peety

I made 2 tanks with trickle/wet/dry/refuge. I loaded one with marine and one tropical. I found the marine worked a treat but don't think the tropical suited as much as my canister. JMHO. Hope it helps. BTW, is the tank you describe one main tank, infront of a planted tropical? I had that idea a while ago and wondered if it had been done. Just a thin tank with tropical plants as a background with a main foreground tank? :-? :-?

Congrats.... I'm amazed how much attention some fish pay to their young while others just breed prolifically. Also love the way mum and dad tend to share the workload... Congrats again, pics please.

I have one that sits on top of my powerhead with his tail fin hanging over into the stream of running water. Its like hes trying to swim a million miles an hour without moving.... then when he's tired he schools with the rest... cool really... 8)

i use plastic coated paperclips cut in half (like staples) to anchor my plants down until they root enough, then remove the staples..... it doesn't take the plants too long to get a grip... and the staples last ages so I reuse them. Works well unless the brislenose really wants whats under that leaf..... :-?

I can't get mini val or sag to take in my tank. Is there a trick? I have a good variety of plants going but have trouble with the little grasses... There is a NZ grass that took pretty easily in my tank but I don't know its name.. :oops:

Glad to hear the bristlenose worked... One clown and one sae and you will have a clean tank forever

Nice.... I agree my plants don't grow very thickly or lush. They just seem to hang in the balance. Just less trimming to do ... ta

If you go to your local hydroponics grow shop you can find some cheap pumps there.... I got a big thing for pumping water from my outside tank to the inside tanks. Has got a 6 metre head and cost about $240 !!! No mamby pamby trickle, i had to split the feed to reduce the pressure !!! I also got my metal halide from the same shop and will get another for my refuge. (they are a bit strong tho....) Yep I did see eheims there..... i bought cheap though....

I'm interested in whether you need soil and fertilizers at all... All you are doing is introducing more nutrient into the tank. If you have seen hydroponic gulleys you will understand that you don't need dirt just the nutrient, in fact the more air space you leave for roots and air the faster the plants grow. I don't use soil, gave up a long time ago. I have plants growing on top of my tank fed by the tank water alone, no soil, no fertilizers, and they are pretty healthy, i use them to reduce my nutrient load.... Just a thought... I have plants growing out the top of my tank, no soil, and bugger all light. I use scoria from garden centre and some rounded tank stones because the sharp edges of scoria cut fish and plant roots (or I would have used scoria only). peet

Theres a fry mix you can buy in a tube, also u can use spiralina.

No 8 wire new zealanders.... you can fence sheep in with it too!!! lol

Plain old epoxy should be OK I would have thought.... boat building stuff. I used to work with it, thats what i glue my tops with..... but I had a friend at epiglass who used to mix a epoxy for boat water tanks (the stuff you drink out of when you are on the boat), so if you went to then they would sell you some. With epoxy you just mix in any colur you want, I used to add household flour to thicken it up, (it doesn't matter what you use, you just can't sand some things back, flour included :lol: ) Don't let them sell you some expensive colouring, buy some poster paint powder and make your own!!! Good epoxy has no solvents so should be OK on polystyrene, don't use the other stuff (polyester :evil: ) peety

I have a yellow tang, a percola clown, and another as yet to be identified fish (gift). Two snails have definately survived so it may have just been the drive home (two hours in the car out of water.. nah...don't know ) I will definately give the tank a shuffle around in the next week or two... that should be interesting. Interestingly I have no algae probs in my sump (bugger all light, but enough) and tons in my main tank, I'm gonna add a UV and have it running part time to see if I can lower algaes...

