Powerful? Well, I can accept it but as it becomes older, it's so noisy that I have to send it for retirement permanently after several attempts to clean & oil it.



Jebo (twin fans) - very quiet compare with the single fan one. I find it not powerful and getting worse as it gets old. I have 2 of these. After several years....1st set got a damaged fan (meaning only 1 of the twin fans is working). 2nd set is working but totally not powerful.
Ista (small one) - Very powerful - will beat Jebo anytime. Very noisy...it's very obvious at night.


Mr. Aqua Super Tornado Cooling Fan - In terms of noise level, this is the best option so far - very quiet indeed. It's so quiet that I thought it was not turned on. It's not as powerful as Ista's but in comparison with Jebo's, it's very good. It's rather bulky and heavy though.



Dymax fan - I was told by the LFS that the quality is uncertain. It may last only 3-4 months if you're unlucky. I did not bother to check it out after hearing such comment from the LFS.

I have tried another fans which I cannot remember the brand - it is white colour and the box has Japanese words. It is totally not powerful at all.

Useful Simple Techniques In Aquascaping

Some simple useful techniques used in aquascaping and fish keeping:

1. Before pouring water, place a clean plastic bag or even the plastic bag of aquarium soil to cover your plants and soil. Pour the water onto the bag to avoid messing up the new plants and soil.

2. Create a slope that is higher at the back and lower at the foreground to create depth.

3. To prevent landslide, use rocks to block the soil.

4. Cheaper way of creating a higher slope at the back of the tank is by using lava rocks underneath - save the cost of aquarium soil.

5. Since most of us don't use any hood for the planted tanks to prevent heat being trapped in the tank leading to higher temperature (not good for the plants), if you have jumpy fish, place cards (old credit cards, points collection cards, etc), the green dishwasher pads, etc to cover up 4 corners of the tank to reduce suicidal cases of fishes. Not proven with Hatchet fish though.

6. Cannot find driftwood of the shape you want? Use aluminium wire tied to a driftwood to create fake branches. Cover the aluminium wire with black filter wool tied to the aluminium wire to cover up the wire. You may tied some moss over the fake branches after that. Don't over do it! Otherwise the tank will look very unnatural.

7. Algae growing on plants? Turn off your filter. You can try shooting Seachem Excel onto the affected areas with a shringe and leave it for about 30 minutes before turning on the filter again. Some sensitive plants will die as well. I have done that with Cryptocoryne wendtii, Anubias nana and Echinodorus tenellus. Don't try it on Vallisneria sp. Very useful to fight BBA.

Beware of Highway Con Men

When driving at Federal Highway, beware of some Indian men offering to help if your car breaks down. One of them is around late 40s/early 50s and another one is late 30s/early 40s.

Here's my first hand encounter. 1 motorcyclist passing by pointing at my tyre. 2nd bike (Indian man) passing by also pointing at my tyre. I came down from my car and saw my tyre full of pink coloured oil with some smoke. 2 Indian men on a bike offered to help. When trying to drive the car, I realised the brake was not working. Thinking it's a minor issue, I let them help. They took the tyre out saying the brake disc needed to be sent to the workshop to be checked. The partially bald Indian guy stayed back with me. The younger one went to the workshop. I received a call via the handphone of the bald Indian man from a Chinese lady asking for my car model in order to get the right replacement part. The younger Indian guy came back with the parts and the bill was over RM1900. They asked me to pay on the spot with additional workmanship cost. I had not enough cash and no ATM card. I paid them RM100 after some argument. They left and left behind a handphone number for me to contact them if I wanted to pay up. The phone number is 016-9192917 (owner is VJ/Dewa/a complicated Indian name). I sent the car to my personal mechanic. My mechanic told me it was a con job and the car replacement part was not so costly - I was the second victim among his customers. The first victim encountered the same scenerio.

The bald man told me his name was Suresh. The younger one he said was Dewa but when I asked the younger guy for his name, he gave me a complicated Indian name. Then he shortened it to VJ. I believe no real names were revealed. The workshop's receipt was in Segambut but it took less than 30 minutes for the younger guy to reach back Federal Highway (near Mid Valley) - this is fishy. I think this is a con job collaborated among Indians and Chinese.

