SpidersWeb

Free for all. Although you may find some males prefer certain females etc. If an inbreeding problem occurs, just feed anyone with a bent spine to the turtles.

Hopefully it's just being odd, but there is also the possibility of a fluid buildup etc doesn't force them to slant, but makes them want to when they relax. We had a 9 inch Oscar die a few months back due to a Kidney failure, fluid built up and as it got worse the oscar would spend more and more time on its side, you could see the fish was 'fatter' on one side of the body though. If the condition gets worse and the fish becomes lethargic, I'd consider taking it to your vet for some perscription anti-biotics. But as above our oscars slant over too, normally when looking at things, especially if you've put something new on top of the tank, or something awesome on the bottom and they want a good look/stare. They're normally a very hardy fish, so hopefully its just being curious PS those neons wont last long, once he gets one and learns then he'll get the rest in seconds. They swallow them hole, then chew using teeth in their throat. We've fed neons before, but prefer feeding danios as a treat now as they're less likely to be diseased and they're faster (so they last longer )

Definately no carbon. Carbon is used for pulling chemicals out of the water, not necessary, and usually needs to be replaced every 30 days, not worth it. To polish the water you could use a product like Seachems Purigen which is rechargeable and does a much better job. I'd want it 2/5 noodles, 2/5 sponges, 1/5 fine wool/sponge, but thats just a personal choice of how I set mine up where possible. Biggest limitation is the price of the noodles, so you may find yourself using a lot of sponges :lol: esp. after paying for an FX5. I hope you love it though It's the McDaddy of filters.

Whenever there is room left, and I can't afford cermaic noodles (MUCH MUCH better), then I put in gravel from the fish tank, or filter wool. And by filter wool I mean the inside of an old pillow that keeps getting smaller.

Hey guys, Question gets asked a lot, and there is a lot of text examples, but I thought I'd do a video to help those still having trouble. In the video I signup for a photobucket account, log in, upload a photo, and post it on the forum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eSmTunbapM Photobucket can be found at http://photobucket.com Enjoy

Oh and 'pH Up' is basically Baking Soda in a bottle.

Bird Grit in the filter is a lot easier, as the pH drops more of the grit dissolves, so it sort of self-manages itself. I use coral sand because I bought a 10kg bag of the stuff. Bird grit will be easier to get though. Another option is just putting a shell in the tank. But with baking soda, the 'rule' of sorts is 1tspn per 50L raises the KH by 4 degrees. I dont know what your KH level is, but I'd guess around 1 or less. I like a KH of 3, so lets say 1tspn per 80L, which would mean 2 tspns for your whole tank, and 1/10 of a teaspoon whenever you remove two buckets of water (bucket being 8 litres). To see the affect of any of the methods above, you want a KH testing kit (Carbonate Hardness/Alkalinity). KH is the 'buffering capacity', more KH the less the pH swings, but it also raises the pH at the same time. Most my tanks sit at 7 - 7.5. In all honesty though, with all that messing about, I'd just get some bird grit :lol:

Frozen or Dried? Dried is fine, but frozen is known to carry parasites (or something like that) which can cause a dropsy condition in some fish including betta and dwarf gourami. Depends on the fish too though, weaker strains seem more susceptible. I lost a dwarf and red crowntail Betta, but haven't lost any since I stopped feeding the worms. Hate not feeding them though fish absolutely LOVE them, you'd think I'd stuck a hit of heroin or something in there and they were drug addicts. Marko - I'd just feed normal tropical flakes, only one I'd watch closely is the BGK, make sure you see him eat during the week at some stage. I hear you can train them to eat from your hand, so might want to sneak him some bloodworms If you're growing out fish, pick a flake that has a higher protein content than the other brands.

