SpidersWeb

I agree. Best to send them down to someone else in ChCh. If you send Mon-Wed they'll arrive the next day. Make sure plecs etc are multiple bagged as they can piece the bag. I bought clown loaches yesterday and got home to find they'd pierced the bag and it was leaking. Or just take the name and have your lfs order them in for you, the only thing that really varies city to city is the stocked fish, most places have access to the same suppliers. If you want to get DIY then I'd recommend a battery backup air pump and a chilli bin. You'd have a portable fish tank, and at nights you could plug in a little 50W heater or something.

NIce save I've been up in the wee hours saving a tank before, gotta be done though. I saw you two at Hutt Pets the other week, but Ben didn't tell me who you were until you'd left so I didnt' say hi. Next time I'll introduce myself. Have a good one

Another trick is to put in a coke bottle, weight it down with some stones, then put in something yummy like courgette or algae tabs, wait a while, then lift coke bottle

Good news on getting yours sorted We moved in a 450L 12mm tank and the base cracked. We needed hired help to move it in to place, so to get it fixed we need a team to come pick it up, take it to theirs, install a 5' x 2' piece of 12mm glass, then bring it back and reinstall it. I am REALLY not looking forward to the quote. I could fix it myself but I literally dont have the ability to move it around.

Just remember: - Your tank will weight over half a tonne when finished - If the tank bends more than the poly allows the base WILL crack If you want to test it, get 8 or so friends standing on it. Personally I would never build a stand out of MDF, only use it as an exterior piece.

lol at least now we know who ate all the pies

Fair comment.

I'd go with a standard 20% water change, you're normal weekly cycle from now on. If there is something wrong the fish will tell you by gasping at the surface, or being overally lethargic etc In this case do 30% changes until the fish improve, allowing time in between. This allows the water temperature to settle so you don't shock the fish or bacteria. I'd add the plants as soon as possible (as they suck up the nitrate a bit).

Thats awesome!

I recommend just buying a pre-made aquarium light hood that just sits on the tank. But I have made my own and attached them to a wooden hood. I got 5 magnetic ballasts (~$9ea??), 5 starters (50c or something), 5 sprung loaded endcaps ($3?), 5 normal end caps ($3?), some thin wire ($10), some mains cable ($10) and a plug ($15) plus the 5 tubes ($7ea) and wired it all together. Goes great, and was much cheaper than buying pre-made units, but if you're not good with mains powered electronics, best to avoid it. Got the bits at a local electronics wholesaler. I will be DIYing a few more, just because I can't afford premade units and I've got another planted tank to setup in a few months. But next time I"ll go for those waterproof endcaps with the flying leads, and I'll try to get electronic ballasts which are much better.

semi colons are awesome

Even on chlorinated water supplies you dont need water ager. The amount of chlorine added to NZ water is pretty small and harmless to most fish. I only ever use water ager for fish younger than 2 weeks old. Most my tanks get their water changes with a hose, chlorinated flourinated cold water, most of the fish I have here come over to play in it. Never had problems with filters recycling after water changes, there just isn't enough chlorine in the water.

I syphen them out with a hose

lol thats not good If the tube itself is glowing green, then sounds like there has been a mixup. When mine have loose connections etc they flicker, but its always white, never seen them give off any kind of green, and I've got various brands in 2ft and 4ft sizes, all Cool Daylight, Colour 86, 6500K (whatever you want to call them. Might want to see whats written on the tube itself maybe?

Awesome No bath tub, but I've been feeding a bin full of rainwater dead bananas, trying to get a crazy greenwater thing going but its not working. Might make it in to a WCMM tank.

My cool daylight tubes are bright white, there is no glowing green. Unless its the reflection from your plants or something?? or algae?

Awesome poster! Good work.

No, didn't you hear? Its 'fries' :lol: :lol: Speaking of which, who wants Kribensis?

Sounds broken.

I meant paired (not necessarily breeding) cons. If you had just males or just females it'd probably be fine. Also depends a lot on tank size and the size of the FM compared to the convicts.

According to that link it does extend to Lower Hutt But we're getting ours from the river with chlorine and flouride. You'd feel like a bit of a spoon buying water ager in lower hutt if you knew that haha

Yep, anything that doesn't fit in the mouth, most of the more aggressive fish like Oscars seem to just leave them alone. Not good with Convicts though. They're a similar size so are competitive, and Firemouths are all talk, but convicts bite. I've made that mistake before.

Awesome Blue, any idea on when I'd be able to buy a few?

Yeah I dont want to modify the tank. Sealed would be great, any ideas on an ideal container?

Love it. Good work Rogan. Only one thing, as a rule 1.5W per litre (always been how I've done it, and on the back of a heater box last week it said that, when using less than that I've found the temp to dip a bit on really cold winter nights). I use 2 x 150W in my 200L tanks. Guess it depends on where you live etc a fair bit.