After sitting down to analyse the Indian men, I realised there are a lot of fishy matters about them. The bald guy told me they worked with Petronas but later in the conversation he switched to Shell. So I asked him whether it's Shell or Petronas. He said his Chinese boss owned Petronas and Shell gas/petrol station.

Fishy Issue # 1: Neither of them were wearing Petronas or Shell uniform.

Fishy item #2: If I were a big boss of Shell or Petronas, I would kick the hell out of their Chinese boss for collaborating with the competitor.

Fishy item #3: I don't think there's any Chinese owning Petronas gas station.

They don't dare to accept cheque and online banking transfer. They only dare to accept cash, so they cannot be traced.

The con men probably took my original brake disc for trade in and got the re-con one for me.

The men claimed they're originated from Penang island but working in Brickfields and stayed in Bangsar. Now I am looking out for any suspicious looking Indian men around me in case they come for revenge...

CO2 Cylinder Refill/Purchase - Syarikat City Corporation

For those who are into aquascaping, the best location to refill CO2 and purchase CO2 cylinder is:

Syarikat City Corporation,
30, Jalan 13/108C,
Taman Sungai Besi,
57100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-79836366 or 03-79833214
Fax: 03-79813344

The company opens at 9am daily (except Sunday). Please take note that they work half day on Saturday.

The price is lower than any of the local fish shops. The waiting period is also faster than any of the fish shops as you get the refill on the spot. No waiting period of a few hours or even days.

Recently I have found out that the cost of refilling CO2 has increased. It used to be RM10 for any sizes of CO2 cylinders but that's no longer the case now. Here's the CO2 refill price list:

5 lbs - RM12
10 lbs - RM22

The price of CO2 cylinder has gone up too. It used to be RM120 for 5 lbs CO2 cylinder and RM150 for 10 lbs CO2 cylinder if I am not mistaken. The current price list of CO2 cylinder with gas is:

5 lbs - RM140
10 lbs - RM160

Laos - Jewel Of The Mekong

It's not so common for travelers to visit Laos comparing with the rest of South-East Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc. I personally only aware of two friends who have visited Laos - a Malaysian and a French. One of them gave me some good pointers about the country that was totally unknown to me. Yes, I had a sense of insecurity.

Kuang Si Waterfall:
A Very Friendly Hmong Lady Who Let Us Visited Her House:
Hmong Village:

The noodle I love:

Street of Luang Prabang:

It's good for me to find out by myself that Laos is in fact safer than my own country. I did not see any criminal activities there. Nobody will try to cheat you like the Vietnamese or Chinese. Yes, they may hike up the price knowing that you're a foreigner but you can bargain all the way down to the price you're happy - this is a pretty common practice in South-East Asia. The living standard has gone up in recent years due to the hike of petrol price. I could no longer get 50,000 kip taxi ride to the airport. Instead it cost me 70, 000 kip. T-shirts cost around 15,000 kip. Lao coffee powder was purchased at Luang Prabang for 50, 000 kip a bag but later found out they were available at 32,000 kip in Vientiane. Currency exchange to kip can only be done in Laos. Thai baht and US dollar are widely acceptable. 10,000 kip is about USD1 or RM4.

Tuk Tuk - The Main Transportation In Laos:


A Stupa At A Temple In Luang Prabang:

Bring along a torch light if you are afraid of the dark because their electricity availability is inconsistent. You may encounter sudden black out while walking half way on the street in total darkness, but it would last only a few seconds.

A Temple In Luang Prabang (Forgot The Name):

My trip basically covered the UNESCO site, Luang Prabang, and Vientiane. Luang Prabang is ideal for nature lovers especially if you fancy waterfalls (i.e. Kuang Si waterfall and Tad Sae waterfalls). Just bear in mind that there's no water at Tad Sae during dry season. I skipped Tad Sae waterfall. I decided to skip the cave because I did not know how to appreciate caves. I also skipped the cruise at the Mekong river because to me it's just another muddy river. There were plenty of temples to visit such as Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Visoune, etc. Try searching via Google and you will find plenty of temples in Laos. In Luang Prabang, you can climb Phousi Hill to have a good view of the city by following a stairway path. There's a temple on top of the hill.

