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Yeah I always go with the theory that two smaller heaters are better than one big one, for the reasons already mentioned. Also, when calculating the watts-by-volume, remember that it depends on the ambient temperature of the room as well. People in North America (USA and Canada) have permanent heating in their houses so they can get away with relatively low wattage heaters. In NZ our houses usually aren't heated all day and overnight, so you might need more wattage to keep the water up to temp, especially during the early hours of the morning. Each case is different, so if you're living in an unheated, uninsulated house in the South Island you're going to need more wattage than if you're living in a centrally heated apartment in Auckland (waddarya, soft or something?! :lol: )

Yay! Thanks B&K. That solves my dilemma - I'll store it... now I just have to decide what to get rid of out of the garage to make room... I'm sure my partner doesn't really need his car in there...

Hi MLF, sorry it's taken me ages to get back to this thread. To me it sounds like you might need some fertts in the water column. Try something with iron in it - rusty leaves with holes in them can sometimes be caused by an iron deficiency (so I've heard). Good luck.

I have a glass tank that I had custom-made to fit a modular furniture system. The tank's 850mm long x 360mm deep by 400mm high. I've upgraded to a 1200mm tank so the 850mm tank is empty and I'm trying to decide what to do with it. Will it deteriorate if I store it dry in the garage? Will the silicone dry out and potentially split when I refill it? Ist there any way I can store it to avoid that problem? I'm reluctant to part with it because I'm renting and one day I might want to set it up again (if I move to a place that can't fit the 1200mm tank). And I don't want to have another tank custom made to fit the 850mm stand. But there's no point storing it if it's going to fail when I might want to use it again. Please help me decide!

My scottish heritage tells me to use the water from my water changes on the garden. :lol: I'm with you Alan, it's hard to see all those lovely nutrients go down the drain. PS Alan and B&K I'm always in awe of your knowledge and your willingness to help Good on you and all the other helpful people on this site.

Just out of curiosity... - How deep is your tank? - What wattage are the lights? - What wattage was on the tank before you upgraded to the new hood? - What kind of fish are you keeping? - Do you have lots of plants, driftwood, places for the fish to get away from the light? I'm thinking that if you have fish who either prefer somewhere dim to hide, or are just used to living in a dimly lit tank, that you might like to increase the light gradually rather than just upgrading all at once, and make sure they have somewhere to go to get out of the light. Also I assume that you're doing this lighting upgrade because you have a planted tank - so you might already have plenty of broad-leaf plants for your fish to hide in.

I use Sauvarins Glass in Kingsland. They do a great job. Give them a call and ask for a price (if you haven't already got your lids by now)

If you're using any shake & vac or other product near your tank, take extra care! Personally I don't use anything like that in the same room as my tank... but then I might just be paranoid... As other people have suggested, the baking soda works really well. Also drying your carpet quickly and thoroughly is important. Put towels down and trample all over them to get most of the water out, then air the room and use heaters if necessary. Of course, move all furniture off the wet bit so the legs don't leave marks and the furniture doesn't get damaged. If I'm cleaning a carpet I use a solution of 1 teaspoon of vinegar and one teaspoon of dishwashing liquid to a litre of warm water. Sponge it on and then do the towel trick to dry it off. Good luck with the carpet!

Leopard or zebra danios should be fine in that setup. They have a reputation for being a bit nippy if they're in with long-finned fish but I've never experienced that myself. In my experience you can minimise aggression amongst all your fish by: a) Ensuring schooling fish have a big enough school to feel comfortable - in the case of danios I would ideally keep a minimum of 8 - 10. b) Making sure there are places they can go to get out of the sight-lines of other fish. Danios like to be up near the surface so some tallish plants would be ideal. Personally I prefer the short-finned over the long-finned varieties.

LOL Ira, there's no crap in my water. I get it out of the tap, not the toilet. I'm with Luke. I rarely have any nitrate detectable in my heavily planted tanks but the fish are definitely healthier if I do regular water changes. There are all kinds of chemicals that build up in an enclosed environment apart from nitrates. Oh... maybe that's what Ira was trying to say...

Sorry to hear about your loss, Raylene. Can you add water conditioner to the water now? It will neutralise any remaining chlorine and if it's one of the ones with an added slime coat (like stress-coat) it might help the fishies a little. On the other hand, this long after the water change (probably almost 24 hours) there is likely to be very little chlorine left in the water you added. If it was only a partial water change I would be surprised if that was the cause of such a sudden and dramatic loss. I hope someone else will come along with some more ideas. By the way, how long has your tank been set up? Has it gone through the complete nitrogen cycle yet?

Why is the condensation a problem? My tank has condensation all over the top glass, the water just turns to droplets and drops back into the tank. Do you mean that you have a wooden lid on your tank and that's what's getting soaked? In that case, put a sheet of glass on top of the tank so the water will condense on that instead. Of course, if you take off the lid the water will just go into the air and you'll end up having a damp room and having to replace the water that evaporates from your tank. I'm surprised you have so much evaporation though if you're not using a heater.

Sounds like you've done a very thorough job! Well done to have the patience to do all that work. Much better to do it now than try to fix a problem after it's happened. The only thing I seem to have inherited with my new tank is snails. That's fine with me because I'm going to have clown loaches in it and they think snails are the perfect pre-packaged TV dinner.

:lol: Good point. Next time I have smallpox I'll remember this hint. :lol: Although I'd be reluctant to leave the plastic cannister out in the sun in case it got damaged. And also you'd have to get the UV light into every corner to sterilise it thoroughly. I'm thinking salt through the cannister and boiling the hard media (and replacing the soft stuff) sounds like the plan.

