SpidersWeb

Yeah (we have 3 oscars here), oscars mostly eat insects in the wild. Fish are generally low in nutritional value and can carry disease. We do use our big oscar to dispose of the 'uglies' (lol) but its not a good food. Just wanted to make sure you knew that before investing in tanks for livefood. Glad to hear you're trying to mix up his diet though, thats all good 8) I recommend the recipie on oscarspot.com for food, or a variation of it, we put in a touch of garlic too, although we can't work out how to use gelatine properly anywho they absolutely love it (our big guy sulked when we ran out).

umm 36 litres?? That will stunt the growth of the shark and angels which will both grow much to large for that tank :roll: Make sure this person is aware that her angels and shark are only babies. That shark will eventually need a 200+ L tank, and the angels ~80L for the pair minimum, lol and I hope by 'suckerfish' she means Bristlenose plecs, as common/redspot plecs get absolutely huge. Anyway sounds like he got a wound and stressed and its just fungus. I find if I medicate I get 100% survival against this stuff, or if I just leave them alone about 50%. I'd use Melafix and maybe Furan2 if I had some on hand. Also 20% water changes using a small gravel vac weekly is sufficent, just in case your friend is completely dismantling the aquarium on a regular basis, as doing this will cause the tank to never mature properly.

Its bright green and solid. It doesn't have any height to it, almost like tiny paint drops. brown/red stuff is normal, we get it whereever the pleco can't get to it, and he can clean it off no worries by himself.

About a week or so ? At once. Not required, just crush up some of your flake in to a fine powder so they can get some.

We got a tank cleaning tool from the pet shop, about $10, consists of a long (30ish cm) handle with 3 attachments, one of which was a hard blade and removed all the hard-dot algae with ease. Recommend having a look for a similar tool. If its on rocks etc then out with the old toothbrush I'm affraid

What type of fish do you have? Most will be fine, but want to make sure you dont have tempromental fish that may need special attention. I've done many >75% water changes and a recent 100% water change with no losses (the fish generally love the fresh water, changes in water hardness/ph also seem to also encourage spawning). So I wouldn't be too fussed about that, but if you've got the buckets with lids then use'em! Make sure your filters are not turned off for much more than 30 minutes if possible. Take this oppurtunity to clean out your gravel too. If available, use an air stone in any buckets temporarily holding fish, heater isnt important. When setting up again, try to match the tank temperature with the current temperature of the bucket water, and let your heaters raise it back to the normal tank temp. Personally I'd use stress-coat in the buckets and in the new tank as well, however many think this is uncessecary. Good luck!

(Sorry this is off-topic, but live fish is a really bad food for cichlids, garden worms and snails etc big insects etc all good)

I can't officially say 'this is best because' but I don't like the JBL balls. I used them in my planted tank when I first set it up along with DIY CO2 and (in the end) 5x4' T8 6500K fluoro. I dont like them at all because I had no control, after a thread algae outbreak I just broke down the entire tank. I removed all the JBL fert, and the build up of fish excrement. Now I've switched to Flourish, I put in 1mL once a week with the same lighting and I've actually disconnected the CO2 at the moment, and plant growth is substaintially better than it was before hand. Flourish looks expensive but you only use 1mL per 200L once a week. One small bottle will last you a long time and it has a little measuring tool in the bottle (very handy). Because you have manual control, if there is an inbalance in the aquarium you can discontinue use or add more or add less rather than having to strip your entire aquarium bed. I also tried 'Leaf Zone' but that didn't really do much. It did help a few plants with yellow leaves go green again but I didn't see any special growth. You also use more per 200L per dose, and it very slightly discolours the water (although not really that noticable). Flourish Excel is a carbon supplement, (not a fertiliser) so the effects are similar to CO2 injection, and shouldn't be used as a general fert. Its fairly expensive to use as the dosage is quite high and a lot more regular. You can also get Floruish Iron etc SO, like I said, I'm not a pro, but Flourish is working very well for me and I'm very happy with the results. When I put the DIY CO2 back in, I hope to see it 'flourish' if you will :lol:

I've had male platys try to 'impregnate' one of my (rather confused) young male firemouth cichlids before.

The CO2 in the air will be higher than the CO2 in the water unless its injected. No surface adgitation will eventually lead to no CO2 in the water at all (as the plants convert it to oxygen). Unless you have a hardcore lighting system with CO2 injection, an air pump being used to disturb the water surface is 100% beneficial. It'll increase O2 AND CO2 in the water, which encourages plant growth, helps the fish breathe, and encourages more aerobic (sp?) bacteria which helps prevent the tank from going horrid. Definately DO NOT stop using the air pump, if you have a filter that disturbs the surface then you don't need the air pump, but it will definately NOT harm anything in the aquarium. Something that disturbs the surface of the water and/or promotes water circulation is a must have especially for heated tanks.