Shophouses along Mekong riverside:


Hawker At Mekong Riverside:
The people are generally friendly and helpful. They speak better English than Vietnamese. It's comparable to Cambodians. It's always useful to learn some basic Lao as you travel in this country. If you know Thai you will obviously know how to count 1 to 10 already because they're the same. Their language has some similarities with Thai. Knowing simple Lao helped me to bargain and seek for help easier. The following are some of the list of words I find useful:

Hello - sa bai dee
Thank you - khawp jai
zero -soon
one - neung
two - song
three - saam
four - si
five - ha
six - hok
seven - jet
eight - paet
nine - kao
ten - sip
eleven - sip neung
twelve - sip song
thirteen - sip saam
twenty - song sip
twenty one - song sip neung
twenty two - song sip song
thirty - saam sip
1,000 - phan
10, 000 - sip phan
100,000 - loi phan
now - diow nee
later - la gon
afternoon - tiang
morning - dthawn sao
evening - ton lang
night - kaang keun
today - meuh nii
tomorrow - meuh euhn
black - sii dum
white - sii khao
blue - sii faa
green - sii khiao
red - sii daeng
gray - sii ke thao
brown - sii nam taan
chicken - gai
beef - neua
fish - pbaa
shrimp - goong
egg - khai
vegetables - phaak
fruit - maak mai
bread - khao jii
rice - khao
rice noodle - pho
coffee - khaafeh
water - naam
juice - nam mak mai
hot tea - saa hawn
soap - saabuu
shampoo - saapom
pen - bik
how much is this? - anee tor dai?
I don't want it - khoy bor yak ow
no - baw
yes - maen laeow
please -kalunaa
I don't understand - khawy baw khao jai

In Vientiane, forget about Kao Lao Restaurant if you're seeking for cultural show and local food. The food was made for Westerner's taste and they taste awful for South-East Asian's taste. The cultural show is just 3 musicians playing their local musical instruments accompanied by one or two dancers with limited space for them to move. One of the hotel staff mentioned to me, "That's not true Laotian". It's not worth the money you have to spend for it. Look for other better option to spend your money. If you want to taste the real local food, try their street food if you dare. It's not very hygienic based on the way they hold the food with bare hands and I had stomach upset once but I believe it's not as bad as India.

It's a very relaxing and slow pace journey comparing with Bangkok or Hanoi. No traffic congestion. No rat race. Don't expect any huge shopping complex in Laos either. However there are some luxury hotels if you have money to burn. Night market and morning market are the places for shopping. Most of the stuff sold are cloth related handcraft and t-shirts. It is one of the lowest cost trips I have come across.

Vietnam - The Land of Dishonesty?

The trip to Vietnam is an eye-opener that everyone is trying to con you. The taxi drivers, the hotel owners and the hawkers are all trying to con foreigners that visit their country. I don't mind them hiking up the price but they way they try to cheat foreigners is so obvious and it clearly shows that they're not honest. Here are some personal experience:

1. Hotel Democracy's employee in Hanoi did not properly replace the bottles of mineral water and beer in my hotel room's fridge after the previous client left. The amount of the items listed on the door of the fridge was in Vietnamese that foreigners could not understand. On the last day, the hotel's management charged me for the mineral water that I did not consume. Luckily they did not charge me for the 3 missing cans of beer.

2. I bought some Vietnamese oranges that was supposed to be juicy and sweet as the one the hawker let me tasted. However, the ones I bought was different quality. They're juicy but not sweet at all. Even the colour of the flesh of the oranges looked different from the one I tasted.

3. A taxi driver in Hue tried to give all kinds of excuse to charge us extra even though the taxi fare had been agreed upon before we took his taxi. This proved that he was very dishonest and did not keep to his word.

