Kim&Dan

Fully agree on the carbon part! We have always had crystal clear water both with and without it

Caryl! :lol: That's not what I meant... :lol: I'll give it a go, Luke, thanks

Hey evil_elmo! We had a similar experience a few weeks ago when we started stocking our first tank... We started off with 3 Sparkling Gouramis, amongst others, and they were REALLY shy, hiding the whole time. After we added our Danios, who are the exact opposite of shy, they started to come out and after a few days they were all over the tank We've never had Discus so I can't really say what it is but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents

A warm welcome from us too

Hi PlecoMan! Good to see that there's more than just us down here I only got in touch with DubbieBoy so far - he's from Dunedin too. BTW, thanks for the plants, DubbieBoy, they're doing great. One keeps trying to grow outside of the tank :lol: Yes, we've been to the Pet Warehouse a few times now as well but most of the time we've been going to Pet Planet... I'll send you a PM tomorrow, PlecoMan, so we can keep in touch and maybe swap fish / plants / advice / etc or just have a chat

Hey there and welcome We're fairly new around here too but, if you ask us, it's the best forum out there! :bounce:

Ok, everything is back to normal now and thanks for all the helpful input First thing this morning, I went to purchase a new one (at Pet Planet, which we have found to be a fantastic shop too, Blue!) and put it in. After that I brought the faulty one back to cash converters and surprisingly enough they swapped it with one they had in the tank combos there - they didn't even ask for the receipt, even though I had managed to find it. The one we got is actually even better than the one we had - looks brand new, is nicer looking and seems to be a pricey model! Caryl, they have a 30 days warranty with proof of purchase on the goods purchased there. Always good to know Regarding the Stress Zyme: I know that putting gravel and filter media from a cycled tank in the new tank is the way to go and that's what we did, but I thought putting in the Stress Zyme additionally wouldn't do any harm? Thanks for the advice, Blue Do snails contribute to the ammonia level? I think I'll wait another few days and then I'll add a couple of fish. I had never thought about the dangers of a heater breaking down (because so far it hadn't happened to us...) but after this occasion, I think I might want to do something for the fishies' safety and our peace of mind... Alan: How exactly would a back up thermostat work and how much would it cost? If $100+ I think it'd be a little too steep for our 'small' tanks... especially because you probably have to get one for each tank, right? Blue: I'll definitely look into those Marina Aqua-Minders. Thanks for all the advices richms: As we have two heaters now, I'll stick them both in the tank for now, so they can back each other up... However, this is obviously only a precaution for preventing the temperature to drop too low - with the heater we had it wouldn't have made a difference... I like the idea of two separate circuit boards! Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the advice! It has cooled down to 23C degrees over night and I will be buying the new heater this afternoon. And I will definitely test the water before putting fish in there

Naughty me missed the topic on 'Stringy poo...' topic! What Pegasus mentions in there could explain it. I have been feeding them more frozen worms in the last few days and two live mozzies I caught yesterday I should really ask them if they have constipation before giving them laxatives, shouldn't I! :lol:

Today I noticed that the poo of one of our Neon Rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox) was sort of sticky... It didn't fall off in form of a little red/brown worm but it stuck to our little fella like a little drop for quite some time. :-? I am not really worried because I guess that it's something natural - probably depends on what they ate and how they digested it. I'm just curious if there are any diseases that can be diagnosed this way... Any thoughts?

That's what happens when you think you got yourself a bargain! Had setup our third tank (...did someone say MTS? :lol:) about a week ago and it was cycling away nicely. When I checked the temperature on it today it wasn't showing a reading (am using one of those stick-on-the-glass thermometers)... I put my hand in the water and got a shock :roll: The water was really hot! The thermometer reads up to 34C and I would estimate the water to have been around 38C degrees when I put my hand in there - if not more :evil: The 200W heater we had gotten with the tank (600x310x310) at cash converters had worked since I first setup this tank (about a week ago). I reckon that the thermostat in it is broken now and I will get a new one first thing tomorrow. (Right after that I'll be heading to cash converters!!! :lol:) We're glad that this didn't happen with fish in there. Just another reason for why cycling is so important - it gives you a chance to test the equipment thoroughly. Luckily both the plants and the snails haven't been affected by this at all. Now I'm not sure about what to do about the whole cycling progress though... Would the hot water have killed off the bacteria (we put Stress Zyme in there at the beginning) or are they fine like the snails? Should I change the water? Do I have to start from scratch? Any help and advice will as always be greatly appreciated!

