peety

Tough Tanks Factory 6/42 Henderson Valley Road, Henderson 835-1451. There's a really nice lady there that does the work. You should see how many tanks they have lying around ....ahhh bliss.... I got her number from LFS and reckon her prices are amazing.

Yup thats the good snail!! The others are definately living though and the eggs are growing on the side of my tank.. wonder how long I have to wait to hear the pitter patter of baby snails The other snails have those weird trunks that come out and sniff around (I have a couple of those too) The kina rocks!! I wish the smaller ones had lived instead of the bigger ones, I reckon a couple about the size of 20cent peices would be the go... mine are just about at eating stage!! A commercial diver friend was amazed to see the tenticles coming out of them, they are easily twice the length of the spines. They also sift the sand!! really good at cleaning it!! They also eat the red algae that grows beneath the sand!! they bury themselves and suck it. They climb vertical glass so can get anywhere, they can also move pretty big rocks so may move your tank around a bit, instead of going around a rock they just lift it and pass underneath. I have found a weed that may be worth trying.... it is growing but slowly, in my tank, it looks like an oakleaf lettuce so is quite nice to look at. I tried it at all depths in my tank, and reckon it grows best lower down. It has definately got new growth around its edges three weeks on. Found it on rocks not in rock pools, its brown, flat, and has thin lighter white line around its edges. My aerated zone around the weed didn't help, and caused probs with my passive sypthon (air bubbles that entered the syphon got stuck, and eventually caused it to stop working). One of my fish was also eating my coral !! I have moved the coral to other tank and its recovering, I may be feeding too little since they weren't doing this before... I threw a cray in my tank too but they go blind if out of water too long... when i found out he became dinner, but he adapted really quickly, I want a small one from that cray farm.... I've also got some white chrysalis things growing on the rocks that I have no idea what they are. Good pics pies!! Yup, plenty of things at the beach to keep me busy in my tank... (my readings are all shot at mo cuz of rotting weed and mushrooms are spewing so trying to stabilize conds before my next trip to beach ) peety

same story for me, I built my first sump in ply, coated it with watersafe epoxy. Since it was so fiddly I took it to the local tank maker, and found out they could build it for 1/2 as much as I spent.... They get glass in stuff cheap...let them do it....

The garlic clove (didn't even chop it, just a bash then in the tank), is just about gone. The bristlenose seem to love it, guess they don't use those noses for smelling then... I think i'll add one regularly now since all the fish had a go at it and it never got slimey or dissolved..... peety

I used to have probs priming my pumps too. :roll: Check outlet hose is clear of the water Check inlet hose is under water Pump the primer half a dozen times with pump turned off Then turn on pump (priming should be done with pump off) My outlet had dipped into the water and it caused many probs getting the priming to work. Sounds simple but it took me ages to figure the stupid thing out, hope it helps.... PS parts for the filters can be ordered from most the shops and can be really cheap, I broke my clip off and it cost $4.50 so don't try and do a number 8 wire job (like i was tempted to do), because you could make it worse.... peety

Not being able to read arabic, do you reckon the middle piece of small tube has to be at the same level as the water inside the tank (or higher) or any incoming water would just exit via top holes (also that the unit can drain water faster than the pump can fill it??).... so in effect the bubbles lift the gooey stuff up the little pipe into the top area which dribbles out the top 3/8" pipe...?? Obviously couldn't glue it all up tight since you couldn't replace airstone etc.... but pipe endcaps might work and drainpipe would be cheap... still not sure of how much throughput it can take.. any idea of an english explanation? :oops: If thats all it is then I'll make one and give it a whirl.....

Aqua, Have you seen this post ? http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/grantgla ... filter.htm The bell idea seems like a good idea to me (bloody good site!) How does yours work? Do you have substrate? Watts? I couldn't get some of my plants to grow at all until I added potting mix below the stones... now I collect about 1/2 bucket of plant matter each month!

Starve ya fish a bit... I had an outbreak, went from 2 to 4 clowns, no improvement until I stopped feeding for a while, hey presto less snails.... I haven't gotten them all but they are at bearable numbers now... even my discus has a go at them when I drop the feeding down...

Hair algae get a couple of Siamese Algae eaters... they will fix your probs.... Any green algae on the glass get bristlenose plecos... any missed food on the bottom get corys any snails get clown loaches any room left in your tank... go wild

Bah.... cheap works for me so far..... I dont' have a pile of coral, clams, liverock or mushrooms, but I watch my kina sucking on the rocks, hermits, some anenomes and marine fish..... not a ton of stuff happening but not a ton of bucks spent either... and I am definately lovin it, its become my fav tank primarily because its all stuff I didn't have any idea how it worked until i took it home and watched it..... I have tons of bugs and stuff breeding in the water, and worms in the sand, its all free, and it's all interesting. some stuff doesn't work, but thats all good too, i think i've finally found a weed that survives in my tank (3 weeks now no rot), and my starfish rotted while still alive (don't want to do that again), but i'm learnin, for free.What makes the big bucks more important?

Garlic is recommended in all discus foods..... In fact they even eat it raw apparently,(i'll test it myself now, ...just dropped a clove in, i'll see how it goes overnight), nope smelly frog breath seems ok with the fish, they certainly fight over this little cocktail

Anyone make their own? I have some recipes for discus food using turkey, or beefheart. I add blenderized frozen fish to my tank which gets eaten, and I have recently made some processed carrot stuff for my kina, which the tropical fish really love too. Anyone else make their own? Kina recipe: 3 cups chopped carrot 3 giant prawns (shell and head included) 3 mussels 1 egg (shell included) 2 vitamin pills 4 spiralina pills 6 cloves of garlic (unpeeled) 5 teaspoons of agar 1 cup water Blend til smooth Cook in microwave, stirring, until boiling. freeze. Jamie Olliver move over.....