4. The cheap Vietnamese t-shirts I purchased had all the colour faded and spreaded on all parts of the t-shirt. For the same price in Cambodia, I could get better quality ones. At least the Cambodians are more honest to tell me the difference between good quality and bad quality ones, even though the bad quality ones are not as bad as Vietnamese ones.

5. Roadside food vendors tried to sell large amount of food I did not need. It's an opportunity for them to make quick money by selling a lot to foreigners who could not speak Vietnamese. They would show you the unhappy face if you rejected the large amount of food and insisted on paying less for smaller quantity. I felt like walking away from such vendors a few times.

Generally, the Vietnamese are not honest. I am not saying all Vietnamese are not honest but the number of them that try to con you exceed the honest ones. I am not looking forward to visit this country again. I'd rather visit Cambodia.

There are also other elements that are not very positive about Vietnam:

1. Lack of public toilets. Men and women are very likely to end up doing their "business" in the bushes if you're traveling on a long distance public transport. Don't be surprise if you catch someone doing "business" in the middle of a field, even in Hanoi.

2. The beds on the train are filthy. I saw blood stain on the bed I was sleeping.

3. The toilet on the train is filthy but at least there's a toilet. There's no toilet if you travel by bus.

4. Drivers of public transport are reckless and drive very dangerously as well as speeding.

5. Public transport tend to be overloaded. You will notice passengers sleeping and sitting on the floor eventually as the driver try to make more profit.

6. The price of food is not cheap in Vietnam. They could be more costly than Malaysia sometimes especially when they try to rip you off. A restaurant tried to rip us off by charging us 100,000 Dong (~ RM15) per dish in a small town. Luckily, I decided to walk out of the restaurant.

7. All the food taste the same eventually. Malaysian food is still the best due to the influence from multi-culture.

MBPJ Strikes Again! FAS Tunnel Closure!

I have no doubt that MBPJ is run by idiots and morons. I have been trying to give them some credit but so far I can't find anything that they deserve to be credited. They can't plan. They can't solve any problem. That's ok! Unfortunately, they create more problems in the name of solving problems.

In Ara Jaya, these idiots have decided to close FAS tunnel because of large amount of traffic passing by that area. In other countries, they don't close any roads to ease traffic congestion. They build more roads to solve the problem. I doubt these government organisation ever looks East or West. They just look into their pants.

First, these idiots turned the old tunnel to Ara Jaya into one way and re-routed the traffic from LDP heading for Ara Jaya into FAS tunnel. Now FAS is going to be closed and all the traffic has to go through a longer route via old Subang Airport road. Do you see their idiotic idea solves any problem? Absolutely not! They're going to create more traffic congestion in Subang and more petrol will be burnt.

Is Malaysian authority being environment friendly? Yes, they're friendly in generating more CO2 to kill Mother Earth.

I am very disappointed by the relevant authority in this country that wastes the tax payers' hard earned money with all their brainless projects such as building roads to be closed or building tunnels to be closed.

Somebody please fire these idiots from their jobs! I don't mind if they sleep on their jobs but please don't destroy our lives and country!


--------------

Latest Update:

Email is sent to MBPJ based on the email address posted on the notice board in Crimson but the result is:

"Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

mroslan@mbpj.gov.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.7.1 <mroslan@mbpj.gov.com>... Relaying denied. Proper authentication required. (state 14)."


There is a massive traffic congestion in Jalan PJU 1A/41 and the old tunnel because of the FAS tunnel closure now at 8.00am on 22nd Apr, 2011.

Cryptocoryne From Aqua Fair 2010

Bought some unidentified Cryptocoryne from Aqua Fair as follows.


Crypt 1:
It is believed to be Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia.


Crypt 2:
It is believed to be a variety of Cryptocoryne wendtii.

Plants I Have Tried

Just to keep track of aquatic plants I have tried planting regardless I have successful or failed.