You are welcome to call over and check out my tanks. I have sump with refugium, but nothing in refug at mo. I am thinking of stripping down marine and doing over since I'm finding the deep tank a bit of a nightmare and can't get it looking how i want. (i have another setup identical with nothing in it since my discus died). I have had fish die of TB in my tropical tank, so wouldn't suggest you leave here with anything to go in another tank.... I think there are still two snails alive(in sump) so don't know what killed others... I have been checking nitrate levels and they are getting a bit high about 5 ppm maybe closer to 10 but anenomes and mushrooms still appear to be OK so can't be too bad, and some dying coral i was given is growing again. I also added some coral/weed stuff from a rock pool and it appears to be growing as well. As an experiment it's going ok but i can see that I will want to try again on a bigger tank.... just not yet... too many mistakes to be made I found some hermit crabs too, but thought they might eat my anenomes... I'll bag some next time and see what they do... I'll call ya Pies.... you can check out what left of my tropical ... that was finished .....

Cool !! Nice job. I'm really impressed with how natural looking everything came out. WOW.

One of my fish had what I guess was popeye.... it took ages, the eye goes cloudy first then swells. Is the water OK in the new tank ? Popeye can be brought on by poor water conds....

FYI Prazi is sold as droncit and also as paratak. Both are 100 % prazi mixes by two different companies

Are you sure? I spoke to a couple of vets (not that that makes them experts, as i now know), but they seemed to express that metro and tricozole were two different products....???? I understood metro was people medicine, and effective at people temps, and had been told tricozole didn't require the same high temps to work.... back at ya....

The vet at Janssens was the best for me. His name is Chris and better than others by miles. He also fixed the last probs I had until we discovered TB. Now I need to decide whether to give up or not since theres a 2 year period of contamination. U can use tricozole instead of metro too. Also I have tried other meds in last 3 months so if ya wondering ... drop me a line...

I have 3 young bristlenose and 2 full grown. The full grown rip my plants to bits so I have to replace some every month or so. The biggest is definately over 10 cm !! more like 15 or 20!!. I had some standard plecos but they got way too big !! I use no C02 and haven't cleaned the glass of my tank in about 3 or 4 months... (hardly needs it)(but I have UV !!!). My tank is not what I would call well lit or heavily planted, but medium I guess. I have clowns and striata loaches as well. I agree they are cool. I think only one clown left (he hardly ever comes out during the day) but they get really huge too !! My last one is about 8-10 cm, but i've seen them in shops at about 15 cm +.... Nice sounding tank Pies wow good number of fish and variety much more than me and I have 500 ltr tank.

Sorry reread post, if your large discus have been fine to now, i would say your 2 new fish have brought something in. Are they flashing around tank ? Do daily water changes and keep up with salts for a couple of days.

I have seen posts where epson salts are used... 2 tblspns/10 gallon in the water. It can be quite a dangerous prob for angels/discus because the food rots before it digests.

Snails won't help with algae. I used to like em until I discovered they are a host for some parasites. (I can't get rid of them unless I strip down my entire tank, I've tried huge copper doses and they keep coming back...grrr) Get some bristlenose plecos (baby ones are nice and cheap enough), they'll clean the glass a treat and don't get too big. SAE's (Siamese Algae Eaters) clean algae from plants, but if you don't have a large tank don't get em because they won't get enough to eat, then rely on you for food, and forget about algae after a while :lol: Sorry about the corys..... my tests have come back and my community tank is all bad. I wouldn't want to risk passing on any sick fish I might have to kill all my fish yet..... I hate being sold sick fish !!!!

I would have a large airstone and decent pump. Some treatment requires high heat, some require strong meds like formalin both of which deplete the oxygen levels. My first treatment mistake was to wake up and find a suffocated fish due to insufficient air. Nice post Pegasus... I've dodged the quarantine thing in the past, won and then lost big time... never again...... peety

YIKES!!! The snails look real sick.. Rats !!! Ones crawled under a rock and I can't get to it :-? I'm gonna get a nitrate spike from hell if I can't get the bugger out.... O well... Funny, I've noticed some small fellas crawling around the sump of another species that seem fine, i think it is definately the lack of tide thing that got them... no air..... poo :oops: :oops: