SpidersWeb

Looks awesome, but also looks kind of bulky. This is what I use: Put it next to a 100mL bottle of Flourish for a size comparison. I paid $25 for it new from our LFS. Its 200L/hr and has a thing so you can turn it down if you want. It can be discretely placed behind a small rock, and blows the CO2 across the tank, I'd say diffusion was around 95% if not better as only a few very micro bubbles make it to the top. When used in conjunction with a 2.25 DIY yeast mix and my 5 T8 lights it makes Java Fern, Amazon Sword, Melon Sword, Java Moss, and some other plant I have whom name I dont remember pearl. Never made the sag grass pearl though Running two 2.25L DIY yeast mixes with this I overdosed the CO2 and the fish were gasping, had to remove one of the mixtures, so it certainly works well for the price. Only bad things about the Elite filter is that the suction cups SUCK, I just lean a rock on mine which also hides it from view. Also using this method you get bubbles blown across your tank (about 20cm out), I like that but if you dont then its not a good choice. I use this type of setup on two tanks now and it works great.

Yes that would certainly do a good job, possibly 100%. However for $25 you can get an Elite 200L/hr filter, its tiny and you hook the CO2 line to the venturi on the out line, and get similar results out of the box except instead of blowing CO2 down, it blows it across the tank directly at the plants. It would get saturated tho if you tried putting more than 2 bubbles a second through it. I'll go take a photo of it so I can show you. Great thing with these setups is you can just put the filter on a timer with the lights, so you dont overdose the tank on CO2 with the lights out.

Surface Skimmer!! Yes! I'm so getting some of these.

Just an observation, but it says they're territorial which is a natural response to having the best spawning cave, so females wouldn't be territorial over caves compared to a male, so if you had a male/female pair with space they shouldn't fight ??? Just a thought.

Sounds perfect

I've got 5 T8's on my big one, and thats plenty bright enough, MH is a lot more intense though. Its a 4 foot 200L tank, and each tube is 30W I think? I can't remember how many watts a 4ft T8 is. They run cool compared to a MH, and I spill stuff on them all the time. So that would be .75W/L, not sure if thats good or bad but the reflection off the tank lights up my kitchen, dining room, and back section at night. If you're making it yourself, try to go for T5 as it produces a lot more light and they are smaller. I assembled mine myself (ballasts, wiring etc) but used T8 because I didn't want to wait (T5 stuff isnt normally stocked). If you're just buying off-the-shelf units, then check out www.sog.co.nz - so far they've had the cheapest lights I've seen. Under electrical items, they stock aquarium light units in single and double up to 4ft. They're T8 though. Good thing about T8's is they're only about $7-9 for a 6500K tube in any length up to 4ft, and the tubes last about a year-ish. http://www.deepblueaquarium.co.nz/ does T5 kits I *think* remember reading it on the site a while ago, might be worth an email, unless anyone knows of a better (a.k.a. cheaper) place?

When your fish start gasping at the surface (and there is SOME surface disturbance) thats too much. If your pH drops more than .2 thats too much, or you need to increase the kH (I use a handful of coral sand). I'd start at 1 bubble per 2 seconds, then start cranking her up a little each day. Actually thats a lie, I'd start at a bubble a second, but thats not safe advice.

Rad. I hate manually priming, paticularly when I dont take my mouth off the hose in time and get a mouthful of dead algae

Plants suck up CO2 and absorb the C (carbon) for growth, they then give off O2 (oxygen). When there is lots of light and CO2, they expel so much oxygen that they actually bubble at the leaves. These air bubbles look kind of like pearls all over the plant, and its known as'pearling'. In another post I read it could be done for around $150, but I'll let the MH boys fill you in on the finer details. Price varies depending on what you want it to look like, e.g. you can spend a thousand on a bling bling Arcadia setup, or hang a shop fitting with 150W MH bulb for $150.

lol Never mention you're buying a Mac, or your opinnion of Macs on an internet forum, you'll open a whole bag of ugly nerd worms! :lol: :lol: Glad to hear about your tank going well Make sure to keep an eye on the fish, WCMM are hardy but any measurable ammonia in a tank with a pH higher than 7 can lead to ammonia poisoning, if they start gasping or looking slow, increase your water changes until they look revived. High ammonia levels may be great for cycling your tank, but dont want to risk the fishies either, it can be a bit of a balance, so keep an eye out for them

They look like fabulous value. I'd be keen to hear what people have to say about them too. They say 'some media included', I wonder if they come full of media or if you have to provide most of it?

