SpidersWeb

I was going to put my black gravel back over the top, otherwise the clown loaches will just rip everything up, that does sound like a nice mix tho Thanks again

To explain the term plec or pleco, it's short for plecostomus, or in full 'Hypostomus plecostomus' which is a species of catfish that was common in the 60s/70s. Over time the word 'pleco' has become used to describe the entire family of Loricariidae (suckermouth catfish), its not a scientific term though just a common title/name. If it's a suckermouth catfish, people will call it a 'pleco' even though its not really. Congrats on the GBAs, great fish, I've got 5 I've grown up from babies to adults, they're hard workers and look great.

Daltons it is!

Oh wow, didn't think it was that cheap, nevermind :oops: Thanks again

Yep males will often 'bump' each other, and try to keep younger males away from the food until they've had their feed. I've watched my GBAs do it, dominant male and females eat, then if they persist the smaller boys get a turn later. To prevent this, just put in two algae tabs My big plecs do it too, our 35cm common plec gets a little agro when our 25cm redspot gets in his cave or tries to eat his precious shrimp, they just kind of headbutt each other. It's natural, as long as no damage is being done and nobody is being contiously harrassed its fine.

Thanks, I'll cross that off my list.

Can you use compost under gravel? What about top soil? What other cheap alternatives are there for a planted substrate that will fertilise root feeders? I know JBL 7 balls are good, just would prefer a proper substrate too but dont want to pay for Daltons Aquatic mix etc

Have to disagree a wee bit, head of the water has no effect on the floor at all, water has the same weight at ground level as it does 1m high, the height of a tank does not increase the force/pressure downwards. Spreading the load is a good idea tho, but often you'll find that the floor itself is capable of distributing the weight across the beams anywho, unless its cork tile or chip board or something cheap. sharn said her stand has a flat base rather than legs, so that should be primo. I've got a steel stand here holding ~400kg (350L + decorations) which is made out of hollow steel, it has no feet at all just the steel hitting the ground, no problem at all. Under our 650L + 450L tank setup we do have a platform tho to help.

Found this in another thread too

Say it weights in at 500Kg, divide by 4 and thats 125kg per point on a 4 legged stand. Lets say you have 4 mates who weigh 100Kg, and their 60kg girlfriends jump in to their arms, thats 4 pressure points of 160kg. Much more weight than your tank setup. If my floor collapsed because some girl jumps in to her boyfriends arms, I'd be pissed! Friend of mine is 125kg, he walks around no problems to floors He can hop around on one foot too. You'll find the building codes require a very high weight threshold. Something rediculous like 800kg/m2 (cant remember off top of my head). A 460L tank should not cause any problem at all.

Mine do it. I have 6, have had them for a month. Got 3 small ones, and 3 large ones from another store. If there is hiding holes they'll go to sleep in there, but if nothing is available they'll sleep anywhere. I watched mine do it in the store before I bought them (no caves), since bringing them home I've only seen them sleep on their side inside rocks/caves etc. Mine are with kribensis, angels. platys, neons etc

Female guppies are always pregnant, 5 minutes with a male and viola. You can ignore it or maybe get some java moss or something so the new born babies can hide. They are livebearers, so there are no eggs etc like normal fish, they just pop them out every 6 weeks. Normally around 15-30 depending on how big they are and how much and what types of food they've eaten.

That's awesome. Good work

Thanks for the offer Caryl We will be fine though. I think salt will do him good. I haven't moved him yet, but will today, somebody bit him :evil: he's still swimming around, and was looking better last night, but worse this morning eck

Was thinking no taps, tray, and $10 tubing, spray bar is just a 20c piece of plastic with holes in it. Media and power head would be the big costs. Reason I was posting this was for larger tanks, where a sump wasn't desired but a large media area was. So even if it cost $300, it'd still be a bargin. The new Aquis filters have made larger capacity externals a bit more in reach though. Our tank is only 650 litres, so we've wimped out and opted to purchase an Aquis 2400 to add to the setup. A Fluval FX5 would be ideal, but it's just too expensive. Tank currently has 2 x AquaOne 1200L/hr internals for flow, and a single Jebo 819. It just isn't doing the job with that fish load unfortunately. Either that or train oscars to eat properly, that tank grows inch long tubifex worms all the time, despite weekly gravel cleans :roll: Thanks wok, I'll do a search and have a read

Plecs generally live in polluted waters in the wild, so should be ok. Just make sure to feed algae tablets. If they are bristlenose then make sure the tank has wood in it. Personally I think Danios are the best first fish to go for. I'm quite liking pearl danios lately. What type of 'plec' is it? Golden Bristlenose?

How much salt in the water?

Most common way is to have the tank heights offset, with the top tanks having overflows and plumbed in to the next below. Sucks from the bottom tank and delivers to the top tank. In all honesty, probably easier to just get individual internal filters for each tank.

wet/dry filters basically drip water over the material, as apposed to submersing them completely like a cannister. The extra aeration makes for better bacterial growth. I think feeding one of these systems 3 times the original current, would likely end up with the media being fully submersed and overflowing. Not sure, haven't seen the design on yours, only Jebo tank I have is the R338, which oddly is only 38L and has a 400L/HR wet/dry

I'd be thinking acrylic rather than glass at that size. Our tank is less than 1.5m long and uses 12mm glass, so 8 metres umm yeah thats some glass. Message TankMan on here, he makes tanks of this calibre on occasions, in all shapes and sizes too. Probably a good idea to get a quote too lol I'd definately say 'dont try this at home'. You're talking about 4 tonnes of water here.

Algae grows when resources aren't being used by your plants. Your plants dont use resources when they're missing another resource, you've just gotta find out which Fun fun! Adding DIY CO2 or Flourish Excel will help your existing plants make better use of nitrates etc Increasing the light hours benefits both the plants and the algae, so this isn't really a cure I'm affraid. Increasing water changes will decrease any excess nitrates/phosphates etc which the algae thrives off Adding a trace elements fertiliser will help the plants get one over on the algae Adding fast growing stem plants is another good way to absorb excess nutrients. Using AlgaeFix is temporary fix but its an option too Not an answer there, but hopefully something more for you to think about, so you can work out what to do next

Some pet stores do it too. The holes for water circulation are considered a luxury sometimes. They're amazingly tolerant of water conditions, and can breathe atmospheric air, so it doesn't hurt them to be in a small container (although I'm sure its unpleasant for them). What I really hate is when people dont change the water :evil: and you can see the betta looking ill from the ammonia build up and anaerobic bacteria.

yey for lids :lol:

You can keep the males together from birth, but as soon as you re-arrange the tank, or seperate them, they will fight to the death.

The special ingredient is love or perhaps all this politically correctness and art has made the Wellington flies too soft?