1. Egeria densa - grows like weed in the outdoor tank.

2. Hornwort - grows like weed in the outdoor tank.

3. Salvinia - grows like weed in the outdoor tank.

4. Water lettuce - grows like weed in the outdoor tank.

5. Rotala Green - rot at the bottom part in the indoor tank but growing well outdoor and partially immersed.

6. Cryptocoryne Wendtii - Growing but very slow.

7. Subwassertang - growing like weeds indoor.

8. Christmas moss - growing fine until hit by hair algae. So they went to the bin.

9. Taiwan moss - growing fine until hit by hair algae. So they went to the bin.

10. Spiky moss - growing fine until hit by hair algae. So they went to the bin.

11. Java moss - growing fine until hit by hair algae. So they went to the bin. Still have a bit of escapees in the tank.

12. Weeping moss - growing very slow and eventually hit by hair algae. So they went to the bin.

13. Java ferns - growing well in one tank but dying in another tank.

14. Narrow leaf ferns - growing well but in miniature form. However they slowly turn bald. Temperature may be too high.

15. Java fern windelov - growing well in one tank but dying in another tank.

16. Potamogeton gayi - growing like weeds.

17. Water wisteria (2 species) - growing well outdoor.

18. Marsilea (two species) - growing well but the short foreground one is slow. The tall one grows like weed.

19. Hairgrass - still testing. Successfully planted immersed.

20. Sagittaria subulata - growing like weeds and flowering.

21. Anubias Nana Petite - Alive but stunted.

22. Anubias Nana - eaten by Kribensis. Trying again in a different tank.

23. Philippines fern - growing well but covered by subwassertang and went missing.

24. Riccia fluitans - growing like weeds but end up in the bin.

25. Bolbitis - stunted. Water temperature is too high.

26. Duckweed - truly weeds. So, end up in the bin.

27. Cryptocoryne balansae - growing reasonably well.

28. Crytocoryne spiralis - growing slowly.

29. Cabomba - disintegrated and died.

30. Bacopa - alive but covered by BBA easily.

31. Hydrocotyle sp - growing slowly.

32. Limnophila aromatica - died in NPT.

33. Blyxa Japonica - eaten and destroyed by Kribensis. Otherwise growing well in NPT.

34. Echinodorus tenellus - growing well.

35. Eleocharis vivipara - growing well but have to trim too regularly. So, end up in the bin.

36. Hygrophila polysperma - overtook by BBA in NPT. So end up in the bin.

37. Corkscrew Vallisneria - growing well.

38. Vallisneria Nana - died.

39. Vallisneria americana - growing well.

40. Cyperus Helferi - growing well initially but slowly losing the leaves after 1 year.

Excellent DIY Aquarium Stuff

Throughout the years, I have come across some amazing DIY aquarium stuff in forums. However, some of the threads in the forum was removed after several years. Sometimes the link to a website was no longer valid. So, there's no way I can locate them back. In order not to loss them, I have decided to collect some of the interesting DIY aquarium stuff that I have encountered recently in my own blog.


DIY Acrylic Tube:

The first one is a DIY acrylic tube by Paul aka Jedishrimp from APC (Aquatic Plant Central) forum. With the right tool, it seems like a pretty simple DIY project. Here's some sample acrylic tubes he has made:


The most crucial part of this project is bending the tube. If not done carefully, the tube may break or simply looks ugly. You need some patience to heat up the acrylic and turn it around. Then bend it a little bit. Keep repeating the heating and bending process until it has turned into the shape you want. Have a look at the Paul's excellent video on the technique of bending the tube by clicking the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSj2c0lR-wc


DIY Aquarium Background:

In APC forum, I have also encountered another great DIY project by an Italian named Stefano aka Dabolox. Basically, the DIY aquarium background make use of some of the readily available material from your own backyard such as soil, dry branches and dry dead leaves. It looks very beautiful and natural too especially if you're keen in setting up a black water tank that imitates the nature.

The following are some of the items used by Stefano:



He also created a hidden compartment for filter and heater as follows:


From the ingredients above, he created the following aquarium background. The roots he used are grapevine roots. You may try other alternative roots as long as it's non-toxic to the fishes and plants.