Congratulations 8) Now that you've got them started, lets see if you can stop them.

I've heard of it being done before, however don't understand why you'd want to. Tropical marine has much more interesting and beautiful fish available than the molly, which can be kept in freshwater anyway (which is cheaper and easier to maintain). Naturally I beleive the molly lives in fresh and brackish waters, so you'd just need to slowly raise the salinity over time, and if at any stage the fish showed signs of discomfort, then slowly lower the sainity again. Most important is that you don't suddenly change the salinity.

Even if they breed, the offspring are easy to get rid of (sell, give away, feed to other fish), assuming the babies weren't already eaten by the parents. To breed platys you need to provide cover for the babies etc, unlikely to get overrun with them. They're a good beginner fish all round. Low cost, hardy, peaceful and lots of colour variations.

Ahhh that makes sense. Cheers Alan

Me and Helen are planning to be there, just viewing but I'm working on some pretty platties tho :lol: What do they mean by class T "AOS Livebearer" what is that? is it like Best of Show?

Depends on if the tank is American Cichlid or African Cichlid as the water is very different. Assuming you mean african cichlids, I do know somebody who has full grown bristlenose breeding like crazy in ph 8.5 @ 30C with africans, but text book says 'no' to bristlenose. I've also heard GBAs can't live above 29 deg, and I raised my 5 young ones at 32.

It's Phillips Colour 86. Most tubes come in colour 33 or 86. 86 is 'Cool Daylight' and has a 6500 kelvin rating. The standard tubes used in offices etc are Colour 33 'Cool White' and has a 2700 kelvin rating (AFAIK). Both cost the same price, and the higher 6500 kelvin rating will be best for plants. I paid $9ea for Phillips 4ft 36W T8 tubes in 6500K, got five straight off the shelf. Much much cheaper than the aquarium speciality tubes. Any electrical wholesaler who sells to the public should be able to help. Mine were from Advance Electrical here in Upper Hutt. T5 is tricky to find, but if you've got T8, just use 6500K Daylight tubes (Colour 86 Cool Daylight).

I'm a fan of the platy at the moment, as an easy fish I mean, lots of colouration choice, they dont get very big, easily bred, friendly and dont eat your plants. Also neon tetras are good value for money, basically look the same as WCMM only with a blue stripe.

Wonder how they keep the water in the tank Undergravel lighting perhaps.

Sorry for your loss pH 5 is very acidic ouchies Sorry to hear, but yeah injecting CO2 (paticularly pressurised systems) is a science in itself, you'll need a needle valve to control the bubble rate properly, and either a strong air pump (to dissipate the CO2) or a solenoid to turn the CO2 off when the lights are off. Also with CO2 you'll want to make sure you have suitable lighting.

Yeah 95% of the eggs have gone white now Was it the angels? Was it the meth blue? Was there not enough air in the water? Was it the high pH? was it the raised temp during the day? lots of questions Festives are good, they're temporarily hanging out with the Firemouths, eating well and the male is all coloured up, has a nice yellow tinge on his fins. Diet is mostly bloodworms at the moment, I need to remember to feed more flake as a staple diet tho.

ADV 800 in both corners of the tank (both are on-loan) I have an ADV400 in my planted tank too I used to have them when I was a teenager, but they were called the Shark I, Shark II and Shark III then and these new magnetic clip things are nifty.

aww these two suck as parents Amusing though. They're in the office, so when I'm on the computer and turn around I can spot them, they're always just hovering around the tank, I walk over next to the eggs and the female is like 'oh yeah that' swims over has a look and fans them, but after that 'meh not interested'. 2 of the eggs have gone white, and they haven't removed them either. When I come up to the tank they're more excited about food than worried about the eggs lol (unless I stare at them) Got meth blue in the tank, and there is about 800L/hr circ (150L tank), so fingers crossed. I know cichlids take a couple of goes to get it right but I really really want to raise something that isnt a platy. Going to put together a few more brine shrimp hatcheries. Have read I should feed them freshly hatched bbs twice daily. Will have to get a microworm culture and whiteworm culture one of these days.

Where did you get the light fitting from? EDIT: I see Dick Smith Electronics has them in their catalogue now, nevermind!

I use 2 x 150W in my 200L tanks I always try to go for 1.5W per litre, with the pair going they'll hold up against a cold winter, and if one fails the other 150W will still be able to hold temp until the failed heater can be replaced. Also if a single 150W gets stuck on, you've got a few more hours to notice than a single 300. Tuning multiple glass heaters to the same temp can be a bit of a PITA, the AquaOne externals (stainless steel) make this task much easier and you dont get your hands wet all the time trying to adjust them either.