sid 201

thats good -wasn't sure if it was needed and couldnt remember seeing foam on other (similar-aqua one etc)tanks -nothing worse than being able to see a thick white piece of polistirene at the bottom of the tank-in the past i've used black tape to hide it -how did you find the lighting? my calcs have it at .3w/liter and it's a deep tank-may add another tube if I have to-but it's a lot of messing about, even though I ve got the parts -plan to use a lot of "low light"plants though

farmchick-when you bought yours was foam or polystirene needed for the base?

at last with the wedding done and (nearly) all paid for, i'm getting my big tank:- http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... d=92316496 :bounce: :bounce: I'm going to adapt my origional plan http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/-vp172847.html and add some other ciclids to the transfered population of my small tank(6 golden pencil fish ,2 female panduro& 2 small BN's)-kehoe,flags and maybe another couple of pairs of dwarfs,along with enlarging the pencilfish population+some neons for colour so i have a few questions I want to put to the people in the know. I've got two female Panduro in my small tank who aren't hassling each other too much -will they be ok in this tank (there will be lots of drift wood& plants) if I add a male? could other apisto's be added without the risk of x breeding? any sugestions? any sugestions for a (cheapish)substrate? I'll be adding peat to the filter to adjust the ph & maybe mixing with the substrate -good or bad idea? tinting the water dosn't bother me -think its more"natural" Thanks for looking

damn- hoped it could be taken out after a while,would adding a male help or make things worse? knew about the aggro but hadn't realised it would be on all the time-also thought one was male dont realy want to have to keep the partition in any one out there want to swap one of these females for a male?

after one day with the seperator in there's a real differance in my tank-definatly two females ,the less dominant one is far more relaxed and is showing her colours/patches . will it be possible to remove the seperator after a while or will the hassle just start anew?

i've put a seperator in -hope that helps, the less dominant(probable female )was stressed to hell when i got home from work. hope things will calm down in a few days/a week. if not i've a tiny (27 liter ) tank i'll have to rig up -lights u/s though -will be looking on trade me for a dirt cheap (3 foot min )tank& stand..i'm totaly broke untill mid march at the earlyest (wedding on the 10th !!)

well i've got one definate female and one probable. came home from work today and found the probable hiding in the java moss -the dominant(definate) female has just spent a couple of minites chasing the other all over the tank will they be ok for the time being? I realy want a bigger tank but cant afford one for at least 2-3 months

I've had a better look today and both fish have the large black patches on their flanks-the one i thought male has the patches fade some times-almost to nothing,but at other times becoming very dark-almost identical to the other. i'm of the opinion(now anyway :-? ) that both are female and the darker one is dominant -there isn't much going on in the way of aggression ,but should i be worried? could i add a male without any problems? or is the tank(2 foot) to small for to female's and a male? theres a good few hiding places -plants ,bogwood and a couple of flower pots- will be adding more plants & wood over the next few weeks has any one found a difinitive guide to sexing these?-the only photo's i've found are adults and these are sub adult so I'm still not 100% and i'd really want to be before thinking of adding an other fish Cheers all

I'm not realy planning to breed -if it happens thats great but i wont be making any special arangements. I think the fish are quite young & I'm hoping that one will turn out to be male, if not would there be an issue adding a male later -as the tank is only a 2 footer? I plan to get a larger tank at some point,wedding and stuff to be done first though

got these two from The Animal Shack during the week :bounce: -i think i've got a male and female, but not to sure. also in the tank are:- 6 golden pencil's 2 young bn's and the guppies that havent been taken yet(should be rid of most of them next weekend) waters tinted as i filter through peat although the photo's make it look darker. these are my first real attempts to take pictures of my fish-

thanks for help -ended up with ceramic noodles some filter material I scrounged and a foot off a pair of tights filled with organic peat. water was muddy when i first started the filter(yesterday eve) but had cleared up after an hour or two, although there seems to be a "tint " to the water now how soon should i expect to see any change in the ph? would using carbon on top of the peat help clear the water without negating the efects of the peat? cheers all

hi all-i just aquired an aqua clear 200 filter -its a bit much for what i need(only a 60 cm tank) But theres no filter mediun(no foam etc) I intend to filter through peat to lower the ph for dwarf cichlids. I figure i'll have to get a foam cartrage to suit and then put abag of peat on top of this in place of the carbon shown here http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/manual ... lear04.cfm Is that right? now for the (possibly) dumb questions could any one recommend what type(brand?)of peat to use ,having no nasty chemicals etc? what should i use to bag the peat? I've some mutton cloth here but I'm not sure if this would be fine enough. has any one seen aqua one foam inserts for sale and any idea of cost -cant remember seeing any about-but havent really been looking as getting this filter was a suprise. cheers all sid