After he moved the aquarium background into the tank, here's how it looks like at various stages:



To read about Stefano's original article with more detailed information, you can check out the following link:

http://www.acquarionline.it/acquari/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=22&Itemid=1

Cleaning Impeller of Eheim Classic Filter

Cleaning of canister filter's impeller is often a pain because the instruction is not mentioned in the filter's manual. I am not referring to made in China filters only. The same issue applies to German made Eheim filters. Basically the manual is a junk to me as it normally does not contain information you need but contains all the information you already know.

Thanks to some aquarium forums that I have managed to figure out how to clean it although the information is incomplete. Therefore I have decided to write the instruction myself. In my instruction I will use Eheim Classic as an example because it's the only canister filter I have.

Before you start removing the parts, please make sure that you remember how you remove them, so that you will know how to fix them back. You may shoot some photos in the process if you have a poor memory or poor observation.

1. After removal of the filter cover, you will notice the most important section of the filter as below. First, you have to unlock the lock that protects the impeller by turning it anti-clock wise. Then pull the lock upward. Be careful not to break the impeller when pulling up the lock.


2. After the lock has been removed, You will see the impeller partially in hole of the middle section.


3. The next step is to remove the cover of the impeller as follows:


4. After removing the cover of the impeller, you will notice the impeller. Pull the impeller upwards to remove it. Be careful not to break it. There is a magnet holding the impeller in case you're wondering why it's not loose. Once you have removed the impeller, you can brush the dirt on the impeller and the filter with tooth brush. There may be some holes you cannot reach with a tooth brush. You can use a cotton bud to clean the unreachable areas. Then rinse them with running tap water.


5. Don't forget to remove the hoses of the inlet and outlet for cleaning as well. The hose may clogged leading to poor water current in the tank. Just place the hose connected to a water tap and let the strong tap water current push all the dirt out if you're too lazy to brush the entire internal part of the hose. You will need a special brush to clean the internal part of the hose. Since it will be tedious without a proper brush, I will skip the brushing.

6. Don't forget to wash the media of the filter with your existing tank's water to avoid losing beneficial bacteria. I will not cover this aspect of the cleaning process as the information is widely available on the internet.

Testing Web Radio

This is for testing web radio.

Music genre:
Alternative music genre such as punk, hardcore, indie, lo-fi, garage rock, metal, goth, industrial, electronica, danc-rock, grunge, classic rock, reggae, ska, surf rock, glam rock, new wave, no wave, progressive rock, psychedelic rock, dream pop, noise pop, folk rock, americana, alternative country, rap rock, electro-pop, trip hop, art rock, math rock, rockabilly, experimental rock, krautrock, Southern rock, space rock, stoner rock, grindcore, darkwave, riot grrrl, twee pop, etc.

Aquatics International Fish Farm Visit

Visited Aquatics International during the weekend. I was having difficulties capturing the photos as most of the fishes I intended to shoot were fast swimmers and the lighting was poor. So, you are now looking at some crappy photos with very bad quality.

A view of the farm:






Some kind of a barb:


Madagascar Rainbow:


Lampeye Killie:


Golden Wonder Panchax:


Unknown species (labeled as "Pink Tea Charasin" - the label is suspicious to me. Combination of wrong spelling and poor handwriting do not help. Should be Pink Tailed Characin I believe):


Unknown species:

Another 15 Gallon Tank At Planning Stage 2

So far I have purchased rocks and HOB (Hang On The Back) filter.

In terms of fish species, I have not fully decided. It could be any of these fishes in my list below:

1. Kuhli Loach - this is the species that never fails to attract visitors' attention.

2. Pristella Tetra - this is a hardy and cheap species to keep. I always love tetras with this kind of body shape.

3. Lemon Tetra - same reason as Pritella Tetra. The only disadvantage is Lemon Tetras love to jump out of the tank especially during breeding period. Yes, I managed to breed them.