Also consider having a tank custom made, at those sizes it will save you a lot of money. We have 5 oscars in a 650L tank, but we plan to only leave 3 adults in there later on, they do take a while to grow to full size I've found, also have a few severums and a couple of different species of pleco in there too. I do also recommend Gold or Green Severums, and Convicts, both are species that will breed in the tank despite any big nasty fish and it's fun to watch. With any large cichlid (Severum, Oscars) or plecos (which you'll need to clean up oscar leftovers) any plant that isn't fake will be ripped apart. We put a 50cm tall Borneo sword in our tank, and once the oscars had finished biting it, the common pleco finished it off by sucking on the stems, I removed it the next day and it was totally destroyed :( While a 300L is huge in terms of smaller fish, or even angel fish etc, for the big guys like arowana, knives, and oscars its only a juvenile tank. Two oscars would be fine in there, but when they get to 25cm or so you'd want to get a bigger tank, you wouldn't HAVE to, but I would. The mrs saw a baby Arowana a few weeks back for $130 and badly wanted it, and we had a tank for it (450L), but we decided against it anyway since they seem to have this problem with dropeye and we'd just feel sad for it all the time, despite that, an amazing fish though! Is having an 'All-in-One' tank essential for you? If not, then let us know the price, and we might be able to budget you out something much larger

Yep, I recommend a handful or two of coral sand too, put it in a pantyhose in your filter. Sounds like your water has a very low KH making it easy for the pH to swing.

1) Water will be just fine Adding a product like Cycle will speed up the process, but isn't necessary. Getting a handful of stones from an established tank will certainly kick start things though. 2) Yes, heater and filter on, lights dont matter too much. The filter is what you are actually cycling, and keeping a stable temp helps the bacteria a little. 3) All good options, but personally I'd keep away from the black widows, in the past I found them to be 'nippy' towards other fish, and other club members seemed to share their dislike for them, but if you really like the look of them then sweet as You will love the personality of angels, and it varies fish to fish, from grumpy to curious to gentle, and they interact with the owner. I guarnatee if they get too big, you'll be buying a bigger tank! 4) I'd add the Zebra Danios first. Then black widows (if I didnt change your mind), then bristlenose, then neons, then angels. Neons tend to be more sensitive than you'd think, I think they're only recommended as cycling fish because they are a dime a dozen. Danios are much hardier, and probably wont notice any ammonia or nitrite spikes while the tanks filter cycles. 5) Get an account with photobucket, upload picture, click on the box where it says 'IMG Code', then paste it in to your post, it'll look like this: [img=http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j307/DrRabid/Fish%20Tanks/male_krib.jpg] But once you submit it'll pop up like this: Big welcome to the forums! Good luck with your new tank!

If the bubbles are escaping, then yeah that's wasted CO2. Most people use a diffuser, or ladder, which keeps the bubble underwater for longer (search google for CO2 diffuser, or even trademe). What I do however, is buy a $20 baby filter with one of those 'Venturi Air Inlet' things (basically an air pipe on the outlet), then connect that to the CO2. That way when the bubble comes out it hits water moving at 400L/hr or more and is crushed in to smaller bubbles. If there is too much CO2 going in, its less effective, which helps prevent you from overdosing the tank too much. They'll start gasping at the surface if there is too much CO2, or insufficent O2. If you've injected CO2 using the method I describe above, turn off your powerhead/minifilter at night, and have another filter or similar making some water disturbance, just enough to keep the O2 coming in umm hope that helps? Example of filter that I use below, its on a timer with the lights, to lower CO2 I bring it closer to the top of the tank, and to increase O2 I raise the filter outlet of my external filter a little bit, eventually you find the sweet spot: Using this method, when the CO2 is going (yeast mixes), the plants are producing so much oxygen you can see the bubbles forming and rising to the top (called pearling). Best way is using compressed CO2 if you can afford it of course! Precise control means you can put in more CO2 safely using much better diffusers without worrying about overdosing by accident etc. I'd much prefer this latter method, but not everyone can afford it. Oh and I'm assuming your tank is at least 150L, if its smaller than 150L I'd stick to using a normal plastic diffuser, and pointing a filter outlet in its direction.

