quack

when i first setup my first tank it had heaps a fake stuff in it, now they gone and i use wood, plants and stuff i prefer big fish aka oscars, so i also use a few fake plants still i also like big terracotta pipes too, the oscars and other cichilds love swimming though them and hiding in there. i have a little bit rock work but for my bigger fish it dosnt really turn out to well as i dont have many big rocks. my africans have coral rock tho and it looks sweet!

these filters are extremly cheap too! good to hear good feed back about them. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 255744.htm

you could also use purgin, as the biochem zorb it will keep the water crystal clear and imo purgin is far better than biochem. i have a tank with lots of driftwood in and it was really bowrny coloured, purgin cleared it up in hours

hey guys, if you wana make a diy diffuser, then i would think about making one of these: http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... plans.html they just go on the output of a canister, with this way you dont need extra pumps making more current losing co2, and you dont have bulky equipment in the tank. just have the output going to this then more pipe going from this to the tank

yeah same i was i bit worryed because its only going to be in that spot for a few months but it will only leave tiny holes that 2 screws would have made, wouldnt even be able to see them looking from the floor

yeah my one says not to have it in a light hood

pearling is when the plants are photosyntheising so much that the oxygen that the plants release cant disolve into the water and insted release oxgen bubbles. i got my MH for $230 250w with new 5500k bulb and hanging kit. looks realy nice too!!

hey RTBS have you tryed the other electrical wholesalers in pasco st?? also have you looked at riverlea in richmond, they have heaps of tubes in there.

i think you need to adjust the co2 rate to get the kh and the ph right. so the pH sould be around 6.8-7.2 and the kH around 5-8 sure someone will curret me if im wrong heres a good read http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/c ... d_tank.php

yeah damn convicts!

yeah i think that 2 250MH would look nice hanging over it :lol: im really happy with my MH and it defintly looks the part 8) dont forget to get some ferts for under your substrate either!

ha that happened to me but with convicts. they ended up in the canister

i also are doing the same as you, reef and penguinleo. i looked into under gravel heating, but gave up as budget was already WAY over and couldnt find anything that i could afford so i just got a normal heater co2: i wouldnt bother with diy, ive been using diy for a while now and its such a pain in the arse and i found that my pressurised setup has much better results and much more accurate. maybe if u carnt afford to get a good system you could use the diy until the buget will yet you.

hey blueandkim how much you after for the solenoid

im an aluminum joiner, so i get most of my glass free or cheaper than trade, i think that you should go around some joinerys and sweet talk to them because they should have stacks of 5mm glass that they would happly give you! at work we through out heaps of glass!

i have severum, jack dempceys, redspot pleco, festivem, convict, jag, red parrot, blue acara and a syno cat in my tank with my oscars. i started off with all of my fish from babys, this way they have all grown up together and get along fine apart from the odd flearing season between the smaller guys most of the time i find that as long as the other fish wont fit in the o's mouth it will be fine, although sometimes they think that there mouth is bigger than what it is so make sure that it carnt bit half of the new fish. i have a mate who also has lots of different types of cichilds in wtih his o's and some of them would easly fit in the o's mouth but they seem fine. everys o's different so its really just trail and error but whats in my tank should be fine if theyre right size imo

you could get an oscar! you might need to upgrade him to a bigger tank in the futer tho.

get just about any size tank, add water, add guppys to a ratio of about 5 female to 1 male also java moss is a good addition to for the babys to hide in and keep the water a bit cleaner. temp shoud be around 26-27 just a simple sponge filter will do. i found that if the female was a bit young and had babys she would die a few day later. so buy the biggist plumpest females. most of the time when buying the guppys if the females are mixed with the males then the females will all ready be pergnint.

hahaha carnt wait till mine arive, i ordered an extra 3 for my 2 i have now :bounce: will take some pics when they settle in, there should be here on thusday 8)

i thnk the co2 lowers the pH. i thought you need to test the pH and the kh for co2? heres a pic of the chart.

the sump on one of my tanks uses up heaps and it hasnt been changed of ages, also the ar980 use it up heaps too. i dont go though much on my canisters, just the meantion filters get dirty really fast. dont know why the ar980 does,but its picks up the muck really fast!

were does veryone get there filter wool. if i buy it from the lfs it costs me a frutune! i was buy it from spotlight but they alway run out and take ages to get it again. they had other stuf there but it said on the pack it had been treated for mold and bacteria and stuff what other places can i buy it in bulk of it at a good price. thanks for the help!

what kind of uv light have you been using? what k rating are you tubes? looking good so far! are those panda corys? i love them thats what i want for my tank, but they are almost imposible to get in nelson ( in saying that everythings hard to get here)

so how do you maintain them then?

yeah it looks great! im still not sure tho ive seen a few pics of tanks using gloso that looked amazing. the lfs had some "hair grass" in the other day but it looked really shit and long not like the suff in yours antwan. does it have a scientific name or anything?