starlyte

Im trying to identify a fish for someone http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/ ... C00934.jpg Any ideas?

Unsure if these images will actually work... I dont remember my photobucket login at the moment... But these are the two living plants i have.. Does anyone know a name for them?

Right, So i will change the timer of the tank! I dont know what all the plants were called. We bought them when we bought the fish tank, the LFS asked what we wanted and we said any of them as we didnt know the differences Thanks for all your advice

Okay, THe knots are untied, and i will look at getting a gate It didnt help that the air bubbles were pretty much under a plant so they were constantly being hammered by the bubbles... But other plants away from the bubbles were still suffering the same The tank is 90 litres (25 galons) Its been running since october last year and at about christmas time it was fully cycled and the nitates have always been about 10 and i have done weekly water changes, Just ive missed a week here and there recently. I usually take about 20-25% of the water out and replace with slighly wamed water with water conditioner added THe lights are on a timer and are on for about 12 hours a day. THe light turns on twice during the day: at 7am and turns off at 11am and then turns on again at 5pm and turns off at 12pm - the location of the tank doesnt really get any light so when the light is off its impossible to see anything in the tank, So the idea was that when we were home the light would be on (before and after work) THe air bubbles are also connected to the light timer so are only on when the lights are. When changing the water i always clean in the gravel lots to get rid of anything laying down there.

Couple of things: 1 - I have an air pump with 2 air stones and two seperate air tubles - the pump has two outputs. when they are on i think there is too much air coming out of the air stones... So i tied a knot in the tubes to restrict air flow. Will this dmage the pump? 2 - My plants were not overly healthy and im constantly having to scoup out leaves that have fallen off - plus i think the cichlids keep eating them, Ive replaced most with fake plants and have thrown away the yucky plants. the LFS have suggested java fern plant as the cichlids dont like them. Are there any other plants that are overly easy to care for??? I have some flax type plants at the moment and another in which i dont actually know what it is thats still reasonably healthy. 3 - One of my dwarf gouramis died last week... He/she was doing okay and then my wife noticed it sitting on the ground not doing much.. By the time i got home from work - about an hour later it was lying on its side, Its gills were still moving... i paniced for a few mins and decided to do a water change and by the time i got my bucked it was dead complatly... I dont really know why it died, We did notice a few days before it was up the top blowing out bubbles and we think it was trying to make a nest or something... apon examination when i took it out of the tank i didnt notice anything out of order... other then it not flapping around full of life.. I only had the two dwarf goramis and the second one has been a bit "lost" appears to have been looking for the parnter for a few days... Even though when they were both together in the tank they had thier own end of the tank and very rarely even cared about each other... Should i replace the gourami? or will my other fish be okay without her (i think it was a her) The other fish i have: 6x glow light tetra 5x neon tetra 1x red tail shark 1x golden algae eater 2x baby cichlids 3x baby bristle nose 1x dwarf gourami I do regular water changes, Usually once a week, But when the gourami died i had not changed the water for 2 weeks, I did tests and the nitrates were a bit higher then usual... memory tells me about 80 Its ususally below 50 and the amonia and nitrites at 0 The water was clean and clear with no signs of real problems..

We kept saying a second net would make this soo much easier Plus i do only have a pretty small net... That didnt help either!

I did actually save most of the water, i emptied it all out into buckets, Scooped out all the gravel and gave it a good wash and put the majoritiy of the saved tank water back in, Topped it up with tap water I really should have emptied the whole tank completely, There was a bit of water left in the tank that i couldnt really get out easily was very dirty from scouping up all the gravel Filled the tank up and it was quite cloudy. an hour of the filter going again cleared it up very well I couldnt imagine lifting the tank full of water... surely the tank would break? Just the gravel by its self is damn heavy!.. imagine how heavy the whole tank is... Approx 100 litres of water + gravel.... There were no casualties, I was most worried about the baby bristlenose fish as ever since i got them (thanks mystic) they have pretty much been hidden... For the past few weeks i have only ever managed to see 2 out of the 3 fish at one time. Right up until a couple of hours before doing the change I imagined the shark to be the hardest to catch.. but he proved me wrong