I found a couple of goldfish surviving in an old pond at a house I rented years ago... the pond was completely black and had cans and empty beer bottles in it and reeked ,the gold fish had developed a brown tint that changed back to orange over the next 6 months once I cleaned the pond. They bred, I moved some indoors, etc etc.... I left them at the last house I rented which had a huge outdoor pond becuase it was too hard to get them out I have since built a small portable pond 3x2.5 metres and have some more now as well as the tropical and marine... Yup they started it all....

I'm new to marine but there is tons available... I have made do with a very small starter tank, and have now doubled it so i have 2 tanks connected with combined capacity of about 520 litres. I created mine on the cheap and it works fine. The trick is do everything slowly... I get a lot from the beach as well. You really need a skimmer, but apart from that... the rest is the same as tropical. Go for it...

Anyone help with small white spots on the tail that have turned into a white/grey smudge? I have treated for ich but it has not gone. The fish shows no ill effects from it one month later. Also treated for external fluke using fluke tabs. also treated for fin rot using furan.... came in on a new fish and showed up after 2weeks. I was also using copper but no changes after 4 days so stopped...

Sorry about the losses.... A good clue about fish health is their faeces... did you notice if it was white, runny, red, etc. Also pays to keep a close eye on body condition for first few weeks. I would also change water temps slowly, about a degree a day. I also dose my tank with preventative doses of formalin and green about every 2-3 weeks. I hate getting new fish and they die days later... happens.... (high temps will explain the plants dying too) peety

Well I was out again getting stuff from the beach so thought someone might be interested. I brought home four different types of snail this time. The ‘catseye’ type again, plus 3 conical types. The little conical laid eggs and seem to be ok. The really pointy one died and the larger more rounded type had some die, and some still remain… the one that does the most work cleaning up though is the original black catseye, the nerite. I also brought home some more seaweed but nearly two weeks later all 3 species appear to be dieing, so far that’s 7 species that don’t appear to like the tank. I introduced a powerhead this time and created a turbulent aerated zone, which is why I think they are lasting longer. The best thing with the seaweed was the number of small living things that came in on it, some weird thingies out there! I also found a bright yellow star which doesn’t appear to move and is still alive, I’m a bit confused as to what they do! I also brought home four kina (sea urchins) of various sizes. Thanks to Pies advice I kept an eye on them and two promptly died, fouling my sump . After a bit of surfing I found out they need to be acclimatized slowly. The other two (the larger two) are still fine. They are really quite cool, and have long feelers that probe suck and feed. They eat the algae from the glass, sieve the sand, and I also feed them fish food, and carrot peelings (as suggested on a web site). They also eat the coralline from the rock but at such a small rate that you hardly even notice. I also brought home a huge worm casing but unfortunately it was empty, I will look for some more again next time. For those thinking about marine, I say go ahead!! I spend more time on my marine tank and less money than I expected!

:oops: Wheres the delete key? (stuttered)

Welcome back Aqua, Try some wood in your tank. The bristlenose love it. Get some well aged river stuff. They have literally bored holes in the two foot stump I have in my tank. I moved 3 months back and everything took ages to start again, on the up side I had a plant come back that hadn't been growing at the last house. I added a layer of potting mix in the base this time, and it has taken off (no idea what it is :-? ) peet

Welcome back Aqua, Try some wood in your tank. The bristlenose love it. Get some well aged river stuff. They have literally bored holes in the two foot stump I have in my tank. I moved 3 months back and everything took ages to start again, on the up side I had a plant come back that hadn't been growing at the last house. I added a layer of potting mix in the base this time, and it has taken off (no idea what it is :-? ) peet

Mee too!!! I had some breeding a while ago, but an unquarantined fish wiped out all my babes... Want to try again one day....

I was surprised... I could kill a bad anenome literally 3-4 mm's away from a nice one if i was careful, and you could see it sizzling away without any harm to the others. I tried to kill the buggers in the past but this was sooo easy.... PS. Have you seen this site http://www.garf.org/ ? They promote using concrete instead of live rock. I made some two and a half weeks ago and put it in my tank (i should have waited another week but was on a roll). It looks real good. I don't know how long it takes to get the coralline going but the fish love it. I made four tables, 3 caves and 2 fake corals. I need more yet but I'm really surprised how real it can look.

Just got a syringe from my vet and squirted the buggers with hydrogen peroxide at 6%. Poke them with the needle until foam up and die. I also accidentily got some on a snail. I put it under the pump immediately and it came right within a minute or two. The nice thing with the h202 is that you can put the rocks back in the water immediately since it converts to water and oxygen. I wiped out all the visible ones and will be scanning for any little ones that start up, but i got rid of about 50 in an hour and all rocks spent less than 2 minutes out of the water.

mine make runs to the surface a lot too, no probs. How much air do you pump into your tank. If your air levels are low, all your fish will tend to hang around the surface....

I have same prob. Still workin on findin a suitable seaweed for home. 250 watt metal halide still isn't hot enough. I'm getting a 400 watter in soon so will have to retry all plants once I get it hooked up. All the critters are fine, but the plants rot out.... If you figure it out let me know.... If you can get hold of caulerpa, that grows at lower levels (hence the fact it is illegal, it grows like a weed in any conditions) peety