smidey

how awesome is this?

i am a volunteer fireman where i live and we get sent to all sorts of situations due to the area we are in. It can take more than 30 mins for ambulances to get here so we are turned out for that side of things more than anything. Being rural we get called to anything from heart attacks and strokes, a job like this crash or like yesterday a scrub fire so there is plenty of variety and you don't have to put yourself in situations your not happy with. For the fire service, there are something like 8,000 volunteers and around 1,800 paid staff and as a group i believe there is a need for more volunteers in most areas. There have been some tough calls here over the last few months, an elderly man died at the far end of a local beach so we had to recover the body back to the car park and we also got called to a suicide by hanging so you never know just what will come next.

the firemen are in level 1 protective clothing and using a HPD so that is clean up mode. The worst job i reckon.

not cool for all involved at all. Also keep in mind the people that get called to the scene to deal with it, it's amazing how many emergency services people get sent to these things without a fatality let alone when there is a death.

i found filter wool is very good at reducing noise, i used to keep it in the same cabinet as the filter was in and there was a significant difference when the wool was out of the cabinet.

nice surprise, well done. there may be a few more in the rocks.

can you post a pic?

i don't think it was the ph swinging that was the issue, that's just the most common problem i hear of from people using the ph adjusters.

wood will lower ph things like shells, coral, crushed marble and lime stone will raise ph. they are the only items i have used but they work well.

thanks for sharing. it is always a big risk to start adjusting water parameters chemically IMO. it is too easy to get it wrong and have it swing drastically and i think this is another vote for not using products like ph up/down or similar options. there are safer options like using driftwood or shells and marble to buffer the water which will cause a lot less stress to all.

comps are such slow growing fish they could be up to 2 years old at 4-5cm.

i always look forward to the holidays, i certainly need them each year.

if you don't like xmas then forget it, forget the holidays and go back to work. You don't have to be a part of it :cr12:

i saw them in the store and they looked ok to me. if that's what your into i don't see any reason not to get some.

I kkep my sheelies with my comps and there are no issues, i do have more shells than shell dwellers though

shellies could be an option, are there any other tangs we have here?

the tank is 450mm high.

it's 800mm high and when you say base do you mean the top of the stand? as per the pics it a timber frame with particle board on top.

save your self some time and water and just do one wc a week of 30%, more than enough i have found. Then you'll have more time to give the mrs a good listening to :sage:

i'm interested to hear your experience on it, do you think it's temp related?

that's interesting, i have always done at least 30% weekly.

all i know is i have had no health issues, the breed regularly and show good colour. i'll stick to the way i do things.

why do they do it? what does it achieve?

because i have had great success with "NOT MESSING WITH THINGS" set up to the best you can to suit them and leave it, if you start adjusting stuff that much you will have a failure at some point. Your conditions are not prefect for the fish compared to their wild environment but is likely to be the same or very similar to what they have lived in all their lives and who has perfect conditions, no one i suspect. keep it consistent and they will adjust and be fine, big changes will mean they will struggle. I recommend the crushed marble that you have, the limestone rocks you also have and if you want to, throw shells into the tank and or filters but you are asking for trouble dosing the tank with buffers.

leave it how it is the end