Careful with ferts though, lots of light + ferts demands CO2 or it'll go crazy with thread algae (at least mine did, killed most my plants it got that bad). 4 T8's will do a good plant job, I have 2 T8's on one of my planted tanks and with CO2 + Flourish I've noticed solid algae-free happy-plant growth, but certainly not 'super growth' (no pearling). Nothing compares to metal halide though. I wish I had gone for a single 150W MH rather than 5 30W T8's now on my big planted tank. If you use DIY CO2 make sure not to use that spongy soft air line tubing as it seems to leak CO2 like crazy, try to find the thicker more plastic stuff (less bendy, doesn't stretch). I think the SodaStream CO2 setup is the best idea so far, I haven't done this because I'm a cheapass but my life would be a lot easier if I had done it. Big pressurised setups I found too expensive and a hassle. SodaStream I can get filled at my local New World when I get my milk and bread.

I'd love some of those blues when they're ready for sale Billaney

Cheers We've been giving him these generic cichlid pellets, probably be a good idea if we go get some proper cichlid sticks, interesting question though, they're american BUT they're mostly vege so would an african cichlid pellet be best I wonder? We're going to make up a vege mix for him. Sevs certainly love their greens. He hasn't eaten for a couple of days, new tank etc, he still loves attention and hates the heater. First day in the new tank he was wacking it against the glass, now I've stuck it on with suction cups so he can' t do that. 30 minutes ago I snapped him picking gravel up, and spitting it at the heater! Temp is on the high side, perhaps I should turn it down a little, maybe he's trying to tell me something. These fish are such characters, cracks me up. Need to find a big girl for him.

My baby Platy's nibble on my finger, and Helen says I'm a vegetable if that counts? Only veges we actually feed are courgette to the GBAs (sliced and weighed down with either plant weights, or a small screw) and occasionally to our large plecs, however it seems they much prefer meat, our foot long common loves whole prawns. We also mix peas in our beefheart mix for the oscars, and will soon be adding Spinach to future mixes. Garlic is also added to make mixes smell nice, and I read that sharn read that garlic makes food more appetising to fish.

haha our oscars do that Went in to the kitchen because I could hear a banging noise, was the oscars jumping at a moth that'd got trapped under the light! (and yeah I'd get rid of the hatchets or put glass over your tank, it sucks finding fish on the floor, I've lost a few danios before to small holes in lids)

Thats different from what I have, but it looks like what antwan must have used judging by the description: Sounds great. What I have didn't kill the duckweed (blanketweed) either, takes ages to pull that out manually

Oh and the only reason I'd say they're not a community fish is because if it fits in their mouth they'll eat it. 99% of the Firemouth is all talk, they rarely actually bite anything, my angel fish cause more damage to other fish than these guys.

I have about ten Firemouths here. Generally I find their best nature comes out when singular (with other cichlids in the tank, although I do have one pair that is really good together. I always have at least one in a cichlid tank. 215 litre tank will be plenty. They're not a delicate fish, so no problem. I've got an adult Firemouth with a young Oscar and an adult Severum in a 200L tank in the lounge, all happy. I would recommend you get more than one, or get other cichlids in the tank too, that way you'll get to see the Firemouth display Dont put them with convict cichlids as the convicts just kill them. Firemouths only get aggressive when they have a territory, otherwise they're just poofters. I grew up a bunch of them with Platys and angel fish, only had to remove them from that tank because they found out the Neon Tetra fit in their mouth. Takes a long time for them to grow out, about a year or two? I've always had a soft spot for them. Mine have been happy in anything from 22C to 32C and pH of 6.5 through to 7.5, really not picky. They *LOVE* frozen bloodworms (available from LFS)

Flourish Excel isn't a fertiliser its a carbon supplement, Flourish is the fertiliser and doing high doses of that wont help algae. I like AlgaeFix too, its great against normal algae, doesn't do much to thread algae (even at double dose) though

Double Dose is recommended for fighting thread algae, but its the double dose that can kill fish, using the standard dose as written on the bottle will not harm your fish at all.

I really look forward to Billaney breeding them so I dont have to pay $20.80ea :lol: :lol:

Its free to join

Awesome!

Practical Fishkeeping has an article on breeding them.