SpidersWeb

A friend of mine recommends using those baby thermometers for comparison, buy 3 digitals, find which is the most accurate and take back the other two as on average 1/3 is pretty close, but they only vary by a degree or so.

One of my glass thermometers disagrees with every other therm. I have by 3 degrees, I was disgusted with the absolute lack of quality, you just cant trust them. This wasn't cheap versions either, I got the best I could find in Animates. In order to get a rough idea of temp, and to compare temperatures (e.g. bucket temp vs new tank temp) I use a digital, brand is Aqua something, cost me $12, pack advertises +/- 1 deg accuracy which is apparently a lot higher than the gimmick glass/stick-ons measure. Only ever use the stick-on or glass internals as a guide to make sure your heaters haven't blown or something. If you want to compare the temp difference between each side, you must move a single thermometer, not compare two different meters. Sorry for the ramble, it just really angers me as temp is quite important, and none of the packs read 'looks just like a real thermometer!'.

lol yeah its loud

First up, you really need a gravel vac, they only cost $10-20 max. Once every week you hook them to a hose, and syphon out 20% of the water, doing this will keep your gravel clean-ish and stop any major build ups of nitrate or phosphate etc. Great to hear your ammonia and nitrite is 0 Generally replacing the filter medium is a very bad idea as thats where your beneficial bacteria will build up. For normal electric pumps, you will only need to rinse it (in spare tank water, or luke warm tap water) when you notice the filter slows down a lot and has really clogged itself up - normally once a month or maybe 2 weeks depending on the size (assuming its hang on the back or internal), larger externals 3 months to never. For undergravel filters (air powered, sit underneath the gravel) that have those little caps you put cotton wool and carbon in, you can replace that as often as you want, as your bacteria will 99% be in your gravel. However you dont need to until it clogs up (e.g. air starts bubbling through the gravel instead out of the funnel). For air powered corner filters, the same applies as the normal elecs, dont replace, only rinse and only do so with warm water, and you only need to do it when it gets clogged (and it'll look real gross). If you are replacing carbon (the black stuff) then you are supposed to do this every 30 days, however if you have to replace both the carbon and wool (not one or the other) then just leave it. Remember to remove the carbon whenever medicating the tank. Clown loaches are very sensitive, watch out for white spot very closely. Redspot Plecos grow huge (50-60cm) although they slow down in growth when they hit 15-20cm usually. Keep that in mind, bristlenose are really the best for algae control as they stay small Hope that helps?

...and once you get the hang of it, you'll just want to find more things to cut. Its suprisingly fun to do, sparks etc only fly out in one direction and any grinder will have a splash guard. Just wear some plastic protector goggles the first time you use it, even swimming goggles would do, not as crazy as it sounds. 115mm angle grinder ($20-30) + metal cut-off wheel ($2-4) (try to get a thin one), well worth the investment, I also have rust/graffiti removal wheels for mine, rips paint and rust off old cars like magic.

baby angels are soooo cute and curious I got a pair of koi's that size, now they're a breeding pair and not so cute, esp. when they have eggs male jumped out of the water to bite my hand once, was awesome, but its probably not considered nice to pretend to poke their eggs.

Yep 115mm angle grinder @ 11,000rpm bestest toy ever Think I paid about $30-40 but it wasn't from the warehouse, and comes with the metal cutting disc standard.

Na its easy, its a really simple design, its just not the 'best it could be'. And you'd need to tell us what kind of lid, but at a guess I'd say yes it will. The biggest problem with Hang-On filters is they take up a fair amount of space on the tank rim leaving less space for lids. There are other filter alternatives, tell us about your tank and what you use it for if you want some recommendations.

Also you can remove that filter pad and just put in some filter wool, and maybe some ceramic noodles if you have some handy (big though, small ones will get in the impeller during cleaning etc). The pad was a terrible use of space, they could have made the unit a lot smaller or used multiple pads or something. I've also found that sometimes the adjustment valve causes a blockage, often I'll just spin it around and straight away there is an increase in flow. Handy for the price tho. If you're using it on a quarantene tank remember the standard pads and replacement pads have carbon in them (so you need to remove the pad if medicating).

This topic has been answered in another forum. 6mm glass is considered too thin, but as its only 288 litres, I'd say its boderline. I wouldn't worry about it myself. I have two 200L tanks at 6mm, whats an extra 88 between friends?

Oh yeah whoops. Perhaps use a jam jar and just poke some small holes in the standard tin lid?