I've got six, ranging in size. They're heaps of fun, I drop in about 3-4 ramshorn snails and the loaches just fly out from hiding and race to get their own snail, they'll push, intimidate, race, whatever it takes to get their snail. Cracks me up. Mine are on a diet though, some of them were actually looking physically obese :-? One thing I will say, is if your tank isn't big enough, its only a problem if you want to keep the loaches forever. It's not very hard to find people who want big clown loaches, I recently paid $70 for one and drove it 7 hours home. I've also had absolutely no problem with them and plants, even with a sand substrate. If you decide to keep them forever, you'll need to keep upgrading your tank every few years or so. Oldest I've seen on here was 22 years old, but in the wild apparently they can live up to 80. They can be bred in captivity too, its just not many people have access to clowns that are big enough or the live food required to initiate a spawn. Also it does take them some time to get used to you, and I recommend lots of caves and dither fish. Mine have become much happier now that they are in with angel fish.

T5 is better than T8, however T8 is cheaper. For lighting bare tanks I'd use a single T8 tube. If you are growing plants and dont mind paying the little extra for T5, then totally go for it, they're smaller and more efficent and produce more light. T8 Daylight tubes can be had for $6-8 in 120cm 36W at any electrical wholesaler, or even Mitre10 Mega, Bunnings etc

When I read that my first thoughts were TB also (but I'm not exactly a vet).

Need to select it first I just moved the to just in front of the http bit e.g. [img=http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/marq1/filter.jpg] instead of http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h176/marq1/filter.jpg[img][/img]

I found with some cichlids that bristlenose would eat their eggs while they slept.

lol just turn the old tap off, raise above the height of your tank (stand on a chair), turn old tap on, then change the taps, turn new tap off, reconnect, lower hose, turn tap on and power up No spills!

Try having the store order you in a Jebo 819, only a few dollars more and to date I haven't heard of any problems. We have four of these filters and they're fantastic, 819 has HUGE media capacity and comes with media like the CF1200 does but also includes taps that dont have cracks in them (patent pending :lol: ).

Too much surface agitation will diffuse the CO2 in to the atmosphere. But if your plants aren't producing enough O2, then you'll need that agitation to keep the fish breathing.

Yep. I've got 5 x 4ft tubes on my 1200x400x450. I used tinfoil as a reflector but would probably recommend just using white paint. Nice and bright but I'm using the TLD86 6500K T8 tubes they're a nice bright white, no visible problems, but I've had hair algae problems which are probably unrelated but will be keen to hear what others say about the importance of the CRI with regards to plant/algae growth. Next time I'll use higher quality T5 tubes and/or MH.

Might pay to ask around about the FX5. I've heard people having trouble with them, but I'm not certain on the details.

Clean water is often the best cure, you can do partial daily water changes (20-30%), feed once daily and make sure NO food is left on the bottom after 2 minutes. If fish condition doesn't improve within a week then there is something in your water supply, or possibly some contamination (e.g. fly spray, or detergents). Salt is a great tool and a half dose might be an idea to help,but I wouldn't add any commercial products to your aquarium. Melafix is great for repairing damage etc but when fish are sick I've never found it helpful. If you have a fish of paticular value that needs saving, I'd recommend a hospital tank/bucket and Furan2 or salt.

Not too bad, but it certainly does. I've got tanks here at 30-32C and they need topping up weekly. I raise my baby golden bristlenose in 30C water, and most my other fry in 29-30C. BN will be fine in 27C and you'll probably find your thermostat is out by 2 degrees anyway lol its really hard finding accurate ones that work, I had some that disagree with each other by 3 degrees :roll: My GBAs first bred at 22C, but I've heard of them breeding in 30C too, most important thing is a nice cave they can settle in to. I added a cave and 3 days later had eggs.

Yeah I think it'd be suited well to a single pair (M/F) of adult angels, or a few young ones. Corys etc will be fine because they use a different swimming space. I've got my angels with clown loaches. Its hard to say because it depends on attitude and sex of the angels. You might be able to keep 4 females, or 1 male and 3 females perhaps. So all in all I'd say go for it provided you will have tank space in the future to at least move 2 of the angels out at a later date. Danios tend to be a better match with angelfish because they're fast, large tetras would be ok but eventually the angels will eat fish like neon tetras etc and oh boy do they LOVE live food once they've learned how to catch it. Also some of the fancier types, especially the black colours, often seem to have a genetic problem where they dont grow very big. I've got 3 angels at the moment that are about 10cm tall including fins with optivistors (spelling?) sticking out and bloated with roe. Can't use that as a rule however but it seems that 'mini-angelfish' can't be far away.