I have no idea about how this works but it sounds like an easy and simple method. So if it does work with the Soda Stream machine, please let us know

Thanks for the explanations guys! I don't know what we're doing wrong then... probably we're just too impatient! :roll: All the parameters, both water and food, are fine and our female Danio has quite a large belly but she just won't lay the eggs? I guess we'll just keep waiting

So there's just 3 of us as it seems :-?

When talking breeding: I've come across the phrase: 'when you condition them' or 'conditioning them' quite often now. Could anybody enlighten me and tell me what this means and how it works :oops: Thank you evilknieval69: We're trying our luck with some Danios too... I'm not a pro but from all the things I've been reading in the forum and online, I'd say that what you have done and what the others suggested is spot on. I think the marbles are a very effective method because they should stress the fish a lot less compared to some breeding contraption like those small breeding tank-in-tank things I'm sure they are great too though. Apart from that, even though that surely isn't a crucial factor for a breeding tank, I'd say that either marbles, pebbles or java-moss would make the tank also look nicer.

We still haven't had the time to go through the joining process and our tanks are still cycling... but we would be interested as well. Dan

I'm not really good at maths, but I can tell you that in order to work out the volume of something you just have to multiply length x width x height. In cm that would give you cubic-centimeters (ccm). To convert ccm to litres you just divide by 1000. So for your tank: 50cm x 25cm x 30cm = 37500 ccm 37500 ccm / 1000 = 37.5 l That is your tank's volume if you fill it up to the edge. So I'd guess that your tank has about 35 litres of water in it - maybe a bit less. Hope that helps

That's really pretty! Congrats!

For the curious ones - here's a pic: This setup set me back exactly $34.89! So when criticising please bear in mind of that :lol:

Ok, the tank has been sitting on the fridge the whole day and hasn't moved an inch. To make sure I actually could tell whether it is moving I draw thin lines with a pen around the matt it's sitting on... (and btw it's not even a non-slippy one!) The weight hasn't been an issue. Heating was a bit problematic - but that's just due to the heater, which is way too big for the little tank. Got it sorted out now though - just a matter of finding the right setting Thanks for all the help folks

Thanks for all the replies! Helpful as always LYNDYLOO: You have a point with the fridge door being opened and possibly causing disturbance. As it's just Kim and me though, it should be ok. Especially because in our previous house we used to have a tank on the kitchen workbench and have gotten used to always GENTLY close the kitchen drawers... so now we just would need to memorise that it's the fridge door Alan: That's what I would have thought as well. The thought about vibrations in river beds make sense, even though I am not sure if it's the case. I checked the top of the fridge and, no, unfortunately no heat comes off the top - would have been a nice way of recycling power :lol: alanmin4304: Initially that was my biggest concern but this one doesn't vibrate as strongly. To avoid any surprises I thought of putting a non-slippy rubber matt in between. Caryl: The fridge is about 135 cm high and as the tank is tiny I don't think that weight is an issue - had the microwave there and the little tank should weigh about the same. Right now the tank is standing on the kitchen table and is filled with water + gravel - I can still lift it :bounce: (and I am not into weight lifting or anything like that :lol: ) I reckon it weighs about 10-15kg. Well, after hearing your opinions, and considering the fact that it's not going to carry any fish initially and is going to be a quarantine/breeding tank anyway - I think I'll just give it a try and let you know how 'badly' it goes :roll: Thanks everyone

Hey guys! A quick question: I have a tiny 1 foot tank I would like to keep running as a quarantine/breeding tank. Is it alright to put it on the fridge or will the potential guests be disturbed by the fridge's vibrations? Any thoughts? :roll: Thanks, Dan

LOL Wok! And welcome bigstats! What Luke and Wok recommend sounds perfectly fine to me Dan

Cool, thanks for that! I guess, if we want one, I'll have to order it too then

Is anyone aware of any freshwater pufferfish species in New Zealand? Back in Europe we used to have one of these little fellas: http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=25293 Carinotetraodon travancoricus Malabar pufferfish Even though he was a bit of a troublemaker, we miss him... Haven't come across any pufferfish at all so far?!? BTW: The link is to my favourite source for basic info on any type of fish - if you don't have it there already, I recommend bookmarking it