Pics would help, and also some info about nutrients. What substrate are you using? Do you add any ferts to the water? To me it sounds more like a nutrient deficiency rather than a filter issue.

That's a good question. I just bought a 2nd hand eheim too, but I also bought the tank and all the fish so I just set it up and got it running again when I got home. I suppose the only sure way to sterilise it would be to throw away all the old media and chemically sterilise the cannister with (in order of harshness) chlorine bleach or potassium permanganate or a strong salt bath. Then you would have to run the filter to get your sterilising agent through all the hoses and whatnot followed by repeatedly flushing it with fresh water to remove the sterilising agent. The media in one of those filters is very expensive - I'm guessing the reason you're asking is because you want to sterilise the media as well as the hose and cannister? I can't think of a way to do that safely because the media would absorb the sterilising agent and release it into your tank over quite some time. I would think it would be almost impossible to rinse the media clean - those ceramic O's have huge surface area and I'm quite sure you'd never get bleach out of them once it got in. Hmm... you've got me thinking now... I hope someone else has bright ideas in case I decide to sterilise my filter.

Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I bought all the fish at once, so I didn't pay too much for the pacus (but how much is too much for a pacu?!) I'm hoping I'll get my money back on the rest of the fish and be able to give the pacus away pretty much free. I did consider putting them on Trademe with a $1 reserve after BlueandKim told me they weren't worth anything. But then I thought I really don't want to encourage some kid to just spend their pocket money on them. They currently have a $10 reserve. Please, if you know anyone who wants a couple of pet pacus do send them my way! I really don't like the idea of having to kill them (although there's a pretty yummy recipe for them on wikipedia...)

That would be really sad if they were being used in organised fights. I know there will always be some idiots who will put a couple together "just to see what happens" but if it's organised fights then that's another whole level of deliberate cruelty. I hope if anyone does get evidence of this, that they will report it to the SPCA and that it will get shut down as soon as possible. I presume the same rules apply as they would to other animals being used for fighting, like dogs or roosters or whatever?

I've just bought a 4-ft tank off trademe and the guy couldn't sell his fish so I said I'd buy them all off him as a job lot and re-sell them to get my money back. (They're all big fish and not at all compatible with my littlies.) The real problem is that he has two red-bellied pacus. I've been reading up about them and they're apparently really unsuitable to keep in a home tank - they get far too big and may one day break the glass of the tank in a panic! I have no desire to keep pacus, so please nobody suggest that I build a room-size acrylic tank to keep them in. :lol: I need to sell them just to cover what I spent on them, but I don't want to just sell them to any random kid who won't know how to look after them and it will all end in tears. Yesterday I was grumbling to myself about pet shops which sell fish that are so obviously unsuitable and doomed to a life of misery - then I realised I'm doing the same thing so I must be just as bad... :oops: What to do?! By the way, the other fish are an arowana, a lung-fish (he doesn't know any other name for it) and a common pleco (will I have the same problem here?) I've listed them in the "private trade & exchange" forum.

Yeah that's interesting isn't it? When they're little they only go that colour when they're stressed, but when they're big the greyed-out colour seems to 'stick'. Also the pale margins to the black stripe seem to be common with the bigger/older clowns. I have a personal theory that maybe if you can avoid stressing your loaches when they're little, they might hold their colour better when they get bigger. Unfortunately mine show that greyed-out stressed colour every day - because they're always arguing about who gets to eat the biggest portion at dinner time. :lol: They really are little piggies.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your froggy, whiskas I've heard that the most common cause of death for frogs is fungus. Is it possible the bran in the container got damp and mouldy? Sometimes with a small frog and lots of food, the owner is tempted to leave the food container in there for much longer than usual and everything can turn pretty yukky very fast. Good luck with the little tadpole, hope it grows up big & strong

I've seen the soft black mesh at King's Plant Barn. Not sure how wide it is though. Might pay to give them a call (I saw it at the one in St Lukes Rd, Auckland but I assume all outlets will have it)

It seems you've covered most of your bases and you're obviously aware that the generic term "whitebait" refers to four or five distinct species. I've never kept them but from what I've heard the key elements are excellent water quality and a swift current. Jansen's in Mt Eden Rd, Auckland have adult captive-bred inanga for sale, and there's also a lovely freshwater tank at Auckland Museum. A quick call to either of those places may help if you have specific questions. A visit would be even better! Good luck, and please let us know how you get on with the remaining whitebait. *resists the temptation to offer recipes* :-?

Timers are pretty cheap (you can get them for as little as $5). I have my lights on for 13 hours a day and off for 11 hours. Around about 12 on and 12 off mimics tropical daylight time. Also make sure your fish have some "shade" to go into - fish don't have eyelids so they can't block out strong light. Shady plants are an easier solution than buying all your fish sunglasses

The main thing is the light colour ('temperature') measured in kelvins. The old incandescent bulbs were all 'warm white' and give off a yellowish glow. Most of the fluoro bulbs sold in supermarkets are the same. They're not so good for growing plants, although they're marginally better than no light at all. You CAN get the energy-saver bulbs in 'cool white' but you need to look for them. The big red sheds have them, so do some supermarkets. Look for 6500 k marked on the pack. They're the ideal colour for growing plants, fit in a normal bayonet-style fitting, and are really cheap, which encourages you to replace them as often as you should (every 6 months to 1 year). Hope that helps whetu