SpidersWeb

haha Every 12 inches (300mm) it had a 4x2 (err 100x50) going across, each with 2 inches of poly (err 50mm) taped to the top of each and the tank (10mm glass) seated on top. There was the ring of 4x2 around the edges that the sides of the tank could rest on as well, but these had no poly on them, so weren't used to support the tank. Admittedly I laughed when I saw the supports, but it held up. I wouldn't have set it up like this, but it lasted a decade filled to the top with tropicals in a rest home before I got it, no cracks or stress marks either on the base glass. Tank was the usual 6x2x2 (err 1500x600x600)

Angels do better in either large groups or large tanks. If the aggression doesn't stop after a day or so, I'd sincerely recommend taking your new angel out. The angel will get stressed, immune system will drop, and it will get sick. If the angel has enough room, and the fighting only happens when it goes to the wrong side of the tank, then that is ok. But if its continually being harrassed and the dominant angel doesn't back off after a day or so, it wont end well. Sounds like you've got two of the same sex, likely two males.

haha I know what thats like. Do it myself. Ask around here, I was giving away my baby bristlenose (nothing left now though, and sold my breeding pair). Usually can be found for quite cheap outside of pet stores as they're fairly easy to breed. The young ones are fantastic at cleaning, golden or common, they're like little algae machines. Only tanks I never had bristlenose in were tanks with fish eggs or tanks with fish that would eat the britlsenose (oscars etc) then I'd use a redspot/common plec.

Congrats Black with Silver, I think they'll all come out silver as black is recessive. I used to breed the black females with the white male, as white is recessive as well (so I'm told), that provided black offspring. Looks like you're having fun over there

3/4" wont be a problem at all. Don't even worry about it. I had a 6' setup that had supports every 12 inches rather than a continous base. Had been setup before I got it for about 10 years.I wouldn't recommend doing this, but shows how small 3/4" is a problem for you

Watch out with the golden algae eater (chinese algae eater). They're cute at first but as they grow they usually become aggressive, and you may find it sucking on the side of the gourami. For algae the more peaceful options are bristlenose, or siamese algae eater (imported in to NZ as Siamese Flying Fox I think, they're usually either SAE's or Flying Foxes, both are good at algae consumption) (otos are even better but harder to keep). I had 5 at one stage, were great (active/colourful) until they started to get older. After a few months I had to get rid of them. Just something you should keep in mind.

For $30 you can buy digital power meters from DSE etc You can also enter the price per kWH and it'll give you the dollars and cents a device has used since it was plugged in. I have one, never actually used it though

It's a common pond snail. They're quite good really. Don't eat plants, will eat most leftovers, if there is lots of food they'll breed, if not the population naturally lowers. Not poisonous. Live in cold or warm water. I used them in fry tanks a fair bit. If you don't like the look of them, they can be hard to get rid of. I usually leave them to it.

A fan (like used inside computers etc) could be another viable option if cooling is a problem. Jaycar has a fairly decent range of them, mostly 12V DC though so you'd need an adaptor.

You can get T5HO tubes in many lengths. Including baby ones for much smallers tanks. Ballast controls the power to the light. Light fitting holds the light, and maybe the ballast as well. For a 50x50cube metal halide would be badass, certainly go MH if you can for that

Could also just go with 4 x T5HO or something. Not as direct/intense as MH but spreads the light a lot better without having to be hung high off the surface. PS the ballast is a device used to limit current, sounds like by '150W ballast' you actually mean a 150W metal halide fitting.

Getting your pH below 7 usually requires rainwater, reverse osmosis unit, or peat in the filter. I haven't found tap water yet that was soft enough to go below 7. 7.2 is perfectly fine for most fish, stability is MUCH more important, and a lower pH is harder to manage (due to a lack of buffering). For the vast majority of fish kept in aquariums, going below 7 is only needed to induce spawnings, and even then its usually the hardness of the water and conductivity thats important and the pH is just a bi-product of those factors. If you've been using pH down, throw the bottle away. If your nitrate keeps going up, that is a good sign the bacteria is working, it shouldn't be long before ammonia and nitrite drop to 0. If your fish start gasping for air etc then chances are your ammonia is too high, if the nitrite gets too high it usually resolves in a fairly quick death, so try to keep that low (measurable to encourage bacteria growth, but not higher than that, 0.1 is likely a good figure).