4. Lampeye Killie - I love the blue "lamp eye" but the quality of the species I saw at the farm is doubtful due to a lot of dead fish in the tank. I am also very concern that this species has short life span comparing with all the 3 species above.

Another 15 Gallon Tank At Planning Stage

My business partner wants me to set up a fish tank in our new office, knowing I am a "fish nut" as one of my ex-colleague used to call me.

It will be a low budget 15 US gallon (standard 2 feet) tank with nothing expensive and fancy. Initially, I thought I wanted a black water tank which could be quite simple and easy to set up but the "black water" freaked out my business partner. I don't blame him. Majority of the people cannot stand a dark looking fish tank with dried leaves, dark sand and driftwood in the water. To me this is an art by simulating the nature.

Then I thought of a cichlid tank but most of of the cichlids are too huge or too aggressive to fit into a 15 gallon tank. Shell dwellers are too costly (the last time I checked, it was RM50 per fish). I could not keep Apistogramma alive long enough based on my past experience. So, cichlid tank is now out of my consideration.

Planted tank is my favourite but it will be too costly to call it a low budget tank. The cost of a lighting set is the main killer, even if I go for NPT (natural planted tank) without canister filter, CO2, chiller/fan, using plants donated from my existing tanks, etc.

Now, my plan is to have a non-planted tank with a mixture of idea from cichlid tank and black water tank. Basically, I will use rocks, sand and driftwood. The driftwood will form a structure that looks like tree roots in the water. Rocks will be piling up to form a slope where the tree roots attach to the rocks. I guess only myself can imagine how the tank looks like as of now.

So far I have only purchased some second hand rocks. The rest of the items are still being hunted now.

16 Year-Old Girl Lost In The Indian Ocean

Early this morning at 4am, I was awaken and failed to get back to sleep. So I got up to check my email online. I happened to notice the devastating news about Abby Sunderland, the 16 year-old girl who sails alone and currently lost at the Indian Ocean. It's really heartbroken to hear about the incident involving a young girl at such a tender age.

I personally think that a 16 year-old girl who dares to sail alone must be a very strong-will young lady. I sincerely admire her courage as I won't even dare to walk alone on land beyond 3 hours, let alone sailing in an ocean!

I hope she will return safe and really looking forward to hear some good news about her. You may check out her blog at the link below:

Abby's Blog

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Update:

Glad to hear that Abby was found to be safe but the closest boat could only reach her in over 24 hours.

Conversion To Semi-NPT

I have finally re-setup the tank I wanted to convert into semi-NPT (natural planted tank). The main reason for the conversion is I am tired of purchasing the expensive Seachem root tab for this tank. I got rid of almost 80% of the existing plants. I have removed the bad condition Java Ferns but I leave the mini Java Ferns. Besides, Marsilea and Potamogeton gayi, I introduced Anubias Nana (maybe one of them is Anubias Petite) and Cryptocoryne Wendtii into the tank.

I have removed the female Krib and Ember tetras and placed them in another 2 separate tanks. I only leave the Black phantom tetras and the sole otto in the tank.

The following are the stuff utilised in the tank:

1. Soil: Clay loam (Price: RM5)

2. Sand: Holland Sand

3. Filter: Eheim 2213

4. Lighting: 55 Watt Dymax PL

5. Plants: Marsilea, Potamogeton gayi, Cryptocoryne wendtii, Anubias nana (maybe one of them is Anubias Petite) & mini Java fern

6. Fauna: Black phantom tetras & otto

7. CO2

8. 15 US Gallon (Standard 2 Feet) Tank

This is how the tank looks like originally:



This is how it looks like after the conversion. The water is clear since day 1:



This is the clay loam I use for this planted tank after failing to find top soil I purchased from the same nursery. I have decided to give clay loam a try as recommended by the salesperson. Purchased from Kelana Jaya's plants nursery:



I have added Holland sand at 4 corners of the tank to prevent double layer of sand and soil from being viewed. After that the top part of the soil is covered by Holland sand:



This is how the tank looks like on the 11th of April 2010 after adding water lettuce to shade the Anubias Nana and adding Rotala at the background: