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That means I'll need an overflow though Not keen on an overflow.

I was wanting it to be sealed so that if it clogs up I dont drain my tank on the floor, but I see where you're going with this....I could just use a bin as a sump, put the powerhead after the container and put an overflow in the tank. Pure genius shiuh. I'll get right to working on the pretty pictures.

Has anyone done this before? Was thinking if I had a big sealable container I could fill it with material to act as a bio filter, put two plumbing fittings on it, and plumb it to a big powerhead. Nothing complex, just huge filter area and a huge power head. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on this?

Noted

I think that could be done without going crazy, but by hardcore I mean injecting CO2 heavily and ferts etc and making the plants pearl. Anyway downsides: - they use a lot of power, smallest is 150W - they concentrate in one area, unlike T8/T5 which spreads the light evenly - they get very very hot - due to the heat sometimes when splashed the glass can shatter on the light (although its supposed to be heat treated so it doesnt) - they can't be seated on the top of the tank due to heat and light concentration, need to be held above, most people hang them from the ceiling. Upsides: - much more intense light - deeper penetration so your grass plants will grow hardcore, something T8/T5 isn't good at

...and the girls only go to the most dominant male who looks after the eggs, the females will wait until he is free then go visit his cave.

AFAIK 4 foot 1220mm is the longest tubes you can get. T5 would be best but T8 is the easiest to get parts for and cheaper. I'd go with two double 4fts to start with, then add another double if you need the extra light. 4ft tubes are 36Wea I think. 6500K Daylight tubes are around $8-10ea at an electrical wholesaler or bunnings etc dont give off much heat at all and no drama if it gets wet. btw T8 is your normal thickness fluoro, T5 is thinner and gives off much more light, but harder to get bits for and the bits are more costly. I wouldn't go MH unless you're prepared to go hardcore with planting, as there are a lot of downsides, but it certainly is the best for plants by far.

I have both blue and white Platys in my tanks.

I reckon though, if you're doing pressurised CO2, I'd go for 2 150W metal halides. deepblue has them for $200ea

With or without CO2? And you mean 65 inches, as in 5.5ft/1950mm?

There is a lot of fun to be had in the simplicity of a small tank. I've got one of those little all-in one Jebo tanks here in the office and they're great. $100-$200 and they have everything minus a heater, only trouble might be the power of the filter, our 38L tank came with a 400/Lhr filter, now the tank is damn clean but good lord is there a strong current in there!! Anyway point of my story is you can do a little tank for cheap and have a lot of fun doing it While you're setting up the Malawi's you'll be able to go to the LFS, spend $5 on a fish, and be able to bring it home and enjoy Depends on your budget though I guess, my fish want list is certainly too big to buy any more tanks I'm short on filters, heaters, and lights now.

Yeah and there is some real fancy Platy varieties out there, a lot more than guppies (with the exception of the Phil Collins stock but that'll cost $). Whites, oranges, yellows, sunsets, tuxedo, bronze, two-bar yellow, mickey mouse, and combinations of those plus more and irrelevant of what you like you're talking $3 a fish. I've got about 200 I'm growing out, then will take 20 or so females, and put them in with my pride and joy - he's bright orange fading to yellow (like a sunset) with a gorgeous flowing hi-fin and he's full of energy, not one of those 'I was raised with salt' wussies. A lot of fun, easier to keep than guppies too (less prone to disease). A problem I had with guppies when I had them as a kid was inbreeding, if left on their own for too long I found I ended up with mostly hunchbacks and their wild colouration.

Males grow long bristles on their face (hence the name bristlenose), females dont (although they may get a few stumpy bits).

Well they're a little shy on cermaic noodles, and you can definately get more stuff in them, but I felt their offering satusfactory, although I replaced the carbon with filter wool, and admittedly added to the ceramic noodles.

Jebo 819 comes pretty full with media 8) I still swear by the 819, but on our bigger tanks we're going to need 2000LPH+ so we'll be buying at least two of the Aquis 2400 for those (1100 litres combined).

I like river rocks and slate rock, and driftwood. I dont like fake ornaments although I use terrecotta pots to help with breeding in some tanks. Fish we have here: Community fish: 6 Neon Tetra Around 200 Platys 5 Zebra Danio 3 Leopard Danio 5 Pearl Danio (conditioning for breeding atm) 2 Red Bettas (male/female) 3 Clown Loaches 1 Siamese Algae Eater 2 Dwarf Gourami 2 Kissing Gourami Cichlids: 5 Oscar Cichlids (fish that audibly chew with teeth are awesome!) 12 Angel Cichlids (Angelfish, 1 breeding pair of Koi Marble) 8 Firemouth Cichlids (1 M/F pair, rest singles) 3 Festivium Cichlids (1 M/F pair, and 1 single girl) 2 Kribensis (M/F pair, I have about 40-50 fry in a 30L tank atm) 2 Gold Severums (Breeding Pair) 1 huge Green Severum Catfish: 5 Golden Bristlenose 2 Redspot Plecs (15 and 25cm) 1 common Plec (30cm)

Sorry for your loss But what brand of heater was it?

I haven't seen any yet, but they should be. I'm hearing only really good things about them.

Welcome from Upper Hutt again! We've got 5 oscars, great fish! Would also love some angels, we've got 4 we're growing up at the moment that would love some more company - what do they look like?

Also depends on how you diffuse it. With a standard ladder or spiral you can never OD on CO2 as it just wont absorb enough. I recommend using small filters to diffuse the CO2, it works a LOT better, so much better that the word 'lot' deserved the bold and italics given to it.

No. CO2 just makes things grow faster. Despite faster results the other advantage to plants growing faster is that they use all their fertiliser resources before algae does, so the tank is more tolerant and less likely to go crazy with algae growth. It will also allow the plants to make better use of the light they're given. In a well lit, well fertilised tank, the difference between CO2 and no CO2 is huge. Another alternative is to use Flourish Excel, a carbon supplement, which provides an alternative way for the plants to get carbon.

Diffusion will be really good if you put the CO2 in the intake, the impeller will really munch the bubbles up, and better to have the CO2 going across the tank than back up to the surface

haha turn your bubbles in to bubba bubbles Sounds like you got a good plan going

Take a cup or so of tap water, leave it overnight, and test the pH the next day. You'll find the pH changes as the various gasses escape. Tap water will always be above pH 7 to prevent pipe corrosion but can vary depending on what your council put in it. .

lol thats true I didn't have a powerhead lying around, and at the LFS powerheads were like $40.