SpidersWeb

Thanks for that, interesting. What are the chances/life expectancy for a triac (the one used inside the thermostat specifically if you know)? Would you trust the AquaOne stainless heaters electronic thermostat over a bi-metal thermostat, and for how long?

Ahh yep Africans, all good, they like being crowded, I'll leave it to someone who keeps them to help (mine are all American).

What type of cichlid? Different species require different conditions, and come in sizes from 2 inches to 16 inches. You might be able to get a few dwarf cichlids in a 2 footer.+

lol I think they're fantastic, I like Koi Marble a lot more than blushing or standard koi. I've also got a blushing koi, black koi and golden koi and double-black veiltail downstairs. The double-black is amazingly owner responsive and hassle free (wouldn't hurt a fly). I've only got one wild-strain, and he's one seriously vicious fish compared. I've seen him chase my male adult severum. Just fished out the Festiviums and half-dosed blue meth. Angels are not pleased, but I dont want fungus and those Festiviums are some seriously cheeky fish, and were getting too close to the eggs. Fingers crossed.

Guppies like their salt, have you tried using Aquarium Salt (Tonic Salt, or even Rock Salt)? Even at a quater or half dose it may stop this from happening. Its a common recommendation for livebearer tanks. Also perhaps more regular partial water changes, make sure new fish are quaranteened etc as guppies can be quite sensitive depending on the strain. If they're rubbing against objects, chances are they have flukes. You can get FlukeTabs (at the moment) from your LFS, however preventing the outbreak is usually best, and I'm pretty sure some salt might be a key for you. You will never get flukes etc out of the tank, they just take advantage of a less-than-chirpy fish (normally water quality) and then take over. Just remember scale-less fish dont like salt, neither do plants, so often a half-dose is best. Just some ideas, hopefully thats of some help, hopefully others will post their opinions too

I did that exact thing, was real handy. I've got a Jebo 502, and used a BioClear air powered sponge filter, just slides right on there. Before somebody else says it, I'll say: "Fresher water is much better for young fish than well filtered". Overfeed and lots of water changes. Although I was lazy, and the Jebo/Sponge filter combo worked a treat

Stoked they didn't do it on the heater or filter. Guess I'll have to remove the Festiviums again poor dudes, this tank was actually for them Only put the kois in there because I needed to shift my crazy violent angel out from with the oscars and in with the firemouths, and crazy violent wild-strain angel + delicate kois = no tails. Oh and pretty sure daddy has one dose veiltail, being both koi marble, I'm hoping for some sexy offspring 8)

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: Ok, so a few months ago I bought two baby angels, koi with lots of yellow and a nice marble pattern, they paired up, so we gave them a tank of their own. They've been in there with 3 Festivium Cichlids for 1 night. I was just feeding bloodworms and noticed the angels weren't interested, then on closer inspection they were fanning eggs!!! wooooo!!!!!! Helen is an hour from finishing work, and I just had to tell somebody woooooooooo!!! I'm suprised because it has a shell substrate, the pH is like 7.8.

Looks good I've only got two Jebo heaters, but both are like new and it's been about 4-5 months now. $20.50+$5 postage is a good fair price, thats what I'd pay at my local store. 200 watts will be fine, they have a thermostat so they're only on when needed, so a 200W heater wont necessarily use more power than a 150W heater would per month it'll just be on less of the time.

Welcome to the fishroom Lots of clubs in the greater Wellington area if you and your daughter are interested. Upper Hutt has its meeting tonight, message me if you're wanting to attend. Free coffee and biscuits too woo! hmm wonder what kind of biscuits this time.... Edit, just an update so the info for the Upper Hutt club is in the same format as Mystics post below Also you can belong to more than one or none of course lol Upper Hutt Aquarium Society Day: Second Thursday of Every Month Time: 7.30PM Location: Maidstone Community Center (next to Yamaha shop) Goodshed Rd Upper Hutt (Central) President: Faran Gillbanks $15 (+$5 FNZAS) per year per family (pretty sure thats the same as the other clubs too?) Cheers

Not as good as it looks I'm affraid. They are "non-submersible" which is the manufacturers way of saying "We sealed it, but it leaks". So they work, but they will (and do) build up water quickly inside which will likely cause premature failure unless you keep the top of the heater out of the water and a perfect water level :roll: just not worth the $5-10. AquaOne and Masterpet heaters are "non-submerisble" AquaClear, Jebo, Rena, Eclipse, Jager etc all good and fully submersible I've had success with AquaClear, Jebo, and am trying my first Eclipse now. I still have Masterpet heaters in use but I'll never buy any again.

Zebra Danios will survive in cold water but they go very pale and look quite sickly :-? really not a good idea without a heater unless they're for feeding to other fish. 150W heater would do the job and they cost $25-$35, they're not on all the time, and it wouldn't add much to your power bill. If you kept the temp at 21-23C you'd be able to keep most tropicals like guppies, neons, danios etc while still keeping the mountain minnows. Also only heating to 21-23C costs very little as most of the time your cold tank will be around 18 anyway.