just out of intrest what efect does co2 have on ph? cheers

has any one seen otto's about recently? was told at lfs that for some reason there wasn't any to be got

had some problems getting the water's ph down to a level suitable foe Dwarfs--I've been told that this was probably due to the drift wood leaching salt into the water--Changed the wood for shop bought stuff yesterday& added some broken flower pots as caves Iv'e 6 golden pencil fish and a shed load of guppies (currently trying to give the buggers away -want some anyone?) have added java moss, ambula(i think) and another (unknown) plant to the java fern--Ive just trimmed the ambula right back-I'll post some more pic's in a week or so when it's looking better. I'l be doing a few extra water changes over the next week or so, plan is to sort the ph ,loose the guppies and wait untill some one here has some dwarfs of some type going -- probably get a couple of otto's after next pay though

question - could any one sugest a American snail eater suitable for a small (60 cm)community tank as i've snails running(slithering?) wild cheers sid

I'm using the manufacturers recomended tube and there isnt a balast as such -just a circuit which Im guessing does the job instead. I've just noticed that one of the components in the circuit (on a wire to the swich)is getting very hot -and becomes untouchable (it is 12v) at the same point as the light dims - not even sure what it is(not a resister any way!) but I'll cut it off and see if they have anything similar at dick smiths tomorrow or saterday-hopfully that may work.

hi all due to an exess of guppies I'm setting up a small tank I've had for a while , Theres a problem with the light though-it's fine when it's first switched on but after a few seconds it dims to less than half (buy my estimation) of its full brightness -its not an expensive tank http://www.aa-aquarium.com/showroom4.ph ... line_id=24 and I'd used it for a little over a year before this started , there isnt a balast-but a small circuit built in to the light assembly. Any body have any ideas what the problem could be -had a sparky at work have a look but he couldn't find any thing wrong(at this point I'd fitted the wrong tube and it didn't work at all) theres a brand new tube fitted If noone has any ideas I'll be using an old Fluval 1 filter and geting a jebo clip on light cheers sid

ok-I'm using Aquarium pharmaceuticals master test kit like this:- www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-anim ... 546742.htm and a Kh kit bought from lfs-(same brand) the kh test is graduated in german degrees=17.9 ppm I'm pretty sure that I'm doing the tests right (not hard are they!!) Did a second test on the tap water and got a vastly differant reading (2 drops caused colour change)thought this was strange,being so differant from the first test but it's not unknown to have visible sedemant in the water supply here-maybe i just didnt notice as i filled the test tube for the first test I will remove the drift wood from the tank when i get a chance and replace with some shop bought stuff hope that will help

Hi all-this is the sitiation i've got. 60*30*30cm tank ,heavily planted+some drift wood (from the beach -was soaked in boiled water for 2-3 weeks before use) temp 26oc nitrate ,nitrite and amonia are all giving 0 or near 0 readings but my ph is up to 7.8 -way to high.(tap water 6.4/6.5) I figured that using a box filter with peat should help a bit with the ph (I havent't done this yet)or if I have to replace the drift wood with shop bought stuff (a shame as it looks good) Bought a KH test as I know dwarfs like relativly soft water -my tap water was off the scale (filled up the test tube with out changing from orange to green!) -I use a mix of filtered and boiled water in my changes any way -but didn't think this would be so efective as it is-my tank water when tested went green at the first drop. The golden pencils and guppies in there seem happy enough I'm aware that low kh can be a problem and affect my other readings-including PH what Kh should i be aiming for?? would adding un filtered tap water to the filtered/boiled be enough I want to get this sorted first before working on the ph level. any help would be great

I'm looking to buy some -I've pm'd to check if it's the same seller

Thanks I'm suprised they would be a week old,I watch the fish most evenings and hadnt seen any sign of fry before yesterday-guess the plants do a good job as hiding places. I should have asked in my first post -whats the "normal" number of fry per drop? Since theres only two fry (that I've seen) I guess the other fish or the filter have got any others

hi all. got a couple of female and one male guppy in my planted tank with 6 golden pencil fish. yesterday i noticed 2 fry :bounce: (about5mm) hanging around the plants-this is the first time I've ever had young of any type of fish-Ijust want to know :- 1, roughly how old would these be ? 2,do guppies drop all at once or over several days?-both females are still quite large 3,is special fry food realy required?-fish are being fed flake every day and frozen blood worm every other any advice would be appreciated-Cheers all

animal Shack's just round by me -bought my pencilfish and some odds & sods there- looks like a good place -although calling the dog grooming salon "Doggie Style" made me laugh that much i nearly crashed pulling in to the car park

How big do these get ?-i've done a web search and am getting different answers- Thanks guys