My fish did this, you'd invite people over to see the giant gourami, and how he'd jump out of the water to grab courgette from you, then he sees them and shyly goes to the back of the tank. Lionheads did the same, angels weren't too bad but more cautious around strange company. Was away from them for a week, came back and my angels went crazy, fins straight up jumping around. (They were fed in this time just not by me) Few years back I had a 3ft tank full of baby platties (200 or so), when I'd come down the stairs you'd see the water splashing. For other people they'd come to the surface, but for me they'd go crazy.

It isn't any more expensive to run, since the glass below is insulated, most of the heat goes up through the tank anyway. Its low wattage, so usually (not always) you'd have a normal heater, and this would just warm up the gravel. Reason for it usually is to encourage better root growth on plants. There are people on here (Caryl is one I think) who've set up their tanks to be heated purely undergravel. I don't think off the shelf kits are meant for this though. Haven't used UNIMAX filters, but the specs on the 500 look good. You'd have ~3000L/hr on a 900 tank so that is 3.4x turnover which isn't too bad and I'd imagine would work out really well. But you might want to consider a Fluval FX5 or two depending on stocking levels. My better looking and healthier setups have usually had 5x an hour turnover or slightly more, doesn't mean its essential though. I've certainly run much less before.

Oscar grow out tank na plants (maybe) + lots of wood and stones to create a textured landscape with lots of small holes and caves. Add various dwarf cichlids, blue rams, apistogramma agasezii etc etc In the top levels some gorgeous angel fish (a lot more interesting than you'd think), and then some dithers (neon tetras are dumb and slow, maybe cardinals, black neons definately work well, danios are great but not american). Angels are great to watch and you dont need to be up close. They don't hide like babies either so most people will appreciate the beauty. Then you'll have dwarf cichlids frollicking around in the undergrowth, defending territories, scouting for food, they're awesome and in a large tank do really well (e.g. multiple pairs can co-exist happily). PS blue rams have huge balls, adult angelfish will not treat them as edible but rather a worthy opponent so I found.

I try to go for 1W per litre in doors, or 1.5W per litre in a garage etc. See how it goes. If the room the tank is in does get noticably cold at times, I'd want to add a 100-150W heater as well, set to come on a degree lower than the existing one (its just there as backup in case it does get to cold). To be honest though, most tropical fish don't mind the odd dip in temperature, as long as its not a regular occurance. When filling up your tank use some warm/hot water as well, otherwise it's going to take a long time for the 200 to heat it up. Depends how patient you are though

Yeah gravid spot on platy doesn't really work. What I do is look at their size and more importantly their vent, it opens before they drop, usually a day ahead from what I've seen. Hard to describe but once you see it its kinda obvious. Also I have a proven breeding pair of common bristlenose that are probably going to hutt pets on the weekend, nobody wants'em

high nitrite?? That's a serious killer for many fish. Sounds like your beneficial bacteria (converts ammonia to nitrite then to nitrate) has died off. What filter are you running, have you cleaned it recently, and how did you clean it? Has it been turned off? How long has it been setup for? High nitrate can cause algae blooms, but 10% weekly water changes should keep nitrate to sensible levels. If not then how much are you feeding?

Like I said, watch for the nitrite peak that will come after an ammonia peak. Thats what usually kills fish. Goldfish are quite hardy so you might be ok though.

Careful with Pummice, it likes to float.

Yeah when I had my giant gourami (sold last weekend) feeding the plec was almost impossible. Pleco tabs *munch*, courgette *gone*, the only way to get food to him was to put too much food in, enough that the GG simply couldn't get it all and some would get lost.

na that is a legitimate insurance claim. You'd be amazed at what you can claim for (one of my exs worked at IAG as a Claims Advisor).

Thin layer of Daltons, you don't need much, only a few mm deep bed right on the glass floor. Cover with gravel, thin gravel, like you'd normally find in a fishtank. Try to get as much as you can in there. Glarring at my fingers I'd guess a minimum of 50mm (considering your tank size, normally I'd try for more than that). Put in any rooted plants. Slowly fill with water, the slower you do it the less crap you'll get in the water. Hopefully the water will be clear, if not get some fine filter wool in the filter and P-Clear (a liquid that bonds particles together in aquariums). Usually the fish will produce enough nutrients/waste to keep the plants happy long before you'll run out of daltons nutrient. And if you DO experience nutrient lacking problems, a simple JBL Ball (substrate fert ball) can be squashed in near the plant that needs it. If your plants are all stem plants, then it wont be of any use, use Flourish instead or even better home made PMDD.

yep www.sog.co.nz as above, stores all over the country, apparently weed...err tomatoes.. like warm water.

or move the fish tank forward so that nobody can see it To minimise the effect you would've needed to have taken action immediately pressing lightly with an absorbant moist towel (not rubbing).