It was a stressful weekend for the fish.. and us.. When we bought our tank we put it onto a set of drawers without putting any polystyrene under the tank and after a while i noticed the drawers were bowing.. So we bought a cabinet off trademe The only time ive really caught fish is from the plastic bags when putting them into the tank... It was quite the mission to catch all of our fish and put them in a bucket Got most of the tetras.. the very last tetra was a bit sneaky... We have a reasonably big golden algae eater.. That was the hardest fish to catch, The thing was so fast.. Along with the elec yellow cichlids... Anyway.. finaly caught them got the water out and the tank onto the new cabinet WITH poly underneath.. When we put the fish back into the tank.. they had all lost thier colours, Especially the red tailed shark... It was more of a greyish white shark with a see through pink tail.... The tetras also were not really glowing like they usually did. After about an hour or two and a dosing of prime thier colours started to come back though Its quite a big job emptying a tank and filling it back up again! We were just looking a couple of weeks ago at buying a new tank off trademe, It came with the fish and everything... How much of a mission that would be to get it to our house without loosing any fish!!!

Im going to keep an eye on them... After reading up about the CAE im not overly keen on keeping it! Once my true siamese algae eaters turn up i might get rid of the CAE - By then my bristlenoses will be a bit bigger

Awesome. Good to hear they are good filters At the moment the sponge is on the bottom, Carbon in the middle and the bio balls are at the top The thing came with a red bag to put the bio balls in however i have seen them being sold in large bags, Can i just fill the filter up 2/3rds with the bioballs and then just put the sponge on top? Or will i need to keep them bagged up? Which is the part that contains most of the good bacteria? Gonna rid the carbon Gonna clean the sponge Do i ever need to do anything with the bio balls - ie clean/change etc What does the carbon do if you dont change it I think thats all the questions!

okay i was slightly wrong It must have been the LSF that said change the filter media monthly The spec sheet says: change carbon monthly foam every 2 months biomax every 3 months Is that what i should be following

Filter: Aquaclear 50 power filter Specs say: Max flow: 757lph Min: 250lph tank: 3ft (900x 300x 300).. or 900x 400x 300 - cant remember fish: 6x glowlight tetra 5x neon tetra 2x dwarf gourami 2x baby electric yellow cichlid (smaller then tetras atm) 1x red tail shark 3x baby bristlenose The tank is planted. Not heavily - 6 plants along the back Should take photo...

Ive read lots of very contradicting information about this subject.. I have a hangover the side filter, It came with my tank when i bought it.. Unfortnatly i dont remember the model - the tank is a waterhome 25 from animates, the filter is something like an aquaplus something Anyway.. the filter came with media 1x foam sponge thing 1x bag of carbon 1x bunch of weird round thingies .. i dont remember the name.. biostones or something? Ive been told: 1 - The instructions on the filter said to change it all monthly.. 2 - Ive been told change only one of the three media types per month 3 - also been told dont change anything until the flow is restricted. I havnt actually done anything to the filter since i got it (beginning of november 05) Oh actually i have pulled the plastic tube that sticks into the water off to clean them as they have been blocked up almost completly a couple of times Recently ive also read about people saying not to use the carbon bags.. So what should i do Currently the flow is fine, What media should i change first, when should i change it. Should i remove the carbon completly.. if so what should i replace it with The LSF sell the three types of media for $8 each at the right size to fit into the filter.. is that expensive Another question.. is this particular filter or kind of filter not very good... Should i have a better one like a canister.... i am a bit interested in the sump method of filtering ie being able to put the heater and everything down in there rather then in the main tank - but thats for another day i think! Im just a bit concerned over my filter - especially since its a "one that came with the tank type" - that sort of thing are never the best I guess it works okay, The tank is generally clean and clear, Water chemistry is okay, But the thing is the fish population is starting to increase now that its fully cycled and things are looking better Sorry for rambling alot in this post, Im not quite so good at constructing easy to understand ... words!!!!!!!! Thanks in advance for your replies

Thats the same as what happened to me just a couple of days ago I got a new red tailed shark (thanks mystic) and my golden algae eater was not happy and was fighting him, Then when the shark finally found a hiding place the algae eater continued to chase any other fish that came near They seem okay now, The shark can be with the algae eater and they appear to just play rather then fight

That looks to me like a CAE (chinese algae eater) - Just not the golden version