That would all be fine until the Discus get to maturity. Unless those discus are male and female and magically form a pair, chances are they will fight. For discus you really need 5 or 6, and then you wouldn't really have room for your other fish except perhaps the cardinals. Also danios aren't good with discus as they're too fast and can upset/stress the discus.

Pantyhose Its awesome, its like the new duct tape. I use it to bag up stones/sand for placing in tanks (e.g. coral sand for buffering, or stones for seeding bacteria), its a great brine shrimp net, you could use it for your waxworms, its looks great in this skirt AND you can get it for like $2 at the supermarket.

Furry Humans?

I have that same fish in virgin female, and a male with a tall hi-fin. Hoping to get some nice batches of platy in the months to come

My experience is that they're slow growers, even with a high protein diet, raised temps etc I'd allow 1-2 years for a Firemouth to grow to its proper 15cm size. They can breed while still small though. Thats not very accurate, but its what I've found so far. I have 10 of various ages.

Do a partial water change (30%) before putting in the Furan2. The Furan2 might help any bacterial or fungul infection, and Melafix would help the tissue repair, however I'd say (best guess) the cause was an ammonia spike which may be appearing on the test as nitrite by now. Doing the partial water change will ensure good water conditions.

Yes, its essentially just pure rainwater, however it will have absolutely 0 hardness, and mainting a constant pH may be difficult. Possibly use a shell in the tank to slowly raise hardness and stablise pH. If you do lots of water changes with distilled water your fish will love you. (unless you have african cichlids which might not be so enthusiastic about it).

ONLY if the CO2 is injected. If its not injected then surface aggitation is needed to pull CO2 (along with O2) from the air above the tank. CO2 is not produced in the aquarium, it is pulled from the environment, much like O2 is. CO2 doesn't magically appear in the water, it has to get there somehow. CO2 is in the air we breathe, along with O2, air pumps pump air not oxygen.

I'd say 10-15 neons would be great. I've never had a honey before, but we have just got a gorgeous dwarf gourami, he's fluoro blue with red stripes with bright orange feelers, awesome little guy, totally recommend dwarfs now! Make sure to weight down a slice of courgette or some sinking algae tabs, as your bristlenose need something to eat, and your tank wont have any algae in it yet My baby GBAs have little moments where they go crazy over the glass, normally when I'm a day or two late on replacing the courgette. If you have another tank, or know somebody with some, borrow some of their gravel or something to try and get the bacteria across. Stress-Zyme doesn't have any beneficial bacteria in it, it would need to be refigerated if it did, but it PROMOTES the growth of beneficial bacteria, so it works a lot better if you have something to seed your tank with (e.g. handful of gravel, filter media from another tank, whatever). My personal experience when setting up a new tank was that it did make a noticeable improvement in the cycle, however others have varying opinions on the subject.

If you get one of those 'actnic' type tubes, normally for marine tanks, make sure to get at least one light that is 6500 or 7000K to go with it. Good luck

Is it open on Sunday? I'll be in Napier this weekend, picking up new toy.

Oh and I'm assuming you have those standard fluoro fittings you buy seperately, if you have one of those 'all-in-one' type aquariums, you may need to get some kind of special tube.

...and available from electrical wholesalers for cheap (under $10) unlike special aquarium bulbs that seem to cost $50 plus :-? You need a bulb that says 'Cool Daylight' '6500K' or 'Colour 86', if you get Cool White or Colour 33 it'll look meh and wont work for the plants as well. They should be replaced every 6 months, and only cost $8 or so from an electrical wholesaler, through your pet store the price will be a lot higher. You can replace the bulbs in fluoro light fittings easily. If you need a whole new light fitting (which you shouldn't), your local pet store should have them in stock. Funky colour tubes might suit your decor, but as mentioned above, they wont do anything to help your tank at all, a bluish 'actnic?' tube can also be used which makes the light a much brighter shade of white, makes it look sharp. Apparently fish can't see red, so if you decide on some funky colour, its probably not a bad one (at least the fish cant see it). Most people find colouring tanks as tacky, but its up to independant styles and tastes, it wont help your tank but it wont hurt it either.

And any "sucker fish" wouldn't be able to attach itself to a young shark, sharks are very quick, so I wouldn't worry about that. I'd say it probably injured itself avoiding the net, their instant reaction is to full-speed away which works in the wild, but in small tanks they end up just hitting glass and objects etc only thing you can do to minimise this is chose rounded decor and/or be quicker with the net. Also thats an impressive fungus growth!