wayneh

Thanks for the advice everyone. Looks like I will have to set it to 27 and see what happens to the tank temp, I will use an empty tank to testing the temp after a few days and leave all the others with heater in them. I tried to get a new fan heater today from Mitre10, but it is no longer winter, so they have none in stock.. go figure... haha. Wayne

What about the water hardness... This can effect the PH of the water, along with CO2. if your water is very soft and the co2 levels high the PH will swing. By the sounds of it, the air pump could be dispersing the co2 (via the surface agitation) as well as increasing the oxygen in the water.... Hence the PH swing... Not sure on the size of your tank, but must be fairly small if it only takes a couple of hours without air bubbles for the fish to gasp for air. I take it there are few or no plants either as they will add oxygen to the water also, given enough light...

Have had one of the SUN SUN brand filters for quite some time now, coming up to almost 1 year.... Excellent trouble free filter, no problems at all, it just works. Goes together easily and primes even easier... Would not hesitate to buy others when and if the need arises... Wayne

I am looking at switching from individual tank heaters to heating the whole fish room, in an attempt to reduce the number of leads and power boxes I am using... Fish room is fully lined with styrofoam. Currently all the tanks are heated and the fish room stays at around 25 degrees... what temp will I have to have the room the keep the tanks at approx 27 degrees... I am assuming the 2 degree drop from 27 in the tanks to 25 in the room would work the other way as well.. so heating the room to 29 degrees will keep tank temp at 27 degrees... Can anyone shed more light or knowledge on this for me... Cheers Wayne

Lamp specialists on the shore will have them.. Wayne

A picture is worth 1000 words, but then again so is 1000 words, so here is both for those interested in this lovely little fish. Sadly mine succumbed to the wrong water conditions as I found this information some months afterwards. Enjoy Wayne Chocolate gourami biotope http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=151

Actually the tank is a mess, it needs a LOT of weeding.... Anyone want some long Val....???

We use T5's on our 600mm deep tank, 4 x double tube 3ft (900mm) ones we got off that auction site. Very nice slim design, alloy units. I would highly recommend them as they are cheap, and work very well for us. Tank is heavily planted with co2 and needs weeding about every other week, tanks is 6ft long so we use two end to end to cover length of tank. The 3ft units only have 2ft tubes inside, but still put out a lot of light. Look for boxturtle on 'that' site. Cheers Wayne

There are some things you just cant have too many of; plants, fish, tanks and girlfriends (just don't tell the wife about about the girlfriends)... Ha ha.

If you are serious about collecting rain water for use in you fish tanks then this is the best way to do it, you could either buy this setup or make one yourself as the bits are not that hard to make from various bits of PVC etc. This system has a nice bleed off of the initial few minutes of rainfall ensuring anything that has settled on your roof is washed off before going into your catchment tank.. Enjoy.. http://www.marley.co.nz/afawcs0119272/C ... tails.html

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Lynnie, Here is an interesting article I found some time ago. Perhaps something like this would work for you. http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Uthup_Sump_Filter.html Cheers Wayne

I hope you have put ALL the beetles in the freezer or have them contained in the food container. Definitely report it to MAF, there may be other containers contaminated and they will want to check them. I suspect a shortage of Wardleys fish food in the near future.... Wayne

I beg to differ, Silicone will not adhere to acrylic and the Methylene Chloride, also known as Dichloromethane (common name) is a solvent and will dissolve the acrylic in the joint and literally weld the joint together once it has evaporated. Most of the "plastic cement" you buy from a shop such as the Glue Guru on the north shore is created by adding a portion of the plastic to a solvent such as Methylene Chloride to "thicken" it. Much the same way as polystyrene cement for plastic model making is made from M.E.K (Methyl Ethyl Keytone) and polystyrene beads (I know, my father used to make the stuff for one of the model suppliers here in Auckland). And yes I mean the same Polystyrene as you have under your tank, just drop a bit of MEK on it and watch it disappear into a milky clear sticky goo.... Thanks to all those who helped with suggestions by the way. The outcome of my search... I purchased today 1 litre of Methylene Chloride (Dichloromethane) from Marketing Chemicals of 343 Church St, Penrose for $10. More than enough to do what I wanted but a lot better than having to buy 5 or 20 litres. All in all these guys were pretty helpful and I recommend them for anything like this you may need. No hassles no fuss. Cheers Wayne

Were the tanks of the curved corner variety, and did they crack in the curve, or was it on the base. You mentioned swelling of the base, this could very well have caused the cracking... Cheers Wayne