In the event of a large ammonia build up, and where large water changes (30-50%) are not possible, then its a reasonable way to remove ammonia. I can also see it being used to remove ammonium from acidic tanks without disturbing inhabitants. ALso perhaps temporarily if you're dosing your tank with a medication that kills your beneficial bacteria (but you should have a quarantene tank for that). For regular ammonia removal its best to leave the natural population of 'beneficial bacteria' do their job (which is the point of ceramic bio rings). Ammonia removing filtering agents will starve the bacteria of food, then when clogged (or removed), there is a large increase of ammonia in the tank water (basically re-start the cycling process). So you'd be forced to replace the ammoballs with more ammoballs whenever your ammonia spiked - and you'd need to either watch for sick/dead fish or test regularly to be sure when to change it. I would discourage their use except in emergency situations where there is no alternative. Fresh water is usually the better solution.

I've seen my angels break the shell of and eat young snails.

One last thing I forgot to mention. The trumpet style brown one in Zevs post, we opened up the filter on the Oscar tank and it was full of them, none actually have ever been visible inside the aquarium, but just upon opening the filter cover we could see about 20 of them, none bigger than about a cm. Great for us as the oscar is such a pig at dinner time, and they will certainly help clean up, but I can see that being a nightmare for fish breeders.

Me too lol minus the Riccia but I asked for them. 5% bleach / 95% water in a bucket, leave plant in it for 15 minutes, drain and soak in fresh water with dechlorinator in it, will prevent snails and either other nasties coming with, something you should always do, but I never do :oops: I'm bored of the ramshorns as they just lay eggs everywhere, overpopulate, then I forget to feed and they die and stink out the aquarium. The other one you have photographed their Zev I'm trying to name, I thought it was the Malaysian Trumpet but pics on the net disagree I like them, they breed way way way less than the ramshorns, mine seem to stay small and they dont overpopulate as badly. I'm hunting for a website that lists snails and photos in a gallery, but I can't find one thats complete, most of the google results are people just writing pages and pages and pages about their third cousins fight with a ramshorn infestation back in 82 and no pictures Edit: PurpleCatfish, try a slice of Courgette as bait, you'll end up with a literal pile of snails overnight, I do this and give our Oscar cichlid the rewards the next day, also fattens up the baby ramshorns for next week 8)

This is worth a read, regarding the 'Notched' deformity in angel cichlids: http://theangelfishsociety.org/articles/norton/dr_norton%2818%29.htm I've seen a young angel with this deformaty before. I thought thats what these Discus were :-? Given that its genetically passed on, I doubt the tails are cut??!!??

I've got a Jebo R338 It works the same way (with the spraybar, and an overflow etc). Water is sprayed on to filter wool, then drips on to the bio-rings, then drops in to the tank. The filter foam is only wet were the water runs through it, it is not fully submersed, if it is fully submersed the water spills in to the overflow. The bio-rings ARE submersed, but only a single layers worth. The water height in the filter box is about 10mm. Hope thats of some help? I would go with the 'one way' rather than the 'other way' in your option choices.

Hey Mystic Hows that Arowana? Elections were successfully held last month with approximately 15 members present. Its a very friendly group and I highly encourage guests to come and get to know us all. President: Faran Gillbanks Secretary: Karen Hardie Treasurer: Thomas Barber Breeding Coordinator: Jonathan Chote (me) As we are a group (and operate this way), we hope that any previous history with personal individuals do not affect the enjoyment and success of the club.

Congrats again Koi Altum cross eh? Exciting stuff 8)

Hey everyone, I'm just posting this for any members who are interested in the Upper Hutt club and aren't on the mailing list. For more information about joining or attending, please feel free to ask Cheers Where: Maidstone/IHC Centre on Goodshed Road (besides the Yamaha shop) When: 7.30PM Thursday 12 October Special Topic: Hands-On 'Making your own Brine Shrimp Hatchery' The first time I attended I was confused as to what the Maidstone center was! So here is a picture :lol: When you walk in the door we are on the left, there is another club on your right, so make sure to turn left Coffee/Tea and some snacks provided The club will be doing registrations as well, $20 for new members/families, $15 for existing FNZAS members/families, guests are welcome! Hope to see you there, Jono

Sounds like your tank will be 'seeded' well. What this means is its not officially 'cycled' but the bacteria is there, so your cycling process will be very mild as you've got a much larger starting population, and I doubt you'd lose any fish. If you see fish not looking their happy normal selves, then do a partial water change. If you could take a photo of the filter that'd be great. I just setup a Jebo R338 tank, these all-in-one tanks are quite nifty, I'm liking it 8) Normally lots of air means the filter is having trouble sucking water up. Try filling the filter media with water, and checking the intake is under water, and running it for say 30 seconds, it should come right if its assembled correctly, and if its not assembled correctly I'm useless because I dont have a Sunsun tank lol Congrats on the upgrade, and welcome to the fishroom

Guttered. Oh well, good luck with your Brine Shrimp

Yeah google surely is king Here are some pictures of mine, using the common soda bottle method. It was made out of 2 2.25L coke bottles. I've found that you can make it with a single 1.5L coke bottle too. Anyway, top 2/3 of one bottle is the hatchery itself, and the bottom 2/3 of another bottle is the stand. The shape keeps the brine eggs falling back to the cap area where the air pipe is (which hurdles them back up again). The Upper Hutt Aquarium Society has its meeting on Thrusday at 7.30 here in Upper Hutt, and we're having a hands-on lesson on making Brine Shrimp Hatcheries 8) PM me if you want details.

Probably ate the Swordtail babies too I have seperate tanks for preg females to drop babies in, but I gotta stop it, already have 70 or so :oops: